614 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1889. 
largest return ever made in a single year ; and, as com- 
pared with what was raised in 1883, the gain is indica- 
tive of an extraordinary degree of activity and success 
in the home trade. Ooffee is still a rather poor contri- 
butor to the national revenue, having furnished only 
£194,578, as compared with £187,869 in 1887, when the 
total duty payments were exceedingly light ; and there 
does not seem to be much prospect of any material re- 
covery in the future. 
The Japanese tea crops show a considerable in- 
crease in this season, a wider area having been de- 
voted to the plant, and the growth having been good. 
Generally, the weather last year was more favourable 
than in 1887, though in some districts the crops were 
damaged. In certain localities tea cultivation has 
given way to sericiculture. The tola! production of 
Japan for 1888 is estimated at 193,420,696 lb , showing 
an increase of about 30,000,000 lb. against 1887. The 
prices obtained this season have not been so good as 
jn the previous season. — II. & C. Mail. 
♦ 
COFFEE AND— COFFEE. 
It is often said by captious critics that English 
people do not know how to make coffee, but according 
to a recently issued report from the British Council at 
St. Petersburg we are not only eclipsed by Continental 
rivals in 'he art of preparing the fragrant drink, but 
also in the art of adulterating the raw material. Here 
we are familiar enough, or rather much too familiar, 
with chicory as a substitute for coffee, and doubtless 
most of us have heard of the inventive American who 
brought out a machine for compressing chicory into the 
form of coffee berries. In Russia the wary purchaser 
has to be on the look out for other adulterants, such 
as burnt beans, roasted barley, and the like. The 
British Consul tells a story of an Odessa grocer who 
boldly offered a reward to any one who should dis- 
cover chicory iu the coffee he supplied. As a matter 
of fact a careful analysis did prove that the so-called 
coffee contained no chicory; but it proved more, namely, 
that all produce of the coffee plant was equally con- 
spicuous by its absence. The stuff was really nothing 
more nor less than roast barley. In a similar way 
tea, which is usually supposed to be so good in Russia, 
is very often made the means of fraud. A common 
trick is to mix the good tea with other leaves which 
have been once usea and then dried, a practice which 
has obvious advantages to those dealers who would 
thereby feel themselves at liberty to say that the mix- 
ture contained nothing but tea. But the most usual 
adulterant is the leaves of the common willow herb, 
which after drying, strongly resemble the true produce 
of China and India. — Daily News. 
Salt as a Prophylatio. — From careful observations 
and experiments conducted it has been found that 
the free use of common salt with animal food is'an 
excellent prophylactic against the cattle plague, 
especially when given in rice gruel. Cattle thus fed 
stand a very good chance of recovery, if attacked, 
while those which are only allowed to graz6 succumb 
to the disease in the large majority of cases. — 
Indian Agriculturist. 
The Paddy Chop is nearly ripe for harvesting. 
It has proved to be neither the success our earlier 
hopes, nor the failure our later fears had led us to 
expect. There has been hardly any rain since the 
b- miming of the year; but the crop is not quite the 
failure it was feared to be. Wherever practicable, 
the farmers have irrigated their fields. Irrigation in 
.) ifl'na is a most costly and troublesome process. 
Water does not flow from the tanks which are of a 
lower level than the surrounding fields. It has to be 
raised >>y t,he most laborious and primitive of methods ; 
:unl it is on the, crop which has cost so much in 
labor ar <1 money that the local husbandman has to 
pay a tax equally with those in more favored loca- 
i ties where an unlimited water supply is provided. 
The crop, we are glad to say, is almost everywhere 
better than was expected, that of Poouaryn, which 
generally suffers from floods, being about the best 
— " Ceylon Patriot," Feb. 8th. 
All the foreigners (English and American) who 
had some few years back leased extensive lands at 
Goa for agricultural purposes have abandoned 
their estates owing to the unsuitability of the soil 
for the cultivation of coffee, opium, cinchona, <fec, 
and the high rate of taxes demanded by the Portu- 
guese Government and refusal to make roads in the 
interior, as had been originally promised to the 
planters. — Pioneer, Feb. 8th. 
Ceylon Tea and their Keeping Qualities. — 
After some months devoted to watching Ceylon 
teas at home and calling on a large number of 
the big retail houses for their opinions, Mr. Gordon 
Grinlinton has come to the conclusion that the 
great matter in order to secure a good keeping 
quality for Ceylon teas lies in the final firing 
before packing, and in the bulking with great 
care on the plantations, in place of allowing teas 
to be exposed while being bulked in the London 
warehouses. 
The Season in Madras.— The weekly summary of 
the provincial reports on the weather and prospects of 
the crops is as follows : — Madras. — For week ending 
26th January. — No rain. More rain wanted in Ganjam, 
Tinnevelly, Ooimbatore, and Salem. Standing crops 
generally good, but withering in Ooimbatore and parts 
of Bellary, and suffering from want of water in parts 
of Ganjam, Vizagapa tam, Cuddapah, Ohingleput, and 
from disease in South Arcot. Pasture generally suffici- 
ent except in parts of Salem and Ooimbatore. Agricul- 
tural operations progressing. Prices rising in nine 
districts, including five northern, falling in six, and sta- 
tionary elsewhere. General prospect favourable except 
in Ganjam and Ooimbatore. — Pioneer. 
" Tea " and Domesticity. — There is a taking 
air of " domesticity " about the very name 
of "tea" which seems to make it the right thing 
that every tea planter should be a married man ! 
Could anything be so attractive to mothers and 
daughters in England as to learn from the young 
wooer in answer to a needful enquiry : — •' Oh, I 'm 
in tea." It will not do for all and sundry after 
reading this to pack up and rush home " to see 
then mothers." Let each do a good spell of hard 
work first and get the " wattie " and factory — not 
forgetting the bungalow — into thorough order ; and 
thus arrange for a well-earned holiday westward, 
if indeed it be necessary to go so far ! 
How to Make Ceylon Tea Known. — A 
Colombo merchant well says that every planter and 
resident interested in our staple industry should 
lay himself out, when travelling beyond the island 
by whatever line of steamers, to endeavour to 
make the virtues of Ceylon tea practically known. 
He says : — 
When I went home in the " Bayern " I took two 
packets of Galboda tea and made it carefully every 
afternoon for the commander and officers. The 
commander said he had no idea there was such a 
lot to know about the way tea should be made. 
He and other German passengers greatly praised my 
infusions, and I was glad to see some months later 
a record that owing to some influence or other the 
North German Lloyd's steamers were all taking Ceyion 
tea for their tables. Moreover af ter showing the Chef, 
a rather swell Commissarie, how to make lea I 
made him a present of a packet (in lead) of Gal- 
boda on the promise that he would gather his 
friends together when in Germany and give them a 
taste of Ceylon tea. In tbis way Ceylon people pass- 
ing away home in foreign steamers could do a vast 
amount of good if they liked to take the trouble. 
We trust that all Ceylon men going to Europe, 
India or Australia will take the hint and as true 
patriots provide themselves with a few packets 
of an approved brand of Ceylon tea, to help to 
promote the good name and prosperity of the colony! 
