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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1882, 



lb. the present annual out turn, represents about 

 E20,000. If the withdrawal of this enormous 

 quantity of inferior and woody stuff should have the 

 effect of raising the price of the one and a half million 

 lb. of quills now exported by one and a third cents a lb. 

 the producer will be recouped for the loss of his chips. 

 The writer then proceeds' to defend the combination 

 to refrain from exporting chips. No defence is needed 

 of what the growers have a perfect right to do, if 

 they choose. We can only repeat our scepticism as 

 to the agreement being observed and our fear that 

 the hiatus created by the withdrawal of chips would 

 be at once filled up by cassia bark. Cinnamon is 

 bulky in proportion to its weight, and the article 

 is so delicate and liable to damage, that it lias to 

 lie stowed very carefully on board ship, passenger 

 cabins being sometimes utilized for the purpose. But 

 agitation for an alteration in the tonnage scale and 

 for a reduction of freight and charges is perfectly 

 legitimate. We can only hope that there may be a 

 speedy revival In this ancient staple of Ceylon trade 

 as well as in the newer products. 



BRAZILIAN COFFEE. 



The following letter has appeared in the London 

 Times :— 



.Sir, —The late journals from England bring us news 

 that representations have been made to Mr. Gladstone 

 in favour of the adulteration of coffee with chicory and 

 other like things. 



If you will spare me the space I should like to write 

 a few words on the growth and use of Brazilian coffee. 

 As is generally known, Brazil produces about five- 

 eighths of the whole coffee grown in the world, and it 

 is on this product that the revenue of the Empire 

 chiedy depends ; hence an extended or restricted use of 

 coffee afifects very seriously the prosperty of this enor- 

 mous country, only slightly inferior in area to the 

 whole of Europe. 



The coffee tree is not indigenous to Brazil, and the 

 first notice we have of it is in 1723, when some few 

 trees were sent to the province of Para, North Brazil, 

 from Cayenne, French Guiana. The result of this ex- 

 periment was unfortunate, so that we hear nothing 

 more of coffee planting until 177.3, 50 years afterwards, 

 when a Franciscan monk of the convent of tlie Lapa, 

 in. Rio de Janeiro, planted a few trees, which throve 

 so well that the then Viceroy used every endeavour to 

 extend the planting of coffee in Brazil, which was then 

 a colony of Portugal. 



To grow coffee successfully it is necessary in the first 

 place to have a suitable climate ; next, the land must 

 be rich and deep in good soil ; and, lastly, constant 

 attention must be given to the keeping down of weeds, 

 which "grow apace" in these fertile regions. The 

 coffee-growing districts of Brazil, although very rich 

 and fertile in some parts, are in others so sterile that, 

 were it not for the sweet influence of continual sunlight 

 during the day and heavy refreshing dews at night, 

 nothing would grow, not even the shrub growth aud 

 rank grass now covering them. 



In Brazil the coffee tree is not annually docked 

 and pruned as it is in Ceylon and Southern India, 

 but it is allowed to grow naturally, so that at 10 

 to 12 years of age it is from 12 ft. to 14 ft. 

 high, and it will continue to bear fruit for 50 years 

 if only the dead branches are removed from time 

 to time, and care be taken to prevent the trees 

 becoming too much entangled. To form a coffee 

 plantaton it is necessary to have rich, virgin, forest, 

 soil, which when cleared of the timber by felling and 

 burning, is planted with young trees about 11 ft. 



apart. These tender plants have to be screened from 



the sun during the day, and from any possible hail 



or frost at night, besides being kept free from weeds. 

 The constant attention goes on until the little ever- 

 green shrubs or trees are four years old, when they 

 begin to bear fruit, which increases annually up to 

 the eighth or niuih year, when the coffee tree may be 

 said to be in full bearing. 



From this it will be understood that any sudden 

 demand for coffee cannot be satisfied, as five years 

 are required for the formation of a plantation ; and 

 on the other hiind a sudden disuse of it, caused 

 by the imposition of taxes or other circumstances, 

 is a most serious loss to the coffee-growing countries. 



As I ha.vrt stated, coffee, above all other things 

 requires a euitible climate, which in Brazil is found 

 chiefly between the 18th and 25th parallels, to the 

 north of which is rather too hot, to the south too 

 cold. Thus it will be seen that successful culiiva- 

 tion is limited to a comparatively small part of this 

 enormous Empire. 



Prior to the year ISOO little or no coffee was ex- 

 ported from Brazd, and up to 1840 the province of 

 Rio de Janeiro was the only one that carried on a 

 regular commerce in it ; now, however, the adjacent 

 provinces of San Paulo and Minas Geraes produce 

 so largely that they rival Rio de Janeiro, making 

 the total weight annually exported about 340,000 

 tons, which is five times greater than it was in 1840, 

 and even this weight will not remain stationary, as 

 new districts are being opened up and planted every 

 year. 



Withal the increase the production of coffee has 

 been so great, it has not been out of proportion to 

 the increase in the consumption of coffee — too often 

 so called, being in reality only a wretched bever- 

 age made of chicory, rice, burnt beans, Indian 

 corn, fruit seeds, &c., which falsifications and adul- 

 terations have grown and are still growing so enor- 

 mously that they are beginning to tell seriously on 

 the price of coffee ; so much eo, indeed, that the 

 planters now receive little more than half of what 

 they did from 1876 to 1879. Other circumstances 

 may have helped to bring about this state of things, 

 but there is no doubt that the chief influence working 

 against the price of coffee is the unfair adulteration 

 carried on iu the London markets and in the large 

 continental centres. Every one ought to be allowed 

 to make and driidc any and whatever abomination 

 he may think fit, be it made of sawdust or horse- 

 beans, but it is exceedingly unfair that the consumer 

 should be obliged to pay for coffee (which besides 

 being pleasant to the taste is stimulating to the body) 

 and then receive some adulterated stuff which has no 

 virtue beyond the stolen name of coffee. 



The English taste is inclined to the strong and per- 

 haps to the rancid, as evinced by the preference given 

 to strong meats, strong beer, stronger port, and strong 

 cheese, and the use of chicory mixed with coffee. Being 

 so, when catering for our countrymen this fact must 

 be taken into consideration ; but why is it, that loving 

 a strong flavour, they, when they take coffee, will not 

 take it strong and pure, a little of it, instead of a pint 

 of fluid the colour of pale ale ? 



The use of strong pure black coffee as a stimulant 

 when the body is run down through physical labour is 

 almost unknown iu England ; whereas it is a fact that 

 it is one of the best, and at the same time the least nox- 

 ious to health, of all the beverages which spur jaded 

 humanity to further exertion. 



Hundreds of days have I tramped through swamps 

 and entangled brushwood when shooting in the pro- 

 vince of San Paulo, u.sing as a stimulaut at midday 

 only a small cup of strong black coffee made from beans 

 that had been kept for two or more years. At these 

 times a cup of this beverage would Grace me up as 

 much or more than the wine or beer taken by my 

 companions, aud no,oueca,ii say he ever saw me lag 



