326 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov.  I,  1895. 
The  first  attempts  to  grow  the  tea  plant  in  the 
Caucasus  were  made  thirty  years  ago,  but  they  were 
not  successful.  Professor  Boutlerow  intended  to 
renew  them  at  Soukhoum,  but  the  project  was  in- 
terrupted by  his  death  and  his  successors  had  no  success. 
Now  the  cultivation  of  the  tea  plant  seems  to  be 
safely  introduced  into  the  province  and  it  is  under  the 
protection  of  the  Government.”  In  conclusion  M. 
Bataline  says : “ The  events  which  are  now  proceed- 
ing in  the  Tar  Bast  may  bring  about  notable  changes 
in  the  tea  trade.  The  English  have  long  been 
growing  tea  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  and  in 
Ceylon,  but  the  Colombo  tea  is  disagreeable  in  flavour. 
Our  Caucasian  tea  is  superior  in  quality  and  we 
may,  perhaps,  look  forward  in  a few  years  to  drink- 
ing Russian  instead  of  Chinese,  which  now  costs  us 
annually  42,000,000  roubles,  just  as  the  Russian  wines 
are  every  day  expelling  more  and  more  foreign  wines 
from  our  daily  consumption. — Grocers’  Review. 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
Te.v  Shipments. — The  total  shipments  for  Sep- 
tember from  Colombo  to  London  were  b, 078, 000  lb. 
and  the  e.stimate  for  October  is  5i  to  G million  lb. 
against  actual  shipments  of  about  4,900,000  lb. 
in  October  1894. 
Pe.\rl  OY.STER  Cultivation.— London,  Sept. 
6th. — A Frenchman  has  asked  Mr.  Thomas  Play- 
ford,  Agent-General  for  Soutli  Australia,  for  the 
lease  of  a piece  of  tlie  foreshore  of  tlie  Northern 
Territory,  to  be  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
pearl  oyster. 
Goomera  Tea  Estates  Co.— Good  news  for 
Shareholders  in  this  Cyrnpany,  comes  by  the  mail, 
to  Messrs.  Baker  Hall,  in  the  shape  of  an 
announcement  of  a dividend  of  17  per  cent  for 
the  year  ending  June,  and  carrying  forward 
an  amount  equal  to  6 per  cent. 
Cinchona  Bark  and  Quinine— are  said  to 
be  on  the  rise,  and  tlie  New  York  Drurj  Reporter 
winds  up  an  editorial  as  follows  : — 
The  bavk  situation  is  daily  growing  stronger,  and 
another  year  may  see  the  alkaloid  considerably 
higher  than  it  is  today,  based  solely  on  natural 
conditions. 
The  Canary  Islands.— We  promised  our 
readers  a review  of  Dr.  D.  Morris’s  interesting 
paper  on  these  islands,  which  recently  reached 
us.  We  are  saveil  the  trouble  by  being  able 
to  take  over  an  excellent  resuni6  and  criticism, 
w'hich  has  .aiipeared  in  the  Morning  Rost,  ami 
which  will  be  found  reproduced  elsewhere. 
Export  of  China  Tea. —Our  Special  Tele- 
gram from  the  Far  East  continues  to  give  us 
satisfactory  new's  about  the  export  of  China  tea 
to  the  Lnited  Kingdom,  the  total  to  date 
being  less  than  that  at  the  .same  date  last 
year  by  2 million  lb.  The  China  tea  season  is 
generally  considered  to  come  to  a practical  close 
in  this  month  of  October,  and  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  a revival  of  the  trade  this  year,  as 
some  people  anticii)ated. 
“ Handbook  of  Horticulture  and  Viticulture  of 
Western  Au.stralia”  by  A.  Despeissis,  m.r.a.c.,  late 
Consulting  Viticulturist,  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, N.  S.  Wales,  Expert  of  the  Bureau  of  Agri- 
culture of  Western  Australia, — is  issued  by  direction 
of  the  Ibireau  of  Agriculture  and  a copy  has 
ju.st  been  sent  us  for  review  in  our  Tropical  Arjri- 
ciilturist.  This  -will  be  done  ; meantime  we  may 
mention  from  a glance  that  thus  volume  of  ;i.‘18 
clearly  printed  i)ages  is  exceedingly  well  put 
together  wuth  numerous  useful  engravings,  a 
map  of  the  South-west  jiortion  of  West  Austra- 
lia— from  Geraldton  to  Albany  shewing  the  Vine 
and  Fruit-growing  divisions  ; and  a capital  index. 
The  New  South  Wale.s  Land  Department 
is  now  ofl’ering  homestead  blocks  at  7s  6d  per 
acre,  capital  value.  This  low  value  has  been 
fixed  for  the  first  time  in  tlie  history  of  the 
colony. 
New  Limited  Companies. — A contemporary 
announces  that  the  next  Ceylon  Tea  Company 
to  be  floated  will  be  one  to  purchase  and  work 
three  well-known  e.states  in  Madulsima.  \Ve 
hear  of  one  or  two  other  new  Companies  besides 
to  take  over  adjacent  estates  in  other  districts 
and  work  them  economically  by  saving  separate 
factories.  This  is  the  basis  on  which  we  have 
always  advocated  the  establishment  of  Limited 
Companies,  .and  most  of  the  shares  in  these  cases 
are  taken  up  by  the  proprietors  and  their  friends. 
A fourth,  or  it  may  be,  fifth  jirojected  Company 
is  of  a somewhat  different  character,  as  it  is 
to  take  up  a new  lowcountry  industry  which 
lias  already  been  successfully  established.  Details 
of  all  of  these  will  no  doubt  shortly  appear. 
Selangor  Flantation.s  Syndicate.  — The 
meeting  of  shareholders  of  this  four  months 
old  Company  reported  in  another  column, 
though  purely  formal  in  character  was  of  a 
gratifying  nature.  Opportunity  was  given  to  the 
Chairman  (Mr.  Ludwig  Huttenback)  to  state  his 
belief  in  the  future  of  the  Syndicate.  Tliis,  he 
did  in  a happy  speech,  remarking  that  the  Di- 
rectors had  no  rea.son  to  alter  the  favourable 
opinion,  which  was  expre.ssed  by  them  when 
shares  were  offered  to  the  public.  In  British 
territory  under  a friendly  otiicial  body  he  had 
no  tloubt,  that  , the  Syndicate  would  receive  every 
assistance.  From  the  confident  tone  of  the 
Chairman’s  remarks,  it  looks  as  if  there  were  good 
times  ahead  for  the  Syndicate. 
Cotton  and  Pepper  Export.s  from 
Southern  India  in  1894-95  : AVhy  not 
Pepper  from  Ceylon  in  Large  Quanti- 
ties ? — The  valuable  return  forwarded  to  us  by 
Mr.  Ralph  Tatham  for  Messrs.  Arbuthnott  & Co,, 
ought  to  excite  the  interest  of  planters  and 
progressive  native  agriculturists  for  this  reason. 
Here  is  Southern  India  sending  away  in  the 
year  1894-95,  as  much  as  151,439  cwt.  of  Pep- 
per, valued  at  K2, 574, 468  ; while  Ceylon  with 
all  its  advantages  of  climate,  soil,  cheap  labour 
and  transport,  and  the  fact  that  a hundred 
years  ago,  it  was  a great  pepper-growing  and 
exporting  country,  and  h.as  among  the  Kegalla 
Sinhalese,  a lot  of  natives  well  acquainted 
with  the  pejiper  vine  and  its  ways, — cannot 
now  get  up  an  export  exceeding  143  cwt.  = 
K35, 115  (in  1894)  ! And  yet  pepper  is  one  of 
the  few  products  for  which  there  is  a good 
ami  pa3'ing  demand.  We  are  aware  that  the 
veteran  Mr.  W.  H.  Wright  at  Mirigama  and 
some  others  are  pioneering  once  more  with 
pepper,  and  we  wish  them  all  success.  Every 
tea  planter  in  Kegalla,  Polgahawella,  Western 
Dolosbage,  the  Kelani  Valley  and  Kalutara, 
ought  to  find  a second  string  to  his  bow  in 
“ Pepper.”  In  1650  A.D.,  Ceylon  ]icpper  was 
the  most  highly  valued  in  Europe.  In  A.D.  1740, 
Governor  Van  Imhoff  considered  pepper  in  Ceylon 
more  important  than  coffee,  and  tlie  Dutch,  the 
ye.ar  before  had  exported  nearly  half-a-million 
lb.  of  this  s])ice.  In  1843,  Bennett  wrote  that 
the  one  district  of  Kalutar.a  ought  to  grow 
more  peiiper  than  the  whole  island  then  jdelded. 
For  a long  series  of  years  the  Ceylon  export 
exceeded  100,000  lb.;  now  it  is  about  16,000  lb.! 
There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  grow  and 
shi])  up  to  the  value  of  one  or  two  million  of 
rupees, 
