THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. {December i, 1887. 
that whereas in 1872 only 11,547 lb of cinchona bark 
were exported, now from 13 to 15 millions of lb. are 
sent to Europe every year. In passing, it may be of 
interest to your Society to recall the fact that if India 
and its British governing authorities have been 
blamed sometimes for encouraging the opium trade 
with China, to them also in great measure will be 
due the credit of supplying the world (through the 
experiment begun in 1861) with an abundant and 
cheap supply of the very best antidote, in a prophy- 
lactic and tonic of the highest value to the Chinese, 
as to all others living in feverish or malarious dis- 
tricts. 
But, although the wholesale price of this invaluable 
drug (quinine) has been so greatly reduced, it is much 
to be leared that being a drug, its value to the house- 
hold is little known, while throughout the country 
generally, there is no knowledge nor experience of the 
cheapness of quinine in retail purchases. It came out 
in evidence in an English County Court a few months 
ago that a provincial town apothecary charged, in 
prescriptions, at the rate of a penny a grain of sul- 
phate of quinine — the rate from time immemorial in 
his experience ! — or the equivalent of £2 per oz.,for 
what could certainly be bought wholesale at less 
than 3s. 
Again, at Vichy in Central France, the other day, 
I found Pelletier's sulphate of quinine, a cheaper article 
than Howard's, retailing for thirty francs the oz. (25 
shillings) : it had been, a short time before, 45 f r. or 1J 
fr. per gramme. 
If your Society in the desire of its members to 
suppress the opium trade — and, I suppose, the undue 
and dangerous use of the drug in England, as in 
China — could see its way to make known to the 
sufferers and to others inclined to copy a bad ex- 
ample, the great value and cheapness of quinine, 
much good might result. To show that we in Ceylon 
have been doing what we can, I enclose some 
extraots of writings in the Ceylon Observer and 
Tropical Agriculturist, calling the attention of the 
great London drug houses to the same subject ; but, 
apart from business altogether, it would seem to be 
a true work of philanthropy to make as widely 
known as possible the present cheapness of so in- 
valuable a prophylactic and tonic as quinine, es- 
pecially in districts and countries where the people 
are addicted to the use of opium. 
Apologizing for the great length at which I have 
hurriedly brought this matter under yonr notice, 
I am, sir, yours truly, J. Ferguson, 
Of the Ceylen Observer and Tropical Agriculturist. 
♦ 
NOTES ON PEODUCE. 
(From the Home and Colonial Mail, October 14th.) 
It is high time Indian and Ceylon tea importers turned 
their attention to Canada. Advices from the Domin- 
ion say that a brisk business in tea, at generally ad- 
vancing prices, is looked forward to in Canada. It 
appears that the statistical position is strong, the im- 
ports of Japan teas this season up to the end of Sep- 
tember having amounted to over 6,000 000 lb. against 
12,000,0001b. for the corresponding period last season. 
Early in the season comparatively few orders were 
sent to Japan, Canadian firms believing that all they 
needed would be sent on consignment account. This 
expectation has been disappointed, and the market 
is therefore comparatively bare. During the demoral- 
ised state of the market some time ago stocks in the 
hands of retailers also were allowed to fall very low, 
and henco the wholesale dealers are now feeling the 
pressure of the demand for the replenishing of retail 
stocks. 
Mr. Holborn, whose ridiculous growl against Indian 
tea we published last week, is answered in this week's 
Grocer by the Wholesale Blended Tea Company. The 
writer says ho (Mr Holborn) flatly denies that China 
tea is thinner or less pungent than Indian tea, and 
he gives an equally emphatic negative to the state- 
ment that the Chinese prepare their teas jn the same 
ways as their ancestors did. But he does nothing more. 
He does not enlighten an expectant trade as to how 
the teas are made, and he sings the praises of green 
tea — an article which is of so little general use as to 
be unimportant. Its imbibition is so distinctly an ac- 
quired taste that not one in ten thousand will take 
to it who has not previously made its acquaintance in 
China ; and although " herbal pungency and natural 
fragrance " are beauties which one appreciates highly 
(on paper), one greatly prefers an article which no 
education is required to appreciate. But, shrouded 
in the words of the Standard article, Mr. Holborn 
sees and fears the "stubborn unlaid ghost" of adul- 
teration; and although the "odious feature" is not 
mentioned, although it is not even suggested, he feels 
that China tea has lost its prestige primarily on 
that account, and that the mention of its departed 
glory entails a reference to " the muddy vesture 
of its decay." We will not ask Mr. Holborn to go 
back to 1874 — we will ask him only to recall to 
mind the close of the year 1879, and the opening 
months of 1880, when there was nigh a famine of 
common congou, and when it commanded almost 
any price on the London market ; when week after 
week saw a continual rise, until the news was sent that 
10,000,000 lb. of low-priced tea had been shipped from 
China to meet the demand ; and when, on the arrival 
of the shipments, parcel after parcel was seized and 
condemned by the Customs authorities, and when, be- 
sides that, tens of thousands of pounds were conveyed 
to the Nore and pitched wholesale overboard into the 
sea. "We will ask him also to recall to mind the po- 
sition of green tea for months — we had almost said for 
years — afterwards when it was knocking about from 
hand to hand, and pillar to post at from 3d to Is 6d per 
lb., and when for months it was a complete drug on the 
market. Let him recall to his memory these facts 
(for facts they are), and let him place them be- 
side his remarks on the bloom on Shanghai black leafs, 
and on the natural fragrance of green teas; let him 
present the two, side by side, to his friends in Derby or 
Nottingham, or wherever they may be, and then let 
him say where prejudice comes in, and where prejudice 
is justified. Let him, if he can, also quote a 6ingle in- 
stance in which a single package of Indian tea has been 
condemned by the authorities, and let him then,if he can, 
find a justification. "Prejudice ! by the fool !" indeed; let 
'tis only a fool who would refuse to be prejudiced against 
the dishonest and fraudulent tricks which many of the 
China tea producers still attempt to carry on. 
"CHILDLIKE AND BLAND." 
Signed " Haro," a letter appeared in the Pall Mall 
Gazette of Tuesday, which, if not written by an im- 
porter of China tea who wants to move off some of his 
stock upon easy terms, is, we should imagine, the 
work of a guileless being, too good for contact with the 
dust of cities. "Haro," filled with emotion on reading 
an article on Indian tea in the Pall Mall Gazette, says : — 
"I have just read your interesting article on Indian 
tea, but ugly rumours are springing up about the un- 
wholesomeness of this new beverage when not sufficiently 
mixed with the innocuous China leaf, and it is said by 
many tea drinkers to be so full of tannin as to produce 
severe indigestion and other more serious ailments, so 
that the use of it is coming under the notice and 
censure of the faculty, the curious creamy scum which 
appears on some of these teas when allowed to stand 
without milk a little time indicating the deleterious 
tannic properties it contains. The Bussians who are 
looked upon as being the best judges of tea in the 
world, will have none of it, and quite a scare was 
raised in Moscow a year or two ago when this loathesome 
creamy appearance was said to have been noticed in 
one of tbeir choice teas imported from China, but it 
was found to be a groundless alarm. The dislike, 
however, to anything of an Indian flavour or character 
still remains, and is stronger than ever in that country. 
The Chinese look upon it as rank and poisonous." How 
childlike and bland ! It almost suggests the feeding 
bottle. " Eumours are springing up." One had 
thought that these rumours were very old and rank and 
