June i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



9°3 



are many such in every district. As is the case in all 

 epidemics, the aged and the infirm are the sufferers. Taking 

 the most adverse view of coffee, it is no worse than it 

 was twenty years aga, when it was considered a good invest- 

 ment, while its prospects in the future are for many 

 reasons brighter. The low price of coffee iu 1860 tended to 

 restrict production, which, reacting on value, led to the 

 high rite realized in 18/3. This stimulating production 

 has brought about the present state of the coffee 

 market. As it has been in the past, will it not be in the 

 future? Have we not evidence of this already in Oeylon 

 and elsewhere ? Old and worthless estates are being aban- 

 doned, while new plantations are seldom or never heard 

 of,* aud this leads to ,a limitation in production, to be fol- 

 lowed hereafter by enhanced value of the article. 



Looking at the fact, therefore, that land is once more 

 cheap — that English money is worth 25 per cent more 

 than it was in 1860, that we have a better future before 

 us so far as prices are concerned, surely this is the 

 time to invest money in this speculation, if ever. But 

 this is not all that can be said in favour of the coffee 

 planters of the future. Iu days gone by they had coffee, 

 and coffee alone, to trust to. Now it is different. There 

 are other products that can be cultivated in conjunction 

 with coffee. Let me first speak of cinchona. This can 

 be planted separately or in belts, or amongst the coffee. 

 To this latter exception may be taken, as affecting the 

 yield of the coffee ; but planting coffee with or under 

 shade means two very different thiugs. By the former 

 principle the heavy crops from open planting are not 

 interfered with, the cinchona, if of a good variety, not being 

 sufficiently large to affect tho coffee, unless it is five or 

 six years *old, when its shade is beneficial rather than 

 injurious, and, against any loss in crop there might be 

 hereafter, you have to credit a reduction iu upkeep charges. 



The suitability of Wynaad for eiuchona is so fully 

 established, that I may pass it by without further com- 

 ment. No less significant is the fact that, in its chief 

 competitor, Ceylon, its agricultural success has been de- 

 monstrated a failure. f And there is no other district 

 that eau claim precedence of "Wynaad either in respect 

 of soil, climate, labour, or transport to the great com- 

 mercial centres. Here there is a great advantage that 

 the coffee planter of 1885 has over the planter of 1860. 



The next product I would wish to notice is tea. This 

 too, is now being profitably cultivated in Wynaad. A 

 few years ago it was not supposed that it could be grown 

 successfully at so low an elevation ; but, as a matter of 

 fact, it is more than probable that it will be found to 

 do even still better below the Ghauts, and very little 

 above sea level. Both iu Wynaad and below the Ghauts 

 we have everything the tea plant demands — good soil and 

 a humid climate. It is essentially a plant that can be 

 grown with coffee, delighting in that very aspect which 

 coffee abhors. Thus the various slopes of one estate can 

 be cultivated successfully. 



In respect to rhea, it is full early to speak with the 

 same degree of confidence. That wild varieties of rhea 

 are indigenous to Malabar has long been well known, 

 while the success that has attended the cultivation of the 

 true variety has exceeded the most sanguine expectations. 

 My remarks have so far, had reference to laud in Wynaad, 

 but there is equally as much to say iu favour of that 

 below the Ghauts. If coffee cannot be grown there, it 

 is the home of the pepper vine ; cinchona has never been 

 tried At oue time it was said it would not grow in 

 Wynaad. We now know differently. But the many vari- 

 eties of rubber grow there; as does cocoa, coca, and the 

 cola nut. And what shall I say about tea? Simply, that 

 iu Oeylon, at a similar elevation, it has yielded as well as that 

 at higher elevations, and those competent to judge predict 

 a great future for tea below the Ghauts of Western India. 



Surely I have written enough to show that Malabar is 

 not played out yet ; that, there is an opening for those 

 seeking employment with capital to invest, and to those 

 who are merely looking for profitable investments. 



A. R. Hindu. 



* On the contrary, we regret to say, young coffee estates 

 are being planted with tea.— Ed. 



t No : over large areas it has been a great success. — Ed. 



THE FATHERS OF THE INDIAN TEA 

 INDUSTRY INTERVIEWED. 

 The recent correspondence in our columns on the sub 

 ject of progress m tea manufacture having attracted 

 considerable attention, we thought the occasion a suitable 

 one to obtain the views of some of the leading authorities 

 on the tea industry. We accordingly commence by e ivj„» 

 those obtained during an interview with a 



ME. JOHN BEERY-WHITE. 

 " I have not the slightest objection to giving you mv 

 views, but understand that I have had many imnorta 7t 

 matters to attend to during the last few davs. ami I mv 

 thoughts have not had time to arrange themselves in a 

 form as suitable and precise as you might wish for vour 

 purpose." jour 



"Perhaps I can help you by asking leading questions 

 seeing that from your exceptional experience you must 

 hold ripened views on those points of most present inter- 

 est to all connected with tea. Suppose we commence 

 with Manufacture, this having so recently been the sin 

 ject of correspondence in the Home and Colonial Mail?" 

 A moment for consideration and he proceeded •— 

 " Well, there 's not the least doubt but that onr ays- 

 tem of manufacture has hitherto been conducted on 

 purely empirical methods in fact-by mere rule-of-thumb 

 The most experienced planter, if you ask him, cannot 

 explain the reason tor one of the processes he employs 

 The time has come when first-class chemists should be 

 sent out, of an order second only to Pasteur in his 

 branch ot the profession, though I do not mean that 

 they should be o Ins branch. These should locally en- 

 quire into aud discover the real objects of each process 

 compare notes, and then formulate the true theory of 

 manufacture. The Government should undertake this • 

 they did more for the cotton industry in India Com 

 missioner after Commissioner was sent out with' a view 

 to discovering how far the staple could be improve" 



™ch o r 5 te e iSrrtnra 1 " £r$J- fi 



should take 'this initial step and shouW It hetTme^ 

 of the expense. There are various precedents for such a 

 course as for example the several Eoyal Commissions for 

 Ireland; and that the Tea Industry in India is now I 

 sufficiently important one I fancy few will doubt " 



"Do I understand, then, that you quite agree with 

 ' Artemus ,n his letter to the Home and ColontalVaTl?" 



"Yes, certainly, we require that manufacture should 

 be conducted on a scientific basis by the aid of «<•)«.««« 

 formula, as many other manufacture's such a8 h£*£ 

 sugar-refining are now conducted. There may be goo°d 

 cause for returning to panning discovered, as we eave it 

 up on quite msuftcieut grounds, speaking of its effect on 

 lie produce rather than from the economic poht of view 

 It was given up smiply because Mr. Inskipp spen? a 

 month ou a factory and could not detect the difference 

 between samples of teas which had been panned from those 

 which had not. That there is some actual distinctTve resu? 

 obtained by panning I cannot doubt, one of my reasons 

 being that a case came to my personal knowledge where 

 tea which had not been panned invariably caused sickness 

 whereas tea which had been panned con^d be taken with-" 

 out unpleasant consequences; and I am certain of my fa cts 

 here, for no matter how one tried to deceive the person 

 in question the effects were invariably as related » ° 



"Do you also agree with 'Pace TuaV remarks upon 

 the possible conversion of tannic acid into gallic acid?" 



"Certainly, his ideas are perfectly correct, as anyone 

 with the most elementary knowledge of chemistry must 

 know that tannic acid is converlible into gallic acid as 

 he described. He did well in producing that one example 

 as illustrating how open our present empirical methods 

 are to other possible faults. Thus as everybody knows 

 the flavour m our teas is owing to the presence of essenti- 

 al mis, and essential o.ls aro all extremely volatile, and 

 doubtless we lose in our present system of manufacture 

 a very large proportion of these which might be saved" 

 Do you blame the existing machines, or the coke or 

 the high temperatures employed, as some do, for the 

 deterioration of late years ? 



