Sept, i, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
193 
about decency Such is not the case in Formosa, in 
consequence of the long established social restraints 
concerning manners and customs of women. The 
Formosan tea-pickers are neatly dressed, often in full 
toilette, while old and young generally fasten in their 
hair sprays of fragrant flowers. Therefore when one 
visits a tea plantation in the season he will inhale an 
atmosphere deliciously scented from the leaves and the 
head adornments. The Formosan mothers are also 
more considerate about their babies. They do not go about 
working with their little children fastened on their 
backs, as their Japanese-born sisters generally do 
both to the inconvenience of mothers and babies. 
When they happen to come to work with their babies, 
the latter are quietly placed in large beds made of 
bamboo provided for the purpose by the tea planters, 
before the mothers go to work. Thus may be seen 
even as many as twenty or thirty babie.s in one bed. 
The Formosan tea manufacturers do not feel any 
inconvenience at all in the matter of the supply of 
hands. There is an abundance of labour in Taipe and 
its vicinity for the purpose, and the people flock to 
tea plantations as .soon as the season commences. 
The process is simple , girls or women employed the 
previous season resort to their old plantations and 
bring with them new recruits. No advance is asked 
for or paid, and as their wages are paid every day 
after the work is over, pickers are perfectly free to 
continue or discontinue work. The number of tea- 
pickers in Taipe, or more strictly Daitotei (Twatutia), 
alone is something enormous. There are a hundred 
and sixty tea manufacturers in Daitotei, largo and 
small, a large firm employing more than two hundred 
and fifty and a smaller one about forty. Putting the 
average at eighty, the total number of hands for 
the whole of the tea manufacturers amounts to 
12,800. Pickers are generally divided into three or 
four classes, according to their skill, and wages are 
paid accordingly. The 1st class pickers receive 40 
sen a day, the 2nd class 25 sen, and the 3rd ol.ass 
10 to 15 sen. But wages are also paid by results 
of work, at the rate of 30 mon (1 man corresponds 
to 1 rin) per kin, or 5 itioit per basket, according 
to plantations. It is not difficuit to pick 10 to 14 
Idn or 60 bask..ts, a day, working from about 7 a.m. 
to 5 p. m. Of course no particular training is needed ; 
a month’s picking will make a girl a first class 
picker, provided sire is endowed with ordinary in- 
telligence. Therefore little girls of fifteen or sixteen 
years old, whose hands and eyes are quickest, get 
in general the highest pay; next, women in their 
“ twenties,” and lastly old women or children. 
When these have picked a sufficient quantity they 
deliver the leaves to overseers, who give them in 
exchange bamboo checks or tally-sticks, one per kin, 
and after the day’s work is over the checks are 
exchanged for cash. Supposing that a te ‘. picker 
gets on an average 20 sen a day, an estimate that 
is most likely below the mark, the wages paid in 
Twatutia alone to 12,800 girls and women aggregate 
76,800 7/6» a mouth. These are the good features of tea- 
picking labour, but unfortunately there is also a 
bad side, that is to say, corrupt morals of tea- 
pickers. For at least a third of the total are little 
better than strumpets or unlicensed prostitntes. The 
P'.culiar circtiinstances ot life on tea plantations are 
tb ■ main e.inse of this moral corruption ; the tea 
ind istry gives employment not only to girls and 
women but also to a large number of men. There- 
fore when the season begins, the ingress of labourers 
to Taihoku is considerable. Every junk or steamer 
brings to Formosa hundreds of these labourers from 
the opposite er mt of China. In Taihoku alone at 
least three thousand labourers, mostly from Amoy 
and Swatow, ar ive er h season. They are men of 
hi.v ca,s, whes ; only desire in coming over to the 
F.rmosa tea plantations is to earn a little money 
and gratify their animal pas.sions at opium shop? and 
brothels. Under the circumstances, it is not un- 
natural for ignorant girls, eager to get fine clothes 
and knick-nacks, to be seduced into secret prostitu- 
tion, for procurers Tire plentiful in Forntosa as in 
any other part of the world. Indeedit is a common 
thing in Formosa for girls of low class to sell their 
virtue for money, not unfrequently with the encourage- 
ment of their parents. Married women are also 
guilty of the same offence, though proportionally less 
as compared with the others . — Japan Times, July 2. 
JAPAN TEA CROP. 
Owing to several unfavourable circumstances which 
vye )' t ve noted from time to time, it was generally be- 
liev. d that the total output of tea this year would 
be far smaller than in ordinary years. The latest 
j'ctnrn shows that the total amouiit of tea sold in 
Yokohama before the third instant, is estimated at 
1,396,1,50 catties, showing a slight decrease of 32,650 
catties compared with the amount sold up to the 
corresponding date last year, while the total now 
in stock amounts 687,000 catties, that is, 107,200 
catties less than that of last year, the total decrease 
being 139,850 catties, which is a much smaller differ- 
ence than was expected. Such being the state of the 
tea market at present, it is generally believed that the 
export of tea will reach 22,000,000 catties this year. 
— Japan Times, July 10. 

PLANTING NOTES. 
Para Kuorek i.m North Borneo.- We are 
interested to hear from Mr. H. St. J. Hughe.s of 
lyabaan that lie lias two Para liubber.s doing 
very well in liis garden- -young trees in pot which 
he is sending up to Mr. Keasberry at Sapong to 
plant there. He has also given one to Mr Hewett 
to plant in the Government House gardens and 
one Dr. Adamson lias planted in liis garden in 
low ground by the Galaghan lioad so they will 
be able to speak with authority witii regard 
to the tree doing well in Borneo before loinn — 
B. X. B. Herald. 
Ked Ants : A Warnino to Cacao and 
OTHER Pl.vntees. — We direct attention to the 
important warning Mr. E. E. Green sends to his 
brother planters tlirongh our columns in refer- 
ence to the “ red ant.” It lias been drawn forth 
by the statement to us of a lowcountiy plan- 
ter that he was in the habit of carrying the red 
ant to his cacao trees in order to get rid of 
various minor insect pests. IMr. Gi’een shows, 
however, that the risk of introducing other and 
worse enemies is too great ; and we fancy our 
friend will after r.?adiiig this letter, deem it wise 
to suspend operations. 
Manure.s from India.— a correspondent writes 
to a contemporai y : — “ I enclose a chance enttinf 
from the Times of India list of export.s for one 
day this month which shows the brisk export 
of bone manure and oil -cake now going for- 
ward from our Indian ports. The hone meal — 
2,000 cwts. — for Hamburg — is no douht lieing 
sent to Geniiany for the beetroot crop raised 
under the bounty system by every device known 
to agricultural chemistry to the ruin of our West 
Indian cane sugar interests. If the Government 
of India had more, in fact a grain, of the 
science of agriculture in its composition, there 
would he an e.xport duty put without delay on 
all items of plant-food before they were allowed 
to he taken out of the country to the iiii|)overisli- 
ment of its soils and deterior.ation of every British 
interest. This would not be open to the objections 
applying to export duties of an ordinary knnl 
on raw iimduee. With the state the Ind, an 
soils are in there is no bone dust or oil cake 
whatever to spare for tlie enriehiiieiit of ilie 
land of countries ouf.side. 
