222 
THE TROPICAL AOR!CULTURI8T. [September i, 1890. 
with some degree of certainty what growths 
and what processes will the nearest meet the 
tastes of consumers. These vary so much in 
different countries that probably tea required by 
users in America or Eussia might demand a 
different system of curing altogether to that which 
satisfies the English palate. What your planters 
want, as it appears to me, is reliable data upon 
which to found — and vary as need may arise — the 
practice of their treatment of teas for the several 
markets, and this it seems natural to expect 
could best be afforded by the results to such experi- 
menting as Mr. Hughes suggests. 
But that gentleman, during the discussion of the 
foregoing topic, mentioned to me a further circum- 
stance which must have a very important bearing 
upon the question. A little time back my letters 
mentioned to you how greatly at variance was the 
judgment of tea'tasters here with those of similar 
experts in Ceylon. At the time of my 
then writing, I ventured on an expres- 
sion of my view that this might be due 
to the difference in the constituents of 
the waters used for infusing here and in Ceylon. 
At the same time such evidence as was procur- 
able in support of that view were mentioned to 
you ; but I had not then secured the authoritative 
evidence which Mr. Hughes has now afforded to 
me. He tells me that he has been informed by a 
gentleman largely interested in the tea trade, that 
some London firms who do a large business in 
Ireland actually import Dublin water to London 
for the purpose of testing teas intended for Ireland. 
It is scarcely possible to imagine a stronger 
evidence of the important results which the use 
of different waters for infusing teas may have 
than is this. The Irish have a great reputation 
as connoisseurs of tea, and it is known that 
they will pay a higher price for particularly fine 
teas than people on this side of St; George’s 
Channel are willing to give. Very probably, if tea 
intended for the Irish market were selected here 
upon tasting done with London water, a shipment 
so determined might be altogether refused in Dublin. 
Indeed it does not seem improbable that water 
has as important an effect upon tea as it has upon 
malt and'hopei in the manufacture of beer. Dublin 
stout we know to be famous, and Allsopp’s has 
achieved its reputation mainly owing to the character 
of the water derived from the Trent. Now 
you cannot select the waters for your customers 
to use with your teas, but you may prepare for 
them teas which you can assure them will yield 
less of tannin according as they are infused with 
hard or soft water. So important are these two main 
divisions of water characteristic that Mr. Hughes 
tells me that along the whole of the south coast 
of England, where the water is for the most part 
hard, being derived from the chalk formation, tea 
grown on hill estates finds a marked preference by 
purchasers- This fact illustrates pretty accurately 
what should be aimed at by your planters, and 
very probably with the experiments suggested by 
Mr. Hughes others might be usefully combined to 
show how their results were affected by the use of 
different kinds of water. I feel this subject to be 
one of so important a character that no apology is 
necessary from me for the length at which it has 
been here dealt with. 
Has the culture of the clove ever been tried in 
Ceylon?* Somehow or other it seems to me that 
we have heard of such a trial having been made. 
Anyway, in view of the great usefulness of sugges- 
tion lor new industries, it may be worth while 
’ .See Planting ilcviaw in our new Handbook. — E d. 
I.ji. 
just to give you the following extract fmm the 
Times relating to the culture of this .ppice in and 
about Zanzibar : — 
Clove Cultuee in Zakzibae and PEMBA^The 
United States Consul at Zanzibar in a recentreport 
states that the culture of cloves is the principal industry 
in Zanzibar and Pemba, the latter producing three- 
fourths of the total harvest, while Zanzibar produces 
the best quality elove=. The culture was ir trodueed 
into the island in 1830. and todav thev are the 
principal sources of the world’s supply. The clove of 
commerce is the bud of the clove-tree. It takes five 
or six years from the time of seeding for a tree to 
bear the buds. At two years of age the trees are 
3 ft. high. They are planted 30 h. apart at that time, 
and left with only ordinary care until they are ready 
to produce the buds. The latter do not ripen all at 
once, but at intervals during six months. They are 
then spread in the sun until they become brown, 
when they are warehoused, ready for market. A plant- 
ation ten years old produces an average of 20 lb. of 
cloves to a tree. Trees 20 years old frequently produce 
100 lb each. The crop for the present year, which is 
the largest on record, will amount to 13,000,0001b., 
averaging a local value of 5d a pound. A duty of 30 
per cent ad valorem is levied by the Sultan. The only 
other parts of the tree which are utilized are the stems, 
which are gathered and are sold for about a fifth of 
the price of cloves, and with about the same per- 
centage of strength. These go to make what is knowTi 
as ground cloves. The plantations have hitherto been 
worked with slave labour, but the stonpage of the 
supply of slaves from the mainland involves increased 
expense for harvesting, as well as the risk of loss 
from failure to harvest quickly when the buds appear. 
— London Cor. 
« 
THE JENOLAN CAVES IN NEW SOUTH 
WALES 
have been described in a nicely got-up publication, 
by Mr. J. J. Foster, a presentation copy of 
which has been sent to us, by its recipient, 
for notice. These marvellously extensive caves 
are within easy distance of Sydney by railway 
across the Blue Mountains and otherwise, 
situated amidst charming scenery, in a district 
fertile, rich in varied vegetation and salubrious. 
The formation is limestone in which the shapes of 
fossil corals, shells and many other interesting marine 
objects can still be traced, the eroding agencies being 
mountain born streams which fiow through and 
form cascades in some of the caves. Stalagmites 
rise like marble pillars on all sides while stalactites 
assume the forms of exquisitely beautiful curtains 
and shawls, striped black, brown, cream color, 
yellow and white, and which are arranged in graceful 
folds. In some eases a diamond-like sheen is im- 
parted by light reflected from the facets of thousands 
of crystals, white and amber-coloured. In one 
instance a depth of nearly 500 feet has been traced, 
but it is impossible yet to calculate the extent, 
size, or depth of the cavities. It is claimed for them 
that they are amongst the largest, tne most numerous 
and the most beautiful in the world. Portions of the 
caves are bright with a marble polish, produced by the 
passage over them, during countless ages, of the nume- 
rous animals which made their abode in the eaves, 
wallabies (a small species of kangaroo) especially. 
In a notice of the geology of the limestone stratum 
(interbedded with sandstone and shale) in which the 
erosion of water has produced the wonderful series 
of caves, it is stated ; — 
“ It is not nniiitoreating to reflect that the limestone, 
now a compact gri y marble, was once a mass of living 
corals, “ stone lilies,” and molluscs, revealing the 
former existence, in the Siluro-Devonian e])och, of 
couditions of marine life somewhat resembling those 
which support tho beautiful living forms which buil 
