402 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1882. 



Assam. — Indian teas from the district of Assam are nearly 

 always strong and pungent, the brokens, in addition, be- 

 ing thick and rich, The colour of the infused leaf is a 

 ruddy brown, with a tendency to red. The dry leaf is a 

 dull, greyish black. The finer sorts ai'e evenly curled, and 

 abound with Pekoe tips. 



Assam is the home of the indigenous plant, and its hot, 

 moist climate aad rich soil are nearly perfect for tea-growing. 



DarJEELINQ. — Darjeeling teas are full and very flavom'y 

 but are not so pungent as AsSiims. The infused leaf is 

 tender and bright. The dry leaf is blacker, but, taking the 

 average, is scarcely as tightly twisted as that of Assam 

 teas. 



Darjeelings from the Terai (the Terai is below Darjeel- 

 ing) are probably the best teas that are brought to 

 England; for full flavour and rich strength they are 

 unequalled. 



Oooasionally Darjeelings are found that do not possess 

 the flavour for which the district is justly famous. The 

 tea then is soft and insipid, and is usl'1 -Iss for increasing 

 the flavour of a blend. Most of the plants in Darjeeling 

 are from Chin i seed. 



Cachar. — Teas from this district are in character 

 between the Assam and the Darjeeling. They are not so 

 pungent as the Assams, nor are they as flavoury as the 

 Darjeeling, but neither their strength nor flavour is to bo 

 despised. The leaf is blacker than the Assams. The liquor 

 is rather soft, and occasionally fruity, with a tendency 

 to be slightly burnt. The majority of Cachar trees are 

 hybrids. 



Sylhet. — Sylhet produces teas that are similar to those 

 of Cachar, but are more pungent. 



Kangrh. — Teas grown in the Kaugra Valley are fine, 

 delicate, and aromatic. Their infused loaf is very bright, 

 and the flavour is even eoiieidered superior to that ot the 

 Darjeelings, but imfortunately they are often thin. 



Dehha Dhoon. — Delira Dboon teas are mostly thin, 

 high burnt, and rather sour. Occasionally the flavour is 

 rather earthy. They are not very much sought after. 



KuMAON and Simla. — These teas are somewhat similar 

 to Kan^ras. The are very flavoury, and sometimes rich, 

 but are not unfrequently thin, and occasionally the flavour 

 is not of a very high order. 



Hazaribagh (Chota Nagpoke). — The infused leaf of 

 these teas is very bright. The liquors are fresh and 

 flavoury, but also weuk and sickly, 



Chittagong. — Chittagong teas are .strong, thick, and 

 almost nutty in character. Tliey are good, useful teas, 

 and, for tlieir great strength, are in considerable demand. 



Neilgherky (Madras). — The Neilgherry Hills produce 

 fancy green teas. The black teas from these hills are, 

 perhaps, the most inferior of all Indian teas. When 

 Noilgherry teas were first imported the flavour was 

 decidedly objectionable. It has now slightly improved, 

 but is still far from perfection. The liquor is thin, mi the 

 dry leaf black and tippy. Those Niilgherry teas from 

 Madras must not be confused with the i^ssau. Neilgherry 

 teas [? Ed. C. O.] which are strong, rough, and pungent. 



DoOARS. — The teas produced in this district are simihir 

 in character to those ol Cachar, but, being considerably 

 stronger, are more valuable for blending. 



JuLPiGOORiE. — Jul|iigoorie teas have a very bright in 

 fused leaf, and a thick, rich, but rather soft, liquor. 



Rangurh. — The infused leaf of this is also bright. The 

 liquor is flue and fresh, but thin and inclined to be 

 sickly. 



Sorts of Indian Tea. 



In the manufacture, Indian teas are generally sorted into 



the followim; classes — 



Flowery pekoe Broken oringe pekoe 



Orange pekoe Do. pekoe 



Pekoe Do. pekoe souchong- 



Pekoe souchong Do. Souchong 



.Souchong Ito. mised tea 



Congou Fannings 



Broken flowery pekoe Duel 

 "A note at tlic end of th« catalogue is to this eflect :— 



The whole of the Darjeeling teas being mounlaiu grown, 



are suitaide to drink alone ; the broken kinds and other 



district teas, are flno mixers. 



dOFFEE AND MR. STOaCK OF FIJI : 



HIS CAEBOLIC ACID VAP0RIZ.4.TI0Jf PROCESS FOE THE 

 DESTRUCTION OF IIEMILEIA VASTATRIX. 



We print on the following page a letter which Mr. 

 Storek has written from Fiji about his carbolic acid va- 

 porization remedy for coffee leaf -disease. As we antici- 

 pated, a " perfect cure" has not yet been discovered. 

 On the contrary, Mr. Storek has discovered that his 

 previous dilutions were rather mild for the formidable 

 pest he had to deal with. The process, therefore, is still 

 in the tentative stage. Mr. Storek now uses improved 

 evaporating vessels and has increased the proportion 

 of acid to water to 25 per cent of the former. The 

 vapour then becomes so powerful that it " eats " 

 away the fungus, not only without destroying the 

 leaves but without injuring the more delicate blossoms ! 

 And this is not all. We understand Mr. Storek to 

 insist, in the face of what Mr. Ward so strongly 

 asserted, that the odour is fatal to mycelia however 

 snugly ensconced in the interior ot the leaf cells. 

 The statement seems to indicate that with a solution 

 of 25 per cent of carbolic acid to 75 of water, placed 

 in proper evaporating vessels, the disease can be ex- 

 tirpated, from spore to root — wherever the odour can 

 be made to penetrate. Of course Mr. Storek will 

 follow up his experiments where he began them, and 

 we shall be delighted beyond measure to learn that 

 one or more estates in Fiji have been freed and kept 

 free of fungus by the constant presence and action of 

 the vapour of carbolic acid, a vapour, happily which 

 promotes sanitation generally, and which, as it does 

 not injure blossom, is not likely to affect the fruit 

 except for good. Taking it for granted, which we 

 certainly do, that it would be necessary to keep the 

 vaporizers constantly supplied (local experiments have 

 shewn conclusively that they become exhausted, more 

 or less quickly) the great question now is what would 

 be the cost of vessels, material, attendance, &c. ? If 

 the remedy proved as efficacious as Mr. Storek ex- 

 pects and if it were very generally adopted, no doubt 

 the quantity of carbolic acid requh-ed might be after a 

 time considerably lessened, and in any case carbolic acid 

 is not an expensive substance and could be obtained 

 in large quantities at a moderate cost. The result 

 miglit be that whole districts, perhaps the entii-e hill 

 country of Ceylon, would be subjected to a constant 

 process of disinfection and deodorization, with no 

 slight eflect on bacteria in the soil and in diseased 

 human or animal lungs, as well as on the fungi in- 

 festing the coft'ee leaves. We need not, of course add 

 that tea, cinchona and other products would, by the 

 same agency, be probably freed from insect pests. 

 At this juncture, perhaps gentlemen who have locally 

 tried experiments with the vapour of carbolic acid 

 will relate their exjjeriences. Gentlemen like Dr. 

 Trimen and Mr. George Wall have oflFered the ob- 

 jection that carbolic acid is not sufficiently volatile 

 to be effective, but, apart from Mr. Storck's experi- 

 ments, we know at least one gentleman in Ceylon 

 who has come to an opposite conclusion to that of 

 the scientific authorities named. After the failure of 

 Mr. Schvottky, for failure, we fear, the result must 

 be called, we are not, we confess, over-sanguine. But 

 we hold our miud open to conviction, and we are 

 ready to hail the man who really succeeds in effectu- 

 ally and permanently curing our coffee trees of the 

 most terrible disease which ever attacked them, as 

 one of the greatest benefactors of Ceylon and of the 

 coffee producers of the Eastern world. 



