Feu.  I,  1S96.J 
THE  TROPICA! 
AGRICULTURIST. 
529 
this  is  not  practicable;  then,  in  preference  to  Chinese 
merchants  being  enriched,  we  would  certainly  pre- 
fer that  the  profit  made  out  of  tlie  tea  trade  in 
Burma  went  iuto  the  pockets  of  the  Indian  planter. 
— Rangoon  Times. 
INDIAN  TEA  AND  COFFEE 
STATISTICS. 
C.ALcurxA,  JanuHi-y  10th. — Mr.  O’Gonnorhas  collected 
some  very  interesting  statistics  on  tea  and  coffee 
cultiv.rtion  in  India. 
The  tea  area  at  the  end  of  1891  was  422,551  acres, 
vi/.,  151,000  in  Assam,  114,000  in  Cachar  and  Sylhot, 
121.000  in  Bengal,  and  the  rest  in  the  N.  W.  P.  the 
Punjab,  and  tlie  South  of  India,  Prom  1885  the  in- 
crease in  the  area  has  been  48  per  cent.,  and  in  the 
production  over  88  per  cent.  The  number  of  ]jersons 
employed  is  reckoned  at  383,000  permanently,  and 
150.000  temporarily. 
Coffee  at  the  end  of  1894  showed  289,000  acres 
rmder  cultivation,  all  being,  except  37,(  00  acres  in 
Burma,  in  the  South  of  the  Madras  Presidency, 
Mysore  claims  13li,0(J0  acres,  Coorg  71,000,  and  the 
Nilgiris  and  Malabar  45,000  acres.  The  yield  fluc- 
tuates largely,  and  Mr.  O’Connor  remarks  that  the 
attention  of  local  authorities  might  with  advantage 
be  drawn  to  defects  which  seem  to  exist  in  the  sta- 
tistics. About  155,000  persons  are  engaged  in  the 
industry. — M.  Times. 
TEA  PLANTING  IN  INDIA. 
JoKKHAUT,  Jan.  1. — Pruning  is  well  in  hand  on 
many  gardens.  We  are  having  superb  weather, 
grand  shooting,  too,  snipe  being  abundant  this  season. 
Uak.teeling. — Now  that  the  Christmas  and  New 
Year  festivities  are  over,  the  work  of  getting  ready 
for  the  ensuing  season  has  been  taken  seriously  in 
hand.  Matters  of  labour,  pruning  general,  clearing 
up,  and  the  usual  could  weather  operations  are  now 
well  in  hand  in  most  gardens. 
Dam  Dim,  Dec.  31,  1895. — Weather  has  been  very 
cold  and  chilly  at  nights  of  late  and  a good  deal  of 
sickness  is  hanging  about.  Plucking  is  now  over  and 
pruning  is  in  hand.  Outturns,  on  the  whole,  have 
been  fairly  good.  Kecruiting  reijovts  so  far  are  favour- 
able, and  already  a few  good  coolies  are  on  the  way 
up.  SQrae  of  the  old  gardens  here  arc  extending 
next  season. 
SiLiouia  Jan.  2,  1890. — The  season  has  entirely 
closed  here,  and  as  soon  as  the  seasonable  destrac- 
eions  are  over,  we  shall  be  hard  at  it  pruning  again. 
— Indian  Planters'  Gazette,  Jan.  4. 
TEA  IN  BURMA. 
A contemporary  asks  why  the  cultivation  of  tea 
should  not  be  added  to  the  industries  of  Burma 
and  be  a paying  undertaking  also.  When  it  is  re- 
membered, says  the  journal  in  question,  that  year 
by  year  in  India  large  incomes  ai’e  realized  from 
tea  estates,  it  seems  a pity  that  such  a source  of 
wealth  should  be  closed  to  Burma  merely  from  want 
q£  enterprise.  The  r ipid  strides  which  tea-growing 
has  made  in  xVssam,  a neighbouring  province,  may- 
be perceived  from  the  fact  that  tea  alone  accounts 
lor  nearly  500  lakhs  out  of  a total  value  of  exports 
of  680  lakhs  of  rupees  during  the  year  1894-9.  Burma 
possesses  one  advantage,  and  an  important  one,  over 
many  parts  of  India  in  which  Jhe  tea  plant  now 
flourishes:  the  tea  plant  is  indigenous  to  this  coun- 
try, while  it  had  to  be  acclimatised  and  reared  at 
much  e-xpcnse  and  trouble  in  India.  There  are,  as  a 
fact,  flourishing  estates  in  India  which  owe  iheir 
origin  to  tea  seed  imported  from  some  Shan  plateau. 
The  tea  produced  in  Burma  is  of  a coarse  quality, 
unsuitable  for  liquoring  and  reaches  the  markets  unly 
as  a pickled  preparation.  In  fact,  the  natives  do  not 
understand  the  science  of  tea  cultivation  ; we  say 
Science  for  it  is  now  acknowledged  everywhere  that,  in 
thfe  future,  edentific  methods  of  tea  cultivation  will 
be  alone  admissible  if  the  industry  is  to  remain 
in-oiitable  to  those  who  undertake  it.  As  mentioned 
above,  the  tea  planter  in  Burma  starts  with  the 
great  advantage  that  the  plant  is  indigenous  to  the 
country.  There  is  another  advantage,  and  one  per- 
haps as  important.  All  the  knowledge  which  Indian 
and  Ceylon  planters  have  gained  through  years 
of  toil  at  enormous  expense,  all  the  results  of  most 
recent  scientific  experiments  in  manures,  blights,  and 
other  questions  of  vital  importance  in  tea  cultiva- 
tion are  at  the  disposal,  at  the  cost  of  a few  rupees, 
of  the  tea  planter  in  Burma.  lie  will  not  be  group- 
ing in  the  dark  as  many  of  his  Indian  confreres 
have  clone,  and  through  there  is  much  still  to  be 
learned  in  connection  with  tea  cultivation  the 
planter  in  this  country  need  fear  no  losses  or  failure 
if  ho  goes  with  his  eyes  open. 
We  do  not,  on  the  otlier  hand,  blind  ourselves  to 
the  difficulties  to  be  contended  with.  The  chief 
difficulty  is  the  want  of  labour,  although  a greater 
one  may  exist  in  a reluctance  on  the  part  of  the 
Government  to  lease  laud  on  favourable  conditions. 
The  latter  obstacle  would,  of  course,  place  the  subject 
out  of  consideration  altogether.  The  scarcity  of 
labour  would  not  be  an  insurmountable  difficulty. 
Almost  without  exception  imported  labour  is  utilised 
in  the  Indian  tea  districts  and  we  see  no  reason  why 
coolies  who  go  readily  to  Assam  and  Cachar  should 
not  come  to  Burma.  At  the  worst  the  question  of 
importing  Chinese  labour  might  be  considered  and 
it  would  be  a novel  undertaking  to  make  use  of  her 
own  people  in  the  competition  which  is  now  going 
on  with  Cliina  in  the  tea  trade. 
No  time  could  be  better  than  the  present  for  the 
production  of  Burma  tea.  Indian  and  Ceylon  com- 
bined, through  Messrs.  Blechyndeu  and  Mackenzie, 
the  Commissioners  of  their  respective  Tea  Associa- 
tions, are  exploiting  the  American  market  in  the 
interest  of  British  tea,  and  in  Australia  and  South 
Africa  the  taste  for  Indian  and  Ceylon  teas  is  grow- 
ing rapidly.  China,  which  formerly  possessed  the 
monopoly  of  the  world’s  market,  is  gradually  falling 
behind,  and  when  she  is  extinguished,  as  she  no 
doubt  will,  the  demand  for  British  tea  will  be  enor- 
mous and  unless  the  cultivation  is  increased,  beyond 
the  supply.  A start  is  required,  and  in  a very  short 
time  Burma  will  be  in  the  field  as  a tea  supplier.— 
Indian  Planters'  Gaziette,  Jan.  4. 
THE  IVORY  TRADE  OF  ANTWERP. 
THE  BRITISH  CONSUL’S  REI’ORT. 
The  ivory  industry  which,  of  late,  has  sprung  iuto 
new  life  at  Antwerp  is  one  of  considerable  anti- 
quity. In  old  commercial  xVnnals  of  the  Town  it 
is  stated  that  in  the  year  1546  a Spanish  vessel, 
the  “ Santa  de  Maria  de  Victoria,”  was  captured 
off  the  coast  of  Spain  by  English  privateers.  This 
vessel,  according  to  the  old  chronicle  referred  to, 
was  proceeding  from  the  African  coast  to  Antwerp, 
laden  with  sugar,  spice,  oil,  and  ivory,  the  latter 
commodity  consisted  of  340  elephants’  tusks  (weigh- 
ing altogether  about  64  tons),  and  was  the  property 
of  a Spanish  merchant  named  Rodrigo  de  Llanos,  who 
resided  in  this  city.  The  seized  merchandise  was 
taken  to  London  and  there  sold.  It  may  be  sur- 
mised that  the  ivory  trade  of  Antwerp  was  of  some 
importance  in  the  16th  century,  as  we  have  evidence 
that  skilled  artisans  at  that  time  occupied  themselves 
exclusively  in  ivory  working.  xVs  an  instance  of 
this,  the  will  of  one  Hans  Van  Utrecht,  an  ivory 
turner,  ivho  died  at  Antwerp  in  1580,  contains  an 
inventory  of  his  effects,  which  comprised  lathes, 
ivory  saws  and  tools  of  all  kinds,  rare  woods,  ivory, 
buffalo  horns,  and  manufactured  articles,  such  as  ivory 
boxes,  combs,  seals,  etc.  After  the  termination  of 
the  Spanish  dominion  in  the  Netherlands,  however, 
it  would  seem  that  the  ivory  trade  languished  and 
finally  disappeared  altogether.  No  attempt  appears 
to  have  been  made  to  revive  the  trade  until  1887, 
when,  in  view  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Belgian 
inlorc-ts  in  the  Congo,  and  in  order  to  make  Auti- 
sveip  the  outlet  tor  the  natural  products,  of  that 
country,  a company  was  formed  named  the  Uppej 
