463 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1903. 
bourhood is more or less affected, and has 
to rise with hLiii, to some extent, liovvever, 
unwilling it may be. 
In the old coffee days it was in the 
early niontlis of the year that coast 
advances were given out, and it might be 
well for the planters to make a united 
effort 710W, and by pressure and persuasion 
try to re open old labour channels, or ex- 
ploit new ones. Ceylon has ever been a 
favourite place with the Tamil labourer, and 
ths experience of the past has been that 
when recruiting has been energetically taken 
in hand, the Tamil has responded, Kan- 
ganies, we are told, are disinclined to recruic 
— the field is worked out they say- 
but it mnj be that the kangany, in many 
cases dislikes the trouble, finds new coast 
coolies unsatisfactory at first, and would 
rather trust to a new labour struggle and 
higher stakes. What the planters have got 
to do is to make their backs stiff, insist upon 
an infusion of fresh blood, and althongh 
there may be disappointment to some, tlie 
result will, on the wliole, we believe, prove 
satisfactory. Anyhow the bidding of planters 
.ngainst each other for the resident cooly is 
simply suicidal through that way there 
lies no avenue of hope. 
TEA IN THE CAUCASUS. 
INDIGENOUS TEA IN SIAM. 
(Translatkd from French Agricultural 
Magazines for ' Ceylon OBSiiRVJiu.") 
We lii'.ve l)efore us thrte such uiaj; zines. : the 
Journal d' Afjriculture Tropicale, published by 
M J Viiboiielievitch ; ihe Revue des Cultures 
Coloniales, by M A Milliel^ontingon, also 
published in Paris; and tlie Bulletin Eco- 
vomique, issued by the Goveinmeno of Indo- 
Chiiia at Hanoi. One is impressed by the earnesb 
attention devoted to tropical cultivation and the 
scientific study now given at head quarters. Take 
the last of the three named magazines, the Sep- 
tember number foi this year opens with an article 
on Tobacco in Indo-China, its Botanical Name and 
Characteristics, Native JVIethods of Culture, Har- 
vesting, Yield, Preparatiou and Treatment of tlie 
Dried Leaf, Markets' Values and its Distribution 
throughout Indo-Ohina. Then follows a Paper on a 
Practical Experiment in tlit- Cultivation of Kamie 
Fibre in Bengal, founded on a letter from M 
Karpelos about his expeiienees in the nonh of 
Behar. These articles are bo ih full of the iaforni- 
ation that an intendint; i)lanter requires. 
Tlie Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale is very 
carefully edited and contains nu r.erous brief 
articles upon Keeent Inventious in Mucliinery as 
well as j\gricultural Processes or Experiments. 
In the commercial portion, a notice of Tea in the 
Caucasus is of interest: — "The Report of the 
British Consul of Batoum of November, 1901, shows 
that the success of Tea in Caucasus has been 
ruuch exaggerated. In the district of Batoum 
receipts of Tea did nob exceed 13i tons. (29,24pib) 
It is only 10 yeai.s since the first tefi was 
planted. The only two important producers 
are, until now, the Domaines Imji^ri.iles at 
Chackva and the firm of Messrs. PopolF, well- 
known in the tea trade. In the former 164 hectares 
(390 acres are opened, hut only 42 5 acres; 
iu bearing, having given 9,784 kilos (21,5241b) tea. 
The plantation of Messrs. Popoff, only three years 
old, is of about 125 hectares (312 acres about) "with 
32 (80 acres) in bearing, having yielded 4,000 kilos 
(8,800 lb.) of tea, 9 francs r.he kilo (3s Sd per lb;) 
was the price of th'- best quaiitj\ .Ssed is being 
distributed to the peasants, but i he liiiures quoted 
are nothing to cause alarm to Ceylon or India. 
In a favourable ye ir four harvests may be made, 
beginning in the end of M^yaud the others at three 
weeks' interval." Another chapter on " Kapok or 
Vegetable Ivory," the vaiious sources of supply; 
trees used in Java and the value of Kapok as an 
industry. 
" Tea in lien Mai (Siamese Laos), regarded 
as a European enterprise," is the summary of 
information derived from the Report of the Vice- 
Consul of France at Nan. Tea trees grow spon- 
taneously and on large aieasin most of the higher 
valleys of the chain ihit divides the waters of 
the Meping and the Me-Lao and Woung, as well 
as between these rivers and tlie Md-Iiig and the 
Mekong. These forests of tea- trees, known as 
" Va Mieng" are cro|iped principally beiween the 
Me liig and the iVIe-Lao. But everywliere the 
natives, generally Klianious from the left bank of 
the river, crop only a small quantity, for which 
they pay a slight due by no means legal, to the 
village chiefs, or even to the first occupant who 
discovered this forest. Tha croppers content 
themselves with taking off the leaf stalks without 
any cultivation or attempt at multiplication. 
Four times a year they harvest the leaves, the 
first being the best ; the green leaves piled up in 
small packets and first of all boiled with steam, 
are left aside during two months and, after this 
maceration, 3old under name of " Mieng " for 
chewing, at about K12 the 60 kilos (135 lb.) 
The natives do not know that this same " Mieng," 
sold at this low price, is nothing else than tea. Even 
were tliey told this, they would not know how to 
prepare it But it is certain the rational cultiva- 
tion of these large groups of trees by an experienced 
colonist and with the help of head coolies imported 
from China or Ceylon, would give excellent results 
in a region so highly favoured by nature. This 
should be quite as remunerative as the cultivation 
of teak forests now so largely carried on there 
with European capital. It would have the ad- 
vantage of requiring smaller capital and of being 
carried on lor long periods, whereas the reserves of 
teak are being exhausted. Noihing would pre- 
vent a forester from carrying on the two cultiva- 
tions. Besides, the working with teak pre.-^ents 
this pecuiiaiity that althout,'h a large staff of 
workmen must be hired by the year, yet they are 
often inactive, while waiting for a temporary 
rise that; shall enable them to float some log.s in the 
small streams, and there may be a further idle 
time while waiting for the next storm. Such 
enforced leisure might be well utilised. 
The Bevue des Cultures Coloniales seems espe- 
cially valuable for its notices of recent Literature 
bearing on tropical cultivation wheclier Engli>h, 
French or German, though it also has long articles 
on plaatiuff subjects. 
CARDAMOM CULTIVATION AND 
CONSUMPTION 
The letter from Major Gordon Reeves 
affords a clear and straightforward explana- 
tion of the circumstances under which he 
has tiiken a lease of 45 acres of Crown 
land ; and we cannot see any ground for 
