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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aug. 1, 1902. 
FRESH- WATER SHELL PEAUL-BUTTONS. 
During the last eight years the fresh-water shell 
pearl-button industry has developed in a greater 
degree than any other branch of button manufaoturing. 
The fresh-water shell pearl-button industry did not 
exist in 1890, but since then wast quantities of mussel 
shells, formerly deemed vahreless, have been taken 
from the Missiesipi river and made the source of a 
revenue to the neople of the states of Iowa and 
Illinois. In 189i this country imported |100,000 
worth of pearl or shell buttons. This sura was added 
to in 1892, when imports were valued at §292, 332, but 
the next year, 1893, brought a slight decline, the values 
for imports for that year amounting to .'^275,216. In 
1894 there was a remarkable falling-ofi in taking from 
oversea, the imports being valued at only $33,284. 
Biit in 1895 the loss of the previous year was entirely 
regained, imports being worth 1f375,886, the largest 
fijures reached during the decade 189L-1900. From 
1895 down to 1900 the value of such imports steadily 
dwindled, until in the latter year they a-mounted to 
only $36,262. In 3900 the output of fresh-water 
shell pearl-buttons amounted to 4,308.584 gross, valued 
at 1,176, 285, and the production of ocean psarl- 
buttons was 4,049,452 gross, valued at $1,951,558 ; the 
respective items representing 20'3 per cent and 19 
per cent of the entire button output of the country, 
which in 1900 amounted to 21,254,018 gross, valued 
at $6,467,373. The average price per gross received 
in 1900 for fresh-water pearl-buttons was 27 cents, 
as against 48 cents for ocean pearls. Photo and 
celluloid buttons brought in 1900 an average of 74 
cents a gross, while bone and vegetable ivory buttons 
fetched 46 cents and 43 cents the gross respectively. 
Here it should be noted that United States Conaul- 
General Jussen, in a report dated December 30, 1887, re- 
marked ''the manufacture of pearl buttons is not an in- 
dustry of theUniled States and probablv never will be." 
But on April 29th, 1898, Donsul-General Hurst, 
writing apropos of the same subject (our imports of 
Austrian-made pearl buttons), noted that '' the 
pearl-button industj'y of Austria-Hungary, which 
in former 5 ears occupied a prominent pi ice among 
the flourishing industries of the monarchy, has 
dwindled of late to such an insignificant figure that 
pearl buttons can no longer be regarded as one of 
the principal 8,rtioles of export to the United 
States, This may be attributed to the development 
of the industry in the United States." Nevertheless, 
by 1900 the making of these buttons constituted 
the second most important branch of the general 
indusry. To Mr J F Boepple, of Muscatine, Iowa, 
belongs the credit of having started the industry 
in the United States, which he did in 1891. A few 
years ago mussel shells were delivered at the 
faotsories in Iowa and Illinois at about fiftj to sixty 
cents per one hundred pound, but by February, 
1893. prices averaged $18 to $20 tie ton. In July 
of the same year, however, ihey were selling at 
thirty cents per one hundred pounds. The cheapest 
grade of ocean shells are the Panama, which sell at 
ten and half cents per ^ponnA.—Bmdstreets' . 
INDIAN GREEN TEA. PRICES. 
The sale of Indian Green Tea at last JFriday's 
auction deserves special mention. Some 67 
chests of uncoloured £;reen tea made on the 
Druramond Deane process at IManabarie Estate, 
Dooars, were put up and sold at tlie followincj very 
decent prices : No. 1 or youii;^ liyson, 11 chests, 
6-3. do, 11 chests. 6-4. No. 2 or hyson No. 1, 
chests, 5 .3. No. 3 or hyson No. 2, 21 chests, 4-6. 
The above prices for green tea at last Calcutta 
sale conipaie very well with the piicea realized 
for the majority of invoices of black teas offer- 
ing at the same sale, and we are informed that 
there is no special difficulty for gardens now pro- 
ducing black teas of ordinary description, whicli 
now sell very low owing to the glutted market for 
such, to make green tea which will sell at better 
rates than those procurable for common blacks 
on the depressed market. Most leaf will make 
decent greerj tea; there is no fermentation in 
the process to give different classes of leaf a 
chance to develop in difisrent way.<i. — Indian 
Gardening cf- Planting, July 3- 
« 
PLANTING NOTES. 
The Rubbeb Bxploitinq Companies. — The work of 
organisation ot the Oongo and Sangha Develop^ient 
Co., mentio;ied in the last India Euhhev World as 
having been incorporated in New Jersey to acquire 
the concession of the Societc de la Sangha Equato- 
riale, in the French Congo, has beeni in progress 
during the past month, but as yet no further details 
have become available for publication. Meanwhile, 
the promoters of the company have been in receipt 
of samples of rubber produced by the concesxionaire 
company in Africa, which are regarded as the most 
at ractive rubber froa that continent ever seen in 
New York. — India Biibher fforld, June 1. 
OoMPToiR Colonial Phancais Bankrupt. — The 
Comptoir Colonial Piancais was adjudged bankrupt by 
the tribunal de commerce de la Seine, Paris, in a 
decree dated April 7, 1902 This is a joint stock 
company constituted in Paris in May, 1899, with 
9,000,000 francs capital, for objects of colonisation 
and commerce, and particularly the exploitation of 
Caoutchouc. With headquarters in Paris, at ru? des 
Petittes Bcuries, 54, the company conducted trading 
operations at Para and Manaos, Brazil; stations on 
both sides of the Rio Javy, in Bi-azil and Peru ; at 
Conakry {French GuiDea\ and St. Louis (Senegal), 
West Africa. — India Rubber World, June 1. 
MosQiJiTO-UuN'TiNG— has had marvellous effects 
in Cuba. Yellow fever and malaria arc disappear- 
ing, and the " Pearl of the Antilles" is now tit for 
for an Anglo Saxon population. In October, 1900, 
there were 74 deaths and no cases, Dr Grogas 
of the United States Army, writes : — " The 
disappearance of yellow fever is, I think, almost 
altogether due to the killintr of the infected 
mosquitoes at the infected point. We do this by 
burning pyrethrum powder in the infected house 
and all the neighbouring houses. It has been 
extremely gratifying to see how promptly the 
focus of infection is stamped out in this way." 
Sanitation is being carried out energetically in 
Cuba all round, and in a few years the invasion of 
the American army into Cuba will have saved 
more lives than it cost," — Australian paper. 
Tea and our Guests.— We are heartily glad 
to learn that the suggestion made by the 
Ceylon Observer' (June 24th) tliat a present of 
tea should be made to each of the Boer prison- 
ers has been taken up by the Ceylon Planters' 
Association and that that body had, through 
Messrs. Crosfield, Lampard & Co., presented 
a 5-lb. box of tea to each of those who sailed 
by the ss. "Templemore" early this week. As 
the subject is one which is to be discussed 
by the "Thirty Committee" in a few days 
we hope to see the step imitated in every 
case where the prisoners return direct to 
South Africa— though as yet the firm who 
acted in this case have had no further insti'uc- 
tions. Tne writer of the following lament will, 
or one, be gratified : — 
"Sid to read how the first lot of Boers — and 
the loyalest— got away ; and a good advertise- 
ment of tea lost. Can nothing be done even now 2 
I shall gladly give my mite, either in kind OJ in 
«a3h to a Fuud," 
