194 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept. 2, 1901. 
TROUT CULTURE IN NATAL. 
Pieteriiiaritzbiirg, June 18. 
A meetinf( of jrenl.Ieiue;i interested in aii^rling 
met at theNatal Ciulj yesterrlfty to form an an- 
gling association. Mr Cecil Yoiige took tlie chair, 
and there were preseiu 25 anglers. The Ch urinau 
gave a sketch of the efforts made to intro'liicii 
trontinto the Colony, and said results showed that 
a penny spent iu Natal in tiout ciiltnie was 
equal to a pound spent in any other country. Mr 
J C Barker proposed that the objects of tSie as- 
sociation should be to obtain fishing rights on the 
rivers of Natal, to preserve and retaliate the cao- 
ture of iish. Mr K J Harrison saiil that land 
owners would see that it was to their advantage 
to have their rivers fished. The Chairman said 
that, although the Attorney-General hid given the 
opinion that the Government and the public had 
no rights over the landowner, in future the Gov- 
ernment in putting trout in shoultl have a right 
over them. He questioned whether the land- 
owners would or could decline to assist the anglers. 
— Natal Mercry 
SNAKES' SKINS AND MILLINERY. 
At a recent meeting of the Bombay Narura' 
History Society a suggestion was made foi- the 
utilisation of snakes' sloughs or discarded skins. 
Mr- E L Barton exhibited a number of pieces of 
the slough cast by the large python iu the 
Society's ropnts, mounted on different tiiaterials, 
wii,li a view of ascertaining what use, if any, 
these sloughs might be put to. The specimens 
mounted on bright-colouretl calicoes, especially 
green, were by far the most successful, and the 
concensus of expert opinion appeared to be that, 
from a millinery point of view, the sloughs might 
be used with advantage for the purpose of trim- 
ming hats ! — Madras Mail. 
THE CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE. 
One-half of the world's production of coftee berries 
is brought to the United States. Americans are the 
grea est coffee drinkers on the face of the globe now, 
and every year the consumption of coffee is increas- 
ing here. Last year it was more than 80,000,000 
pounds for the whole country, or moie than 10^ 
pounds a head of the population. Germany and 
France together only consumed half as much coffee. 
German^y less than 6J pounds ,a hfad und France 
only 4^ pounds per capita. The Unueil Kingdom 
used little more than half a pound of the berries 
per head of the population, but; over there they 
made up for it by drinking more tea than any 
other nation. More than a million dollars is sent 
out of the United States every week iu payment 
for coffee. South and Central American countries, 
which supply us with more than 6,000,OOC pounds 
of coffee a year, get most of the money Porto 
Kico, Java and the Philippines yet almost all the 
rest, but a little goes to Hawaii. Last year the 
total value of the coffee impurted into the United 
States was about $6(),(l00,fi00, and that was less 
than for several yeurs, because the iviiport firice of 
qoffee has fallen about on&-\\;i\i.— Bradstreefs. 
RUBBER. 
ACCORDING TO THE CONSULS. 
■ ' The exports of rubber from Sierra Leone in 
1900 amounted to £8,406 to Germany, and 
£22,;{35 to Great Britain. Iu Cochin China the 
Government is patronising the cultivation of 
the gutta-percha tree, and planting is now 
being tried iu various parts, chitfly in Laos, 
also in Annain ami Tonkin. In Indo Cliina the 
exports .)f gutta-|)ercha f<pr 1900 amounted to 
339.000 kilos, against .52,813 kilos in 1899. Gutta- 
peicha comes chiefly from Annam and Laos. 
A pieni of good quality is worth aluuit £V.\. — 
India Rubber Trades' Journal, July 22. 
\ ^ 
Coffee and Tea in the United States. 
— Quite a number of publicists among our 
American cousins have gone "a wee bit daft" 
over the idea that coffee as well as tea can 
be successfully and profitably grown within 
the bounds of the vast western Republic- 
The talk about coffee-growing is the sub- 
ject of amusing conmient by our Brazilian 
contemporaries, of which the paragraph we 
quote today from the Brazilian Review is a 
specimen ; and now we have a long article 
on " American Tea Growers " in the Florida 
Agriculturist from which we take an open- 
ing paragraph:— 
Ere the present cycle of a hundred years is 
rounded out. Uncle Sam will, in all )jrobability, 
be producing withiiihis domain Mifticient tea leaves 
for all the soothing beverage which his people can 
possibly drink, and mayhap will have some to 
spare for his brethren across the sea. 
That this will be a highly desirable consummation 
must be appreciated even by the person who never 
sipped a cup ot tea in his life. For one thing, it 
will enable the poorer classes to obtain good tea at 
lower prices, and lor another it will keep in the 
coffers of the American people a fortune, amount- 
ing to uiany million dollai s anuual:y, which now 
goes to feeii and clothe men and women on the 
other side of the globe. Under present conditions 
every man, woman and child in the United States 
consumes about twenty cents' worth of tea each 
twelve monihs, and the immense aggregate sum is 
divided between the tea growers in China, Japan 
and Ceylon, several middlemen and agents, and 
the vessel owners who carry the precious product 
to market. 
The best feature of the new era which is coming, 
however, is found in (he fact that finer tea can be 
grown in the United States than in the Orient. 
This has been conclusively proven by some interest- 
ing experiments which tli.' United States Depart- 
me it ol AgMCulture has been conducting during 
the past fe>v years at the pioneer tea plantation 
established in the New World. 
All this " high-falutin " is based on the fact 
that Dr. Shepard has produced some few 
thousands of pounds from his tea garden in 
South Carolina which he can sell at a dollar 
per lb; while the very finest "Darjeeling" 
or choicest high-grown Ceylon can be im- 
ported and sold for half-a dollar a lb. As 
Co fineut'ss, delicacy and flavour, it is not 
likely the two kinds we speak of can be 
excelled. With labour in India and Ceylon 
costing from one-sixth to one-tenth what it 
does in the States, it is not likely any great 
Tea Industry can be profitably developed in 
the latter. A few gardens as novelties may 
.succeed, so long as people like to pay a fancy 
price from patriotic or such-like feelings. 
