TH£ TROPICAL AQRICULtURlif . ^ ebr uary i, 1890. 
Coffee in Central' America and Brazil. — Late 
advioes from the interior of the province of Ceara 
give very good reports as to the prospects for 
the coming coffee orop. The trees are very healthy 
and strong and a heavy bloom is expected. — It 
is said tbat notwithstanding a probable loss of 
10,00,000 lb. for want of labour to save the harvest, 
trie exports of coffee from Guatemala during the 
present year will show a considerable gain over 
1888. Great attention is being given to the culti- 
vation of the berry, and it is estimated that 
within a year or two the product will reach 
100,0u0,000 lb. The country itself consumes about 
10,000,0u0 lb. — N. Y. Com. Bulletin, in Bio News. 
The Sale of Tea by Chemists. — Tne Grocer has an 
editorial in quite a Jingo strain in respect of our 
innocent artic.e in the Diary on " The Tea Trade." 
(See page 493). It is described as " an ambitious 
attempt to instruct cnemists bow they may uotomy sell 
blended ttas, but also blend for themselves." it ap- 
pears that grocers " devote years ot hard work " to 
trie study oi this art (oris it a science?) of blending 
teas, " and find, even then, that their knowledge comes 
none too easily." We really did not know that our 
grocerial friends were such a dull lot — '-Years ot bard 
work " to learn how to mix equal parts of Assam Pekoe 
and Oeylon Pekoe, and scarcely get to understand the 
business when the severe strain ot the study has made 
their heads bald ! And now chemists and druggists 
can 'earn all about it in half an hour. It is indeed 
a revalation. And what a testimonial, too, to the quality 
of our Diary ! For the "organ ot the trade" has 
evidently been through the article with Sam Weller's 
double-million-power maguifyiug-gia»s, and does not 
record the discovery of the shade of an error. And 
then the gentle Grocer man — who must be a new hand 
— proceeds to advise his readers to restore the balance 
by selling patent medicines. His own paper has been 
giving more or less accurate advice on that subject 
tor j ears ; and now he has discovered the opening. 
Verily it does take a mind, as Ho^ea Biglow says, "as 
big as all out-doors, To make out it looks like raining, 
After once it fairly pours." 
Unequalled Tea for the Czar; Six Htjnderd 
Miles up the Yang-tse-Kiang,— The Yang-tae-kiang, 
the third largest river in tne world, anu more than 
three thousand miles long in all its windings, from 
its rise in the north-western mountains of Cihina to 
its discharge into the Yellow Sea, is navigable by 
steamboat as far as Jehang — a thousand miles up 
from Shanghai. Tnere are three companies which 
run steamers up the river, and it was in one be- 
longing to the China Navigation Company, the 
" Nganking," a fine vessel of 3,000 tons, fitted up 
with every latest improvement, that we recently 
made the journey, to and fro, from Shanghai to 
Hankow. The distance is six hundred miles, and 
the trip there and back, which occupied nine days, 
proved in every way interesting and enjoyable. 
Large numbers of ''Cnasus" go up every May to 
the river ports, and even as early as April we had 
quite a crowd of them in the " Nganking." We 
had learned to look upon the " v_hasu" with mingled 
fear and dread, for every one kept saying, apropos 
of our trip, '-' Better go early and so avoid tne 
' Cnasus' " — it was a great relief to our mind, there- 
fore, to discover him, later on, to be neither more 
nor less than a simple tea-taster. Our " Ghasus" 
were all Itussians, and bound for Hankow, which 
is one of the largest marts on the liver for the 
tea-trade. At the house of the hospitaole Com- 
missioner of Customs we tasted some tea which 1 
should imagine for delicacy of flavour must be un- 
equalled : it was some that he had received as a 
gut from a "chop" sent to tho Emperor of Bussia, 
and is not to be bought for money, being reserved 
exclusively for tie use of the Imperial Court. — 
Graphic, Dec. 7th. 
Insect in Coffee : Gonamotawa, Haputale, Jan. 
4th. — I enclose you an insert, caught on a coffee 
tree recovering from an attack of green bug — 
which species it closely resembles. Can you classify 
it? — Cor. [Our entomological referee, reports: — "The 
green insect is the larva of a small oicada, allied 
to the frog hopper. They can do no harm to 
Coffee."— Ed.] 
The Asahan Tobacco Company has been es- 
tablished in this city (Amsterdam) with a 
capital of 1,000,000 guilders in two series each of 
500,000 guilders, the first of which has been fully 
taken up. The object of the company is to work 
and cultivate grounds near the east coast of Sumatra. 
Tobacco, as well as other produce, will be cultivated. 
— Cor., L. and C. Express, Dec. 27th. 
The First 1890 Cinchona Auctions. — At Tues- 
day's bark sales it was agreed unanimously, upon 
the motion of Mr. David Howard, seconded by Mr. 
D. B. Tabor (W. H. Cole & Co.), to fix Tuesday, 
January 14, 1890, as the day upon which the 
first bark sales of the coming year shall be held. 
The last auctious of the present year w.il take 
place on December 17th. — Chemist and Druggist. 
A Limited Tea Co. — Under the title of W. H. and 
F. J. Hormmau & Co., Limited, the business of the 
well-known tea dtalers and packet tea prupneiors has 
been oonverted to the joint stock form. The capital 
of the Company is £250,000 in 4,000 p elerence 
share3 of £25 and 3,e00 ordinary shares of £50 
each. The subscribers who take one share each 
are: F. J. Hurniman, 29 to 33, Wormwood Street, 
E. C. ; W. Figg, 38, Mincing .Lane, E. C. ; G. W. 
Potter, m. d., 8, King (Street, Oheapside ; J. W. 
Jones, Sussex House, Horusey Eise ; J. T. Liver- 
more, 36, Faiiholt Boad, N; F. H. Stollery, 
Norfolk House, Clapton ; A. Searr, 5o, Varley Koad, 
N. There snail not be less than three nor more 
than seven directors. The first are F. J. Horniman, 
E. J. Horniman, J. B. Manning, and L. B. S. 
Walcott. Qualification, £2,000. F. J. Horniman 
is appointed chairman with a remuneration of 
£l,t>UU ; other directors to receive £250 each. — H. 
& C. Mail. ■ 
A New Coccus. — At the meeting of the Scientific 
Committee of the Jttoyal Horticultural Society on 
December 10th, Mr. Morris read a letter addressed 
to the Director, Boyal Gardens, Kew, by jjT. B. W. 
Blunfi=ld : — " I see in the August number of the 
Kew Bulletin, an interesting account of the Jcerya 
purchasi, and its depredations in South Africa, 
(Jautornia, &a. During the past four years our 
gardens at Alexandria have been invaded by a coccus, 
which threatens now to destroy all our trees, and is 
causing the greatest alarm here. ... It first appeared 
about lour years ago, when I noticed it in quantities 
on the under side of the leaves of a banyan tree, 
but it has since spread with extraordinary rapidity, 
and one of our most beautiful gardens, full of tropi. 
cal trees and shrubs, has been almost destroyed. 
A breeze sends the cottony bugs down in showers in 
all directions. It seems to attack almost any plant, 
but the leaves of the Ficus rubiginosa, and one or 
two other kinds of tig, seem too tough for it, and it 
will not touch them. It seems almost hopeless here 
for a few horticulturists to try to eradicate this 
formidable pest, while their indifferent neighbours 
are harbouring hotbeds of it, and there will have 
to be some strong measures taken by law to put it 
down." The insect in question had been relerred 
to Mr. Douglas, and was said to be an undescribed 
tpeoies of Daotylopius. Spraying with kerosene 
emulsion was recommended, Out no remedy was 
likely to be effectual that was not carried out uni- 
versally.— Nature, Dec. 26th. 
