September i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
but not so here it seems. The reason is not far 
to seek. We are told that " when copra is scarce 
or dear, and oil is not to be made, the pair or 
bullocks are turned out to graze, costing their 
owner nothing ; but when the large oil factory is 
compelled to stand idle, the interest on capital 
invested has to be reckoned, in addition to which 
an accident to the machinery may involve an out- 
lay of some hundreds of pounds." 
There is yet something to be learnt as to why, 
with the vast tea resources of China being poured 
upon the market, Ceylon should be able to enter 
the lists as a competitor, and carrying all before 
it, drive the older article clean out of its wonted 
place at the head of the list. It is because whilst 
the old article fell away in quality, the new leaf 
deftly prepared and richer in flavour and strength, 
has shown its undoubted superiority ; so much so, 
that, though selling for more money than China 
tea, it is really cheaper, as it goes further in the 
teapot. 
Whilst on this subject I have a suggestion to 
make for the consideration of the tea planters of 
Ceylon and the Chinese authorities — which it is my 
belief if acted upon would convert the " irony of 
fate " into a decided gain to all concerned. Here we 
have on the one hand Ceylon tea growers complain- 
ing that they cannot procure sufficient labourers to 
gather their crops, and on the other hand the Chinese 
are unable to employ all the Celestials who are 
thrown out of work by Ceylon competition, the same 
Celestials being refused work in Australia. If these 
round-eyed pig-tailed workmen were despatched from 
Australian ports to Ceylon, who can doubt their 
finding ready employment on the tea gardens 
amongst the Kandyan hills, to the mutual advantage 
of colonists and Chinamen ? 
There is yet one more curious little circumstance 
connected with Ceylon worth jotting down. In one 
of Miss Gordon Cumming's pretty pictures is a view 
of the celebrated Adam's Peak mountain nearly 
7,000 feet high, rising majestically from the lowland 
about Siudbad's Valley ot Diamonds ; on its summit 
may bo seen a remarkable impression reputed by 
devout Mahommedans to bo an imprint of one foot 
of the Father of Mankind, who, it is said, rested there 
on his expulsion from Paradise. It is a gigantic 
print, and what is still more remarkable is, that the 
measurement of Eve's tomb, near Mecca, pretty 
nearly coincides in proportion to tho size of this re- 
puted footprint of Adam. It is not a little remark- 
able that the Buddhists of Ceylon believe the foot- 
print to be that of tho founder of their faith, notwith- 
standing that Buddha never visited the island. That 
however, does not trouble them muoh. 
The reader will, I trust, acknowledge that I have 
made out a case for the interest attaching to tho 
Indian island, whose Court is to be Been in the Glas- 
gow International Exhibition. It may not be so 
brilliantly attractive in appearance as some other 
portions of the " Great Northern Show," but practi- 
cally, and even artistically and historically, it stands 
out before most other Courts. Ceylon possesses the 
oldest Dagoba and the oldest tree in the world of 
which there is any record ; and if more recommen- 
dation is needed it produces some of tho lioest tea in 
the world. If tho reader doubts this statement, let 
him put it to tlio test by a visit to the pretty Coylon 
Tea house in tho grounds. — Fairplay, Aug. 17th. 
» 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
White tho proprietors of Indian ten gardens are de- 
liberating as to tho brut uit'thodH of pushing tho Bale 
of Indian ti n in America with a minimum of risk to 
thcuidolves, wo lenrn that 1111 outorprising Calcutta 
firm has actually startod a branch in Canada, thoir 
representative in ihe Dominion being a smart Sylhet 
planter. After thie ) months' work, the results are very 
promising. Agencies have beeu established in various 
towns, and the sale of Indian tea is being rapidly 
and successfully pushed. If tho support given to the 
movement for opeuing up a market for Indian tea in 
America, at the out-set, had taken the form of money 
instead of advice, the campaign in the United States 
would have been opened long since, and some tangible 
results would have followed. 
Tea is now cultivated in the Fiji Islands. The 
growers there will find a ready market for it in Now 
Zealand. There is some tea from Fiji shown by Messrs. 
Pringle and Crichton at the Glasgow Exhibition. It is 
said to be " well made, of fair liquor, with trace of 
Java flavour." 
There is a market for Indian tea in Morocco. The 
demand from there at preseut is chiefly for Hyson, and 
the tea is nearly all purchased in England. In 1887 the 
four chief ports imported tea to the value of ,£33,55;J 
against £31,519 the previous year. 
We know that "all things are not what they seem," 
and therefore it is not surprising that both Indian and 
Ceylon teas, especially the latter, are sometimes sold as 
pure when blends of inferior teas are mixed with them. 
This is very wrong, but so long as competition Is 
keen, and dishonest practices abound, we fear this 
form of deceit will continue. A firm of tea dealers 
call attention to this fraud as follows : — Being large 
paokers of pure Ceylon tea, we are much annoyed 
by the many brands now offering to the trade de- 
scribed as Coylon tea, which are praatically known 
to contain both China and Indian tea, or either one 
of them. We look on this as a most reprehensible 
matter; it is not honest trading to gull the public 
into thinking they are buying Ceylon tea when they 
are only getting somebody's blend of all sorts of 
teas ; aud this practice is adopted by some wholesale 
houses because the retail trade object to pur • Ceylon, 
as they do not show enough profit. — H, &< C. Mail, 
Aug. 11th. 
SOAPSTONE. 
The mineral soapstone, or steatite, is just now coming 
into prominence by reason of the valuable property it 
possesses as a pigment for protecting steel vessels 
against corrosion. This characteristic was recently 
referred to in our correspondence columns, and it may 
be interesting to briefly notice this mineral and the 
many uses to which it is put. Soapstone is a soft mag- 
uosian miueral found frequently in small contempora- 
neous veins, that traverse serpentine in all directions. It 
is used in the manufacture of porcelain to make the 
biscuit semi-transparent. It is employed in polishing 
marble aud glass for mirrors, and in numerous other 
directions in the arts aud manufactures. In China, 
soapstone is nsed as the material for idols, and other 
figures which form the household gods of the Celestials. 
Hence it hag been termed figure-stone. Its refractory 
nature lends itself to the manufacture of gas-burners 
and for use in furnaces. It is also used in the manu- 
facture of crucibles. Its latest application, however, 
is that of a paint for protecting tho infides of iron 
and steel ships and other structures, which difficult 
problem it is stated to have been tho means of solving. 
Besides the purposes to which we have already alluded, 
soapntone is also largely used in China for preserving 
structures built of sand-stone and other stones whioh 
are liable to disintegrate under atmospheric influence, 
and we are toll that tho covering of piwdored soap tone 
in the form of paiut on some obelisks in China, which 
were hewn out of stone liable to sntTor nuder atmos- 
pheric influence, has been known to preserve the same 
intact for hundreds of years. Soapstone may therofore 
be said to have extraordinary qualities in withstanding 
atmospheric influence, which have a great dial to do 
with tho corrosion of steel and iron, for the inside of a 
steamer which, although not exposed to the incessant 
action of salt water, like tho hottoni, orrodes much 
more quickly than tho outside. Soapstone lias, how- 
over, another quality which eminently adapts it as a 
pigment for protective paints, and that is, the extreme 
