The tropical AGRICULTUEIST. [July 1, 1900. 
_M. PbudhoMme— our French Agricultural 
visitor (Director-General of the Department 
in Madagascar) — left for Ein-ope by the 
French inail-steamer last month. He has 
now been ti'avelling for six months, visiting 
Java, fSumatiM, the Straits Settieuiieuts, 
Ceylon and Calcutta ; but he comes back 
after a couple of years, to give some weeks 
or months to India by itself. 
Tea Planting at Malacca.— A Colonial Of- 
fice Report, from S nK'M"'"^) planting in the 
Straits Settlements, says tliar, a ^ooil tcM, planta- 
tion has been llioroughly establishod in Malacca, 
which finds a local niai ket for its luodncc. An 
enterprising syndicate of Chinese Ikii tuken up 
the business.— Pioneer, June 20. 
New Duties in France.— The new French 
duties to come into force on 1st September ijear 
Very hardly on Ceylon )U'oduce, and f.lie doubling 
of the tax on tea will go far to destroy any 
benefit that might have accrued to tea industry 
from the Faiis E.vhibition. Tiie Ceylon Associ- 
ation is in connnunication with the Cuionial 
Office on the subject, and it is understood that 
tlie London Cliambcr of Commerce will also take 
the matter up. The enhanced rates are as 
follows : — 
kilo^?. 
Coffee from 156 to .300 francs per 100 
Tea do 208 to 400 do do 100 
Pepper do 208 to 400 do do 100 
Cloves do HOB to 440 do do 100 
Shelled Nut- 
mecs&Macedo 312 to 600 do do 100 
Vanilla do 416 to 800 do do 100 
— London Cor., local " Times," connnunicated. 
[The new French Duty on tea will, there- 
fore, be a fraction over Is. 6d. per pound ! — 
Ed. T.A.] 
A French " Planters' Association,"— 
In a recent issue of the Tonkin French paper 
L'Avenir du Tonkin, we notice that a 
»' Syndicate of the Planters of Tonkin " 
was about to be foi-med. From the pro- 
posed rules of the Syndicate, subscribed to 
by a membership of 91, we learn that its 
object is to centralise at the headquarters of 
the Syndicate information of every Ivind, 
documents, specimens, &c., and to bring 
mutual assistance to the planters and facili- 
tate operations of sale and purchase. For 
active membership allsettlersin the colonyand 
companies or persons owningestatesor planta- 
tions are eligible ; for associate membership, 
all settlers or companies witliout such pro- 
perty. Active members alone will have the 
right to effect sales or purchases, through 
the intermediary of the Syndicate ; these 
transactions are to be gratuitous and will not 
require any commission. The headquarters 
of the Syndicate will be at Hanoi and its 
affairs will be managed by a Committee of 
ten (elected by the active members) who will 
settle the dates of the annual meetings and 
arrange where they are to be held. The 
work of such a Syndicate, it will be seen, will 
be, if the initial rules are adhered to, 
confined far more to internal trading than 
the opening of foreign markets for local 
produce or influencing the local and home 
Governments witii a view to beneficial legis- 
lation— auch as our Ceylon P. A. aims at. 
The Dear Elephants— The teak trade in 
Slam is hampered by tlie increasing dearness of 
the elephants which drag the lo^a from the forests. 
Five years ago, elephants cost only l.OOU to 
1,500 rupees each. At present, the price is from 
'S.MO ro l.ouO rupees. The cost of labour, too, 
has risen over 50 per cent.— Straits Times, 
Jane 15. 
The Duty on Tea in France— which i.^ 
now about Hid per lb. (or 208 francs per 
100 kilos)— wid after September 1st be a frac- 
tion over Is 6d per lb. (400 francs per KX) 
kilos), unless the remonstrances now beinp 
offered to the French fiscal authorities', 
prevent this backward step. Little Belgium 
has actually no duty on tea. 
(Jeylon Publications in Paris.- The 
editor of the Revue des Cultures Coloniale 
has given several favourable notices of works 
that have issued from the Observer Press 
and that liear on agricultural topics, showing 
how keenly they are alive to what may 
help French colonists abroad. He especially 
notes the Ceylon Handbook and Directory 
and refers to " two portions of extreme 
" interest, namely that on the Meteorology 
"of Ceylon and the general sketch of the 
"Agriculture of Ceylon, covering nearly 200 
"pages." 
Gemming in Ceylon.— From the Admin- 
istration Report for 1899, Mr. L. W. 
Booth, Government Agent, of the Province 
of Sabaragamuwa, we make two ex- 
tracts : — 
Gemming.— It may be said that plumbago drove 
gems out of the market last year. Gemming, 
never a paying industry, is much less so now, 
as most of the accessible localities likely to con- 
tain gems have been searched. It will however 
continue to exercise its fascination, for if the 
blanks are many, the few prizes are dazzling. 
There was a general impression that if European 
and scientific methods were substituted for the 
primitive and crude ones now obtaining, the in- 
dustry could be made a remunerative one. But 
the death-blow to that impression was dealt by 
the failure during the year of the European 
syndicate who laid out a large sum on plant and 
employed highly-paid experts.' Their failure was 
due to the bad choice of a site and the expeii- 
siveness of tlieir establishment. A better fate 
might have attended search in river beds con- 
ducted on scientiflc but less extravagant methods. 
The beds of rivers are supposed to be rich in 
gems, and they have not been explored to the 
same extent as valleys, owing to the greater 
difficulties which attend search in them and 
obtaining of licenses and the unsuitability of the 
Sinhalese methods for places where the water 
is deep. Gemming in navigable streams is not 
allowed for obvious reasons. Gemming in streams 
that are not navigable is not, as a rule, allowed, 
as the people living in villages through which 
the streams flow are dependent on them for 
their water supply both for drinking and irri- 
gating purposes. Licenses are however issued to 
gem in parts of streams where it is shown that 
no inconvenience to the public will result by 
gemming. The lease of the right to gem in a 
section of the Niri-ella stream was sold from 
1898 to 1899 for R760, and as the digging was 
very successful the lease for 1899 to 1901 fetched 
R2,020. The only innovation as yet adopted in 
river gemming is the use of the diving machine. 
One similar to that used by the Austrian Navy 
was recently worked by an Austrian, with, it 
is believed, good results. 
