412 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1891. 
Hop Tea. — The fomb'Dation of hops with tea 
seems to find appreoiation. The process was fully 
explained by Mr. A. Snelling (the patentee) at a 
visit recently paid to the works at Maidstone by the 
direotors of the Hop Tea Foreign and Colonial Syn- 
dicate and Iheir friends. The fresh hops are withered 
by patent machinery, rolled, allowed to ferment for 
the pnrpose of modifying the naturally bitter taste, 
and then dried by the well-known " Sirocco " machine 
process. It was stated that fifteen patents have been 
secured, or are being applied for, in all the inaportant 
countries of Europe — Indiaj New South Wales, New 
Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and 
Victoria. Mr. Snelling states that, although the in- 
dustry had only been started iu September last, they 
had 2,000 agents in the country, and the demand was 
ereatly on the increase. 
Last Week's Tea Sales.— The Produce Markets' 
Heview says: — "There was a diminution in the 
quantities of Indian tea offered this week, aod owing to 
a well sustained enquiry, prices for most grades are 
firm, while the finest descriptions iu some oases show 
»n advance. The moderate prices and good value to 
be obtained from Is downwards, are exemplified by 
the largely increasing consumption, and as there is 
no immediate prospect that these grades will rise in 
value, a further important expansion in the demand 
is probable. At any rale, the comparative value of 
Indian teas is favourable in this direction, and as 
there will probably be a falling off in the supply of the 
Ceylon growths a little later on, a greater impetus will be 
given to the nse of the former. At a recent meeting 
the tea brokers agreed to endeavour to regulate the 
quantity to be offered at the public sales. To make this 
effectual it will be necessary to allow a reasonable 
time for sampling and valuing (he teas, for it is 
frequently the cafe at preeaat that the samples are 
not ready at the warehouse until the of leinoon prior 
to the sale. If importers would adopt the priucipla 
of not issuing the catalogues until the teas are actually 
ready for sampling it would greatly facilitate business, 
and gave much loss of time and labour. At the public 
sales 32,250 packages were brought forward, includiog 
a good assortment of most kinds. The bidding was 
active aiid a firm tendency was manifest for all good 
descriptions, while the downward movement for un- 
desirable sorts continues. Ceylon teas have only 
been sparingly offered, but ns the attentioa of 
buyers generally has been more or less monopolised 
by Indian teas", there has been no corresponding rise 
in values ; indeed, although good to fine teas have 
maintained late prices, the lower kinds have sold at 
eftgier rates. The quality of the teas brought for- 
ward, although not quite so good as of lata, is 
fairly satisfactory, a point to be specially borne in 
mind now that tine China Monings and Niugchows, 
with which" teas Ceylons chiefly compete, are selling at 
prices hitherto tmheard of," 
Silver. — The London silver market was not 
•tiengthened by the allotment of Council bills, the 
minimum price accepted on Wednesday being .3-32d 
low6r than the minimum of last week's allotment, and 
exchange advices from the East were all unchanged, 
with a weak toadency as regards Bombay. QuoVatioos 
for bar silver and Mexican dollars nevertheless rose 
l-16d per ounce — namely, to 4i 9-161 and 43 5-16 1 
per ounce respectively. The advance was due to an 
increased erquiry for silver for the Continent, po^^sibly 
in connection with the supply of 50,000 kilogrammes 
of bar silver for Coinage into Cuban currency. Out- 
ward rates for merchants' bills were not further reduced, 
having been lowered on Saturday last. Four per Cent, 
Rupee Paper is quoted at i;74| to £74|.— /7. and (\ 
MaU. 
♦ 
ADVANCED TO CULTIVATORS AND THE 
N0N-ALIENAI311JTY OF LAND. 
Id Ceylon, aa in India, the main causes of poverty, 
deproBsion and uUimato oviotion from land and 
home 61 the cultivating classes can be traced more to 
their own improvidenoe and invelorate habit of bor- i 
rowirg at excessive interest (in which they are aided 
by the lenders of money, seed corn and cattle) than 
by Government exaction in the shape of rent or 
tax. Occasionally in India the poor ryats, finding 
themselves no match for the aslute money-lenders 
have risen in desperation and taken the law into 
their own hands. Hence a very serious insur- 
rection amongst the Santal tribes of Bengal and 
disturbances elsewhere in India. In the Bombay 
Presidtncy the Deccan Kyats' Belief Act has been 
a good many years in operation ; and one of its 
ptovisions is that, however largo the debt of a ryat 
to a usurer may be, the latter cannot gain posses- 
sion of the cultivator's land, which is rendered 
inalienable. Our readers can easily see how such 
a provision tends to cheek the tendency to borrow 
and the willingness to lend. The objection offered 
is that the restriction lessens the credit of the 
cultivator. That is just what was intended, because 
such credit was used to raise money to be spent not 
on the land but on extravagant birth, marriage 
and death ceremonies and feasts. Then, to supply 
the cultivators with legitimate loans land banks, are 
either in operation or under consideration in India, 
through whose agency Government would make 
such advances as were really required by 
cultivators, at moderate rates of interest. In 
any case advances are made by the Indian 
Government under due restrictions. In India, 
indeed, the question of land indebtedness has 
assumed so serious an aspect that a Commission 
has been appointed to deal with the whole subject, 
at the head of which is Sir C. Orosthwaite, 
lately Chief Commissioner of Burma. The first 
business of this Coromi-sion will be to enquire 
into the working of the Dt'cean Act, with a view 
to its extension to the whole of the Bombay Presi- 
dency. People, childish in their ideas and prnelices, 
must be dealt with as children ; and in Ceylon, 
as in India, legis-lation is required to protect the 
goyiyas against their own improvidenoe and the 
wiles of usurers who lend them money, seed or 
cattle, with the very object in a large number of 
cases of so loading them with debt thai their 
holdings of land must pass into the hands of the 
usoriouB lenders. It is impossible to restrict the 
rates of interest, or to prevent borrowing by 
levying heavy duties on mortgages ; but it is possible 
for Government to render native holdings of land 
inalienable, and in dealing with an oriental people 
western notions of free trade in property must 
not be strictly applied. 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
At a recent nieeting of the Aca'emie des Sciences, 
Paris, an interesting paper was read od the hurricane 
which has devastated the island ot Martinique. 
A curious feature of the cyclone was the incessant 
lightuiug flashes which accompaiued it. They increased 
in violence before the passage of the centre, and 
decreased after its passage ; but the singular thing 
ie that the noise of the thunder was hardly percep- 
tible, perhaps because of the roar of the wind and 
the cracks of falling bui'diogs. Ball or globe 
lightning was frequently teen, especially in the country. 
The balls of fire traveri-eJ tlje air fometimes for 
several minutes at a time, and explode 1 when about 
one-and-a-balf feet above the groua(^. G'obs lightning 
has been observed to accompany tornadoes as well 
as volcanic eruptions, but we do uot remember to 
have before heard of its appearance during a AVest 
Indian hurricane. 
At the Blue Hill Observatory, United States. Mr. 
H. II. Claylou has been making a large number of 
mcasuremonts ou thn nliitude of virions kinds of 
clouds, lie finJs that the averagj height of nimbus 
clou is is 412 metres, of cumulns, at; the base 1,558 
metres, of cirrus-stratus, 9,052 metre"', and of cirrus. 
