June i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
787 
The tea plantations at Ohakva, near Batoum, 
belonging to Messrs. K and S. Popoff, tea merchants, 
of Moscow, have been considerably exteudel this 
year unler the supervision of "the Chinese tea 
planters, who were brought over in 1891! ; a large 
number, about 600, natives of the Caucasus, are also 
employed in working on the plantation of this firm. 
In a letter to the " Caucasian Agricultnral News," 
Mr. A. Solovtzoff, who for several years past has 
been cultivating tea on his estates at no great 
distance from the lands belonging to Messr--. Popoff, 
gives a somewhat interesting account of his ex- 
periences in the raising of this plant since the year 
1884. He states that at that time his chief concern 
was the question of procuring tea plants for planting, 
he feared to order seed lest old seed should be sent, 
besides this the seed of tea contains a volatile oil in 
considerable quantity which, during a long voyage, 
would be likely to evaporate, and thus the seed would 
have been rendered sterile. Even the seed raised 
at Chakva requires (he greatest care and attention 
ai excessive dryness deprives it of the oil, and too 
much damp causes it to rot. 
Eventually, however, he succeeded in obtaining a 
few plants which arrived at Batoum in the month 
of July 1385, together with some seedlings. The 
condition of boih left muc'i to be desired, as they 
had received bat little care and water during their 
transit, and were to a great extent dim aged by the 
Customs authorities, who used quicklime for the 
purpose of disinfecting them against the importation 
of Phylloxera. They were, subsequently, transported 
to Cha'tva, and with as little delay as possible planted 
on his property. At first they grew badly, and all 
the shrubs dried up, but some of the seedlings took, 
and from these he was able to develop his plantation. 
The land chosen for the plantation was a red clayey 
soil, dressed with a thin coat of manure com-posed 
of thoroughly rotted leaves and branches. &c. that 
had fallen from the trees. After clearing away the 
manure the land was dug up for a depth of about 21 
inches and the top soil was worked to the bottom. 
The seeds ripen in the course of a year, and 
are gathered in the month of October, at which 
time the plant also flowers. The seeds, after being 
collected, are strewed with dry siud and are kept 
in earthenware vessels. In March they are dam; ed 
with a so'ution of camphor, spirits and water, in 
order to force their growth. The seeds are left 
damped with this soluti m for some hours, and are 
then put back into the earthenware vessels, after- 
being mixed with damp earth. In this earth the 
seeds begin to shoot up, aud they are then trans- 
planted into the nursery beds, the soil of which is 
the same as that of the plantation, but which has 
a certain proportion of sea sand admix d for the 
purpose of rendering it more friable. The seeds are 
sown at a distance of 3£ inche3 apart at a depth 
of 1J inches. As soon as the young shoots make 
their appearance above ground it is necessary to 
cover them over with mats in order to protect them 
from the excessive It at of the sun: but this 
protection should be removed in rainy weather 
and at night. In dry weather the youny seedlings 
have to be watered once a day, and under this 
system of cultivation it is fou d that every seed 
comes up. Mole crickets, however, create great 
havoc among the seeds. These insects. Mr Solovtzoff 
says, are the only enemies of the seedlings with 
which he has to contend, aud they are most difficult 
to deal with, although it would appear ho has found 
means whereby the ravages caused by mole crickets 
may be minimised. The methods which he adopts 
to attaiu this end are the annual removal of the 
nursery beds to fresh ground, and the burying in 
the nursery beds, in a line with the burrows of the 
crickots, of grains of Indian corn boiled in a solution 
of arsenic, or, what is still better, a solution of 
corrosive sublimate. 
The propagation of the tea plant by means of 
cuttings hhould be avoided, as a large proportion 
of the cuttings do not take, but the chief objection 
19 that those that do only produce very weak plants. 
Now that ho has an almost unlimited supply of 
seedlings, Mr. fcJjlovUoft iutoutU trauaplauliug only 
the stronger ones into the plantation. The seedlings 
remain in the beds a whole year, aud are then 
planted out 4 feet apart from each other. 
The only attention which the plantations requires 
is that it should be freed from weeds twice a ytar. 
For the first year the young plants should ba 
protected from the rays of the sun by the branches 
of trees. It has not yet been found necessary to 
artificially water the plants in the plantation. Up 
to the present, pruning, with a view to increasing 
the crop of leaves, has not been resorted to, as 
the chief object has been to obtain as lar^e a 
quantity of seed as possible for the multiplication 
of the plauts. No manure has been used hitherto, 
but when plauting out the seedlings this year it 
was intended to manure the soil with timber ashea 
and refuse from oil mills. During the dry season, 
May and June, when the heat is very great, the 
grown up plants stand the climate very well, but, 
as mentioned before, the young plants have to be 
protected from the sun. The winter of 1892 — 93 was 
exceptionally rigorous, the frosts being as severe 
as six degrees Reaumur, but neither the grown up 
plants uor the seedlings suffered in any war, although 
the latter were for several days covered with snow 
up to the very leaves. Tnis result is particularly 
gratifying when the fact that the very young seedlings 
are planted in a quite open and low-lying plain 
fully exposed to the wind, is taken into consideration ; 
when subsequently transferred to the plantation they 
do very well. 
The plantation covers about five acres, and as 
planting has been carried on as seed has become 
available, it contains plants of ail siz^s, ranging 
from five years' growth to one and a half years' 
growth. Toe number of plants was 5150, and about 
8000 seedlings were to be planted out during the 
present year, there is a suflicieot quautity of seed 
in stock to raise 40000 more seedlings, and the 
qualify of the tea is said to be good. 
It is also reported that abo?.t 43.000 acres of 
Government land in the neighbourhood of Chakva 
have recently been purchased by the Department 
of Crown Estates for the purpose of turning them 
into tea plantations, and in connexion with this, 
the above Department has ordered a Commission, 
which will include the Inspector of Imperial Domains 
in the Caucasus, to proceed, at the end of this year, 
to India, Southern China, and Ceylon, with the 
object of thoroughly studying the methods of tea 
cultnre in those countries. — Ken: Bulletin. 
THE EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY OF 
PLANTS. 
Practical Physiology of Plants. By Francis Darwin, 
M.A., F.Pv.S , and E. Hamilton Acton, M.A. Cam- 
bridge Natural Science Manuals, Biological Series. 
(Cambridge: University Press, 1894.) 
The physiological course which Mr. Francis Darwin 
gave at Cambridge in 1883, was the first systematic 
effort, in this country, to teach the phenomena of 
plant-life to studeuts by means of actual experiments. 
As we are told in the preface to this book, the 
experiments were at first demonstrated in the lectnre- 
room ; some years later, the student) were required 
to do the practical work for themselves in the 
laboratory. The example set at Cambridge has been 
followed in other universities acd colleges, to the 
great benefit of botanical teaching. AVe all recogui?* 
now that practical laboratory work is no les-s 
necessary in physiological than in morphological 
botany, though in the former it is certainly more 
difficult to organise. The present book, which em- 
bodies the results of the experience gained in 
practical teaching, is in two parts. Part i., on 
General Physiology, is tho more elementary, and 
therefore the more widely useful ; Part ii., on the 
Chemistry of Matabolism, is of a more advanced 
character, and is adapted to thoso students who 
desire to make a special study of the chemical 
physiology of plants. The former, we believe, is 
mainly the work of Mr. Darwiu; the later, of 
Mr. Actou, 
