129 
Aug. 2, 1897.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
demonitration of experience, he at once put it in 
practice on his great 900-acre peach orchard of 
100,000 trees, -which he was about to plant in 
Georgia. I wrote him recently as to how it turned 
out. Here is the reply '. — ‘ Dear Sir, I am glad to 
state that the close rcot pruning, which was practiced 
when planting our entire orchard of one hundred 
thousand ireei at Fort Valley, Georgia, proved to be 
the most successful operation we ever practiced, less 
than one-half of one per cent, of the trees failing to 
grow and all making the most vigorous and even 
growth I have ever seen in any orchard in America. 
The orchard is now three years old, and gave us an 
enormous crop of fruit this past season. I am 
thoroughly in favour of this system of root pruning.— 
Yours very truly, J. H. Hale.’ . , , 
“ And now in conclusion, in view of the tact that 
my individual efiort of eight years have amounted 
to practically nothing, the question is how to bring 
about in the general handling of trees this radical 
but needed reform. I see but two ways. The first 
through the medium of the nuseryman and his cata- 
logue, and the second through the bulletins of the 
experimental stations. Quite a number of nusery- 
men are now practicing my method exclusively, and 
with perfect success, in all their nursery transplant- 
ing operations, but they dare not advise the people 
to adopt it for fear of being accused of trying to 
induce them to kill their trees, so as to sell them 
more next season. Mr. Hale is the only exception 
I know in the whole country who comes out boldly 
for close root pruning. Now let all the rest make 
mention of the subject in their future catalogues ; 
next let the State experimental stations make ex; 
haustive experiments on all kinds of trees, vine- 
and small fruits, planting some with mere stubs of 
roots— a half-inch— and others with five, ten, fifteen 
and twenty inch lengths, setting enough of each 
to allow of taking up some every year to demon- 
strate at once that beyond a length of two or three 
inches the quantity and size of the new roots is 
invariably in an inverse ratio to the amount of old 
roots left on. The more and longer the old, the 
less, more lateral and weaker the new ones. 
“ Let them subject trees of different ages and length 
of tops to four or five years of the same treat- 
ment, and the result will be the same. The older 
close root pruned, even with four-foot tops will, if 
staked, quicldy re-establish themselves on strong, 
deep, new roots and make fine trees, while the same 
age long root ones wull become permanently surface 
rooted and dwarfed for ever. No amount of ferti- 
lising or cultivation will ever make them catch up ’. 
“Remoteness of the Rubber Supply” — is 
the heading of an interesting liaragraph in the 
India Rubber World of June 10. It runs as 
follows “ An illustration of the remoteness of 
the forest end of the crude-rubber trade came to 
light through the death in London, recently, of 
Francisco Saurez, an India-rubber merchant in 
that city, and consul-general for Bolivia, of which 
country be was a citizen. The estates on the 
river Beni from which he received rubber are 
3,000 miles from the seaboard, with such slight 
means of communication that months arc required 
for a letter from London to reach Mr. Saurez’s 
relatives remaining there. The course of business 
was for rubber to be shipped to England against 
bills accepted by Mr. Saurez. After his death 
bills continued to mature until there was a large 
nui.s which could not be honored without the 
appointment of an administrator. Besides, a 
large quantity of rubber lay at Liverpool -\vaitiug 
to be cleared, and many persons were anxious to 
have arrangements made for carrying on the 
business. Application having been made in proper 
form, Mr. Justice Barnes named a chartered 
accountant as administrator to superintend the 
business until the next-of-kin can be communi- 
cated with.” 
JAVA AND CHINA VERSUS INDIA 
AND CEYLON TEAS. 
In the Indische Mereuur of 22nd May is the 
folio-wing letter w’hich is -worthy the attention 
of Ceylon tea proprietors : — 
The Soekaboemi Agricultural Association, Soeka- 
boemi, Java. 
Gentlemen, — We are much obliged by your sending 
us the report of the general meeting of your Asso- 
ciation, held on 14th Feb. last. 
With regard to the article tea we noted with great 
interest your interesting communications, and we 
sh ire your optimistic opinion regarding the vitality of 
the product of Java and the bright prospect that it has 
in the consuming countries, through further improve- 
ment of the intrinsic value. The consideration given 
to the improvements which are constantly taking 
place in tea machines, the attention paid to the 
soils, and what manure yields the best results, con- 
vince us that they must have great influence upon 
the quality of this product. 
Although we do not wish to arrogate to ourselves 
the competence to pose as critics, we cannot refrain 
from giving you our opinion regarding some pas- 
sages in your annual report, 
You wrice : — “ But care must be taken in 
time to give to the Java tea cultivation, the ex- 
tension of which at the moment it is so sus- 
ceptible, in order that we may supply with our 
expected increasing reports of Java teas a por- 
tion of the 40 millions of half-kilos of tea 
per annum from China, which will gradually dis- 
appear from the World’s markets.” 
We ask ourselves: Is the tea cultivation in China 
then really doomed to a universal decline, simply 
aud solely because Great Britain by its notorious 
“ puffing ” system partly damaged it to supply con- 
sumption through other channels ? According to the 
enclosed statistics, covering the first four months 
of 1897, it seems that the deliveries of China tea 
in England amounted to 12,444,900 lb., against 
12,979,550 lb. in the same period in 1896, from which we 
may assume, that the very great falling-off, visible in 
former years, has at least for the moment stopped. 
We have the honour to send you, in further clucida- 
toin of this point, some graphic statistics, appearing 
in the Beiblattzur Kolonialwaran Zeitung, from which 
it appear.s that the consumption of China tea 
in England during the last few years shows more 
stability. 
We notice an undesirable factor, according to a 
statistical statement also given therein the steady — 
and noteworthy — increase of the consumption of 
China tea in Germany, which we allege in the sen- 
tence occuring in our French market report for 1896 
sent to you: “ La consommation de the de Chine fait 
encore tonjours beaucoup de progres sur le continent 
de I’Europe et a gague depui I’annee passee 
surtout en Allemagne, en Autriche, en Misse et dans 
plausieurs autres pays.” 
According to our opinion the consumption of Java 
tea is closely united with that of China tea, and the 
former class is better suited than any other kind 
for mixing with the latter, which if drunk by itself 
is far too thin in liquor. It is just in this that in 
our opinion lies the strength and future of Java tea, 
as being a characteristic by which the latter en- 
joys the advantage over its keenest competitors 
(Ceylon and Assam tea) with the tea blenders of the 
continent. 
Java tea cannot hope for salvation from Great 
Britain in a fraternal reception by the side of Assam 
and Ceylon tea. Such a thing might be possible did 
no “ puffing system exist; and this characterizes 
the whole English community, from Mincing Lane 
even to Johannesburg. They are very willing in 
London to take notice of Java tea as a surrogate 
(with or without reason; since Java is not a British 
colony), but especially if the chest is marked 
“ Assam ” ! The great indifference on the part of the 
British towards Java tea we could demonstrate to 
you aud confirm by many proofs. 
