February i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
S29 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPOBT: 
THE TEA MAUKHT — CACAO CROPS — WITHERING TEA, 
9th Jan. 1888. 
The fall in tho prico of tea in London is having 
its usual effect hero in our make being locally 
depreciated. It is, perhaps, not a bad thing at the 
commencement of a new enterprise to have tea- 
tasters who incline to be hypercritical, and have a 
keen eye to note defects, but we would value their 
opinion a great deal more if it were less influenced 
by tho fluctuations of the trade. As soon as the 
London market, for causes altogether outside 
of the question of quality, becomes animated, then 
we are told that our teas have improved, and the 
reading ol our local tea circulars is a pleasant 
pastime. But when tho prices rattle down, and 
stand as they do at present at Is average, let the 
tea bo what it may, and the make what it may, 
there is then discoverable a manifest falling-off, a 
marked deterioration or some other mysterious thing 
equally unpleasant to account for the decline. Why a 
man's palate should be affected by tho state of the 
stocks of tea or the slacking of demand is a question 
worth looking into, and might bo made tho subject 
of an interesting paper for some of our scientific 
Societies. One thing is sure, — that this periodical 
disparagement has become monotonous and argues 
a poverty of imagination on the part of our tea- 
tasting authorities, which is humbling to contem- 
plate. They may surely now rest satisfied, having 
harped long enough on that string, and try some- 
thing else. It is of course presumption on my 
part to offer any hint for the future, but might 
it not be suggested that at some distant time we 
may see it recorded, that " prices were easier all 
round, and spite of the teas being quite up to 
the high standard commonly sold here their values 
could not be realized." It is rather hard, when 
you know that tho teas you may have sent down 
[or the local market are as good as your best, 
not only to have to put up with a low price, 
but a low opinion besides, for tho one is an in- 
jury, and the other an insult. I fancy the former 
is easier to bear. 
Cacao crop is coming in freely, and the new blossom 
is in part also putting in its appearance. The 
wet weather we had, although beneficial on the 
whole, has not been without its drawbacks. You 
hear a great deal more of damaged pods than 
usual, where the husk has been penetrated by a 
worm tho holes made by which allow tho rain to 
soak in, until the nibs inside have germinated and 
begun to grow. Where a careful watch has been 
kept on the insect enemies of the cacao, and tho 
odict of extermination steadily and unsparingly 
carried out, tho good effect is especially noticeable 
this year. Cacao dearly wants an ever- watchful 
eye, and is a plant that will repay any attention 
bestowed on it. It is as sensitive to care as to neglect. 
Tho talcs you hear of the difficulty of withering 
leaf during the last wet weather would seem to 
point to a good thing ready for the man who can 
invent a suitablo and economically-worked ma- 
chine which would effect that purpose. To havo 
all your withering space threo feet deep with leaf 
or to require to keep it for nearly ton days, and 
then find a lot of it go bad, are examples of how 
mm were tried. Dodges, buoIi as beating tho leaf 
with thin sticks, or giving it n Blight twist in the 
roller to make it wither, are samples of the make- 
shifts which some men were driven to j but it is 
clear thnt Ceylon will not bo worthy of its pa9t, 
if in time wo nre not possessed of somo simple 
mechanical means of helping forward this import- 
ant pnrt of tho process in the soienco of toa 
manufacture fWMMOM, 
67 
COFFEE AND SLAVEBY IN BRAZIL: NO. 1. 
We owe an apology to our old correspondent, 
Mr. A. Scott-Bl icklaw, for so long dslaying to com- 
mence the publication of sonn interesting letters 
he is sending us from Brazil, in continuation of 
his previous contributions. Wo would ask him to 
send any information he may have, or come across, 
in reference to other products besides coffee — say 
oacao, rubber and even coca and cinchona — in 
South America. Tho following, though a little out 
of date, is still of interest, and Mr. Blacklaw dates 
from Bio do Janeiro a few months ago : — 
I intended to have followed up my letters of last 
year with a few more, but my 0 cupations parcook 
much of the nomadic order, and my notes on 
various subjects got mixed up, and I fear this will 
be somewhat of a wandering epistlo. 
Coffee 1 . — Some of your readers have, no doubt, 
felt the juggling movements of the coffee markets 
for some months, for I do not think that the ups 
and downs in prices, and tho gains and losses on 
the shipments havo been confined to Brazilian 
coffee only. 
The causes of these movements arc difficult to 
find out. Buyers in Bio and Santos were, no doubt, 
influenced by tho expected small crop, and they 
were justified to a certain extent in believing there 
would be much less than last year, from the barren 
state of the coffee plantations seen alongside the 
railway lines, and the pessimist accounts from 
those residing on coffee estates. The small deli- 
veries from the interior, for a few months before 
the picking season of the current crop commenced, 
served to confirm the expected shortness. 
In these circumstances speculation ran wild for 
some time. Coffee was selling at a higher price in 
Bio and in Santos, than the same article was quoted 
in New York, Havre, or any of the shipping ports 
in the consuming countries. Coffee certainly did 
rise in price, but it did not follow the continued 
upward tendency of the Brazilian market. On the 
contrary, after getting up to a higher price than 
the article has sold for during the present genera- 
tion of coffee planters, there was a sudden and 
unexpected fall. For some time there was hope that 
tho lost ground would be gained again, and no 
doubt it will be, but the tightness of the money 
market in Rio, added to the extra caution now 
exercised by tho banks, has allowed the market to 
drift into a stagnant state, from which even tho 
further reports from the interior of the confirmed 
shortness of the crop which is now being gathered, 
do not seem to rouse it. As regards the future of 
•offee, there is not much to say, and the little that 
can be said cannot be relied much on. 
True, the crop now being picked is small, and 
the Journal do Commercio — the safest authori- 
ty — has reduced its estimate for the current sea- 
son to 2,000,000 sacks of <>0 kilos. This will, per- 
haps, apply to the districts which supply the Rio 
market, and it is confirmed to a certain extent 
by letters which appear occasionally in the same 
paper since the planters have begun picking. But 
there is a factor which cannot be overlooked, the 
extensive young coffee districts tapped by the ad- 
mirable railway system in tho far interior of S;1o 
Paulo, and whoso shipping port and whose market 
is Hanto9. There have been very few letters pub- 
lished from those districts, and scarcely any of 
thorn speak of an extraordinary shortness of crop ; 
on tho other hand the planters in some ot these 
young districts, boing afraid that tho credit ol their 
occupation should suffer, havo written describing 
tho heavy crops they are now picking -the yield 
ranging from 10 cwl. an aero in Araraquara to 30 
ewt. an aero in Jahii. Wo will all ow tho latter to 
be exaggerated or confined to soaiQ exceptional 
