if^ 



'I'HE fnOPiCAL AGRiCVtrVPJSf, [Nov. 2, 2S85, 



ories of lliis country, of which there ars but five, 

 thrff ill Philadelphia and two in New York, are 

 compelled to restrict their jiroduction. The Hvcatest 

 good to the Hre.'tertt number is the proper view to take 

 of the niiiller. Instead of our manufacturers closing 

 their works it would seem from the imports during the 

 past year of cinchona bark into theVnited States that 

 they were increasing their output of quinine. In 

 the fiscal year ended .June SOth, 1HH4, the imports 

 of bark into this country for the numufacturc^ of 

 quinine were •2,.580,0.'/2 pounds, valued at 1717,614, 

 while during the fiscal year ended .June 30th, 188.5, 

 the imports were .S,513,.S'.)1 pounds, valued at 

 |i)ll,nOS, an increase of nearly 1,000,000 pounds 

 in one year. 



As the sulphate of quinia is upon the free list, 

 and it is undoubtedly the intention of Congress to 



webs are equally moved for receiving or delivering 

 leaf and which last opeiation can be perforuied by 

 one man whether there is a large or small quantity 

 of Ic if ; 8th, the web is iirnr rolled up whether leaf 

 is oil it or not : if the web gets wet through wet 

 leaf it is not liaJile to rut throufb the web never 

 being rolled up or doubled together or coverLd close 

 up ; Dth, the machine can be increased in width 

 every year as the tea garden increases its yield 

 by lengthening the rollers or web drains at a very 

 small cost ; liltb. the webs have pliable galvanized 

 strand v/ire sides which run into grooves cut into the 

 side of each roller, preventing the web from slipping 

 or bellying in any way. 



According to Mr. .^rinstroiig's calculations it requires 

 (j f eet space per 1 lb of leaf ; such beiug the case, one of 

 these machines, 10 feet high l.j in. broad and 80 feet long, 

 webs (J inches apart, would take about r5,80O \h. ; if 

 the webs were placed 3 inches apart it would of 



keep it free, refusing, as it did, when the tariff" bill , course take more than double this, i.i\, over 7,l>0olb 



of 1883 was under consideration, to reimpose the '"■- - ' "■" '— ' — '^- --'- -' — - 



duty, it is certainly not the intention of our legis- 

 lators to close the American quinine manufact- 

 ories by offering a premium to the foreign manu- 

 facturer by taxing the raw materials used by our 

 own manufacturers. If our producers can make as 

 good and as cheap a brand of quinine as foreigners, 

 and certainly no one can say that American quinine 

 is inferior to that made abroad, they are justly en- 

 titled to free raw materials. As quinine is free of 



Two men can put this leaf on the webs at one oper- 

 ation, while one man puts the webs in motion fast 

 or slow as the two spreaders require it. It only 

 requires one man to discbarge the leaf from the webs 

 and which can all be acted upon at the same time 

 to discharge large or small quantities without any 

 trouble or loss of time while filling the rolling 

 machine. 



By a system adopted in connection with this apparatus 

 of giving either a vertical or side motion to the webs, leaf 



can, with perfect safety, be spread much thicker 



duty ail the raw materials used in its manufacture and get withered as fast from the air around and 



should be exempt from taxation. Our manufact- about the webs being kept in motion by an arrange- 



' ■ inent fixed in the centre of the webs connei;ted with 



a spring or other mechanical driving power, and con- 

 sequently caiising a much more rapid evaporation, 



urers of quinine import the bark free, but pay a 

 tax on the raw materials used in extracting the 

 (piinine, while their product competes in the home 

 market with foreign cpunine made with free barks, 

 free solvents and cheap labor. The item of in- 

 creased labor cost is a sufficient drawback to the 

 American manufacturer with further discrimination 

 in the way of taxed raw materials.— iJr»(/-srirt'('.« 

 (AVic Yorli) Journal. 



which is a great desideratum whore leaf conies in 

 wet or moist. Withering web machines are in course 

 of construction and will be fully advertised at an 

 early date. 



MOKE IMPKOVEMENTH IN TEA-PBEPAMNCi 

 ItEQUISlTES. 



The latest improvements brought under our notice 

 are " Gilrnth's Continuou;. Withering Webs," of 

 which the following is a desGription — a patent has 

 been applied for : — 



The arr.'.ngement and working of this machine seem 

 ▼ery simple .and plain, .after a little close inspec- 

 tion ; its advantages, wdiich are niany, are 

 at once better seen than described, and it has been 

 found on careful calculations that it will be likely to 

 supersede all other systems yet in use. cither in Ceylon, 

 Java, or Assam, and will economize by ."iO per cent 

 or more, in labour, space it occupies, Ac. ttc, 

 on the now old-fashioned window-blind system 

 introduced some t\:o >r three years back in Assam 

 and lately in Ceylon on some of the tea estates. 

 For cheapness, compactness and neatness undoubtedly 

 it has no equal and cannot but bo sure to continue 

 to warrant these iinportaut advantage!, especially 

 when it is made and constructed of the very best 

 material -, it ma.y be termed almost everlasting, .and 

 cannot help taking the place of all others which are 

 so uuHiiti^factory and costly in the long run. 



The folloHiuK .are tlie iid\antHgeH claimed for this 

 iipl)iiratus:--lst and iiio«t important, the great saving 

 ef laiiour brought about ; 'Jnd, »iiiallne«« of Hiiace it 

 occupies; 3rd, large amount of leaf it Hill take. 

 Laving no part of the level web but what call re- 

 ceive leaf; Ith, leaf easy to spread, leaf on the 

 webs, as all parti) of the webs pass within easy reach 

 of the leaf spreadirs stationecl at the ends of the 

 apparatus and who are able to spread while the 

 webfl arc in motion which can be made to go fast 

 or «i(iw at the will of the leaf spreader. 

 r>th. eas> to handle and not lialile to get out of 

 order; Olli, the inachinccan Lie made any size, length or 

 )i«i^'bt; 7tb, by tlj« motion or ivctiou of out wheel all 



I'EAKLS. 

 The over-fishing of the last fifteen or twenty 

 years is doing for pearls what it long ago did for 

 oysters. Fashion also bears its part in raising 

 prices, and a good set of three black-iiearl shirt- 

 studs cannot now be got wholesale much under 

 £40. Four years ago they could be had for less 

 than a third of the jirice. Mother-of-pearl has 

 risen in the market too, and now costs nearly 

 l.'i the pound at the fisheries, where four pounds 

 could be obtained for the same money twehe years 

 back. The fisheries of the Red Sea and the Bay 

 of Bengal are still, however, as celebrated as they 

 ever were in classic days, although the fair can 

 no longer hope for the produce by the jieck, as 

 Varro — at second-hand— said they used to do : 

 " .\ltera exorat virum semodiura margaritarum." 

 For all the scarcity of pearls, we now get them 

 also from the Sunda Isles of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, the seas of China and Japan, from Panama, 

 Tahiti, the (rambier islands, and from Australia. 

 The pearl-market is no longer at Borne, at the 

 iMargaritarius porlicus; but in the hands of the 

 Amsterdam, Hamburg, Loudon and New York 

 dealers, who buy up all this harvest of the sea. 

 There are numerous bivalves which give pearls, 

 bad, indifferent, or better ; but the true pearl- 

 oyster — if oyster it can be called, for it is exactly 

 like an exaggerated cockle — is the Miilihis nuir- 

 tfiiriliffnix, or VinUidiiui m,, which meilsHl('.« from 

 four to six inches in diameter and an inch ftnil 

 a half in thickiu'ss. The oceanic variety diffcra 

 from the East Indian, and gives a finer gem. 

 The Tuamotu Archipelago, to the east of the 

 Society Islands, is perhaps the greatest pearl-fishery 

 in the" world. Of its eighty islands there are only 

 some half-dc^zcn whose waters do not produce the 

 pearl-oyster. The natives ol this group know iig 



