October i, 1889.] THE TROP1CWL 
At»TOJLTUR1ST. 
255 
Tin.— The final collapse of the Frenoh Syndicate in 
this article brought about a sucklen drop in prices from 
£163 per ton for Banca to £81 10s. followed, however, 
by a reaction which left the price at about a normal 
figure, say £98 to £101 per con. The stock at the 
ei.'d of the year was 48,198 blocks against 35,937 blocks, 
in 1887 and 47,216 in 1886. 
Tobacco.— This staple article formed an exception 
to the general course of trade in 1888, and was on the 
whole very disappointing to importers. The quality of 
ti e Sumatra crop was not so good as in previous years, 
tl e plant not having fully developed itself in time ; 
there was, in consequence, a much larger quantity of 
d; rk-coloured and second class tobaccos among the im- 
portations, and the light-coloured sorts, which had com- 
manded such very high prices, were compatively scarce. 
America, the largest buyer of these finer sorts, did 
n >t find the quality she required in our market. There 
w is a large crop, and the few lots of really fine quality 
fetched high rates, but the large proportion of middl- 
ing and inferior sorts had to be sold at rates which 
were exceedingly discouraging to importers. The 
average price per pound Buglish obtained lor the 
whole crop fell from 2s 4d per lb in 1887, to Is !)|d per 
lb in 1888, being a reduction of over 20 per cent. Al- 
t', lough the more favourably situated plantations still 
g ive very good results, as is shown by the dividends 
p;iid for 1888 by some of our tobacco plantation com- 
punieB, so serious a drop has jeopardised the existence 
of many undertakings which were already struggling 
w ith the difficulties of unsuitable soil and indifferent 
quality of the produce, and already some of the latter 
enterprises of this description have been liquidated 
v\ ith very serious loss. A small lot of Borneo tobacco 
was imported and sold at a satisfactory price, Is lid per 
lb. There are now six plantations in Borneo, princi- 
pally established by English capitalists, either alone or 
in combination with Dutch planters. The Java crop 
was better in quality than" that of Sumatra, and fetched, 
proportionately, better prices — L. and C. Express. 
" English Consumebs Pbeeerring Indian and 
Ceslon, to China, Tea." — Such is the conclusion 
openly avowed by the London Times in its review 
of the latest Board of Trade returns — and coming 
from such a quarter, we need not say that the avowal 
is of importance in benefiting the credit of both 
India and Ceylon. Here is the passage : — 
The landings of tea show a great diminution, owing 
to the shipments from China being only 10,943,000 lb. 
against 25,570,000 lb. Indian and Ceylon teas are now 
luuch preterred by consumers, as is shown by the 
Jact that, of 107,000,000 lb. taken out of bond during 
the past seven months, over 70,000,000 lb. were Indian 
and Ceylon, and only about 36,000,000 lb. Chinese. 
Two Frauds Prevalent in Eegard to Coffee- 
— The first consists in improving raw coffee 
spoiled by seawater, and sold for almost 
nothing. When received they are black and most 
unattractive. But skilful gentlemen manage to make 
them as good as new apparently. The beans are 
lirst soaked in water to remove the salt and rank 
taste ; they are next bleached with lime-water, and 
finally coloured green or yellow to imitate various 
brands. It is almost unnecessary to remark that 
suoh beans have only the outside appearance of coffee; 
they have lost all taste and flavour. A simple method 
to detect the fraud is to take the specific gravity 
by means of the volumenometre. Pure coffee never 
shows a specific gravity below P000, and is generally 
;ibovo, while repaired coffee is much lighter. 
The other fraud is accomplished with roasted coffee, 
by wetting it with water while still hot. In the warm 
state coffee will thus absorb as much as 20 per 
cent of moisture, and yet remain hard and brittle. 
It only needs a little faoing with some oil lo appear 
uxcolleut. The fraud is found by drying the bean at 
110" C, when it should not lose more than 2 to 5 
per oent of water.— Chemist and Druggist, 
Tea Crop Estimates: 1889-90.— While Mr, 
Rutherford estimates an export of 43 million lb. 
in 1889-90 and we consider 41 millions a safer 
reckoning, here is what a " planting correspondent " 
of the looal " Times " writes : — 
" I read Mr. Kutherford's estimate with great in- 
terest. Were the figures not his, however, I should 
be inclined ta say that they understated matters. 
330 lb. an acre for an average yield off old tea is not 
high and ought to be exceeded. So ought 250 lb. olf 
48,000 acres 4 to 5 years old. I should not be sur- 
prized if we obtained nearer 50 million lb. than 
43,000,000." 
This writer forgets that tea on a good deal of old 
coffee land is included in the areas estimated for. 
But here again is what an experienced upcountry 
planter writes to us on the subject of next year's 
estimate : — 
" Kutherford's estimate 1889-90 : not being here, 
he is not aware of the change in the style of 
plucking: fully 10 per cent fiuer than it was. So 
that knocks off 4,000,000 lb. He was lucky this year 
in the dry weather of 1888-89 which brought the hill 
estates (the bulk of the tea) to the front, and so 
much of the last of the tea made season 1887-88 
held back till 1888-89 — from lack of shipping. There 
will not be anything like that in beginning ot 1889-90. 
A lot of tea is being now pruned, and that in the hill- 
country means 4 to 6 months' light flushing. You 
may safely knock 4,000,000 lb. off Rutherford' estimate." 
Mica and Plumbago — a. planter sent us a 
remarkably solid and dark-coloured piece of mica 
with the following remarks : — 
" I gather from the Observer that a dark kind of 
mica, or talc, is oiten a surface indication of plumbago. 
I hope you will take a look at some I am taking the 
liberty of sending by today's post, and if convenient get 
the opinion of some mining expert. I don't remember 
to have seen before quite the same kind of mica and 
in such large quantities as it is to be found on this 
estate. I must differ from the Observer with regard to 
plumbago being of vegetable production; had such 
been the case it would have been found in conformity 
with the strata and not in veins. I hardly think the 
earth was in condition during the gneissic period 
to produce vegetation, at any rate of the kind we 
have now. I believe plumbago to be a carburet of iron. 
The carburet of iron theory has been long ex- 
ploded, and no wonder, for some of the finer 
Ceylon and Canadian graphites analyze to 98 per 
cent pure carbon. Plumbago is of vegetable origin 
and one of the earliest formations in our globe. 
Our scientific referee replies to our reference thus: — 
" The specimen of mica you sent me (and which I 
now return) is doubtless a very solid block, but I 
cannot see a trace of plumbago about it. It is cer- 
tainly heavy, but then mica is a good deal heavier 
than plumbago, as you will see by looking up their 
Sp. Gravity. Mr. 's ideas about plumbago are 
rather unique. Let him dissolve the iron out of 
pounded plumbago and what does he make Out the 
remnant to be ? Iron is doubtless not chemically com- 
bined with plumbago, but even if it was, from what 
sort of matter was all that carbon derived ? The 
argument that if plumbago has been derived from 
vegetable matter it would be found in strata is very 
wrong. Mr. seems to forget that our rocks 
owing to metamorphic action are very much changed." 
Mica is composed of minerals which have no 
affinity to plumbago, such as silicates of alumina, 
potash, soaa, oxides of iron and manganese, &c. 
Large plates of mica are useful for lanterns and 
small flakes in the use of the microscope, and in 
the United States " mica grease " for machinery 
seems largely used, more even than plumbago as a 
lubricant. We did not mention mica as an indica- 
tion of plumbago, but that certain flaky forms of 
the latter mineral gave rise to a wild native idea 
that mica became metamorphosed into plumbago. 
The rock in whioh mica so largely abounds is pro- 
bably mica schist, 
