Aug.  I,  1896. j 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
109 
ANOTHER  IMPORTING  FIRm’s  EXPERIENCES 
were  that  just  now  it  was  of  little  use  to  send 
forward  orders,  the  European  house  in  Japan  with 
whom  they  dealt  having  so  writing,  at  the  same 
time  appending  the  following  explanation: — ‘-The 
(Japanese)  Government  have  taken  all  the  available 
cut  supply  lor  Formosa.”  This  firm  had  not  made 
arrangements  for  the  importation  of  shooks  from 
Sweden,  but  they  understood  another  lirm  had  placed 
large  orders  for  Austrian  piiiewood  chests.  Kegard- 
iug  locally  made  tea  chests  orders  had  been  placed 
with  the  Udagama  Tea  and  Timber  Company  at 
Gallo,  but  their  output  was  limited  to  about  400 
chests  a day.  They  were  cheap,  but  the  wood,  of 
course,  was  not  so  good. 
AN  IMPORTER  FROM  EUROPE. 
Our  representative  finally  waited  upon  the  importer 
of  Austrian  pinev/ood,  who  at  present  is  the  only  im- 
porter of  shooks  from  Europe,  lie  stated  that  he 
had  placed  Immediate  orders  for  20,000  chests,  and 
ho  had  booked  a number  of  orders  for  delivery  dur- 
ing the  remainder  ef  the  year.  He  had  not  imported 
since  1893,  until  ho  sent  home  telegraphic  orders 
three  weeks  ago.  The  nou-rcsinous  pinewood  shooks 
which  he  was  selling  wore  also  of  even  tare,  and  this 
question  was  a very  important  one.  Locally  made 
boxes  did  not  ensure  even  tare  by  any  moans,  and 
even  Momi  boxes  were  sometimes  defective  from  tliis 
point  of  view.  Uneven  tare  meant  loss  to  the  planter, 
and  gave  dissatisfaction  to  the  London  impoitcr. 
TEA  IN  JAVA. 
From  a |)iiniphleb  entitled  “Cultiues  in  Neder- 
landsch  Oost-Indiii,”  compiled  from  tlie  JJubcli 
Colonial  Report  for  1895,  and  is.sued  l>y  the 
Imlischc  Mercuur,  we  translate  tlic  following 
regartling  tea  in  Java: — 
EST.VTES  ENTIREEY  PEPENDENT  ON  CONTUACl'S  WITH  THE 
NATIVES. 
The  tea  plantations  opened  by  the  natives  on  their 
own  lands,  in  the  vicinity  of  some  of  the  tea  plan- 
tations established  on  emphyteutic  lands  in  the 
I’reanger  Kagencies,  namely  in  the  districts  of 
Tjitjoeroeg  and  Djampang  Tengali  in  the  Sockahocmi 
division,  which  according  to  the  previous  report  at 
the  end  of  1893  covered  a collective  area  of  430 
bouws,*  are  gradually  becoming  of  more  importance 
to  them,  since  in  1894  299  bouws  more  or  less  were 
in  bearing,  against  168  bouws  in  1893.  In  1894  in 
the  case  of  four  emphyteutic  plantations  the  gathered 
wet  leaf  was  bought  at  31  to  5 cents  per  | kg.,f 
namely,  "on  Parakansalak,  Tendjo-Aijoe,  Sindangsari 
and  Pasir  Telaga  Warna  the  produce  of  respectively 
120,89,74  and  6 bouws.  In  this  manner  the  planta- 
tions referred  to  obtained  respectively  179,062.  73,708, 
72,623  and  5,250,  or  in  all  330,615  kg.  of  tea,  whilst 
in  1.893  under  the  outturn  of  the  three  first  named 
plantations  was  included  under  tlio  category  of  tea 
thus  bought  186,709  kg.  of  tea,  obtained  frotn  the 
aforesaid  168  bouws.  When  one  considers  that  tlie 
gardens  are  laid  out  on  lands  which  are  unsuitable 
for  sawah.f,\  atid  that  with  good  managemeut  they 
will  yield  crops  f.ir  at  last  25  years,  the  nrofits  ti-oiii 
rice  cultivation  in  the  Soekabocmi  division,  which 
every  year  requires  so  much  labour,  cannot  by  far 
be  compared  with  the  results  already  obtained  by 
the  natives  from  thoir  tea  cultivation  ; it  is  there- 
fore considered  very  probable  that  in  the 
neai'  future  in  the  Preauger  llegenoies  the  voluntary 
planting  of  tea  by  the  natives  will  gain  in  impor- 
tance. It  is  calculated  that  a bouw  of  planted  tea 
yields  the  owner  a gross  retuiu  of  about  ,/75  per 
annum. 
In  the  Limbangan  division  of  tho  di.strict  men- 
tion 3d  the  preparation  of  tea  fiiirfs  ,n,  place— solely 
for  tile  inland  market — on  the  n.itivo  pbuitation.s  of 
Tjigisang,  Pasir  TJitjonroeg  and  Tjigedoeg,  wliich 
consist  respeotively  of  1^-,  2^;  and  1 bouws'  of  lanj 
* Tho  houio  (Malay  ba/iii)  about  1,-  acre. — Eu. 
C.U. 
t The  half-kilogram  1T02  lb. — Ei>.  C.O. 
t Irrigated  rice-fields. — Ed.  C.O, 
possessed  individually  by  inheritance.  In  1894  there 
were  prepared  on  these  plantations  2,657  kg.  of  tea, 
against  2,501  kg.  in  1893,  which  product  was  sold  in 
tlie  bazaars  by  hawkers  at  a fixed  price  of _/0'-10  per  kg. 
HANDS  GRANTED  13V  THE  GOVERNMENT  IN  EMPHYTEUSIS 
OR  ON  LEASE. 
If,  out  of  the  96  emphyteutic  plantations,  wliere 
at  the  end  of  1894  cinchona  plants  were  still 
found,  67  were  in  tho  Proanger  Regencies  alone,  that 
district,  so  far  as  tea  plantations  are  concerned,  as- 
pired even  higher  to  t ie  front  rank,  since  47  of  the 
50  plantations  where  tea  cul'ivation  is  carried  on  on 
emphyteutic  lauds  were  found  there.  The  crop  from 
the  newly  opeue  i plantations  of  Assam  tea  in  the 
higher  lying  Preangcr  Regencies  go  on  increasing  ; 
this  increase  counterbalances  the  decline  in  tho  pro- 
due  tion  of  Java  tea  in  the  lower  lying  regions,  where 
the  plants  of  Java  tea  are  becoming  more  and  more 
replaced  by  Liberian  coffee  trees.  In  consequence  of 
this  the  tea  crop  of  1894  remained  almost  stationary. 
The  crop  ainouufced  in  1892  to  3,794,932  kg.  from  34 
plantations,  in  4893  to  3,405,042  kg.  from  35  planta- 
tions, in  1894  to  3,421,013  kg.  from  32  plantations. 
As  regards  the  extent  of  omphyteuliclaudsiilanted  with 
tea,  so  far  as  relates  to  7 plantations  (all  in  the 
Preanger  Regencies)  no  figures  are  available  (none 
also  for  1893).  The  remaining  43  had  at  the  end 
of  1894  10,263  bouws  of  tea  plants,  the  total  at  the 
end  of  1893,  for  40  plantations,  being  9,907  bouws. 
In  these  totals  the  Preangor  Regencies  residency 
shared  at  the  end  of  1894  (for  40  plantations)  to  the 
extent  of  9,130  bouws,  and  at  the  end  of  1893  (for  37 
plantations)  to  the  extent  of  8,798  bouws.  Some  . of 
the  last-mentioned  40  and  37  plantations  consisted 
at  the  time  of  only  small  fields  (§■  to  10  bouws). 
LANDS  GRANTED  IN  I’OSSEBSION  TO  PRIVATE  PERSONS 
The  tea  production  of  the  lands  granted  in  possession 
to  private  persons  amounted  in  1894  to  675,850  kg. 
(for  TJikancli-Oodik  in  Rantam  with  93  bouws  of  tea, 
Tjikoj  in  the  abovemeutioned  division  of  Taugerang, 
whole  125  bouA’s  more  or  less  are  planted  with  tea, 
and  18  lands  in  Buiteuzorg  with  about  3,700  bouws 
of  tea  gardens). 
On  single  Buiteuzorg  lauds  steps  were  being  taken 
to  replace  the  tea  plants  by  Liberian  coffee. 
-4-  - 
INDIAN  TEA  ASSOCIATION. 
From  the  Ab.slract  of  Proceedings  of  a Meet- 
ing of  the  General  Committee  held  in  Calcutta 
oil  29^1  May  we  extract  the  following 
With  reference  to  the  Chapter  on  “ White  Ants  ” 
written  by  Dr.  George  Watt,  c.i.e.,  for  his  Report  of 
his  investigations  in  Assam  with  proof  copies  of  which 
ho  had  favoured  the  Association,  letters  had  been 
received  by  Messrs.  Shaw,  Wallace  A Go.,  from  Air. 
.John  Alston,  SuperintcudLiit  of  the  Assam  Frontier 
Tea  Co.,  Ld.,  and  by  Messrs.  Finlay,  Muir  A Go., 
from  Mr.  James  Hall,  South  Sylhet  Tea  Go.,  Ld.  It 
was  decided  to  x^ass  these  letters  on  to  Dr.  Watt  for 
his  information. 
Sir.  Wallace  suggested  that  the  quojfciou  ol  appoint- 
ing a Scientific  Officer  for  the  Tea  Districts  should 
be  referred  to  the  vouious  Boards  of  Directors  of  tea 
comp.iuics  in  T/ondon  Defo  e tho  f'ommiltee  arrived 
at  any  decision  liete,  and  it  was  decided  that  the 
corro.spondencc  and  ]'>,iijers  on  the  matter  should  be 
summarised  and  sent  to  the  Secretary,  ludiaii  Tea 
Association,  Loudon,  for  this  purpose. 
Considered  letters  of  17th  and  21th  April,  and  1st 
and  8th  May,  with  enclosures,  from  the  Secretary, 
Indian  Tea  Association,  London,  all  more  or  less  in 
connection  with  the  American  Market  Fund. 
Letter  of  1st  May,  enclosed  copy  of  an  important 
letter  from  Mr.  Blechytiden,  dated  20th  April, 
making  suggestions  in  detail  with  the  view  of  bring- 
ing the  trade  in  Indian  tea  in  America  on  to  tire 
same  lines  as  followed  for  Gbina  and  tea-;.  i\)r. 
r.lechyudon  poir.tcd  out.  lliat  t!ic  tr.ido  in  China 
and  Jaiian  teas  was  ba -.cd  mainly  on  tho  samples 
of  the  previous  year,  each  mark  having  its  recog- 
nised standard,  and  that  large  orders  were  booked 
months  ahead  on  jn'ices  quoted,  subject  to  market 
lluctualioiis,  the  imxiorlcr  taking  only  ordinary  com- 
mercial  risks.  Mr.  Blechyudeu’s  proposals,  stated 
