35§ 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887. 
thrown in by way of flavour I Thia practice is 
very common we are told by a French lady at 
our hotel, whose home is on her own vintage 
property in Eastern France. At the grocer's, we 
were told that their high priced coffees were only 
bought in small quantities to flavour the ordinary, 
cheaper quality. That adulteration is prevalent and 
attracts a good deal of attention in France may 
be inferred from the following translation of an 
article whioh has first appeared in a Paris morning 
journal : — 
Coffee Adulteration. 
Adulteration is carried on more extensively then ever 
in France, says Le Petit Journal, 
In Havre considerable quantities of damaged and re- 
newed coffee have changed hands. But we must dis- 
tinguish between damaged coffee to which its original 
good appearance has been restored and artificial coffee 
which has absolutely nothing but the name in com- 
mon with the genuine article. Damaged coffee, when 
sold as such, is not an adulterated article and is not, 
properly seaking, injurious to health ; but we must 
say that though when sold to wholesale dealers, it is 
known to be damaged, yet when retailed it is seldom 
thus distinguished even by the shopkeepers who may 
be the first victims of the deception. When coffee has 
not been roasted, damaged coffee may be detected by 
the brown appearance of the bean although the heart 
of it is yellow and inclined to green ; another almost 
certain sign is the salt taste. 
In order to utilize these coffees, people wash them 
freely so as to get rid of the salt taste but cannot 
altogether free them from a very disagreeable brackish 
flavour. Under analysis, a very considerable amount 
of chlorine is detected, due to sea-water. In order 
to hide the defective colouring of the bean, they use 
cinnamon. 
The adulterated coffee that has just been seized in 
Havre was, it seems, treated more vigorously. By the 
help of chemicals it was first whitened and then 
brought to the proper colour. 
As to artificial coffees, they are prepared in the fol- 
lowing way : — Into moulds having exactly the shape 
of the bean a paste made of acorn flour (farina de 
gland), roasted corn and coffee grounds, is poured. 
This agreeable amalgam moulded and hardened gets 
its brilliant natural colour by the help of a solution of 
resin, just as white woods are dyed in walnut juice. 
Therefore it is only by buying coffee unroasted and 
testing it in water that you can be sure of the genuine 
article. 
Adulteration and a check to consumption are in- 
evitable results of the very high prices to which 
coffee has now reached ; and I am confident that 
if the French people only came to learn the valu- 
able dietetic properties of really good, well made 
tea, there ought to be a very considerable market 
for our Ceylon staple. 
To this end, we have done what we could by 
way of propagating a faith in Ceylon tea during 
this brief visit to Vichy, and I am bound to 
say that the appreciation displayed of an " after- 
noon tea" at the hotel, by visitors from all 
parts of France, from Belgium, Italy, as well as 
Russia, was great, and samples of the small quantity we 
had with us have been taken away with mucb interest 
to Nice, Marseilles. Toulouse, Lyons, and Bordeaux, 
as well as Paris. In Nice especially, from the num- 
ber of English and Eussians who congregate there 
during the winter and spring, there ought to be a 
good market for tea, and I learn from residents 
that very poor quality is sold especially in "Russian" 
shops, at exorbitant rates. It is very possible that 
from the samples, information and addresses we 
have been enabled to send, orders for tea may 
reach Colombo direct from Nice. In regard to 
Franco generally, I can only at present give our 
experience of Vichy. At the principal store "The 
Noir" is entered at from 4 to 12 francs per lb. 
"The Vert" at from 6 to 8 francs. These prices, 
as Dominie Sampson would say, are prodigious: — 
3s 3d to 8s for black and 5s to' 6s 6d for green 
tea! But the fact is that the article is treated 
here more as a medicine than a food product, and 
as something only asked for by those wealthy 
English and Russians. To prove this we found 
at the local pharmacies tea made up in ounce 
cardboard boxes at 90 centimes (83d) per ounce, 
and in livre (pound) packages at 17 francs, or 14s 
per lb. In this way, it is quite evident the French 
people can never be got to patronize tea. We took 
some trouble to show the storekeepers how they 
could obtain Ceylon tea at a couple of francs per 
lb. equal to any in their stock, which even with 
duty and carriage should be retailed at less than 
their cheapest. We bought a few ounces of the 
different teas here to try them, and found them 
far inferior, to our taste, to average Ceylon, the 
only exception being some China Orange Pekoe 
sold to be mixed with common qualities. An 
English lady who passes her time between Nice 
and Vichy showed us a half-pound tin package of 
Horniman's tea prepared specially for the Continent 
which she bought at the rate of 4 or 5 francs 
(3s 3d to 4s) per lb. This tea was a special mixture 
of medium quality, but nothing can excel the neat- 
ness of the airtight package with its label printed 
in several languages. Tea has made the fortune 
of not a few large English dealers like the Horni- 
mans, — who are millionaires I believe — and it is 
time now that the profits of the trade should be 
more equally distributed. 
Before leaving my experiences of Vichy and 
Ceylon produce, I may mention the result of 
enquiries about quinine: the number of apothe- 
caries' shops here is very great, notwithstanding 
the high repute of the mineral waters as a remedy for 
all manner of complaints. We found that intelligent 
dispensers were aware that cinchona bark and quinine 
weie much cheaper ; but they considered the fall 
in price to be merely temporary, and their very 
lowest retail quotation for Pelletier's sulphate of 
quinine is a franc per gramme — 32 grammes to the 
ounce — while the rate used to be 2 francs per 
gramme 1 With quinine thus costing considerably 
over £1 sterling per ounce, there is little chance 
of consumption extending in France. It is really 
time that producers of bark and manufacturers 
of the sulphate took steps to let the large number 
of Continental and English pharmaceutical chemists 
and the public generally understand that quinine 
is permanently cheap and available therefore for 
a host of uses, never thought of when the article 
was really scarce and dear. 
Turning now to Ceylon tea in Russia, I think 
I mentioned in my last the surprise experienced 
a few days after our arrival here by the appear- 
ance at our hotel table of a slim tall young man 
whom I took for a Frenchman, notwithstanding 
his fair complexion, or at any rate a " foreigner," 
but who soon made himself known as an English- 
man fresh from Russia, where he had been resid- 
ent off and on ten years. This long absence from 
England, as well as the fact that his father was 
a Swede, though naturalized an Englishman, ac- 
counted for Mr. Stevani's rather foreign air. "The 
world is a small place indeed," I thought, when 
one of the first questions put by this stranger from 
Moscow (who, after trying Carlsbad last year, had been 
specially sent to Vichy this time to cure enlarge- 
ment and congettion of liver) was : "Do you know 
Mr. Graeme Elphinstone ? " Of course, no better bond 
of union could be established than through the 
acquaintance or friendship 111 this typical Ceylon 
colonist. Mr. (now Sir Graeme) Elphinstone had, 
I learned, both in St. Petersburg and Moscow 
created a most favourable impression personally 
