39° 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888. 
1887-8, 303,063 lb.; 1886-7 310,859 lb. ; 1885-6, 230,804 
lb. A planter at Haputale (Ceylon ) writes as follows: — 
•' Cardamoms have benefited by the long droug?-.t, as 
the sun penetrated to the very roots, and has brought 
out excellent blossoms ; the coming crop should be a 
good one ; pity the market for this product is so 
ridiculously low, the prices realised barely pay for 
gathering and curing." 
Cinchona. — The South American barks off ered today 
realised exceptionally high prices ; Guayaquil, fair to 
fine bright silvery quill, Is 9d to2s5d; good thin brown- 
ish Huanoco, Is 2d to Is 4d ; stout brown and damaged 
from 4§d to 8d per lb.. Flat Calisaya, hard medium 
to bold good bright, Is lid to 2s ; thinner, Is 9d ; dam 
ages, Is 3d to Is lOd per lb. The following are the 
exports of bark from private plantations in Java during 
the first six months of 1886, 1887, and 1888, as given 
iu Government statistics : — 
To Holland 
To United Kingdom 
Total 
1886. 
kilos 
341,587 
80,794 
1887. 1888. 
kilos. kilos. 
234,704 575,552 
40,036 62,842 
422,381 274,740 638,394 
Croton Seed.— Ten bags Ceylon seed sold at 15s Gd 
per cwt. 
Oil (Eucalyptus). — The 3 cases Spanish Eucalyptus 
oil offered at the last drug sales have been sold at 
Is. lOfd. per lb. With regard to this oil we unci er- 
stand that it was distilled in Valencia by a grower 
there as au experiment, but the price obtained not 
yielding sufficient inducement, the grower will not, 
at present, continue to make it, and means to cut 
down a greater part of his trees next month to sell 
the wood. The 3 cases referred to were accumulated 
stock of several years, about 168 kilos, altogether. 
Fresh oil, if distilled, would cost about 4s. 6d. per lb. 
f, o. b. Valencia. 
Oil (Palm) is now firmly held at £24 to £24 10s. 
for fine Ligos, but this fresh advance has checked 
business to a great extent. Our stock has been reduced 
to a minimum. 
Quinine is again lower. Sales of some importance are 
reported during the week at Is 4d for forward delivery 
of German bulk quinine to strong buyers in Mincing 
Lane ; and it is said that 5,000 oz. B. k S. quinine have 
changed hands at Is 3Jd, cash in second hand. The 
quotations are now as follows : — Howard's bulk, Is 7d 
to Is 8 !, bottles, Is 9d to Is lOd; Whiff en's bulk, Is 5|d ; 
Pelletier's bottles, Is lOd ; Fabbrica Lombardu, Is 5d ; 
Zimmer and Jobst, Is 5|d ; Auerbach, Is 5d ; B. & S. 
and Brunswick, Is 4d peroz., all bulk. It is remarkable 
that at the same time that a firm of German manu- 
facturers issued a circular in Europe calling attention 
to the increase in the consumption of quinine in 
America, owing to the ravages of the yellow fever in 
the Southern States, the New York agent of one of the 
German makers circularised the trade in America with 
thd statement that " the stir caused in Europe through 
th-j report of fever in the unfortunate South has no 
justification, as the dreaded scourge there is uncon- 
querable by quinine." 
Messrs. Oscar Andreae &Oo. desire us to say that the 
quantity of cinchona bark bought by them for the 
Auerbach quinine works in the auction of October 9th 
was 116,638 lb. — Chemist and Druggist. 
Bice. — According to the first reports of the season, 
the area under rice cultivation in the ten chief rice- 
producing districts in Burma this year is 3,603,982 
acres as compared with 3,475,567 acres, the actual 
area of last year, the increase being 128,415 acres. — 
M. Mail, Nov. )!rd. 
Cokkee can hardly bo a very common surname 
and 1:1 en Coffees must be still more rare. It is all 
the more remarkable, therefore, that at Bow-street 
Police-court ono Ellen Coffee chould have been con- 
victed of assaulting another Ellen Coffee— prisoner 
and proReoutrix not being iclated to ono another. - 
L, % C. Express. 
Tea. — The following appeared in the London Times of 
Friday last : — For sale, an Indian Tea Gar den,has aver- 
aged dividends for the last three years of 8g per 
cent, after allowing £450 a year for management 
Books may fce examined by any firm of accountants Price 
£5,000. Write TeaplaDter, May's Advertising offices, 162, 
Piccadilly, W.— //owe and Colonial Mail, October 26th. 
The Introduction of Coffee into Java 
Prohibited. — We have received a copy of a circular 
in French issued last month by Dr. Treub, Director 
of the Government Botanio Garden, Buitenzorg, 
Java, to the following effect: — "The introduction 
of seeds and plants of coffee and other tropical 
Rubiacere having been prohibited pending further 
orders into Netherlands India, correspondents of 
the Buitenzorg Botanic Garden are earnestly re- 
quested not to send to this establishment either 
seeds or plants of the abovementioned trees." 
Compressed Fuel. — An anxious problem with coal 
meuchants in London and the provinces, as well as 
upon the seaboard, has long been that of the dis- 
posal of the dust or slack from their coal, which 
in some cases has accumulated to the extent of 
several hundred tons and is still accumulating. 
Attempts have been made from time to time to 
solve this problem, but without any apparent 
practical success. Now, however, there appears to 
be a reasonable chance of the question being 
settled in a satisfactory manner by the aid of a 
briquette making machine which has been invented 
by Mr. Mo.vll and Mr. Messenger, c. e., of Dover. 
There are already several machines extant for 
making patent fuel bricks for steam purposes, but 
among other drawbacks incident to them, the 
machines are too large and costly for use by coal 
merchants, while they produce blocks of fuel which 
are much too large for use by the public in general. 
The new machine which we recently saw in 
operation at Creek-bridge Wharf, Greenwich, is 
of comparatively small size, and the briquettes 
made by it measure only 4Jin. long by 2^in. 
wide and 2£in. deep, and weigh IJlb. each. In 
making these briquettes the coal dust is first mixed 
with 10 per cent, of crushed pitch, and the mix- 
ture is fed into a vertical mill in which the 
ingredients are thoroughly incorporated by stirrers. 
At the bottom of the mill the ingredients encounter 
a jet of steam which melts the pitch and brings 
the mixture into a plastic condition. The mixture 
is then fed into a revolving mould and the charge 
receives its initial pressure from a horizontal 
plunger. The mould then makes a partial turn and 
the partially compressed charge encounters another 
plunger which gives it the final pressure. Another 
partial turn brings the compressed charge to an 
ejeeter which pushes it out of the mould into a 
trough, from which the briquettes are removed by 
a boy on to a tray to be taken away for stacking. 
The briquettes are ready for use in about an 
hour from the time they have been delivered from 
the press. The action of the machine is continuous, 
the operations of moulding, pressing, and ejecting 
being carried on simultaneously by meuns of the 
rotary mould block. The rate of ordinary working 
is about 14 briquettes per minute, or five tons per 
day of 12 hours, which can be increased to six 
tons if necessary by working at a higher speed. 
The machine can be erected at a comparatively 
small cost, and can be worked by unskilled labour. 
It oan be driven either by horse or ste"m power, 
so that its services are available where steam is 
not to be had. The result of the burning of this 
fuel in ordinary grates was showa to be very 
satisfactory, a good bright lire being maintained 
without trouble and with but very little ash. The 
machine is being introduced by the Universal 
Patent Fuel Machii, • Company, of 32, Fenchuroh- 
street, London. — London Times, 
