May 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUPJST. 
789 
to be manufactured iiiespective of quality or price to 
be obtained. 
CaiJital haH been going for the Rhoni Tea Co-, now 
in liquidation, in its own lovable style. We do not 
know if any good is to te done by the " screamer ' 
style of writing against a company which is admittedly 
down and is now trying only to pull a few rupees out 
of the wreck for its shareholders by the sale of its 
property ; but at the same time we do not commit 
ourselves to sayinjj that the object of the paragraph 
was to do good to any one. The garden will be sold 
to the highest bidder by Messrs. IMackenzie Lyall & 
Co., on the 16th instant. The total grant is 4,830 acres 
of which 1,470 is under tea. Estimate for ensuing 
Beason 6,000 maunds. 
We may here note an attempt that is to be made by 
Mr. Bussell Pjmm, brother of the well-known book- 
maker, to push Darjeeling teas as such in London. — 
Indian Sportsman., April 8. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Tea and Coffee in Amekica. — Although the people 
of the United States are not large consumers uf tea, 
the representatives of the Indian and Ceylon tra- 
plantei-3 have yet considerable scope for activity, for 
China last year supplied 44'4 per cent, of the total 
imports of tea into the United States. Perhaps when 
the art of judicious blending with China is thoroughly 
understood, and the advantages from the point of 
view of purity which Indian and Ceylon tea possess, 
as compaied with China, make a deeper impress upon 
public opinion, business will develop more rapidly. 
The Americans arc, on the whole, coffee drinkers, and 
the consumption of coffee was never larger than at 
f resent, although less than 4.4 per cent, comes from 
ndia and Ceylon. The United .States Government's 
official record of Imports for the calendar year 1898 
show gross imports of 804,250,988 lb.; exports, 23,231,141 
lb.; leaving net imports of 781,019,847 lb., against 
787,501,585 lb, in 1897,621,429,(564 lb. in 1S96. This 
shows an average annual net import for three 
years, which practically represents consumption, of 
730,003.6.32 lb., or over ten pounds ptr capita. Of ihe 
total imports of coffee 75.6 per cent came from Brazil, 
20 per cent, from the West Indies and other South 
American countries (except Brazil). 
The " Magnificent Tea Industry." — This pamphlet 
while attacking the policy of the Indian Government, 
pats the Indian tea planter on the back. It says : It 
would be far better for the Indian Government to 
spend part of its present surplus in teaching its sub- 
jects how to grow an improved stock of sugar 
cane and how to extract and manufacture the sugar by 
scientific methods. It is by means of scientific cultiva- 
tion and scientific manufacture that the magnificent 
tea industry of India has been built up, and by the 
same means India could quickly cri a';e a sugar indus- 
try that no other country could rival. Instead of 
helping in the development of such an industry 
Lord George Hamilton proposes to throw India back 
upin methods of sugar production that ware already 
ancient when the Honourable East India Company 
first received its charter from Queen Elizabeth." 
Planting Prospects in New Guinea. — At a meeting 
of the Royal Colonial Institute, held on Tuesday night 
at tho Hotel Metropole, Sir H. W. Norman presiding, 
a paper was read by Sir W. Mecgregor {late Lieut.- 
Governor of Jiritish New Guinea) on the prospects of 
the Colony. Sir William said that peace and tran- 
quillity had been established over largo areas of the 
country, and that some of these extensive stretches 
of land could be utilised for industrial purposes. As 
regarded cultivation, perhaps tho most promising un- 
dertaking would be the development of rubbor-producing 
trees and vines. There are several trees and plants 
indigenous to the country that produced a high-claaa 
article in this lino. Tho area of land that could be 
utilised for this purpose was oxtonsivo. Tho land sui- 
table forgrowing sugar cane was not likely to bo turned 
though the sugar cane in a great many varieties was 
indigenous to the country. There were numerous hills 
and mountain slopes suitable for the production of tea, 
coffee, and articles of that kind. With a rainfall of 
about 37 in. in the central district to 120 in. in some 
others; and with altitudes from sea level to 1.3,000ft.; 
and with almost all sorts of soil, it was mauifest that 
in a colony lying between five and eleven degrees south 
of the equator a verjr great variety of articles could be 
grown. Land had been offered at cheap rates, but 
with small results. — H. and C. Mail, March 30. 
Ceylon Tea on the Continent: Mr. 
Kogivue's Wokk.— a letter of the highest 
interest to the planting community written by 
Mr. Bremer, and forwarded to lis by Mr. Philip, 
has reached us and will he found on another 
page. It describes the widely .spreading work 
of Mr. Rogivue in Switzerland in making 
known the excellencies of Ceylon tea to the 
intelligent Swiss, (ilasgow companies are not 
wont to do things by halves, and the account given 
of iiow Mr. Kogivue distributes circulars and 
sample packets and is enabled to advertise with- 
out stint, and of the numerous fresii orders that 
reach him every day (c f/. throu?!! someone 
having tasted his teas at a friend's house), carry 
their own lesson with them. Some tinre ago we 
recomniemled that an illustrated paini>iilet, with 
a sample packet of tea, if freely distributed, 
■would greatly further the increase of tea sales 
in Germany. Circulars, (no doubt illustrated) 
and sample packets are the method pursued with 
marked success by Mr. Rogivue, and the letter 
from Mr- Bremer, from the shores of Lake 
Geneva, tells ns that Messrs. Jas. Finlay & Co., 
the Glasgow agents of his Company, aie 
anxious he sliould similarly establisii agencies in 
Germany. The greater portion of the strongly 
commercial race of Switzers are of German origin 
and speak the German tongue, and if the methods 
of Mr. Rogivue have proved so vastly successful 
amongst these citizens of the Swiss republic there 
is every reason why the same success should 
be won for our teas _ throughout the German 
Empire. The " Thirty Committee," in tlie 
fuller lisht that has been thrown upon the 
harvest-bearing work accomplished by Mr. 
Rogivue, should henceforth deal out with no 
lavisli hand the monetary aid necessary for 
pushing our i;<land teas in the land of the 
Teuton with all skill, thoroughness, and despatch. 
Mr. Rogivue has even gone so far as tosupply 
neat little te.x-pots to the Russian consumers, 
ank we have no doubt that the same course 
would prove a great "draw" in Germany where 
crockery of a tasteful, if carious, sort nieet.s 
witii high appreciation. The main point to be 
pressed upon the Thirty (Committee is that 
small doles, poured out trickle by trickle, will ac- 
complish less than half what the same sums dealt 
out in a lump, liberally and without delay, would 
perform in a rapid and immediate campaign. 
There is, in our opinion, no country in Euroi)e 
so ready for our teas, or where their popular- 
isation could proceed witli such rapidity, tm 
hitherto half-neglected Germany. If a reduction 
in other markets is necessary for the develop- 
ment of this most promising one, it ought, it is 
pretty generally agreed, to be made in the 
American States, though not in Canada, Rut 
■wlicllicr such curtailment is desired or not, in 
all r'-fMOcts the Teutonic i^)eoi)le should have nmre 
lUMuey .^pcnt upon tiiein in the generons promul- 
ga'ion of ene most benedcent gospel from tUU 
Island ;-" Drink Ceylon tea !" 
