5^4 



I'HE rmmCAh AGRICULTURIST. 



[Feb. 1, 1BS7, 



and i)Iace them ia uncultivated spots, far from the 

 plantations, and alsove all from orange trees, for these 

 latter are also liable to attacks, from and destruction 

 by this same pest which so miserably destroys the 

 coffee plants; the same thing occurs with thepawpaw 

 (maiiwetro) where I have also discovered the pest. By 

 following these indications, I am convinced that, in less 

 than two j't^FS, 1;he coffee orchards of the municipality 

 of Cantagallo and of others will return to their pristine 

 condition, maintaining a favorable position and repaying 

 to planters and to the State a return for tlieir labors. 

 — AiKjusto Francisco Maria Glaziou. — '' Rio News." 



Aktificial Fuel for Tea Curing. — We regret 

 to learn that the result of enquiries is to shew 

 that although crude Kerosene oil could be applied 

 as an efficient heating agent, the cost of carriage 

 would bring the cost up to double the price of coals, 

 while coals seem to be in most cases twice the 

 cost of wood fuel. Our own hope is in the resi- 

 duum of coal wells, compressed into bricks, the 

 freight of which, as ballast for ships, might be very 



ow. In any case we cannot doubt that a cheap 

 Artificial fuel will, ere long, be discovered. 



CoFFiiE Disease in Bhazil. — We call atten- 

 tion to an interesting extract on our last page, from 

 the Bio Ncics by which it will be seen that a Brazilian 

 attributes the coffee disease which has ravaged the 

 province of Eio, to a minute insect, fostered by 

 heaps of decaying weeds. We suppose this is the 

 Cciniostoma referred to by the late Mr. Cruwell in 

 his letters to us from Brazil, although no scientific 

 name is given by M. Glaziou. We doubt very 

 much whether this gentleman's remedy will be as 

 successful as he anticipates. 



Cheap Quinine : A Pkactical Question. — Can 

 any of our readers find out through relatives 

 or friends, whether the people in the Fen 

 districts of England or away down in Essex and 

 Kent about Gravesend and the mouth of the Thames, 

 have benefited at all by the cheapness of quinine ? 

 Quinine is of as much consequence to thom as to 

 the people in the Southern States of America. Do 

 the resident clergymen, and other ministers and 

 philanthropic people generally, know that quinine 

 can be got for 2s 6d or 3s per ounce ? Who 

 will enquire ? 



The Advance in Kowrie Gum. — For a number of 

 years past statements regarding the growing difficulty 

 of gathering kowrie gum h;ive reached this market 

 at different times, almost invariably with the result 

 of causing a stififening of prices here. Recently similar 

 reports have been received, with the added inform- 

 ation that the diggers have now to seek for the gum 

 so far from the settlements that the expense of 

 transportstioD adds materially to the cost of the 

 article when put upon the market. The long depres- 

 (sion in trade in New Zealand has induced a large 

 number of people who engage in the occupation only 

 as a last re.iort to go to work at digging for the 

 .gun). Still, notwithstanding the increased number of 

 diggers, siipplie.1 come iu very ,vla\yly from the interior. 

 ^^yc": Fiild Drug I<eporter, (Gums of all kinds are 

 Advancing in price,- -EO.] 



K.AFOK. — Under this Malayan u;tnie the Silk-cotton 

 tfee of India and the Archipelago, and which is indeed 

 Common throughout the tropics, is known. Botanic- 

 ftllyit is the Eriodendron anfractuosum, a plant well 

 known to botanists, and, when collecting seed-vessels 

 Was in vogue some forty years ago, to amateurs also. 

 It was always a mystery why the .'<ilky fibres attached 

 to the seeds of this plant in such profusion, were not 

 utilised, Certainly it was from no fault of the 

 botanists. Now we learn that it forms a large item 

 in Australian trade, Melbourne being now supplied 

 from India and Ceylon. It is chiefly used for up- 

 holstery purposes. In 18S6, 7,995 bales, worth between 

 X26,000 and £27.000, were imported, principally from 

 Java, where special care is taken iu cleangiug aud 

 »pckjug the 6brc.—<?*rdff««w' Chronicle, 



-♦- — 



To the Edilor of the " Ceylon Observer." 



CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 



Philadelphia, Pa., 12th Dec. 1886, 

 Dear Sir,— Your editorial " re The Ceylon Tea 

 Syndicate " appearing in the Overland issue of 

 the 29th October has been read with interest. 

 That " it is to a Syndicate of the main body of 

 those interested in tea-growing in the Colony that 

 we look for the full realization of our desire " is, 

 perhaps, a matter of fact more easily understood 

 than fully realized, that is if any dependence i& 

 to be placed by the Ceylon growers upon the 

 American market as a fall-back. Before advanc- 

 ing any arguments, let me mention that I am 

 indebted to the invaluable information afforded 

 me by Mr. Pineo (with whom I am about to co- 

 operate) for a more or less intimate knowledge of 

 the tea trade as carried on in America. You refer 

 in your editorial to the practices of " unscrupulous 

 parties " in Britain to the unscrupulous means 

 used for trade purposes in dealing with our Ceylon 

 teas. A passing glance at the American tea market 

 v.'0uld turn the renjcst abuses in England into 

 the most honest trade. I speak of what I see and 

 what I see, I believe. There are two classes of people 

 who are identified with the tea trade — -the seller 

 and the buyer, or, I may say, the seller and the 

 sold. It is difficult to understand how a people, 

 proverbially sharp in business and oftimes un- 

 scrupulous, can themselves be so easily swindled 

 in their turn, but so it is. Fortunately for us, 

 we are yet in the position of power. We might 

 be deceivers if we would, but to be so there is 

 no call, and we cannot be deceived ourselves 80 

 long as we act with wisdom and forethought. 



Our Indian rivals, as I intend showing, were un- 

 fortunate inasmuch as they failed to liuhl their 

 position by throwing their produce en Moc upon the 

 American market. The value of the same was, 

 from that moment, a matter for the Americans 

 to decide, the result as may be expected a heavy 

 loss to the members of the Indian Syndicate, and 

 a marked improvement in the Japan teas without 

 the shadow of benefit to the name of India as a 

 tea-producing country. 



It surprized me to hear from as interested and 

 acute an observer as Mr. Pineo, that to his know- 

 ledge there has not been a pound of Indian or 

 Ceylon tea retailed in the country, save what came 

 through his hands. Is not this sufficient proof 

 that the means used by the Indian Syndicate 

 were inadequate to serve the real interests of the 

 Indian tea trade, or to meet the requirements which 

 a proper iiUrodiictioit calls for ? As the result has 

 proved, the energies of the Indian Tea. Syndicate 

 have been most successfully devoted to raising the 

 value of Japan teas in the opinion of the American 

 people and nothing more. If 1 might make so bold 

 a surmise, I should say another cause of the 

 failure of the Indian Tea Syndicate might have 

 been a very half-hearted interest, in, if not actual 

 discouragement of the business on the part of the 

 Calcutta Agents, who uatuarally enough, would take 

 no favourable interest in a scheme which took busi- 

 ness past their portals. 



Do I hear the Ceylon producer say : " The more 

 reason why the Ceylon Tea Syndicate should die 

 a natural death — we'd better let well alone ! As 

 for myself I'll send mij tea to the London market 

 as long as I get prices that pay." Just so! Every 

 seller is at perfect liberty to Eell in the market 

 of his choice, but that in no way interferes with 

 tb9 abuse oi your tea iu America. Your tea is bought 



