666 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISf . ' [April 1, 1904. 
went into Afghanistan, he should be glad to be 
informed of it. 
The Hon John Ferguson, C M G, asked whether 
Sir Thomas Holdich could give the meet- 
ing some idea of what would be the result 
of the commercial development, especially in 
respect of teas, supposing that the transit duties were 
reduced or removed. If there was a prospect of a large 
trade in teas, no doubt the desire to bring pressure on 
the Government to raise the subsidy and to remove the 
transit duties would be very much increased. With 
regard to Mr Rees's remarks, it should be known that 
there was no practical rivalry between the planters of 
Ceylon and those of India. They were all in exactly 
the same boat, and they were working together to in- 
crease the taste for tea throughout the world, Russian 
firms had opened branches to buy tea in Colombo, and 
had lately added branches in Calcutta, He only 
wished that the Mother Country could see her way to 
reduce the war duty on tea even to the extent of the 
transit duty, which was only 4d a lb, while the Imperial 
duty on their staple was 6d. 
Sir Thomas Holdich, in reply, said that, with 
regard to the question about tea, he confessed 
that he was speaking from the statistics of some 
years ago. He knew nothing of what had been hap- 
pening during the last few years. Ihree or four years 
ago the only tea which found its way throagh Afghan- 
istan was China tea and while in that country he never 
to his knowledge tasted any tea but that of China. If 
restrictions on import were removed Afghanistan 
would be a splendid country for the tea trade. He 
could not think of a better field. Every Afghan not- 
able of any consequence offered tea to his visitors. 
THE FEDERAL TEA INSPECTION ACT. 
Commenting on a recent decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States affirming the constitntiona- 
iity of the Standard Tea Act of 1897, the " New York 
Tea and Cofiee Trade Journal " says : — " It must be 
remembered that prior to 1897 this country was the 
dumping ground for all the tea trash of the world, and 
for fifty years a surplus importation from 15,000,000 to 
20,000,000 lb of absolutely worthless tea was received 
here. This tea had two very ba,d effects upon the 
trade. It kept down the development of tea and the 
consumption, because anyone who received a pound of 
the repulsive trash, spurious or adulterated tea, never 
wanted to buy tea again. Consequently, in the Southern 
States, where little was known of tea, and especially 
green tea, which were, therefore. States that could be 
imposed upon, the article went out of consumption 
entirely and coffee took its place. A second detriment 
to the trade consisted in having always in the market 
a surplus quantity of tea of about 20,000,000 lb, which 
had to be torced into the channels of business. In order 
to force it, auctions were invoked, and for about twenty- 
five years or more there' were auctions every week. 
These auctions injured the business in two ways; first, 
by depressing prices so that for many years New York 
prices were lower than those in China, and conse- 
gaently fully fifty large houses went out of business, 
either tbrongh failure or closing up on account of not 
being able to make their expenses ; secondly, the 
anctions fitted up all the trade, retail and whole- 
eale, tributary to the large jobbers, and consequently 
honses of importance carrying from 100,0( 0 
dole, to 500,000 dola. of tea found their stocks all 
showing a loss on account of these anctions, where 
their customers were supplying themselves. The result 
of all this was that tea, instead of increasing in 
consumption from IJ lb, which was the ratio in 1865, 
to 7 lb ratio as in England and Austrulia today, 
absolutely declined in consumption to less than 1 lb 
per capita ; meantime nofiPee was making enormous 
strides. . . , In upholding the constiiutionality of 
the law the Supreme Court has saved the tea trade 
from a great disaster. Arbiter of 17,500,000.000 cnps of 
tea ia the exceptional distinction and weighty respon- 
sibility of one man in New York, styled the Governmeut 
Tesi ^xamiuer at the port,"—//, md C, Mail, 
PLANTING AND OTHER NOTES. 
Aluminium Cups fok Rubber Tapping. — The Feder- 
ated Straits planters are stated to be importing 
aluminium cups for tapping purposes. Any metal 
liable to rust is harmful to rubber, the latex often 
being thus discoloured, Aluminium will prevent this 
from happening. The Straits planters are to becon- 
giatulated on the fresh proof of their progress and 
general up-to-dateness. 
GiiNT Pineapples and Nitbogen. — The culture of 
the Smooth Cayenne Pineapple in Jamaica has been 
attended with such extraordinary success that the 
plants have produced mammoth fruits weighing as 
much as 20 lb. each. It ia said that these giant Pine- 
apples frighten the buyers in the English markets, 
whose idea of a saleable Pine ia limited to one of 6 lb. 
to 8 lb. each. In one district just reported upon it is 
stated that 80 per cent, of the plants will, on account 
of the richness of the soil, produce monstrosities in 
Pineapples heavier than the weight named. The soil 
contains six times the normal quantity of nitrogenj 
and to this fact the remarkable vegetable exuberance 
is attributable. The soil of Jamaica suits the Orange 
as well as the Pineapple. The Jamaica Mandarin 
Oranges according to the Journal of Horticulture as 
marketed lately are the finest of their class which 
have ever been imported into the United Kingdom. 
Introduced Sii k Moth proves a Pest.— Introduced 
as an experiment in silk raising the gypsy moth has 
become in a little over thirty years a terrible pest 
in Massachusetts as a centre, spreading slightly beyond 
the limits of the commonwealth into the neighbouring 
States. It has coat the government of the common- 
wealth an enormous amount of money to fight it, and 
yet today it stands as perhaps ttie most serious 
insect pest of that part of the country. Over one 
million dollars were expended. It is now proposed 
to introduce the natural enemies of the moth — one 
of the parasites that prey upon it and apparently 
keep it within bounds in Europe. Removed from the 
warfare of nature the pest has increased until quite 
beyond the ordinary control of man. Thus did also 
the San JosS scale and the English sparrow with us 
and the rabbit in Australia. In the plant world similar 
instances are to be found ; Anacharis canadensis, 
for example, introduced to English ponds, has over- 
run the bounds, says the Journal of Ilorticvlture, and 
is a most troublesome weed. The balance of nature 
is not to be lightly disturbed. 
The Para Rubber Industry of 1903.— The Board 
of Trade have received, through the Foreign Of&ce, 
copy of a despatch from H. M. Consul at Par a report- 
ing that tho india-rubber industry of the Amazon 
district made considerable progress during the year 
ended Slst December, 1903. The entries amounted to 
31,120 tons, being an increase of 2,497 tons over 
the crop of the preceding year. The shipments 
amounted to 31,113 tons : an increase of 2,507 
tons. 1:5,057 tons were shipped to New York, and 
13,588 tons to Liverpool, while the rest were exported 
to Prance and Germany. New York also imports 
indirectly through Liverpool, and the British figure is 
further diminished by re-exports to Hamburg and 
other continental ports. The United Kingdom distri- 
butes more raw material than it consumes. Manaoa 
retains its place as the principal poit of shipment : 
an advantage that it has gained and retained during 
the last three years. The shipments from Manaos, 
Para and Iquitos were 16,502, 12,568, and 2,043 tons 
respectively. The entire shipments consisted of the 
following qualities : 16,442 tons of fine, 2,790 tons of 
medium, 7,657 tons of coarse, and 4,222 tons of Oaucho 
Great Britain and the Continent together received 
more of the best grade, and Cancho, but less of the 
coarse grade, than the United States. The stocks 
reported on Slst December last amounted to 1,040 
tons, there being 623 tons at Manaos and 417 tons at 
Para. The value of the total shipments is 9,OCO,0O0t 
approximately. Prospects pppear to be good, but 
would be greatly improved by the termination 0{ 
frontier disputes. 
