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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



Arabian coffee. The same is the case iu the 

 Kalutara disiriot, and I may say all ovei- Ceylon. 

 There are many Liberian estates in almost all the 

 districts. Will planters let the public know, who 

 mean to plant this product, if trees above 3 years old 

 are not badly attacked with the leaf-disease, what 

 their crops were for the years they were in be.-iriug, and 

 how the trees look after a heavy crop. No doubt in 

 time those places in the Central Province planted 

 with Liherian coffee will have tea and cocoa on them, 

 but what will those in the lowcouniry do? In 

 your lowcountry correspondent's letter, some time ago, he 

 gave us his experience of plantiug cocoa : for 2,500 

 holes more tliau 25,000 seeds and plants were put 

 out and still the place is not without vacancies. The 

 vacancies will all be filled some day or other, but 

 till then how is one with a small capital to live till 

 all his cocoa trees are iu bearing ? Tea I am certain 

 would have been planted more largely, were itnotforthe 

 heavy cost of seed— Csylon seed RlOO a maund and 

 Indian between R70 and 100.* The plunts from one 

 maund of seed will be {according to one of your 

 correspondents) 12,000. This will plant 3 or at the 

 most 3i acres, and to open an estate of 100 acres 

 the seed alone will cost between Rl,333 and K2,333. 

 Then see the cost of nurseries; lining, holing and 

 filling up will cost so much more when it is knowu 

 that tea is planted so close. But however much a 

 tea estate costs, it is sure to pay a handsome return. 

 One estate of 100 acres, 4 or five years old, gave last 

 year a nett profit of RIO.OOO, and this year it is ex- 

 pected to give double, if not more, as his tea is 

 fetching a far better price this yeir and the trees 

 are flushing better, the lirst owing to cireful looking 

 after in the preparation and the latter to maume and 

 digging up the soil. B- ^' H. C. 



PUERH TEA. 



Peradeniya, 23rd Jan. 1S83. 

 Sir,— In the Observer of the 22nd you give a para- 

 graph from the Madras Mail, iu which is quoted 

 a sentence from Mr. A. R. Colquhouu'. paper on the 

 South China Borderlands. 1 had mm ked another i)or- 

 lion relating to tea for extract from this paper (which 

 will be found in the " Proceedings of the R lyal Geo- 

 graphical Society " for December), and now enclose it. 

 The statements about Puerh tea are quite new to me, 

 and it would be iuteri-sting to ascertain to what its 

 areat estimation by the Chinese !■< to be ascribed.— 1 

 am, sir, yours faithfully, HENRY TRI.VIEN. 



"An inteiesting fact elicited by us was that the 

 most celebrated tea iu China comes from a part of 

 the Shan country, from a district called I-baug, maiuly 

 situated some Hve days south of the Yunan frontier. 

 This tea, which by a misnomer is called Puerh tea, 

 Irom the name of a prefecture close b.v, in sent to 

 thetovnof Ssflinao for distribution. Fiom that place 

 it is forvv.-irded to Peking and the northern provinces ; 

 by ciravau to the Y'aiig tzse, thence by nver ^to 

 Shanghai, and from that port northwards. The 

 enormons cost of carnage may be gathered from the fact 

 that this tea— which is drunk throughout the south 

 by all the peasantry— is S) costly when delivered at 

 Shanghai that it canu<jt be exported to Europe or 

 Russia. I have no hesitation in saying that before 

 many j ears are over this tea will be shipped from 

 Rangoon to China and elsewhere. A proof of the 

 comfortable condition nf the Yunnanese in the south 

 and south-west is that the peasantry drink teaeveiy- 

 where, whereas in the neighbouring provinces of 

 K»arg-8i and Kwang-tiing they dnuk maiuly hot 



, * The price is now down to RiS per maund- — Eo. 



water." Further :— "The Shan states are now entirely 

 independent. The Chinese mandarin who resided at 

 Kiang-Hung was withdrawn six years ago. The Burm- 

 ese residents in that and other Shan .States were 

 forced to retire within the last year or two. Tribute 

 was no longer paid to either China or Burmah." 



Tobacco GRowaNo in Victoria. — The increase of the 

 growth and manufacture of tobacco in Victoria during 

 the last twelve years in something remarkable, and 

 affords a good example of what might be done in this 

 country. In 1870 the manufacture was about 100,000 lb. , 

 whereas now it is upwards of two millions of pounds. 

 In the same period the import of munufactured tobacco 

 and cigars has fallen from a million and a half pounds to 

 half a million pounds, and the colonists hope soon to be 

 able not only to dispense with imported tobacco alto- 

 gether, but to enter into competition in other markets 

 with the American pvoduca.—Eiifilhhman. 



Coffee in Mexico. — The cultivators of coffee are 

 threatened with still further competition. A Com- 

 pany has been formed in Mexico for growing and 

 exporting coffee from Colima, which a Mexican paper 

 speaks of as ''one of the richest coffee districts in 

 the world." Sixteen thousand acres have been pur- 

 chased near Manzanillo, on which there are already 

 60,000 trees in bearing and 600,000 coffee plants from 

 one to three years old. The plants produce each two 

 pounds annually at a low estimate. The State Legis- 

 lature of Colima, with a view to encouraging the 

 industry, has passed enactments exempting from duty 

 all machinery, implements. &c., used iu the enter- 

 prise. It has, moreover, offered a large premium for 

 the first fifteen thousand pounds of best quality of 

 coffee raised. — Times of India. 



Potato Dise.4se Prevkntive. — What appears to 

 be a preventive for potato disease, but which is not 

 kely to admit of general application, was (says a 

 Conpar-Angus correpondent) recently discovered in a 

 field of potatoes in this locality. Two or three gen- 

 tlemen, while examining the crop of potatoes, which 

 were considerably diseased, came upon a pitch where 

 he crop appeared to be it riper than the other portion 

 of the field, and where it was reckoned that the disease 

 would be more dominant. However, on making close 

 examination of this patch not a single diseased potao 

 was discovered, while immediately on the outside of 

 it all round diseased potatoes were quite common. A 

 large quantity of thorns wnd hedging prunings had 

 during the past winter been burnt on this part, whch 

 appears to be the cause of its exemption from disease. 

 — N. B. Agriculturist. 



Analysis op Coffee. — On November 16ih the 

 Swindon magistrates decided a case under the sale of 

 Food .\ct which revealed s ime curious discrepancies in 

 analysis. A t'rocer named Cleverly had sold to the in- 

 spector a tin of Cassell's coffee for Is Sd. A label on 

 the tin stated that this was "coffee mixed with chic- 

 ory." The ootfee was sent to W. F. Donkin, St. 

 George's Hospital, London, who C'-rtitied that it con- 

 sisted of 20 per cent, of coffee and 80 per cent, of 

 chicory. The Somerset house chemists had sub- 

 sequently reported that they found 55 per cent, of coffee 

 and 45 per cent of chicory. Mr. Donkin had made 

 a second analysis, and discovered 38 per cent, of 

 eoff ee and 62 per cent, of chicory. The defendant 

 hid sent a sample to Professor Redwood, who reported 

 that he found 38 per cent, of chicory, but this, not 

 being an analysis of a sealed sample, could not be 

 put in as evidence. The manufacturers declared that 

 they put in 60 per cent, of coffee and 40 per cent, of 

 chicory. The magistrates fined the defendant U. — Chem- 

 ist and Driiijgist. 



