December i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
383 
had been hoed up for somo years. " So full of tannin " 
and the " creamy scum." We fancy we've heard this 
before " Ilaro." 
"The Chinese," says " Haro," " look upon it (Indiau 
tea) as rank and poisonous." This would delight Mr. 
Holborn. They are not likely to love it much more as 
time progresses. 
The following roply to " Haro " appeared in the 
rail Mall Gazette of yesterday, and is to the 
point :— One who has seen tea made in China and 
India, and who has rolled it with his own hands, 
writes : — Your correspondent who writos under this 
heading iu your issue of tho 10th instant has cert- 
ainly succeeded in collecting together as many 
errors as tho space occupied by his letter will admit. 
(1) Tho rumours he alludos to as now" springing up" 
are already ancient history. They had vogue for just 
so long as it took people of limited intelligence to dis- 
cover that Indian tea being stronger than China tea, 
lesB of the former should bo used than of tho latter 
for a given number of cups of tea. Hence one of tho 
merits of Indian tea, its economy, had to be made 
manifest to some people through the fool's course — 
experience. (2) The " curious creamy scum " does 
not " indicate the deleterious tannic properties it 
contains ;" being counted to it for righteousness by all 
connoisseurs, and a sure test that the leaves from 
which is obtained this creamy appearance are genuine 
Indian tea loaves, unmixed with Chinese rubbish. 
(3) To make the Russian taste — for tea— a criterion 
for Englishmen is more than amusing. And apart 
from the differences of taste, and of preparation of 
tho toa for the Russian market, Indian tea, even if 
prepared liko tho Ohineso tea, to suit the Russian 
taste, would still suffer under the same ban in Rub- 
gia as Manchester and Sheffield wares suffer under, 
and would oxoito a similar patriotic horror, ( i) That 
" tho Chinese look upon it — Indian toa— as rank and 
poisonous" is most natural. They look upon tlteir own 
tea, as prepared for the English market, as no less; 
thin how much more likely are they so to look 
upon a rival commodity which is seriously affecting 
the sale of their own poison ? Tho tea consumed 
by tho Ohiueee themsolves is quito a different thing 
to tho tea prepared for this market. Allow me next 
to call your correspondent's attention to tho follow- 
ing pieco of information, which may edify him. China 
ton is tolled — horribih da ta ! — by the dirty moist 
hands — and sometimes feet— of tho Chineso peasantry. 
Indian tea is now rolled entirely by extremely clean 
mm hincry, is •' fired" by machinery, and is sorted 
through brass-wired sieves instead of each leaf being 
picked over by moro or less unclean fingers, as in 
China. Thus Indian toa is subjected iu the process 
of manufacture to the minimum, and Chineso tea to 
tho maximum, amount of fingering and handling. 
Those two pictures should, pcrliaps, ond thin reply, 
but I do not liko closing without a reference to the 
old saw thai the proof of tho pudding lies in the 
oatiug. Teas sold in England as "Indian teas" 
are too frequently not pure Indian teas ; but it is an 
acknowledged faut that the individual English man 
or woman who has ever consumed a pound of really 
decent Indian tea (in speaking of Indian tea I, of 
course, iucludo Ceylon tea), aud has ever again 
bought Chineso tea from choice, is yet to bo dis- 
covered. 
"Tea Taster" writes:— Tho British public have 
been so long enamoured of Chinese tea by their con 
stunt use of it that they have failed quickly to detect 
the great superiority of Indian tea. Rut tho fact 
really lies in a nutshell. Young gardens, virgin soil, 
as good, ami in many districts a better climate, nn 
intelligent administration, with the assistance of the 
best nun hincry procurable, making use of indigenous 
plaiils from both countries, crossed and rccrosscd so 
as tn :;c t tin lu st adaptation to the different environ- 
ments, have produced leas which the older tea trade 
— Lamely, China — cannot equal. This for yi ars past hag 
been admitted hy nil impartial tea-taster--. Hem e the 
fact that thj finest Indian tens have fetched from .Is 
to ."is per lb. in h nd, whilst the finest Chini teas 
have not exceeded 2a M per lb. inland. The practi- 
cal udaplatiou of thia fact hag hoc u left to tho uogt 
intelligent distributors, who deal directly with the 
public. They realised, and tho public soon learned 
from them, that the so-called deleterious tannic pro- 
perties simply meant they wore getting a better and 
moro powerful property. To put it accurately, one 
spoonful of Indian tea iH equal to two spoonfuls of 
Chinese tea, so we fiud that Indian tea has become 
rapidly popular. That some consumers prefer light 
and old wines to thick and fruity is of no significance 
as far as the intrinsic merits of either are concerned. 
But tea being really a daily food of the multitude 
their significant use of Indian tea wherever given to 
them by the distributor speaks volumes in its favour. 
" Haro " states the Russians are the biggest tea drink- 
ers in the -world. Is he not mistaken? I from a 
large personal experience should say the Irish are, 
and what do the Irish drink ? — why, quite three- 
fourths Indian tea. They were the first to see its 
great value, and have since given it their enthusi- 
astic support. In Ireland the popular price is 3s 
per lb. duty paid, while in England, staunchly stick- 
ing to tho Chinese growths, it is 2s per lb. duty paid. 
— //. $ C. Mail, Oct. 14th. 
Adianttjm Fergusoni, Moore. — The GardentrS 
Chronicle of Oct. 15th has a full-page engraving of 
this fern, with the following desctiption: — This singu- 
lar Fern (see fig. %) was named after the late Mr. Fer- 
guson, of Colombo, Ceylon, who found it as a chance 
seedling in his conservatory, and who sent it to Kcw 
in 1885. Considerable variety of opinion was the 
result of the find, but the late Mr. Moore, while 
declining to adopt any of these, thought the plant 
showed affinity to Adiantum Capillus-veneris, but 
whether a hybrid, or the product of evolution, he 
was not certain. Mr. J. G. Baker thinks it is merely 
a giant form of Adiantum Capillus-veneris, The 
plant at Kew, from which our figure was taken, has 
stiffly erect fronds, 0 inches in length, exclusive 
of tho stipes, and about 7 inches in breadth across 
tho base. It makes a very handsome specimen. 
The unusual length of tho pedicels gives the frond 
a rather spare and open appc i ranee ; and the leafy 
portion sometimes runs together towards the end 
of the pinnie, giving it a crested appearance. For 
a full description of the plant, see Gardeners' 
( hrmicle for Sept. 20th, 1884. 
Eucalyptus for Boiler Cleaning. — Boiler cleaning 
is an important subject to ad users of steam power. 
The extract from the leaves of tbe eucalyptus or 
blue-gum (which has recently becu found so efficacious 
for the abovenamed purpose) is procured by boiling 
the leaves in a battery of boilors under a pressure of 
40 lbs. of steam. Twenty tons of. leaves are boiled 
every day, aud the boilers, after coustaut use of two 
years, are as sound as when they came from the shop. 
Extract of eucalyptus globulus, or blue-gum, has 
been tested by Professor E. W. Hilgard, of the Agri- 
cultural Department of tie' I Diversity of California, 
in respect to its contents of tannin, its taste being 
highly astringent. It was found that a standardised 
taunin solutiou would precipitate -337 per cout only 
of tannin; th&t beyond these limits either taunin or 
gelatine solution would produce a precipitate of about 
equal amount. After removing t lie tannin as far as 
possible by digestion with animal membrane, the acid 
reaction shown by the extract was found to bo equi- 
valent to only 127 per cent of sulphuric acid, an 
amount so small that it is doubtful whether tho 
cleansing action upon boilers can be attributed to acid 
solutiou. In most instances scale will be lessem d 
during tho first application ; but in others, where tho 
scale is hard, it does not begin to move for six weeks 
or more. The extract does not act suddenly mi tho scale, 
but on close observation good results will be immedi- 
ately seen. The liquid mny bo put iu through tbe 
manhole, feed pipe, safety valve, condenser, or hot- 
well. After it is put in no new scale will lorn), and 
tho iron will cease to rust.— Jiiiliit-liitM>i.r ami (r'Wf.t- 
Per<ha Journal. 
