THE TROPICAL AGKICUI/j'UKIST. 
[Oct. 1, 1899. 
twelve inches long. A )aif,'er and a snuiUer 
size of green-tea bricks are aliso made at this 
factory, into •which the coar.se leaves and 
stems go entire, without grinding. One natu-- 
rally wonders that machinery is not employed for 
all these simple processes, and that some Yankee 
does not start a factory where a stream of tea- 
dust would go in at one end and rows of Inicks 
come out at the other ; but human lifeis so over- 
abundant in China that hand-labor is cheaper than 
any steam-driven machinery coolies' fooil worth 
less than engine coal. 
BLACK BRICK TEA. 
The black brick-tea for Mongolia and Siberia, 
and in fact almost the whole tea-supply of Rus- 
sia, used, long ago, to go from Hankow by boat 
for three hundreii miles up the Han lliver, was 
portaged across, and taken a distance up the 
Yellow Kiver, and then loaded on camels and car- 
ried across Shansi to Kiakhta, on tlie jSiberian 
frontier. The caravan trade trom Kiakhta and 
Kalgan to the Volga was the subject of negotia- 
tions by the embassy Peter the Great sent to the 
Emperor Kanghsi, and ever since there have con- 
tinued, winter and summer alike, the unending 
processions of camel trains back and forth across 
Siberia. Nijni-Novgorod was then the tea-market 
of Russia, and the water and land transportation 
across Siberia was so cliea]) that tea could be de- 
livered in Mijni-Novgoiod by carav.an more clieaply 
than by tea-steamers to European porls. The 
opening of the Suez Canal gradually moved the tea 
■ trade to Odessa ; the tea brick is no longer a unit 
of exchange at Nijni, and the great fair on the 
Volga lias lost its most picturesque feature with the 
vanishing of the camels and the great tea-caravans. 
When all the Russian tea came by caravan to 
!Nijiii, " caravan tea " had a deserved repute in 
Europe. About the time that the Russian tea trade 
shifted to Odessa, the name of " caravan tea " 
reached America, and dealers, not always informed 
themselves, played with the catching word. One 
is offered " Russian tea," and assured that " ca- 
ravan tea" is better than other teas, because a sea 
voyage spoils the flavor of tea. One must not 
inquire liow the tea crossed the Atlantic, evidently. 
If all leaf-teas were not sealed in air-tight lead 
eases, the sea air and ships'- hold odors could not 
taint them as unspeakably as the proximity of 
camel's vjool, pack-saddle coverings, and the be- 
longings of the filthj Mongol caravan-men on their 
three months' journey across Siberia. 
A FEW FIGURES. 
Hankow's trade statistics deal in large figures 
for the export of tea. In 1896 there went oat 
from that port 470,06.3 piculs, or something over 
sixty million pounds, of leaf-tea, and 434,107 piculs 
of brick-tea ; yet the tea trade has fallen off, and 
the figures are not so large as when the English 
were the great consumer?. 
^ 
CEYLON EBONY. 
DIOSPYROS Ebenum —Koeniq. 
(From the Tnfliait Forester for August.) 
The name Ceylon Ebony for D. Ebenum is 
not absolutely correct, for this species is found 
in Soutliern India, nor is it only Ceylon Dios- 
pyros which has a black heart-wood there being 
others such as D. ovalifolia, D. crumenata, 
D. Melanoxylou and D. oocurpa which furnish 
a certain amount of ebony. It is even not cer- 
tain wlieilier the .'-pecies will not liare to be 
subdivided into two on account of the varied 
arrangement of the fruit, whether solitary or in 
clusters in the axils of the leaves. It is how- 
ever convenient for me to use this name as it is 
used in the timber trade, and also because niy 
acquaintance with it is limited to Ceylon. 
Habit. — "Without going into botanical details 
it may be said that this is a large evergreen 
tree, attaining a girth of up to 14 feet. It has 
a ronghi.-^h bark of a dark colour which, in ex- 
posed situations, has a greyish tinge. The leaves 
are also dark and appear as if sprinkled over 
with fine cliarcoal dust. Several other speciet 
of Diosioyros possess very similar characteristics 
and it lequires a certain amount of experience 
to distinguish the species, especially saplings and 
young trees. 
DiSTRlDUTiON. — Ebony has almost the same 
range of distribution as satinwood as the annexed 
sketch map will show, but it is found more 
abundantly in the intermediate zone and in the 
south of the island it penetrates even into the 
moist zone. But it is most abundant in the 
dry zone and the richer forests are all in the 
Northern half of the island, especially in the East- 
ern portion of the North-Central Province. It 'is 
also well represented in the Northern and North- 
western Provinces. 
Soil. — The best ebony is found on rocky well- 
draineil .soil. It is at times found on soil con- 
taining a larger proportion of clay than satin- 
wood can endure but, generally speaking, it is 
found like satinwood on sandy loam with a good 
subsoil drainage. It is frequently found near 
watercourses, which are dry during a part of the 
year, but in swampy soil never. It differs in 
this respect from Diospyros Embryopteris 
which is frequently found near rivers, pools or 
tanks. 
Companion Species.— As I have stated before, 
satinwood is frequently a companion of ebony, 
as also Mimusops he.vandra, Nepjlielium Ion- 
ycnia, Gleniea seylanica, Diospyros ovali- 
foJia, D. cninienata, D. oocarpa, D. mon- 
fana, Vite.r (dtissima, Athizziaodoratissivia, 
Berrya AminontUa on the moister soils, and 
many others. I have never seen ebony growing 
pure and the proportion of this s))ecies to the 
7iiany others is always small. In the richer 
forests there may be 10 to 15 trees per acre 
or, taking the saplings into account, perhaps 
50 trees, but this percentage is high. I have 
only heard of one instance, in the Mannar Dis- 
trict, where there were 40 trees (exclusive of 
saplings) per acre. In an enumeration survey 
n\ade recently over 50 acres in a fairly rich ebony 
forest in the North-Western Province, 26 trees 
over 6 feet in girth, 65 from 4 feet 6 inches to 
6 teet and 120 trees between 3 feet and 4 feet 
6 inches were counted. This gives a total of 4 
trees over 3 feet in girth per acre. In average 
ebony forest, enumeration surveys both linear 
and by sample area made in the Northern, 
Eastern and North-Western Provinces, have 
shown that there are generally not more than 
3 to 4 trees over 9 inches in girth per acre. 
This is, no doubt, partly due to the extensive 
and wasteful fellings which were carried on for 
many years over the Ceylon forests, and partly 
to the absence of improvement fellings required 
for furthering the growth of the young trees and 
saplings. 
Sylvicultural Requirements. —Unlike satiu- 
wood, ebony does nob requiie much light for its 
