OCT.  I,  1892. J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
243 
That  this  was  possibly  a doubtful  policy  in  the  loDg 
run  is  shown  by  the  result  above  alluded  to,  namely, 
the  appearance  of  an  inferior  tea,  when  Tamsui 
buyers  ultimately  commenced  business. 
The  population  of  Tamsui  and  Kelung  is  generally 
estimatfd  at  100,000,  but  owing  to  the  absenoe  of  any 
reliable  census,  it  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  any  accurate 
knowledge.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  aborigines, 
whoso  numbers  are,  I fancy,  absolutely  unknown  to 
anyone,  including  the  Chinese  themselves. 
Chinese  industries  here  are  many  and  various — tea, 
rice,  and  fishing  accounting  for  probably  a large  ma- 
jority of  the  workers,  Tea  planting  appears  to  be  on 
the  increase,  as  every  walk  into  the  hill  oountry  shows 
new  patches  of  hillside  being  oleared  for  planting. 
The  picking  iB  done  entirely  by  the  girls  and  women, 
so  the  whole  family  is  kept  busy. 
Rice-planting. — The  hardest  work  must  be  in  the 
rice  fields.  Two  crops  are  sown  and  gathered  in  the 
year,  harvest  times  being  in  tbe  fifth  and  tenth  months 
of  the  Chinese  year,  or  about  June  and  November. 
From  sunrise  to  sunset  the  plodding  native  is  busy 
whatever  the  weather  may  be,  ploughing  up  the  field, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  patient  but  hideous  wator- 
bnffalo,  and  manuring  them  in  readiness  for  the 
coming  crop,  which  is  meanwhile  gradually  springing 
up  in  little  wet  nurseries  carefully  sheltered  from 
th6  north  wiDd  by  straw  screens.  When  the  fields 
are  sufficiently  ploughed  irrigation  has  to  be  carried 
out,  and  a familiar  sound  at  such  times  is  the  harsh 
squeak  of  the  clumsy-looking  but  ingenious  water- 
wheel which  is  worked  with  the  feet  by  revolving 
treadles.  The  economy  of  the  Chinese  prompts  them 
to  make  use  of  every  little  patch  that  is  conveniently 
near  a stream,  and  in  such  little  patches  where  there 
would  be  no  possible  room  for  the  olumsy  buffalo  to 
get  round  with  a plough,  I have  seep  a most  ingenious 
contrivance  used  for  breaking  up  the  lumpy  wet  sur- 
face into  a level  smooth  enough  for  transplanting. 
The  labourer  was  trampling  all  over  the  wet  patch 
with  huge  wooden  skates,  as  they  might  be  called, 
but  having  four  deep  wooden  blades  instead  of  one ; 
also,  instead  of  fastening  such  heavy  things  to  his 
feet,  a long  loop  of  rattan  from  the  skates  to  his 
hands  enabled  him  to  hold  them  tight  to  his  feet, 
and  thus  equalise  the  labour  of  legs  and  arms.  The 
result  was  all  that  could  be  wished. 
With  regard  to  the  transplanting,  the  rapidity  with 
which  this  carried  out  is  wonderful.  Little  bundles  of 
the  young  shoots  are  brought  from  the  nurseries  by 
boys  to  the  men  who  are  standing  up  to  their  ankles 
in  mud  and  water,  and  I have  seen  as  many  as  twenty 
shoots  planted  in  a minnte,  or  at  the  rate  of  1,200  in 
an  hour.  The  average  rate  is  doubtless  much  less,  but 
the  rapidity  and  skill  with  which  these  men  plant  the 
shoots  with  the  right  hand  only,  the  left  holding  the 
bundle  of  shoots,  is  marvellous. 
Finally,  when  the  rice  is  fully  growD,  the 
water  is  drained  off  the  fields,  the  grain  quickly 
ripens  and  the  harvesting  begins.  Iu  this  as 
is  everything  else  the  procedure  is  primitive  in  the 
extreme.  A large  deep  wooden  tub  is  brought  in  to 
the  field,  at  one  side  of  which  is  fixed  a rude  soreem 
formed  by  three  or  four  bamboos,  and  a piece  of  as 
oheap  sacking  as  can  possibly  be  procured.  A man 
standiug  in  front  of  this  tub  thus  screened  receives 
bundles  of  the  rice  from  the  reapers,  and  holding  a 
lirge  double  handful  brings  it  down  with  a smart 
thwack  inside  the  tub.  This  repeated  once  or  twice 
threshes  out  the  grain,  and  the  straw  is  thrown  aside 
to  be  afterwards  piled  in  straw  stacks  that  remind 
one  of  the  ricks  at  home.  Thus  no  threshing  floors 
are  used  here,  but  every  farmhouse  has  its  smooth 
mud-plastered  floor,  on  which  the  rice  is  laid  out  to 
get  thoroughly  dried  in  the  sun. 
AMSTERDAM. 
Consul  Robinsou,  in  his  report  on  the  trade  of 
Amsterdam  for  J>91,  states: — * * * 
Tea. — There  was  but  little  fluctuation  in  prices.  Of 
China  tea  Amsterdam  imported  2,648  quarter  chests, 
as  compared  with  3,042  quarter  chests,  in  1890  ; and 
{ft  Java  tea  18,944  quarter  chests,  as  compared  with 
30,022  quarter  chests  in  1890.  The  home  consumption 
is  comparatively  a very  large  one,  averaging  for  the 
years  1885-89: — Netherlands,  5,173,694  lb. ; Germany, 
3,975,882  lb. ; France,  1,168,317  lb.  Java-Assam  tea 
is  preferred  to  the  ordinary  sorts,  but  British-Indian 
teas  findno  market  here.  * * * 
Cocoa. — This  article  is  continually  increasing  in  im- 
portance, the  quantity  brought  to  this  country  in 
1890  being  : — Netherlands,  6,995  tons  ; London  10,390 
tons  ; Hamburg,  7,380  toes.  Java  oocoa  now  begins 
to  be  an  important  f&otor  in  the  trade,  the  impor- 
tation being  : — 1891,  170  Ions — as  compared  with  1890, 
104  tons  ; 1889,  35  tors;  1888,  20  tons.  The  prioe 
of  first  quality  Java  varied  from  ll£d  per  lb.  to  Is 
0|d  per  lb,  * * * 
CHINESE  IMPERIAL  MARITIME  CUSTOMS. 
EXTRACTS  FROM  ANNUAL  REPORTS  FOR  1891. 
CANTON. 
* * * 
Foreign  Trade. — Tea  Though  the  Canton  figures 
account  for  but  little  of  it,  the  business  done  in  Tea 
has  largely  exceeded  that  of  any  year  since  1887, 
the  aggregate  exports  through  the  Kowloon,  Lappa, 
and  Canton  offices  amounting  to  131,500  piculs,  an 
increase  of  over  22,500  piculs  as  compared  with  tbe 
figures  for  1890.  Too  rapid  shipments  at  the  outset 
were  further  facilitated  in  June  by  a reduction  of 
about  30  per  cent,  made  by  tbe  native  Customs  iu 
export  duty  on  all  but  the  very  finest  class  Teas. 
Dealers  could  thus  lay  down  junkborne  Tea  in  Hong 
Kong  cheaper  than  they  could  deliver  it  “ free  on 
board  ” the  steamer  at  Canton,  and  foreign  buyers 
were  able  to  execute  many  orders  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  impracticable.  Dealers  were 
encouraged  to  continue  buying  freely  in  the  country, 
and  when  in  November  a heavy  drop  on  the  London 
market  put  a stop  to  buying,  the  teamen  could  only 
avoid  worse  diaster  by  becoming  large  shippers  on 
their  account.  * * * 
— L.  and  C.  Express,  Aug.  6th, 
AGRICULTURE, 
manures  and  manuring, 
With  the  establishment  of  the  School  of  Agri- 
culture the  reproach  that  attached  to  Ceylon  of 
being  backward  in  scientific  agriculture  must  be 
gradually  withdrawn.  The  practical  portion  of  the 
work  of  the  school  mast  be  extended  however  before 
it  can  be  able  to  supply  a long  felt  want.  At  the 
present  moment  a small  polt  of  ground  is  cultivated, 
generally  to  establish  preconceived  notions,  or,  to 
put  it  more  mildly,  to  test  the  truth  of  what  is  taught 
within  the  walls  of  the  School,  and  all  the  experiments 
are  directed  towards  that  end.  A very  good  thing 
in  its  way  and  absolutely  necessary  to  stimulate 
students ; but  hurtful  from  a habit  it  engenders  of 
generalizing  from  so  limited  data.  The  liberality 
of  Sir  Arthur  Havelock  has  given  the  School  forty 
acres  of  ground  attached  to  it,  and  tbi^ ought  to  aid 
the  talented  Superintendent  with  his  teaching  staff, 
to  extend  the  practical  portion  of  his  work  eo  as  to 
embrace  the  cultivation  ot  many  products  and  to  test 
the  value  of  different  mannres. 
It  has  teen  remarked  often  that  the  School  has  very 
unpromising  soil  to  work  on.  I think  this  a distinct 
advantage,  for  the  credit  of  growing  paying  crops  on  a 
poor  soil  is  great,  while  no  particular  credit  attaches 
to  the  profitable  cultivation  of  a rich  soil.  Besides, 
the  conversion  of  the  poor,  light,  sandy  soil  of  the 
Cinamon  Garden?,  to  a fertile  soil  with  body  in  it, 
will  be  a course  of  practical  instruction,  worth  all  the 
theoretical  teaching  the  School  can  impart.  Many 
persons,  with  a very  limited  knowledge  of  practical 
agriculture,  talk  glibly  of  giving  body  to  light  soils 
by  the  admixture  of  clay  or  clayey  soil,  and  increasing 
the  porosity  of  heavy  soils  by  the  addition  to  them  of 
sand.  They  read  of  these  operations  in  books  on  agri- 
cultural science  and  prescribe  them  off-hand.  The 
practical  man  knows  the  immense  and  almost  prohibi- 
tory cost  of  these  operations.  The  w-ork  is  not  so  easy 
and  the  cost  so  light  as  many  imagine,  to  tiansfej 
