Oct.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
261 
the  quality  of  any  product  to  which  it  is  applied. 
I believe  that  if  planters  carefully  taste  their  tea, 
they  will  find  the  flavor  and  quali  y improved  a few 
months  after  manuring.  I wish  now  to  propound  a 
theory  accounting  for  the  liquor  from  tea  that  has 
been  recently  manured  being  weak  and  Savories'.  It 
may  or  may  not  be  supported  by  the  investigations 
of  Science.  O.e  of  the  first  results  of  manuriug  is 
an  abnormal  activity  of  growth  resulting  in  heavy 
flushes.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  in  these 
flushes  the  sap,  or  in  other  words  the  constituents  of 
tea,  are  found  in  an  attentuated  form  and  not  con- 
centrated as  when  the  flush  is  Eormal.  Is  it  not 
a fact  that  the  tea  made  from  the  first  few 
fluehes  after  pruning  when  the  growth  is  abnor- 
mal, is  weak  ? Is  not  the  tea  made  during  the  wet 
months  of  Jun.-July  invariably  condemned  as  in- 
ferior in  the  Lame  ? Wasn't  there  a big  outcry 
against  the  tea  made  during  the  excessively  wet  months 
of  last  year?  I am  strongly  inclined  to  think  that 
these  experience?  support  my  theory  that  anything 
that  tends  to  diffuse  the  sap,  prejudicially  affects 
the  quali  1 y of  the  tea. 
The  practical  lesson  to  be  deduced  from  this  is,  that 
a stimulating  manure  is  unsuited  for  tea  if  the 
object  of  the  plant:  r is  quality  end  not  quantity. 
Prac  ical  experience  will  show  whether  the  active 
properties  of  Guano  will  be  checked  ly  a large  ad- 
mix’me  of  vegetable  matter  in  the  shape  of  fibre  dust. 
I am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  it  will.  If  it  be 
not,  any  suitable  manure  to  be  composed  with  it 
oan  be  used.  Vegetable  matter  decaying  in  soils  is 
an  abeo'ute  necessity  for  the  healthy  growth  of  vegeta- 
tion, more  especially  in  a clayey  soil.  For  a “ humus 
through  its  decay  in  the  soil  furnishes  carbonic 
acid  among  other  s lvent  agents,  and  this  carbonic 
acid  plays  an  important  part  by  bringing  the  native  ” 
insoluble  stock  of  plaut  food  within  easy  reach. 
“ Soluble  plant  food  add  d to  the  soil  in  commercial 
fertilizers,  needs  the  help  of  humus,  finally,  for  it-1 
solution.”  “ Prant  food  in  most  animal  aud  vegetable 
residues  used  as  manures,  costs  much  less  than 
commercial  manures.”  This  is  a powerful  plea  for 
fibre  refuse  which  through  its  decay  in  the  foil  if 
forked  in  will  render  soluble  the  large  quantities 
of  potash  that  clayey  soils  contain,  not  to  speak  of 
their  other  constituents.  As  a slow  acting  manure 
it  will  be  interesting  to  have  the  results  of  the 
experiment  on  Mariawat’e  with  the  shoddy  manure 
Mr.  Hughes  recommended.  B. 
— 
TEA  AND  COFFEE  AT  MERGU1. 
The  following  are  extracts  from  Mr.  Iogram’a 
Report  on  the  experimental  garden  at  Mergui  for 
1891-2: — Two  email  plots  for  planting  Liberian  coffee 
were  cleared  in  the  dry  season  and  will  he  plan'ed 
up  during  this  rains.  The  number  of  Liberian  ccffee 
plants  at  the  beginning  and  close  of  the  year  Rie 
shown  below: — At  beginning  of  the  year  3,353.  At 
close  of  the  year  3,338.  Decrease  15  due  to  two 
deaths  among  the  larger  plants  and  13  among  the 
smaller  ones.  The  plants  were  again  attacked  by  the 
Ieaf-disea6e  of  last  . year.  As  the  dry  season  advance! 
the  plants  gradually  recovered  and  shook  themselves 
free  of  the  disease,  but  it  appeared  again  when  the 
rains  had  properly  set  in.  The  result  of  two  years’ 
disease  is  seen  in  the  very  poor  condition  of  the  plants 
and  in  the  crop,  which  was  the  smallest  collected  since 
1887.  The  coffee  crop  collected  during  the  year  amoun- 
ted to  47’45  vi?s.  This  together,  with  the  balance  from 
last  year,  31'70  viss  were  all  but  6-32  vj'ss  disposed  of 
during  the  year.  As  there  teems  no  likelihood  of  sane- 
tion  being  accorded  to  ooffee  being  g own  experi- 
mentally on  a large  scale  (of  20  or  30  aores),  tho 
experiment  with  this  species  may  be  considered  as 
closed,  and  the  future  usefulness  of  the  small  coffee 
plot  in  the  Mergui  garden  will  lie  in  its  being  used  as 
a source  of  supply  for  seedlings  and  seed  for  free  dis- 
tribution or  for  sale. 
The  1, umber  of  tea  plants  was  reduced  to  69.  They 
were  removed  during  the  year  to  another  situation  on 
lower  ground  and  near  the  stream.  Since  their  re- 
moval the  plants  have  brightened  up  and  are  now 
looking  healthy  if  still  somewhat  scraggy. 
With  reference  to  the  foregoing  remarks  about 
Coffee  (ha  Rangoon  Times  says  : — There  is  an 
ii  ference  in  this  that,  if  permission  were  granted 
to  cultivi’&te  coffee  on  a large  scale,  it  would 
he  profitable  to  continue  the  experiment.  The 
experiment  with  Liberian  coffee  has  practically 
failed,  and  the  failure  cannot  but  have  the  effect 
of  impressing  the  people  with  the  belief  that  it 
would  not  be  profitable  for  them  to  invest  their 
money  in  the  industry,  and  it  must,  alto,  make 
European  planters  timid  of  undertaking  the 
cultivation  of  coffee  in  Burma.  Would  it  not, 
then,  have  been  wise  to  continue  the  experiment 
on  a larger  scale,  especially  as  the  Forest  Officer 
in  charge  of  the  garden  would  appear  to  think 
that  it  is  justifiable.  The  failure  was  occasioned 
by  the  plants  being  attacked  with  leaf  d sease, 
but  that  surely  is  not  sufficient  reason  for  throw- 
ing up  the  experiment  and  discouraging  those  who 
may  be  inclined  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  cul. 
tivation  of  ooffee. — M.  Mail. 
INDIAN  PATENTS. 
Applications  in  respect  of  the  undermentioned  inven- 
tions have  been  filed: — Andrew  OharleB  Guy  Thompson, 
Eugineer  and  Tea  Planter,  Sagmooten,Nowgong,  Assam, 
for  “cultivating  the  ground  between  rows  of  plants, 
especially  between  tea  plants  or  bushes  and  curraDt, 
gcoseberry,  and  such  like  plants.”  Montfort  Ohamney, 
Tea  Planter,  Nowgong,  Assam,  for  “ the  Disintegrat- 
ing, sifling  and  oxygenisiDg  of  tea  leaf,  after  the 
process  known  in  tea  manufacture  as  Rolling.”— 
Bombay  Gazette,  Aug.  31. 
Indian  and  Ceylon  Teas  and  Prices. — In 
glanoing  over  Messrs,  Stenning,  Irsbipp  & Co.’s  Tea 
Report  of  11th  Aug.  our  eye  has  been  arrested 
by  average  prioes  for  the  teas  of  some  Indian 
estates  or  companies,  compared  with  which  Ceylon 
teas  are  nowhere.  The  generality  of  Indian  prices 
are  no  better  than  the  present  low  prices 
for  our  own  product,  but  then  while  the  highest 
price  quoted  for  Ceylon  is  only  lljd  per  lb.,  we 
have  Assam  teas  selling  48  packages  at  2/3}  ; 204 
at  2/2  ; and  595  at  1/2}.  Why  is  it  that  Ceylon 
now  shows  nothing  like  such  figures  ? We  should 
be  glad  to  have  an  answer  to  the  question,  so  that, 
if  possible,  the  position  of  our  staple  produot  may 
be  redeemed. 
Check  on  Coffee  Planting  in  Selangor. — The 
collector  of  Land  Revenue  at  Kuala  Lumpor  calls 
attention  to  his  having  recently  received  complaints 
from  various  planters  who  hold  their  land  under  the 
' .nd  Regulations,  1882,  respecting  the  cutting  of 
timber  on  their  estates  by  the  holders  of  ordinary 
timber  passes.  It  was  formerly  held  that  special 
permission  was  required  for  the  felling  of  timber  on 
alienated  land  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of 
Section  3,  Sub-section  2,  of  the  old  Regulations. 
The  Court,  however,  has  decided  otherwise.  This 
is  in  his  opinion  a source  of  great  inconvenience  to 
the  coffee  planter,  not  only  because  it  is  desirable 
for  the  sake  of  the  soil  that  the  timber  should  be 
where  it  falls,  but  also  on  account  of  the  difficulty 
of  eradicating  the  brushwood  which  springs  up  im- 
mediately after  the  clearing  of  the  jungle.  He  thinks 
it  desirable  that  the  Government  should  reserve 
the  power  to  confer  the  right  of  timber  felling  on 
alienated  land  kept  uncultivated,  but  that  this  right 
should  be  allowed  to  be  exercised  only  in  virtue  of 
special  permission.  Coffee  planting  under  European 
supervision  is  an  industry  which  he  finds  it  is  most 
expedient  to  encourage,  and  while  planters  comply 
with  the  conditions  of  their  grants  they  should  be 
encouraged  in  every  possible  way'.  If  they  fail  to 
do  so,  it  is  better  to  forfeit  their  land  altogether 
than  to  punish  them  by  allowing  indiscriminate 
timber  cutting  thereon. — Straits  Times,  Aug.  24. 
