THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. 1, 1902. 
of prodnotion was in contemplatiou by the planters, 
coupled with a general endeavoar to effect improve- 
ment in the qnality. A more confident feeling then 
■bovred itaelf in the market, which has since 
•teadily strengthened, the most marked rise being in 
tb* quotation for low-grade teas, which arenowl^d 
per pound higher than they wore a year ago. The 
reduction in the quantities produced this season both 
in India and Ceylon has been almost entirely in the 
lower grades of tea, whilst the supply of medium 
gradei in all growths has been very abundant, so 
that while there has been an important advance 
throughout the year in common kinds, medium des- 
criptions have been in large supply, and consequently 
have sold at rates allowing an excellent value to 
buyers. 
Of the Toronto 
TEA MARKET 
the "Canadian Grocer " says : "The Indian tea season 
is over, and the shortage is conliimed at a high point. 
The situation locally continues to improve. As far 
M we can learn, there is nothing in Indian ana 
Ceylon low grade teas under 12c. that can be con- 
sidered merchantable. The local market is still below 
the parity of the London market. It is said tho teas 
■iniving are not costing less than about ISJc to 14o. 
—U. & G Mail, Jan. 10. 
In the last British Consular Report on liie trade 
of Trans-Caucasus, the followiDg occurs : — 
The two principal growers of tea in the Trans-Cau- 
casus— namely, the Imperial Domains and Messrs. 
Popoff, have, I am informed, added to the area under 
tea within the limits of their estates, but besides these 
two plantations hardly any other tea gardens of im- 
portance exist in the neighbourhood of Batoum, and, 
in my opinion, the reluctance with which holders of 
land have recourse to tea-growing, clearly demon- 
Btiates that the tea produced in this district is either 
■ pot of the quality required to create a demand in the 
Pussian market, or that the industry is still only in 
the experimental stage and the results hitherto ob- 
tained so uncertain that owners of small estates and 
the peasant classes prefer to wait and learn by the 
experience of others before embarking, with any of 
their spare cash, in an undertaking remunerative 
qualities of which have not yet made themselves 
apparent. , ^, 
The tea crop of the year 1901, although the 
largest ever obtained in the Caucasus, only amounted 
■ to 13i tons, obtained after a period of over 10 years 
has elapsed since the first experiments in tea- growing 
were made in the district. It is clear that tea-planting 
in the Caucasus may at some remote period become 
sufficiently advantageous to warrant its being gener- 
ally adopted. . , , ^-cr ^ 
Messrs, Popoff's estates are situated at three ditterent 
• points near Batoum— namely one at Chackva, the 
' second at Salibauri and the third at Kaprshun. The 
• »rea under cultivation on three estates is 312^ acres, 
of which 81 acres have been under tea for a period of 
over three years. The yield in 1900 was, I believe, nil, 
and in 1901, as far as I can ascertain, under 9,000 
English lb. The crops on these estates, I am informed, 
are gathered on the Chinese system. The tea pro- 
duced is stronger than the Chinese tea, none of it 
course to stripping the fibre off the stalk by hand as 
is done in China, where labour is exccEgively cheap. — 
London and Chin* Exprtss, Jan, 10. 
PROFESSOR HERDMAN. 
HIS INTERESTING WORK ON THE WAY OUT, 
Professor Herdman, the distinguished Liverpool 
naturalist who came out »o Ceylon to undertake 
for the Government an investigation of tlie pearl 
oyster fisheries, writes to a friend who has t.ent 
the letter to the Liverpool Daily Post: — 
SS. "Derbyshire," Gulf cf Lyons, Jan. 1, 1902. 
My dear Thompson, — I think I promised to seud you 
an occasional note in case you and others of our Liver- 
pool naturalists are interested to know how the 
scientific work goes on. There is little to tell as yet, 
but Mr Hornell and I have sent out 200 numbered 
drift bottles containing postcards, and we have taken 
daily gatherings of plankton from the sea. 
You remember that one of our fishery questions is 
whether the young fiehes of the Lancashire eoaet come 
from spawn produced north of Holyhead, between 
Anglesey and the Isle of Man, or south of that in 
Cardigan Bay — in other words, can flouting fish spawn 
get round Holyhead into our district ? We left the 
Mersey about midnight on Thursday, 26tb, and at 
1-30 a.m., when we were clear of the banks, I started 
throwing over the " drifters" in batches of ten every 
half-hour till we got to the middle of Cardigan Bay 
next forenoon. About 100 went over between the 
North-West Lightship and the South Stack, and 
another 100 south of Anglesey. The captain gave me 
the positions on the chart and I have sent the lists 
back to Mr Johnstone, so he will be able to make 
out the drift journeys when the postcards from 
the bottles are found, filled in, and returned to 
college. 
They have kindly handed a bathroom completely 
over to me for the plankton work. I keep the key, 
and the sea-water tap runs night and day through my 
Bilk nets. The amount of plankton daily has been 
small as yet, but it ia winter, and we had a gale in the 
Bay of Biscay, and the weather has been continuously 
chilly ; so perhaps we have got as much as was to h» 
expected. As soon as we got clear of the English 
Channel a few Atlantic organisms made their appear- 
ance, such as diphyes, pteropod shells, acauthometra, 
and other radiolaria. These continued down the coast 
of Portugal. When we got through the .Straits of 
Gibraltar there was a complete chauge. All the larger 
animals disappeared, and their place was taken by 
minute diatoms (fciddulphia and others) in such pro- 
fusion as to block up the meshes of the fine silk. 
That continued for twenty-four hours, but we now 
seem to be getting through that area into, I hope, a 
more varied fauna. As you know, when the diatomi 
are abundant we generally catch very little else. I get 
the microscope out every morning after breakfast in 
the smoke-room, where there is very good light, and 
examine the night's catch. It is most interesting — 
quite apart from any use we make of them afterwards 
— to have these samples of the living organisms to 
examine every day from the seas through which we are 
passing. — Yours very truly, W. A. Herdman, 
RAMIE. 
A most important branch of agriculture for tha 
Trans-Caucasus would be the cultivation of the ramie 
plant which according to experiments made by the 
Imperial Domains authorities on their lands at 
Chackva, grows very successful on plots carefully 
selected for the purpose in view of the fact that the 
soil should not be of a marshy character and that it 
should be nourishing and porous. Besides the Imperial 
Domains several individuaU have also started the 
cultivation of the ' Chinese nettle,' and have inva- 
riably obtained good results. Unfortunately maniiaf- 
■ labour is very expensive in this country, and this being 
tbe caao it ia quite out of the question to have le 
PROFESSOR HERDMAN'S VOYAGE OUT. 
Professor Herdman says that during the voyage 
out to Ceylon much valuable scientific work was 
accomplished on board, and both he andJiis assist- 
ant had their hands full- all the way from 
Liverpool. In the Irish Sea experiments were 
made with the object of determining currents 
which cany the eggs of spawn. Ihis was in con- 
nection with home fisheries, and altogether about 
200 floating boilles were thrown overboard with 
instructions for their return to Professor Herdman 
by whoever should pick them up. All the way 
