538 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jantjary I, 1883. 



tea, but few know the advantage of the Russian 

 samovar over all other methods of making it. The 

 samovar is a tefi-k' ttle which has its fire in a tube 

 running through it, and which, with a few pieces of 

 lighted charcoal droppeii iuio the tube, maintains the 

 water at boiling point with a minimum of evaporation, 

 and gives it at that point on the table. And as a bever- 

 age the Rusiau does certainly surpass all other nations 

 in tea-making. We drink it as a stimulant, and take 

 it strong in the morning, and too strong at night, with 

 milk and sugur as a general thing ; we finish and seud 

 the tea-things away ; out to the Russiau it is an all- 

 the-evening enjoyment. I he samovar stauds on the 

 t.ible, and the lea (the delicious yellow variety gener- 

 ally) is put into the teapot, the boiliug water run on, 

 allowed to stand a moment, and then tea is served mild 

 rather than weak ; and more water poured on at once — 

 a little t^a added from time to time if needed. I have 

 often seen Russian friends drink a dozen or more cups 

 in the evening. The quick making of the infusion is in 

 accordance with Chinese custom, but there the parallel 

 ends. The addition of sugar— to the Celestial a bar- 

 barism — is now opposed by some English tea-drinkers, 

 but the overwhelming majority of npinion is in favour 

 of its use. It. seems to me as indispensable to the 

 development of the best appreciatiim of the tea as salt 

 is to that of a beefsteak, J'he sugar is so neuti-al as 

 an emollient that it absolutely disguises no quality of 

 the tea, and I hold it to be a cai-ainal principle in 

 gustatics that where two flavours can be so combined as 

 to sacrifice neither an advance in art is achieved. And 

 the same is true of co9'ee— the addition of sugar is a 

 development of the beverage. But milk does not come 

 under the same category. When pei.ple drink tea as 

 strong as most of ns do at breakfast, the iutense bitter 

 is mollified by milk, but weak tea is made insipid by it. 

 The Russian "adds a slice of lemon, the only addition 

 after sug'ir which does not deteriorate the quality of a 

 delicate tea ; but he also takes a little rnni, a distinct 

 departure fiom the purist standard, due probably to 

 his general imbibing propensity. Both rum and cognac, 

 having distinct flavours which disguise the quality of 

 the tea, are abuses unless the tea is bad. A delicate 

 yellow tea, with sugar and lemon, is, me judice, the 

 perfection of tfadrnking if made with the samovar. 

 A hint to economii-ts on long steeping of tea (tor boiling 

 is a horrible barbarism never to he dreamed of): the 

 samovar is arranged so as to allow the teapot to stand 

 in the chimney, kee|iiiig the tea at a point just below 

 the boiling indefiuitely, and when the tea is of an old 

 crop the flavour will be greatly and judiciously deve- 

 loped by fifteen or twenty minutes' standmg on the 

 samovar top. A- new crop tea does not require this 

 treatment. The making of coftee is a much more com- 

 plicated operation, Wheth^-r made in the Eastern or 

 Westernmethod the precautions and most of the ditiS- 

 cul'ies are the same. The ehoioe of the growth allows 

 of latitude, as does the choice of a vintage, The Turks 

 prefer the Mocha and Martinique or Java mingled. It 

 is indispensable to roast your own coffee, of whichever 

 growth, and wise to get the best quality of its kind. 

 The cotfee-growers follow an antiquated and barbarous 

 method of preparation, steeping the berries in water 

 until the pulp is decoipo^ed and rubs off in a slimy 

 mass, leaving the berry naked. But the fermentation 

 always damages the flavour of the coffee, and if allowed 

 to go too far destroys it, so that many samples of coffee 

 apiiarently bright are already damaged. I do not men- 

 tion ground coffees, as these are anything but coffee — 

 chicory, barley, bread-crusts, and burned graminea, 

 acorns, juniper cones, &o., enter in, and I was told last 

 year at Kalamata that the whole fig crop of the Morea 

 goes to Trieste to be turned into coffee. Coffee must 

 be roasted slowly and evenly, kept in constant motion, 

 till the berry will crack crisply when pressed between 

 thumb and finger. The Egyptian stops as soon as it 



will break any way, but this will have a slight taste of 

 the raw berry, which seems to me a drawback. It 

 should crack freely, but by no means crumble. Ninety- 

 nine percent, of the people who roast their own coffee 

 burn it, and destroy all its best qualities. From this 

 point Eastern and Western methods differ. The Turk 

 has slaves in plenty, and is no sparer of their labour. 

 He has his coffee pounded in a mortar to an impalpable 

 powder (his imitators at Athens and elsewhere fail 

 here), and then a spoonful for each cup is put into the 

 ibric, the water poured on hot, it is set for a few 

 seconds on the coals, not boiled, and is poured into the 

 cup — if for himself without sugar, if for a Frank 

 sweetened ; but I have alw.\Ts suspected that practices 

 connected with Eastern politics had much to do with 

 the exclusion of sugar, as enabling the drinker to detect 

 certain deleterious agents sometimes introduced. The 

 Western coffee-maker grinds the berry, and not too fine, 

 but the primitive ibric gives place to numerous contriv- 

 ances, of which I have collected and tried many. For 

 stupid housekeepers the best is the common French 

 filter placed above the coffee-pot ; for anyone who has 

 meclianical ingenuity enough to use it the balance o.afe- 

 tiere is *he perfection of utensils, and should always be 

 placed like the samovar on the table. But in the hands 

 of a fool itisuus-afe Coffee with milk — cafiau lail — 

 comes not under gastronomy but dietetics. It is a 

 bilious article of food, and better made of chicory than 

 coffee, as the latter is wasted when thus used. — Public 

 Opinion. 



The MANUFACTruE of Wood Polp in Sebvia. — The 

 manufacture of paper-pulp from wood seems to be increas- 

 ing in some direction.^, while iu others the reverse is the 

 case. From Belgrade, in Servia, we learn that the manu- 

 facture of wood paper is very largely increasing. A large 

 quantity of paper is consumed in Servia, and it is all 

 imported, though the raw material necessary for paper- 

 making, and abundant water and water-power, are to be 

 found in almost every Servian valley. Lime, Aspen, and 

 Fir trees are most suitable for this manufacture, and they 

 can be obtained in Servia at an almost nominal price. 

 Besides paper for home consumption, it is proposed to 

 manufacture pulp for exportation to England. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



The Stinging Tree of Queensland (p. 465). — This plant, 

 alluded to in Knoivfedye, is, no doubt, Laportea gigas, a 

 native of the warmer parts of Eastern Australia. There 

 is a specimen in the beautiful botanic gardens at Sydney, 

 where, however, it has anything but a " pleasant appearance 

 to the eye." its large deciduous leaves being much attacked 

 by insects. As far as I am aware, there is no species of 

 Urticaria with stinging glands growing in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney; at all events, though I have rambled 

 many miles there, I uever came across one; but the deficiency 

 is quite supplied by the large variety of plants with spiny 

 foliage — such as Macrozamia spiraUs, which at Broken 

 Bay is very common, and produces its cone-like fruit in 

 abundance. — Feank Gunning — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



FAEArrAKD Manuee. — The summary of some elaborate 

 researches on the evaporation of water from arable land 

 is published in the Annales A(/ronomiques. M. Masure 

 coucludes that, whether considered as a physical agent in 

 the improvement of the texture of the soil, or chemically 

 farmyard manure is the most valuable fertilising agent 

 a farmer can use. Compared with other substances, it 

 absorbs and retains a larger quantity of rain-water ; it gets 

 rid of superfluous water quickly; it attracts and condenses 

 at night the vapours of the atmosphere and their valuable 

 constituents; it absorbs the solar rays and the oxygen 

 which are so important to plant life; and it renders the 

 soil more porous and adapted for the penetration and 

 ramification of the roots. As the dung is the principal 

 agent in condensing the fertilising gases from the atmos- 

 phere, it is important not to bury it too deeply in the 

 ground, but to take care that it is well mixed with the 

 surface soil, or in special cases that it be used as a mulch. 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



