556 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. ], 1901. 
EXTENSIVE COCONUT PLANTING IN 
THE MALAY STATES. 
Messis, Price, Boustead & Co., of London, wlio 
have taken up 5,000 acres of land at Kuala 
Paharigfor coconut planting, have had a large 
area cleared and nurseries laid for 20,000 plants. 
• — Perak Pioneer, Jan. 3rd. 
THE PaVAL CLAIMS OF TEA CHFS TS. 
The following is the full text of the letter ad- 
dressed by the Tea-buyeis' Association, London, 
to the Indian*Tea Association, Loudon, relating to 
Patent Tea Boxes :— 
I am instructed by my committee to call the atte n- 
tion of your Committee to the very undesirable 
packages iu which Indiaa aud Ueylon teas are being 
packed. 
They believe that arrangements are now being, or 
are about to be, made by the gardens for next season's 
crop, and they feel that now is the time to put 
on record their opinion as to the most desirable 
package. 
No doubt merchants are entitled to pack their teas iu 
any kind of package they like but, nevertheless, my 
Committee think that buyers are entitled to say what 
in their opinion is the most suitable. 
At present there are several kinds of package in use, 
viz , wooden cheats with leaden linings, Venesta chests, 
Colinda chests, Bsma Colindn. chests, and Acme metal 
and Acme veneer chests. There may be others. Of 
these mentioned my Committee are of opinion that 
the old wooden chest, with a good le«id lining, is the 
best. None of the others are free from serious ob- 
'ection. Metal chests, they consider, are the most 
unsatisfactory. It is a well-known fact that metal is 
a good conductor of heat and cold, and tea packed in 
metal chests is subject to every change of tempera- 
ture. There is a certain condensation on the meta 
fit times which tends to give the tea a weathery 
flavour. 
The tops and bottoms of these metal chests are 
very easily knocked out and; very frequently, buyers 
find several pounds of tea wasted in their vans. 
Neither are they good for repacking, and they cannot 
be cut down, or made smaller. 
The Acme Veneer chest has, my Committee believe, 
been condemned, and will not be used after this season, 
but they understand those who are using it at present 
propose usine the Acme metal chest instead. 
The Venesta, Colinda, and Esma Colinda are very 
much alike, being made of three Piywood and having 
a thin lead lining. They are inucb too weak, and are 
easily broken and punctured. If they were made of 
stouter material aud stiffened at the corners with 
battens inside, they would bo much better. The leads 
used are frequently so thin, as to be of no protection, 
and my Committee are confident that the interests of 
the importers are considerably damaged by the use of 
such. 
The reason why merchania are rising these patent 
packages is, my Committee believe, because of the 
difficulty of getting wood ; but they are assured that 
an unlimited supply can be|obtained from Sweden, and 
it would cost no more than the patent packages. 
I therefore desire to reiterate that the most satis- 
factory package is the old wooden chest with suffi- 
ciently thick 1 ad lining, and some nienibers of this 
Association have informed the Committee that they 
will not buy tea packed in any patent package, if they 
can possibly avoid it.— (Signed) J A Brown, Secretary. 
UNITED STATES TEA EXPERIMENT. 
For three-quarters of a century, attempts have 
been made to make tea-growmg a profitable industry 
ia the United States. At the South Carolina Experi- 
ment Station, Doctor Shephard is endeavouring to 
utilize the labor of idle colored folk, including 
children, with fair success. In his annual report to 
Congress, Secretary of Agriculture spates that the 
experiments so far conducted hiive shown that tea 
may be produced iu the Onited states in two ways : 
First, by families in their gardens, as was demon- 
strated years ago to be r-ntirely feasible ; second, on a 
commercial scale, after the manner followed by the 
British East Indian tea establishments and the beet- 
sagar industry. 
In the future special attention will be given to 
manufacture of pure green ten. This su' jfct is now 
claiming the atteution of both inventors and plan- 
ters in the British Colonies, as they begin to realize 
the hopelessness of bringing American tea drinkers 
to use the black tea instead of the green. Tlie manu- 
facture of green tea in the United States can be 
made successful only by the invention of machinery 
which shall take the place of expensive h uid labor 
and prevent the waste which accompanies the latter. 
The questions are all being investigated by the De- 
partment, and, in addition, it is giving special atten- 
tion to a study of the conditions in v^iiious parts of 
the South, with reference to determining the loca- 
lities where tea can be grown to best advantage. 
Expe-rinients have been inaugurated by some of the 
experiment stations, and plants distributed with a 
view of putting the work on a substantial basis. 
Much need is felt for young men capable of taking 
up this important problem, aud it would be well 
for the agricultural colleges of the South to bear this 
matter iu miud. — American Grocer. Dec. 12. 
« 
GOOD WISHES FROM A PLNTER AT 
HOME. 
Glasgow, Dec. 6.— I see by the weekly 
Observer which reached me a couple of 
days ago, that yoii have been celebrating 
your 40th year of work in Ceylon, and that 
.appreciative notices have appeared in the 
local press. I am not a whit l)ehind anyone 
in my high estimate of the value of these 
services, and though late in the day would 
desire to add my voice to the general acclaim. 
A lot of the time yon have been in the 
island I also cover, and all during that 
period I have always held that the Observer 
whose, free public life-work is most prominent 
has been consistently a high-class paper — 
with a conductor that had a conscience. 
May you have many more years ahead of 
you to continue your good work for the public 
weal, and may the pubhc appreciate it in the 
form of supporting the journal— as it ought 
to do. 
SPORT IN THE SOUDAN. 
NOTABLE HUNTERS GOING OUT AFTER BIG GAME. 
Paris, Dec. 28. Now that the Soudanese Gov- 
ernment hare afforded facilities for transport to 
Khartoum, several noted sportsmen are preparing 
expeditions to hunt and shoot over the territory 
bordering th.e Vv liite and Blue Nile. Big game such 
as eleph;ints, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes are plenti- 
ful in this region, and French sjiortsmen are keen 
on being among the first in the field. One notable 
.«portsnian, Prince Peter of Arenberg, [who cai«e 
tJ Ceylon on a shooting trip a little over a year 
ago —Ed. CO.] has already .arranged to go out fo 
the Soudan with several friends and proposes 
starting inunediai;ely for Cairo.— i)ai?2/ JExpress, 
