6i8 
THf TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1890. 
12 taels as the average price per load, the gross value 
of the trade here daring 1885 would have been about 
180,000 taels, or 45,000?. 
The supply was said to depend on the demand 
from Yun-nan Fu, which seems to be the entrepot of 
the trade. The production had been much greater 
in 1884. The trade has suffered greatly from the re- 
bellion, when the trees were cut down and burnt, and 
the people who used to buy the tea were killed. 
The demand from Ssu-ch'uan had increased and had 
partly made up, but prices had recently been very 
bad in consequence of the high price of food in that 
province, which left the people little to spend on 
good tea. 
Coffee Season.— We are sorry to inform our 
readers, that the Coorg Coffee Crops of the present 
season are a great failure, and so, we suppose 
our local shop-keepers will stick on some extra 
price. The unseasonable rain-fall at Coorg is said 
to be the cause of much loss of crop, especially 
in the estates in what is known as " the Bamboo," 
down at South Coorg. The estates about Somarpett 
are said to be better off. It is to be hoped that 
the Planters will meet with better success by the 
end of this year, when we wish them bumper crops, 
to make up for present losses. Even in coffee 
planting, "it is not all gold that glitters" especially 
considering the enormous oost of the up-keep of 
large and well managed estates, under European 
supervision. — Bangalore Daily Post. 
OVEE-FEEDING. 
The interpretation of the term "epicure" is one 
given over to the luxuries of the table. Seldom, 
we think, have the teachings of a great philosopher 
been more perversely misinterpreted than the 
doctrines of Epicurus. The Epioureans at the first 
were not sensual, and pleasure and pain were con- 
sidered respectively the greatest good and the 
greatest evil. No one who held that pain was 
the greatest evil would commend gluttony; on 
the contrary, he would prescribe moderation in 
all things. If he saw in pleasure the greatest 
good, he would also see in all that kept the func- 
tions permanently healthful, and the senses keenest, 
the highest means of attaining perfect enjoyment. 
Too muoh meat will produce disease of the 
liver, kidneys, and no end of trouble. A super- 
abundance of sugars and starchy foods entails a 
list of dyspeptic symptoms well-nigh endless in 
their nature. Fruits, oondiments, &c, also have 
their resultant ill-effeots. Ordinarily, when a 
stomach is given too much to do, it sets up the 
signal of alarm, and declares its presence. 
Suppose, now, a oase where the individual is 
suffering from no present indiscretions, but from 
those of other years. Dyspepsia, heartbura, 
flatulence, eructations, constiptation, occasional 
looseness of the bowels, dizziness, nervousness, 
burning in the side, pain in the shoulder, 
backaohe, headache — these will be some of the 
symptoms he oomplains of. He requires as 
much, or, perhaps, more, food than he is taking, 
yet cannot digest it. To reduce the quantity of 
food now usual with him would be to stop work, 
and might be unwise. We believe that the 
physicians who are most successful in treating 
this immense class of cases are those who bring 
to the aid of the individual the digestive ferments 
of the pig, and assist the stomach properly to 
accomplish what of itself it is unable to perform. 
The Fairchild Pepsine Tabloids are a reliable 
preparation, often very effectual in relieving the 
untoward and distressing symptoms of those who, 
unwittingly, perhaps, have been among the list 
of the modern Epioureans.— Nursing Record, London. 
The Madeas Government has acceded to the re- 
quest of the Planters' Association, North Wynaad, 
and directed Mr. A. M. Lawson, the Government 
Botanist, to proceed to Wynaad and investigate 
the cause of the dying off of extensive fields of 
young cinchonas. — 21/. Mail, Feb: 18th; 
China Teas from Canton. — In a letter to The 
Times in reply to a proposition for a Free Break- 
fast Table by the abolition of the import duty 
on tea, Sir Eoper Lethbridge speaks of the 
" cheap and nasty teas of China." The writer 
apparently forgets that many of the undoubtedly 
poor quality teas sent to this country from China are 
to meet a demand. Nothing is said about the 
better teas; all are put down as " cheap and 
nasty " alike. The writer is evidently blinded by his 
own interests, and forgets that China can and does 
produce teas of a quality in the higher grades which 
it is extremely doubtful — ohiefly from olimatic causes 
— that India or Ceylon will ever be able to attain to, 
despite the very highest method of cultivation. These 
teas are generally too costly for the London market. 
It is this better class teas, and not so much of what 
comes under the designation of "cheap and nasty," 
that is now being urged on the Chinese to prepare 
more largely. China has sent these teas in large 
quantities in the past, and there is no reason why 
they should not again form the main bulk of the 
export. — L. and C. Express, Jan. 31st. 
Fertilizers. — In speaking of fertilizers, Prof. S. M. 
Tracy, of the Mississippi Experimental Station, dwells 
with some emphasis on the fact that since all the food 
of plants is absorbed in either a liquid or gaseous 
form, plant food, even if it be present in abundance, 
cannot be used by the plant, unless it is in a form 
in which it can be dissolved in water or in 
some of the very week acids found in the soil. " In- 
soluble food," says the Professor, "is of no more 
value to a plant than is raw iron ore to a 
manufacturer of watch springs. The plant must 
not only have an abundant supply of food, 
but this food must be in such a mechanical 
and chemical condition as to be available to the 
plant during the few weeks in which it is making 
its growth. However rich a soil may be in avail- 
able plant food we need not look for a good crop, 
if the ground is so hard and lumpy that it cannot be 
penetrated by the roots, and it is useless to supply 
any fertilizer which contains plant food locked up in 
an insoluble form ; so that, whatever crop we may 
attempt to grow or whatever fertilizer we may apply, 
a thorough pulverization of the soil is essential to 
success." — Indian Agriculturist. 
THE TEA, COFFEE, AND COCOA 
INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 
(Payer read before the Colonial Section of the Society 
of Arts, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 1890.) 
Tuesday, January 21st, 1890 ; Sir Philip Cunliffe- 
Owen, K. O. B.; in the chair. 
The Chairman, in introducing Mr. Shand referred 
to him as a colleague in the work of the Indian and 
Colonial Exhibition, where he did so much for the 
introduction of Ceylon tea. The planters of Ceylon 
were exceedingly fortunate in having their interests 
represented by so energetic, persistent, and able an 
advocate. He (the Chairman) was able to do some- 
thing for Indian tea at the Paris Exhibition, and 
in 1878, the Grand Gold Medal of Honour Jwas 
awarded by an international jury to the Viceroy 
of India for the tea then exhibited from India. 
He wag quite sure that if Ceylon were now to go 
