February 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



615 



paddock enclosed by a stone wall which is used for grazing 

 purposes, a part of the estate is planted with coconuts, 

 and 100 acres of sugarcane are grown for the Holmhurst 

 mill. The Vuna Creek runs through the estate ; unfor- 

 tunately it is dry except when it rains, but there is a 

 spleudid waterhole in the bed of the creek, near to the 

 new dwelling-house, which is seldom, if ever, dry. During 

 the recent dry weather it had a supply of water that 

 was a boon 10 the cattle. Mr. McCounell was under con- 

 tract to grow 100 acres of cane for the Holmhurst mill ; 

 but Mr. Hedges, when manager for Messrs. W. W. Billy- 

 ard & Co., took the contract over, and thereby secured 

 the water and barred a claim for £4,000 damages, which 

 Mr. McDonnell made against the firm for breach of con- 

 tract in not taking the cane when it was ripe. The mill 

 takes its water from the Vuna Creek, and the company 

 has paid Mr. McCounell a small annual sum for the privi- 

 lege. By taking over the contract, however, they have 

 not only secured the water, but settled the claim for 

 damages. — Fiji 1 im es . 



WOODS USED FOR TEA BOXES 



[Our readers will be interested in the following corre- 

 spondence, in which poor Dr. Watt of Calcutta is severely, 

 but we think properly, rebuked by Dr. Voelcker on the 

 question of green wood for tea boxes. — Ed.] 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE ENGLISHMAN. 



Silt, — I have permission to send you the following reply 

 received from Dr. Augustus A r oelcker of London to the 

 theories advanced in Dr. Geo. Watt's memorandum and 

 letter dated Simla, 21st June and 13th August 1884, in 

 connexion with the subject of damage occasionally sustained 

 by Indian Teas in transit from gardens to London, which 

 may be of interest to some of your readers.— P. Playfaib, 

 Calcutta, November 13, 1884. 



39, Argyll Eoad, Kensington W., September 27, 1884. 



Dear Sir, — I am obliged to you for the papers which 

 you sent me for perusal and which I herewith return with 

 thanks. 



You will, I am sure, not expect me to reply in detail 

 to Dr. Watt's criticisms upon my report. This gentleman 

 admits himself that he has no experience in the curing 

 of tea, and has never seen any perforated and badly 

 corroded lead from tea chests, and also that he is no 

 chemist, and that probably his conclusions may be wrong. 

 Any intelligent man who has had some experience in the 

 packing and shipment of tea can plainly recognise by 

 Dr. Watt's communication to the Indian Daily News the 

 force of his own admissions, and feel surprised that, notwith- 

 standing, he should venture to give a pretty positive opinion 

 as regards the primary cause of certain tainted teas. Like 

 most persons who have but little experience on the subjects 

 upon which they write, and no well established facts in 

 support of their opinions, Dr. Watt indulges in rather 

 wild speculations and untenable theories which hardly require 

 sei ious consideration. 



It appears to me Dr. Watt entirely fails to recognise 

 the points at issue. The question is not to account for 

 the damage done during shipment of badly-cured and im- 

 perfectly dried tea, but to assign good reasons explaining 

 the fact that well-cured and perfectly crisp tea arrives 

 in England, as regards flavour in a tainted condition when 

 it is packed in chests made from certain green and immature 

 woods either altogether or only the lids, in which case the 

 lead linings in contact with such unseasoned wood frequently 

 are strongly corroded and sometimes entirely perforated. 



There is no difficulty whatever in ascertaining whether 

 damage done to tea during shipment has been caused by 

 the tea having been packed in an improperly cured and 

 insufficiently dry condition. It seems to me a mere platitude 

 to say that tea may be damaged by being shipped in a 

 badly-cured condition. Damaged tea of that kind never 

 arrived in a crisp, but always more or less flabby condition, 

 and the lead, if at all corroded, shows the marks of corrosion 

 on the inside in contact with the tea, and never on the 

 outside in contact with the wood if the latter was well 

 . tied. I bai ■■ i mined hundreds of tea i hi I cou 

 taming damaged or tainted teas, In which the cause of 

 the damage could be clearlj traced to the improper con- 

 dition in which the tea was shipped, aud in none ol these 



cases found the lead perforated or even very strongly 

 corroded and never corroded at all on the outside in contact 

 with wood. 



On the other hand tain led tea which is quite crisp and 

 as far as looks go in good condition, occasionally, and of 

 late years more frequently than formerly, is received iu 

 England in chests, the lead linings of which are strongly 

 corroded on the sides in contact with certain woods, and 

 the lead lining generally more or less completely riddled 

 through. 



Assuming the tea to have been well-cured and sufficiently 

 dry and packed in chests made from well seasoned wood, 

 it remains sound, and the lead shows no mark of corrosion. 

 But if the same equally well-cured and dried tea is packed 

 in chests made from certain unseasoned woods, the chances 

 are that the tea, although crisp and good as regards looks, 

 arrives in England more or less tainted by a bad smell. 

 In this case the led is always corroded and generally 

 perforated on the side in contact with the wood, and not 

 corroded on the side next to the tea. If the body of the 

 chests is made from well-seasoned wood and the lids or 

 part of the lids from certain immature woods, the lead in 

 contact with the sound wood remains unaltered, whereas 

 the lead in contact with the unseasoned woods, which give 

 off unsavoury smells during shipment, gets corroded and 

 generally pierced through and through with small holes 

 which naturally freely admit to the tea the bad smelling 

 products arising from the decomposition of the wood. 



I aud other chemists have found most positively that 

 unseasoned wood under the conditions in which it is placed 

 in the ship's hold, or a vessel carrying a cargo of tea, 

 gives rise to the formation of acetic acid, which acting 

 upon the lead perforates it, and if the wood originally 

 has a more or less disagreeable smell or produces badly 

 smelling gaseous products in becoming rotten, such taints 

 are readily communicated to the tea. 



Now these are unquestionable facts, which no amount 

 of special pleading or speculative arguments, based on 

 altogether different facts having nothing to do with the 

 question at issue, can gainsay. 



The amount of moisture in the unseasoned wood of a 

 tea chest, or only its lid, I need scarcely say, is so small 

 that none of the moisture can find its way through the 

 lead into the tea. There is just enough moisture in the 

 unseasoned wood to cause its gradual decomposition and 

 the generation of sufficient acetic acid to effect the perforation 

 and corrosion of the lead without producing a regular 

 solution of lead salts. These salts and the subsequently 

 generated white lead remain on the outside of the lead in 

 contact with the wood. 



Dr, Watt makes it appear that under these circumstances 

 a regular watery solution of lead salts must find its way into 

 the tea, but as there is only the dampness of the unseasoned 

 wood, J utterly fail to see how such a watery solution can 

 be produced. Moreover, if any liquid did find its way into 

 the tea, it would show itself plainly in the appearance aud 

 condition of the tea. 



I notice that Dr. Watt states having submitted various 

 woods to destructive distillation. In my experiments I did 

 not submit the specimens of strong smelling woods to 

 destructive distillation, but simply distilled them in retort 

 with water in order to draw off and collect the volatile 

 and bad smelling products which distill over at the boiling 

 point of water. As Dr. Watt does not profess to be a 

 chemist, he may pruhahly not know what the term destructive 

 distillation signifies, aud not have submitted the woods to 

 destructive distillation which is the process in which wood, 

 for instance, is subjected in retorts or other suitable vessels 

 by itself to a high temperature, and thereby resolved into 

 a number of gaseous and volatile liquid products and into 

 charcoal, which is left behind in the retort. Amongst the 

 volatile products of the destructive distillation of wood is 

 acetic or pyroligneous acid, and it is from wood that by 

 destructive distillation crude acetic or pyroligneous acid 

 or wood vinegar, and subsequently concentrated acetic acid 

 is obtained. I question, therefore, whether Dr. Watt did 

 really submit wood to destructive distillation, for if he 

 had lone so, he would have obtained an acid distillate 

 which readily dissolves lead; if on the other hand, he 

 distilled the wood merely with water, what is the use it 

 may be asked, to distill wood which is in a sound con- 

 dition and gives off no bad smell''' 



I do not understand what Dr. Watt means by curing 



