Edible Products. 



236 



| Sept. 190(5. 



more alluring than strong drink, and infinitely better at once as a stimulant and a 

 sedative than either, or both combined. And in the majority of cases it leaves 

 no after effects to be accounted for. The peons and the gauchos employed in the 

 country live almost entirely on meat and mate ; I refer here to the natives of the 

 Argentine Republic. If they can get their mate, even though mea t be scarce or 

 non-existent, they can carry on for a surprisingly long time and do hard laborious 

 work on it. Without it they are simply lost. The Indians can make long journeys 

 through desert country absolutely without food for days together, so long as their 

 mate holds out. 



Very few Europeans whose vocation calls them to South America escape 

 the habit, and once they have mastered the flavour they prefer mate" to tea or 

 coffee. They say that they can work on it better than on tea or on anything else. 

 The first thing in the morning the decoction is at its best ; taken before daylight 

 on a cold morning when the rain is descending in torrents and the whole world 

 looks miserable, it imparts a sort of ruby colour to everything and forces one to 

 take the brightest view of things. It must be understood that there is not the 

 smallest suspicion of alcohol about it: it is simply a powerful tonic and revivifier. 



I doubt if it would be possible to gain for yerba mate any measure of 

 popularity in England. Although China tea in its early days did not spring at 

 once into general use. this was due more to its high price than to prejudice. If the 

 latter could be got over as regards the Paraguay tea, I am sure that there would 

 be a great demand for it in the course of a comparatively short time. It is cheap 

 here and could be put on the market in London at a price below that of 

 ordinary tea. 



(On the face of it the introduction of Paraguay tea into Europe looks to 

 have the makings of a "good thing" in it, and as "good things" generally have 

 been tried, so has this one. Up to the present, however, nothing has been achieved 

 but failure. We have seen proof of such an attempt in this country in the shape 

 of a tastefully got up packet of Paraguay tea, and we recollect reading of a new 

 endeavour to popularise this article in Europe, in a journal devoted to Indian tea, 

 some little while ago. The opinion expressed was that no headway would be 

 made unless the financial backing for advertising, Sec, was very considerable indeed.) 

 —The Field. 



[Every now and then attempts are made to introduce Paraguay tea, or 

 Mate, into Europe, but so far have not met with success. The plant grows well 

 enough at Peradeniya, but we have only one.— Ed.] 



The Cultivation and Curing of Tobacco. III. 



SHADE-GROWN TOBACCO. 



For the purpose of testing the possibility of producing in Jamaica the 

 expensive imported wrapper tobacco, experiments have been conducted with 

 Sumatra tobacco under tent cloth on the lines practised in the Connecticut Valley 

 in America. A quarter of an acre was laid out on a site occupied by Havana 

 tobacco last year, the tent being erected over two distinct kinds of soil ; one-half 

 a very heavy soil, and the other the result of an outcrop of sandy loam or gritty 

 joam. The plants grew equally well on both soils, reaching a height of 9 feet in 

 forty-nine days after planting. 



The results of the experiment to date show that a very fine grade of wrapper 

 can be grown in Jamaica, equal, if not superior, to that imported from America, 

 but to ensure correct curing, the crop must be grown in a locality a great deal 



