April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



799 



been intrusted to Mr. Johu C. Braaner anrl an aseiat- 

 ant, who are now pursuing their invcBtigations in the 

 province of Pernanibuoo. Mr. Jjranuer is already well 

 known in Brazil in eounectiou with the late Prof. Ch. 

 Fred. Hartt's geological cummissiou, and in connection 

 with a subsequent search for a fibre suitable for the 

 carbon arch m thf Edison electric lamp. In thi.s latter 

 work he spent about one yeiir in Brazil, and ouccceded 

 in finding the beat fibre thus far used. Fur his pre- 

 sent woik Mr. Brauner possesses unusual qualifications 

 which can not be otherwise than of the greatest as- 

 sistance to him. He possesses an intimate personal 

 knowledge of a very large [lart of Brazil, a good 

 kmiwledge of the language, and a jjood scientilic train- 

 ing. With these it is certain that his investigations will 

 be of high value, and will be of the greatest assist- 

 ance to the American entomologists in their work 

 of destroying the insect plaguesof American agriculture. 

 In view of the fact that Brazil is almost wholly 

 dependent upon the products of her soil, it would seem 

 that tlie policy pursued by the United States in the 

 study and extirpation of insect plagues is one worthy 

 of imitation. At the present time there are three 

 principal products, coffee, sugar and cotton, upon 

 which these investigations could be made with great 

 profit. Of course, the work can not and should not 

 devolve ivholly upon the government ; the planters 

 themselves sliould join heartily in the work and give 

 every assistance to scientific investigation. Already 

 Brazilian agriculture has suffered incalculable loss from 

 insect plagues. For many years both the coffee planters 

 and the sugar planters have complained of the losses 

 inflicted upou them by various kinds of pests but even 

 yet no organized effort has ever been made to assist 

 them. It is true that commissions have been entrusled 

 with the work of studying these plagues, but they have 

 either been entrusted to men who knew nothing what- 

 ever of the suliject, or they have been crippled with 

 instructions, limited time, and meagre apiJropriations. 

 From investigations of this character it is idle to expect 

 good results. No .scientific mm can make a flying visit 

 to one or two coffee orchards at hap hazard and then 

 tell us what kind of a disease it is which has atHicti d 

 the coffee plantations of S. Fidelia for the last dozen 

 years ; and if a scientific man can not do this, assuredly 

 little can be expected from men who have mastered 

 little more than the rudiments of science. Amateur 

 work of this character is worse than useless, for it not 

 only fails to give good results but it seriously misleads 

 those who are prepared to accept the dictum of an 

 official commission as law and to accept its conclusions 

 without question. In the one case of coffee diseases, 

 which affects the principal industrj' of the country, 

 Brazil should have a permanent entomological com- 

 mission, composed of thoroughly-trained scientific men, 

 and charged with the most painstaking investigations. 

 The little island of Ceylon has been doing far more in 

 this respect than the great empire of Brazil. Then 

 take the several diseases affecting sugar cane, which are 

 spread over so large a part of the country, and we find 

 abundant work of this character. It might cost a few 

 contosayear, but if rightly constituted and encouraged 

 it would be the means of saving thousands of contos 

 every year to the agricultural industries of Brazil. — 

 Jiio AVw.s. [The "little ishiHd of Ceylon" is bound 

 honestly to confess that the main result of all invest- 

 ig.ation and all expenditure as yet is a better knowledge 

 of the life history of the deadly fungus known as Hemi- 

 leia raatatrix and of the cockchafer beetles and their 

 grubs, than of any means for stopping or even mitigating 

 their ravages. '■ 'T is true, 't is pity ; pity 't is, 't is 

 true." — Ed.] 



Review, on the importance of regulating to some extent 

 the supplies of tea put up for side by public auction. "We 

 have constantly called attention to the necessity lor study- 

 ing the capabilities of the market on the part of importers, 

 and here we have a j lurnal written in the interests of the 

 trade pointing out tho same thing, riz., that importers 

 by hurrying their- teas forward and printing them fo 

 sale, in some cases that have come to our notice 

 actually before the teas have been seen by the brokers 

 are sacrificing their own interests and celling their l.ra.i .at 

 unnecenmrihi hi" prircK. A kind of panic to sell seems 

 to have seized the merchants, and hence the large sales 

 with their accompanying low values that we have seen 

 diu'ing the last two or tlu'ee weeks : — 



The custom of offei'ing teas \vithout allowing a reason- 

 able time for the trade to taste them continues, and in 

 some instances large catalogues have been issued only a 

 day or two before the sale. The tea cannot lie dealt with 

 effectively in such a limited tune ; and frequently e\en 

 when there is a longer mterval between the time the 

 catalogues are issued and the sale, samples are not 

 obtainable at the warehouses until the day prerious to 

 the advertiseed date of the auction. Unless, therefcn-e' 

 the importers an-ange not to issue catalogues until the 

 teas are actually ready for sampling, and then to allow 

 at least two clear days for tasting and valuing, the 

 ditfieiUties of the past fortnight will increase, and the 

 results cannot prove otherwise than prejudicial to the tea 

 planters. At the public sales 23 34.S packages were 

 offered including 4.54 Ceylon teas. Fine teas were steady, 

 and in some cases slightly dearer, but the lower gi-ade.i 

 sold in buyers" favour. No movement of importance has 

 taken place in Java teas. There was an active inquii-y at 

 this week's sales for the Ce.ylon gi-owths, most of which 

 were quite equal to the finer Indian teas, both in quahty 

 and strength, and the prices realised also compare favour- 

 ably. This will afford encouragement to the planters 

 in the island, who are so much tried by bad crops and low 

 prices of coffee. It will be an iimnense advantage' for 

 them to have another struig to theii' bow, and to find em- 

 ployment out of the coffee season for any skilled labour 

 they may have, wliile the ready transport to the co st 

 gives Ceylon a great advantage over the Assam planters. 

 — Home and Colonial Mail. 



THE INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA MARKET. 



We beg to invite the attention of our planters to the 



remarks of a trade journal. The Produce Markeis 



Af4RICULTURE IN BEAZIL. 



Eio DE J.4NE1U0, January 5th, 188.3. 

 From one of our morning contemporaries which is 

 giving a great deal of effusive attention to the special 

 iuteriists of the old planting classes, we learn that the 

 state of agriculture in this country is most lann-ntalile. 

 With the threatened extinction of slavery and the de- 

 crease in the prices of cotfee, the planters feel that tlieir 

 industry is seriously endangered, anul that there is little 

 for them to hope in the future. One of them writi'S that 

 free labor (the cauiayafias) has been tried and has resulted 

 in failure, for which reason the planters are abandoning 

 their coffee orchards and are devoting their attention to 

 food products. This, of course, has occasioned a wide- 

 spread discontent, as the coffee industry represents both 

 their capital and income, and it has also occasioned not 

 a little of bitter complaint against those who have op- 

 posed the wanton bestowal of public funds upon one 

 special industry. All this is to be expected. Critical as 

 the situation is, however — and we do not underrate its 

 extent or danger — we do not believe it to be quite as 

 hopeless as pictured. The crisis through which the plant- 

 ing industries of Brazil are now passing is one which was 

 inevitable, and, in our opinion, it can not be otherwise 

 than most beneficial. Nothing else will purge Brazilian 

 agriculture of the multitude of evils which have fastened 

 upon it, and which are impassable obstacles to its full 

 and free development. One of these evils is slavery. It 

 is true that its extinction will bring not a little of dis- 

 aster and confusion, especially among those institutions 

 growing out of slavery and living upon its fruits; all these 

 are inevitable \Vii''U, however, the great evil itself has 



