Jan. 1, 1BS7.] ' f HE TROPICA?. AGKICUtTURiSf. 



iHg 



iiii—j i a.T 8a< 



?*«« 



y'^ri'i^aarTiiaic 1 1 • n fr— -^ 



serious than to those in the hill country. The 

 numerous and extensive stores for tlie preparation 

 and shipment of coffee in the port of Colombo 

 afforded a means of subsistence to many thousands 

 of women and children who were thereby enabled 

 to earn a very substantial portion of the daily 

 expenditure of their households; indeed in many 

 instances they were entirely dependent upon sucli 

 earnings. The mills and machinery to a large 

 extent have been stopped altogether, and others 

 afford employment to a but a small proportion of 

 those who in former years had resort to them 

 for work. Few indeed are those who can oft'er 

 anything like permanent employment, and it is 

 needless for us to point out that no other means 

 of subsistence now exist for thousands of women 

 and children who are consequently a burden 

 rather than otherwise to their households. It 

 needs but little consideration to show how serious 

 a matter this is to the native population of Co- 

 lombo,— one that affects some 15,000 to 20,000 of 

 its inhabitants, and to these the industry which 

 is being substituted for coffee offers no help what- 

 ever now or in the future. 



THE KOLA NUT. 



Messrs. Christy & Co. uow publish an analysis of 

 Kola nut (by the Cousulting " Aaualyst of the Royal 

 OommisMouf rs for Materia, Fiji, .Mauritius, &c.), the 

 report of which reached them too late to be included 

 ill " New Commercial Plant,'' &c., No. 9. 

 Analysis ok Kola Nut, 

 Stercidia accmidnata. 



Per Cent. 

 Alkaloids or Crystallizable Priucii^les :— 



Caffeine 2-710 



Theobromine -084 



Bitter Priuciple -018 



Total Alkaloids . 



Fatty Matters:— 

 Sapouiflablo Fat or Oil 

 Essential Oil 



' Total Oils 



Resinoid Matter {sol. in abs, afcoho') . 

 Sugar : — 

 Glucose {llcJi'.ces Alkaline Cupram- 



htoidnm) 3-312 



Sucrose i* (Red. Alk. Ciipram. after 



inversion)'' -GOJ 



Total Sugar SOU 



Starch, C4un), &c. : — 



Gavx {soluble in II atW=> F.) ... 4-876 



. Starch 28-990 



Amidinous matter [colouring tcitlilodine) 2-130 



Totnl Gum and Fecula ... 35-996 



Albuminoid Mattersf 8-642 



Red aud other Colouring Matters]: ... 3-670 



Kolat.annic AcidS . 



•731 



-OSL 



2-812 



•815 

 1-012 



Kolatannic Acid§... 

 Mineral Matter: — 



Potassa 



Chloriae 



Phosphoric Acid 



Other Baits, &c. 

 Total Ash 



Moisture 



Ligneous Matter and loss 



— British And Colonial Drugyist. 



1-204 



1-415 

 •70-2 

 •371 



2-330 



4 818 



9-722 



27-395 



100-000 



* Inverte 1 by boiling with a 2-25 per cent sohition 

 of nitric acid for 10 minutes. 



t Containing nitrogen = 1-387. 



\ Not definitely sopirable ; chiefly resembling some 

 oxidized resinoid matter, and the red-browu colour 

 very like that of the roasted cacao-bean. 



§ Apparently one or more of the numerous modi- 

 fications of tauuic acid commou in the vegetable 

 klDgdotn, 



Q2 



A SUBSTITUTE FOE QUININE. 



TO THE EDITOR OE THE " BPaTISH AND COLONIAL 

 DEUOaiST." 



A Valuable Discovery, -Sib,— It may interest 

 ^°J^^, °^ i •''',°'-"' ''^^'-^^'■s to kno-,y that Professor Fisher, 

 ot Alunich, has, after a .series of experiments, obtained 

 trom tar a special " carbure, " in the form of a 

 white crystalluie powder, possessing all the thprapeutic 

 properties of quinine. An application for a patent for 

 this discovery lias already been made in Garmauy. 

 Yours truly, K. M. J. TEiL.-Wolborough, Newton 

 Abbot, November llth. [There are now of course 

 several artificial base.s, f.jr.— kairine, thalliiie, autipyrinc, 

 antitebrme, &c.,— whose antipyretic properties cause 

 them to be recommended in place of quinine. We 

 do not profess to know precisely what may be intended 

 by " carbure."] 



COFFEE AND ITS CUEERS. 



We are indebted to Mr. H. C. Johnston, of the 

 Ouchterlony Works, Beypore, for the following 

 very mteresting letters .- — 



A great deal of comment, and no little autagou- 

 nistic feeling, has of late arisen between planters 

 and coast agents on the subject of coffee cuiing 

 Doubts have been expressed, and an idea spread ab- 

 road that carers do not do justice to their part of 

 the busine.ss, an<l it has been assorted that what 

 httle they do, is charged for at extortionate rates 

 As I have not hitherto cured for the public, I hope 

 what I am about to say on the subject will'at least 

 be considered disinterested. The figures may, I think, 

 be relied on. I feel certain that if planters were 

 more acquainted with the details of the cott'ee trade, 

 their complaints would be less frequent. 



One of the chief causes of irritation is the loss in 

 the curer's yard by drying. On this point, as on 

 others, I speak from the results of my own experience. 

 Eighteen bushels per thousand is a fair allowance 

 for drjage over a large quantity; I have knov/u 

 parcels lose sixty, and others that gain in the bushel 

 measurement ; small lots of 50 or 100 bushels which 

 do not get the turning over, in gathering and spread- 

 ing that 2,000 to 2,000 bushels do, almost invariably 

 gain. It seems to have escaped planters that when jjarch- 

 meut coffee has, by exposure to a co.ist sun, arrived 

 at dry point, any further exposure renders the 

 parchment so brittle that it pulverises when raking 

 up, measuring, and bagging. It is absurd to think 

 that the curer, whose work is compressed into a 

 limited space of time, can turn on and' off the labour 

 tap at will, any more than can the planter, wJiose 

 crop comes on with a rush. So a higher percentage 

 of loss by dryage is recorded in the curer's books. 

 A good curer can tell almost to an hour when a 

 particular lot will be dry, but it does not always 

 follow that labour is available at the ex-act tiuie. 

 In the season of 1884-1885 the estate that gave me 

 the largest percentage of dryage gave the best out- 

 turn. In the previous season this estate showed the 

 smallest percentage of dryage. In Ceylon yards 

 there are two degrees of dryness known as '• bone" 

 dry and " horn" dry ; the latter is when you can 

 indent the bean with your teeth, instead of cracking 

 it hke a nut. Coffee will peel in the " horn" dry 

 condition,, but no respectable curer would do so, and 

 it is only practised by cheap men. There is a curious 

 fact in drying coffoR which do.^s not S'em to be 

 general! • " ---^^g planter=. Parchment will lose 



2 lb. to Zh. lb. the first day, and 4 to 4.L lb. the 

 second, that is for coffee arriving at 38 to 401b. per 

 bushel. 



Another source of complaint is the ditferenco be- 

 tween the estate measurement and coast measurement. 

 I don't think there is much to growl about. The 

 difference over nearly half a million bushels comes 

 out at -Oio, which speaks well for My.sore cartmen. 

 The questiou of shade drying, aud tJie colour of 



