THE TROPI6AL AQ«!GULTURl§t. 
[June i, i8gr. 
850 
anuuru. Already tlie consumption in that country has 
grown to be more than three tunes greater than that of 
France, and those best qualified to judge assert that 
there is no real reason why, with a little pushing, Ihe 
German tea consumption should not be brought uji to at 
least one pouint pet head within a moderate period. 
In a recent letter on this subject, the secretary of 
the Indian Tea Districts’ Association writes: — 
‘■The annual tea consumption per head of population 
in Germany is about 41 grammes, against only 14 gram- 
mes in France — the population being about 48,000,000 
against 36,000,000 so that the quantity of tea consumed 
is already as lour to one. In Holland the consumption 
is over 600 grammes per head per annum, or fiiteen 
times greater than in Germany. If therefore the Ger- 
man rate of consumption cmld be raised to that of 
the Netherlands, the present German consumption of 
about 4,506,000 b- would be converted into 65,000,0001b. 
to 700,000,0001b.’’ 
Here, then, is evidently good work to be done for 
Indian tea. The Gormans uie eminently a teachable 
people. They are highly intelligent, and new ideas, 
if sound, find with them a sure, it not an over hasty 
acocptauce. They also now travel much ; they visit 
many lauds, audsojouru wi hmany peoples, iloturu- 
lug, as thousands ol them do, to end their days in the 
Fatherland, they introduce many fresh views of life 
and mani ers, and as it is for the most part ivith one 
or other branch of our own race that the traveller in 
his search of fortune has been in contact, it is not 
surprising to find that in Geimaiiy the word “ foreign ” 
is rapidly becoming a mere s)uonym for the W'ord 
“ Buglish.” Add to this that by fur the greater num- 
ber of visitors to Germany every year are English and 
Americans, while the influence of things F'rench is 
dwindling to a muiimum, and we see that any changes 
that may or do come in German national habits must 
necessarily be in the direction of anglieisaiiuu. 
Now tea drinking is tar too prominent a fooial 
custom of all branches of the Anglo-Saxon race to 
be easily overlooked, and nothing is more noticeable 
to the English traveller than the improvement of 
late years m the provision made to meet his require- 
ments iu this respect. The request for a dish of 
tea at an hotel no longer produces, first a blank look 
then a mild commotion, and finally a lukewarm pot 
of gingerbeer-coloured liquid, tasting more like the 
straw in packing-cases than like anything else iu 
heaven or earth. All that is a thing of the past, at 
least in the better hotels and restaurants — but the 
quality of the leaf — generally a common China 
Congou with a peculiar Continental “ twang ” of its 
own, still leaves much to be desired. The ordinary 
price, too, of tea in Germany, when the duty is after 
all only 6d a lb., makes it still practically the luxury 
of the well-to-do, who are now compelled to pay from 
4 to 9 marks a lb. for a range of teas for the most 
part much inferior to those sold in Eugland at from 
Is 6d to 3s. 
It seems clear then, that there is here a most 
promising opening for his ever-increasing product, 
which the Indian plantar would do well to secure for 
his own. 
Just at present that usually energetic personage is 
— perhaps naturally — inclined to be somewhat apathetic 
as be glances contentedly at a comforting fourteen 
penny average, and indulges doubtless in happy day 
dreams of an increasingly thirsty forty millions of 
llritons who will ccritinueatf infuiilun to absorb greedily 
all the numherlobs thousands oC tea chests he cau empty 
into the ucLiug void of their tea-pots ! 
But what a China aw'akos to the situation? or Cey- 
lon doubles her present oui-'uru ? What is to happen 
when the whirligig ol timo brings round another “do- 
jireesion of trade," with rts instant and inevitable 
effect upon the consumption of all articles, and es- 
pecially of things liquid ? T'hat all of these cases are 
pobsiniiitii s wo think none would deny, and therefore 
tlioBo who have tho intornsts of linlian tea roidly at 
heart would in our opinion do well to lose no opport- 
unity of cr aling new outlets iu order to provide a< ainst 
ft not good, but possibly bad, time coming , — IL ^ C 
PuU, 
A EEMEDY FOB FOTATO DISEASE, 
Since the article on the prevention of potato 
disease by the use of sulphate of coppier appeared 
in I'he Times, on Monday of last week, a report 
of similar experiments by M. Petermann, Direcieur 
de la Station Agrouomique do i’Etat d Gembloux 
Bolgiutn), has come to hand. M. Petermann, like 
M, Girard iu France, made tests with sulphate of 
copper, but he also tried another remedy — viz., sul- 
phate of iron. His experiments showed that the 
sulphate of copper dressing was effective, and, whilst 
it did not injuriously affect the weight of the crop, or 
the richness of the root in fecuia, it most certainly 
reduced the percentage of unsound or diseased pota- 
toes. M. Petermann used a stronger dressing than 
M. Girard, his formula being (per hectare), sulphate 
of copper, 50 kilog. ; lime, M kilog. ; and water, 
25 hectolitres. The test showed diseased roots 
amounting to only 7 per cent, on the total quantity 
raised, as against 30 per cent, of unsound tubers 
where the dressing was not used. The treatment 
with iron is very favourably spoken of, as it resulted 
iu the diseased potatoes being lessened in quantity 
by 12 per cent. The iron mixture is composed 
as uaoer: — Sulphate of iron, 50 kilog.; lime, 25 
kilog. , and water, 25 hectolitres per hectare. It 
is simply the substitution of iron for the copper, 
and the cost of treatment, M. Petermann says, 
s consequently much less. He regards the ex- 
periments as of vast importance, and contemplates 
further inquiry into the subject, 
. — 
EXPOETS OF TEA. 
The large shipments of tea last month from 
Colombo deserve a special word of comment. It 
will be observed that the total for April was 
equal to 7,056,1631b., and for the four months — 
January -April — the aggregate of shipments is no 
less than 21,969,246 lb. 1 Now if this were an 
ordinary year, such figures would point to a total 
export for the year of not less than 66,000,000 lb., 
for the percentage of our annual shipments sent 
away in the first quarter or third of the year is 
by no means so large, usually, as in the other 
two-thirds. But it is well-known that since Decem- 
ber, the season has been an extraordinarily favour- 
able one for flushing. Considering, however, how 
busy our planters are on all sides, we feel fully 
certain that for the year, the 60 millions lb. will be 
exceeded in the total shipments. The estimate of 
the Indian Tea crop of 1891 given elsewhere is 
116,000,000 of which perhaps 109 millions may go 
to the United Kingdom, against a total for Ceylon 
of 61 millions of which 57 millions may go to 
London. 

Indian Iebigation.— The Hon’ble Alfred Deakin, 
the Victorian ex-Minister, who was the first to carry 
out practically the suggestion of Bishop Moorhouse 
to “ conserve the waterfall rather than pray for 
rain ’’ by instituting irrigation works under Messrs, 
t.'haffey Brothers, has returned from his visit to 
India, whither ho proceeded specially to study the 
system of Indian irrigation. On his return Mr. 
Deakin observed to a Press interviewer: “Indian 
irrigation is on by far the largest scale and by 
far the best of any in the world. As far as engi- 
neering work is concerned, it far exceeds anything 
else I have seen in Egypt, Italy, or America. 
Tho white people in the country don’t know it. 
I was the first white man in tho country, who 
was not an official, who went up the Sirhind 
Canal.”— /nc^ian Engineer, April 25th. 
