696 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1895. 
man of great experience in sugar, has stated that for 
an outlay of £50,000 a net profit of £40,000 per year 
might be realised. — Coffee noticed separately. 
Textile plants have not been the object of any 
serious attempts at cultivation, although they are a 
source of brilliant profit to those who have paid any 
attention to the industry. They are found every- 
where in a wild state, and furnish work for an im- 
portant per-centage of the Indian population. Hene- 
quen is the one plant which is most earnestly 
cultivated. The Maguey; which is also largely utilised 
for the national beverage, occupies an important 
position as a fibre plant ; also the Ramie plant, and 
many others of similar nature, for the growth of 
which the country seems particularly suitable. 
Cotton. — The superiority of Mexican over American 
cotton is sufficiently proved by the fact that 135 
cotton plants from Mexico yield a pound of fibre, 
while in Texas 200 plants are necessary to produce 
the same amount, although in Mexico its cultivation 
is conducted on the most primitive principles. The 
best cotton in Mexico comes from Acapulco, where 
the fibre obtains a length of 37 millimetres. From 
time immemorial, cotton has been the object of im- 
portant cultivation and manufacture, and was much 
more extensive under the Aztec monarchy than in 
our day. Tne revival of this industry is certain, 60 
soon as the necessary capital and enterprise shall 
have been introduced. 
There are many other products and fruits of 
every variety, among which are rice, vanilla, 
indianabber, cocoa, sarsaparilla, fancy woods, and 
dye woods. 
The most exquisite fruits grow in great abundance. 
Oranges, limes, melons, bananas, pineapples, and, in 
the colder regions apples, pears, peaches, apricots, 
grapes, plums, straw-berries, and black berries, be- 
sides an infinite variety of fruits entirely unknown 
in this country. An extraordinary fact demonstrates 
the quality of the Mexican fruit. It always finds a 
ready sale in California at higher prices than those 
grown in that State — although California has the 
reputation of being one of the finest fruit-growing 
countries in the world. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
TEA^BOX WOODS. 
Sir, — Eef erring to Mr. Thurston's note on Indian 
Woods for tea-boxes, published in an appendix to 
the 'Indian Forester' of November 1892, and to a 
letter on the same subject written by Mr. Hope, 
which appeared in your issue of last, 1 should like 
to put forward the following remarks upon the sub- 
ject in question : — 
My experience has been gathered wholly from the 
Darjeeling Tea District, and though writing this 
letter from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, I am certain 
that the views put forward by me will have the con- 
currence of some, at least, of the leading planters 
of that district. 
Mr. Hope in his letter assumes that Semul wood 
(Bombax Malabaricum,) is more or less a kind well 
suited for tea-box purposes ; as far as the Darjeeling 
district is concerned, that is certainly not the case, 
for the Semul wood is looked upon as one of the worst 
possible to be 60 utilized, unless the planks have 
been cut from very old and large trees ; it having 
the reputation of getting worm eaten before its 
arrival at the European markets; and I have been 
told that brokers in Calcutta would give a higher 
rate for teas packed in Toon (Cedrela Toona), boxes 
than they would for those packed in Semul. 
I will not attempt to answer Mr. Hope's questions, 
as most of them refer to the Dehra Dun district ; 
but the following will help to explain the reason why 
the so called ' Japan boxes' or ' Shooks' are preferred 
to those made from Indian timber. 
When a manager wishes to cut his tea boxes from 
forest trees, he arranges, as a rule to have it done 
by contract, which is generally given to one of his 
sirdars. This sirdar to execute his contract, has to 
call on outside coolies to help him : now to procure 
these he has to make heavy advances, which the 
manager has to give to the sirdar from the Tea- 
It may happen that the outside cutter6 and sawyers 
get ill, or discontented, and run away with these 
same advances thus creating a loss to the concern, 
for they are too cunning to allow themselves to be 
caught and prosecuted. Even if such be not the case, 
one cannot depend upon the sirdars to finish the 
contract within the limited time ; then imagine the 
anxiety of the manager for he would be in a ' fix ' 
(to use an Americanism), if his box planking were 
not in before the rains broke. 
Further, when the planking is cut up. it usually 
takes the shape of 10 in. by 1 in. planks ; these are 
stacked in the factory, and so as not to have too 
much room occupied by empty boxes, these planks 
are cut up and fashioned as they are wanted. Now 
oompare the difference in the room wanted by the 
carpenters when cutting up and putting together 
boxes made from such planks, and that required to 
ut together boxes whose tops, bottoms, and sides, 
ave already been fashioned. 
No wonder then that the planter is willing to pay 
an anna or two extra for the ' shooks' ! for he onlv 
has to give an order, and his responsibility and risk 
is reduced to a minimum. 
Now my opinion is that the forest Department 
should arrange to have planks cut into shapes suit- 
able for tea-box-making ; that these shapes should be 
procurable from any central depot. 
It would be useless to try any experiment of this 
kind without the assistance and co-operation of the 
planters concerned ; to procure this, the various Tea 
Associations should be addressed asking them for 
their co-operation, and at the same time requesting 
them to name any local trees that may be fit and 
suitable for box planking and which they would be 
prepared to try, if this Department could manage to 
cut and shape the wood at a fairly cheap and profi- 
table rate.— W. H. L. — Indian Forettcr. 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Liberian Coffee in Sumatra. — The letter we 
publish from an old Ceylon friend, (see p ge 693) and 
a reliable authority on coffee, about his "first peep 
into Sumatra" only makes us eager for "more ; 
and especially its his the case, since in his 
private letter he expresses so firm a faith in the 
future of Liberian coffee in that State and in 
the capital prospect there exists for Ceylon planters 
with some capital, who care to look in that 
direction. But we must wait patiently until the 
second instalment arrives, before discussing the 
subject further. 
Tea and Medicinal-plant Culture in Russia. — A 
Reuter's telegram from St. Petersburg, dated Feb. 
14, states that the Administration of Imperial Russian 
Appanages, having decided to make experiments in 
tea-planting in the province of Batoum, in the 
Cucasus, where the climatic conditions are similar 
to those of the districts of China and Japan where 
tea is grown, will, in March, despatch a committee 
of agriculturists to Northern India, Ceylon, China, 
and Japan, in order to study the industry and to 
bring back teaplants and Chinese planters in order 
to make the attempt. The Administration has also 
resolved to send M. Krasnoff, Professor of Geography 
at the University of Charkoff, to South America and 
Mexico, in order to make inquiries as to certain 
other tropical plants the cultivation of which would, 
it is believed, be also practicable in the Caucasus. 
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