August i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
75 
of a scheme and particulars of what was intended to be 
done. The sub-committee, in originally drafting the 
prospectus of the proposed company, had, however, on 
mature consideration, purposely refrained from setting 
forth precise details, believing that details, which could 
only be approximate, might possibly provoke adverse 
criticism. At a meeting of the sub-committee held this 
day, it had been decided to await the receipt of a 
letter expected shortly from a correspondent in New 
York, who had propounded a scheme in detail, based on 
local information acquired on the spot, and on receipt 
of this answer some particulars of the course to be 
pursued would be circulated to members of the Tea 
Association with a view to ascertain whether general 
support of the movement was really forthcoming. It 
would than be decided once for all whether the matter 
was to be gone on with or not. 
♦ 
DRUG TRADE REPORT. 
42 Gannon Street, E.G., June 7th. 
Oinohona. — A rather larger supply was offered for 
sale this week than appeared at the preoeding auctions, 
the catalogues including 3, '294 packages, viz., 1,999 from 
Oeylon, 492 from India, 69 from Java, and 734 from 
South America. With the exception of the latter 
variety, the bulk was disposed of without muoh com- 
petition at some decline on the last auction rates, the 
unit being estimated to barely reach 2d. The Indian 
barks offered the best assortment. 
Quinine. — It is reported that during the ourrent 
week a considerable business has been done at Is 4d per 
oz. by certain German agents, the B. k S. representa- 
tives alone being said to have sold 40,000 oz. or more 
at that figure. Jobst & Zimmer'a brands are selling in 
a small way at Is 3d, but the agents for these makes 
do not join in the speculative movement. Howard's 
quinine is quoted at 2s for vials, and Is lOd for bulk. 
Vanilla, — We note the arrival, since our last report, 
of another case of vanilla from Ceylon, per "Vesta." — 
Chemist and Druggist. 
THE DUTCH MARKET. 
{{Telegram from our Correspondent.) 
Amsterdam, June 6th. 
At today's cinchona auctions a quantity of 1,521 
packages was brought forward, or which 1,499 were 
sold at a unit averaging from 10 to 11 cents, per J 
kilo. (— 1 4-5thd to 2d per lb.), or about the same as at 
the London auctions, perhaps a shade less. Druggists' 
bark, chips, broken chips, and quill, realised from 5 
to 126 cents, per A kilo. (= l-5thd to Is 10|dperlb.); 
druggists' root from 14 to 29 cents, per -J kilo. (=2id 
to 5d per lb.) ; manufacturers' bark, quill, broken quill 
and chips, from 10 to 79 cents, per J kilo. = 2£d 
to Is 2d per lb.), and roof, for manufacturing, from 28 
to 74 cents, per 1 kilo, or 5d to Is lid per lb. The 
bulk of the bark was bought for tha Amsterdam 
Quinine Works, and the Brunswick factory. The bark 
sold contained over 125,000 oz. quinine. — Chemist and 
nrurjgist. 
CENTRAL TEA FACTORIES AND THE 
NEED OF CAREFUL PREPARATION 
OF CEYLON TEAS. 
Wo leave the following extract to speak for itself. 
It ia from a letter received by Messrs. John 
Walker & Co. from Mr. Dalgamo (Mr. Jackson's 
ae,ent) now on a visit to Assam : — 
" 1 hope you are all quite well and that business 
is good with yon ; here wo cannot complain and in 
autumn v. e will be very busy for India. Messrs. 
James Fiulay Hi Go. of Glasgow have now close on 
20 Victorias all class A, working on their estates. 
Most people are going in for Urge central factories 
where they can be had, and they are putting down 
rails for conveying the leaf. It would do you good 
to S'-i' sume ni the \> i _c factories up here; they arc 
moro like large works at homo now. Ono is being 
erected (with our machinery) meantime 100 long by i'O 
wide, and I have seen several 160 feet by 190 feet with 
6 withering-houses 110 feet by 40 feet. Prices for 
really fine tea are good, 140 chests of ' Hope ' tea 
realized Rl-1-6 per lb. last week : that fine property 
belongs to Messrs. W. Duncan & Go. of Glasgow. 
"Most people are going in for tunnels for shafting, 
and are having all boilers and driers fired from 
underneath the floor, so that not a piece of firewood 
or coal is to be seen on the floor. Ab an instanoe 
of what the old kind of 10 feet H. P. class B engine will 
do, I found one driving 5 Excelsior rollers and two class 
A Victorias the other day and found a good many 
driving 4 rollers and 2 Victorias, Rapid rollers are 
going off well here and Rajahs too." 
140 chests of tea selling in Calcutta at Rl-1-6 is 
something that Ceylon has yet to reach. — It is 
evident that the 10 horsepower engines referred to 
are equal to some of the 12 and even 14 horse- 
power engines at work in Ceylon. 
— ♦■ 
ENTERPRISE IN PERAK. 
The difficulty in getting Chinese and Tamil coolies 
has greatly retarded the mining and planting deve- 
lopment of Perak. It is indeed a pity that Tamil 
immigration has not come up to expectations, Judg- 
ing from the fact that Tamils can mine twenty per 
cent cheaper than Chinese, the more Indian coolies 
that swarm in the country, tbe merrier for the tin 
industry. Cheap labour will counterbalance the ill 
effects of the fall in the price of that metal, result- 
ing from monopolist manoeuvres. The artificial rise 
in price brought on by the tin syndicate gave an 
impetus to mining operations, which enabled the 
European companies mining for that metal in Larut 
to pay dividends. There is too much prospect of 
this year's Report having a different tale to tell. 
The auriferous character of some of the tin mines 
may, after all, lighten the losses from the present 
untoward turn of affairs. Gold has also been found 
in quartz rock, apparently in payable quantities. 
At Papan, tin mines, worked at a loss under 
European management, now pay handsomely with 
Chinamen to direct operations. A French com- 
pany, turning minus to account at Lahat and 
Kliau, has worked them so prosperously and remu- 
neratively with the aid of seven steam engines, that 
it intends to carry on operations on a still more 
extensive scale. Experience shows that success under 
European management depends upon reduction of 
working expenses by following economical methods. 
The industry in question will receive a decided im- 
petus by the discovery of lode tin in Selama, Ka- 
munting, and Thaipeng. Galena too counts for some- 
thing among the minerals of the State. A lode of 
it found alongside the railway line showed thirty 
five per" cent of silver. Lodes of greater value are 
known to exist elsewhere in the State. Galena min- 
ing has so far proved a failure here, that capitalists 
are hardly likely to sink money in that line of 
business for the present, with the price of labour 
so high. It is satisfactory to find that, in the year 
under report, paddy cultivation has been extending. 
The settling of people on the laud has made such 
progress, that a number of foreign Malays have 
taken up selections in Lower Park, for growing 
nutmegs, coffee, and pepper. In Kwala Kangsa, 
Liberiau coffee and pepper have been successfully 
grown by Messrs. Hill and Rathboue with the aid of 
public money. With the sanction of Sir Cecil Smith, 
the policy of Government pecuniary assistance to 
planting enterprise has since been extended, with a 
view to push on the cultivation of suitable produce 
articles. Not oii.y coffee but tea have been found to 
answer in Perak, the former especially succeeding 
on Waterloo estate, where bat guano happened to 
li« handy. Sir Hugh Low is particularly auxious to 
encourage the cultivation of Arabian coffee in Perak, 
in the belief that the soil and climate there suit it 
best. Doubtless he menus out of its native habitat. 
In any case, loaf disease will have to be reckoned 
with as au dement of danger. European, vegetables 
