494 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jan, 1, 1887. 



COFFEE COKRUPTION. 

 Mr. Frederick Clifford's letter to the London Times 

 brings into prominence the gross injustice permitted 

 in England in connection with the sale of coffee, an 

 article of produce which, here, and in Ceylon, has 

 had to struggle with numerous and often overwhelm- 

 ing natural difficulties briuging sorrow and ruin on 

 many a hapless Planter who has embarked capital 

 and spent years of hard and laborious toil in its 

 growth. The trials connected with its growth are 

 unfortunately inseparable from the euterprize, and with 

 these he must lay his account ; but it is hard, indeed, 

 that the laws of his parent country should be such 

 that the most worthless compound can be passed off 

 for the valuable product upon which he has toiled 

 80 hard, thereby baulking him of the full profit and 

 advantage from the same which are his due. It is 

 a mistake to suppose that the principles of free 

 trade justify this sort of thing. It is no part of the 

 free trader's doctrine that the merchant or dealer 

 should be allowed to sell goods of the true nature 

 of which the buyer is virtually ignorant; or that the 

 buyer, while believing he is receiving an article of a 

 certain kind, gets something quite different. Under 

 whatever Act the dealer claims to be justified, it is 

 wrong. The law presumes the buyer to know what 

 he is. buying; but as a matter of fact, in the case 

 of coffee, he does not, for are we to believe that 

 the average Englishman is such a fool as to give one 

 shiihng and eight pence a pound for a thing he could 

 buy in a different form for one shilling or less? If 

 so, then we may well concur with Cariyle in his opi- 

 nion of the British population that there are " thirty 

 miUions— mostly fools." It has been proved that 

 many of the samples of the article sold as coffee 

 contained no less than from 40 to 90 per cent, of 

 other ingredients of little comparative value ; there- 

 fore, notwithstanding the precautions provided by the 

 Act for the prevention of fraud, the fact remains 

 that the public are duped into buying daily such 

 mixtures as these, in the belief that they are getting 

 pure, or all but pure coffee ; and what is more, they 

 pay pure coffee prices for them. 



In the cases which Mr. Clifford brings to the notice 

 of the public through the columns of the I'imes, that 

 of three grocers brought before the Stratford Magis- 

 trates and let off, although, the article offered for 

 sale as coffee contained 45 to 65 per cent, of foreign 

 ingredients surely makes the iueffloiency of the English 

 law glaringly apparent. Packages may bear the mark 

 showing that the contents are a mixture; but the 

 buyer, if he knows anything of it at all, knows 

 nothing of the e.-?tent of the mixture. It is quite 

 obvious he is duped, and so some more effectual 

 means are necessary to check the shameless imposi- 

 tion. It is clear that some alteration in the law 

 must be effected, such as will prevent the general 

 buyer being made the dupe of every town and vill- 

 age grocer in the country, and give those who toil 

 on our plantations a fair chance of earning their full 

 and legitimate share of profit. If there be some who 

 prefer a moderate mixture of chicory with their coffee, 

 either let the chicory be sold separately ; or, if a 

 mixture be permitted, let the law take care that 

 means are adopted for making the mixture and the 

 precise proportions known without doubt to the buyer. 

 Every consideration must be giren to the multitude 

 of ignorant people there are amongst the lower and 

 uneducated classes in England ; and the law should 

 guard with great care against their ignorance being 

 taken advantage of. 



The Planters of India have no more than one occa- 

 sion moved the Home Government to deal with the 

 matter; but with no effect. The Indian Ooft'ee Plant- 

 ers' Committee at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 

 is a good organization for working up the question, 

 but it would be well if the various Planters' Asso- 

 ciations on this side urged the Viceroy and the Indian 

 Government to bring the weight of their influence to 

 bear upon the Home authorities. They should also 

 get the Indian Members of Parliament, of whom 

 there are a good many now in the House, to take 

 up the subject. England is the chief customer for 



Indian-grown coffees, foreign sorts being niDstly used 

 on the Continent; so the (juestiou affects our Plant- 

 era in a special degree. The proposal referred to by 

 Colonel J. A. Campbell, in an interesting paper read 

 at a meeting held under the auspicies of the above 

 Committee, namely that they should start shops for 

 the sale of their own produce, is probably a good one. 

 A Co-operative .Society, with branches, would, perhaps, 

 be better. "Why should they not also make arrange- 

 ments with existing Co-operative Societies, such as 

 the Army and the Civil Service, &c., for the sale of 

 their coffee? They could rely on these institutions 

 selling their produce unadulterated. Whatever means 

 are employed either to educate the public to appre- 

 ciate good coffee, to point out how they are being 

 imposed upon by the ordinary dealer, or to direct 

 Government attention to the inefficiency of the Adul- 

 teration Act, the general body of Planters and those 

 interested in the trade should not rest till the pre- 

 sent abuses are removed, and till knavery is no longer 

 permitted to interfere with their produce reaching 

 the consumer in a pure and unadulterated state. — 

 Dailp Fast. 



COCONUT OIL. 



An article so long in the market, so widely known, 

 and 80 extensively used for scores and even hundreds 

 of years, as Oil can hardly respond to what is known 

 as " pushing " in dealing with new products and new 

 brands. A larger consumption, save with refere.nce 

 to the increase of population, and new uses are 

 hardly to be expected ; but there is one point which 

 demands ami should have early attention— the price 

 of Ceylon Oil. A smaller supply is generally followed 

 by higher prices ; but the causes which have led to 

 the diminished exportation of Coconut Oil forbid the 

 hope of this de.sirable sequence. It is not, however 

 on the low prices ruHng in comparison with former 

 local prices that inquiry is needed— during the Crimean 

 War the price of Ceylon Oil was double the present 

 quotation and the normal price was between £40 

 and £50— but on the difference in price between 

 Cochin and Ceylon Oils. How is it that almost in 

 this article alone the Island is unable to secure the 

 pre-eminence it has won in almost all its products — 

 Coft'ee, Tea, Cocoa, Cinnamon, PlumbRgo, &c. ? What 

 is more remarkable is that the difference in prices 

 is growing wider to our disadvantage. Thus, whereas 

 in 1884 and 1885 Cochin Oil realized only £3 per ton 

 more than Ceylon, at the present time the difference 

 is £11 sterling, the prices being £37 10s. and £26 

 10-. respectively. One of the reasons we have heard 

 named for the higher price paid for Cochin is that 

 it is richer in stearine— that is the fatty or the more 

 solid principle in Oils, which is of special value in 

 the manufacture of candles, soap and lubricants. It 

 would be well to ascertain by analy.sis that this 

 poverty in stearine is a fact, and then to trace the 

 causes to which it m'ly be due. Two of the most 

 obvious causes would seem to be defects in cultiv- 

 ation and defects in manufacture. If it be the 

 former, the defects may probably be removed by 

 supplying the soil with the constituents in which it 

 may be deficient. If the latter, we rather think it 

 must be due to the quahty of the raw material 

 operated on than to defects in the manufacture itself. 

 The machinery in use in the Island is believed to be 

 the most finished and effective that can be devised, 

 and certainly leaves very little oleaginous substance 

 in the poonac residuum; but the Copperah which is 

 crushed is too often smoke-dried, and as often the 

 kernel of immature nuts. The same ignorance and 

 necessity which prompt the villager to pluck unnpe 

 fruits and send them to the market— including Areca- 

 nuts though our paternal Government knows naught 

 of it--induce them to pluck immature nuts and 

 hasten them into the market by exposure to a fire 

 on lathed shelves. The conversion of immature and 

 fresh-plucked nuts into Copperah, and the exposure 

 of the kernel to fire may have more to do with the 

 poverty in stearine of Ceylon Oil than anything el.se. 



