juLY 2, 1894.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
41 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE. 
The Official Report of the Chicago Exhibition 
— The .Report of tbe Royal Commission, lor the Chicago 
Exhibition, just published officially, makes the follow- 
ing reference to Indian and Ceylon tea :— 
India. — A special oommittee was appointed For India 
of whioh Sir O wen Burne, k.c.s.i., was chairman, and 
Mr. S. Digby hon. secretary. On advice of this com- 
mittee, the Commission made several appeals to the 
India Office, and to the Government of India, through 
the India Office, but without effect. Failing official aid, 
it endeavoured to enlist the supportcf the various Indian 
Chambers of Commerce, and other publio bodies, 
with little better result. Tbe Government of India 
did not at first propose to take any part in the 
Exhibition, but eventually they made a grant of 40,000 
rupees to the Indian Tea Association, to assist tlum 
in exhibiting Indian teas, and a grant of 10,000 
rupees to Messrs. Tellery, of Delhi, to »id iu the lor- 
mation of a rt pretent Uive collection of Indian art ware. 
Mr. R. Blechyudeu was appointed by the Tea Associa- 
tion to take charge of their interests, and that gentle- 
man, in cocjunotion with Mr. Tellery, arranged for 
the erection of a characteristic Indian building on a 
site near "Victoria House. In this pavilion, which 
was unfortunately r.ol spacious enuugh to do jus- 
tice to its admirable contents, the collection of art 
ware was displayed Bnd the samples of tea exhibited. 
Messrs. Tel'ery's collection was valued at £26,000, 
and the exp nses attendint on its exhibition are 
stated at £11,000. Pe.-aiission was obtained for the 
eale and gratuitous distribution of the tea, wbich was 
eerved in the same building by native Indian at- 
teendants to large crowds of visitors daily. This liberality 
wasgrea'ly appr ciat9d,and the popularity thus obtained 
forludiiin tea can hardly tail to have a very considerable 
effeot on its consumpdoa in America, and to increase 
tbe future trade in it 
Ceylon. — One special object in Mr. Grinlintou's 
appointment was to promote the sale of Ceylon tea 
in America, and this he did moat effectively by the 
•ale of the tea, both dry and infused, in the Ceylon 
Pavilion, and in other pavilions whicn he set 
up on the various spaces allotted to the 
colony, the tea being servod by Cingalese at- 
tendants whom Mr, Gnnlinton hud brought 
over from Ceylon for the purpose. Ha was so suc- 
cessful in his efforts that he was able, before leaving 
Chicago, to establish a permanent office iu the city 
for the supply of tea fram Ceylon. 
Tea Cultivation in Russia. — A telegram from St. 
Petersburg states that the department wh ch has the 
direction of tbe Crown domains has decided to send 
parties of experts to India, South China, andCejlon 
in December next for the purpose ot studying the 
cultivation of tho tea plant in those countries. 
The Jute Crisis. — The oonditiou of the jute trade 
in Dundee calls for reform. Among other proposals 
it is suggested by a writer in the Pall Mall Gazette 
that the London speculators and brokers should no 
longer be allowed to dominate the trade — that 
the Dundee consumers should iniiiate their own 
system of arbitration on the spot by a body of their 
own experts, and take the mat'er into their own 
hands eitirely. Tbe men of Mincing Lane, says the 
writer, are blamed for much of the wild speculation 
which has been such a marked feature of the jute 
wusinesi for some years. No doubt there is some 
boundfttion for this; but if Duudee should gtt 
its desire, wild speculation would be just as rile 
there as it is in London. As it is, we do not 
know that Dundee is by any means blameless in this 
particular. The great trouble under which spiom-rs 
and others coucerntd have all along laboured is 
fouud, not in speculation, not in an ui.smble eurrincy, 
but in the preBtut system of shipping und " water- 
ing" the goods in India. Save for a few well- 
known mark?, wh:ch bear thair own guarantee 
of qualiiy, the spinner is quite at the mercy 
oi the baler and the shipptr. The ptaoiice of 
watering has reached such a hvel that the water 
is deliberately weighed and introduced into the 
bales in open daylight, At least half the juta ship- 
ped from Caloutta to Dundee is packed by native 
balers, and they all take care that a oeitain — some- 
times an uncertain — percentage of moisture is intro- 
duced. To do away with this rank abuse a contract 
form providing for a home guarantee and quality 
would, it is claimed, l e sufficient. Jute paoked dry 
would mean that it would be received in good con- 
dition, that there would be few claims for short weight 
or internal damage, that the fibre would be better, 
and a good yarn tho inevitable result. — H. and C. Mail. 
RHEA, LIMITED. 
Capital £60,000. 
Directors; W. O. Clough, M.P. (Messrs. Clough, 
Armstrong & Ford), 89, Gresham Street, London, 
E.C. ; Chas. E. Shaw, M.P., Queen Anne's Mansions, 
Westminster, S.W., and Wolverhampton; Alfred J. 
Lusty (Messrs. Powley, Thomas & Co.), 150, Leaden- 
hall Street, E.G., and Cardiff; * Wm. Digby, o.i.e. 
(Messrs. Wm. Hutchinson & Co.), Trafalgar Build- 
ings, Uharing Cross, London. 
* Will join the Board after allotment. 
prospectus. 
Subscriptions are invited for 3,000 Shares of £10 
each in this C ompany which has been formed for the 
purpose of acquiring and working the valuable Inven- 
tions of Mr. A. P. Bilderbeok Gomess, f.r.m.s., for the 
extraction of a textile fibre from Rhea, China Grass, 
and other members of the urtica or nettle family and 
from the cortex of other plants. 
Patent Rights have been granted for the United 
Kingdom, and Patents are in course of issue for the 
following countries : — Germany, France, Austria, 
Spain, Italy, heigium, United States, India, and 
Ceylon. Intormauon has been received from Ger- 
many that the application has been examined and 
passed. The Company has acquired the sole Patent 
rights in the Inventions. The Company intend, for 
the present, to confine their attention to the pro- 
duction of material for sale to spinners, which can 
be done at a price leaving an excellent ma rgin of 
profit. 
The inventions have been submitted to most ex- 
haustive experiments upon Indian Rhea, extending 
over nearly two years, which have demonstrated — 
1, That, from the raw material, 70 per cent of 
fibre, ready for combing, is obtained ; 2. That a 
textile from the fibre is produced which a competent 
authority declares, " in quality, colour, lustre, soft- 
ness, and freedom from gum," is "unapproachable" ; 
3. That the fibre readily spins into yarn ; 4. That 
the fibre assimilates, in the spinning machines, with 
silk and wool, producing a " splendid" result, and 
that, from these mixed yarns, a close, equable, lus- 
trous, and valuable, fabric is produced ; 5. That 
the fibre bleaches well and takes dye in fast colours. 
Recent experiments by Mr. Gomess, in dyeing 
Silk and Rnea, and Wool and Rhea, together have 
resulted in complete success, the production of an 
identical shade in each fibre having been obtained 
thus opening up a large market for mixing with 
silk and wool. 
The process is a purely chemical one, and the 
plant used is of the simplest kind. 
At a meeting of textile manufacturers and 
others held in the Westminster Palace Hotel, 
London, on February 16th, 1894, a leading 
Lancashire manufacturer, referring to the following 
statements : — " The fibre readily spins into yarn "; 
" The fibre assimilates, in the spinning machines, 
with silk and wool fibres, ptoducing a ' splendid ' 
result "; remarked : " I can endorse what is here 
said. I may be asked, ' Why, then, do you not use 
it?' My answer is: I cannot get it. If 1 can t,et 
it I will use it laigely." Samples of fibre prepared 
by this process have been piaced in the nands of 
leading Fibre Brokers, Woollen Manufacturers, Wool 
Combers, and others, who have expressed the fol- 
lowing opinions : — 
a. " Yarn far the Continent can be sold at la. 6d. to 
2s. per lb., in unlimited quantities. The French 
manufacturers sell Ramie Yarn, is the white, at 2a. 
