So4 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, 1883. 



Mr. Cameron m.iy be correct in saying that tea 

 prepared with suoli a moist heat as steaiu will not 

 keep, but, as steam is not inicuded to cjine in con- 

 tact with tea made on uiy principle, I do not see 

 how it a|j|jlies to it. He is probably not aware that 

 I have before me a most favorable report from the 

 highest authority in Mincing Lane upon the tea I 

 origin^dly made by my method, oud upon which the 

 applicaUihs lor patents were made and obtaiutd. 

 However, all those who have ordered models for Ceylou 

 and India will no doubt experiment with them, 

 in an intelli^^out way; and they will shortly b' iu a 

 position to form their own iodependeut opinions as to 

 the value of the process, withc'Ut being guided by the 

 prejudiced ones of myself or anyone else. 



1 am sure you will do me the justice of admit- 

 ting that I have all along recommended planters to 

 ascertain for themselves at small cost whe'her the 

 tea-drier has the advantages I claim for it, and not 

 to accept as fact my verdict in its favour. I am 

 quite content to wait the result. lam obliged to Mr. 

 Cameron for the opportunity he has afforded me of 

 correcUug anything wrong. As regards his opiuiou on 

 the quality of the tea made on the little model, his 

 present accouut differs so mateiially from what my 

 informant led me to stite to you that I shall refer 

 the subject to him, and allow him to reconcile the 

 difference in the statements, Mr. Ross Wright sent 

 me samples of teas made both on the drier, and in 

 the ordinary way and attached to them Mr. Cameron's 

 valuations, and he led me to believe that the quality 

 of the tea made by the drier was very line, as it 

 really is, and that, subject to some modilications, Mr. 

 Cameron thought well of the process. I do not think 

 such a letter as Mr. Cameron's will do much harm. On 

 the contrary I believe it will induce many persona to 

 experiment and form their own opinions. — Yours truly, 



C. SHAND. 



P. S. — Extract from letter, dated 25th February, 

 from Mr. Ross Wright: — "I have today sent G samples: a 

 broken pekue, peiioe, pekoe souchong dried on your small 

 model which came to hand safely, and acts very 

 well as far as I can judge at present, and a broken 

 pekoe, pekoe, and pekoe souchong dried in the usual 

 way. Mr. Cameron, who has been roucd this dis- 

 trict aud Moranaka, valued the broken pekoe dried 

 on your drier, aud the broken pekoe dried as 

 usual on the stove from 2s to '2s 3d. Th s is very encour- 

 agmg. " Other evidence if necessary is produccable in 

 corroboration of Mr. Wright's statement that Mr. Cameron 

 tasted the two samples, and I am told he could not 

 distinguish any differeuce until he was told which 

 was made on the drier. — C. S. 



COFFEE PRICE AND THE OUTLOOK IN 

 BRAZIL. 



Sir, — Coffee-growing iu Brazil is probably uow receiv- 

 ing a severe check. A short crop with probably for some 

 months to come only a very partial recovery in price 

 will do a great deal to demoi'alize an already dis- 

 organized labor supply, which must be pro\ided for 

 out of some product, and if not out of the profits 

 from coft'ee from what other product is the upkeep of 

 slaves to come ? Let me call your attention to 

 E. B. T.'s writing in your Handbook for 1880 on this 

 subject. He said : — 



" Prices will nlways determine the question of 

 supply. Supply will depend upon the means of supply. 

 We have, therefore, to consider how the consump- 

 tion is supplied, and how this cnutributiou is to be 

 continued. Cast our eyes over a map of the world. 

 Experience has shown that coffee does not thrive 

 productively, excepting within the inner tropical 

 circles. By ' thrive ' I mean yield product- 

 ively contending with all coutiugeucies. Let us 



take the map. How many centres of production are 

 there capable of producing more coffee than all the 

 world could consume. Central America, Guiana, West 

 Indies, Liberia, with Africa generally, Arabia, 

 Ceylon, all the islands of ' the Straits ' region, 

 great and am? 11, Fiji, not to instance Borneo, New 

 Guinea, &c. ; but where 's the labour ? The key is 

 labour. The cultivation of coffee must have labour, 

 and that of a peculiar character : minor labour to 

 cultivate — major labour to get in crops. Slave laboiiV, 

 however plentiful, being tixed, is fatal. It must ever 

 be a condition of labour such as will afford a limited 

 supply for cultivation, aud an elastic draw for hands 

 to pick. Any other condition will not suit. Else 

 the burdou.-i of bauds out of crop must be too costly, 

 while supply for piokiug in crop time is too few. 

 Casting our eye over the map, there is no country 

 like Ceylou in respect of labour, for we work our 

 estiat'js with whatever force we determine when we 

 dismiss our bauds out of crop, and regulate our advance 

 for hands to come over from India to pick, accord- 

 ing to our estimates of crop. India, .adjoining our 

 seaboard has a population of migrating labour of some 

 eight or ten milliouB, out of whom we can draw some 

 200,000 crop luaids, whom we dismiss with their earn- 

 ings — to onr relief, and to their own infinite benefit 

 — to their homes, when crop is over. Where else- 

 where do conditions of labour, such as these, suitable 

 for coffee cultivation, exist ? And a labour so suitable 

 and so secure ? It suits them and it suits us. So long 

 therefore, as the Governmeuts of India and Ceylon do 

 not interfere injuriously (for interference must be in- 

 jmious) Avith the influx and efflux of this stream of 

 voluntai-y labour— so beneficial to the planter, so ad- 

 vantageous to the humble poor of India— so long as free 

 currency is afforded to the natural adjustment of the 

 supply and demand with its own preference of route 

 — we, as coffee planters in Ceylon, or as employers of 

 Indian labour for coffee, tea, cinchona, cinnamon, or 

 cacao, or any other branches of industiy, may bless 

 ourselves that we possess a source of labom' such as no other 

 country of the world possesses for our peculiar demands. 

 Such labour is the pivot upon which the question tm'ns. 



" Emigr.ation from Europe will never succeed as di- 

 rected to intertropical countries. Such emigration 

 to Brazil to grow coffee will fail as disastrously 

 as did thiit of Germans to Jamaica iu 1830. What 

 a vast field for supply of a most suitable labour 

 there is in the hundred millions of industrious laborious 

 Chinese -but they are for numlier one. Brazil is near 

 to distraction on the question of labour to keep up 

 their extensive cultivation. Sad for them — but good 

 for us in Ceylon. No expedient can meet their con- 

 dition. No iubringing of Germans, Portuguese, Maltese. 

 They dou't suit. Nor will their freed Africans suit. 

 Nor will their own Brazilians suit, as labourers, to 

 grow coffee, and gather iu their crops. Notwithstand- 

 ing the v.ast outlay on railways, aud good capital laid 

 out on apparently paying bases, they must come to 

 a close on the question of labour as coft'ee growers. 

 What gigantic visions come before us when we con- 

 template Brazl collcap.^ing on the question of labour ! 

 We return to Ceylon with its labour resource. If we 

 require Rainasamy we shall get Ramasaray, as long as 

 we can afford to give him rupees, annas and pice. 



" Endless resource of virgin forest for extension by sur- 

 plus slave labour out of crop has resulted iu a boundless 

 expanse of planted land, tor the gathering of the crops 

 of which there is not sufficient labour, nor can it he 

 found Borrowed capital, got on a superficially glossed 

 surface of a^iparent, and fur the tiiue ardent, prosporitj', 

 spun out a system of railways, aud i^ff'orded the Brazil- 

 ian the means of getting to the Barcadere his produce, 

 to exhibit a momentarily manifest prosperity, but it 

 was all on borrowed capital which hud a b.asis of 

 very questionable security, namely, slavery, and the 



