I^EB. 1, 1900.] THE TBOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
563 
Tel ^through those districts, aud on severnl occa- 
sions was obliged to fall back upon the native ba- 
zars for tea and never had any difficulty in get- 
ting it, but it was invariably Chinese, no Indian 
was obtainable. The snuff, for such it invariably 
looked like was the commonest of dust auu was 
being retailed at about Ee. 1-4 to Re. 1-S per pound. 
The pack ages was wooden, and weighed about an ounce 
and was sold at from 3 to 5 pice; and we are not presum- 
ing too much, we think, when we say that judging 
from the Customs entries, the same trade is still 
being carried on increasingly, and we think we need 
hard! 7 add profitably Does any Indian tea find 
ltd way into Ceylon ? We don't think so, but a 
good deal of Ceylon finds its away into India. 
Another year or two will see a tieavy strain on 
the London market, not so much from the increas- 
ing area in Assam and the Dooars, as extensions 
hare received a big check there ; but, from all we 
can gather, there must be a very large amount to 
deal with in the near future from Travancore, or, 
perhaps, a better term would be Southern India, 
and, if we could only lighten London of tj or 7 
millions of the lower class of tea during the next 
year or two, it would tend greatly to strengthen 
tha market, and there is, we hold, no reason why 
this should not be done ; but energetic measures 
must be introduced. Tea must he sold by the cup 
at a cheap rate, and small packets done up attractively 
must be alongside to tempt the drinker to invest. 
Shops should be established in the great fnirc, at 
places such as Benares, Lucknow, Agra, and Cawnpore; 
and the Brahmin should be euiisted to conduct 
these. Without some such vigorous methods the 
heathen Chinee will still continue to hold his own 
•uccessfuUy. A retail trade may not fall in with 
the views of our large Calcutta mercantile community, 
but whichever pays must rule the roost ; and 
we have no hesitation in saying, if the native 
is to be taught how to drink tea, and to pay for 
it, vigorous measures must be adopted, and, if 
these are introduced, the return on capital invested 
would be much greater than in some more high 
flown speculation. The trade would be a cash 
one, and there would be, or rather should be, no 
bad debts, and no expensive establishment to keep 
np for accounts. In fact, everything should be paid 
by commission, and worked on the cheapest of 
Ines, and if this were done there is no 
need tofear the leaalt.— Indian Planter's Gazette. 
SOIL EXHAUSTION 
BY J. L. THOMSON, TRAVELLING AGRICULTURAL 
INSTRUCTOR. 
All branches of Agriculture in Australia will have 
greatly advanced when the farmer shall have learned 
to treat the soil as he would a bank account. No 
one expects to draw money from a bank continually 
without paying in anything, for the time would 
come when the cashier would write across the face 
of a cheque •' No Funds," and it would be re- 
turned to the drawer dishonoured. And yet it is 
just as unreasonable to expect the soil to keep on, 
year after year, satisfy the heavy drafts that the 
farmer makes upon it. There is this diference, how- 
ever, between the soil and a bank. The bank gives 
no notice of the progressive exhaustion of the deposit. 
So long as a cheque or draft does not exceed the 
amount of the credit, the cashier pays it without 
a word of warning. It is not his business to caution 
the depositori-. The soil on the other hand warus 
the cultivator of its exhaustion by a decline, in the 
yield. The warning of fertility is plainly shown in 
the partial failure of crops. In the older wheat-t;row- 
ing arePcS this lesson is given on the lands long tilled, 
but still the resort to fertilising is generally post- 
poned. This is largely beca.use the Australian 
farmer rarely look upon his laud as a heritage to 
be transmitted to his children undiminished in fer- 
tility and productiveness. The farm in many parts 
of Australia is not commonly regarded as a perma- 
nent home tor the family and its descendants, as 
is done in the old country, but merely as land to 
be worked for all that can be got out of it, leav- 
ing posterity to shift for itself. 
i'hia view may be justified from the fact that poste- 
rity has done nothing for us. It certainly does 
appear that Australian posterity, at least in the 
abstract, will be left to " hustle " so far as this 
problem of fertilisation is concerned, A very little 
calculation would show that at prevailing prices for 
wheat there w uld be little or no profit" in growing 
it, if the fertility it takes from tha soil were to be 
restored by manuring in any form. So little live 
stock is kept on our wheat farms that the purchase) 
of commercial fertilisers would be the only meaea 
of restoring the plant-food taken away by the crops. 
The cost of such fertilisers is regarded as practi- 
cally prohibitory, so far as grain-raising is con- 
cerned, and so the present exhausting system 
continues. 
The prospect, of course, is rough for the futare, 
but the present attitude in this regard is virtually 
" let the future take care of itself." There are, 
however, many comparatively young farmers who 
will be compelled by the poverty or failure of crops 
to grapple for themselves with this question of 
fertilising, for it is one that cannot be put down. 
It is niere folly to ignore the fact of decline of 
fertility and pure ignorance to insist that the full 
productiveness of soil can bo kept up without re- 
placing the cosily phosphoric acid, potash and nitro- 
g -n that are taken away by the crops. The lesson 
of the situation is for the farmers to turn their 
attention to other crops than wheat, and to prac- 
tise some system of rotation. Much improvement 
may be brought about by dairy-farming i"a suitable 
districts with or without irrigation, but no great 
change is to be looked for until, in one way or 
another, the large farms are sub tividccf, and small 
farminr,' become, general, rather than the exception. 
The subject has many aspects and is entirely too coin. 
prehensive to be discussed adequxtelyin a sl^ r .avtide, 
—From the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wules. 
COCHIN MARKET. 
C. N. Oil.— The Euiopean Houses liavino; fic- 
cepted a few contracts caused ptiees to harden 
and rates advanced to R88 to R88-4 per candy at 
wliicli tigiires a good business has bjeii done mainly 
for prompt deliveiy. 
Com Yarn. — Continues unchanged. Advices 
of I he first public sale in the year held in Lon- 
don, on 12th uiiinio, were received here by the 
Overland Mail of the same date and we find the 
parcels offered chan^red hands at steady prices. 
RoPK Yarn.— Ditto. 
Coir Rope. — With lart;er arrivals prices have 
somewhat declined in London. Good Anjengo 
yarn ropes fetched only £20 per ton at the last 
public sale. 
Copra.— Rassi R52-S3 per candy .—Cochiii 
Argus, Feb. 3. 
COCONUT PLANTING ON N.-W. COAST. 
Mara\vii,a, Feb. 6. 
Weather and Crops.— We. in the Nortii- 
Western coast of the island, were not favoured 
with the showers of rain tliat fell last week in 
Colombo and even as far north as Nf\f;innlio. Tiie 
chilly, dewy niorninjis and the fiercely hot days 
indicate a period of dronsht. Tiiis is likely to 
seriously afiect coconut crops as we iia'i a failure 
of the N.-E. monsoon rains. This is ihe season 
of small crops, and, as a consequence, the price 
of coconuts and copra is risino;. The local desic- 
cating mills, however, have not rai-ed their rates 
for buying coconuts as yet. They vvill have to do 
it before long to keep their mills agoing. 
