1?2 
THF tropical agriculturist. [September i, 1890. 
the ‘rose’ of buyers, is fr quentlv left lift)e more than 
half doue. The result ia tae ‘cup’ cau be easily 
guess d. 
We a e told by the native Tea Hongs ^hat it is now 
impossible to perform ihe various manipulations through 
which the article baa to pass before it reaches the for- 
eign buyer, at the same cost as in years gone by ; that, 
as we find it in civi ised Europe, so it is in this country, 
the cost of living and of work has increased much in tbe 
last two deoad s, ai d with the usual shrug of the shoul- 
ders we aie informed as a final argument, ‘no can help.’ 
Another cause of the falling off in quality is, from the 
native view, the uncertainly of the foreign demand, and 
strange as it may seem, the intr duotion into the Tea 
districts .'f the 'el -graph. Before the wire reached the 
garden districts, the native buyer knew his instructions, 
and bought such leaf ^.s he appr .ved of, conveying it to 
his central factory, where it was sp-edily turned into 
the ‘fragrant herb’ — now — what is the case ! He goes 
up with 'ns ructions, it is true, but the ‘telechit’ controls 
th m. No so I er has he comm nc<.d bis pu chases, than 
the result of previ- us seasons shipments to London, or 
elsewhere having b' e-i receive'! by the fo e gner, with 
anything bu^ s itisfaction, (or some other cau e tor al Tm) 
is at once either directly co iveyed to tbe ‘Hong,’ or fil- 
ters through our own native staff to it, and — a li'tle 
message fl.es up country, ‘wait while,’ or the eq'iivnleat 
of such ystot' s, r .e recipient of t 'e m tsi;.e obeys — his 
purchases up 'otl.e time of its receipt ace too small to 
make a chop — whilst he is watting f' r permission to buy 
further, what becomes of the leaf so bought ? 
So far as we can learn, it is half rolled ud half-fired, 
and laid aside for a few days, until the first alarm 
having subside!, the requisite permission is accorded, 
further leaf bought, and a ‘chop ’ is made. We readily 
concede th t we may be somewhat in error over the 
‘ modus operandi,' but some such process occurs and is 
partly responsible for the falling off iu quality. Of 
course the utter neglect of the plantations is one of the 
primary cau-es of this falling off, the excuse for such 
neg'eot, iu the month of the grower, is the small price 
received by him for bis leaf, which makes the growth 
of the succulent sweet potatoe quite as remunerative, 
and less precarious. Or the cau-cs affecting the cost 
of laying down Tea from the country at this port, it 
is unnecessary to spsak at length; — to the tale ot ‘lekin’ 
and subsidiary squeezes, often told tbe Chinese 
Authorities are deaf as adders, and their deafness and 
blin-'ness are increased by the ut'er, or might wt- say, 
intentional .stupidity of thei'- foreign adviser. When 
one so highly place 1 refuses to see any possible ame- 
lio'ation of these causes, and consoles hiiuself, and 
the Native Authorities with a shrug of the shoulder, 
ard the consoling rernark, that if the duty receivable 
on Tea 'is ‘falling off that on silk ^-c. is increasing, 
what hope is lelt ‘f As to any sucU suggestions that ihe 
‘Leki'i’ being a war tax, should long ago have been with- 
drawn, and that the export duty is now ridiculously in 
excess ot the percentage intended at the time Of its im- 
position, our own high officials are much too suave, and 
much too tender of the fne. dly relations of the two 
Empires to hint at any such disagreeable items. 
Again, why so much dust and b'oken leaf should be 
found in every package of Tea brought to this port we 
fail to understand. We believe we are right in si'ying 
that the percentage found m Ti as at H-nkow and 
Kiukiarig is smaller than at lids port, wnilat to com- 
pare either with that found in Teas from Oeylon is 
interesting, and instructive. To praise Gey on T' as, 
and to laud their cleanly manutacture, and the cheap- 
ness with which they are made, and to instance their 
fast increasing consumption not only in Eurepe but in 
ocr stronghold, Australia, is nothing to the point and 
only calls up envious feelings, nay even s'-metimes 
makes u'S cast a malevolent glance at the ‘figures’ relat- 
ing to the increased export from the ‘.spi"y isle,’ which 
are so persistently set before us in the Echo ; and in- 
deed we have an idea that the worthy purveyor of (hose 
figures may occasionally cast a wary look around him 
when retur'jiiig trom some festive board to his lair, 
lost perchance the ‘bitter cup’ may some day overflow 
uni he— tbe most approiimatti cause, be but we 
tffrbssr. 
Bitter it is to see — certain it is to predict the con- 
tinued decay of our trade and our living, unless — what? 
Unless a miracle happens, the floodgates of Ohinese 
restriction removed, foreigners permitted to own, or 
at least to superinted Tea gardens, and generally, this 
portion of the globe of most interest to us, to make 
a complete somersault. Is it at all likely in our time ? 
— China Mail. 
PLANTING IN NBTHBKLANDB INDIA. 
(From the Straits Times, July 9th.) 
The sugar cane disease in Java still defies the ex- 
perts, who find all the suggested remedies break down. 
The importation of plant cane from abroad has 
proved utterly unavailing to stay the evil. The na- 
ture and causes of the disease baffle inquiry, and ap- 
pearances point to no more satistactory result in the 
near future. The Surabaya Courant gives particulars 
of the sugar yield in Java of late years, which shows 
that the outturn in 1887 — 375,000 tons — has not been 
exceeded since. This year’s crop is likely to fall four 
per cent short of tho.xe figures. 
In the Java ports, the supply of estate managers, 
assistants, and overseers largely outruns the demand, 
and applicants swarm when chances of employment as 
such even in other lauds offer themeelvea. British 
Noith Borneo, espec-ally, has proved so attractive that 
it dr.iws a i-teady fl w of the unemployed. For in- 
stance, by last advices, seveial Europeans had started 
from Java for that country to fill situations on coffee 
and sugar estates. 
Tbe island of Engano, near the southern end of Su- 
ma*ra, has been appl ed for from Government by a 
Mr. Van Gogh on lease. Becent legislation has sim- 
plified applications for concessions of whole islands by 
dispensing with the need for preliminary survey. 
^ 
CEYLON BOTANIC GARDENS.* 
Bv Pkofessoe Harvey or Trinity College, Dublin- 
Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Peradenia, Ceylon, October, 10th, 1854. 
I propose sending you a short account of tbe 
present state of the Ceylon Botanic Gardens, now 
unaer the able management of G. H. K. Thwaites, 
Esq. The=e gardens are situated at Peradenia, 
four miles from Kandy, on the high road to 
Colombo, and at an elevation of about 1600 feet 
above ihe sea. They cover an undulating surface 
of 140 acres, a considerable portion of which is 
occupied bj an arboretum, into which, from time 
to time, the native forest-trees are introduced, and 
where eventually will be brought together most of 
the arborescent plants of the island, and such 
valuable forest trees as will stand the climate. The 
river Mahawelle Ganga flows round three sides of 
the garden. The opposite banks are steep, gra- 
dually rising into wooded hills of various heights ; 
some reclaimed and planted with coffee, others still 
covered with the Jungle. 
The approach to the garden, from the Kandy 
road, is through an avenue of tall India-rubber 
trees {Eicus Elastica), hung with various cretpers, 
such as Eignonias and Ipomcoas, an 1 nearly oppo- 
site the emranee gate, a remarkably fine epecimen 
of Bauhinia scandens (Jungle rope) throws its 
strangely compressed and twisted rope-like stems 
from branch to branch, and stretches fairly across 
the road. Immediately within the gate the broad 
gravelled road divides round a circular bed of palms, 
such as at some future day the new Crystal Palace 
m..y exhibit, but which, for luxuriance, is as yet 
u jrepiesentedin England. The group comprises the 
t lipot {Corygha umbraculifera), Livistona chinemis. 
Car Ota ureas, detise clumps of C. horrida. Boras- 
sus tlabdUformis, Areca catechu, Seaforthia Dicksoni' 
*F'om the “ Li'erary Gazette and Jourunl of 
Sdenue and Art ” of 26th November 1853. 
