740 
THE TROPICAL AQfWSWLTURIST. 
[April i, 1892. 
Japan Tea. — From, the Pari , 5 edition of the 
New York Herald we quote on our last page an 
interesting aooount o( Japan lea. We may add 
that the indigenous Assam tea tree attains in its 
native forests a height of 45 feet, and that we liud 
it very diOloult to believe that tea yields 2.500 lb 
per acre in Japan, 
Cinchona in Java. — The report on the Java 
Uovernment cinchona enterprize for the fourth 
quarter of 1891 states that during October and in 
the beginning of November the weather was con- 
tinuously dry. In the first half of November rain 
set in heavily, but was intermitted in the middle 
of December by some ten days of dry weather. 
The long drought was not favorable for the young 
plants, and the plantations formed in March and 
April suffered much from want of rain, necessitating 
supplying on a large scale. For the older pro- 
duoing plantations however the continuous drought 
was very favorable. Although the growth in the 
plantations was small in the latter part of the 
severe east monsoon, shortly after the sotting in 
of the rain they began to grow vigorously, as was 
indeed to be expected from the thorough working 
the soil that has been carried out during the past 
year. The experiment tried with the soraping of 
second and third stems of ledgerianas of bush 
growth far exceeded expectations. Not only did 
the scraped portions quickly recover from the 
operation and the plantations preserve their 
density, in oonsequence of which the caterpillar 
plague is as good as stopped, but the untouched 
matn stems grew all the more vigorously on the 
setting in of the rain, so that the aim, the formation 
of single-stemmed trees, has been greatly furthered 
by this operation. The crop of 1801 comprises 
about 650,000 half kilograms of bark, of which by 
the end of ths year 517,330 pounds had been 
sent to Tandjong Priok. Though the increase 
in production during the past year is of 
little moment, it is worthy of note, that 
by the application of the scraping method an 
outturn of ledgeriana of nearly 200,000 half kilos 
of slivers were obtained with a content represent- 
ing nearly 10 per cent of quinine sulphate, and 
that, of the crop of druggists' barks, quills were 
almost entirely got. On 8th October, 12th November 
and I7th December sales of cinchona bark of the 
crop of 1890 were held in Amsterdam. The unit 
price for manufacturers' bark at these sales was 
6J, 6 and 6| cents respeofively. The small supply 
of ledgeriana seed permitted of the sale of only a 
single sale of seed. For ledgeriana seed from 
original trees up to y3'60 per gram was paid. The 
net return of this sale was ./■1,472‘75. By Govern- 
ment order No. 20 of 3rd Dec. 1891, authority 
was given for the laying out of three isolated 
plantations, each of two homes, lor the obtaining 
of seed. In one of these plantations only those 
ledgerianas riehest in quinine will be planted, in 
the second hybrids of 0. ledgeriana and C. tucciruhra, 
and in the third, ledgerianas and hybrids together 
in order to create new orossinge. The grafts in- 
tended for the plantations, which are chosen with 
the greatest care, are already to some extent 
available in the nurseries at Tjinjiroean, so that a 
commencement can be soon made with the laying 
out of these plantations. The total number of 
plants of all kinds in the Government plantations 
at the end of 1891 was 8,549,100. In the nur. 
series there were 842,000, viz. — 802,000 ledgeriana 
(including 27,000 grafts), and 480,000 suooirubra. 
In the open there were 2,707,100, viz. — 2,034,000 
ledgeriana (including 270,000 cuttings and grafts, 
and exclusive of the more or leas 3,000 original 
ledgerianas), 2,200 calisaya and hasskarliana, 021,000 
suooirubra and oaloptora, 47,900 oilioinalis, and 
2,000 lancifolia. 
Notes ebom Fooohoo, — W e hear that disappointed 
native teamen have now positively decided to carry 
over at least 15,000 chests of their first crop tea 
to next season, expecting to do better by bolding. 
They know their own business best, but it appears 
to us that unless some wonderful change takes 
place in the foreign markets to which we ship 
they will be ‘ jumping from the frying pan into 
the fire.' Foochow ohaaszes arc always ready to 
buy old seasons common teas when new are scarce 
and they want tea for price. By June next these 
over held teas should ripen into something near 
this commodity and if ohaoszas are wanting tea for 
price they will buy them, but the holders must not 
think they oan palm off stale buns at anything 
like the price of new ones, no matter how good they 
may hare been. — Echo. 
When a Scottish farmer proposed some fifty years 
ago to stimulate the growth of |iia crops by eleo- 
tricity there was a loud guffaw among the country 
folks at t'-e idea of" muckin' the Ian' wi’ thun'er." 
But in half a century we have learned a good deal, 
and the results of the latest experiments seem to 
point to a time when a dynamo will be as much 
an agricultural implement as a reaping machine. 
Siemens found that fruit and flowers prospered 
amazingly under the electric light, and now we have 
the chemists employed at the Amherst Experimental 
Station in Massachusetts intimating that the plants 
subjected through their roots to the greatest elec- 
trical influence are hardier, healthier, larger and 
possessed of a better colour, and less affected 
than those grown under the ordinary conditions. 
Eleotrified seeds developed twice as rapidly as 
those not treated in this manner, so that there 
is now a hope that it may be possible to enable 
certain crops to reach the stage at which they 
are liable to insect attacks before the larv® are 
ready to prey upon them. Vines treated to elec- 
trioal stimulation develop a large percentage of 
moisture and sugar, and leas of the undoairable 
tartaric acid, than others left alone, and it has 
long been known that plants grown in metallic 
cages around which electric currents circulate assi- 
milate nitrogen with much rapidity. — Dai/t/ Oraphic, 
Mb. J. E. Dothie, the well-known botanist, 
writes from Sahnrunpore : — “ The periodical flower- 
ing of certain kinds of bamboos is an event 
which attracts the attention of many people, in 
the ssma way as they are interested in total 
eclipses, the appearance of comets, and such like 
obvious phenomena. Those who are unable to 
regard the event from a scientific point of view 
are apt to hold superstit ous opinions, especially 
the Indian eultivator, who, for instance, invariably 
looks on the periodical flowering of the ‘ Kattang 
bans ' (Bambusa arundinaeea) as directly connected 
with an 'approaching famine. This season should 
be recorded as a memorable one on account of 
the flowering of the sugarcane. I have not yet 
been able to ascertain to what extent this is 
taking place in other parts of Indis, but it is 
sufficient at present to notioe the fact of its 
flowering freely in the district after an interval 
of about twenty years. The particular point to 
which I wish now to draw attention, is the 
possible opportunity of obtaining ripe seed. It 
has been supposed, and with reason, that crops 
like sugarcane, which have to be propagated year 
after year by cuttings, will after a time begin 
to deteriorate, either by reason of the want of 
fresh blood or — and perhaps in consequence of 
this — their liability to various diseases. Hence 
all who are interested in the future cultivation 
of sugarcane should at once endeavour to have 
as much seed collected as possible before it is all 
carried away by the wind,"— /rnfian AgricuUuriet. 
