266 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



THE SOYA BEAN VS. THE COCONUT. 



The possibility of the oil of the Soya Bean 

 becoming a substitute for Coconut Oil has not 

 given rise to much anxious thought among those 

 interested in the Coconut Industry in Ceylon. 

 The Soya Oil cannot be put to many of the uses 

 for which our product is particularly suit- 

 able and for which almost every hundred- 

 weight of copra now produced has an as- 

 sured demand. But when the price of 

 copra mounts up substitutes come into use of 

 necessity, and a New Zealand soap-manu- 

 facturer who has been visiting a number of 

 the soap factories in England and on the Con- 

 tinent tells us he saw Soya bean in frequent 

 use in the industry. In one large factory he 

 went through Coconut Oil had quite given 

 place to the Soya, but that he put down to 

 the scarcity of Copra aiid the high prices 

 for it now ruling. His opinion is, that Copra 

 with its 66 per cent production of oil, which 

 is being converted in large part into comestible 

 fats, has nothing to fear from the Soya bean 

 which produces only 16 to 18 per cent of an 

 oil which is restricted in its uses. 



TEA DRINKING IN FRANCE. 



Analytical Laboratory, 79 Mark Lane, Lon- 

 don, E.C., August 18th, 1911. 



Dear Sir, — I have just returned from a some- 

 what extensive holiday tour through Brittany 

 including Brest and St. Brienu on the North 

 to Quimper, Concarneau, Carnac, Auray, 

 Lorient, Quimb9ron, Belle Isle and Vanues 

 on the South. 



It was very interesting to note how the taste 

 for tea has increased in France and that it 

 was drunk apparently at all times of the day 

 from the early morning instead of the usual 

 coftee until late at night, in the pi ice of wine, 

 beer and cider. 



It is wonderful how tea seems to have be- 

 come so popular notwithstanding the very 

 indifferent manner in which the infusion is 

 prepared. 



Instead of taking care that the water shall 

 be freshly boiled and the tea-pot first warmed 

 by rinsing with such boiling water before 

 adding the tea, it would appear that the 

 usual practice is to use simply ordinary warm 

 water and instead of allowing one tea-spoonful 

 for each person and one for the pot to put only 

 about one tea spoonful for the pot of water. 



As a consequence, the infusion when poured 

 out has a pale yellow appearance like straw 

 water, instead of the usual brown colour of well 

 made tea. 



Tea in France is drunk with a lump of the 

 square beetroot sugar but no milk is added. 



Notwithstanding the crude method of pre- 

 paration tea is becoming popular even with the 

 ur.travelled French, but in Auray in the Cafe 

 of the Pavilion Hotel, which is a most excellent 

 and comfortable one, I had a very practical 

 illustration that Frenchmen who have travelled 

 in England know quite t well what good tea 



should be, for after remonstrating with the 

 head waiter in respect of the inferior quality, 

 he simply advanced to the edge of the pave- 

 ment in front of the Hotel and poured the 

 whole contents of the tea-pot on to the road, 

 and then requested that a fresh pot should be 

 prepared in the proper way and of the usual 

 strength, which was done, the on-lookers like 

 myself being much amused. 



I submit that in order to promote the 

 popular introduction of tea into coffee drink- 

 ing countries, it would be most advisable that 

 the packets of tea, whether 1 lb., £ lb. or \ lb. 

 in weight should in each case contain the 

 necessary detailed instructions in the language 

 of the respective country, how tea should be 

 infused and prepared for drinking purposes ; 

 so that the pleasant properties of this refresh- 

 ing beverage may be appreciated to the fullest 

 extent by those who may be tasting it for 

 the first time. 



JOHN HUGHES. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON AND ST. 

 VINCENT SOILS. 



Deab Sir,— Sir Daniel Morris in his recent 

 lecture on agricultural progress in the West 

 Indies at the Royal Colonial Institute mentioued 

 that Sea Island Cotton had been produced in 

 the Island of St. Vincent with particular suc- 

 cess, and he stated that he thought such success 

 must be due to some peculiarity of the soil. 



In 1890, at the request of Sir Daniel Morris, 

 I made some very careful analyses of ten 

 samples of soil from St. Vincent in order to see 

 whether poverty of soil constituents would 

 account for the low quality of arrowroot then 

 produced in St. Vincent. 



The results of these analyses were referred 

 to in the"Kew Bulletin " for August, 1893, page 

 198, and it may be of interest to republish 

 three of the analysts then made in order to 

 show that soils, which were incapable of pro- 

 ducing satisfactory returns in ariowroot, have 

 been found particularly adapted under lavour- 

 able climatic conditions to the production of 

 Sea Island Cotton. 



Analyses of St. Vincent Soils. 



Composition as 



dried at 



21%°f. 







No. 1 



No. 1 



No. 3 



a Organic matter and com 









bined water 



.. 2-650 



3 520 



1-900 



Oxides of iron 



. . 5 44 ) 



8-185 



6 150 



Alumina 



.. 8"9'0 



h-175 



6-290 



Lime 



. . 2 -29S 



2-296 



2-55 i 



Magnesia 



... "756 



• 54 



•345 



Potash 



. . -0H2 



111 



•042 



Soda 



.. '28* 



•287 



•261 



Phosphoric acid 



■025 



•070 



•051 



Sulphuric acid 



... 'O-'O 



none 



•054 



Carbonic acid 



. . -300 



•98i 



•200 



Chlorine 



... -toi 



•007 



•103 



b Silica and insoluble 









silicates 



. 79-264 



75-815 



82-151 





ioj-ooo 



100-000 100-000 



Containing nitrogen 



•090 



0;9 



•068 



,, Coarse sand separated 







by washing 



36 3;0 



38-290 



45-000 



These soils are well supplied with lime, but 

 are very deficient in nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash, 



