March  r,  1897.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
611 
COFFEE  NOTES  FROM  NYASSALAND. 
Coffee  prospects  for  the  coming  season  are  good 
We  are  informed  that  the  heavy  rains  in  the  end  of 
October  brought  out  a good  blossom,  and  there  has 
since  been  pleasant  sunny  weather,  which  has  in  most 
caused  it  to  set  well. 
A coffee  plantation,  which  wo  think  we  are  right  in 
describing  as  the  first  which  has  been  started  in  the 
districts  west  of  Lake  Nyasa,  is  now  being  formed  by 
Mr.  Kahn  of  Kotakota.  He  informs  us  that  he 
expects  to  have  100  acres  in  before  long.  It  has 
always  appeared  to  u.s  somewhat  singular  that  none 
of  the  planters  in  this  country  have  as  yet  opened  up 
£lontations  in  the  districts  lying  immediately  west  of 
lake  Nyasa,  even  right  to  the  north  end.  Water 
carriage  is  so  cheap,  compared  with  land  transport 
in  this  country,  that  coffee  could  probably  be  trans- 
ported from  Kax’onga  to  Matope  as  cheaply,  or 
nearly  so,  as  it  could  from  Southern  Augoniland  to 
Matape,  and  by  choosing  a district  in  which  labour  is 
cheap,  as  indeed  it  is  in  almost  all  of  the  Nyasa 
Districts,  the  cost  of  production  would  probably,  in 
the  first  instant  at  any  rate,  be  very  much  less  than 
it  is  in  the  Shire  Highlands. — British  Central  Africa 
Gazette. 
INDIAN  TEA  COMPANIES. 
To  the  Editor  of  The  “Financial  Times.” 
Sir, — Your  article  about  Indian  tea  companies  seems 
to  have  drawn  some  attention  to  them,  judging  by 
the  inquiries  addressed  to  men  who,  like  myself,  are 
supposed  to  know  all  about  their  position  and  pros- 
pects. May  I,  therefore,  say  a word  by  way  of  guidance, 
to  point  out  that  discrimination  should  be  used  by 
investors,  as  a very  distinct  movement  is  in  progress 
tending  to  enhance  the  value  of  one  class  of  pro- 
perty and  to  depreciate  another  ? The  average  of 
profits  of  past  years  is  not  always  a reliable  guide 
to  the  futui'e  profitableness  of  the  estates,  inasmuch 
as  the  value  of  the  produce  from  certain  districts 
is  steadily  appreciating  while  that  of  others  is  de- 
clining, This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  only  a certain 
amount  of  land  in  India,  and  very  little  in  Ceylon 
is  found  to  be  capable  of  contiuously  yielding  fine 
tea,  with  the  result  that  practically  all  the  increased 
production  of  recent  years  is  of  a lower  quality,  for 
which  the  market  value  is  falling  unpleasantly  near 
cost  of  production.  A further  rise  in  exchange  and 
freight,  added  to  the  increased  cost  of  feeding  coolies 
at  a loss  on  the  rice  and  the  continually  growing 
difficulty  of  obtaining  the  sort  of  coolie  required, 
would  certainly  reduce  the  profit  of  some  concerns 
to  a very  low  point.  There  will,  of  course,  be  a set- 
off in  the  check  given  to  further  extensions  of  the 
area  planted.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  apparently 
no  limit  to  the  prices  obtainable  for  tea  from  the 
finest  plantations  in  Darjeeling  and  Assam.  It  is 
not  my  purpose  to  specify  any  company,  but  any 
stockbroker  can  obtain  information  by  coming  to  a 
tea  broker.  This  leads  to  a comment  on  what 
is  a matter  of  general  experience — namely,  that 
if  a client  asks  his  stockbroker  what  he  thinks  about 
Indian  tea,  the  answer  is  nine  times  out  of  ten  that 
he  “doesn’t  like  it’’  with  the  advice  to  “leave  it 
alone,”  sometimes  followed  by  a suggestion  to  take 
a few  shares  iu  some  wild-cat  land  company.  Hence 
it  is  that  during  the  last  few  years  several  tea  brokers 
have  started  a stock  and  share  department  for  their 
speciality,  and  are  reputed  to  be  making  incomes  that 
would  make  many  a man  in  the  “House ’’rich.  A 
market  has,  in  fact,  been  established  with  success 
independent  of  the  Stock  Exchange.  I will  conclude 
by  adverting  to  the  real  grounds  of  the  confidence  in 
the  best  class  of  tea  plantations  shown  by  those  who 
have  been  connected  with  this  industry  for  a lifetime 
— to  which  you  did  not  allude.  They  are  : — 
1.  That  such  a thing  as  a failure  of  a tea  crop  (as 
distinct  from  its  failure  to  bo  highly  profitable)  is 
unknown, 
2.  That  there  is  no  visible  limit  to  the  world’s  con- 
sumption, which  steadily  grows,  as  some  think, 
jjecause,  in  spite  of  doctors,  it  is  found  that  the  tea 
77 
of  British  India  is  a food  as  well  as  a drink,  nourish' 
ing  and  stimulating  at  the  same  time. 
Just  look  at  these  figures.  Consumption  of  tea 
per  head  per  annum — Australasia,  7|  lbs ; Great 
Britain  and  Canada,  .5  lbs;  United  States  about 
li  lb — the  rest  of  America,  Europe,  and  Asia  front 
1 lb  to  nothing  per  head  j>er  annum.  What  a field 
there  is  for  a trader  with  the  reai  thing  in  his  store 
to  push  trade  to  dimensions  hitherto  undreamedof! 
And  it  is  being  done  by  the  new  tea-man  owning 
a proprietary  mark  with  an  unpronounceable  name, 
by  means  of  a showy  packet  containing  the  genuine 
article. — I am,  &c.,  Broker. 
THE  FORMATION  OF  SAND  DUNES. 
[?  A LESSON  FOR  HAMBANTOTA.] 
At  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Liver- 
pool Mr.  Vaughan  Cornish  contributed  one  of  the 
most  valuable  and  original  papers  read  to  the  Sec- 
tion, in  the  form  of  a practical  study  of  the  forma- 
tion and  distribution  of  sand  dunes.  He  said  that 
in  the  sorting  of  materials  by  wind  the  coarser  gravel 
is  left  on  stony  desert  or  sea-beaches,  the  sand  is 
heaped  up  in  dune  tracts,  and  the  dust  (consisting 
largely  of  friable  materials  which  have  been  re- 
duced to  powder  in  the  dune  districts  itself)  forms 
widely-scattered  deposits  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
dune  district.  Three  principal  factors  operate  iu 
dune  tracts,  viz.,  (1)  the  wind,  (2)  the  eddy  in  tho 
lee  of  each  obstacle,  (B)  gravity.  The  wind  drifts  ihfi 
fine  and  the  coarse  sand.  The  upward  motion  of  the 
eddy  lifts  the  fine-sand,  and  co-oparating  with  the 
wind,  sends  it  flying  from  the  crest  of  the  dune. 
The  backward  motion  of  the  eddy  arrests  the  for- 
ward drift  of  the  coarser  sand,  and  thus  co- 
operate with  the  wind  to  build  the  permanent 
structure  of  the  dune.  Gravity  reduces  to  the  angle 
of  the  rest  of  any  slopes  which  have  been  forced 
to  a steeper  pitch  either  by  wind  or  eddy ; hence 
in  a group  of  dunes  the  amplitude  cannot  be  greater 
than  (about)  one-third  of  the  wave-length.  This 
limit  is  most  nearly  approached,  owing  to  an  action 
which  the  author  explained,  when  the  wind  blows 
alternately  from  opposite  quarters.  Gravity  also 
acts  upon  the  sand  which  flies  from  the  crests, 
causing  it  to  fall  across  the  stream  lines  of  the  air. 
To  the  varying  density  of  the  sand-shower  is  due  the 
varying  angle  of  the  windward  slope  of  dunes.  When 
there  is  no  sand  shower  the  windward  becomes  as  steep 
as  the  leeward  slope.  When  the  dune  tract  is  aU 
deep  and  the  lower  part  of  the  eddy  gouges  out  the 
trough,  and,  when  the  saud-shoxver  fails,  the  wind 
by  drifting  and  the  eddy  by  gouging,  form  isolated 
hills  upon  a hard  bed.  In  a district  of  deep  sand, 
negative  dunes  (“  Suljes’  ) may  be  formed.  The  eu- 
croachement  of  dune  tract  being  due  not  only  to 
the  march  of  the  dunes  (by  drifting)  but  also  to  the 
formation  of  new  dunes  to  leeward  from  meterial 
supplied  by  the  sand-show’er,  it  follows  that  there 
is  both  a “ group  velocity  ” and  a wave  velocity” 
of  dunes.  Since  the  wave  velocity  decreases  as  tho 
amplitude  increases,  a sufficiently  large  dune  is  a sta- 
tionary hill,  even  though  composed  of  loose  sand 
throughout.  Where  material  is  accumulated  by  the 
action  of  tidal  currents,  forms  homologous  with  the 
ground  plan  of  duues  are  shown  upon  the  charts. 
The  vertical  contours  and  the  movements  of  suba- 
queous sand  dunes  are  conditioned  by  the  different 
tactics  of  sand-shower  and  sand-drift. — Nature. 
THE  DI.MENSIONS  OF  TREES. 
Your  comparison  between  the  heights  of  St.  Paul’s 
Cathedral,  the  spiro  of  the  dome  of  Cologne  and 
the  Eucalyptus  ainyyrlah'int  are.  extremely  interest- 
ing; but,  whereas  the  heights  of  those  buildings 
are  correctly  known,  that  of  the  tree  is,  to  say  the 
least,  problematical.  No  doubt  Bnon  Von  Mueller 
in  some  of  his  earlier  publications  claims  the  enor- 
mous length  quoted  for  some  of  the  trees  measured 
by  him,  but  it  is  generally  understood  in  Australia 
that  thQse  measuremeuts  were  made  of  old  falleu 
