328 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1901. 
associated with himself a wholesale coftee 
dealer with a connection amongst town and 
country grocers and is working hard, not 
with much success though, Toifl the client 
of the Bremen importer, is doing hetter. He 
promised me to ]ilace the tea with 500 of 
his clients throughout the Austrian pro- 
vinces. He has got .350 up to date, he has 
to pack the tea in 116th Ih., J, lb. and i lb. 
packets for them ; and then the Anglo-Con- 
tinental Comp;iny of Paris are working 
from Trieste, so is also another house in 
Trieste. 
IN PRANCE- 
We have three Paris houses, and in Mar- 
seilles two smaller firms at work. The Paris 
firms are working hard ; one has specially 
distinguished itself by its enterprise in starting 
the big new tea rooms in the Kue Caumartin, 
by Its display at the Exhibition in thePetitPalais 
this year, and at the Exhibition Culinaii'e, 
and by its handbill posters, bills and general 
advertising. Another has done very well in 
various advertising schemes ; but more parti- 
culax'ly by taking up at my express with a 
demonstration scheme. A man is going round 
the Provinces, and in all the big towns 
where he can get the grocers to buy the 
tea, he gives a demonstration of from four 
to ten days. It is advertised in the local 
press that free teas will be distributed in 
cup at that grocer s shop from 4 to 7 o'clock. 
Samples of the tea are given away free— and 
lots of literatui'es on how toanake it etc., and 
Bamber's book, in French. Here is a resumed 
of the work done in June and July in Nor- 
mandy: - Six towns visited. Tea distributed in 
cupon28days. 4,425 cups teaserved ; teasoldto 
the public 2,055 people : advertised in 11 local 
papers ; tea sold, 650 kilos. New grocers 
secured, 24. Printed matter distributed, 41,500. 
Placards posted in and on windows of shops, 
no. Both these firms are spending far more 
than three times my grant on their work 
this year. 
IN SWITZERLAND 
we have four firms at work, in Sweden 
two, in Christiania two, in Copenhagen two. 
IN ITALY 
in Naples one, in Florence one. The arrange- 
ments 1 made in Genoa have fallen through, 
unfortunately. 
I go to 
SCANDINAVIA 
tomorrow to inspect the work there and on 
my return start immediately for Frankfort 
and Stuttgart. In the latter town a client 
of Bohringer's opens a tea room on Isf October. 
From Stuttgart I proceed to Switzerland to 
inspect work and accounts and then to France. 
I shall go to all the towns in France where 
the demonstrator has been, to see personally 
how the work agrees with his report. In 
Paris I inspect accounts and talk over 
schemes for next year, . 
I then go to London to see the Bx'itish 
Commissioner for the 
ST. PETP;iiSBURG EXHIBITION 
and obtain letters of introduction from our 
Foreign Office to the British Embassy 
there, l^nd of November I shall probably 
go to St, Petersburg to inspect the land 
^nd j:nak,e the necessary arrangements 
for our show in the autunm of 1902. Fi-om 
Germany, Austria, and France I receive 
half-yearly reports and an abstr.ict of ac- 
counts and expenditure. All vouchnrs in these 
three countries are examined and compared 
witn the accounts in my visit in each town. 
From Scandinavia and !S>vitzeiland the 
vouchers are sent to me and then returned. 
I keep a most watchful eye on all expendi- 
ture and I feel quite certain the Committee 
get full value for their money. In Germany 
I know I could get an agent in each large 
town to run, push and advertise Ceylon tea; 
but then I should have to bear all the ex- 
pense. The difficulty is to get them to put 
their hand into their own pockets and bear 
even half the expenditure. 
PEARLS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
Colonel Clarence R. Edwards, chief of in.>^ular 
division, ^Var Department, is preparing aGazjjtteei 
of the Pliilippi.Te Islands which will contain much 
valuable infornialion from official and other houices. 
He has just completed a comprelien.sive account 
of the peail and shell iisherie.s of the Sulu archipe- 
lago. During theyeai 1899 the value of sheds, not 
sawed, cut, polii^hed or otherwise inanufactuied. 
impoitedinto the United States for home con- 
sumption was .S969.349, and in 1900 *l,yl6,728. 
The manufactuie.'' of sliells, niother ot pearl, etc., 
are now almost entirely couliued to the United 
States. In the vear.s above mentioned but 
582,610 40 and $88,362 32 respectively of shell and 
iuotlier-(if pearl manufactures of all kinds were 
entered for constimption. In regard to pearls, tiie 
best English expert says that the Sniu archipelago 
produces the finest round pearls in the world. The 
known pearling area in the Sulu and Celebes teas 
possessions of the United Mates is 15,220 square 
miles. More than double that area poase.-ses tlie 
physical conditions necessary to the best form of 
pearl oyster life and the nacreous sueli which 
contains it. Siasj-i, in the Tapul group of the 
Sulu archipelago, is the strate};ic centre of the 
most active pearling industry in United States 
territory, and should oe made the station. Titers 
are a number of fishing villages and several 
thousand Hshers in the vicinity. The value of 
pearls, in their natural state or split, imported into 
the United States for home consumption during 
nine months ending March 31st 1901 was ?Ji,086 4i;0, 
ranking next in value to diamonds.— 5i?'aiK 
Times, Sept. 23. 
PLANTING IN PBE^K. 
COCONUTS— COFFEE— RUBBKR— TAPIOCA— GUTT A. 
Coconuts.— Next to the cultivation of sugar that 
of cocoLiuts at present flods most favour with plant- 
ers. Where the soil is suitable, either coconuts or 
para rubber, and sometimes both, are beiug planted 
between the rows of coffee on the estates hitherto 
devoted to coffee alone. Applications covering many 
acres have been received, more especially in the dis- 
trict of Lower Perak, between the Peiak and Bernam 
rivers, where an extraordinary energy has been dis- 
played. Here 318 applications have been received 
from natives, chiefly foreign Malayt, for small hold- 
ings CO be devoted to this form of cultivation. In 
the same part of the districts the Straits Plantation 
Company has planted up between three and four 
hundred acres of the two thousand owned. The 
Government is devoting special attention to opeo> 
jug this country by rpads and briclle-patibE, { 
