52'B ■ X&E TEOPICAL AGElCULTtJKlST. 2, 1903. 
for the general welfare of the tea industry will not 
be leit to the empty echo of their appeals. It may 
be premature yet to write that nothiug is likely to 
result. Those who are prepared to act must wait a 
litlla longer before finally deciding that their 
efforts are iu vain, but it wouid have bsea 
enoouiaging at least if some enthusiasm could be 
traced in favour of a live movement towards unani- 
mity and a practical plan of campaign. The opera- 
tion of crying in the wilderness is disheartening, and 
is calculated to lead to the conclusion, which we 
trust is not yet completely justified, that any at- 
tempt to bind the interests of tea growers which may 
conflict in minor matters but should be identical in 
the main, is doomed to failure. 
While the BL'itish-a;rown tea industry is undar a cloud 
because cf over-prcduction and olher causes reports 
are received of a threatened extension of tea growing 
in lands when the experiment will he new. Texas 
will make an attempt, and we hear also that M Prud- 
homme, Director of Agiioulture in 
MADAGASCAR 
believes that tea can be cultivated in almost the whole 
of the island, but especially on the East Coast, which 
is moist and rainy. There may be some slips bet- 
ween the '"np and the attempt to fill it with tea from 
Texas and Madagaaoar, bnt it shows the keen desire 
extiibited oa all sides to cultivcite tea where climatic 
conditions render it possible. 
Wilt) reference to the 
PROPOSED TEA CULTIVATION IN TEXA.S 
the " S i,n Antonio Express " says :— J H Kinsler, re- 
presentative of the Department of As;riculture, wlo 
has been iuvestigetiog the adaptability of the soil 
of Eastern Texas to the cultivation of tea, has 
returned to Washington. The Department of Agri- 
culture will put in an experimental farm for tea. 
Just where the experiments will be conducted 
is not known. The citizens of Nacogdoches have 
formed a stock company recently for the purpose of 
furnishing to the Government the land and help and 
building necessary to experiment with the growing 
and curing tobaaoo. Something wa? said at that 
meeting about tea, bnt no action was taken. Wher- 
ever the Government believes the te\ farm should be 
placed, there is little doubt that the citizens will get 
togsther the necessary funds to provide the lands. 
THE JAPAN TEA COMPANIES 
are reported to be forming a combine consisting of 
the following firms, viz : The Kyusu Tea Export Co.j 
the N igasaki Brick Tea Mannfaoturing Company, the 
Fnknoka Tea Manufacturing Company, of Fukaoka, 
and the Higo Tea Manufacturing Company, of Kuma- 
toto. The aim of the combined companies is to ex- 
tend the business of tea export into Siberia, The 
agreement that has been entered into sets forth 
that the three last named companies shall procure 
their tea from Kyushu Tea Export Company, which 
will undertake the actual business of exporting for 
the combination. 
INDIAN TEA IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
In his new book, " Across Coveted Laud," just 
published by Maomillan, Mr A H Savage Lander, 
referring to Seistan, the half way hoasebetween Qaetta, 
in British India, and Meshed, in Persia, says that 
a greatly developed Indian tea trade will, in all prob- 
ability, pass throngh it some day, MrLandor, in his 
intetestirg chapter on this subject, believes that only 
an understanding with Raasia is needed to pro- 
cure for Indian teas a most profitable market, not 
merely in central and Western Asia, but all over 
Europe. 
TEA IN CANADA. 
Whatever scepiical persons may have thought a 
(short time ago, it is evident that British grov.'n greec 
tea have secnred a permanent footing npon the 
market, Hays the " Canadian Grocer." Of course, 
(iaeir use ia very emaU when tUe qnautities of Cbina 
and Japan greens that are anntially consumed are 
taken into account, but the fact that their consnmptioa 
is steadily increasing, aod that they are now figaringin 
the statistics which are from time to time issued in re- 
gard to tea is evidence of this. A return recently issued, 
giving the distribntion of green tea from Jannaiy 
Ist to the end of September, shows that there has 
been a substantial increase over the same period last 
year. The quantity exported to all countries was 
637,2241b, while this year for the same period the 
quantity was 1,593.003 lb. In 1901, Russia took no 
Ceylon green tea, but this year she took 106,435 lb. 
Africa also appeared tor the first time as a consumer 
of Ceylon greens. Australia and China on the 
other hand, while they took small quantities 
last year did not take any this year during the 
period in question. Our readers are, no donb't, 
mostly interested in the figures relating to the 
quantities exported to this continent. These 
show that while for the nine months last 
year the quantity was 457,982 lb this year for the same 
period it was 993,970 lb, an increase of about 117 per 
cent. Our own trade returns giving the imports of 
green tea into Canada show that for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1901, we took 81,574 lb of Indian and 
335,815 lb of Ceylon green. This year, however, the 
figures were 71,466 lb of Indian green and 523,480 lb of 
Ceylon green tea. The dearneis and scarcity of China 
and Japan green teas have, no doubt, niaterially 
added to the consumption of British grown green teas 
on this continent, but, of course, to what extent 
cannot be estimated. Whatever may be the causes, 
the fact remains that the consumption is increasing, 
and not only in America, but elsewhere. — H, and C. 
Mail, Dec, 12. 
AN AERIAL ROPEWAY IN SOUTHERN 
INDIA. 
BY L. DAVIDSON. 
The native State of Travancore pays an annual 
tribute to Britain of £80,000, and has a population of 
about 2,.500,000. It occupies a strip of land of 6,780 
square miles on the extreme south-west of India, 
and Cape Comorin ia situated at its southern extre- 
mity. From the sea coast, which forms the western 
limit of this native state, the land rises eastward to 
the summit of the range of bills which, running 
almost parallel to the coast, separate Travancore from 
British Territory. On the eastern, or British, side 
these hills are too steep for railway — and iu many 
places for road— construction, but on ihem are large 
areas of rich land, which are to some extent cultivated 
with very profitable results. The greatest difficulty 
attending their development lies in easy and cheap 
means of communication, for the transport of labour 
and food to the estates, and of the prodace to the 
lower laud, where it finds a market. 
An example of how this difficulty has been over- 
come on one large estate is of considerable interest 
It is located at a point where the rise from the plains to 
the cliffs at the top of the " ghaut " is unasaally steep 
and rugged, iu some parts there being an almost 
perpendicular face of rock from 1,000 feet to 1,500 
feet in height ; below this are several thousand feet 
of steep, rugged grass land, sparsely dotted with trees 
and broken up with innumerable ravines. The crest 
of this ridge is 6,000 feet or more in elevatiob, and 
the plflins at the foot are about 1,200 feet above sea 
level, so that there is the extraordinary rise of nearly 
5,000 feet in an average horizontal distance of aboai 
five or six miles. The eastern side is British territory, 
and very dry, much cultivation being done with the 
aid of wells, though the recent completion of the 
Periya-aar irrigation works, which comprise a dam 
in one of the valleys on the Travancore side of the 
range, with a "bund" 150 feet deep, and a tunnel 
through the hills to the dry British side of the country, 
enables 9, large tract of land to be irrigate^ wbicb 
