472 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2 , 1888. 
British Navy along with Trinidad cocoa to the 
exclusion of other kinds. The exhibits from 
Dominica, St. Lncia, and Jamaica, were of average 
quality, but had suffered from want of care in curing 
the last named colony, it would appear, has been 
unfortunate in the quality of seed used, which has 
resulted in the inferiority of the chocolate trees. 
Mr. Pasteur says that the cocoa from British Guiana 
in quality, flavour, and size, was fully equal to the 
best from Trinidad, and the excellent character of 
these samples shews that the soil is eminently suited 
for the growth of cocoa, and that if the cultivation 
was taken up in a proper spirit, it would probably 
add greatly to the wealth of the colony. 
It is interesting to note that Ceylon cocoa appears 
to have undergone a considerable change in becoming 
acclimatised. It has a fine flavour, — without, however, 
the desired strength, — and it does not stand the 
system of fermenting and drying without washing, 
as adopted in Trinidad. Whether this results from 
inexperience or from difference of climate or soil, 
Mr. Pasteur says must be decided by further experi- 
ment. It is doubtful, he adds, whether there is 
enough land in Ceylon combining the requisites for 
a good cocoa plantation, viz., fine, deep, rich soil, 
sufficiently moist, a good rainfall, and shelter from 
the wind, to justify the expectation that the culture 
will be extended much beyond what it is at present. 
Mr. Neville Lubbock assisted by Mr. W. E. Halse 
and Mr. John McCarthy of Trinidad, sent in a report 
on sugar which has already appeared in print, and 
been well circulated. The subject is one of such 
importance to this colony, that it is to be regretted 
Mr. Lubbock has not more than half-a-dozen pages at 
his command. He states that about five million tons 
of sugar are yearly producod, but this does not include 
that raised and consumed in India, China, and other 
countries. The cane and beet produce 2,500,000 tons 
each. This quantity of cane sugar with the except- 
ion of 200,000 tons, is produced without subsidy or 
assistance from Government, while not a pound of 
beet sugar is raised without such artificial aid. 
The largest consumers of sugar, as far as can be 
ascertained, are the United States of America and the 
United Kingdom, 1,200,000 tons being consumed by 
the former, and 100,000 tons more by the latter. 
The sugar produced by British possessions, including 
50,000 tons exported from India, is 500,000 tons. 
Mr. Lubbock is of opinion that the Indian samples 
were of a high class, but unsuited to the Buglish 
market, being wanting in brilliancy, and inferior in 
appearance to the loaf. It will be remembered, 
however, that Mr. Howell Jones considered some 
samples from the N- W. Provinces of India the 
finest in the whole Exhibition. 
The Australian Colonies were represented by New 
South Wales and Queansland which produced 17,500 
tons and 55,900 tons respectively. Fiji and Mauritius 
whose production is estimated at 12,000 and 120,000 
tons, supply a large quantity to Australia. 
The few lines in which the sugars of the West 
Indies and British Guiana are treated, tell us that 
these are all eminently suitable for the English 
market except the white crystals, which are wanting 
in a sparkling appearance produced by the home re- 
finers at a trifling cost, but not attainable by those 
working on a smaller scale, except at an unremuner- 
ative outlay. , 
The report on Tobacco has been contributed by 
Dr. Watt,. C. M. G; whose knowledge of East Indian 
products and manufactures is most extensive, and by 
Mr. McCarthy of Trinidad, to whom, not only that 
island, but the West Indies generally, were indebted 
for valuable services at the Colonial and Indian Ex- 
hibition. This paper is interesting, giving as it does 
a history of tobacco, with an account of the various 
modes in which it is used by different nations and 
races. 
Of the fifty species of Nipotiana known, only two, 
or at most four, are cultivated for the leaf. The 
most extensively cultivated is fificoticma tabacum, re- 
cognized by its long, pinkish flowers, and tapering 
oval-ittnccolato leaves, a native of America, extending 
from Mexico to Bolivia. This is the species which 
grows in this colony. It is hardy and self-sown, 
which is rarely the case with the other kind, A r . 
rustica, the leaves of which are coarser and more 
crumpled than those of N. tabacum. There are three 
other varieties, one said to yield the finer qualities of 
Cuban tobacco, and the others yielding Persian, and 
the strong tobacco of Chili. 
Tobacco requires a rich or freely manured soil, the 
ash cotaining 16 to 17 per cent of inorganic con- 
stituents. It is practically immaterial what seed is 
use I, it is the chemistry of the soil that can alone 
ensure good tobacco. Sugar, liquorice, or alcohol, are 
used in the manufacture of tobacco for the purpose 
of getting rid of certain organic materials, the combus- 
tion of which would yield an objectionable flavour, 
and in some parts of India the pulp of the Cassia 
fistula, which is not uncommon in this colony, is 
used for the purpose. 
Dr. Watt considers climate to be a most im- 
portant condition affecting the quality of tobacco, 
which has not hitherto been found apart from tropi- 
cal and semitropical countries. The West Indies 
have always been famous for producing a tobacco 
richer in aromatic principle than that grown in most 
other countries, and this is due to their warm and 
moist climate. All attempts at producing a leaf of 
the peculiar quality of the Havana variety have 
hitherto failed elsewhere than in the West Indies. 
The advantages which these colonies possess, in being 
the owners of a good raw material, are dealt with 
by Dr. Watt, who holds out much encouragement 
for this industry. He says that it is hardly creditable 
to Britons over the sea, thit they should be so largely 
dependent on Manila and Singapore for supplies of 
cigar wrappers, and that the best cigars in Britain 
should be of foreign origin. 
Ja maica, however, has done much to rival Cuba in 
this respect, and Trinidad cigars, which Dr. Watt 
says were made of tobacco as good in quality as 
that of Havana, were largely patronized at the 
Colonial Exhibition. It may be a reproach to us in 
British Guiana, where pipe tobacco to the extent of 
£16,000 sterling yearly is imported, to be dependent 
on the United States for an article, the raw material 
of which grows here like a weed. It is true that 
pipe tobacco is in every case the product of a milder 
climate than that from which cigar sorts are pr cured, 
but possibly some change in the mode of manufacture 
would lessen any difference which might be found to 
exist between the native and imported kinds. 
The tobacco sent from this colony was not designed for 
market, but was exhibited more as a specimen of 
what we produced and used by the Iudiaus of the 
country. It is gratifying to find that, nevertheless, 
it was reported to be of good quality and carefully 
cured. Its compressed state rendered it unfit for the 
British market. 
Dr. Watt concludes with a " general note " of some 
value. He says that when seed is imported, a mongrel 
crop is produced, in the first season, partly flavoured 
with the soil. In the second year the crop is truer to 
the seed. Leaves keep in better preservation when 
ripe. They should not be green nor dead, nor should 
they be left open, but pressed to preserve the flavour. 
Stalks should never be sent with tobacco. 
Dr. Paul's report on drugs, chemicals, and Pharma- 
ceutical products deals with cinchona, which was 
introduced into Jamaica as an experiment by Govern- 
ment in 1866, and is now cultivated to the extent of 
150 acres. Ceylon is the chief source of this valuable 
bark, from which quinine is extracted, and in each 
of the years 1884 and 1885, exported 11,000,000 lbs. 
Bebeerine at one time was proposed as a cheaper 
substitute, and greenheart bark from which it is obtained 
attained some value; but quinine is now produced 
at a price which prevents the necessity of employing 
any substitute. 
Some of our Guiana Exhibits, such as quassia, copaiba, 
honey, castor-oil, lime-juice, and cane-juice vinegar, 
are merely mentioned, and are dumped together with 
Min lar products from other rolonies. Our large number 
of astringent barka used for inediciual and tauuing 
