Nov. 2, 1903,] THE TKUPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
There is an article in the " Monthly Review" 
on "The Fiscal (Joiitroversy," by Sir Michael 
Hicks Beach, who writes as a " Unionist who 
believes that the proper object of a Customs 
Tariff is to raise revenue." In his artittle Sir 
Michael presses the point that we shoulil be com- 
pelled to sfife a similar preference to the other 
colonies by taxing the foreign foodstuflfs with 
which they compete. He then asks what the 
people of the United Kingdom would gain, or 
lose, by this policy, and he makes the following 
reference to 
THE TEA DUTY QUESTION. 
" Mr Chamberlain has tug^ested that any loss 
to the poor from this pfsM*^' might be made good 
by remissions of iaxp'io,-. r- tf, sug;i . and to- 
bacco. The suggesiif'J tliaf : lie rfmission oi exiscins 
duties would be a yain .is in iisp f an admission 
that the imposition of new duties wu d be a 
burlheti ; hut lobiH'CO inny be dismis-ed at once ; 
for a LuKt- part of the population, speeijilly v\omeri 
and cliildren, are non smokers, and till must esit. 
Bur if India and the (.^rown Colonies are to be in- 
cluded in colonial preference— and this could 
hardly be refused — some duty on tea and sugar 
must be retained. The sugar duty might, it is 
true, be repealed for five years, owing to rhe pro- 
visions against colonial preference in the Brussels 
Convention. But at the end of that time the 
West Indies might be trusted to demand a duty 
on foreign sugar, just as the Indian and Ceylon 
planters would demand it at once on foreign tea. 
Their tea, on equal terms, has already gone far to 
drive foreign tea out of our market; so 
that any preference would probably en- 
able them , by raising their prices, to deprive 
consumers here of no small part of the 
benefit of any reduction of taxation." This is a 
polite way of saying to the consumer, " Don't 
have anything to do with preference schemes. If 
Indian and Ceylon growers, for instance, were to 
have it all their own way in the tea market, you 
would have to pay fancy prices for your teas." 
We give on this page Mt (ieorge Seton's 
annual table, containing an exhan.crive analysis 
of the working for the yesr 1902 of forty-five 
representative 
INDIAN TEA PLANTING COMPANIES, 
in this statement a eolurnn has been added, sliow- 
ing the lolrl ca|)ital expenditure, which differs 
couriderably from the amount of capital issued. 
The increase shown in the total capital, com- 
p-ired with last year, is caused by the substitution 
this year ' f two companies not previously included, 
viz., the East India and Ceylon Company and 
Hunwal in the place of Borelli and Borokai, 
which are omitted. The forty-five companies are 
only representative of a much larger total (there 
being very nearly 100 Itidian tea companies 
altogether re<.'i?tered in this country, besides about 
seventy Ceylon companies). The principal points 
emphasised by this yeai's table are: — A small 
reduction in the gross le;,li^ation per lb of tea 
(7*47d). A considerable leduction in the cost of 
production per lb (6'23d). A moderate increase 
in the mart^in of profits (l'24il). A fair inciease 
in average dividend and of interest paid (37 
f)er cent). A perceptible increase in the reserves 
£619,212.)-H and C Mail. 
INDIAN TEA PLANTING COMPANIES, 
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE " INDIAN PLANTERS 
GAZETTE.") 
Sir, — I beg tosendytm a copy ol my AnnualTable, 
containing an exhaustive analysis of the working, 
for the year 1902, of 45 representative Indian tea 
planting companies, . . . The principal points 
emphasized by this year's table are : — 
(a) A small reduction in the gross realisation 
per lb. of tea (7*47d.) 
(6) A considerable reduction in the cost of pro- 
duction per lb (6.23), 
(c) A moderate increase iu the margin of profit 
(1 24.) 
{d) A fair increase in average dividend and or 
interest paid (^'7 per cent.) 
(e) A PEFCEPTiBLE increase in the Reserves 
(£619 212), 'J rnstiiig you may see your way to 
make some allusion to these lesults in your 
colninn, I am, Y.airs truly, GEO. Skton. 
120. Bidinpciiate S ieet. London, EC. 
— Indian Plantera^ Gazette. ^ 
THE TRAINING OF FOREST OFFICERS. 
A copy of Nature 3ru Sept. has been tabled at the 
Secretariat with the following in Mr im Thurns' 
writing " notice is invited to the pregnant letter on 
Forest Officers." 
TRAINING OF FOREST OFFICERS. 
" In a sympathetic notice in the Indian 
Forester of the late distingnished Inspector-General 
of Forests in India, Mr H G Hill, Sir Dietrich Brandia 
stigmatises as " absurd " the idea which, until a 
short time ago, was current in England and which to 
this day is held by many English botanists that a 
good botanist must necessarily be a good forester." I 
quite agree that the idea is absurd, but as I am prob- 
ably better acquainted with the English botanical 
world than Sir Dietrich Brandis, I doubt very much 
whether the idea was ever current in this country, 
or is held at the moment by many Ensli^h botaniete. 
For my part I entif Iv dissociate mysplf from it as 
I know many accomplished botanists who would 
probably m>;ke very iti'lifferer'.t forest ofBcers. I. nm 
more 8bie to agree with Sir Diet'ifh Brandi^ when 
he says : " A forester, mnre than ttlmost anyb^'dv else, 
mast use his eyes and must be able on the t'pot to 
draw oonolusions fvoia what he hsis observed. Bnt the 
power of observation io by no means possessed by 
every one. A furiVier reqnisite, in which I think Sir 
Dietrich Brandis also agrees, is syrap\thy with and 
pleasure in forest nature for its own sake. It appears 
to me that neither point is kept in view in the 
present m"de of recruitine; the Indian Forest Service. 
Sir Dietrich Brandis lays great stress on sport, and 
unless it becomes too absorbing a pursuit it un- 
doubtedly fulfils the conditions I have stated. It 
would, however, be as undesirable to insist 
th'it every Forest Officer should be a sports- 
man as that he shonid be a botanist. But 
I entertain a very strong opinion that a Forest Officer 
will never rise to the highest level of efficiency in his 
work unle«s he has a scientific grasp of the principles 
which underlie it. He shonid be ab'e to identify the 
trees which compose the forest vegetation under his 
charge, and for this purpose he should have such 
an elementary acquaintance with botany as will 
enable him to use intelligently the book which Sir 
Dietrich Bi andis has been, for several yeai s. occnpied 
at Kew in preparing for that purpose. He should 
further have some knowledge of the nature and con- 
ditions of vegetable life ; he should grasp the idea 
