OCT. 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
The Tea Plantations started in ihe Caucasus on Ihe 
initiative of the Russian Government have, says our 
St. Petersburg correspondent, 10 far been a great suc- 
cess. The firrt teaciop gathered (rorn a plantation 
tear Batoum baa given considerable stiefaction. The 
tea grown on thi3 plantation — according to Ruesien 
experts— is superior to the Chinese. About 40,000 
acres ol land have been set aside by the Department of 
State Domains for the cultivation of tta from shrubs 
obtained from China and India. — Daily Chronicle 
Economic Planting in the West Indies. -We 
have received irom the Secretariat copy of e.n interest- 
ing report by Mr. Crowther, Cura'or of the Botanic 
Station of Go!d Coast Colony, on his recent visit 
to the West Indie?. His instructions weie to visit 
• for a fortnight each of the " Botanical Stations at 
Barbadop, Demerara, Trinidad and Jamaica, for 
the purpose of enlarging your knowledge of the 
cultivation of valuable tropical eoonomio piant?, 
cf observing the system and airaDgcments pursued 
at the Botanical Stations in the Colonies referred to 
and if procuring and bringirg back with you such 
useful pknts as you might consider that it would 
b6 of advantage to this Colony to receive and 
cultivate." The riieult is a very interesting Repuit 
whioh we shall notice more fully in an early isf up. 
Japan Tea in America. — From the annual 
Report of Mr. Hugh Fiaser, British Consul at 
Yokohama, we quote as fol ows : — 
It is a mutier for remark that, in face of tho finan- 
cial position in t he Uuiled States, and the resulting 
adverse coudit on of markets there, the vo ume of the 
export from hero Las suffer, d bar.ily any diminution. 
This, tbeio seems seaicely room f> r doubt, is attii- 
hotnble to the utimu'ating effect on the expert of tho 
constantly fullii g rates of exchange, and tbe conse- 
quent cheapei i' g to the consumer of the gold price of 
tea". Th.it a similar (ffect wa« not felt in silk may 
p rha[ s be at ribut d lu the fact that tea is a ci mmo- 
Uity wh ch Ciii bu cispensed with lea readily than 
ail* ; »n 1 moreover, the Japanese producer must get 
rid 01 histrafer the Ameri^tn e< nsucuer, when c ce 
he lias brought it forward for the foreign maiket ; 
whereas it is open for the silkdea'er to arrange to hi Id 
over hia produce for a better or another marker. The 
quality of the tea of the seasoi was, a^ a rule, indiffi r- 
tn*. The de tina ious of the export were a« follms : 
— United States 21,275,000 lb., C na<!a 6,940,0001b. 
Europe &c. 545,000 lb. 
The American Coffee Trade. — The Ameri- 
can Grocer, in a review of the trade year ending 
June 30th, indicates that the general trade deprer- 
Bion, financial distuibunees, a light Brazil crop 
and higher oost have combined to reduoe consump- 
tion in the United States and Europe. It adds: — 
"Itis apparent that any deorease in ihe Brtzil supply 
below a crop permittirg of minimum exports of 
6 O00.0JO bigs, or 54 J per cent- of the world's total 
supply, means high prioes until 0 her producing 
countiios ix.end their area under ccffje to an 
extent great enough to produce and export an 
average of one-half of the voild's requirements. 
This period has not amvei, but is approaching. 
D.iring 1893 91 the receipts of other than Brazil 
coffee in Europe and the United States were over 
1,000,000 bags greater than in 1891-9', or over 
500,000 boga more than in 1892-93. It is evident 
that the eff.rtsto push oeffee cultivation in Mexico, 
Central America and the Uditod State? of Colombia 
are being continued with vigor, ai d that the p:o- 
duetion of the world, outside of Brazil, is soon 
likely to overbalance the ixisticg proportions of 
supply. The situation in a nutshell is : "A big 
orop in Brazil means low prioes and a short orop 
high prioes. '—This is all very sensible on the part 
ol the great trade organ of the United States. 
Meantime it is evident that "tea" ought to Leu fit 
by ftDy reBtriotion in ihe consumption of coffee. 
Op the hundred thousand plants catalogued by 
botanists, only one-tenth part have appreciable 
odours. Of fifty species of mignonette, that of our 
garden is the only scented one, and of a hundred 
varieties of the violet only twelve have the exquisite 
perfume that is so popular. In general the proportion 
of fragrant to odourless plants is about one per cent. 
Globe. 
Kangra Valley Tea. — At a recent meeting 
of the Indian Tea AEsoc : ation General Committee, 
we read : — 
Corsidered letter of 9th July from the Honorary 
Secretary, Kangra Valley Planters' Association, re- 
questing that the General Committee in their future 
returns and statistics would give.Kangra Valley tea 
a separate place and not classify it with Dehra and 
Kumaon as there were in the Kangra Valley not 
less than 10,000 acres under tea and an annual 
out-put of not less than 4,500,000 lb. The Com- 
mittee aereed to accede to his request, but the 
Kangra Valley Planters' Association were to be asked 
to supply their own statistics to prevent any mistakes 
Tea Sales in America. — The other day at 
the meeting of the " Committee of Thirty," no 
one, we believe, was ab'e to say whether there 
was anything like a " Mincing Lan6" or auotion 
room for teas in New York. We see from a trade 
journal which reaohes us regularly, that " the Mont- 
gomery Auction and Commission Co." seem to be 
th9 ore great Agency for tho sale of teas; at 
any rate, the burden of paragraphs before us is 
that ' they cold last week 4,545 packages teas"; 
"they sell at noon today 4 700 packages" and eo 
on. We see no such reference under the head 
of "coffee." — It is not encouraging to find that 
the imports of both tea and coffee into the United 
States were less in 1893 than in 1892. 
" Kew Bulletin." — Tho July number contains 
artioles on tbe Comino tree of Colombia, a Laura 
oecus tree calhd Aniba perutilis by Hemsley. 
The timber is much valu d for constiuotional ai d 
decorative purposes. It oan be successfully cul- 
tivated at a temperature of 18° to 20° C. Other 
articles have reference to the cultivation of Vanilla 
in Tahiti and Fiji. A description of some newly- 
discoveied plants from the Solomon Islands is 
given. An extract ia inserted from the Standard 
of September 16 h, 1893, on the cultivation of 
vegetables in this country, and on the importation 
cf vegetables from abroad. In this attiole one side 
of the question is treated, but the writer has not 
availed himself of the very striking facts which 
were published on this subject in our columns 
last yesr, nor does be deal with the very difficult 
problnns connected with maikets and the means 
of distribution— Gardeners Chronicle. 
Bananas and Plantains.— A very oomplets and 
exhaustive paper on these plant 3 forms the August 
number of the Kew Bulletin. It is in reality a 
monagraph of the ge^.us Musa, though entitled "A 
Summary of Iuformation relating to Bananas and 
Plantains, with Descriptions of the Speoies and 
principal Varieties of Musa grown for Ornament." 
The history, botany, geograph'cal distiibulion, 
cultivation, marketing, the diseases to which they 
are subject, the uses to whioh they may 1 e put, 
the ohemical composition, are all dealt with at some 
length, Advantage has been taken of tbe publica- 
tions of Baker and others as to the botany, of 
Prcf 6Eor Church's re.e.rohes as to the chemis- 
try, and, as it would ee m, of everything of 
importance that has been published upon the 
subject. Numerous illustrations are supplied, but 
one defect remains to be noted — there ia neither 
a general summary of contents nor an index. 
Both these might be supplied in the next number 
of the Bulletin. —Gardeners' Chronicle, 
