Jan. I, 1887.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



469 



better, and (juinine has risen 4d per ounce, and 

 makers are selling carefully." A home journal 

 which refers to the correspondence and discussions 

 in the Observer says : — 



" If the statement made by a leading firm of London 

 brokers that ' the price of cinchona bark depends 

 entirely on the shipments from Ceylon ' be well 

 founded, it certainly seems desirable that the Ceylon 

 planters should take suitable steps for regulating 

 their supply more in accordance with the natural 

 demand. " 



Thk Quinological Laboeatoky established at Har- 

 lem (Holland in 1884 by the late Mr. 3. C. B. 

 Moens will be continued by Messrs. N. van def 

 Sleen and W. J. E. Hekmeyer, under the style or 

 Moens, van der Sleen and Hekmeyer. — Chemist <& 

 Drvgjist. 



Quinine Manufacture. — An advertisement from 

 from Madras in our columns today ought to have 

 a special interest to gentlemen meditating experi- 

 ments in the local manufacture of quinine. If 

 the owners of cinchona clearings were able to 

 form a Syndicate for the purpose of establishing 

 such a manufactory or even one to secure th^ less 

 refined alkaloids, they would probably do more 

 to increase the valus of their bark than by any 

 other meeans. 



Tea in DarjeElxng. — I hardly think I cau re- 

 member so many changes in the management of 

 gardens as have taken place this year. The season 

 has been simply disastrous for many estates especially 

 in the Terai, and Messrs. Lloyd and Co.'s failure will, 

 of course, not mend matters for the concerns which 

 were being financed by them. Some gardens have 

 done well, but I think if an average could be struck 

 it would be found that the season jast passed was 

 the worst on record for many years. Most hill 

 gardens have done very fairly well owing to beiug 

 able to maintain the "hill flavour." Given a bad 

 season, and the universal remedy — change of manage- 

 ment—is adopted. Foolishly I think in most in- 

 stauces, because a man who knows all the ins and 

 outs of a garden as well as all the coolies, so long as 

 he has a fairly good head onJiis shoulders and does 

 his work will arrive at much better results than a 

 stranger. The gardens which do best in this district 

 are those which have been under the same manage- 

 ment year after year. Local expenditure is being 

 heavily cut down, another mistake I think. It is in 

 Calcutta that the pruning knife should be applied, and 

 that not by any means sparingly. But there is little 

 chance of that step being taken as the "ring " always 

 takes very good care to command the majority of 

 votes at every shareholders' meeting. The " practical 

 gardener," with a Bible in one hand and a spade in 

 the other, seems to be the coming man. He can 

 live and grow fat on a salary that a gentleman would 

 starve on, and will put up with " midshipman's 

 allowance" — more kicks than half-pence. Pruning is 

 well in hand on nearly all the gardens now. By the 

 way, talking of pruning a friend of mine, who is an 

 old and very successful maniger, told me that he 

 was going to try what tome is a new departure on a 

 small scale. It is to prune early, and, as he hopes, 

 to get a small flush a week or two after. This of 

 course meant pruning before the sap had ceased to 

 c irculate. It will be interesting to hear what rdsalts 

 he has ohi&inadi.—Iiviian Planters' Gazette, Dec- 7th. 



Co('\. Le.\f and Sir R. Chuisxison.— This 

 well-known Professor of Materia Medica in his 78fch 

 year in one of his many mountain climbs 

 experimented in the way of chewing the Peruvian 

 cuca or coca leaves. He took ong walks, and 

 finally ascended Ben Voirlich, where he experi- 

 mented with the leaves. In uis journal, he writes 

 thus of what took place on Ben Voirlich : — 



'• I reached the top very tired. D.^t«r ni nation 

 alone carried me the last six liimired tV^r. As soon 

 as I arrived, I be^an to chew cuca leaves, and con- 

 sumed ninety grains during the half-hour spwnt on 

 the summit and the first half-hour of the descent 

 When I started for the descent, the son.sa of fatigue* 



was entirely gone. I went strait down without a 

 stop in one hour and a qunrter to the road, not 

 much tired— able to walk comfortably a mile and a 

 half to meet the carriage. Although my limbs felt 

 rather heavy to mive, [ seeme 1 mt ti cire for this." 

 In a more formal report on the subject, he says :— 



" The chewing of cuca removes extreme fatigue and 

 prevents it. Hunger and thirst are suspended ; but 



eventually appetite and digestion are unaffected 



It has no eftVct upcn the mental faculties, so 



far aa my own trials and other observations go, ex- 

 cept liberating them from the <luluess and drowsiness 

 wbich follow great bodily fatigue." 

 Surely- -says ths London Spectator — this Peruvian 

 leaf ought to be better known than it is. What is 

 doing with it in Ceylon by planters ? At Peradeniya 

 Gardens the other day, Mr. Ferdinandus gave us 

 leaves to try " in the heat of the day," the 

 chewing of which was not unpleasant, though the 

 taste somewhat resembled that of grass. The 

 Garden authorities ought to experiment with their 

 collectors, getting them to use the coca leaves on 

 their long jungle journeys, and to report the results. 



Tea Weights.— Al trial of some interest tn the tea 

 trade has recently been decided in the Court of Queen's 

 Bench in favor of the plaintiff, who sued the defen- 

 dants, their Calcutta Agents, for the value of differ- 

 ence in weight of 96 chests Indian tea bought by 

 them for the order of the said plaintiff. The differ- 

 ence was 587 lb on an invoice of 9,225 lb. being the 

 garden weight, and which their agents had accept'ed as 

 correct aad paid for as such. The cases were in good 

 order and the difference could not have been stolen, 

 lost or caused by driage. The defendants pleaded the 

 custom of paying for the garden weights and not 

 actual weight, and some evidence was called on this 

 point, which was, however, not very conclusive. The 

 Judge, in summing up, concurred in thinking that the 

 action was oue of some importance, b'-cause on the 

 one hand there was a sort of imputation that fraudulent 

 conduct had been pursued somewhere, and on the 

 other hand a custom had been set up which, if it ex- 

 isted, was a somewhat dangerous one — that where prin- 

 cipals ordered an agent to send them a certain quantity 

 of tea, hf! should have the power by custom to send 

 them a much smaller quantity, charging at the same 

 time for the larger quantity — a custom which required 

 a great deal of watching, inasmuch as customs often 

 arose in a trade which were very much to the detri- 

 ment of the public an 3 the customer. In this case 

 there were two issues— one being for the plaintiffs to 

 establish, and the other for the defendants. It was 

 for the jury to say, first, whether it had been made 

 out to their s itisfaction that the plaintiffs had giv^n 

 instructions to the defendants to buy so many chests 

 of tea for thera,that they paid for the chests on the basis 

 that the chests would contain a certiin weight of tea, 

 and that when the chests cime liome they were found 

 U'y be so much short of the invoice weight. The de- 

 fendants suggested that the short weight might have 

 been caused by pilfering, but the jury would not presume 

 frauds and rasca'ities unless there was strong ground 

 for supposing that such malpractices were the true 

 explanation af the deficiency of weight.' The jury 

 had been made aware bj' pl.^adiugs of the nature 

 of the custom which the defendants had set up as an 

 answer to thb claim. Such a custom must be certain 

 — so certain that if nothing wassai-hthe custom would 

 be assumed to be imported with the contract. It was 

 entirely fu- the jury to siy whether there was so iiui- 

 vorsal a custom that, if an agent sent home chests of 

 tea whieii were materiblly and substantially short 

 in weight the princip il was not entitled to receive in 

 respect of the deficiency. Could they say that a cus- 

 tom wis inipliol into the bargain, tint garden weights 

 should he accepted ? If that wad not mideout to their 

 satisfaction the defence of the custom failed ; and then 

 the only remaiHing question would be whether the 

 plaintitf^ had made out, in the a'^s-^noe of specific evi- 

 dence as to the breaking of the chest intrmsit, that 

 the invoice weight was in ex'-ess of the actual weight, 

 and that they had paid for the excess. — Loudon Cor. 

 Lo cal " Times." 



