640 
TITK  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [March  3,  1S96. 
PLANTING  AND  PRODUCE. 
The  Wild  Tea  Plant  of  Assam  : From  the  Daily 
News. — “Leppett,  or  Letpet,  tea,  an  article  of  local 
commerce  in  Biinnah,  is  interesting  our  botanical 
experts.  It  is  not  entirely  new  to  us.  It  seems  to 
have  been  referred  to  under  the  name  of  ‘ pickled 
tea  ’ in  Watts’s  ‘ Dictionary  of  the  Economic  Pro- 
ducts of  India’;  and  Dr.  M'Clelland  identified  it  as 
the  produce  of  the  Elieodendron  orientale.  Mr. 
Thiselton-Dyer,  however,  who  has  been  examining 
some  specimens  sent  to  Kow  Gardens  from  the  India 
Office,  says: — ‘There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Lep- 
pett tea  is  the  produce  of  camellia  theifera,  the 
wild  tea  of  Assam,  where  it  it  was  discovered  in 
1834,  And  I learn  from  Sir  Dietrich  Brandis  that 
as  a matter  of  fact  the  plant  is  abundant  in  Upper 
Burmah  and  on  the  Upper  Shan  hills.  The  identifi- 
cation is  historically  interesting  as  rendering  it  prob- 
able that  the  Burmese  were  acquainted  with  the 
value  of  the  indigenous  plant  before  its  discovery 
in  Assam  by  Europeans.  It  further  indicates  the 
existence  of  a new  arr’S.  suitable  tor  the  tea  in- 
dustry.' Much  curious  informatiou  regarding  the 
Leppet  lea  is  brought  together  in  the  Ktw  Bulletin. 
It  is  grown  in  one  ol  the  Nothern  Shan  States. 
Two  crops  ot  lea  are  secured  each  year,  one  in 
May  and  one  in  .Tuly.  The  leaves,  while  still  green, 
are  boiled  in  largm  narrow-necked  pots  made 
for  the  purpose.  When  thoroughly  boiled  the  con- 
tents of  the  pots  are  turned  into  large  pits  dug  in 
the  ground  and  lined  with  thin  walls  of  plantain 
leaves.  The  pit  being  full  of  boiled  tea  and  the 
juices  from  the  pots,  a top  made  of  plantain  leaves 
is  placed  over  it,  and  earth  is  piled  above  it,  big 
stones  and  other  heavy  weights  being  finally  placed 
on  the  top.  The  tea  is  thus  preserved  and  com- 
pressed for  months,  the  pits  are  opened,  and 
the  tea  is  sold  to  the  traders,  who  comes  with 
their  caravans  of  bullocks  and  carry  it  away  to 
the  Mandalay  market.  For  drinking,  it  is  pre- 
pared by  boiling  it  in  an  earthen  ketttle,  and  it 
is  drunk  with  salt.  In  Lower  Burma  it  is 
largely  consumed  in  the  solid.  The  leaves  are  soaked 
in  oil,  a little  garlic,  dried  fi.sh,  Ac.,  is  added  and  the 
concoction  thus  formed  is  eaten  as  a great  dainty. 
\mong  Burmans,  at  the  important  junctures  of  a 
man’s  life,  such  as  birth,  initiation  into  the  Church, 
marriage  and  death,  ‘Iieppett’  plays  an  important 
part,  and  no  ceremony  is  complete  without  its  con- 
sumption.” 
Tea  IN  THE  United  States. — Our  Calcutta  contempo- 
rarv  Capital,  takes  a gloomyview' of  the  attempts  made 
to  capture  the  United  States  tea  market  on  behaif 
of  Indian  planters,  and  expresses  the  opinion,  founded 
on  statistics  taken  from  the  monthly  return  issued  by 
the  Washington  Bureau  of  Statistics,  that  the  special 
efforts  made  liave  so  far  had  little  result.  Of  the 
total  amount  of  tea  imported  into  the  Liuted 
States  during  thn  fir.st  ten  months  of  last  year  China 
contributed  3‘2,.'>00,()00,  .Japan  nearly  •27,n()(),OOn,  while 
India  sent  only  437,000  lb,  In  a comiiarison  of  the 
invoice  prices  of  the  three  varieties,  China  tea  stands 
lowest  at  tVOdper  lb,  Jaiiaii  comes  next  at  7 -‘2d,  while 
Indian  tea  averages  7'7d.  In  order  to  compete  on 
euuel  terms  with  the  Far  East,  the  Indian  expoitei 
must  apparently  contrive  to  place  his  teas  in  the 
Atlantic  ports  at  least  a half-penny  per  pound  cheaper 
than  he  does  at  present.  The  taste  for  tea  appears, 
Vinwpver  to  be  on  the  wane  throughout  the  States  ; for 
ihe  imports  during  the  first  ten  months  of  1895  were 
more  than  5,000.000  lb  below  those  of  the  same  period 
in  the  preceding  year.  Coffee,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  consumed  in  increasingly  large  quantities,  the 
fimmeT'fo"uie'ko7eHods^d  76,34^400 lb  in  1891 
and  4^,721,1.00  lb  in  1895.-//,  T C,  JlKnl,  Feb. 
11. 
THE  INDIAN  lilCE  CHOP,  lS95-9(i. 
Tlie  Statistical  Bureau  of  the  Government  of 
India  has  issued  tlie  following  final  general  memo- 
randum on  the  rice  crop  in  Bengal,  Lower  J>urma, 
and  Madras,  for  the  sea.son  1895-96 
'This  forecast  refers  to  the  rice  crop  in  Bengal,  the 
Government  villages  in  the  Madras  Presidency,  which 
comprise  about  2-3rds  of  the  area  of  that  province,  and 
the  fourteen  principal  rice-producing  districts  in  Lower 
Burma. 
The  total  area  under  rice  in  all  three  provinces 
amounts  to  49,062,128  acres,  which  is  not  quite  two 
per  cent  under  the  area  of  last  year,  but  that  area 
again  was  slightly  under  the  average.  The  decline 
is  confined  to  Bengal  in  which  province  there  is  a 
substantial  reduction.  In  Madras  and  Burma  there 
has  been  an  increase. 
The  yield  of  the  crop  is  < stimated  at  405,811,000cwt., 
more  than  three-fourths  of  this  quantity  representing 
the  production  in  Bengal,  which  is  estimated  at  a frac- 
tion under  318  million  cwt.  The  outturn  in  both  Madras 
(39,667,000  cwt.)  and  Burma  (18,258,000  cwt.)  is  materi- 
ally larger  than  last  year;  but  the  yield  in  Bengalis 
nearly  21  per  cent  below  that  of  last  year,  and  is 
almost  to  the  same  extent  smaller  than  the  average. 
The  result  therefore  is,  Bengal  bulking  so  largely 
as  a rice-producing  country,  that  the  total  yield  of 
all  three  provinces  is  expected  to  he  about  181  per 
cent  smaller  tlian  last  year  and  2)  per  cent  below 
tho  average. 
In  Bengal  tho  area  and  outturn,  in  cleaned  rice, 
compare  with  the  average  as  follows  : — 
Area  in  acres. 
1891.  Average. 
Autumn  rice  . . 7.045,100  7,400,000 
Winter  rice  . . 30,447,100  32,600,000 
Outturn  in  cwt. 
1895.  Average. 
Autumn  rice  . . 45,289,900  54,400,0(X) 
Winter  rice  ..  272,625,800  .3.59,:300,000 
The  estimate  for  the  outturn  of  Bengal  winter  rice 
as  given  two  months  ago  (in  the  second  general  memo- 
randum issued  from  this  office  on  the  Mst  December) 
remains  unchanged.  It  was  stated  in  th.tt  forecast 
that  the  season  in  Bengal  had  been  very  unfavour- 
able, the  rainfall  in  September  and  October  hav- 
ing been  deficient  over  large  areas,  while  there 
was  practically  none  in  November.  There  has  been 
no  change  since  then  to  justify  a favourable  modifi- 
cation of  the  estimate. 
In  Madras  the  crop  generally  is  reported  to  be 
fair,  except  in  Nellore,  North  Arcot,  Madura  and 
Tinnevelly,  in  where,  consecjiience  of  the  failure  of  the 
early  rains,  tho  yield  is  estimated  to  be  not  more 
than  nine-sixteenths  of  an  aveiage  crop.  The  crop 
is  also  below  the  average  in  Godavari  and  Kistna 
owing  to  floods.  On  the  whole  the  yield  for  the 
presidency  is  estimated  to  be  nearly  three-fourths  of 
the  average,  which  represents  the  outturn  of  five 
favourable  years. 
In  Burma  the  yield  is  much  less  than  the  average 
in  Akyab,  Pegu,  Prome,  and  Amherst;  and  slightly 
less  in  Henzada.  Elsewhere  it  is  above  the  average, 
and  the  total  for  all  the  reporting  districts  is  frac- 
tionally in  excess  of  the  average  and  substantially 
larger  than  the  outturn  of  last  year.  The  estimate 
of  the  quantity  available  for  export  is  now  a little 
smaller  than  the  estimate  of  December : it>  stands 
at  1,545,000  tons  of  cargo  rice,  equivalent  to  26,186,000 
cwt.  of  white  rice. 
MARKET  FOR,  TEA  SHARES. 
Thursday,  Evening  Feb.  13. 
There  has  again  been  a steady,  and,  indeed,  almost 
an  active  business  in  many  of  the  best  Indian  Tea 
Companies’  shares. 
Ceylon  Shares. — C.  T.  P.  Co.  Ordina'y  are  said  to 
have  been  done  as  high  as  25  l-«tli,  but  are  now,  we 
understand,  sellers  at  that  price  or  less.  The  Prefs. 
have  touched  16i},  and  now  ask  a higher  price. 
Lanka  Plantations  have  been  asked  for,  and  5i  or 
thereabouts  might  be  given. 
Scottish  Ceylon  Ordinary,  after  asking  as  much  as 
22},  came  to  business,  we  understand,  at  1‘22. — B.d  C, 
Mail,  Feb.  14. 
