Oct.  r,  1896. J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
233 
accornt,  the  increase  for  the  3’ear  is  not  so  large  as  it 
might  easily  have  been.  As  nearly  as  can  bo  estimated, 
there  will  be  (barring  loss  by  flood)  siiflicient  for  all  de- 
mands in  the  future. 
58.  The  total  numher  of  trees  in  stock  at  the  end  of 
the  5’ear  is  more  than  double  what  it  was  at  the  end  of 
last  j'ear. 
69.  The  ground  unoccuiiied  hy  nursery  was  croxiped 
with  oats  : the  gram-yield  was  fairly  good,  but  the  straw 
u'as  short,  due  to  the  excessivelj"  dry  atmosphere  which 
prevailed  all  through  the  growing  period. 
Exotic  Plant.vtion. 
63.  The  following  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
trees  previously  under  trial  in  the  Exotic  Plantation : 
Teconio  serratifolia,  four  trees ; Jlcmifiot  glaziovii,  six 
trees. 
64.  The  blanks  caused  by  the  flood  among  those  pre- 
viously planted  have  all  been  filled  up  except  iu  the 
case  of  Aleurites  molluccana,  of  which  no  plants  are  j'et 
available. 
65.  The  plantation  of  Divi-Divi  remains  very  much 
in  the  condition  it  was  last  year.  One  of  two  things 
should  be  done  ; either  to  reduce  the  plot  to  the  three 
good  rows  on  the  west  side  w'here  the  trees  are  doing  well 
under  the  shade  of  the  rain  trees,  or  to  plant  some  quick- 
growing tree  among  the  others  to  afford  them  shade.  It 
is  quite  clear  that  thej'  thrive  best  w'ith  a certain 
amount  of  shade  and  shelter  from  tall  trees. 
66.  The  rain  trees  are  in  better  condition  this  year  ; 
the  diyer  state  of  the  air  and  soil,  which  has  obtained 
since  September,  apipears  to  have  benefited  the  trees.  A 
small  supplj'  of  seed  is  now  obtained  yearly  from  the 
largest  trees. 
Date  Plantation. 
69.  There  has  been  a loss  of  100  in  the  number  of 
date  trees  previously  planted,  and  as  the  young 
trees  on  hand  were  considered  too  small  and  weak 
to  plant  out  no  blanks  were  filled  up  this  year.  The 
number  of  trees  now  planted  out  and  living  is  700. 
70.  A few  look  healthy  and  are  growing  slowly ; 
but  the  majority  are  not  doing  well,  as  previously 
explained : this  is  chiefly  due  to  the  shade  caused  by 
the  Eucalyptus  trees  among  which  they  are  planted. 
71.  The  Eucalyptus  trees  are  in  a fairly  satisfactory 
condiciou,  and  give  promise  of  developing  inte  useful 
building  poles  in  time. 
72.  The  trip  of  vacant  ground  bordering  the  public 
road  on  the  east  side  was  planted  up  during  the  year. 
The  soil  iu  several  places  is  heavy  and  hard,  and  on 
these  spots  the  young  trees  have  died  out  in  large 
numbers.  The  result  of  this  year’s  planting  is  5,000 
young  trees  added  to  the  plantation. 
73.  There  is  a small  blank  on  the  west  side  planted 
some  years  ago,  on  which  only  a few  trees  survive : 
this  has  been  trenched  and  a stock  of  seedlings  is 
being  raised  to  replant  it  this  year.  When  this  is 
done,  the  planting  will  be  completed,  so  far  as 
eucalyptus  trees  are  concerned ; the  available  aroia 
will  then  bo  filled  up : all  that  will  remain  to  be 
done  will  be  to  fill  up  the  blanks  among  the  date-palms 
INDIA  AND  GREEN  TEA. 
To  the  question  of  the  advisability  of  reviving  the 
green  te.a  trade  in  India  a most  interesting  con- 
tribution has  been  made  by  Mr.  Ringler  Thomson, 
British  Vice-Consul  for  Khorasan,  in  a report  upon 
the  trade  of  that  region  which  has  just  been  pub- 
lished under  the  auspices  of  the  Government  of 
India.  In  his  report  for  1894-95  Mr.  Thomson 
touched  upon  the  subject  of  Indian  trade  with  Persia 
and  Central  Asia,  and  referred  to  the  prohibitive 
tariffs  with  which  it  had  to  reckon.  The  present 
report  deals  with  1895-96,  and  the  Vice-Consul  takes 
special  notice  of  the  tea  trade,  showing  the  relative 
positions  of  India  and  China  in  this  part  of  the 
world,  and  endeavouring  to  assign  a reason  for  the 
change  which  has  come  over  them  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  It  certainly  seems  strange,  as  Mr. 
Thomson  remsrks,  that  “ while  Indian  black  tea  has 
been  steadily  driving  the  Chinese  article  out  of  most 
of  the  far-distant  m.nkets  of  the  world,  Chinese 
green  tea,  in  a short  space  of  time,  and  apparently 
without  an  effort,  drove  the  Indian  article  clean  out 
of  its  own  market.” 
How  completely  this  has  been  done  is  manifest 
from  the  statement  that  whereas  twenty  years  ago  the 
whole  of  the  green  tea  trade  with  Khorasan  was  iu 
the  hands  of  British  Indian  tea  planters,  to-day  they 
“ do  not  supply  a leaf.”  It  must  be  admitted  that  on 
this  point  Vice-Consul  Thomson’s  observations  are 
not  borne  out  by  those  of  the  Collector  of  Customs, 
Bombay.  That  official  describes  green  tea  as  the 
most  important  branch  of  the  trade  between  Bombay 
and  the  Russian  possessions  iu  Central  Asia,  all 
Chinese  tea  being,  of  course,  iu  the  first  place 
shipped  to  Bombay,  and  thence  re-exported.  Compar- 
ing the  quantity  ihus  dealt  with  daring  the  last 
five  years  with  that  exported  from  India  to  Persia 
the  Bombay  Collector  of  Customs  shows  that  the 
quantities  of  Indian  tea  varied  considerably  from  year 
to  year,  but  that  in  1894-95  they  reached  a total  of  over 
two  million  pounds,  while  the  Chinese  article  was 
placed  upon  the  same  markets  to  the  extent  of  nearly 
four  million  pounds.  In  the  first  nine  months  of  1895- 
96  there  was,  according  to  the  Collector  of  Customs,  a 
large  falling-off  iu  the  trade  between  China  and  Per- 
sia,  and  a corresponding  increase  in  the  export  of 
Indian  tea.  The  totals  were  : China  tea  1,193,0901b.  • 
Indian  tea  3,750,685lbs.  India  also  did  well,  during 
the  period  mentioned,  by  the  new  Batum  route, 
exporting  121,7711bs.  in  1895-96  as  against  nii 
the  previous  year.  The  Collector  of  Customs  con- 
eludes,  therefore,  that  Indian  tea  has  benefited,  and 
that  China  tea  has  suffered  by  the  new  Gusto 
regulations  enforced  by  the  Russian  authorities* 
Vice-Consul  Thomson  differs  from  him.  He  main- 
tains that  if  the  Collector’s  figures  are  accepted  they 
amount  to  saying  that  India  alone  is  now  supplying 
Central  Asia  annually  with  more  green  tea  than 
that  district  formerly  received  from  India  and  China 
together.  Mr.  Thomson  considers  this  highly  improb- 
able, and  adduces  the  evidence  of  British  planters 
at  Kangra  and  Kumaun  and  of  Messrs.  Balmer 
Lawrie  and  Co.,  to  show  that  “ no  green  tea  is 
manufactured  by  Europeans  in  Northern  India  and 
only  little  by  Natives.”  How  is  this  discrepancy  be- 
tween Mr.  Thomson’s  figures  and  the  Collector’s  to  be 
explained  ? Mr.  Thomson  has  a convenient  method  of 
accounting  for  it.  He  points  out  that  the  Collec- 
tor has  said  a great  deal  about  green  tea  and  about 
other  exports  to  the  Gulf,  but  that  he  nowhere 
makes  mention  of  hlacJc  tea.  ‘‘  Therefore  I imac'ine  ’’ 
writes  the  Vice-Consul,  ‘‘he  has  mixed  his  Hidia’n 
teas,  and  has  included  black  with  green,  which  would 
account  for  the  error.”  Large  quantities  of  tea  go  to 
Bandar  Abbas,  a million  and-a-half  pounds  being 
taken  by  Bushire  alone.  That  is  how  the  Vice- 
Consul  gets  rid  of  the  difficulty.  Ic  would  be  in- 
teresting to  hear  what  the  Collector  has  to  say  on 
the  subject.  Going  back  over  the  history  of  the 
transfer  to  China  from  India  of  this  important 
trade  Mr.  Thomson  says  that  two  things  happened 
simultaneously:  trade  left  the  Afghan  route 
and  China  absorbed  it.  The  writer  does 
not  attempt  to  connect  the  two  events 
because,  as  he  says,  while  he  is  able  to  explain  the 
reason  of  the  first,  he  is  still  doubtful  about  thp 
causes  of  the  second. 
As  to  the  avoidance  of  the  Afghan  route  that  was 
brought  about  partly  by  the  heavy  import  duties 
levied  by  the  present  Amir,  and  partly  by  reason 
of  the  unsafe,  because  unsettled,  condition  of  the 
country  at  the  lime  of  his  accession.  All  independent 
merchants  forsook  it,  of  course,  and  it  would  have 
fallen  into  complete  desuetude  but  for  the  compulsion 
put  upon  Afglian  merchants  to  carry  on  their  busi- 
ness along  the  routes  of  Afghanistan.  These  facts 
are  sufficient  to  account  for  the  diversion  of  the 
traffic  to  the  Gulf,  but  obviously  they  throw  no  light 
ou  the  concurrent  transference  of  the  trade  iu  ^reen 
tea  from  Indian  to  Chinese  hands.  Mr.  Tho'inson 
suggests  as  a possible  explanation  that  prices  had 
been  falling  in  Nortliern  India  for  some  time  and 
that  the  European  jdauters  at  last  refused  togo  any 
lower,  and  turuc.l  their  attention  to  black  tea.  About 
the  same  period,  he  supposes,  “ .some  enterprising 
China  or  Bombay  merchant  read  the  signs  of  the 
times  and  began  to  place  the  Chinese  article  on 
the  Bombay  market  for  despatch  via  Meshed  ” 
This  a charming  theory,  the  parts  of  which  dove* 
