March i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
613 
sometimes, but when he is reasonable, it may be 
there is an unaccommodating mortgagee behind 
to prevent business. As for stopping the 
planting of ten in Ceylon at this stage of the 
Colony's existence, most Visiting Agents, we believe, 
are inclined to liken the attempt to limit the area 
cultivated— thus farshalt thou go and no farther— to 
Dame Partington trying to sweep back the Atlantic 1 
As for the chance of another pest sweeping through 
Ceylon, this time on tea, we are either reminded that 
tea takes more naturally to our soil and climate, its 
own native habitat being near to us or that the 
means of fighting a persistent insect or a fungoid 
enemy on tea, by a thorough ptuning, was never 
available in the caae of coffee. 
As to Coffee, there are Visiting Agents— old hands 
even — who do sincerely believe that "green bug" 
is on the wane, that there is a chance for a 
revival of prosperity with an old staple in certain 
quarters still. One cynical friend says he cannot 
help believing this if for no other rpason than 
that the doom of coffee under "green bug" has been 
absolutely and publicly pronounced by a cock-sure 
ex-merchant and a resident Nuwara Eliya planter, 
"for," said he, "during the last twenty or thirty 
"years I never yet found either of them right in 
" their assertions or predictions." On the other hand, 
we cannot disguise an admission made to us in 
a few instances, namely, that when coffee-bug 
appears to wane the lungus Hemileia va&tatrix 
appears to revive. Is this a common experience ? 
Dikoya coffee is, we believe, now free of bug ; but 
how about leflf-dis* ase ? Upper Hapu'nle and 
Kandimolii. and son e Badulln estates' coffee in its 
present slate affords much cause for encourage- 
ment, while lower Uva estates are suffering. The 
Chip Wanapola estate near Maiale gave 4.700 bushels 
last year and thousands of bushels are still gathered 
on not a few other properties in the higher and Uva 
districts — so that we nuiy be sure such fields will 
be cherished and cultivated with the utmost care 
considering the splendid market prospects. But 
what acreage of coffee may we expect to show in 
Ceylon live yeans hence V— that is unless we have 
new shade olearings opened with Coorg seed and 
cultivate'! Mysore fashion throughout Uva. Why 
not '! Mysore coffee crops go on increasing even 
on old estates under shade, and there is Railway 
Extension to make Uva very accessible. 
" Whut about Cinchona ?" We have for an 
answ«r that " the man who may own any appre- 
oiablu area under cinchona i" Ceylon /our yearg 
hence, will have a fortune." We have furthtr a 
distinct challenge to the effect that QO new cinchona 
ha* been grown, worth looking at, during the past 
six years. North of Nuwara Eliya or out of Uva! 
One Inspector Bays ho will gladly travel 50 miles 
to sec any clearing which may prove the excep- 
tion to this rule. Further hu denies that any such 
can be found in t lie region referred to. Seed from 
Java, the Nilgirn and Jamaica has all been tried, but 
in viiin : the day for growing Cinchona in the 
Kandy districts is over. Even seed from Bolivia 
sold at the rate of R 100 for ounco has proved a 
dead failure. On Ragol'a, tho proprietor says ho 
plants out 100.000 plants every year ; but that 
is within the Uva climate and soil, though even 
in Uva cinchona clearings do not now rqual thoir 
original vigour. The more that expem neo and 
liberal ox|w>ndituro and care and attention have 
been brought to boar on cinchona clearings, the 
Krrater has boon tho failure. Tho hiatory of tho 
Ramboda cinchona gardens opened by Mr. Traill 
vividly illustrates this proposition. 
There aro othor 1'roduota to nntioe in connection 
with tin' views of Estate Inspectors, but wo must 
Btop for today. 
A TEA SALE. 
Gentle reader in India and Ceylon, you who take 
such infinite pains to make that delicate-flavouie l 
Pekoe, have you ever been into the Commercial 
Rooms, in Mincing Lune, where your tea is sold? if 
not, it is worth while visiting that hallowed spot ou 
the first opportuuity. it a Papuan savage were to visit 
tbe Commercial Sale Room while a sale is in progress, 
he would probably return from civilisai ion to the darn 
paths of cannibalism wi;h eagerness and a very bad head- 
ache. The process of selling tea is a short one. The tea 
(rum your particular garden, friend, is disposed of in 
very quick time ; but the sale of somebody's tea goes 
on each day from, say, 12 until 8 p.m., and broker 
utter broker occupies the pulpit, and buyers come 
up smiling. The Tower of Babel, there u reason to 
believe, was not a quiet place. An auction sale of 
old clothes in Petticoat Lane is not without its 
murmur of gentle voices waited o'er Houndsditch ; 
but tho noise of a Mincing Lane sale-room is hard 
to beat. It would give a deaf mute a new sensa- 
tion, and cause a man with " nerves," who had 
been brought up in a quiet and well-regulated 
family, to become a maniac in the shortest time on 
record. 
The modus operandi is simple. A catalogue is printed, 
and the sellint' broker and the buyer meet in a room 
not unlike a church vestry or school room, in which 
there is a pulpit and several desks. The broker as- 
cends the pulpit, the buyers are on the qui vive and 
tho fun begins. A stranger, who had strayed into 
the place by accident, if such a thing «ere possible, 
would probably come to one of three conclusions. 
He might take the place for a chapel of ease, 
where the parson was not orthodox in the 
matter of his garb, and the c ngregation were 
uiveu to vigorous disputes with him ou points of 
itootriue ; be might thiuk he was in a lunatic asylum; 
or, it he were very imaginative, it would probably 
suegesc itself to his mind that he was present at the 
opening meeting of a new society, wli ,se object was 
the propagation and development of apoplexy. 
To suddenly discover a cloud of gesticulating 
gentlemen shouting in unison at another amiable 
gentleman, who appears to have been guilty of no 
greater crime than speaking quickly and writing 
hurriedly, is a perplexing sight to tho uninitiated, 
ami requires explanation. These are earnest and 
enthusiastic members of the tea trade in various 
stages of commercial emotion. A few of them, appa- 
rently, madly anxhius to secure certain parcels of tea, 
thougn they should perish in the attempt. This although 
alarming to the stranger, is merely the normal state of 
tilings. These widely excited gentlemen are only going 
through the d> y's round of hardy toil engendered of 
life in Miuaing Lane ; aud they have no desire to break 
a blood vessel — ■ lu-y merely waut to have their bids 
recognised by the selling broker in advauce of their 
conti mporarn s. They are remarkably good-tempered 
people, and accept the dictum of the selling broker 
as to tho actual purchaser of a much-desired p ireel 
with urbanity. IV ben not engaged in shouting at the 
top of their voices, they conduct themselves 
like other citizens. They are not given specially to 
riotous living nor rowdy behaviour. As there is no 
unanimity of opinion as to the necessity for any 
reform in the unmoor of bidding forteas.it maybe 
presumed that the present method is the o ly fea- 
sible one yet discovered ; but it would be intero-t- 
iug to learn the average length of life of those at- 
tending these sales, and whether there is such a 
thing as sale-room s >re throat. One can readily un- 
derstand tli it life is not all "beer not -kittles " to 
men whoso custom it i- to attend tho sale-room ; 
and a spoctaior is inclined to think that thoso who 
grow tho produce have a better chance of a healthy 
hie even in the wilds of Assam than thoM who sell 
it or boy it in Miucing Lane.— if. «jr C. Mail. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE ANlT FINANCE. 
Tho Government tiuda tea thu source of a very 
largo and incroaaing revenue. Tho amount of duty de- 
rived from tua during ItihS waa £ i ,63*,>Ju:>, being the 
