468 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Tea in Russia. — An interesting interview on 
this subject will be found on another page. 
Though praising Mr. Kogivue’s work, it is 
evident that Mr. Jordan does not believe in es- 
tablishing a rival business to the Ku-ssian deal- 
ers as the best means of making our teas known. 
liAVENDER-GROWING IN VICTORIA.— Mr. N. A. 
Woolnough, who has a lavender farm in Moorab- 
binshire, Vict(jiri.f^ad vises Australian agriculturists 
to take up laveiidm -oil distilling. He says that 
all the oil Australia could send to Euroi)e for 
ten years would be but a drop in the bucket of 
European consumption, so that there is no danger 
of overstocking tlie market. — C7)«a/sf and Drug- 
gist, 13 Nov. 1897. 
There Seems no bottom in Coffee— says 
the Grocers' Journal — highest grades maintain 
their position f.airly well, but the lower have got 
down to incredible depths. This week the recoul 
has again been beaten, and while the market 
has taken it quietly here ju'etty well a panic 
has occurred in Amsterdam. Santos h^s been 
sold forward as low as 29s 6d., French rates 
being equal to about 30s ; while Hamburg prices 
have shaded even these low figures, and Java in 
Amsterdam has been bought and sold at wide 
ranges in the excitement induced by reports of 
immense quantities in sight in Brazil. 
Coffee at KotaKota, B.C. Africa.— Four- 
teen or fifteen miles inland from KotaKota is 
the pioneer coffee estate on Lake Nyasa. The 
coffee was planted at the end of the last wet 
season. I was surprised to see how M’ell it 
looked. The land is evidently well suited for 
coffee growing as the young plants look exceed- 
ingly healthy. The elevation is about 300 feet 
above KotaKota or about an elevation of say, 
1,800 feet above sea level. This seems to suit 
the coffee very well. Labour is cheap here (as 
it is all the w.ay up the coast of the Lake) the 
ordiniiry wages being Is 6d a month (with a 
yard of calico a week food ]>ay). — B. C. A. Gazette, 
Sept. 2 1. 
AVhat is Prosperity for a Nation ? -It 
behoves all intelligent Sinhalese to ponder the 
answer : — “It is to have all its people at work. 
When all the people are at work the nation is 
adding to its wealth all that is possible in its day 
and generation. New inventions might have 
made it more, but for each year the labour of 
each nation is the sum of that year’s creation 
of wealth.” This is in a Hawaiian journal which 
adds; — “Teach the young Hawaiian lads, who 
are each year graduating from our high schools,— 
teach them how to care for coffee trees, — hoTV to 
prune and handle them, how to pick and care for 
the berries. They are well suited- for this work, 
in which hundreds of them may find steady and 
profitable employment.” 
Labour Uifficultie.s in Fiji.— In the “Fiji 
Times” of Oct. 9th, we find an order of the 
Commissioner for Native Affairs which shews 
what restrictions are placed on engaging natives 
A circular letter from Hon. W. L. Allardyce, Native 
Commis ioner, is published, in which Bulis are 
warned that married men are not to sign on to work 
for Europea' s fur a longer term than three months 
ui der hravy penalties. 
We learn from an authority on Fiji Affairs that 
“ Married men often engage to go away and 
work for a year, but they are prohibited from 
doing so by law, and if found out are liable to 
punishment. No married man is allowed to 
engage to work out of his district for a longer 
period than 3 months.” 
[Jan. I, 1898, 
Wood Ashes as a BJedicine. — In the American 
Xnturalist, Mr. Stahl of Illinois extols the virtue of 
wood-ashes as a medicine for farm animals, and 
says that used with discretion no other remedy is 
required to keep animals in full health. For swine 
he makes a mixture of wood-ashes, charcoal, and 
salt, and keeps it constantly before them in a large 
lox having holes in the bottom, through which the 
animals work it out as they require it. He also 
peaks well of the mixture for horses, and in thirty- 
seven years of experience of farm-life has lost only one 
horse, and that through an accident. The ashes 
may be administered by putting an even tea spoonful 
on the oats twice a week ; but he thinks it pre- 
ferable to place a mixture of three parts wood-ashes 
to one of salt constantly before the animal in a 
little compartment at one corner of the feed-box. 
Mr. Stahl also has great faith in the value of wood- 
ashes when used as a fertiliser. — Journal of the Jamaica 
Aijric idtu ral Soc it tij. 
Coffee in Mexico.— Our home correspondent 
elsewhere reports, not one, but two espeditions 
of Ceylon men to Mexico to see about “Coffee 
investments.” Mr. Naftel appears to lead the 
one andMr. Jas. Sinclair the other. Our readers 
are aware from letters in the Observer, of Mr 
W^m. Forsythe (formerly of Maturatta) that 
European enterprise in coffee has been extending 
for some time back in Mexico ; but with all the 
investments (on behalf of Ceylon men espe* 
cially) in Brazil, Costa Kica, Java and the 
iSIalayan Peninsula, of late years, one would 
imagine that coffee had had its full sliare of 
attention. No doubt the troubles in Brazil over 
the Government and imper currency is an encour- 
agement to invest elsewhere in our old staple. 
The Ca.mbiior Trees of Japan, China, and For- 
mosa are beginning to fail, and the L^nited States Go 
verninenthave tried theexperinient of growing cam- 
phor in Florida, with encouraging success. It is 
found that there is no need to kill the tiee, as they* 
do in the Far East, because the gum can be ex- 
tracted from the leaves. — Globe. 
Very Obliging. — The Board of Tea Experts, re- 
cently appointed by the United States, wno distin 
guished themselves by framing some obnoxious tea 
regulations, have found the task so tremendous that 
they have resigned in order, as they generously point 
out, that “ other members of the trade” may “ bring 
a more varied experience and wider range of interest 
toward perfecting the regulations of the new law.” 
The report which the retiring members have fired 
off before seeking retirement is an outburst of 
collective wisdom. They do not seem to know 
much about tea and tea dust, but they are 
of an obliging turn of mind, especially to- 
wards China. The Chinese Minister having de- 
manded a different standard for Canton teas, 
and a revision of the Board’s rejections, the Board 
replies mildly that an endeavour shall be made to 
find specific standards more thoroughly satisfactory. 
With regard to Ceylon and Indian teas, it has been 
found that the effect of the sieve test has been 
simply to exclude high-class teas made from the 
youngest and finest leaves of the tea plant. The 
“ Experts’ ” regulation has, therefore, been abandoned 
for more tnan two months past, and the Boai dean 
only plead that before that time “ the difference 
between dust and needle leaf had not been suffi- 
ciently well understood.” It is suggested therefore, 
that siftings from India and Ceylon teas may be 
lesifted ihrongh a No. 26 sieve of thirty wire to sepa- 
rate needle leaf from dust. The Board made a show 
of objection to backing down on the question of the 
Hyson standard, but recommended. “ That the exa- 
miners be instructed to ctmpare all Imperials, Hysons, 
coarse leaf gunpowders, and extra young Hysons 
wiih the Hyson standard, and all other young Hysons 
and small-leaf gunpowders with the young Hyson 
standard. — IT. and 0. Mail, Nov. 12.” 
