588 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1900. 
for sale at the fail- which is held annually in February 
at Irbit. This Journey, although about 7 times as 
long in point of milr-age as the old direct caravan 
route, can be done in about -i months as agsinst 
eighteen by the other way, and it is of course much 
less expensive. The partial opening of the Siberian 
Railway has affected the trade route, and when there 
is through transit across Siberia from Vladivostock 
and possibly Port Aithur to Europe, the Russian 
Tea trade will probably be subjected to further re- 
arrangement of routes. 
Another recent development in connection with 
the Russian Tea trade has been that of the great 
Russian Volunteer Fleet in calling at Chinese ports 
and Ceylon, and carrying from them large quantities 
of Tea to Odessa for distribution to Moscow, Nijni 
Novgorod, and other points. 
Other most interesting trad.; routes are those for 
the supply of Persia, Turkestan and Afghanistan, 
partly through the Persian Gulf on to Meshed, and 
partly through the Black Sea to Trebizond and 
Tabreez. 
Note. — la the discussion following the paper, Pro- 
fessor Andreas Krassnow, from Kharkoff (Russia), 
expressed the opinion that the Tea plant must be 
indigenous, not to Assam only, but to the whole 
monsoon region of Eastern Asia, where it grows wild 
as far north a=i the islands of Southern Japan. Dr. 
Krassnow collected in many parts af the island of 
Shikoku in Japan, and in the environs of the town 
of Kochi, wild growing plants. They occur in the 
dense forests on the slopes of mountains, which have 
never been cultivated in the province of Japan, and 
are even now not thickly populated. Like the English 
in Assam, the Japanese are cutting down and felling 
the forests, but they are leaving the Tea plants to 
grow in the form of plantations of wild Tea, from 
the leaves of which they produce different kinds of 
Tea of inferior quality. Not only common Japanese 
Green Tea is prepared, but two or three inferior 
sorts, whose qualities resemble much the material 
from which the Chinese make their Brick Tea. 
The wild tea grows to a height from 3 to 5 feet, 
and the flowers are a little smaller than those of 
the cultivated form, but the leaves are not re-curved 
on the edges. In sorce forests the plant is very 
numerous, in others it occurs more rarely, and is 
found amongst other evergreen shrubs, growing in 
the shadow of Qucrais olabra, and similar trees, which 
largely make up the evergreen forests of Southern 
Japan. 
Dr. Krassnow believes that the Tea plant existed 
in China and Japan long before it was introduced in 
cultivated form, and that the peculiar properties of 
the China plant were produced, not by cultivation 
in a colder climate or on exhausted soil, but by the 
changes of climate which have taken place in Eastern 
Asia since the Tertiary Epoch. The period of cul- 
tivation of tea has been too short to viroduce the 
differences which exist between the Chinese and 
Assam plants, and many botanists consider them Oo 
be different species. It is well known that the Assam 
plant is frozen by temperatures which the China 
plant bears very well, and that the hybrids which are 
cultivated in hot climates, approach more to the 
Indian, and those in colder climates to the Chinese 
plant. The hybrids suffer from the cold winters in 
JSatoum, which the Chinese plants never do. On the 
other hand, China plants cultivated in hot climates 
never become so tall and never have such large leaves 
as the Indian. All these facts are stated by Professor 
Krassnow with more details in his book " On the 
Tea-producing Districts of Asia," bringing out the 
conclusion that the Tea plant since the remotest 
times formed two varieties — Assam and Chinese — 
the tirst growing wild in India, and the other occur- 
ing still wild in Southern Japan (and perhaps in 
Formosa) where they were discovered by aborigines 
ojter the introduction of the cultivated Joriii from the 
soulk-wenl. 
PLANTING COFFEE, BANANAS AND 
ORANGES. 
I send a diagram showing howl am planting out 
ten acres of Coffee, Bananas and Oran".;ep. If I am 
on the wrong tract I want those who have a better 
way to show wherin I ax wrong. The way to make 
this "Journal" more interesting is for those who 
engaged in Agriculture to write up what they are 
doing, and how they are doing it, and what success 
they are having. --In the multitude of consellors 
there is safety," you will find in Proveibs. So come 
on a "multitude" of you and let us help the edi- 
tors all we can. I am planting coffee six feet apart, 
bananas 12 feet, and oranges 24 feet. I have two 
men measuring and staking coffee for which 1 pay 
sixpence per 100, or six shillings per acre. Coffee 
at six feet square will take just 1,210 plants per 
acre. I have the coffee pits dug, and coffee planted 
by the day— as I do not care to have this part of 
the work rushed or caielessly done. But I do not 
feel satisfied unless I can get 3(J0 holes dug and that 
number of coffee plants put in for a shilling. Plant- 
ers know of Course that coffee just now is very 
low in the markets of the world, and one must there- 
fore have more work done for the same pay. The 
bananas I am planting at two shillings per 100. 
The labourer digs 100 holes,; he then gets 100 good 
large roots cut off the stalk close to the roots, and 
leaves the root-stump near the hole. My head man 
then inspects both the holes and roots, and if satis- 
factory he tells the men to go ahead and cover up. 
So I am planting bananas at less than a farthing 
a hill. Now comes my orange plants, sour stock, 
one year old from a nursery where they were planted 
one foot apart. The ground before planting the seed 
was dug— or forked 15 inches deep, and from this 
1 got as fine plants as any one could wish. These 
I am planting out 21 feet apart. The following 
diagram will explain, the o is coffee, x bananas, and 
*oranges. As the orange trees grow and shade the 
coffee it is my intention to cut out the banana 
trees, slice them up and dig them into the soil. 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 o 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
z 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
0 o 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
x 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
* 
* 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
x 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 0 
0 
It will be 
seen 
above 
that 
bananas are 
planted 
between every other row of coffee — each square of 
four coffee plants having a banana tree for shade 
— and at every fourth coffee tree there is an orange 
tree in the line. I have decided on this way of 
planting after a great amount of planing and figur- 
ing. If any of our readers have a better way by 
all means let us have it in the next " Journal.'' 
Many will say wat's the use of bothering with coffee 
now, it is so cheap. In reply I will say that I 
have seen coffee just where it is now three times 
since 1861, and between times I have sold at 136s. 
per cwt. Take my advice, plant Coffee, Bananas and 
Oranges, but idant cofce plants, not suple jack coffee 
