January i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



533 



THE CASSIA LIGNEA OF CHINA, 

 lu a recent notice of a report ou the Cassia Lignea 

 of Cliina, we recorded our recollection of a specimen 

 sent to us some thirty years ago by the late Capt. 

 Margesson, R. A., as tasting coarsely hot and pung- 

 ent. Whatever the cause, the specimen now sent to 

 us by the local Agricultural Society is distinguished by 

 the very reverse quality. It does not seem to have 

 been long kept and yet on tastiflg it, our first im- 

 pression is that the per centage of the essential oil 

 present which gives its peculiar odour and its value to 

 cinnamon is exceedingly low. We should certainly 

 qualify it as a very inferior cinnamon, very dirty 

 and very badly prepared. Much of the epidermis 

 remains ou the hsick, no doubt from the planing 

 operation being in)perfectly performed. Altogether 

 the bark compares most unfavourably even with 

 third-class cinnamon and only in the quality of cheap- 

 ness can it possibly compete with the fine and care 

 fully knife-scraped cinnamon of Ceylon. 



EXPORTS OF TEA FROM CHINA AND JAPAN. 

 The figures in the Overland China Trade Report 

 shew a considerable falling off in exports, both to 

 Britain and to the United States and Canada. From 

 the conmiencement of the season to 14th November 

 in each of the past three years the comparative figures 

 are : — 



To Great Britain : — 



1880 ... 139,861,000 lb. 



1881 ... 129,626,000 „ 



1882 ... 119,963,000 „ 



The decrease is about 10,000,0001b for each of the 

 two years and 20,000, 000 lb. total. In the case of 

 exports to the United States and Canada the figures 



1880 

 1881 



1862 



56,766,000 lb. 

 57,332,000 „ 

 46,624,000 „ 



Here there is a decrease of nearly 1 1 ,000 000 lb. on 

 last year ; so that in the aggregate, the decrease on 

 exports of tea to Great Britain and America in 1882 

 as compared with 1881 is no less than 21,000 0001b. 



While Great Britain takes scarcely any Japan teas 

 America takes one-half its whole supply of those kinds 

 chiefly "Oolongs," a strongly burnt tea. 



In the three years the exports of Japan tea went 



down from 26,616,000 lb. to 23,835.0001b., a decrease 



of nearly three millions pounds. But it is in China 



black and green the gi'eat deciease is she^vn, viz : — 



Black tea went down from 18 millions in 1881 



to 13A in 18-2. 

 Green tea decreased from 13 millions to 8j. 

 Indian tea is now a formidable competitor with that 

 of the far east in Britain and it is making way in 

 the far west. 



COFFEE ADULTERATION. 

 The following conespoudence and papers which 

 have been placed at our disposal, are of iiiterest in 

 connection with the agitation for the prohibition of 

 all colTee mixtures and the promotion of the sale of 

 the pure unadulterated article. The coffee planters 

 of India, Ceylon and other dependencies should give 

 the British Government no peace until their product 

 is placed on tlie same footing precisely in reference 

 to the Customs and Excise as that on which Tea 

 68 



stands. The correspondence is as follows : — 



Colombo, 19th August, 1882. 

 H. Pasteur, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — I have the pleasure to acknowledge the 



receipt of your letter of the 2Ist ult. and its enclos- 

 ures, and to tender you my best thanks for these 

 documents and for your earnest efiorta in the cause 

 in question. 



Mr. Dickson will have informed you that the 

 memorial of the P. A. was drawn up one and half year 

 ago, and would then have been forwarded, but for the 

 counteraction of our Colombo Chamber of Commerce. 

 There were also amongst the planters a few individ- 

 uals who, at that time, thought the adulteration 

 laws were sufficient protection against fraud, and tliat 

 the vile mixtures of which we complain were purchased 

 by choice, not as coffee, but as mi.xtures intended to 

 commend coffee to tlie popular palate ! And there was 

 some ground for such a belief inasmuch as a set of 

 samples purchased in London, two or three years be- 

 fore, had proved to be generally very free fiom adul- 

 teration ! On investigation 1 soon saw that these 

 samples had been bought in a manner little likely to 

 test the fact as to " what a working man receives ou 

 his application for his small purchases of grouud 

 coffee." I therefore withdrew the memorial, and de- 

 termined when in England, whither I happened to be 

 going, to employ labourers to purcliase samples for 

 me. Moreovrr, during my stay at home, I pointed 

 out the weak point of our case, in not having direct 

 evidence as to what the working millions get as coffee. 

 Whilst at home I had samples bought by labourers, 

 through the aid of friends who were mill owners and 

 employers of labour, at many of our chief towns ; 

 in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Chesterfield, &c. , 

 also in Loudon. These purchases were in quarter 

 pounds, and I am now of opinion that the question 

 would have been even more thoroughly tested hy pur- 

 chases of 2 oz., as I am told that J lb. is rather large 

 for an ordinary labourer's purchase ! Suffice it to 

 say that your unexpectedly energetic and prompt action 

 so anticipated mine thut your atialyses were puldic 

 before mine had been properly begun. A prelimin- 

 ary examination showed that the stuff bought for me 

 in the country was simply vile, and I think that, if 

 any further action be taken to move the Government, 

 it would be well to have samples btught and analyzed 

 as mine should have been. I fear that the samples 

 bought for me are now loo much injured by climate 

 to be available for analysis. 



On a deputation to Mr. Gladstone some 30 years 

 ago, I was struck with the levity with whicu he 

 treated the cjuestion, and I confess I had little hope 

 of /(/»' doing much for us. Still less, however, should 

 I have imagined him capable of such a Budd( n hreach 

 of faith and promise us this new bill proves ! Why 

 coffee /ilone should be subject to such exceptional 

 treatment, and be denied the fair- play enjoyed by tea 

 and every other ariicle of food, has always been to 

 me inconceivable. Its virtues are as rare and incontro- 

 vertible as are the vileness of its substitutes. Even 

 chicory is inedicinal, and, therefore, in niany cases, 

 hurtful. The Fame may be said of dandelion, and 

 as to the rest of the legion, they are chiefly dirt. 



M.ay 1 ask if you have calculated the fjuantili/ of 

 coffee displaced by the tmsh sold in its name? A^!^um- 

 ing your analysis of the 37 samples of stuff sold as 

 coffee to represent the prop irtion the real genuine 

 article bears to the stuff sold to the millions in the 

 n»me of coffie, then, as the ."7 samples contist 

 of 13 paits of coll'ce to 24 of adulterants, and the 

 total consuinption of cajfee by the trade returns 

 is 14 260 to' s, the adulterants in the proportion 

 above will be 2b',3'i6 tons and tli<i stuff cousuned 

 at>' cofi'ee ia really 40,580 tons. It follows that if tLceo 



