180 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
[Sept. 1, 1900. 
A TEA CEiSS I'UK INDIA. 
The Editor of "Indian Gardening and 
Planting" deserves credit for his strenuous 
exertions to make the necessity for a Cess 
on tea in India, as in Ceylon, clear to 
his readers and constituents. He has 
had the courage to draw the attention 
of Indian planters to the invidious posi- 
tion which they occupy, and he has started 
an agitation for the good of the industry, 
while he has advocated the cess as a matter 
of justice rather than expediency. We hope 
other Calcutta editors and the press gener- 
ally will follow this good example. 
TEA IN THE MELBOURNE CUSTOMS. 
THE P. A. SHOULD ENQUIRE AND SUGGEST 
REFORMS. 
A former Colombo resident writing to ns 
from a South Colony, under date .July 31st, 
says : — "When in Melbourne at the clearing 
house, passing through some luggage, I was 
astonislied at seeing the manner in which 
the Customs officials dealt with the teaju^t 
arrived there. There are really no facilities 
for dealing with tea, and I think that the 
Planters' Association should call attention 
to the matter. Each box or chest of tea 
was opened and the contents poured into a 
canvas sheet, lying on the grimy floor where 
all kinds of merchandise was thrown It 
was then taken and rolled up and placed in 
large scales and after taking careful note 
of the weight and the weight of the box or 
chest, it was carelessly poured back into 
the chest, and, of course, the chest not 
holding all the tea without packing, one of 
the attendants stepped into the chest (boots 
and what might adhere to them !) to give it 
the required pressure. A small quantity of 
tea, of com^se, is lost from every chest, l)ut 
it is the practice of p.acking which is most 
obnoxious. Why should not Messrs, Davidson 
& Co. get the Victorian Government to 
invest in one of their patent packers— in- 
deed all the Australasian Governments It 
would greatly facilitate their work at the 
Customs. One worked by hand would be 
the most convenient." 
♦ ■ 
EXPORT DUTIES IN COLUMBIA. 
The Government o' Columbia has promulgated 
an important decree, dated April 24th by which all 
exporters of Produce are compelled to pay to the 
Government certain duties. Exporters of coffee are 
to pay $10 gold for every 125 kilos. Rubber and 
other gums, etc., are subject to an expropriation 
(forced loan) of thirty per cent of their value in 
f^olA.— Chemist and Druf/(/ist. 
Amsterdam Bark MARKirrs. — Shipments of 
cinchona bark from Java for the month of July 
are reported at 629,000 Amsterdam pounds, against 
940,000 pound.s in tlie corresponding jjeriod of last 
year. The total for the seven months to the 
ena of Aut,'ust i.-< 4,612,000. Amsterdam pounds, 
against 6,025,000 pounds in the ef)rresp<)nding 
period last year, and 6,102,000 in ]8i)S,— British 
and Co'onial Drm/gist, Aug. .3, 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Samoa Estates, Ld. (66,685).— Regd. July 19, 
with capital £.jO,O00, in £1 shares, to adopt an 
asreement with N. J. Weaver and to carry on the 
business of cocoa, tea. coffee, sugar, fruit, "tobacco, 
indigo and other produce planters, growers, and 
merchants, shippers, carrieis, miner.*, smelters, 
explorers, engineers, ete.~T/ie Investors' Guar- 
dian, Aut;. 4. 
The Tendency of RunnER Lands in Brazil 
to come under private ownership and control 
is illustrated by the grantiag to a Brazilian 
citizen— Manoel Floriano Correa de Bultn — of a 
valuable concession near Manaos. The United 
States consul at Para leports : " The property 
consisis of several thousand acres of ruliber and 
cocoa land, including immense belts situated on 
the banks of the rio Negro, rio Japura, and 
rio Branco." A copy of the terms of .agreement 
in Portuguese, has iieen filed in tlie Bureau of 
foreign commerce in Washin<;ton. The grant has 
been criticized by the Jouriutl do Voinmcrcio ot 
Manaos, as an alienation of sovereign rights.— 
India Rubber World. 
Fuller's Earth in the United States, — 
According to the Chicago Chronicle, there was 
recently discovered near the Ocklockonnee III ,'er. 
14 miles west of the city of Tallahassee, Flori la, 
what is believed by exoert.s to be the most wonder- 
fully pure vei'j of fuller s earth ever discovered 
in the world. This vein is said to yield, at the 
expenditure of very little labour, immense 
qua'!tities of this peculiar earth, which stands 
the 100 test— that is to say, that it is absolutely 
pure, there is no waste. Nearly all the mines 
of this kind of earth contain, besiiles the valuable 
commodity, rock, flint, gravel, sand, &e., but this 
deposit is entirely free of such substances. — 
British and Colonial Druggist, ^ng. 3. 
Thf. Bread Fhuit Tree' (Art ocarpus Inciaa), the 
Ficus Prolixa, and the Ficus Indica, which give 
a sap containing the elements of indiarubber, grow 
abundantly in Tahiti and its dependencies. In 18.50. 
rubber tree knowu under the names of Hevea 
Brasiliensis, Hevea Gia/aneiiais, Siphenia Elasfica, or 
Jatropha Elasfica, was introduced into Tahiti, and 
the results obtained are reported to have been ex- 
cellent. Nothing since, however, has since been done 
in the matter, although it is admitted that the pro- 
duction of rubber would add materially to the re-' 
sources and revenues of this country. The trees 
most suitable to the climate ot ''I'ahiti are alleged to 
be Hevea Brasiliensis and the Castilioa Elastica, whose 
seeds aie said to germinate naturally in the ground 
where they fall, and whose sap' coagulates best in 
the open air. — B. and C. Druiiqist. 
Electricity in Agricultore.— An associa- 
tion of farmers in Bavaria, accordina; to a writer 
in Feildens Magazine, are building large elec- 
trical works to supply power for agricultural 
use-'. The current is generated near the villatie 
of Schaftersheim, a distance of seven miles from 
the district of comsumptiou, and is supplied 
partly by sleam and partly by water power, 
l^roni there it is to be sent at a pressure of 
5,000 volts to the surroundins villages, where it 
will be employed for driving threshing machines, 
chaff cutters, bruising m.achines, &c. The motors 
used .are very simple and compact, so that they 
can easily be handled by farm hands. [f this 
experiment should prove successful, it is almost 
certain to be imitated in other portions of Ger- 
many, as the power used, according to the 
estimates, is far more economical than horse 
power or steam power in separate plants ; and 
there might be a very profitable market for such 
installations also in our own country. 
I. 
