702 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1887. 



It will be observeil thit oui' Sguraa, made up from 

 the Chamber of Oommerce returns, -ihew some dis- 

 crepancirss when compired with the Customs figures 

 in the Blue Book, which are higher in every case, 

 but the differences do not affect the general results. 

 These are that the bulk of our tea goes 

 forward between April and September, the 

 heaviest average figures being opposite May 

 and July. This would seem to prove that our 

 best flushing months are April and June. Taking 

 it for granted that the produce exported in one 

 month was harvested m that preceding, our heavy- 

 yielding season extends, not as in India from May 

 to October, but from March (which is not generally 

 the month of drought it has been this year), to 

 August. In those six months (going on the prin- 

 ciple of crediting the export of one month as the 

 growth of the month preceding, we get for our 

 summer seasons the following averages : — 



March ,,233,200 



April ... ... ,,584.400 



May ,,244,000 



June ,,344,800 



.July ,,229,700 



August ... ... „ 19i5,oOO 



Total... lb. 1,532,100 

 Of course these are the averages of the seven 

 years. And so, going on the same principle of 

 throwing back the export figures one month, we 

 get for our six winter months, figures as follows : — 

 December ... ... lb. 141,300 



January ... ... „ 116,000 



February ... ... ,,159,000 



September „ 142,600 



October ... ... ,,174,700 



November ... ... ,,152,600 



Total... „ 886,200 



It thus appears that if April and June are the 

 best yielding months in Ceylon, December and 

 January give the lowest returns. The figures also 

 seem to prove not far short of two-thirds of the 

 tea produced in Ceylon is gathered in the south- 

 west monsoon period, March to August. This is 

 a result which will probably be considerably modi- 

 fied when the produce of Uva begins appreciably 

 to affect our returns. Meantime, the exact per- 

 centages are : — 



March to August . . C3 per cent. 



Sept. to Feb. . . 37 „ „ 



If the year is divided into quarters, December-toFeb- 

 ruary quarter gives by far the lowest yield ; September- 

 to-November follows with some improvement; March- 

 to-May comes third, but the total in this quarter 

 is so slightly below that for June-to-August, that 

 they may be regarded as almost equal. 



While production in Ceylon is perennial, there is 

 a real lull in the two marked winter months, De- 

 cember and January, while the proportion of thp 

 harvest gathered in the six months September 

 February, is not t^reatly in excess of one-thir'l he 

 quantity collected between March and August. Our 

 most pro uctive three months are : 



Apri wi'b ;in avcr-ge of lb. 284,400 

 Mny ... ... „ 244,000 



June ... ... „ 344,000 



Total ... „ 872.400 



Or considerably more in these three months, than 

 in the six months, September to February. While our 

 best yielding three months are April to June, in 

 most parts of India, the three following months, July 

 to September, are those in which the greatest re- 

 turns are obtained, one half the whole crop being 

 often gathernd in those three months. In our 

 case only a little over one-third is gathered in three 

 months, the rest being so distributed that we have no 

 blank months, 



LONDON NOTES ON PRODUCE: TEA 

 AND COFFEE. 



There are complaints again as to the quality of 

 Indian teis. The Grocer, referring to last week's sales, 

 says: — The quality of the tea now on offer seems to 

 be further deteriorating, as the proportion of common 

 to fine grades almost daily increases; and as continued 

 plentiful supplies are put forward, this week amount- 

 ing to 23 050 packages, the public sales have gone off 

 with greater heavmess at again rather easier prices. 

 The market altogether is in a much weaker position 

 than before, as not only have the dealers heavy 

 stocks on hand still undisposed of, but the demand 

 from the country is decidedly less active, and orders 

 to buy tea are given with great reluctance. Fine 

 teas sell tolerably well, but all undesirable and poor 

 liquoring sorts have been realised with difficulty at 

 a frequent reduction of ^d to Jd per lb. 



The price current of Messrs. Recker and Lee, of 

 Galveston, Texas, contains the following remarks anent 

 true and false cofiee, which are distinctly " pointed ": 

 — There is nothing more saddening to the earnest 

 Christian mind than the recipes for making coffee that 

 are given in American cookery books. With hardly 

 an exception, they direct that coffee should be boiled. 

 As well might a Fijian cookery book direct that a 

 missionary should be stewed. Coffee never was, and 

 never can be, made by boiling it. The Americans are 

 a nation of coffee drinkers. The annual consumption 

 in the United States represents over one-third of the 

 entire product of the world ; so that the pressing 

 necessity of obtaining good coffee, and knowing how 

 to make it, is of great importance. Thomas J. Mur- 

 rej"^, the well-known caterer, author and gourmet, in 

 a recent communication on the subject of coffee in 

 the South, pathetically remarks: — "What oath- 

 breeding formuU is followed by these coffee-spoilers I 

 am unable to say, but it must be a very complicated one 

 to be able to convert a wholesome beverage into the 

 vilest compound ever tasted by man or beast." This 

 uncomplimentary, but unhappily too tru", reflection 

 ia largely due to using rank, low-priced Brazil coffee. 

 However, a gleam of hope appears on the horizon 

 towards an evolution in this respect, and the demand 

 for rich, mild coffee is stt>adily increasing. It is a 

 remarkable fact that the coffee of a nation is clo.sely 

 associated with its religion. Speaking broadly and 

 geuerally, it may be said that true or infused coffee 

 is the result of Catholicism, and that false or boiled 

 coffee is the result of Protestantism. France, Italy, 

 and Spain produce true coffee ; while England, America, 

 and Germany boil their coffee. Even in the latter 

 Countries, when true coffee is found, it is where Pro- 

 testantism is weak. Higli Church households in this 

 country and in England frequently drink real coffee ; 

 on the other hand, it must be confessed that Catholic 

 Ireland is as ignorant of coffee as is Oalvinistic Scot- 

 land ; and for this exception to the general rule there 

 is as yet no adequate explanation. 



♦ 



JAVA TEA. 



Messrs. Gow. Wi'so i and Stanton have -ssaed a cir- 

 cular, with diagram, s owing thi- qu ntity import and 

 defivery of Java tea, d ring the last six y -.rs. 



IsSl l!-82 1 88 



Imports I,n6,00i 2,15^00^ 3 7,000 



Deliveries 1,3 5 000 1,78 ,iO) 2 8 3,00} 



Stjcb ai,0J0 751,' Oi) 9 4,003 



18.^4 li^S) 1 86 



Imports 3,5^6,0 3,3t4,i00 3,946,000 



Deliveries 3,70,^,010 3,537,<'00 3, 76,000 



Stock 87.=.,5iiO G7(V'00 _ '.'44,000 



Our .liagram shows a marked inrreaae in the ar- 

 rivals of Java tea hi L mdon daring the set ond and 

 third quarters of 18S6. The above figures ar- interest- 

 iiie as showing a gradual d'-velopment of the trade, the 

 u. liveries keeping p:ice pretty evenly with the arrivals. 



The direct imp jrts tn-m Java to London during 

 '880 were the heaviest yet recorded. As large quan- 

 tities have also been shipped from Java to other coun- 

 tries besides England, it is probable that the yield per 

 acre during the past year shows an increase over recent 



