396 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888 
Dr. Paul said he had no desire to throw any discredit 
on the labour Dr. Thresh had so kindly given to make 
the paper understood ; he merely referred to the illus- 
tration which the tables afforded of the fallacies and 
mistakes of the Indian cinchona cultivation. 
Mr. Hodgkin, in reply to Mr. Groves's question, said, 
to begin with, the bulk of the plants would take the 
form of whichever parent was the stronger plant, and 
not of the other one, so that in some parcels containing 
hybrids from the same plants originally, from calisaya 
and succirubra, it might be found, if the calisaya had 
been the stronger plant to begin with, that the result- 
ing burk would test better than if the succirubra had 
been stronger. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 
+ 
COFFEE AND TEA. IN THE UNITED STATES: 
Simultaneous Decbease in the Consumption of 
Coffee and Increase in Tea. 
The imports of coffee into the United States for 
the year ending Jane 30, as reported by the Govern- 
ment were 92,463,396 pounds hss than during the 
preceding year, comparing with previous years as 
follows: _ 
Imports Exports. Consumption. 
Year. Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. 
1888 ... 433,645,774 15,083,019 418,562,755 
1887 ... 526,109,170 25,289,583 500,819,587 
1886 ... 564,707,533 27,495,752 537,211,781 
1885 .. 572,599,552 33,335,196 529,264,356 
1884 ... 534,785,543 26,152,679 508,632,863 
Av'ge yearly. 526,369,514 25,471,246 500,898,268 
In glancing over the above table the first question 
it piompts is, "Why has the comsumption decreased 
every year since 1885, until during the year just 
closed it fell 82,335,513 pounds below the average 
yearly consumption for five years past, and this in 
lace of an increasing population and general 
prosperity ? 
High prices, as the result of short crops, and 
speculation are the two chief factors in bringing about 
the remarkable change noted. 
The following table shews the cost per pound of 
imports, based upon value as declared at custom 
houses, and the per capita consumption, based on 
Prof. Elliott's table of population : 
Per capita 
Cost Consumption 
Year.' per pound. pounds. 
1883 16. 6.81 
1887 10-7 8-36 
1886 — 7 6 9-20 
1885 - 8-2 9-45 
1884 ... 9-3 9-16 
Within two years coffee advanced 113 per cent., a 
rise which placed a premium upon the use of sub- 
stitutes and caused many consumers to abandon the 
berry for tea. 
The consumption of the latter has increased 23,- 
883,554 pounds, or 39 7 per cent, within five years, 
as the following statement of imports and consumption 
shows : 
Retained for 
Year. Imports. Exports, consunapt'n. 
1888 84,627,857 682,359 83,945,498 
1887 ... — 89,831,221 2,350,035 87,481,186 
1886 81,898,522 3,015,697 78,882 825 
1885 72,104,956 5,730,591 66 374,365 
1884 07,665,910 7,603,966 60,06.1,944 
The above table shows an average yearly consumption 
during the past five years of 75,349,164 pounds ; that 
fur the year ending June 30, 1888, being 8,596,334 
pounds above the average yearly consumption, 
against a decea e of 82,335.513 pounds in the con- 
sumption of coffee below il.o annual average of the 
viin" period. 
The est of tea has decreased and the consninp- 
tion increased, the cost per pound as declared at 
the custom house, and per capita consumption 
comparing with that of cofftc as follows: 
, Tea , , Coffee. , 
Average Per Average Per 
cost per capita cost per capita 
pound, c'ns'm't'n pound, c'ns'm't'n. 
Year. Cents. Lbs. Cents. Lbs. 
1888 15-7 1-36 16 6 81 
1887 ... ... 18-7 1-46 107 8-36 
1886 19-6 1-33 7-5 9-20 
1885 19-5 1-22 8 2 945 
1884 20'2 1-18 9-3 916 
It is claimed that one pound of tea is equivalent to 
four pounds of coffee, as to quantity of infusion. In 
a country as large as the United States there are 
many whose purses would force them to abandon 
coffee at high price and substitute tea. One pound 
of tea costing at retail fifty cents would last a family 
of five as long as four pounds of coffee costing from 
$1 @ 1 20. Necessity knows no law, and therefore the 
unskilled laborer and the needy farmer have been forced 
to buy tea instead of coffee. This is not true every- 
where, but in enough territory to make the changes 
noted. That probably accounts for the great disparity 
recorded in the per capita consumption of tea aud 
coffee in the United Kingdom as compared with this 
country, and which is here shown: 
r-Unifd 
K'gd'm— 
,— United 
States-^ 
Coffee. 
Tea. 
Coffee. 
Tea 
Pr cap. 
Pr cap. 
Preap. 
Pr cap. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
1887 ... 
... 0-80 
4'89 
8'36 
1-46 
1886 ... 
. 0-88 
4'83 
9-20 
1-33 
1885 ... 
... 0-91 
4-93 
9-45 
1-22 
1884 ... 
... 0-91 
4-82 
9-16 
1-18 
1883 ... 
... 0-90 
4-74 
. 8-9 
1-28 
The demand for chicory has rapidlv increased dur- 
ing the pariod marking the rise in coffee as shown by 
the following statement of the quantities and values 
of chicory root, burned or prepared, ground or 
uuground, imported into the United States during the 
years ending June 30, 1884 to 1888: 
IMPORTS OF CHICORY HOOT. 
Year ending Juue 30 : Pounds. 
j 1884 1,780,298 
1885 4,239,370 
I 1886 3,415.655 
18S7 5,227,995 
1888 6,762,473 
Fifty years ago a supply of 150,000 tons of coffee 
was needed to meet the consumptive requirements of 
Europe and the United States. In 1848 the two 
countries absorbed 250,000 tons, in 1867, or just 
twenty years ago, 375,000 tons, or little less than 
one-half of the present consumption, which in 1887, 
reached 703,714 tons- 
To meet the home demand, we import 75 per cent, 
of the supply from Brazil; about li per cent, from 
Venezuela; 6 percent, from the West Indies; 5 per 
cent, from the East Indies; 3 per cent, from Central 
America and sundry points. 
The exports of coffee from Brazil for the past five 
years, ending June 30, were as follows : 
Year Rio. Santos. Total. 
1888 1,879,174 1,310,209 3,189,383 
1887 3,453,353 2,493,228 5,946,581 
1^86 3,642,202 1,660,169 5,302,371 
1885 4,093,889 2,175.627 6,269,516 
1884 3,086,446 1,919,793 5,006,239 
Total ... 16,155,064 9,559,026 25,714,090 
Average ... 3,231,013 1,911,805 5,142,818 
The above table reveals the cause of the rise in 
the cost of the bean, the deficiency in the Brazil 
crop falling 2,570,619 bags helow the average annual 
supply for the five years, 1883-87. This was a de- 
crease of 151,212 tons, or nearlv one-fourth of the 
world's annual requirements. This year there is 
promise of a supply equal to the world's requirements. 
Speculators, in forcing up the price of coffee until it 
reached 22 j cents for Fair Bio in June, 1887, failed 
to PHtimate correctly the power of high prices and the 
