56 
TMr TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[July i, 1890 . 
But this is not the worst, for a sysl'.pm of blackmail- 
incr has grown up amoneat the foremen and dock 
workers which ought certainlv to be stopped. These 
“dockers,” who, a few weeks b"o, were striking for 
more pay, now are not satisfied by being paid for 
their work, but also, in cases of urgency being re- 
quired, are not ashamed to demand “ beer-money, ” 
or to haye their palms greased by those requiring 
deliyery or sampUne, before they will trouble to exert 
theroselyps to do the work for which they are em- 
ployed. Country dealers often wonder, and write and 
complain of delays, but they little know tho trouble 
it often is, even after duties, &c., are all clear, to 
get deliyery in reasonable time. 
Then, again, there is the old end absurd prac'ice of 
havina' a general midday dinner-hour, when ell dock 
work, however urgent, must be suspended at the hnsi- 
pst time of the day ! and this, too, when Custom 
House work must be done before half-past three 
o’clock ! Fancy going into a bank, or some big store, 
to do business at midday, and being told you must wait 
for an hour, or call again after dinner ! Yet this is 
whet our trade have put up with for long years past. 
What is the remedy ? 1. To make the wharfing- 
ers understand they must pay better attention to 
the wants and requirements of the wholesale deal- 
ers, and not merely to the importers. 2. That the 
evils of a partial monopoly should be kept in check 
by some independent competition ; and tho best and 
most practical way of doing this would he by dealers 
establishing a wharf and bonded warehouse of their 
own, and managed in their interests, instead of in 
that of importers and proprietors. 
We know, of course, that the members of the Tea 
Clearing-House have agreed for a time not to encourage 
any fresh bonded waTehouseg being establisbe*!, but 
this rather short-sighted policy is one eaaily terminated 
by due notice for the benefit of the trade. A power- 
ful and wealthy body like that of the wholesale tea 
trade could easily start a comnanv for a “tea trade 
wharf,” and bring immediate business to support it 
and thus many of the vexations and delays at present 
experienced would soon be remedied, and the under- 
taking produce a fair profit into the bargain. 
AYill our Wholesale Tea Trade Committee take the 
matter into consideration and see what can be done ? 
They will find themselves 'well supported. — I am, &c , 
An Inconvenienced Dealer. 
London, May 21st. 
Coffee in Dimbula.— “ The Patriarch " writes 
“ What a glorious season ; never in my period can I, 
po far as I can recollect, remember such a season . 
Now nearly six months’ sunshine with ample moisture 
at periods when required: Tea flushing splendidly 
and wherever coffee is good it never looked more 
healthy than at this time, but I fear the next four 
months will show us our old enemy is still to the 
front when weather favours his developeraent.” 
TCalutara Tea and Paddy District, May 29th. 
- We had an awful night of lightning and 
thunder and rain which give us 5'26 : lucky it 
was not strong wind. It has done a lot of damage 
to roads and drains. We had on Sunday last 
service at Culloden. The Eev. Mr. Bestall came 
down; I am sorry the weather prevented many 
from coming. Since then Mr. Besta^’ has paid 
us all a visit. I am afraid he has had a very 
rough journey. I need not sa.y T am sure he 
rficeived a hearty welcome from all. Influenza still 
had and am sorry to say labour is searce, and 
regret more to hear that they are wanting more 
pay. I hope that no one will have to raise their 
wn"eR, for the present price of tea won’t allow it 
I have never seen the paddy look so wnl!, and 
should they get a good harvest, which I trust 
they will, no one will complain of paying tho paddy 
tax ; it is the very had years of lato that have been 
so much against thorn. 
Tea Prospects in Assam. — May has agam been a 
most disappointing monfh. The first few days were 
extremely hot with a tremendous sun, and t^e clerk 
of the weather has behaved to us very shshbilv in 
the wav of rainfall. Last vear he swamped us with 
something over 30 inches to date, and this year he 
has left ns thirsty and longing with something just 
over 12 inches, and without a single real’v heavy 
shower to record ; the result being that a’l gardens 
in this district are very much behind their estimates 
and outturn to a similar date last year. Unless we 
are more favoured in .June things will have assumed 
a really serious asneet, a= the drought has now 
gone well on into the season — Encfliahmun . 
Cinchona cultivation 'in Java. — The report 
of the Director of the Java Government Cinchona 
Enterprise for the first quarter of 1890 is a some- 
what gloomy one; for he speaks of much damage 
done to the plantations by wind-storms and still 
more by caterpillars, which are becoming a serious 
scourge. The only remedy seems to 'ue close 
planting, and this is being carried out everywhere. 
The weather being favourable during the quarter, 
planting operations were carried out vigorously, 
there being a sufficiency of young plants available 
for the purpose. The crop of 1889 was all des- 
patched to Tandjong Priok by the beginning of 
March, and amounted to 703 503 half kilograms of 
bark, of which 2,339 half kilos were reserved for 
the local military medical service. At the sales 
of 1889 bark at Amsterdam in January, February 
and March the prices averaged 9J, 10 and 9 cents. 
The Indian Like the China, Tea Season and 
Statistics close at end of April, and a great pity we 
now think it is, that tho Ceylon Commercial Season 
when altered was not made to run in correspon- 
dence ; for there will be this element of confusion 
with our Commercial statistics for the Calendar years, 
that they will never agree with the Customs 
returns to which so many authorities in the Com- 
mercial as well as Statistical world are apt to pay 
special attention. It will he very awkward to have 
two sets of figures, differing considerably, repre- 
senting the Staple Exports of Ceylon for a series 
of calendar years. It may not he too late for the 
Chamber of Commerce to consider whether they 
should not make their Commercial Export Season 
run from 1st May to 30th April, so that the Tea 
Statistics may be available for precisely the same 
periods as those of India and China and the 
confusion of varying returns for the calendar 
years avoided. A May to April season is 
what was asked for by the London Brokers. 
Black Walnut. — One of the largest specimens of 
Black Walnut probably ever sent to an eastern market 
in the log may now he seen in the timber yard of 
Messrs .Johnson Bros.. 385 Albany Street, Boston. The 
tree which produced it grew near the fa' Is of the 
Kenawah, in West Virginia, on the line of the China 
peakeand Ohio Railroad. The trunk, wh'ch measured 
sixty-four feet to the first hranches, has been cut 
into five lengths ; the butt log, the centre of which 
is hollow from decay, measures at the base eight 
feet and a half across The diameter of the log, cut 
twenty-five feet from the ground, is four feet two inches, 
and that fifty feet from the ground has a diameter of 
three feet eleven inehes in one direction and three 
feet in the other. The upper end of the fifth log. 
at a point sixtv-one teet from the ground, where 
the trunk had been a good deal flat'' ned. measures 
four feet one inch through one diameter, and two 
feet nine inches through the ether. These measure- 
ments are all made inside the bark. A thousand feet 
of lumber have been cut from the main branches 
and the five trunk loss are estimated to cootain 
10,000 feet. The wood in the butt log outside the 
central cavity is beautifully curled .and marked. A 
superficial examination of the annual layers of growth 
shows that this great tree has grown on tho whole 
with wonderful rapidity and that it is probably less 
than 300 years old , — Garden and Forest. 
