THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March h 1888. 
required, as the improvement of the quality. "It is 
in the, matter of flavour that we look forthe revival 
of the China Tea Trade," says the report. " What we 
want is a strong tea, full of aroma, and so perfectly 
cured that it will retain the qualities for a long time." 
We described the process by which enough leaf is 
secured from the growers, with the concomitant delay, 
while in India the leaf is fired on the day that it is 
picked,* and we find the report drawing attention to 
this delay, "often extending for a week to ten days 
after the leal has been picked from the tree, during 
which time the leaf is rapidly deteriorating." Where 
the report differs from us, and the difference is not 
serious, is in stating that the leaf in India is pre- 
pared and packed the day after it is picked. This 
makes no difference to the argument ; what is certain 
is tbat the system in India results in the best quali- 
ties of the leaf being retained in the packing, 
while they are allowed to evaporate in, the de- 
lay that takes place in China before sufficient 
leaf is collected from the small growers to make what 
the Ohinese teaman considers a normal chop. Farther, 
we suggested that the most effective remedy for the 
present deterioration would be to allow foreigners to 
go freely into the interior, and introduce the modern 
methods of preparing the leaf for market. This poiut 
also is taken up by the committee of experts. They 
say : — " If the Chinese Government are really desirous 
of improving the production of tea, the best of all 
plans would be for them to throw the couutry open 
to foreigners, so tbat they may establish tea-curing 
hongs with modern machinery in the tea-district, and, 
if necessary, may acquire land for the batter cultiva- 
tion of the plant." Unfortunately this suggest ; on — 
the best that can be made — is the least practicable, for 
advantageous as it would be to the people, there is 
very little chance of the Government's allowing it to 
be put in practice as long as extra-terntoriality exists. 
It is true that foreigners are allowed to undertake 
work that is not strictly religious in the interior, 
on the occasion of a great public calamity such as a 
flood or a famine, and the onlj way would be to im- 
press the Government with the conviction that the 
collapse of the China tea trade is a similar cala- 
mity, calling for the assistance of foreigners on the 
spot. It is for the authorities who have asked for this 
report to consider, whether they can take this view 
of the evil for which they are seeking remedies. 
The remarks made by the report as to the minor 
evils connected with the trade at present, the mixture 
of leaf from inferior with that from better districts, 
the neglect of re-plantation in worn-out gardens, the 
mixture of actually injurious rubbish in the so-called 
Pingsuey teas, and the almost universal custom of 
issuing false musters in Hankow, are all very much to 
the point, and these a.-e all abuses which the authori- 
ties, if they are in earnest, can easily remedy. The 
report confirms our remarks as to the killing duties 
now imposed in China; but it is very doubtful whether 
the Tsuug-li Yamen is broad-minded enough to 
realise that by reducing these duties to a nominal 
sum it w mid gain in the end more than it would 
lose. If the duties are retained they will be lost, 
for the almost eutire transference of the trade to India, 
Ceylon and Java is iu that case only a question of a 
few years; if they are practically abolished they will 
also be lost, but the people — and we believe that the 
Government is inspired, as far as its lights go, with 
an honest desire forthe welfare of the people —will 
still have a market for their products. The choice is 
now plainly before them. 
On the whole there ia not much tbat is now in the 
report, but the facts and opinions it reiterates arc 
now formulated with the authority of six of our most 
practised experts who are personally strongly in- 
terested iu the question, basked by that of the 
General Chamber of Commerce who delegated the 
enquiry bo them; aud we cau only hope th,»t the 
Tsuug-li Yamfin will lay to heart the recommendations 
it contains. — A r .-C. Herald, Jan. Oth. 
• It depends on the weather : sometimes in wet 
weather the withering prooess occupies throe and 
even five days. — Ed. 
THE PEODUCTION OP CINCHONA AND 
CEYLON ESTIMATES OP BARK EXPORTS. 
The London Chemist and Druggist had the follow- 
ing article in a recent issue :— 
In our trade report we publish a letter from our 
Amsterdam correspondent on the impending increase 
in the cinchona supply from Java. Our correspondent 
is a gentleman who has been intimately connected 
with the Dutch cinchona market ever since the Java 
planters commenced to ship bark to the mother 
couutry, and his statements deserve attention as coming 
from one who has made cinchona a special study. Our 
correspondent anticipates that in the seasons 1889 and 
1890 enormous quantities of exceptionally rich Java 
bark will be shipped to Europe. This bark is now 
growing in the private plantations of the island, of 
which there are more than sixty, and within eighteen 
months of the present time the trees planted between 
1879 and 1382 will be ready for shipping. Each tree 
is expected to yield on an average lj kilo, of bark 
containing from G to 10 per cent quinine. In addition 
to these shipments for the near future, a more re- 
mote period is to be provided for by the raising of 
at least 300,000 Ledgeriana aud Hybrid cinchonas from 
the seed of trees of which several parcels of bark, 
sold at the last public sales in Amsterdam, were 
found to contain an average of 10 per cent of quiuiue. 
It is, therefore, quite possible that within a couple 
of years Java will absolutely dominate the cinchona 
market ; for, although her exports may not attain 
the fifteen million standard of recent Ceylon ship- 
ments, their lack in bulk will be made good, and 
more, by their alkaloidal richness. The harvesting and 
shipping expenses of this rich bark will not, of course, 
be higher than those of the poorest varieties. Ceylon 
planters will do well, therefore, to seriously ask them- 
selves whether they have any prospect of holding their 
own against such competition as, according to our cor- 
respondent's letter, is looming near at hand ? 
The estimates which are now given of the exports of 
bark from Ceylon during the season 1837-88 will prob- 
ably prove to be as wide of the result as those of 
previous years have been. The crop for 1884-85 was 
estimated at 8,500,000 lb, it yielded nearly 11,700,000 lb. 
That for the season following was fixed, by the most 
competent judges, at 9,000,000 lb ; it gave nearly 
15,4000,000 lb. Undeterred by these failures, the know- 
ing ones asserted positively that in 1886-87 not more 
than 11,000,000 would leave the island. As a matter of 
fact, nearly 14,400,000 lb. were exported. For this reason 
the "straight tip " is 9,500,000 lb, but we shall not be 
surprised to find, eleven months hence, that the Ceylon 
wiseacres are no better prophets of their bark shipments 
than are sporting editors of the winning animals at 
horse races. The fact is that the Ceylon ciuchona 
trees resemble the London unemployed, in that no 
proper census has ever been taken of their number. 
In the eyes of the confident " bear," the}' are numerous 
as the sand by the sea shore; while the knowing 
" bull" is equally full of mysterious rumours of whole- 
sale uprootings, and triumphantly points to reports 
of the burning of trees in the field because it no 
longer pays to strip them. It is certaiuly remarkable 
that from October 1st che beginning of the season 
up to November 25th the bark exports from Ceylon 
only amounted to 1,232,000 lb. or little more than 
half of the shipments in the corresponding period of 
1885-86; but since then the news of the advance 
of quinine in Loudon has reached Colombo, and only 
if the reduction in shipments i should be main- 
taned in the face of the temptation caused by the 
higher London prices may we conclude tbat ship- 
ments are likely to remain permanently on the decline. 
But the odds are that the Ceylon shippers, as they 
havo always done before under similar circumstances, 
will consider only the possibility of immediate gain 
and begin to ship in all haste in the hope of partici- 
pating in the rise. The Colombo market, before the 
recent advance in Loudon, was thoroughly demoralised. 
The usual public sales had not been held for many 
