Hfec. 2, 1901.] 
The tropical AGRICULTURl^f. 
39^ 
might be moved to procure samples of these bricks 
for the guidance of producers here. My impression 
is that the bulk of the home Indian trade which 
has been undertaken by Messrs. Ycile & Co. 
will eventually take the concentrated form. Judg- 
ing by results already obtained, I may safely 
predict that in much less than a decade hence, 
the consumption within the country will amount 
many millions of pounds monthly. 'J'he advant- 
ages to the planter, of compressed tea taking on 
with the masses, would be that he could dispense 
with much of the classification now used, as most 
of the coarser leaf could be broken down in the 
brick-making. In fact I see ahead realisation of 
my prediction that almost all onr teas below 
the Pekoes, will be known as brick or tablet." — 
Indian Planters' Gazette, Nov. 2. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Cetlon Tea in Scandinavia.— Mr. Ren- 
ton's record of his work is a plain and 
businesslike statement, but so full of detail 
as to raake excellent reading, even for the 
outsider interested only in a general way in 
commercial enterprise. He gets a very clear 
idea of the ground alrea,dy gained and works 
upon it with rare judicial impartiality. For 
the amount of wovj^ he has got through and 
I its methodical achievement, we commend 
I Mr. Renton's letters as models for a Tea 
Commissioner in an even less promising field ! 
see page 351. 
The Study of Rainfall in a really scienti- 
fic way is searcelj' twenty years old, — it was in 
1882, aa Dr. flerbertson points oat, that the first 
good " annual rainfall map of the world " was- 
published, Yetits impiirtaace can hardly be over- 
rated, says the Spectator — since it is by the study 
ot rainfall alone the variation of the water con- 
tained in the atmosphere can be invest, gated, and 
ultimately, perhaps, predicted. Meteorologists have 
recognised this, and now there are more than 
twenty-iive thousand stations where the rainfall 
is watched by skilled observers. Dr. Herbertson 
has set himself The Distr ibution of Rainfall over 
the Land. By Andrew J Herbertson. (J Murray. 
5s) — to co-ordinate their reports, and has adopted 
the graphic plan of presenting a map of the world 
for each month in the year, coloured and con- 
toured in accordance with rainfall, supplemented 
by a map of the mean annual rainfall, and a table 
of the monthly distribution of rain at a number 
of selected stations. We are full of admiration 
for the truly scientific and accurate manner in 
which Dr. flerbertson has compressed his immense 
study into these simple and easily comprehensi- 
ble maps. ^Ve cannot deal at length with the 
results of his work, which should long remain 
a standard authority, but we may conclude this 
notice by quoting his interest in deductions : — 
" First of all there are seven well-marked bands 
of high and low rainfall girdling the earth. These 
are : — 
1 Sub-equatorial wet belt. 
2 and (3) Sub-tropical dry bolts. 
4) and (5) Temperate wet belts. 
(6) and (7) Polar dry caps. 
Secondly, the.se hyetal belts move north and south 
with the sun. Thirdly, in equatorial regions there 
are two wet and tv\o dry seasons every year ; and 
fourthly, most rain falls when the sua is highest 
at nooii, except on the west coast of temperate 
lands." 
Rubber Imports at Antwerp during the past 
month included one cargo by steamer from the 
Congo ot 1,783,540 pounds. The receipts of Congo 
sorts had previously amounted, for the year, to 
7,7^5,291 pounds. This volume of trade, built up 
only in a few years, is a most notable developnient 
in rubber, and particularly the large single aliip- 
ment here recorded. It this soKt of thing can be 
kept up, the annexation of the Congo Free State 
will prove a good thing for Belgium, but there 
is no assurance that a decline in the Congo rubber 
production is not near at hand. — India Rubber 
World, Oct. 1st. 
Rubber Production of Colombia.— Record 
of importations from Colombia into the United 
States for Fiscal Years ending June 30, and into 
Great Britain for Calendar Y&ars— in Founds : 
United 
Great 
Years. 
States. 
Britain. 
Total. 
1855-1860 . . 
2,300,920 
17,472 
2.318,592 
1861-1865 . . 
3,435,264 
5,516,240 
6,951,504 
1866-1870 . . 
9,608,376 
5,594,512 
15,202,883 
1871-1875 .. 
22,952,386 
3,907,232 
.26,8,59,618 
1876-1880 .. 
17,394,793 
1,194,144 
18,588,937 
1881-1885 ... 
9,503,916 
979,136 
10,483,052 
1886-1890 .. 
4,309,306 
727,516 
5,036,822 
1891-1895 .. 
3,848,365 
1,035,328 
4,883,693 
1896-1900 . . 
3,152,957 
1,146,880 
4,299,837 
Total.. 
76,506,283 
18,118,460 
94,624,743 
—India Rubber World. Oct. Ist. 
Wanted an Inventor.—-" The man wlio 
invents a really practical maize busker which 
will husk standing maize is assured of a for- 
tune," says American Agriculturmlist. " As 
in the case of the trying work of picking cotton, 
but little help has been given to the farmer by 
the inventor. Numerous attempts have been made, 
but none of them machines constru2ted lias proved 
practical. One of the latest is a combination of 
the maize binder and the busker and shredder, 
which is attached to the ordinary farm waggon. 
The fingers of the husker collect the stalks and 
convey them to the rollers of the shredder, where 
the husks are removed and the ears elevated to 
the waggon box. The principle seems to be all 
right, but the practicability of the machine is yet to 
be demonstrated." 
Messrs. Kearley and Tonge, Ltd.— the well- 
know tea firm of Mitre Square— have produced 
one of the most tasteful and artistic little pam- 
phlets that 1 have yet seen issued by the tea 
trade. It explains in an instructive and enter- 
taining manner, the general principles whic'h 
ought to govern the biuying and blending of tea. 
Blending was an operation carried oa^ at one 
time in a very haphazard sort of way. A great 
number of vtirieties of tea were chosen without 
discrimination, thrown together and left to chance 
for the result. Sometimes this was good, some- 
times bad, and sometimes indifferent, but in no 
case eould the blender claim any credit; for it. If 
by a special dispensation of Providence the tea 
came out all right and the customer was pleased 
the blender considered himself lucky. As for 
producing the same result a second time, that 
wai a thing- of which ke eeuld be by means 
certais.— Tea, (Oetobev.) 
