38 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1886, 



ficially colored, it being claimed that the coating of 

 the leaf, to some extent preserves the flavor. 



The fact that colored Japan tea retains it flavor 

 more tenaciously than pure tea, or natural leaf, is, we 

 believe, due to the more thorough twisting of the 

 leaf by the manipulation necessary to properly Otat 

 it with plumbago or other substance, than to the «^ior- 

 ing matter. 



Elsewliere Messrs. A. Schilling & Co., Chicago, 111. 

 agents for the .Japan Tea Syndicate, call attention to 

 efforts now being ma(1e to place before the trade Japan 

 tea that is free from coloring matter, that is not mani- 

 pulated by band, and that is packed in Japan while 

 hot in a patented package and shipped only by direct 

 con.signmeut to merchants in this country. 



The nearer the native method of packing Japan tea 

 is followed the better it is for flavor. The large earthen- 

 ware jar used in the producing country is impractic- 

 able for export by reason of its expense and liability to 

 breakage. The next best package is tin, and if the tea 

 is packed therein when hot and sealed it must reach 

 our market in better condition than if sealed in lead- 

 lined chests, which the retailer must open, emptying 

 the contents into a large tin canister, where it is more 

 or less exposed to the air, causing a rapid loss of 

 flavor. If there is no exposure between the packer and 

 the consumer the full flavor of the tea must be pre- 

 served. 



The use of Prussian blue or gypsum for coloring tea 

 is wholly for the purpose of pleasing the eye of the 

 consumer. The time has come when the use of articles 

 in the preparation of food, requiring explanation or 

 defence, must stop. The use of plumbago, Prussian 

 blue, gypsum, etc., in an article like tea, that must 

 always be judged by its cup quality, and not its appear- 

 ance in tne leaf, is indefensible. Does any one doubt 

 that purer teas mean an increased consumption ? Or 

 that a better understanding on the part of consumers 

 of methods of preparation will not tend to popularize 

 the beverage? The country increases its per capita 

 consumption of coifoe every year, while that of tea 

 dots not increase, but rather diminishes. We there- 

 fore welcome any move calculated to raise the stand- 

 ard of the tea supply. — Americdi) Grocir. 



Cocoa. -Accounts from Surinam arc very favour- 

 able respecting the Cocoa- cnltuve : even the young 

 trees, planted only five years ago in the Districts 

 of Surinam and Conimewyne on abandoned suj^ar- 

 tields, have surmounted the many difficulties, and 

 promise a good crop. The one-year-old trees, on 

 the contrary, are in a less favourable condition, 

 owing mainly to insulHcient sheltering against the 

 lieat of the sun, and are partially lost. Additional 

 plantings of cocoa are constantly being continued. 

 There is great scarcity of available manual labour, 

 and this want is felt most severely in proportion, 

 as the estates are farther from tlic capital. — Inch'an 

 M'-rcfiri/. 



Java Plan'jer arkan«ino fok Eiitaii. Sai-es 

 OF QuiM.NE B\RK. — A Cinchona planter in Java, 

 of high repute in the cour.se of a business letter, 

 under date 2nd May, wi'ites to us as below : his 

 news will be of interest to " A. M. W." and other 

 Ceylon planters : — "Nobody can tell what will be the 

 future for us, but as a powerful means to keep 

 up prices, we are trying to increase the consump- 

 tion of quinine by taking the retail-sale of 

 this drug as much as possible in hand ourselves, 

 and for this purpose liave got up a Committee. 

 No doubt the necessary funds will be forthcom- 

 ing, because some trials have given good results. 

 Quinine from the Brunswick manufactory was 

 offered in very beautiful gelatine quills at 1.3.5 

 guilders a kilo, and within a very rdiort time sold out. 

 We, moreover, got sulphate of quinine crystallized 

 in tin-boxes of half a kilo each for tiO guilders, 

 and the Amsterdam manufactory offers quinine in 

 paper jmrcels of a gram each — very neatly packed, 

 for 100 guilders a kilof'i'am, delivered at Batavia. 



If there are, perhaps, among your countrymen 

 such that want to escape too high prices from 

 apothecary or druggists, I shall only be too happy 

 to interpret their wishes to the said Committee, 

 You will tind more a bout it in — — ." 



The Dkiade.nce .\m> Advance of Cofi-ke Culture 

 IN BuAziL are thus noticed in the Rio News : — 



The commerce of Santos lias been making rapid 

 advances, and as a coffee-shipping port is rapidly 

 overhauling Rio itself. In a few years, fewer 

 perhaps than most men realize, the port of Santos 

 will be even more important than that of Rio in 

 the coffee trade, and a close second in the import 

 trade. The reasons for this are clear. While the 

 cofi'ee-producing areas of Rio and Minas cannot be 

 much further extended and are already showing 

 signs of decline because of the exhaustion of the 

 soil and the character of the country which re- 

 quires the slave and his hoe for its cultivation, 

 the coffee-producing ai*eas in Sao Paulo ai'e being 

 rapidly extended and '^lill have extensive tracts of 

 arable land yet untouched. In Rio the steep hill- 

 sides preclude the use of the plough and cultivator, 

 while in Sao Paulo nearly all the coffee lands 

 can be cultivated with these tools, thus rendering 

 the employment of free labor practicable and pro- 

 fitable. While therefore the coffee product of Rio 

 and Minas must decline with the extinction of 

 slavery, that of Sao Paulo will surely increase. 

 Besides this the speading railway system of Sao 

 Paulo is bringing an enormous section of the 

 Empire into direct communication with San tos, 

 and as the districts within this area become set- 

 tled with free laborers, and as their industries 

 are developed, their consumption of imijorted goods 

 will tend to swell the trade of that port. It is 

 clear, therefore, that the future of the city of Santos 

 is most promising, and that no time shonld be 

 last in anticipating the needs of a great com- 

 mercial port. 



AoEiciTLTURK IN Jakfna. — We are in receipt of 

 a pamjihlet coiitainiuij an essay on agriculture by 

 11. O. D. Asbury, Esq. delivered several years ago 

 before the .Taft'na Christian Association. We have 

 perused it with mucb interest, and have no doubt 

 that a careful study of its pages would repay any 

 one of our numerous gentlemen farmers in .Taffna. Of 

 course none of the i^umant class could prolit by it 

 nor would thry if they could. After discussing the 

 importance of agriculture and agricultural science, and 

 setting foith its true object, the author discusses at 

 some length the opuiutions of tilling the soil, manuring 

 weeding and watering. In treatmg of ploughing 

 some very just criticisms ar<? made of the native 

 plough, and .such ploughs are recommended for import- 

 ation as have been .since introduced b}' the Director 

 of Public Instruction. With reference to the 3'oko, 

 it is suggested that it would be well to adopt, the 

 European methoti of yoking Liillooks, vix., by sub- 

 stituting a wooden bow, shapjd like the let;ter II 

 for the wooden pin.=i and rope now in use. We 

 confess to a feeling of surprize that no native, with but 

 a single excepti'iu, and that Mr. Asbury himself, 

 has ever tried or even thought of trying such a 

 yoke, its advantages are so manifest. The bullock 

 can then pull n.iturally and easily with the shoulders 

 and hence can put forth all its strength. The cattle 

 of the country are so weak and puny that some 

 such method of yokiujj would si'em indispensable in 

 Older to enable them to do proper work. There are 

 many sensible and practicable hints scattered through 

 the pamplct. on the nccesnfy of knowing the ingre- 

 dients of the soil in any particular field, so that the 

 croi) .and the fertilizer may be adapted to its qualities 

 and needs ; on the care that should be tnkon of manure 

 on the rotation of crops ; and on many other matters 

 connected with agriculture. Appended to the essay 

 we find a list of topics for future investigation, the 

 following up and discuss. on of which might be very 

 valnnhle.— Jaffna " Morning Star." 



