500 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. I, 1901. 
The trouble iu Ohinii is likely to affect the uext 
eeaaoc's supply more than it has thi« year's, as the 
China season happened to be an eaily one. Tiie 
movement ot the crop was further accelerated by the 
troubles, and it was rushed down to the coast porta 
very early. The pinch will probably come next season, 
and no doubt the market here will respond before 
spring. 
The other sources of the world's supply of tea 
are Japan, which last season sent about forty-one 
million pounds to North America (the amount given 
in the Herald as the entire crop of 1888), and India 
and Ceylon. The crop in the latter two countries 
in 1888 was about one-third of the cx^antity now 
produced. 
India shipped about one hundred and eight million 
pounds last season and Ceylon about one hundred and 
thirty million pounds. Increa^^ing quantities of these 
teas are coming to both the United States and 
Canada, and if the troubles in China are not soon 
settled we may see the tea from that country en- 
tirely displaced here and to some extent in Russia. 
Whittall & Co. 
New York, Oct. 9th, 1900. 
MICA AND GRAPHITE IN ZULULAND, 
The foUowinf; are extracts from an official 
Geolog;ieal report, published in the Natal Mer- 
cury of Nov. 22 : — 
MICA. 
The n)ica properties in the Nkandhla dis^trict, 
near Fort \olland. are still held, but no work 
of importance lia.^ recently been done on them. 
GRAPHITE. 
It will be noticed that the prospecting areas 
in the Iinpetyini Forest, in Alfred County, liave 
been given up. The prospectors found they could 
do nothing with them. 
All officers returning from South Africa have 
received 61 days' leave. Beuter—\n Egyptian 
Gazette. 
NOTES FROM THE STRAITS. 
MR. STANLEY AKDEN'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS. 
Dec. 6th. 
Mr. Stanley Arden, recently appointed Superin- 
tendent of Government Experimental Plantations 
in the Federated Malay States, who stayed a 
month in Ceylon (chiefly at Peradeniya) on his 
way out to the Straits, writes as follows to a friend 
in Ceylon:—" Since niy arrival, niy time has been 
taken up with travelling in this and the neigh- 
bouring states, so as to gain a knowledge of tlie 
chief requirements of local agriculture. Every- 
where I have been, coffee is by fai the largest crop 
grown. Its cultivation, however, is being gradually 
abandoned, not by any means on account of 
disease, but because of low-prices. Many planters 
go in largely for rubber planting, which with coco- 
nut cultivation is well suited to large portions of 
land here. In manycasesrubberfl'e?;e« and coconuts 
may be seen planted among the coffee, thus oust- 
ing the latter as did cinchona and tea in Ceylon. 
Tea would tio doubt grow well here on the higher 
lands, but evidently the present price of labour 
would not make its cultivation profitable. The 
Agricultural labourers are nearly all Tamils im- 
ported from India, the natives being quite in the 
shade and devote their time to fishing, boating and 
other indolent pursuits. The Chinese, who are 
emijloyed almost exclusively on the tin mines, form 
by far the largest portion of the population. Tin- 
mining is at present the chief soiirce of revenue. 
I was struck with the excellency of the roads 
liero, which are almost everywhere like cycle 
tracks. In some place-s they are metalled with 
marble, a luxury which not many countries can 
boast of. The railways are also good, though at 
present rather disconnected, b-ing in sections 
which are sometimes separated by lagoons, ravi- 
nes, etc., over which one has to cross in a boat 
or otherwise to join a train on the opposite side. 
In other cases a long gharry ride is necessary 
from one station to the next. The duiian fruit 
is now in season, and its ettluvia seefns to 
pervade everywhere." 
PLANTING NOTES. 
A Floral Display— of a striking char- 
acter—is to be seen at present on the very 
fine specimen of Alstonia scholarin in Canella 
Villa, Turret Road. The tree for height 
and general appearance is one of the hand- 
somest in Colombo, and its crown and 
higher sides today have been one mass of 
greenish-white flowers, highly odoriferous 
and not at all unpleasant. There ought to 
be a rich crop of seed after so much blossom. 
The Alstonia scholaris is couJited among the 
rubber-yielding trees : but Trimen does not 
i-efer to this. Here is what he says in his 
•' Flora " of Ceylon : — 
Lowcountry up to 3,000 ft. ; common. Fl. 
April ; greenish-white. In the Eastern Tropics 
generally. The follicles hang in pendulous 
clusters, and the whole iriflor. falls together. 
The wood is very light and soft, pale yellowish- 
white ; its principal use is for coffins. The bark 
is a valuable stringent tonic, much used in fevers ; 
it is an official drug in the Indian Pharmacopoeia. 
The explanation of the name is as follows : — 
Charles Alston was Professor of Botany in 
Edinburgh University from 1719 till his death 
in 1760. The Ligiium scholare of Rumphius, the 
light wood being used to make 'slates' for 
school children. 
The Theory of Manuring.— Plants required 
about a dozen chemical elements for their healthy 
nourishment, but in practice it is only necessary 
to supply three or four of these in order to make 
up for the requirements of ordinary crops. The 
plant food constituents in which soils are mast 
deficient are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, 
and it is these which it is the anu of the farmer to 
supply in such manures as he uses from year to 
year. The other food constituents required by 
plants, and including magnesia, lime, iron, chlo- 
rine, are usually present iu most soils insufficient 
quantity to supply the reqitirements of the plants 
growing therein. It is different, however, with 
the nitrogen and phosphoric acid and potash. 
Analysis may show all or some of these to be 
present in fairly large quantity, but, says the 
Farmers' Gazette, the form or condition in which 
they exist is such that they are of no practical 
value to the plane because of the lattei's inability 
to assimilate them. The object of applying 
manure, therefore, is to supply these constituents 
in a form in which the plants can soon take 
advantage of them. The proportion in which these 
ingredients are lequired in the soil i.'=', after all, 
but very small, as is shown by the fact that a 
ton of farmyard manure supplies only from 9 to 
10 or 12 lb. of nitrogen, about the same quantity 
ot potash, and only from 5 to 7 or 8 lb of phos- 
phoric acid.— Journal of Horticulture, 
