6i8 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1888. 
principally Italians, to this country, and the example 
these show to the native of the country makes many 
of those who in your scented isle would be called 
squatters (nothing like the Australasian magnates 
of that name) try the same game and some do 
very well indeed. 
Cane cultivators in the lower parts of the province 
of Rio de Janeiro are working successfully the same 
system. Cane is even better suited than coffee 
for the colonist who has a large family, for 
Indian corn or beans can be grown on the land 
while the cane is young, and he does not require 
to cultiva e such a large patch of ground outside 
the cf.ne field for provisions. While he weeds his 
cane he is also keeping clean his corn or beans. 
The drawback I notice in the province of Bio is that 
(he colonists have not enough pasture land. This 
is the fault of the proprietor of the estate ; the 
owner does not complain so much of the cost of 
treetmg fences, as timber is plentiful, as of keep- 
ing the pastures clean. This could be easily effected 
if the fields were put down with good grasses, 
and there are some grasses in this country that 
keep out weeds and brushwood, but there is a 
want of energy amongst the people in the way of 
improving these things. "The old pasture," they 
say, "has been in existence for years, my father 
and grandfather used to have time enough to weed 
it on rainy days with his slaves, and I need not 
bother." These tilings will all improve in time. 
It will soon be that the proprietor, who has the 
largest pasture for the colonists' cows and mules, — 
for they must have milk for their children, and 
they will not always be content to hire the pro- 
prietors' cattle or mules for their ploughs, — that 
that sugar planter will be the most popular and 
will get the best working colonists, and will 
lose less by their current accounts. The planter, 
in all cases, has to be careful that his colonists 
do not run up a large debit account, for it is in 
this that all experimentalists suffer. I think I 
noticed some of your correspondents asking if Brazil 
would continue to give large coffee crops. I can 
only coroborate what 1 have written previously, that 
I believe she will not only give as much as for- 
merly, but more. At least she will keep pace with 
the rapidly increasing rate of consumption. The 
great market for Brazilian coffee is the United 
States, and there the consumption of coffee has 
doubled in ten years. The price of coffee has not 
gone up during the last three months as some ex- 
pected. The crop now being picked is small, but 
there are large stocks in consuming countries. 
Those who have studied the subject make out that 
taking the stocks in Europe and the United States 
and those in Santos and Eio, and adding the 
crops now being picked in Brazil, and those expected 
from other countries by 30th June 1888, there will 
be a surplus over equal to five or six months' con- 
sumption. If this be so, we need not expect a 
great rise above present prices. 
Crops for 1888-9. — The season has been dry 
previous to the flowering time, and, as a consequence, 
on the high lands in S. Paulo and Minas Geraes, 
there has been a magnificent show of blossom. 
Towards the end of September there were nice 
gentle showers all over the country ; and now 
towards the middle of October there is more rain, 
and the trees which showed little whiteness before 
will, in a few days, be in full bloom. October is 
generally the blossoming month, and this year the 
old planters will not have occasion to say that 
the flowering times are out of joint. News come 
from many districts that 1888-9 will be the largest 
crop that has yet been shipped from Brazil. 
The movement during the first half of September 
it said to bo similar, to uIjoyc ; priges rose a little, 
but came back again towards the 20th of the 
month. Entries into Rio by rail are small, but 
this is explained partly by planters holding back 
for a higher price and partly that many are busy 
picking and preparing for market the current 
crop. A. S. B. 
+. ■- 
INDIAN TEA. 
Indian Tea Association Chamber of Commerce ; 
Calcutta, 1st February 1888. 
Dear Sir, — In their Circular of the 23th October 
last, the General Committee gave a revised estim- 
ate of the probable outturn of the Indian Tea Crop 
of 18S7, based almost entirely upon actual results 
up to the 30th September and showing the follow- 
ing figures : — 
Revised Estimate of Crop or IhsT. 
lb. 
A-^am ... ... 37,929,6(51 
CatU .rand Sjlhet ... 27,198,le0 
Dnrjeeling Ti rai and Dooars 14,325,782 
Chittagong and Cheta-Nagpore 1,432,030 
Dehra-Duu, Kumaon and Kangra 3,75>t,o00 
Private and Native Gardens 1,500,000 
86,135,859 
The Committee have now the pleasure to hand 
you the undermentioned figures giving the actual 
outturn of the Gop of 1887 from the returns they 
have been able to collect from Agents of Tea Gardens 
aud from an estimate of the production of the North- 
West, Private and Native Gardens. The figures show- 
ing the Crop of 1886 are also given for comparison : — 
Actual Outturn of Crops. 
lb. lb. 
1887 1S86 
Assam ... ... 37,849,202 33,627,350 
Cacliar and Sylliet ... 27,156,589 23,7i:S,163 
Darjeeling Terai and Dooars 14,997,805 13,610,682 
Chittagong and Chota-Nagpore 1,538,219 1,657,318 
Delira-Dun, Kumaon, and 
Kangra ... ... 3,750,000 3,500,000 
Private and Native Gardens 1,500,000 1,000,060 
86,791 ,845 79,098,243 
It will be noticed from these figures that the 
outturn of 1887 exceeds the revised estimate by 
6o6,000 lb., which is entirely owing to the unex- 
pected increase of production of the Dooars Gardens 
during the past few months. 
The Exports to Australia, America, and other 
places being taken at 2£ million lb., and the con- 
sumption of Indian Tea in India itself aud the 
requirements of Government being taken at 1J 
million lb., there will remain about 82| million lb. 
for shipment to Great Britain against 75J millorj lb., 
during the season of 1886. — Yours faithfully, G. M. 
Barton, Assistant Secretary. 
ANNUAL REPORT IN CINCBONA BARK. 
(From /. A. Mucker S Ben craft's Weekly 
Price Current.) 
London, January 19th, 1888. 
CINCHONA BARK.— It may safely be asserted that the 
quotations current for bark and quinine during the greater 
half of the year 1887 were even lower than the very low 
ones contemplated by the greatest pessimists. If any article, 
year after year, be overproduced, say only 5 per cent 
soouer or later it gets into an abject state, In Ceylon 
barks, for many mouths, the policy pursued by large interests 
was as follows, the lower the price the larger the ship- 
ments. That such a policy may have been necessary in 
many instances, it is not for us to deny, that it may have 
suited individuals, and put money into their pockets, it is 
not for us to question, but the broad fact remains, 
about which there can be no dispute, viz., that when the 
unit fell to IJd, a considerable proportion of Ceyl >n ship- 
ments were not paying charges, &c\, &c. It has been 
calculated by Mr. Kiedel, a Berlin wholesale druggist, that 
on the assumption that Ceylon barks average lj to \\ per 
cent., German quinine can be sold at Is 3$d .without any 
profit either to planter or to manufacturer. We do not 
altogether ccroborate this calculation, but the deduction 
from it is that any bark sold at 2 1-10J per lb. in London 
had better be burnt or destroyed in the country of production 
•tu't we imagine that this deduction is to all intents and 
