Oct.  I,  1896.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
249 
•lelicacy  of  tlie  London  season.  Only  recently 
have  light  wines  been  produced  from  grapes  im- 
ported out  of  Northern  Prance.  A great  deal 
of  harm  was  done  to  the  industry  by  the  fate  of 
tlie  wine  consigned  for  competition  to  tlie  i’aris 
Exhibition  of  18S9.  Barron  A,  von  Babo  had 
been  appointed  “ (Jolonial  Viticulturist”  in  188-t. 
He  did  a considerable  amount  of  good  l>y  in- 
sisting on  cleanliness,  but  made  the  mistake  of 
persisting  in  an  attempt  to  make  low  percent- 
age beverage  wines  of  the  stamp  of  vin  ordi- 
naire, and  the  couse<]uence  was  they  wouhl 
not  stand  the  eciuatorial  heat  of  the  voyage, 
but  were  spoiled  oy  a secondary  termencalion 
on  the  way.  The  discouraging  ell'ecls  of  that 
bluntler  are  still  visible  in  the  colony,  though 
undoubtedly  it  has  the  means  of  retrieving  its 
old  reputation.  The  chief  wine  districts  are 
situated  in  the  divisions  of  the  Cape,  Btellen- 
bo.sch,  I’aarl,  Robertson,  Worcestor,  Uudtshoorn, 
and  Ladismith. 
(Jstrich  farming  is  a prominent  South  African 
industry,  and  into  a score  of  pages  the  author 
has  comi)iesseil  as  lucid  and  concise  an  account 
as  we  have  read.  But  he  does  not  recommend 
any  one  to  place  his  chief  dependence  upon  it. 
From  the  bi-monthly  sales  held  in  London  he 
shows  the  extraordinary  lluctuations  iti  price 
which  make  ostricdi  keeping  so  much  of  a 
speculation.  The  results  of  it  must  always  de- 
pentl  on  the  whim  of  fashion.  The  record  year 
was  1882,  when  the  declared  value  of  2o4,UOo  lb. 
was  £1,094,000.  Last  year  the  declared  value 
of  So.'LGOO  lb.  was  only  £527,700.  At  pre- 
sent the  tendency  is  for  the  largest  ami 
linest  feathers  to  decline  in  price,  while  those 
with  this,  mention  is  nuule  of  a piactice  common 
on  some  farms  of  keeping  geese  for  the  purpose 
of  plucking  them  live  or  six  times  annually — a 
custom  repugnant  to  one’s  notions  of  kindness  to 
animals. 
Professor  Wallace  is  nothing  if  imt  an  autho- 
lity  on  stock,  and  the  practical  farmer  will  line! 
the  chapters  on  sheep,  cattle,  and  horses  of  the 
utmost  value.  In  each  case  photographs  of  typical 
animals  are  given  with  the  text.  'I  he  two  most 
popular  breeds  of  European  cattle  are  the  Holstein 
Dutch  or  Friesland  and  the  Shorthorn.  A keen 
rivalry  e.^Cists  between  the  advocates  of  the 
two,  but  it  simply  comes  to  this,  that  the  Dutch 
Will  stand  hard  times  better,  while  the  Short- 
horn is  m ;re  prolitable  where  the  so.l  is  rich 
and  the  climate  favourable.  Dairying  is  ad- 
vancing rapidly,  and  thougb,  according  to  the 
last  statistical  returns,  l,782,4GHb.  of  butter  was 
imported  into  the  colony,  Professor  Wallace  looks 
forward  to  the  time  when  it  will  be  an  exjiorting 
country.  iSouth  African  opinion  is  in  favour  of 
(iovernment  otl'ering  a bounty  on  e.xportation,  as 
was  done  in  V'ictoria.  ^Ve  ha\  e not  space  in 
which  to  follow  our  author  into  his  most  interest- 
ing history  of  the  various  attempts  made  to  im- 
jir’ove  the  breeds  of  horses,  or  his  c,(|uall_y  thorough 
accorrrrt  of  the  sheep.  Irrdeeil,  it  has  not  been  pos- 
sible to  do  more  than  glarrce  su])erlieially  at  one 
or  two  aspects  of  a most  complete  arrd  ever  enter- 
tainirrg  book.  It  irronrises  for  lorrg  enough  to  be 
the  standard  work  on  the  subject. — Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 
Coffee  in  Beng.vl. — It  is  mentioned  that  the 
eflbrts  to  introduce  the  cultivation  of  coll'ee  into 
Bengal,  in  the  Chittagong  Hi  1 Tracts  and 
Hazaribagh,  ap[rear  not  to  have  been  very  success- 
ful, as  from  ten  acres  under  cultivation  in  1888 
there  are  now  only  two. — Madraa  Time's,  Sept.  7. 
LONDON  TEA  LETTER. 
(Fiioji  OuK  Own  Cokresi'ondent.) 
31st  July,  1896. 
I.ABOUR  QUESTION. 
Apart  from  the  iucreasrng  mornentousness  of  this 
subject,  owing  to  the  pr-ssure  for  extensions  every- 
where, the  increased  requirements  for  fully  develop- 
ing the  existi  g areas  by  more  thorough  cultivation, 
and  finer  and  at  the  same  time  the  closer  plucking 
in  most  instances  practicable,  in  many  cases  rendered 
a matter  of  life  and  death  by  over-capitalising  as 
with  new  companies  generally,  there  has  recently 
been  no  lack  of  matter  loading  to  its  consideration. 
In  the  first  place  we  have  had  the  opinions  expressed 
by  Sir  Charles  Elliott  (fresh  from  consultation  in 
Calcutta)  and  Sir  Steuart  Bay  ley  in  the  discussion  which 
followed  Mr.  Christison’s  paper  read  before  the  Society 
of  Arts  on  “ Tea  Planting  in  Darjeeling.”  Both  these 
eminent  officers  have  been  Chief  Commissioners  of 
Assam  as  well  as  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Bengal. 
As  i-eferred  to  in  my  last,  Mr.  W.  H.  Veiner  dealt 
witli  the  subject  in  an  able  and  exhaustive  address 
as  Chairman  of  the  Annual  General  Meeting  of  the 
Single  Tea  Company  ; and  last  week  at  the  Annual 
Meeting  of  the  Indian  Tea  Association  (London),  Mr. 
Berry  White,  as  Chairman,  and  other  leading  mem- 
bers expressed  their  views,  all  agreeing  that  of  the 
many  important  subjects  under  consideration  “ the 
most  important  was  the  Labour  Question.”  The 
two  ex-Governors  were  in  accord  as  to  the 
evils  of  the  present  system  and  their  causes 
and  their  descriptions  were  equally  graphic.  As 
pointed  out  by  Sir  Chailes  Elliott,  the  tea  industry 
incurs  an  unnecessary  outlay  of  50  lakhs  of  rupees 
annually  on  the  coolies  imported  into  Assam,  owing 
to  the  suicidal  comjpetition  of  employers  ’in  the 
labour  market.  He  contrasted  the  colonial  emigra- 
tion, which  was  effected  iiL  a cost  of  15  rupees  per  head 
compared  with  R150  for  Assam.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  actual  cost  of  conveying  the  labourer  from 
his  home  to  Assam  and  the  actual  cost  to  the  em- 
ployer is  very  great,  and  this  difference  does  not  go  to 
benefit  the  coolie  but  goes  into  the  pockets,  of  the  mid- 
dlemen. And  as  Sir  Stuart  Bayley  puts  it,  “inevitably 
there  is  a fierce  struggle  fer  this  margin.  ‘ Where  the 
carcase  is  there  are  the  eagles  gathered  together 
a whole  horde  of  middlemen,  contractor.s  and  their 
agents,  licensed  recruiters,  unlicensed  recruiters 
gaidens  sirdars,  and  whatnot,  all  contending  for  the 
corpus  vile  vvhich  was  to  yield  his  profit,  and  syste- 
matic recourse  to  fraudulent  recruiting  and  even  kid- 
napping became  common,  sufficiently  common  to  be 
felt  as  a discredit  to  ihe  administration  and  one 
not  easily  to  be  put  down.”  Sir  Charles  Elliott’s 
words  were  : — “ The  great  evil  which  had  arisen  with 
regard  to  the  competition  for  labourers  had  arisen 
from  the  immense  number  of  different  per.- ons  which 
vveie  competing  with  each  other— deceiving  each 
other,  stealing  each  others  coohes,  kidnapping  women 
and  children,  or  enticing  them  by  false  pretences 
and  even  using  force  and  wrongful  confinement  so  that 
they  constantly  figure  in  the  I'olice  Courts.”  The 
remedy  for  all  those  evils  lowgeueiallv  recommended 
and  believed  in  is  a central  lecruiting  agency  under 
Government  control.  It  is  believed  that  this  will 
be  recommended  by  the  Commis.siou  recently  ap- 
pointed by  the  Government  of  India.  Constituted  as 
human  nature  is,  we  know  from  experience  that 
it  is  impossible  to  get  the  majority  to  realise  and 
act  upon  it,  that  what  is  lor  the  common  in- 
terest is  for  the  individual  good  in  the  long  run, 
and  subordinate  private  needs  to  the  good  of  the 
industry,  or  prevent  one  employer  trying  to  steal 
a march  upon  his  neighbour.  Hence,  all  considered 
this  scheme  of  a common  agency  is  the  best  practi- 
cable, though  not  without  drawbacks,  most  of  which 
were  reviewed  in  a very  fair  and  proper  spirit  by 
Mr.  Verner  in  the  address  referred  to.  He  pointed 
out  that  such  an  Agency  might  lack  the  energy  to 
recruit  so  as  to  meet  all  the  requirements  of  the 
industrv,  and  provided  it  did  no",  how  were  the 
coolies  to  be  fairly  distributed  among  the  applicants  ? 
All  but  the  authorised  agents  found  recruiting  are  to 
be  prosecuted  as  criminals  and  punished  accordingly 
