*14 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. r, 1894. 
MARKET FOB TEA SHARES. 
' Thursday Evening Aug. 30.— The week just closed 
baa been characterised by an inereas(d amount of 
business, and clocks generally have shown en upward 
tendenoy, specially noticeable in the case of the 
Assam t'orupaaj's shares, the recent advance beirg 
carried £1 bibber. 
Mmoiiig Lane Market for Indian and Ceylon Teas 
has been firm, and prices were inclined to harden a 
little. 
Ceylon Shares —No business to rer-ort in Ceylon 
Plantations shares. The ordinary remain buyers 
ftt 16$, and the prefs. sellers at 14$ The Deben'ur. s. 
There bas l een tin enquiry f. r the d( beutures of 
Assam Froutier Tea Company at a alight dieeount, 
bnt holders keep firm for par.— if. and C- Mail, 
Aug. 31. 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE. 
Banana Cultivation. — Not so very many years ago 
the banana was a costly luxury, even in the large citits, 
and a veriinble ouriosity iu remote districts. About 
the only ones that found thtir way to the United 
States wore a few buuehes which eome skipper, calling 
at some West India or Central American port, to k 
abrrad bis vessel as a present to I is friends at home. 
But it was some time before it was realised that the 
delicious, nutritions fruit was destined to become one 
of the most profitable products, and perhaps the most 
popular and widely-consumed fruit grown on the fate 
of the eartb. But during the last 20 years the industry 
has grown to enormous proportions, until, during the 
year 1892, 13,000,000 bunches wire consumed iu the 
United Slates alone. In the business of importing bana- 
nas New O l<-ans leads with a total of 4,4e3.351 
bunches; New York folows with 3,745.025 bonob sj 
Ph'la-ielphia had 1,8:8 3:8; Bos-ou, 1,719,021; B»'t>- 
more, 625,077 ; Savannah, 190.000; Mobile, 150 OOu; 
Galve9ton, 3,000 and s- nie iheusauds went to Tarn | a. 
The l^din^ points of oxport in thi irop.o- are in 
Central Ami ric* :— Bluefi Ids Belize, Grejtuwn, 
Livingston, Poetto, < uri«z, Truxdlo, and B c.b del 
Toro ; in Cuba :— Baraora, Banes, and Sama in 
Jamaica: — Port Antonio, which is the chief point of 
shipment on the island and Kingston, Portf Morant, 
Port Maris, St. Ann's Bay, Orracabessa and An- 
natto Bay. 
Methods off Cultivation.— On the startingbf a 
new plantation the dense tropical growth of brnsb, 
trees, and creepers are first out down, and when these 
have sufficiently dried fke is set in several places on 
the windward side. A few hours of craokiing flame 
and the field is covered with a pall of grey ashes, 
and with black tree trunks from wbich leaf and 
branch have beau burned. A few of ths larger 
branches remaining uncon6umed are chopped and 
piled ou the trunks for a later burning. The ground 
is then ploughed as wtll as em be done after the 
roots have rotted in the ground. The banana sprouts 
or suckers are then set in the rich, Hack soil, 
and rich alluvial intervale tends aro usually 
chosen for banana fields. The 6ockers are dug either 
from cultivated plantations or from where they have 
been growing wild ; they look like clumsy clubs, from 
1 ft. to 4 ft. long, and from 2 in. to 5 in. in diameter, and 
from the small end of each of thfse clubs peeps a 
little bit of greeui In eight or cine months alter the 
planting the plants will have their plumbs, 18 fi. high, 
sheltering buuehes of full fruit, which is ready to cut 
n two or three months thereafter. So. n a-U-r the 
first suckevs are set their spreading roU s^nd np a 
Dnmber of new shoots, all of which wcuid tear 
fruit if allowed to grow, but it is deemed beat to 
keep back the new spfcut* until the first stalks 
have been growing three or four months, and then 
let new ones start. Each three or four months 
thereafter e. new eet is allowed to come on to take 
the place of the older ones as they mature their 
fruit and are cut duwr. By this plau three or four 
crops, of 190 to 525 bunckes each, or 570 to 900 
bunches per aero per annum can be obtained, aad 
by planting fields in (acceding months the frni* is 
ready for export the year round As the price to 
the planter for good to choioe fruit s ldom sink* 
below 37$ cents per hunch, aod ranges from that to 
1 do), per buneb, it is obviooe that tbe business 
is a profitable one — J/, and C. Mail, Aug. 31. 
TEA IN AMERICA. 
The market shown very little animation. There 
is a fair trade with dew teas ,t-«d* on F> ammr, 
ra'her ea«y on Japans aud low grade Blacks. F.ue 
Greens are well held. 
La»t wiek the Montgomery Anction and Commis- 
sion Co. sold 2,369 packages teas, as follows : Mo- 
yuue— 25 packages liysou 17c, 164 do. Young liy- 
son 7J to 20Jc, 167 « ! o. Imperial 8 to 19o., 321 do. 
Gunpowder 8 to 22c. Pingeuey — 60 pack»g e < Young 
Hyson 9c , 42 Gunpowder 9Jc. Japan— 244 packages 
pan-5red 4j to 12$c, 128 Co. tilting* 2$ to6±c. 
14«t do. Congou 9$ to 16jc , 7 India and O- Pekoa 
13c. Oolong— 1,102 packages Formosa 10 to 14c. 
Today at noon the Montgomery Autiion and Com- 
mission Co. will sell 1,083 paokages vie: ]]'} half- 
chests Moyune, 68 half-chests and boxes Pin; auey, 
20 balf-chesta Japan, 140 half-chests Japao Dust! 
Nibs and Stabs, 321 hilf-cbe»ts Congou, 41 packages 
India, Java and Pekoe, and 30C lMlf-obests and bcxes 
Formosa. — American Grocer, Aog. 8. 
THE COFFEE SITUATION. 
This is considered at length by W. H. Grossman 4: 
Bro., coffee imr. oners and dealers of this city. They 
call attention to the profitable cultivation of the 
coff~e berry, aud a'gue that the e.ornxus return* 
received by tbe coffee planters is the strong* st incen- 
tive to increase pro'suetioD in every part of the world 
where cofl-e p ai ter« are pracicel and the i ecewary 
la 1 or i« atiainabl . They istimate the Braii cr p 
of 1894-95 at 7,500,' 0O b*g<, but intimate that 
U' freweu c.rcumtta: cn. might Lr ng the ex- 
port ali ity down tj 7.000,000 of Kio and 
Sautos to whi-h must be added a piobable 
supply from Victoria, Bahii and Ciara of 1,000,000 
bags. Tb*y es'imatf the entire supply lor tbe year 
at 13,500,000 bags. They pcint out as tbe American 
Gr. cer did recently that the consumption is not 
increased, and to point to the marked reduction that 
La. taken place in other staple* and argue that coffte 
must have a simi'ar experience. The circular ocn- 
taining says: — 
When tbe co»t of pr duction of coffee does cot 
exceel six to eight oen's p«r pound, according to 
qrjality, on the ta*is of United Sla'es gold v»lae it 
is ob-iius that sjch a profitable business to tbe 
producer, compared wi'h tbe present market rates 
will caueo him to push the cultivation to the ex- 
treme. This is what hss been, and is being done 
and v>iH continue mo«t a-sure lly until it dr.ga values 
down 50 per cent of the present range — and iven 
then coffee would bring a profit to tbe producers. 
Another feature to be considered in regard to 
future value of coffee, especially in high grades is 
the provision contained in the new Tar.ff bill now 
penning in Congre's, thst will do away with the 
obnoxious discriiniuat ; ng duty of thr*e cnts per pound 
i ow levied on Venezue.an, Hai i nami otLe.-coff es 
under the Reciprocity Law. This law became o it - 
ra ive in the spring of 1892, and the imposition of 
this duty exerted a considerable influence ou the 
valu es of the higher trades of coffee, especially the 
better qualities o p Santos, which served as ibe best 
substitutes for Maraoaiboe, L'gaayras, Pork Cabellos 
and others. 
Three years agp th* Bio and Santos c ops were i sti- 
mated by the usual h -uses »t about 9,000,000 begs. Tbe 
outturn was 7 300,000 bai.9. At that time the exiretrely 
high esrimstes were the outcome of the benrish senti- 
ment prevailing in Kio and Santos, and the interests of 
the estimators liy in same direction. This year the 
Rio aad S.ntos erop is est'imted from 6.500,000 to 
