Nov. 1. 1899.] 'TSB TR<5PI€AL 
AGRIOULTt^RIST, 
The prospeccs for the current season in both India 
and Oeylon are very promising. As regards crop, 
quality, and price they are better than the last two 
years. In fact, 1898 may be set up as an example of 
a bad year, when adverse circumstances reached a 
climax — over production, lack of labour, and low prices 
combined against the planter. It may be safely antici- 
pated, thereforf, that an improvement will be manifest 
in the immediate future, although he would 
be a rash man who would prophesy that 
never will such another season as that of 
1898 be known. Too much importance must 
not be attached to the earthquake which has been 
reported from India. First impressions of a disaster 
of this kind are generally exaggerated. The earth- 
quake had only affected a very limited area — a few 
gardens in Darjeeling — and the effect upon the total 
Indian crop will be exceedingly slight. 
The tea industry is in a healthier condition at 
this moment than it has been for several years — 
healthier, indeed, than it was three years ago, in- 
vestors were rushing at every tea share they could 
tet. Tea companies have gone through the refining 
re of adversity, and have learned much from the 
experience. Profits are more carefully dealt with ; 
development and extension are not undertaken 
lightly, but with caution and prudence. The fear 
of over production has no solid foundation, for on 
the Continent of Europe, in America, in Australia, 
and in South Africa, there are markets for practi- 
cally limitless quantities of British tea, requiring 
only energetic and untiring work. In tea com- 
panies, we are convinced, may be found safe and 
profitable investments, but investors must, in these, 
as in all securities, exercise much caution. En- 
tirely new gardens should be shunned, for five or 
sis years must elapse, under the best circumstances, 
before paying returns can be made. But to well- 
established going concerns, with reserve estates, 
attention may, with advantage, be turned. — Investors' 
Guardian, Oct. 7. 
CEYLON TEA. 
The following advertisement appears in the New 
York Evening Post of Sept. 28 :— 
THANKS TO HEALTH AND ENERGY RESTORED 
BY THE USE OF 
CETIiON TEJl 
PRESENTED TO THE SHIP AT COLOMBO, OUR 
GREAT ADMIRAL ARRIVED TWO DAYS 
AHEAD OF TIME. IF YOU FEEL 
SLOW, TRY A CUP OF THIS 
PUIIE, MACHI]SE-MADE TEA. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING- 
The Geosraphical Distribution of the Tea 
Plant. — At the International Geographical Congress 
recently held at Berlin, Mr. J. M'Ewan read a paper 
\'on the geographical distribution of tlie tea plant. 
The subject should be popular among tea-drinkers in 
all countries, and the paper will doubtless be read 
with interest when it makes its appearance in three 
languages in the official report of the Congress. It 
is a curious and interesting fact that almost the 
entire production of tea is raissd within an area 
confined by 40 degrees of latitude and 50 degrees of 
longitude, and it is no less remarkable that the 
consumption shows itself to have strictly geographical 
limitations. Outside of the domestic consumption of 
China and Japan, regarding which no reliable statistics 
can be obtained, the principal tea-drinkers, according 
to Mr. M'Ewan's researches, are the people of Great 
Britain, Ireland, and of the British colonies, the 
people of tih<) United States mi th9se of Bnssia, 
EussiA AND Chinese Tea. — It is a difficult matter 
to change the taste of a nation even in regard to tea. 
Although Indian and Ceylon growers itAfe made 
strenuous pfforts to gain a market in Russia, prejudice 
in favour of Chinese tea is their strongest enemy. 
The Russian scoffs at innovation, and believes firmly 
in the tea which comes from China overland. Although 
in recent years much of the tea consumed in Russia 
has made the sea voyage from Chinese ports to Odesia 
on the Black Sea, Russians maintain that tea trans* 
ported by sea loses much in flavoui^andiquality, In 
consequence of this the largest tea merchants still 
continue to receive the bulk of their stock by the 
overland route. Early in January the caravans 
arrive in Tomsk. Between the first and the twentieth 
of the month 19,000 sledges fall of tea are expected, 
each sledge containing five packages of about 130 lb. 
each. The tea is packed not in cases but in stiffened 
oxhides. Five sledges are tied together and drawn 
by one horse. The last sledge of each group contains 
hay and barley, which the horse of the next group 
quietly munches as he travels. In consequence of this 
arrangement the caravans lose no time. Prom the 
Chinese tea-growing districts to Tomsk is a year's 
journey by caravan. 
Planting in Fiji.— -The Fiji Blue-iBook for the'^iist 
year is a record of great prosperity. The revenue was 
£94,164, or nearly £20,000 more than that of the 
previous year — on account mainly of a large increase 
in the Customs revenue — while the expenditure was 
£72,574, or, including extraordinary public works and 
a sum put aside for public works during the current 
y3ar, ^£87,594. The great increase ' in the OtIstomB 
revenue ia largely due to a new tariff which came into 
force during last year, but also in part to an increase 
in trade. The tariff, which was 10 per cent, md 
valorem on certain articles, is now l2i, and certain 
duty-free articles have become dutiable. The imports 
consist mainly of food-stuffs, clothing, hardware, and 
machinery, while the exports are sugar (about two» 
thirds of the whole), copra, and green fruit. The 
two latter will probably increase in the future, as 
large areas have been planted by the natives with 
fruit and coconuts. The population at the end of the 
year was estimated at 121,738, of which 3,927 were 
Europeans, 12,320 natives of India, and over 98,000 
Fijians. The death-rate amongst Europeans is ex- 
ceptionally low, the colony possessing " probably the 
most healthy tropical climate in the world." Beyond 
the municipal boundaries of Suva and Levuka there 
are few roads fit for wheeled traffic, though there are 
bridle paths everywhere. A properly metalled road 
from Suva to Rewa) thirteen miles, has been com- 
menced, but communication almost everywhere is by 
water, and this has lately been much increased and 
improved. There is room for considerable extensian 
in the cultivation of such products as coffee, cocoa, 
vanilla, limes, ginger, ckc, a market for all these 
existing in Australia, and the Assistant-Colonial 
Secretary says there is an opening in this direction 
in the colony for persons with the necessary ex- 
perience in tropical agriculture and a certain amount 
of capital. 
Planting on the Gold Coast.— Planting opera- 
tions on the Gold Coast receive useful enoouraeement 
from the Government. In the agricultural district, 
says a newly issued colonial report, the planters- take 
the cocoa and coffee to the Government botanical 
station, where the Government pays them half the 
supposed market value of the products, less a small 
sum to cover freight and other charges. The opcoa 
and coffee are then sent home, and when sold the 
balance of the money is paid to the producers. In 
this way not only do the planters receive full value 
for their articles, but they get enough money on the 
first sale to Government to enable them to continue 
their work, and they are therefore not compelled to 
sell to shippers on the coast at a lovi price or await 
the return of their money from the bankers in 
England. This is a plan that might be imitate^ 
elsewhere.— jffcnic Colonial Mail, Oct. 13. 
