256 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct.  j,  1892.  . 
has  come  into  favour,  and  is  now  packed  in  paper 
parcels  and  sent  to  all  places  «hi  re  there  are  cnlonu  s 
ol  Chinese.  The  Parsees  also  do  a considerah'e  trade 
in  Taisham  Congou,  which  they  txpirt  to  B tnbay. 
In  June,  last  ytar,  the  H'  ppo  ma  le  an  arrang  . eut 
with  the  native  tea  merchants  by  which  all  tea  ex- 
ported by  junk  was  allowed  to  pass  on  payment  of 
a duty  much  belnw  that  levied  by  the  imperial  mar- 
time  customs.  This  irregularity  lasted  to  the  end  of 
the  spasou.  It  enabled  the  foreign  buver  to  get  his 
tea  cheaper,  and  it  saved  him  the  Ireisrht  by  river 
steamer.  Thus  an  increased  harness  was  brought 
about,  but  the  result  has  tetn  productive  of  harm  to 
both  natives  and  foreigners,  as  the  small  reduction 
in  cost  in  no  way  met.  the  severe  fall  in  values  in 
London  brought  about  by  ari  incr-aBe  of  supplies  and  a 
diminution  of  courumption.— H.  and  C.  Mail,  Aug.  19tb. 
GENERAL  NOTES. 
In  a late  bulletin  from  the  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  California,  Professor  Hilgard  records  some 
investigations  made  011  prunes,  apricots  and  peaches 
with  a view  to  ascertain  the  proportion  of  pits  to 
flesh,  juice  to  flesh  and  sugar  contents  of  the  juice, 
and  the  flesh  of  different  varieties.  In  regard  to  the 
nutritive  value  of  certain  fruits  it  has  been  stated  in 
former  bulletins  that  the  orange  in  California  rated 
the  highest,  but  these  researches  give  the  apricot  an 
equal  rank,  while  the  prune  follows  next  with  grapes, 
bananas,  apples  and  pears  succeeding  each  other 
probably  in  the  order  named.  Grapes  stand  first 
among  the  fruits  in  the  quantity  of  mineral  matter 
they  take  from  the  soil.  The  apricot,  taken  accord- 
ing to  weight,  holds  the  second  place  in  this  respect 
while  the  prune  and  the  orange  come  third. — Garden 
and  Forest. 
The  last  number  of  Forest  Leans  contains  an 
interesting  illustration,  entitled,  “ A Historic  Tree 
in  Transit,”  and  it  represents  a tree,  seventy  feet 
long  and  thirty-six  inches  in  diameter,  placed  on  a 
platform  and  moved  along  on  rollers  by  block  and 
tackle.  The  tree  itself  has  a historic  value,  as  it 
is  an  offshoot  of  the  great  Penn  Treaty  Elm  which 
stood  in  Philadelphia.  This  tree  measured  twenty- 
four  feet  around  the  base,  and  one  branch  of  it 
was  one  hundered  and  fifty  feet  long.  It  blew 
down  in  1810,  and  a shoot  which  came  up  from  the 
roots  of  the  old  tree  was  carried  to  the  Oliver  es- 
tate at  Bay  Ridge,  New  York,  where  it  has  stood 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  This  is  the  tree  which  was 
removed  from  there  to  the  grounds  of  General  Paul 
A.  Oliver  of  Forest  Roads,  Oliver’s  Mills,  Pa.,  whose 
ancestors  owned  the  ground  on  the  Del  a war  a where 
the  Treaty  Elm  stood.  It  was  a bold  undertaking 
to  move  so  large  a tree  for  175  miles,  especially 
since  it  had  to  be  moved  by  horse  and  hand-power 
at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  route.  General 
Oliver  wrote  on  the  20th  of  June  that  the  tree  seems 
to  be  growing  well  and  promises  to  thrive  in  its 
new  home  on  the  mountain-side  as  well  as  it  did  by 
New  York  Bay. — Ibid. 
'•  The  Silver  Wattle  ” is  thus  noticed  iu 
Garden  and  Forest  : — 
A charming  coloured  plate  of  acacia  dealbata  gives 
special  interest  and  distinction  to  the  first  number  of 
the  forty-second  volume  of  the  The  Garden , issued  on 
the  2nd  of  July.  This  is  the  Silver  Wattle  of  eastern 
Australia,  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  trees  brought 
from  Australia.  It  is  now  a well-known  plant  in  all 
semi-tropical  countries,  forming,  where  the  soil  suits 
it,  handsome  specimens  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet  high,  , 
and  in  spring  flowering  most  abundantly.  It  is  largely  | 
grown  in  southern  France,  especially  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Cannes,  and  a considerable  industry  is 
founded  on  the  sale  of  its  fragrant  flowers,  which  are 
shipped  to  the  Paris  9.nd  London  markets  in  large  1 
quantities.  In  California,  too,  it  has  been  largely  [ 
lanted,  and  is  one  of  the  best  Australian  plants  which 
ave  as  yet  been  tried  in  that  state,  although  appa-  ! 
rently  capricious  about  soil  and  location.  At  Cannes,  1 
for  example,  it  is  perfectly  at  home,  while  at  Nice,  a , 
few  miles  distant,  and  in  several  other  towns  on  the 
Riviera,  it  refuses  to  grow,  owing,  probably,  to  the 
presence  of  lime  in  the  soil,  which  is  distasteful  to 
many  Australian  plants.  A line  a yard  wide,  it  has 
been  said,  may  be  drawn  between  Nice  and  Cannes  to 
mark  the  boundary  of  the  territories  in  which  this 
tree  will  and  will  not  grow.  In  its  native  country  it 
selects  swamps  and  low  ground,  where  it  sometimes 
attains  a height  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet. 
Steady  Progrebs  of  Orange  Culture At 
DeLand  Mr.  J B.  Stetson,  the  Philadelphia 
millionaire,  who  has  a princely  winter  residerce 
ill  le,  is  adding  grove  to  grove  uniil  he  owns  400 
acres  At  a central  point,  near  the  railroad,  be 
is  erecting  an  immense  stable  for  his  teams  and 
implements,  and  hard  by  another  building  nearly  aa 
large  for  a packery.  He  has  contracted  with  a 
company  to  erect  water  works  to  irrigate  300  acres, 
and  it  is  among  the  contingencies  that  the  same 
oompany  may  supply  the  town  and  irrigate  many 
other  groves.  A fertilizer  factory  has  a contract  to 
furnish  him  with  400  tons  of  fertiliz  ■ r per  year,  which 
will  cost  him  about  $14,000.  Just  betore  going 
north  he  told  a friend  that  the  groves  he  has  gotten 
into  good  condition  are  the  best  paying  properties  he 
owns  — Farmer  and  Fruit-grower, 
Tea  Machinery  for  the  World’s  Fair. — 
The  Indian  Agriculturist  of  July  ‘2nd  says:  — 
Irrespective  of  the  probability  of  securing  new 
markets  for  Indian  Tea  at  the  Chicago  Exhibition, 
the  representative  of  the  Tea  Association  should  he 
furnished  with  working  models  of  the  latest  machi- 
nery in  use  on  our  plantations ; for,  admirable  as  they 
are  in  their  way,  they'  are  still  capable  of  improve- 
ment, and  the  well-known  inventive  genius  of  the 
Americans  may  suggest  such  alterations  as  would  bring 
our  rolling  machinery  as  near  to  perfection  as  it  is 
possible  to  attain.  Were  a plucking  machine  in- 
vented, the  cost  of  production  would  be  lowered  some 
25  per  cent  at  least,  and  though  one  adapted  to 
dealing  with  teelah  lands  appears  to  be  unattainable, 
it  seems  to  us  there  should  be  no  insurmountable 
difficulty  in  elaborating  one  that  could  deal  with 
plantations  established  on  the  flat  bheel  land.  The 
late  Mr.  Burland,  of  the  East  India  Tea  Company', 
actually  did  construct  a rough  model,  but  the  expense 
of  patenting  his  invention  deterred  him  from  pro- 
ceeding with  the  matter,  and,  moreover,  he  died  be- 
fore the  era  of  bheel  planting  had  been  inaugurated. 
The  contrivance  consisted  of  a blade  similar  to  the 
common  reaping  machine,  bent  in  the  form  of  an 
arch,  and  about  four  inches  board,  including  the  teeth, 
the  cut  leaves  falling  into  a receptacle  made  of  pump 
leather  resembling  a bamboo  clwor/f/a , with  a quarter 
of  its  side  cut  out,  which  was  attached  to,  and  level 
with,  the  base  of  the  cutter ; this  arch  embraced 
au  ordinary  tea  bush  pretty  low  down,  and  rested 
011  a wheel  on  either  side,  buckets  being  hung  at 
the  ends  of  this  leather  chconga  to  receive  the  leaf, 
as  it  fell  down  under  pressure  of  the  increasing 
mass  above.  Now,  all  who  have  seen  trim  box  hedges 
in  England  will  understand  that  the  success  of  some 
such  tea  reaper  will  depend  upon  very  careful  pruning 
at  the  outset,  so  as  to  secure  a uniform  plucking 
surface,  and  to  this  the  trained  gardeners  that  have 
been  imported  of  late  years,  should  devote  their 
attention.  Of  course,  there  are  difficulties  in  getting 
a machine  to  fulfil  all  the  requirements  obtained  by 
hand  picking,  and  the  erratic  growth  of  the  shoots 
presents  an  additional  obstacle,  while  the  reaper 
could  not  deal  with  such  sprouts  as  lie  beneath  its 
range  of  action,  and  it  might  be  necessary  for  the 
ordinary  pluckers,  to  follow  the  machine,  for  glean- 
ing. These  obstacles,  however,  may  well  be  left  to 
those  who  have  given  us  the  sewing  machine  and 
all  those  manifold  labour-saving  agricultural  and 
other  machines  and  appliances ; and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  some  good  might  reasonably  be  expected 
to  result,  if  what  is  needed  were  intelligibly  placed 
before  machinists  by  a practical  planter. 
The  writer  seems  to  be  unaware  of  th  2 existence 
of  the  tea  leafpluuker  recently  advertised. 
