July  i,  1896.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
47 
Tea  in  China. — The  Foochow  Echo  says:— It  is  es- 
timated that  tlie  value  of  the  funds  sent  up-country 
for  the  purchase  of  the  new  season’s  tea  is  twenty 
lakhs  of  dollars.  Included  in  this  estimate  is  the 
value  of  the  opium,  lead,  and  piece-goods  taken  up 
by  the  teamen.  The  total  is  about  the  same  as 
last  year.  We  believe  that  the  teamen  have  gone 
away  well  advised  as  to  ])rospects,  and  with  the  de- 
pressing accounts  of  markets  in  London,  Australia, 
North  America,  and  Canada  it  certainly  behoves 
them  to  be  cautious  about  the  prices  they  pay.  They 
must  be  prepared  for  a lower  scale  to  rule  here,  for 
assuredly  foreign  buyers  cannot  afford  to  run  the 
risk  of  repeating  their  purchases  at  last  season’s  rates. 
The  Wild  Change  as  a Substitute  eok  Coeeee. — 
It  has  been  discovered  that  the  fruit  of  the  wild 
orange  that  grows  on  the  Island  of  Benuion  has  the 
aroma  of  the  coffee  berry.  At  it  costs  less  to 
raise  the  wild  orange  than  regular  coffee,  naturally 
the  planters  are  substituting  the  former  for  the 
latter,  and  the  Government  even  has  ordered  that 
a great  part  of  the  highlands  on  the  island  be  re- 
served for  the  cultivation  of  the  new  bogus  coffee. 
One  bright  gleam  on  the  coffee  horizon  is  in  the 
fact  that  the  new  berry  will  be  so  cheap  that  it 
will,  if  its  culture  succeeds,  drive  out  chicory,  and 
as  an  adulterant  it  is  said  to  be  much  less  vile  than 
that  staple  coffee  cheapener. — Emit  Grower,  May  13. 
A Valuable  Palm,  So-called. — It  is  stated  on  the 
authority  of  Modern  Society,  that  Miss  Helen  Gould, 
the  gentle  inaiden-inilliouaire,  who  takes  a great 
pride  iu  her  conservatories,  “ has  just  committed  a 
little  piece  of  personal  extravagance  in  the  purchase 
of  a very  rare  palm,  for  which  she  paid  the  sum 
of  T7,000.  This  palm  is  a magnificent  specimen  of 
‘‘  llavanola  uiadargarvien  !”  (Ravenala  madagasca- 
riensis),  “ and  stands  a little  over  32  feet  high,  while 
it  is  nearly  100  years  old.”  This  species  will  be 
known  to  some  under  the  name  of  Uraniaspeciosa.lt 
may  not  be  generally  known  that  the  French  term  this 
palm  *•  the  travellers’  tree,”  probably  on  account  of 
the  water  which  is  stored  up  iu  the  large  cup-like 
sheaths  of  the  leaf-stalks,  and  with  which  travellers 
are  said  to  allay  their  thirst.  The  leaves  are  of 
gigantic  size  somewhat  like  those  of  MusaEnsete, 
hut  arranged  iu  tw'o  rows  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
arboreus  stem.  [The  plant  is  nearer  to  Musa  than  to 
palms.  Ed.]  — G urJenerts’  Chronicle,  May,  9th. 
Goveknmlnt  Cinchona  Plantations.— In  the 
U.P.A.  papers  published  in  tliis  issue  will  be  found 
the  answer  ot  Government  to  the  Association’.s 
letter  o.f  September  last  regarding  the  contem- 
plated extensions  of  the  Government  Cinchona 
Estates.  Sir  Arthur  Havelock  has  not  been  for- 
tunately advised  in  bis  treatment  of  the  question. 
Putting  Sir  iM.  E.  Grant  Huff’s  promises  on  one 
.sice,  it  is  surely  the  lieight  of  absurdity  to 
maintain  that  because  an  industry  is  languish- 
ing, therefore  it  sliould  receive  no  help.  It  is 
just  because  cinchona  cultivation  is  in  a bad  way 
that  it  would  be  extremely  grateful  for  help  of 
the  kind  advocated.  The  price  of  the  (luininc 
now  sold  to  the  [iiiblie  allows  of  Government 
paying  a substantial,  though  rcasonalde,  rate  to 
private  growers,  which  would  do  a vast  ileal  to 
keep  them  from  abandoning  tlieir  estates  altogether. 
Theie  is  more  than  sullicieni  cinchona  under 
cultivation  in  'rravaiicore,  Wynaad,  and  the 
Nilgiris  to  provide  all  bark  required  for  many 
years  to  come,  but  without  lull  and  accurate 
statistics,  it  is  of  course  hojicless  to  get  Govern- 
ment to  believe  this.  Wesliould  advise  the  U.P.A. 
to  lirst  obtain  the  necessary  information  as  to  the 
Government  requirements  for  tlie  next  few  yeaivs, 
and  the  amount  that  could  be  sup)died  by  indvate 
jilantations,  before  making  another  protest. 
— rianthuj  Opinion,  May  23. 
JiiTTEii  Guanoes. — The  naluralist  Galloaio  was  the 
first  to  trace  the  history  of  the  orange,  and  the  re- 
sult of  his  careful  researches  he  published  in  1811  at 
Paris.  According  to  this  author  the  Arabs  penetrating 
further  into  the  interior  of  India  than  any  foreign 
nation  had  done  before,  discovered  the  orange  family 
nourishing  there,  and  held  in  high  esteem  by  the 
natives.  Ircni  this  point  the  Arabs  conveyed  the 
sweet  orange  into  Persia  and  Syria,  and  the  bitter 
orange,  now  called  the  Seville,  found  its  way  into 
Arabia,  Egypt,  the  North  of  Africa  and  Spain.  From 
these  points  the  orange  travelled  into  other  coun- 
tiies,  notably  China,  and  in  this  latter  empire  it  so 
flourished  and  spread,  tliat  by-and-by  it  came  to  bo 
a fiction,  believed  iu  by  Europeans,  that  the  orange 
vvas  indigenous  to  China.  Gallesio  shows,  however  that 
the  so-called  ‘ China  Orange  ’ is  by  no  means  a 
spontaneous  production  of  that  country,  and  his  state- 
ment is  further  corroborated  by  the  absence  of  all 
inention  of  this  fruit  iu  the  exceedingly  minute  and 
circumstantial  account  given  by  Marco  Polo  of  the 
productions  of  China.  The  svv'ect  orange  which  the 
Arabs  carried  to  Spain  spread  thence  into 
Portugal,  Sicily,  St.  Michael,  the  Mediterra- 
nean Islands,  and  the  West  Indies.  In  each  and  all  of 
these  various  places  has  the  difference  in  climate 
and  soil  produced  varieties  and  changes  in  the  cha- 
racteristics of  the  original  common  stock, 
banks  of  the  Ivio  Cedono,  in  the  midst  of 
On  the 
great 
forest.  Humboldt,  to  his  amazement,  came  upon  a 
broad  belt  of  wild  orange-trees  laden. with  large,  sweet, 
and  most  delicious  fruit.  “ Surely.,  these  must  then 
be  indigenous  to  the  soil,”  bethought  ; but  subsequent 
inquiry  led  to  the  discovery  that  these  gi-and  old  trees 
had  once  formed  a portion  of  extensive  groves  plan- 
ted  by  the  Indians  from  seeds  obtained  from  their 
early  Spanish  visitors  and  conquerors.  And  to  this 
same  source  does  Florida  owe  her  beautiful  groves  ; 
only  there,  whether  by  the  accident  of  soil  or  seed 
the  wild  fruit  is  sour,  not  sweet.  I am  indebted  for 
tile  above  information  to  Florida  Fruits,  published 
in  Louisville,  U.S.A.  IP.  lloiqyell,  Harvey,  Lodne, 
Iiounell,  Park,  S.  IF. — Gardeners’  Chronicle,  May  9th. 
The  Government  of  South  India  and 
Cinchona  Planting:— The  Imliau  mail  has 
brought  us  to  day  a copy  of  a Government  Order 
m reply  to  a letter  from  the  United  Planter.s’ 
Association  of  Southern  India  in  September,  1895 
submitting  a resolution  in  which  it  was  represen- 
ted that  the  Government  should  obtain  its  bark 
from  private  owners  instead  of  re-plantino-  the 
existing  plantations  or  purchasing  new  estates. 
It  vvas  incidentally  stated  that  a promise 
that  such  a course  .should  be  followed  was  <>'iven 
by  Sir  M.  E.  Grant  Duff.  The  order”  pro- 
ceed.? :— Tiie  Government  has  not  been  in- 
what  oral  or  written  communication 
of  Sir  Mountstuart  the  Association  refers,  but 
presumes  that  reference  is  made  to  his  reply  to  the 
Address  presented  in  January  1882  by  tlie  mem- 
ber.s  of  the  Nilgiri  Planting  and  Mining  Asso- 
ciation. If  this  presumption  is  correct,  the  Gov- 
unable  to  lind  in  Sir  Mountstuart 
Hufi  s uttciaiice  any  distinct  pledge  or  promise 
of  the  nature  indicated  by  the  A.ssociation.  In 
any  case,  the  Association  over  looks  the  fact  that 
cn'cuiustances  iiave  materially  altered  since  1882. 
The  Cinchona  industry  has  languished  for  a con- 
siderable period  and  .so  far  as  the  Government  is 
aware  no  large  areas  have  been  planted  up  of  late 
years  by  private  owneis.  On  the  otlier  liand  it 
lias  been  decided  in  the  interest  of  the  '’■eneral 
liopiilatioii  tliat  Government  should  itself  take 
active  ste[)s  to  secure  the  production  of  quinine 
at  a co.st  sulliciently  low  to  admit  of  its  beiiio' 
widely  ilisseminated  in  a suitable  form  amongst 
the  jioorer  classes  throughout  the  Presidency, 
and  more  especially  iu  malarious  tracts.  Such 
di.ssemination  would  he  impracticable  if  the  Go- 
vorument  merely  imrchascd  cinchona  bark  from 
private  owners  or  bought  quinine  in  the  open 
niarket.  In  these  circumstances.  His  Excellency* 
iu  Council  does  not  consider  that  the  United 
I’lanters'  As.sociation  has  ,awy  reasonable  '-round 
lor  complaint  and  is  liable  to  accede  to  the  minpof 
which  it  makes.  ^ 
