(ji'l 



fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1884. 



to the necessary digestive effort, and to ward off that 

 sleepiness which is often the attendant of satiety. 

 That it is advisahlo to eat something wlienever coffee is 

 taken seems to ho an idea as old as the habit of coffee- 

 drinldug itself, and Dufour, a French writer of 1G7l', says 

 that there was a proverb among Orientals to the effect 

 that, ' If one had nothing else to eat before drinking 

 coffee, it was advisable to swallow a waistcoat button or 

 else go without the coffee altogether.' " 



The first poftion of the lectui-e treated of tea and coffee 

 together, but tlie latter and longer portion was devoted 

 to coffee alone, Dr. Poore explaining that he thought there 

 was great need of instruction with regard to it in this 

 country. After a brief sketch of the history of coffee, 

 and its introduction from the East into this country, he 

 proceeded to deal with the different descriptions of coffee 

 iu detail. A Mincing Lane friend had supplied him with 

 16 typical samples, which he classified according to colour 

 as follows : — 



Price 

 per cwt. 



160s " Fine brown Java '' Li't brown, uniform 



40s " West Coast of Africa " ... Light brown, ir- 

 regular in colour. 

 70s " Liberiau (Ceylon)" .. Brown with faint- 



est suspicion of 

 gi'een 

 1 ;0s " Fine long berry Mocha " ... Brown with faint 



tinge of green 



100s " Ordinary Mocha " Greenish brown 



52s "Manilla" ) t, i u 



S4s •' Ctood ordinary Santos " ... | Darkgreenybrown 

 60s "Good ordinary Java" ...) Brown, with more 

 6()s " Gooil ordinary Guatemala " ) green 



IBOs "Mysore" \ 



93.S " Neilgherry " ... ... ...> Greenish 



TOs ." Good La Guayra '■' , J 



92s "Fine Ceylon-dighterin colourn ^^^^ distinctly 

 /OS " Medium Plantation (Oeylou) ' > „„„„ 



7O3 "Costaltica" J ^ 



52s " Good average Uio " Brownish, green- 

 ish, blackish 

 Arranged according to size, the following is their order, 

 and the price of each is also given :— 



No. of seeds in a unit 

 measure holding 

 50 grams of water 

 (about 2i oz.) 

 Fine brown Java ... 187' ... lliOs per cwt. 



Fine Mysore ... 108 ... 130s „ 



Fine Neilgherry ... 203 ... 93s „ 



Costa Kica ■•• 203 ... TOs „ 



Good ordinary Guatemala... 207 ... SCs „ 



Good La Guayra ... 210 ... TOs „ 



Good average Santos ... 213 ... 5is „ 



*Fine long berry iMocha ... 217 ... 130s „ 

 Good ordinary .lava ... 223 ... 60s „ 



Fine Ceylon Plantation ... 22.5 ... 92.s „ 



*Good average Kio ... 23i; ... 52s „ 



Medium Plantation (Ceylon) 238 -... 7Ss „ 



*Mamlla ■■■ 218 ... 5Js „ 



•Ordinary Mocha ... 270 ... 100s .. 



• West African ... 31o ... 40s „ 



Those sorts which are marked with au asterisk arc irregular 

 in size and colour, and have the appearance of being care- 

 le.ssly prepared; and the reason why Kio, Manilla, and West 

 African fetch the least money seems obrious enough. 



" CuUivaticul, climate, mode of preparation, and age, are 

 all factors wliich help in deterniining value. There are the 

 samo differences in coffees that there are in othov kinds of 

 fruit, between the wild crab apple, for instance, and the 

 Newton pippins ; and by the art of cultivation, the coffees 

 of Java, the East Indies ami Ceylon, and some of those from 

 Central and South America, have become more than riv.als 

 for Mocha. If you will look at the coffees from Kio and 

 the West Coast of Africa, and compare tliem with those 

 from Mysore and the Neilgherrys, you will appreciate the 

 value of careful preparation and thorough cleaning." 



Dr. Poore warmly ailvocateil tne more general use of 

 coffee, and recommended that it always should be made 

 stron^and from a good quality of bean. He had a good 

 ileal to say in regard to thi' roasting and preparlion of 

 coffee, and iu conclusion he devoted coasideiable spac? to 



the question of adulteration, arguing that the decline in the 

 consumption of coffee iu England was due mainly to the 

 development of adulteration under Government patronage. 

 Our space will not, however, permit us to follow him 

 into this branch of his subject occasion on the present 

 occasion, but we shall probably recur to it in another 

 issue. — Planters' Gazette. 



The importanoe of seasoning timber otherwise than 

 by the ordinary process of time ie admitted by all 

 who are' called upon to use unseasoned wood under 

 urgent circumstances. To dealeia and those who can 

 afford the necessary appliances the application of steam 

 will commend itself. The principle is the folloiving: 

 A large percentage of sap in all woods consists of 

 water. This water heated to boiling point expands 

 sixteen hundred and fifty times. It follows that if 

 wood be heated to 212° the boiling point of water the 

 capillary cells can contain only one sixteen hundred 

 and fiftieth as much water as at ordinary temperat- 

 ure, the expanded water escaping as steam. The pro. 

 portion of moisture left in the wjod is after steaming 

 less than that demanded by its ordinary hyroscopio 

 condition. The steaming should be gradually done 

 60 that the sap may be dissipated without rupturing 

 the cells by its expansive force wlien being converted 

 into ste.aui. The steam should be generated in a 

 suitable boiler and allowed to escape at a pressure of 

 two or three pounds. — South of India Ohserver. 



Quinine. — The sophistication of quinine sulphate 

 with a cinchonine salt, which occurred soma time ago 

 in Paris, has occasioned the issue by the French War 

 Department of an official test for the purity of the 

 samples of quinine sulphate that may 1)6 submitted to 

 that department, and the test is an exemplification 

 of the truism that a little knowledge is a dangerous 

 thing. Among the nine teats that are given it is re- 

 quired that the sample shall be white, homogeneous 

 and crystalline ; and that Vvfhen calcined it shall not 

 leave a residue exceeding 25 centigrams per 100 grams 

 (that is, 0'25 per cent). It should not contain any 

 quinidine, salioin or other foreign matters; its aqueous 

 solution should be prefectly clear and alkaline to test- 

 p.aper ; moreover, it should consist of quinine, 76'25; 

 sulphuric acid, 9 42 ; water driven off at 100 = , 12-00; 

 water combined at 100*,2-.33. Finally the quantity of 

 cinchonine admitted by tolerance should not exceed 

 "two-hundredths." Apart from the other singularities 

 in these requirements, no mention is made of cinchon- 

 idine, the alkaloid commonly occurring in samples of 

 commercial quinine sulphate, and it is difficidt to 

 understand the reason of fixing the limit of water at 

 12 per cent. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 



Messes. CeoPER, Cooper & Co., the well known 

 I/iiiilon Tea Merchants, seem to understand their 

 business, and the uses of advertising. We read in a 

 home paper that not long ago they sent out pamphlets 

 aliout their teas, upon which 15 tons of paper wers 

 expended, and the postage of which cost upwads of 

 £S00. Ti is was exclusive of their advertising medi- 

 ums in the Loudon districts. Messrs. Cooper, Cooper 

 & Co. buy and sell a largo quantity of Indian Tea, 

 a taste for which is certainly sp-eading in England. 

 It cannot fail to do so, if only old fashioned house- 

 keepers iu the old country can bo brought to under- 

 st^md that from two to three minutes is ample time 

 for infusion in the tea pit. From ten to twenty 

 minutes may be all very well for the decoction of 

 herbs, and djes, and dirtinesses, known as China Tea ; 

 but 80 long a ste'ping of course utterly ruins the 

 flavour of the real article and renders it acrid, bitter 

 and bilious. And then the British public is apt to 

 blame, not its own stupidity and the tradition of the 

 Mera, but " th^it dratted Indian Tea" or "the very 

 pi-culiur taste, my dear" this Assam, or Darjeeling 

 tea, hm.—lndigo mnl Tea Planters' OanU'.e, 



