August  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
87 
two  facts  worth  notjiDg — viz.,  that  Russia  is  the  only 
market  that  remains  faithful  to  China,  and  that  the 
demand  for  green  tea  for  India  has  doubled  of  late, 
which  is  no;  at  all  to  the  credit  of  India,  seeing  that 
the  out-put  of  tea  from  India  and  Ceylon  is  now  close 
upon  200,000,000  lb.  annually,  and  that  tea  is  grown 
all  round  her  borders.  The  Indian  Tea  Supply  Com- 
pany that  started  some  years  since  to  supply  the 
natives  of  India  with  tea  should  have  been  able  to 
absorb  most  of  this  foreign  trade  between  China  and 
India,  as  they  certainly  were  in  a position  to  offer  a 
better  article. 
Tea  in  France. — As  the  funds  of  the  small  com- 
pany, lately  stsrted  to  work  this  business,  are  now 
limited,  an  invitation  has  been  sent  to  several  of  the 
companies,  and  more  especially  those  who  had  not 
supported  the  enterprise  bv  money,  to  contribute 
descriptions  of  tea  to  be  prepared  specially  and  sent 
direct  to  France  from  Oalcntta.  This  invitation,  we 
are  glad  to  learn,  has  been  responded  to  from  several 
quarters,  and  shipments  of  from  ten  to  twenty  chests 
promised.  This  will  greatly  help  the  enterprise,  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  tbe  good  example  set  by  a few 
will  before  long  be  followed  by  other  companies. — H. 
and  C.  Mail,  May  27. 
KITOOL  FIBRE. 
We  again  draw  attention  to  this  fibre  in  the  hope 
that  its  production  may  be  stimulated  in  Southern 
India,  as  we  notice  that  there  are  brush-making  com- 
panies springing  np  in  the  East.  At  Oawnpore,  anew 
company,  the  “ Cawnpore  Brush  Company,”  has 
been  started,  and  this  company  has  teen  employ- 
ing hog  bristles  up  to  the  present,  but  now  has  de- 
manded Kitool  fibre  from  Colombo.  Messrs.  P. 
Thompson  & Co.,  of  CooQOor,  are  also  actively  en- 
gaged in  brush-making,  and  they  also  got  their  fibre 
from  Colombo,  though  the  fibre  is  produced  in  their 
immediate  vicinity;  infaot,ihe  Caryota  Urens  grows 
luxuriantly  on  the  Coonoor  Ghat  itself,  but  it  ap- 
pears that  there  is  no  steady  effort  to  extract 
the  fibre  economically.  Under  orders  from  the 
Board  of  Revenue,  Madras,  the  Collectors  of  Vizaga- 
patam  and  Malabar  report  the  existence  in  quanti- 
ties of  this  fibre-bearing  palm,  but  also  report  that 
the  fibre  cannot  be  extracted  at  less  than  1 rupee  per 
lb.  This  should  not  he  so,  as  the  first  quality  of 
Kitool  fibre  is  sold  in  Colombo  at  R45  per  cwt.,  and 
the  samples  obtained  were  not  nearly  equal  to  No. 
1 Kitool  of  Colombo.  The  tree  exists  in  afcundanoe 
nearly  everywhere  in  Southern  India.  Dr.  Watt,  in 
his  Dictionary  of  Economic  Products  of  India,  thus 
reports  npon  the  “ habitat  ” of  the  Caryota  Urens : — 
“ A beautiful  palm  with  smooth  annuiated  stem,  met 
with  in  the  forests  of  the  weetorn  and  eastern  moist 
zones.  On  the  Western  Ghats  it  extends  to  near 
Mahableshwar.  In  the  settlement  report  of  the 
Chanda  district  it  is  stated  that  this  palm  abounds 
in  the  Southern-Eastern  corner  of  Aheree  and  might, 
with  advantage,  be  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  dis- 
trict, for  it  thrives  well  wherever  it  is  planted.  It 
is  common  in  Burma,  Bengal  and  Orissa,  ascending 
in  Sikkim  to  5,000  feet.”  In  Orissa,  according  to  Dr. 
Watt,  Kitool  fibre  is  known  under  the  name  of 
“ Salop*,”  and  under  this  nomenclature  it  was  exhi- 
bited at  the  Colonial  Exhibition  1886-87 ; samples  of 
the  fibre  were  sent  from  Orissa,  Burma  and  Colaba 
in  Bombay.  Dr.  Watt  gives  some  facts  regarding 
the  employment  of  the  fibre  by  coraet-makers,  and 
goes  on  to  say,  “ these  facts  are  alluded  to  in  the 
hope  of  awakening  an  interest  in  an  Indian  fibre 
that  has  been  much  neglected.”  “For  ma"y  years 
past  Ceylon  has  done  a by  no  meat  s inconsiderable 
trade  in  Kitool  fibre,  but  no  person  seems  to  have 
throught  of  India  as  a possible  souroe  of  supply,” 
and  it  now  appears  that  the  attempt  to  supply  it 
from  India  was  checked  by  a very  easily  to  be  un- 
derstood error. 
Dr.  Watt  states  that  a Mr.  A.  Rowbottom  was  the 
first  to  introduce  Kitool  fibre  to  European  commerce, 
and  that  gentleman  is  reported  to  have  stated  that 
Indian  Kitool  is  inferior  to  the  Ceylon  fi'  e.  Bat  at 
the  Colonial  Exhibition  of  1886,  Mr.  Rowbottom 
pointed  out  to  Dr.  Watt  a sample  of  Ejoo  fibre  from 
the  Arenga  Snccharifera  or  the  sago  palm*  as  being 
the  Kitool  he  had  formerly  seen  as  sent  from  India, 
and  admitted  that  the  sample  of  ealopa  (Kitool) 
shown  him  at  the  Exhibition  was  as  good  as  any  he 
had  ever  seen  from  Ceylon,  and  he  seemed  confident 
that  a large  trade  eould  be  done  in  the  Indian  fibre. 
Mere,  it  appears,  a very  simple  mistake  of  the  fibre 
of  the  Arenga  Saccharijera  or  true  sago  palm  "for 
that  of  Caryota  TJrens  or  bastard  sago  palm  has  been 
the  means  of  putting  in  the  background  an  industry 
that  might  add  greatly  to  the  prosperity  of  India, 
and  the  error  made  is  the  more  extraordinary  in  that 
the  true  sago  pa'm  is  by  no  means  common  in  India 
it  is  only  found  wild  in  Manipur  ; while,  as  before 
said,  the  bastard  sago  palm,  the  Caryota  Urens  the 
producer  of  the  true  Kitool  fibre,  is  common  all 
ever  the  southern  and  western  portions  of  India,  in 
Bengal  and  in  Burma,  and  it  only  requires  to’  be 
exploited  to  be  a great  suocess.  Such  endeavours  as 
have  already  been  made  seem  to  have  been  only 
half-hearted  and  made  in  a doubtful  kind  of  way 
as  energy  was  damped  by  the  idea  that  the  Indian 
fibre  was  not  as  good  as  the  Ceylon;  this  idea  has 
found  expression  in  several  p'aces,  and  has  checked 
the  energy  of  those  who  would  probably  have  tried 
to  produce  it  if  they  had  known  that  the  Indian 
product  is  quite  as  good  as  the  Ceylou  ; but  some- 
thing must  also  be  done  to  deorease  the  oost  prioe 
in  India. 
We  have  already  compared  the  price  in  Ceylon  with 
the  rates  quoted  by  the  Collectors  of  Vizagapatam  and 
Malabar  ; as  the  tree  grows  wild  in  both  these  dis- 
triots,  the  cost  of  the  fibre  can  only  be  the  cost  of  collec- 
tion, and  R1  per  lb.  for  this  appears  absurdly  high. 
Balfour,  in  his  article  on  Caryota  Urens  states  that  the 
fibre  is  made  by  forest  tribes  in  Ceylon.  Surely  there  are 
forest  people  enough  both  in  Malabar  and  Orissa,  to 
whom  the  extraction  of  the  fibre  at  something  like 
paying  rates  should  represent  “wealth  beyond  the 
dreams  of  avarice.”  It  is  very  probable  that  the 
Collector’s  reports  on  prices  were  based  upon  reports 
of  persons  who  were  specially  engaged  to  oollect  the 
fibre,  and  had  no  skill  in  the  matter,  but  who  saw 
their  way  to  make  “a  little  hay  while  the  sun  shone  ” 
There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  if  proper  efforts  are 
made,  the  fibre  can  be  produced  in  India  quite  as  cheap 
as  in  Ceylon,  and  it  should  be  even  cheaper,  as  manual 
labour  in  South  India  is  much  cheaper  than  in  CeyloD 
and  manual  labour  alone  is  required  for  the  produc- 
tion of  this  fibre.  Now  that  a local  field  for  its  con- 
sumption is  rapidly  opening,  we  trust  that  som°  atten- 
tion may  be  given  to  it.  Tile  Cawnpnre  brush  factory 
finds  that  it  is  much  preferred  by  Sowars  of  native 
Cavalry  for  horse  brushes  for  obvious  reasons,  and  the 
Regiments  of  the  Hyderabad  Contingent  Cavalry  all 
now  use  kitool  brushes  for  the  same  reason,  viz.  the 
absence  of  the  hegbristle,  so  repugnant  to  the  'true 
believer.  Under  these  conditions,  there  is  a large 
field  open  to  its  employment.— Madras  Times,  May  3ist. 
[Kitul  fibre  became  of  consequence  in  our  exports 
during  the  rule  of  Sir  George  Anderson.  It  is 
collected  by  the  villagers  around  Colombo  and 
generally  brought  into  the  town  on  the  top  of  baskets 
of  obarcoal. — Ed.  t.  A .] 

Th®  Tea  in  Kuld  has  a heavy  and  excellent  flush  ; 
there  is  no  cholera  anywhere  near  the  gardens,' 
and  yet  the  flush  is  in  imminent  danger  of  being 
lost,  because  the  Daogri  teapicbers  from  Bara 
Bhagal  are  one  and  all  suffering  from  “ funk 
fever.”  They  ran _cway  en  masse  and  squatted  down 
in  a forest  on  the  top  of  a mountain  and  there 
they  stick  and  won’t,  come  down.— Madras  Times. 
•The  sago  palm  snrely  not'}  This  is  the  name  of 
grand  sugar  palm  ot  Java,  the  equivalent  of  onr  ‘‘jaggery 
palm’  or  kitul,  but  with  a different  style  of  leaf  and 
bearing  edible  fruits,— En.  T.  A. 
