April i, 1880.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



733 



As a proof ot how the disease spreads, here 

 arc the totals from a Parliamentary paper pub- 

 lislied in October last year, only it is not stated 

 in wliich years these maximum crops lyorc picked. 



Pclailed list of forty-one estates in one small 

 district of S. Jose de Lconissa in Province o£ Kio 

 beyond the Serra do Mar ; — 



i'he name of the owners and names of estates are 

 given, which I do not copy. 



Maximum picking in one year, l'28-847 

 arrobas ; Probable crop might have been picked 

 now include from clearings, 2.5'2-800 arrobas ; 

 Crop pieked in 1K8.5, 2(iriS0 arrobas. 



N. H.— .\ sack of coffee ot tiO kilograms is counted 

 i arrobas. In the districts besides the abovcmen- 

 tioued. namely, S. Fedelis, Madalena and Cantagalla 

 the yearly loss is in ihe same papers calculated at 

 1,000,000 arrobas. 



•• It is added this 1,000,000 arobas valued at 

 *5.000 (say 10s) the aroba on the average will 

 give the enormous quantity of ,5,000,0008000 

 (£.500,000) annually, and this result it is easily 

 calculated takes from the Provincial Government 

 1 per cent export duly, this is Provincial only ; 

 there is !l per cent of Imperial export tax besides, 

 --the sum of -iOO.OOOSOOO." 



Now you will think after hearing all this that the 

 coffee enterprizc of Brazil is ruined, or you will 

 say : "Well really it cannot be so bad ! you sec what 

 large crops she has been giving, and see how her 

 excessive production has brought down the price 

 of coffee ! " 



Let me explain how she has been able to keep up 

 her exports. Before 1800 — when the largest crop up 

 till then was picked — there were very few railways 

 open. 



With the falling-oft' of the production of the 

 estates on the sea-side of the Scnu <lu Mur com- 

 menced the transport by railway leading in to the 

 Province of Minas, the Don Pedro II. Government 

 Kailway had forced its way through the mountains, 

 at the cost of 13 tunnels through the solid gneiss. 

 (rradually different branches struck off from it, while 

 every year a slice was being added to the main line. 

 The length of the main line now is 875 kilometres — 

 and the branches leading off is H43 kilometres, and 

 still extension are being continued. The coffee that 

 is carried by these lines has all to come to be 

 shipped at Rio. The bulk of the Eio shipments 

 now is from coffee grown on plantations in 

 districts where there was very little ooflue grown 

 in l«iHJ-(;i — With all this improvement in transport 

 and the opening of plantations far beyond the 

 reach of infection from the diseased districts. Still 

 the export of coffee from the port of Rio is very 

 little if any more that it was 

 in 1860-01 .. 3,183,091 sacks 



,. 1883-84 .. 3,138,721 „ 1st July to .SOth June 



This goes to prove what I have observed above. 



riii: (jreul iiicreuae in the export of coffee from 

 Brazil is from the S. Paulo plantations. The pro- 

 duce is shipped at Santos direct for the European 

 or North American markets. 



In 1877 she shipped «00,000 sacks 

 now she ships 4,000,000 „ 

 and goes on increasing. All owing to railway en- 

 terprise. The Paulisla planters are an energetic, 

 patriotic set of men ; with the exception ot the 

 short stretch of railway from Santos to Jundiahy — 

 140 kilos — which was made by an Knglish com- 

 pany ; all the other lines have been made from 

 capital supplied by themselves. The total extension 

 open is 1,M15 kilos and there are extensions being 

 proceeded with on all the lines and branches. 

 Low as the price is and costly as the transport 

 must be from the far west of the Province to the 

 port of Santoii, oleariog^ are etill being opened. 



As regards labour supply they are availing largely 

 of European colonists. There has lately been more 

 care taken in the selertinn of these, and the planters 

 are getting to understand the way to treat them. 

 Gn the whole while, this railway extension spirit 

 exists, I see very little prospect of a smaller pro- 

 duction of coffee in Brazil, and further, I look 

 for a still larger export than the annual 4,000,000 

 sacks from Santos. We may calculate that Kio will 

 remain at about the average of, for last 20 years, 

 3,200,000. 



A. SCOTT BLACKLAW. 

 P.S. — I have spun this out so long I have not 

 left room to say what I intended about the cultiv- 

 ation in the districts where coffee has ceased to 

 grow (I do not like to make promises but I may 

 return to these), nor to notice the coffee returns 

 for last year which are just out. You, however, will 

 receive these from other sourcei. A. S. B. 



SIR ROBERT HART AND THE DE- 

 TERIORATION IN TEA. 



Tlie following notification addressed to the Tea 

 Guild by Taotai Sliau, with Sir Robert Hart's letter 

 to the Tsung-li Yamen, was published in the 

 Slieiqiav of 2.5th ult. ; — 



On the 23rd day of the 10th moon of the current 

 year, I received a communication from H. E. 

 Tseng, the Superintendant of Southern Trade, in- 

 forming me that he received on the lltli day of 

 the 10th moon of the 11th year of Kwang-su, 

 through the Board of War, a despatch from the 

 Tsung-li Yamen, covering abstract of a letter from 

 the Inspector General of Customs, Hart, which 

 the I'amen received on the 28th day of the yth 

 moon, on the Tea Trade, saying as follows : — 



" Tea is one of the most important articles of 

 commerce of China, and lately the tea sold for 

 the foreign markets has become worse and worse 

 in quality. The Chinese merchants, thinking that 

 the foreigners must have their tea, and for the sake of 

 maknig extra profits, have been supplying an in- 

 ferrior article, not knowing that other places are 

 also producing tea. Besides Japan, the new tea 

 planted in India is increasing day by day in yield 

 and is daily meeting with favour everywhere, and 

 its export this year has been much larger than 

 the last. If the Chinese merchants continue to 

 neglect this branch of business, continuing to add 

 spurious things to the weight of the Tea and not 

 taking care to have the article properly made and 

 dried, I am afraid the Tea business will be com- 

 pletely ruined." 



The Yamen finding that the increase and falling 

 oft' in the trade affects both the Government and 

 the people, and considering that since the establish- 

 ment of commerce with foreigners the amount 

 of silver that has flowed into foreign countries is 

 very considerable, we having Tea and Silk only 

 to balance and recover our loss ; and now that 

 the Inspector General's letter points out the fault of 

 the tea merchants in making small prolits at pre- 

 sent without thinking of the trade in future, 

 the Yamen has to ask the Superintendent of Southern 

 Trade to inform all the district authorities where 

 Tea is produced, to advise the Tea makers and 

 merchants to take care, and not spoil the business 

 for the sake of profit only. The Yamen encloses 

 a copy of Hart's letter for the Superintendent's 

 persual. 



The Superintendent, having on receipt of the 

 above written to all the Ollicials and "Taotais to 

 inform the tea merchants to act accordingly, I have 

 on recpi|it of the above written to the Shanghai 

 Uagibtrate, <iud uow make Ihib pteseut vommuuic 



