542 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Fee.  i,  1893. 
Cacao  and  Liberian  Coffee. — We  call  at- 
tention to  the  practical  letter  of  “ Experto  Crede” 
(on  page  645)  and  earnestly  baok  up  his  counsel  to 
his  brother  planters  to  go  in  for  these  two  products 
in  addition  to  tea,  wherever  possible. 
The  Triumph  of  Art  over  nature  is  illustrated 
in  the  fact  that  an  artist  recently  made  a paint- 
ing of  soma  beech  trees  in  an  old  pasture  that 
he  sold  for  $280.  The  owner  of  the  pasture  parted 
company  with  his  property  at  about  the  same 
time  for  $150,  and  called  it  a good  sale  at  that. 
Augusta  (Me)  Farmer. — American  Grocer. 
The  Flora  of  Ceylon.  — With  reference  to 
the  advertisement  of  this  work  in  four  parts  at 
£3  13s  6d  in  advanoe,  there  is  a mistaken  notion  as 
to  the  price  in  proportion  to  the  cost  of  printing  and 
publication.  The  prioe  is  large,  no  doubt,  but  not 
really  high  as  compared  with  similar  books,  indeed 
it  is  less  than  most  of  them.  For,  100  quarto 
ooloured  plates  must  oost  from  first  to  last  quite 
£1,200,  and  there  is  of  course  the  text  besides, 
probably  involving  another  £500— a large  expendi- 
ture altogether  to  be  recouped  by  the  sale  of  copies. 
Our  Tea  Trade  in  1892. — This  is  how  the 
London  Financial  Times  of  December  30th,  1892, 
reviews  the  year’s  tea  trade:  — 
Tea  producers  have  certainly  reason  to  be  pleased 
with  the  results  of  the  year.  Prices,  it  is  true,  were 
low,  but  that  very  feature  is  no  doubt  accountable 
for  the  very  large  home  consumption  of  207,000,000  lb. 
and  was  also  probably  a strong  factor  in  substituting 
Indian  and  Ceylon  teas  for  those  of  China.  The 
change  in  the  public  taste  has  been  very  rapid 
during  the  past  twelve  months  ; and  the  consumption 
of  Chinese  tea  has  in  consequence  fallen  from 
52.000. 000  lb.  in  1891  to  34,000,000  in  1892,  while  the 
use  of  Indian  tea  increased  from  99,000,000  lb.  to 
109.000. 000  lb.  and  Ceylon  teas  from  51,000,000  lb.  to 
64.000. 000  lb.  in  the  same  period.  The  increased 
consumption,  combined  with  more  remunerative 
prices,  due  to  the  crop  barely  equalling  that  of  last 
year,  is  certainly  encouraging  to  planters,  while  the 
danger  of  over-production  is  for  the  present  inde- 
finitely shelved. 
Farmers  and  Planters  : — How  far  do  they 
correspond  may  be  asked  after  reading  the 
following  extract  from  a home  paper  ; — 
Are  farmers  the  most  indocile  of  mankind  ? It 
would  almost  seem  to  be  so  if  we  understand  aright 
the  words  quoted  in  the  report  on  the  Distribution  of 
Grants  for  Agricultural  Education  in  Great  Britain 
just  issued  by  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  At  page  43 
we  read  : “ There  are  few  farmers,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
who  will  study  or  even  perhaps  read,  steadily  and 
attentively,  through  a report  of  agricultural  experi- 
ments however  brief.  Not  a few  farmers  appear  to 
have  an  extraordinary  lack  of  appreciation  of  the 
practical  value  of  properly  conducted  experiment,  as 
compared  with  their  excessive  reverence  for  a more 
or  less  unverified  experience.”  This  is  certainly 
trenchant  criticism,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  state- 
ment to  indicate  that  it  does  not  apply  to  the  whole 
race  of  farmers  without  exception.  The  teachers 
and  the  funds  necessary  to  instruct  them  in  more 
scientific  and  therefore  more  profitable  ways  of  farm- 
ing are  all  ready,  but  in  the  words  of  the  report  they 
prefer  still  to  be  guided  by  their  own  uncertain  and 
undefinable  experience.  There  seems  to  be  nothing 
for  it  but  to  catch  the  farmer  young  enough — in  fact, 
before  he  has  signed  his  first  lease— and  get  some 
better  ideas  into  his  mind,  and  then,  perhaps,  he  may 
think  that  after  all  there  is  something  in  scientific 
agriculture. 
We  suspeot  one  reason  why  Oeylon  planters  have 
usually  taken  suoh  an  intelligent  interest  in  all  that 
oonoerns  their  branch  of  agriculture  is  that  they 
begin  their  tropical  work  at  an  early  age  as 
a rule. 
Ceylon  Tea  Exports  for  1892. — It  is  of  in- 
terest to  refer  to  the  figures  supplied  by  Messrs  . 
Forbes  & Walker  in  their  dosing  ciroular  for 
1892.  Thus  in  respect  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
this  is  how  they  show  the  exports  of  Indian  and 
Ceylon  tea  to  stand  : — 
Export  to  the  United.  Kingdom. 
From 
India 
Ceylon 
1891 
94.750.000 
63.300.000 
1892 
96,000,000 
64,790,000 
Increase 
1.250.000  lb. 
1.490.000  „ 
Total 
158,050,000 
160,790,000 
2,740,000  lb. 
Muoh  more  satisfactory,  for  us  in  CeyloD,  is  it  to 
turn  to  the  figures  for, — 
Export  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 
From  1891  1892 
India  4,105,000  3,300,000  805,000  lb.  (dec.) 
Ceylon  3,200,000  5,105,000  1,905,000  „ 
Total  7,305,000  8,405,000  1,100,000  increase 
To  other  countries,  notably  Amerioa,  we  bave  by 
no  means  eo  good  a oomparieon;  but  then  the 
exports  of  Ceylon  tea  to  New  York  are  chiefly 
made  from  LondoD. 
The  Report  of  the  Dibectors  of  the  Gemming 
and  Mining  Company  of  Ceylon  (Limited  states 
that  after  the  issue  of  the  last  report  the  di- 
reotors  oame  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  expe- 
dient to  pay  off  the  European  establishment  at 
the  mines,  to  stop  all  gem  mining  going  on  at 
own  acoount,  and  lease  the  gem  lands  to  the 
highest  bidders.  The  result  shows  that  the  native 
miners  know  the  value  of  the  lands  for  precious 
stones,  as  the  mining  rights  wore  at  once  let  for 
R3, 200  per  annum  to  responsible  parties.  The  rent 
has  been  paid  regularly,  and  the  first  year’s  lease 
having  nearly  run  out  the  gem  lands  will  again 
be  put  up  to  public  competition.  Plumbago  mining 
has  met  with  varied  success,  164  tous  having  been 
brought  to  surfaoe  and  sold,  producing  to  the  com- 
pany R28.733.  The  directors  regret  that  they  are 
unable  to  place  a more  satisfactory  report  before 
the  shareholders,  but  they  still  hope  that  by  suc- 
cess in  plumbago  mining,  and  the  lease  of  their 
gem  lands,  the  company  may  be  placed  in  a 
better  position  and  as  the  capital  was  low,  and 
the  shareholders  objected  to  a further  call,  the 
directors  felt  that  the  best  course  to  adopt  was 
the  one  now  submitted  to  the  shareholders. — Mining 
Journal,  Dec.  12,  1892, 
Trees  and  Birds  in  the  Tea  Districts. — 
Next  to  the  cultivation  of  useful  timber  and  fuel 
trees  on  our  tea  plantations  as  shelter  bells  (and 
disease  preventives  I ) we  plaoe  in  importance  the 
enoouragement  and  “cultivation1’  of  inseot  eatiDg 
birds.  But  indeed,  the  one  is  very  much  dependent 
on  the  other:  plant  and  grow  the  trees  and  we  shall 
soon  see  them  occupied,  though  it  may  also  be  wise 
to  introduce  or  encourage  oertain  of  the  mere  use- 
ful of  insect-feeding  birds.  Here  for  instance  is  a 
paragraph  to  illustrate  our  meaning:  — 
Ladybirds  are  known  at  home  aa  great  wheat- 
pest  destroyers.  In  America  and  the  Colonies  also 
they  are  numbered  among  “ friendly  insects.”  The 
Australian  ladybird  ( Vedalia  cardinalis ) has  cleared 
the  Californian  orange  orch  irds  of  their  most  deadly 
enemy,  aud  one  of  the  field  agents  of  the  Eatomo- 
logical  Division  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  has  lately  visited  tho  Australian  Colonies 
in  search  of  other  friendly  ladybirds  and  other 
insects  which  feed  upon  the  scales  and  aphideB  that 
so  greatly  trouble  the  American  fruit  growers. 
Now,  we  want  the  bird  who  will  feed  on  the 
yellow  tea  mite  {Acarus  translucens)  which  troubled 
the  Matale  tea  last  year,  and  still  more  do  we 
require  to  encourage  every  possible  enemy  of  red 
spider  and  of  the  tea  bug  or  Helopeltis. 
