. Jan. 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4^5 
while there is an ec[ually ready sale for the 
dairy produce. In the cheese department each 
student is allowed a day for making a cheese, wliich 
is examined by an inspector and marked whether 
good or bad. The last place visited was the 
FRUIT ORCHARD 
where a large variety of fruit is grown, a good 
portion of the ground l)eing under grapes. The 
fruit is preserved for the use of the College in 
Avinter. These are the principal things, wliich 
are taught in this institution, the benefit of 
which has already been felt in the Colony. 
Even in Australia the tendency is to over- 
populate the cities, and tlie Government are 
acting wisely in giving the younger generation 
the best instruction, so that they may go out 
to large tracts of country, which yet await cultiva- 
tion, and be able by scientific methods to obtain 
better anil quicker results than their forefathers, 
the pioneers in this country, did. On this farm, 
science is made to go- hand in hand with 
nature, and the results obtained have not been 
reaped on a ricli soil, but on land which no 
farmer would himself tackle. Visitors to the 
institution are always welcomed, and any one who 
intends starting in any branch of agriculture 
can obtain advice on the subject, and be told the 
best way of laying out the capital he has to spend. 
I drove back to Kichmond a quiet country 
town, shaded amid tlie trees, and caught the afier- 
noon train to Sydney. Away in the distance one 
could see the Blue Mountains, but we travelled 
over gently undulating ground, through park like 
country till Paramatta, the oldest town in Au.stra- 
lian with the old Governinert house, was reached. 
From here the suburbs begin and one was 
transposed in the short space of little over 
an hour from peaceful country scenes to the 
rush and bustle of city life. 
LIBEEIAN COFFEE ESTATES SALES. 
On Dec. 13, at Messrs. Powell & Co's auction 
rooms in Singapore, there was held an auction of 
six important Liberian Coffee Estates in the 
Malay States, belonging to the Malay Peninsula 
: Coffee Co., Ltd. and advertised in the Ceylon 
Observer. It is probably the most important offer 
of cofTee estates that has ever been made in the 
Straits, as the estates are all well-known, and 
they are all more or less in bearing. There was; 
a considerable attendance of people interested ini 
coffee and property, and after explanation of the 
conditions of sales bidding was started for 
Lot 1 at §1,000. It was sold for $3,600 to xVIr. 
Tunnicliffe, Batu Kainuning Estate, Sungei Ujong, 
has 117 acres of coffee just coming into bearing, 
and has 1,435 acres of forest in reserve. Bidding 
commenced at |2,000 and went slowly to $5,000 
and was knocked down to Mr. Jas. Millar. 
Klang Lands Estate, Selangor, is of 1,341 acres 
of which 183 is Liberian coffee, about a 
third of it over four years old. There are 
also para rubber trees and a large nur- 
sery. The bidding for this Estate commenced 
at "$5,000 and rose to $ll,2u0 to Mr. W, Smith, 
Welds Hill was started at 810,000 and went to 
$16,500 to Mr. Edlin. 
Weld's Hill Estate, just outside Kuala Lumpor,. 
is the well known old estate, with coffee varying 
from 17 years, and para rubber, some two years, 
and some ten years old. 
Eveleen Estate, also near Kuala Lunipor, is 99 
acres in area. The coffee is from 4 to 5 years 
old, and there are a number of fruit trees. 
Linsum and Silian, in Sungei Ujong, are alsO' 
well-known iiaving been under cultivation twenty 
years. The area is 1,697 acres; coffee in bearing 
covers 419 acres, and there are also pepper, sago, 
coconuts and 100 para rubber trees in full bearing. 
Bidding for Linsum and Silian Estate coininenceil 
at q;i5,000 and closed at $25,50U to Mr. R J (lunn. 
K unnning Estate is in Peiak and contains 5,973 
acres, part of it being subleased tor mining purpo- 
ses. There are inanagei's quartei s, livestock, &c. 
This estate was sold to AJr. T Scott for $40,000, 
Bulking Teas in India. — it appears that 
in India it would be on the whole advis- 
able if more teas were bulked on the spot 
instead of in London. In Ceylon factory- 
bulking has also been urged, but has been 
met VFitli the response that very often bulk- 
ing has Jiad to be done over ag.iin when 
the pttC'kages arrived in London. The remedy 
would seem easy enough, but, perhaps, it 
will be well to peruse some Indian advice 
on the subject. The Planters Gazette writes 
as follows: — "Not only are better prices 
realised .as a rule of teas that have 
been btdked in India, but loss of weight 
is very considerably avoided. Planters are 
aware that tea properly packed will gain, 
instead of lose, in value, if kept in its original 
package untouched, while it soon loses in 
flavour if it is disturbed by being turned out 
and re-packed. The reason why small con- 
cerns, belonging, it may be, to private pro- 
prietors who sell in (Calcutta, do not bulk, 
is because, if they waited for sufficient tea 
for a large break, the quality would be 
likely to suffer to a degree that would nul- 
lify any benefit to be derived from bulking. 
The interest of the proprietor of a small 
garden is concerned more in offering a tea 
with all its aroma and fragrance at perfection 
in Calcutta, than in considering how his tea 
will keep in England, after bulking in the 
London warehouses. The necessity for the 
gardens in India bulking their teas in their 
own factories, is becoming more, and more 
imperative, owing to the very large quantities 
that have to be "sampled and tasted. The 
work of tasting for the sales alone has grown 
so much that the powers of the buyers have 
been heavily strained to keep pace with it. 
Human nature cannot do impossibilities, so 
unless the teas are bulked, and the size of 
the breaks materially increased, there will 
very soon come a time when the buyers will 
be quite unable to look at the whole of the 
samples, much less to taste them.' 
Paris, the Cinematograph and Ceylon Tea. 
—In our issue of the 2l8t October lasn we put 
forward the sugsrestion that the cinematograph 
miglit \vell, with advantage, be employed fi.r ad- 
vertising Indian tea. That lectures illustrated 
with " living panoramic pictures " of every opera- 
tion connected with tea, from the veiy lirst start 
— the clearing of the heavy forest jungle or grass- 
land — to the time it is sold over tlie coiintei- ; oj-. 
in fact, drunk at the brealifast or " afternoon tea" 
table, would take immensely with middle classes 
and the proletariat, and prove one of the very 
best methods of advertising our teas we could pos- 
sibly adopt. We are glad to note thatour Ceylon 
brethren have promptly taken up the idea, and 
that the necessary stepsare being taken for I he repre- 
sentation of such views (representing Cci/lan tea), 
as we suggested, at the Paris Exhibiiion. The 
Thirty Committee has, in adopting our suggestion, 
proved itself far more go-ahead than <iur Imlian Tea 
Association in this city, which has made no move 
in the matter. — Indian Planters' Gazette, Dee. 9 
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