6i5 



THfi TROPICAL AGRlCULTURISt. [March i, 1886. 



to carry on its operations till now. There 

 remained a balance of R7,i'2'J-;H-3, to the end of 

 •July : and it is estimated that after all charges 

 are met there will remain a balance of Itll.OOO, 

 which the committee recommend should be made 

 over to the Indian Tea Association towards the 

 expenses connected with the representation of 

 Indian Tea at the Exhibition in London next year. 

 The Committee regret that it has not yet been 

 found practicable to secure an extensive use of 

 tea in this country, as it is a drink well suited 

 to the habits and requirements of the people. 

 A proper distributing agency does not appear 

 to be available. The Committee are not un- 

 mindful of the development of tea-planting in 

 Ceylon, as cultivation is rapidly extending. 

 There ought also to be a large increase in 

 consumption. Tea is more extensively used 

 than ever in the United Kingdom, and prob- 

 ably will increase in our English Colonies. Of 

 the Continent we arc not so hopeful. A French- 

 man once hesitated to visit us in England lest 

 we should "give him tea," which he regarded as 

 a sort of medicine, "only procurable at the 

 chemist's." This was in Paris during the Exhib- 

 ition of 1S78. We got a sample of Indian tea from 

 the Exhibition, and so far overcame his prejudice as 

 to induce him to have a cup, and — he wanted some 

 more ! No doubt the general prejudice may be 

 broken down as the individual prejudice was in 

 his case; but it will take time, and the world has 

 yet an ample population to take the produce of 

 the tea gardens. 



The Committee direct attention to the possibility 

 of trade with Central Asia and Thibet. It is hoped 

 that something may be done in that direction. 

 The Syndicate adopted the report of the Committee, 

 and passed a resolution to wind up the -Association, 

 accepting the recommendation of the Committee to 

 hand over the balance as suggested. It will be inter- 

 esting to ladies who preside over tea tables, and 

 pride themselves on their brew of the "cup that 

 cheers but not inebriates." — Iiulian Daily Xews. 



THE M.UiKET FOR COCA. 

 In the Ia.st number of the F.phein(ri.< Dr. Squibb 

 gives some particulars respecting the supply of coca 

 leaves, which do not ex.ictly coincide with the state- 

 ments hitherto current. He does not unreservedly 

 adopt '* the holders story " that no fresh shipments 

 could reach New York before May. expecially consitier- 

 ing that about the middlu of February about 8 cwt. 

 did arrive, not of very good quality, but much better 

 tlian any there. This was offered at frou 5<. to 10s., 

 and by March I was still unsold. Dr. Stjuibb then 

 gives the substance of letters he has received from 

 authorities familiar with the AVest Coast of ^outh 

 America, whose information is, to some extent, new. 

 Dr. .Joues, of the United States Xavj, and Mr. 

 Da'ielsberg, the United States Consular Agent at 

 -Arica, have sent Dr. Squibb letters and samples, from 

 which it appears that the best coca is produced in 

 Bolivia east of the mountain-range ; that it is brought 

 across the mountains for several hundred miles on 

 the backs of pack-animals to Tacna, and thence by 

 railroad about 40 miles to .^rica ; and that the rainy 

 aeason form .January to May renders the long trans- 

 portation .somewhat risky on account of damige by 

 wetting. The original packages of 45 to 50 lbs. 

 are called "tainbores"; and these, after having 

 crossed the moumtains, are jmt two or more together 

 into bales, and are thus exported. The leaves are, 

 especially wheu compressed in large bales, very sensitive 

 to damp and heat ; and however green and good 

 at the start, and whatever precaution be taken to 

 secure cool ilry trannportation, they are always j 

 damaged somewhat, and often very much more than ' 

 by the long trip acroos the mountains in small parcels. 

 Bolirittt coca of good quality ia alvraya dear, prob- 



ably from the long and expensive journey to the 

 j seaports, and Dr. Joues &iys that in the shops along 

 tht coast it sells at 80c. to fl per lb. 

 Mr. D.tuelsberg, the Consular Agent, who has 

 1 dealt in Holivian coca for many years, .seals mail samples 

 I of good quality, and says that, lately, in order to secure 

 ; the quality, the leaves are repacked in tins for trans- 

 portation. The mail .samples sent are so different 

 ; in appearance from the coca commoaly met with 

 as to raise a doubt whether goil Bolivian c^ca ever 

 I reaches thi.s market. The leaves are much more 

 [ uiiiforTi in shape and size than those ordinarily met 

 i with, and although not of a very bright green colour, 

 [ are much more uniform in colour, and are less broken 

 j up. But the greatest dilfereoce noticeable is in th« 

 characteristic creases which mark the back of the 

 leaf, extcudiug on each side of the midrib in an 

 elliptical curve from the point to the footstalk. In 

 j all the coca of the market these characteristic creises 

 I are wanting in a small proportion of the leaves ; 

 but, being of .ill degrees of faintuess in other leaves, 

 their absence cannot be cousidered as excluding the 

 leaves from being the product of the coca plant, but 

 that they vary under ditferent conditions of climate, 

 soil, &c. Bontley and Trimen, " Medicinal Plants," 

 vol. I., article 40, say:— "It is saarcely possible to 

 mist.ike the leaves of coca for those of any other 

 plant—the two lougitudiual arched lines on the under 

 surface being characteristic. These, which are found 

 in several other species of Erythroxylon, are not, as 

 often described, veins or nerves, but folds or creases 

 produced by the mode in which the leaves are packed 

 in the bud." 



In the small sample of Bjlivian coca, however, 

 not a single leaf could be found without this charac- 

 teristic, and in very few leaves was it so faint as 

 to require very close inspection. Another dilTereuce 

 in this sam[ria is that in some of the larger and 

 older leaves the toot.stalk and midrib have the 

 red colour, which in the wood of some species gives 

 the generic name Erythroxylon, or red-wood. 



Neither Dr. Jones nor Mr. Dauelsberg siy a word 

 about the new crop in IVfay story, but leaves their 

 readers to the inference that high prices have cleaned 

 out the seaport towns along the coast, and that with 

 the characteristic slowness of the people and their 

 modes of trausportatiou, it takes some time to re- 

 supply them, .-is the reports of the high prices reach 

 the interior, however, the probabilities are in favour 

 of an over-supply. 



The mirket supply of cocaine salt has, for .some 

 time past, been abundant, and it is highly probible 

 that all the principal makers h^ve a good stock on 

 hand. The former high prices seem to have had the 

 effect of r.ipidly diminishing the less ritional uses of 

 the agent, and of restricting it to the limited special 

 uses to which it is applicable, ami wheu thus limited 

 the demand fell otf — or, at least did not increasi, — 

 while the amiuat manufactured continued to increase 

 until the stock on hand became probably sufficient 

 for several mouths' supply. 



It is probable that the few makers soon found out 

 by experience with their processes that even the leaves 

 of jKJor quility gave larger yields than had been ex- 

 pected, and that the ditliculties of extraction grew 

 le^s and less with experience in the management of 

 details, so that the supply became greater than the 

 demand, and stocks thus accumulated. Thi,s, of course, 

 led to a reduction in price and the abandonment of the 

 very unreasonabh prices caused by the first sena- 

 ational demand. Under this improved condition of both 

 demand and supply, the price of the hydrochlorate 

 fell, in the wholesale market, from 50c. per grain, 

 or s7-50 per gramme, to about .'JOc. per grain, or 

 s4 .50 per gramme. Dr. Sipiibb states that by his 

 own process, with even moderately good coca at, 

 say flOc. to si per lb., it can be prodticed at this 

 lower price, with a fair manufacturer's profit, but cannot 

 be produced at a lower price until better cjca at 

 lower price! is accessible. — t'/icwiisr and Dniggi^l, 



