^SC* 



tH£ TROPICAL AGmCVLrURlBf. 



[Oct, j, J8b6/ 



in one case was that the berries were actually shown 

 to the inspector and were ground in his presuuce, so 

 that there seemed to be no likelihood of an adultrr- 

 ation. Chicory, however, was found on analysis to Ije 

 present, and the vendor was .fined. It is possible 

 tliat this fraud was due to the revival of an old 

 practice of compressing chicory by machinery iuto 

 the size and shape of coffee berrie«. These sham 

 berries are mixed with real ones, and the purchaser 

 who sees what he believes to be coffee being ground 

 before his eyes, is hopelessly deceived. As chicorj' 

 only costs threepence or fourpence per pound, the 

 fraud is very profitable. It is no rare thing for so- 

 cared " coffee " to be sold which proves on analysis to 

 be composed of one-fourth part of coffee added to 

 three-fourths of chicory," 



There is no reason whatever why such deleterious 

 stuff should be drunk to the enrichment of unscru- 

 pulous dealers and the prejudice of a fine industry ; 

 a real article is perfectly accessible if we go to the 

 right quarter for it, and all that remains to be done 

 when we have qualified ourselves to judge by a cup 

 of the Commissioners' coffee is to secure our " Ceylon 

 plantation '' or " Mysoi e "—the older in bag the better, 

 for coffee improves with keeping— and then roast it 

 with skill. A modern Brillat Savarin is, however 

 much needed to teach the true manipulation of the 

 bean. The main care should be to roast the material 

 freshly, as it U needed, and the work may well be 

 done iu a dry, shallow frying pau, afterwards storing 

 it only in stoppered glass bottles ; having it ground 

 according to the prevailing fashion, or better still to 

 pound it iu a mortar as Turks do just before using. 

 Then if the Briton allows himself two ounces to a 

 pint of boiling water poured upon the crushed stone 

 — to boil coffee at auy stage is rank heresy — he will 

 have a beaker of healthful and dietetic drink such 

 as too seldom graces the table of any but a wise 

 and select few, and of which Pasquet Eosee himself 

 the first who made and sold good coffee iu London, 

 would not have been ashamed. 



Half an hour may very well indeed be spent in 

 this Indian room, containing not the least worthy 

 of the many curious and varied collections of tbis 

 year's show, epitomizing, as all do, the wealth, in- 

 dustrj-, and endless capabilities of that realm 

 upon which the sun never sets. It matters little 

 that one branch of planting has suffered and suc- 

 cumbed under a widespread blight in Ceylon. Already 

 its place is taken and filled by more than one new 

 and promising enterprize. In India neither tea nor 

 coffee is yet within measurable distance of the limits 

 of production ; both stand high i)i the world's favor, 

 and, though appreciated today, ought to be still more 

 popular to-morrow. With their success is iiuked a 

 wide field of usefulness for adventurous younger .sous, 

 as well as the very desirable flow of English capital 

 to E igiish territories, and the securing of a whole- 

 some and cheap drink to replace the decoction of 

 the cabbage-stalk and burnt sugar, which has hitherto 

 pas.sed by the name of coffee. For many reasons 

 -the |>lauters" corner of the Indian and Colonial 

 E.Kbiiiiiion and the moral it teaches deserve, there- 

 fore, pub'.ic attention and reflection. — Daily Tcleyraph. 



TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN LOWER BUBMAH 

 AND JAVA. 



\i'e are indebted to Mr. H. Caine for the following 

 Interesting report, dated 1st June 1886, submitted by 

 hiroj to the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and 

 Kicobar Islands on the cultivation of tobacco as 

 pursued it) Lower Burmah and Java: — 



I have the honour to submit the following report 

 on the cultivation of tobacco as pursued in Lower 

 Burmah and Java. 



Leaving Port Blair en the 23rd of February, 1 

 arrived iu Rangoon on 26th instant, and having a 

 a little time at my disposa'. pending the departure 

 of the Straits. steamer, I decided to go further inland, 

 and visit the tobacco districts under the charge of 

 Mr F. CabanisB, Assistant Director of the Agricultural 

 Pepartment. With this object in view, I left Baogoon 



as soon as I had informed Mr. Cabaniss of my intend- 

 ed visit. I met this gentleman at Jlj'anoung, on the 

 Irrawaddy river ; we started together for Thayetmyo, 

 from which place we proposed dropping down the 

 river in a small boat to see the tobacco on the banks 

 of the river. The following is a summary of the 

 tobacco cultivation which I noticed in the Prome and 

 Thayetmyo districts . — 



The tobacco grown by the Burmese in Lower Burmah 

 is usually planted in alluvial deposists without any 

 prepai-ation of the soil. The seed is sown broadcast 

 on the damp mud, and thus allowed to germinate, 

 which usually takes about eight days. When the 

 plants are well up, they are thinned out here and 

 there where crowded, and the surplus plants disposed 

 of at the rate of El per- hundred plants. The 

 remaining plants are left pretty much to themselves ; 

 very little (if any) hoeing or harrowing is done. 



Mr. Cabaniss has instituted nurseries for trans- 

 planting at his own farm. A better crop could be 

 secured if the same plan were resorted to by the 

 Burmese themselves. The iJants could then be planted 

 out at regular intervals, each would have its own 

 area of land to grow upon, and a more regular crop 

 would be the result. Where village upland is used 

 for tobacco cultivation, the soil is ploughed up three 

 or four times, also partly broken up by wooden 

 rollers and five-pronged wooden harrows ; , in these 

 lands the seed is also sown broadcast, the plants 

 coming up very irregularly. The soil is not pulverized 

 as in Upper India, but broken up into small nodules 

 or lumps. 



Ci'.rinrf. — I saw some of the tobacco cured by the 

 Burmese themselves after their own method, which, 

 however, does not differ materially from that of the 

 natives of L^pper India, only less care is taken over 

 it : the plants are cut when ripe and left to cure 

 in the sun, exposed to rain and night dews. The 

 samples I saw were dirty and badl}' cured. Mr. 

 Cabaniss has induced a few of the Burmese to try 

 shade-curing, which would greatly improve the quality 

 of the leaf; he also says tbat shade-cured tobacco 

 fetched R. 40 to 50 per 100 %iss, about 350 lb., 

 which would be one anna and ten pies to two annas 

 three pies per lb. Sun-cured tobacco fetches some 

 E.IO less i)er 100 viss. 



The seed is sown in December and January, and 

 takes about eight days to germinate. 



I much regret that owing to my time being limited, 

 I was unable to visit the curing sheds at Slyanoung 

 under the supervision of Mr. Cabaniss. However, there 

 was no tobacco-curing at the time. I left Rangoon 

 on the 13th of ^larch and arrived at Singapore on 

 the 20th instant; from thence I crossed over to 

 Batavia on the 23rd instant, arriving at the latter 

 place on the 25th instant, Fi'om information received 

 from the British Consulate at Batavia, I decided to go 

 to Sourabaya to see tobacco grown in the Probolingo 

 and Passoei-ean districts. - 1 arrived at Sourubaya on 

 the 4tb, and from thence set out for Probolingo on 

 the Tih. I r. ceived letters of introduction to one or 

 two planters from Jlo.'-srs. Fraser, Ealon and Company, 

 of .Sourabaya; these gentlemen were very civil and 

 obliging. I engaged a native cart of Probo.ingo to 

 take me to Lomadgong, a distance of 10 mil-.s. The 

 roads were in fairly good order, lined by teak and 

 tamarind trees. There were vast tracts of land under 

 rice on each side, also a good deal of sugarcane 

 planted some four feet apart in ridges, allowing free 

 currents of air to circulate between the rows. A 

 fine grade of indigo is also grown in this district. 

 Jack fruit and rambutans (a sort of lichee with a 

 shell like a horse-chestnut) grown in abundance. I 

 arrived at Lomadgong on the 8th, and left this place 

 for the tobacco districts on the following morning. 

 The first planter I visited had finished curing, and 

 was engaged in sorting his tobacco leaf for the 

 Amsterdam market. He showed me his sheds and 

 system of bulking and prising. 



Cvrinfj flieds in Java. — These sheds are built very 

 large and roomy, made up of bamboos and palm-leaf 

 thatch vnih plenty of space, so as to permit free 

 t'ijfpulatjou of nir and to prevent bouse-bntoiu^; 



