H5 



quite ripe, they were wrapped in paper and put in the box. 

 The third dozen were also not quite ripe but were dipped in the 

 hot wax before being put into their compartments, and finally the 

 fourth dozen were ripe fruits but not coated, the fruits were made 

 secure from bruising by being surrounded with dry saw dust. 

 They were sent by Parcel Post and consigned to Mr. CURTIS at 

 home who opened them immediately on arrival, and reported on 

 their condition. I regret to add that the Report was "an absolute 

 failure not one fruit arrived in an eatable condition, nor was there 

 much difference between those coated with wax and those not 

 coated, or between the fully ripe and those not quite ripe. " 



I am by no mean discouraged by t his apparantly complete failure, 

 and hope on a favourable opportunity to make further experiments 

 in this direction, for I know by actual experience that Mangosteens 

 can be taken in perfectly good condition as far as Aden without 

 any special preparation, and it would seem that on this latter 

 occasion if care had been exercised to prevent the fruits from get- 

 ting bruised they might have been carried much further in good 

 condition. 



As regards the cold storage system we know that certain fruits 

 will travel well for long distances, there is however unfortunately 

 in many cases a loss of flavour; this was noticeable in some Pome- 

 loes recently taken home in the refrigerating room of a mail 

 steamer, the fruits were perfectly sound but the flavour was more 

 or less lost, and the same remarks apply to Apples that one some- 

 times gets in the Straits, sent here from Australia and California, 

 and not only from these places but also from England, where well 

 known varieties have arrived in good condition, but flavourless or 

 nearly so. 



It would be interesting to experiment with different temperatures 

 possibly a much higher one than the refrigerating room would be 

 sufficient to preserve the fruits and possibly without destroying 

 the flavour. 



THE WORLD'S TEA AND COFFEE 

 CONSUMPTION. 



Nearly half a billion pounds of tea were consumed in , the year 

 1900 in countries other than the sources of production. The United 

 Kingdom is the world's greatest importer, having taken for con- 

 sumption during the year 1900, in round numbers, 250 million 

 pounds of tea, as against 1 1 6i millions imported for consumption 

 by Russia, 83 3 millions by the United States, 7I millions by the 

 Netherlands, about 6-| millions by Germany, and nearly 2^ millions 

 by France. A comparison of the tea consumption of the past year, 

 with what of earlier periods, discloses the fact that tea is becoming 

 more popular as a beverage in European countries, though little 

 more than holding its own in the United States where coffee is the 

 favourite beverage. The live European countries United States, 



