828 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June i, 1894. 
We Bball now be on the qui vive fo learn what 
the preBent Beason is to bring {ortb and we may 
expeot our Special Telegrams of shipments to be 
renewed very shortly. 
Meantime we have some important newb through 
the medium of a Church Mission Medical MissioDary, 
Dr. Rigp, who has just passed through Colombo on 
bis way home. Dr. Biggin the Fuhkien district, has 
been on the borders of a largR tea-growicg district 
and he distinctly reports that he has seen very con- 
sider able areas of tea within the past few years up- 
rooted and the ground utilised for other culti- 
vation, chiefly cereals and vegetables. How far 
this process has gone on throughout the Cliina tea 
districts generally— covering as they do bo wide 
an area and in different provinces — it will be 
hard to say ; but it is eomething to have authen- 
tic intelligence from an eye-witn'ss, as to the 
actual fact of tea being supplanted by other 
cultivation in any one district of China. 
BREAKS OF TEA. 
April 20. 
Fresh agitation is taking place with regard to 
THE SMALL BEEAKS OF TEA O0EETION. 
Finding that Mr. Roberts, of the Colombo Com- 
mercial and other Ceylon Companies, had 
been to see Mr. Leake on the subjeot, 
an early call was made by me on that 
gentleman. At his ofiSce I met Mr. Lcng 
of Messrs. F. S. Long tS: Co., Brokers, 
of 10 and 11 Mincing Lane, and was introduced 
to him as a gentleman then calling on Mr. Roberta 
relative to the very matter respecting which an 
interview had been Eought by me, Mr. Lcng said 
that all the brokers felt the position with reference 
to these small breaks were becoming every day 
more intolerable, that they, the brokers had months 
back submitted propositions by thrm on the 
subject to the Ceylon Association hut had received 
DO reply. When it was told Mr. Long by me that 
the Tea Committee of that Association had con- 
sidered and rejected those propositions and that 
it bad communiaated fruitlessly with the Wholesale 
Tea Dealers Association, he expressed the greatest 
surprize, for, he said :— " We have never receivei 
any reply to our original letter." Mr. Eobcrts 
said they as agents did not know how to act in 
the matter, for the fact that better prices were 
obtained at the Tuesday sales as compared with 
those of Thursday, made all their clients demand 
that their teas should be included in the lists 
of the first-mentioned day. Mr. Long said that 
the brokers' proposition was that the defini- 
tion of a small break shou'd be extended to 
IS chests, or 24 half-chests, or 40 Boxes, 
and that the sale of such breaks should be 
exclusively confined to Thursdays. "Let me," 
be went on, " show you what the effect of this 
would have been on the sales of Apiil lOtb, a 
Tuesday. There were offered, cr rather included 
in the auction list for that day, 762 large breaks 
and 281 small breaks, a total to be dealt with of 
1,04.3 breaks. As a matter of couiso ihe auction 
was overcrowded and small prices resulted, Now 
bad our proposition been adopted the sale would 
have consisted of 568 large breaks and 475 small 
ones. It is complained that Thursday's sales offer 
BO little that it is not worth the while of the 
trade to attend them. It gets all it wants at the 
lai'ge Tueeday sales. But if the 475 small brea ks 
were included in the Thursday list, the bulk of 
these would have sufficed to attract the trade, fair 
cornpetation Would have been secured, and the glut 
of Tuesday would have been relieved. We feel 
sure this coarse is the only one practicable. As 
for the proposal you tell me of by the Tea Com- 
mittee of the Association, of which I now hear for 
the first time, that small break? ehould be sold on 
Tuesday but in a separate room, I feel sure the 
trade will never consent to it. It would neoesei- 
tate its having the atteodaooe of two buyers 
instead of one, the sales proceeding simuUanecuely. 
The purcheaing firms will never consent to their 
incurrence of this txpecse. And, indeed, it is 
to be feared that the purchaeiog (rade are far 
from anxious that a way out of our difficulty 
Bbould be found. At present the system enables 
them to pick up bargain at the Thursday sales 
wbc-n Eome of the email breaks may euit their 
convenience or requiremeats. No, this matter 
cannot be settled by the Tea Dealers' Aseoeiatton. 
It will do nothing to help up. The Ceylon Abeo- 
ciation and the brokers must agree on some courte 
or other, end having done so the tra^e will ore 
long be forced to follow it whatever it ia. You 
say that there are diifiouliieB raised in settlicg 
Thursday's accoants for prompt so as to diepatoh 
them by the Friday's mail. As a brok<r I can 
aseure you that this difficulty need not exist. 
Where it does, it is due only to want of proper 
exertion in the brok<:r's office?, and if the sleff of 
some of these is not large enough, why tliey murt 
increase it." Mr. Robert fully concurred with Mr. 
Long as to the necessity for some early leTition 
of present arran).'emeot8, and said these now give 
rise to immense inconvenience and financial loee. 
We could none of us understand how it was that 
that the brokers had received no intimation of 
the resolution of the Tea Committee of the Ceylon 
Association, for it ia known to me, on Mr. Leake's 
assurance, that the information was sent to them, 
and I believe that when Mr. Leake received the 
reply of the Wholesale Tea Dealers' Association 
he communicated this also to the brokers. Now 
that the facts are known, probably more harmo- 
nious action will soon be assured.— L^rufu/i Cor. 
COLONIAL FRUIT. 
Keporls aa to the paying cliaraotcr of the crop of froit 
priucipally Apples, eeot from the AntipoJea lail year 
were 111 the main favourable lo tbe prospeotB of the 
various fruitgrowers' aasociitions, and the tirst arrivHla 
of the fruit .shipa carrying the harvest cf 1894 are 
now upon US, one of the P. & O. steamer.'} having 
we believe, already delivered its cargo. The steamers 
of that company to follow are the " BritsiiBia " due 
April 21; " Massilia " Mav 9th; " Atstralia " May 
23id ; " Ballaarat " June 6th ; " Yioioria " Juup 21st ; 
aud another on July 10. The steamers of the Orient 
line due to call at Hobart are, we believe the " Ophir" 
" Oiiziba, " " Oroya," and '• Orient-" — But the in- 
ft rmntion is not quite definite; at any rate a y'eekly 
steamer may be reckoned upou during the season — 
the OrieLt ani Peninsular and Oriental ships aU^r- 
nately Ju.^t before going to prea?, the Ti>»m'nian 
Agent-General sent us a notificalion to the effect ihat 
" "The shipments of Tasmaninn Apples to th's ccnntry 
tlii-- stHBon will be about 100,000 cas( s ; ihc first 
abipintnt ia by the steaffiship '• Britannia " due 
Kb ut the 21st inst. and will consist <if 9,100 cases all 
picked truit. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 

An Electric Plough. — The firm Siemens & 
Halske is experimenting practicallj' with an 
electric plough on the estate of Biesdorf, the 
property of Mr. Arnold voa Siemens. A greal 
success is looked for with the electric ploHgh in 
Java, where large tracts of lands lie fallow in 
consequence of the destruction of draugjjt aoimaJs 
by the cattle plague. 
