May i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
TAR IN CHINA TEA. 
(To the E litor of the London and China, Express.) 
Sir —The t'ollowiug, gathered from Northern Chinese 
teamen whose knowledge and experience are reliable, 
may perhaps, interest your readers, as well as dispel 
some of the over-refined prejudice exhibited both by 
the trade and exporters to the misscalled " tarry " teas 
this season. Nearly all these last have now been dis- 
posed of with great difficulty, and at severe losses to 
the owners, whilst intrinsically far inferior quality, 
but considered " pure " by London buyers, has through- 
out been taken readily for home consumption, the Con- 
tinent and Russia. . 
The fault of " tar " lies mainly in the curing. Ljxthe 
larger districts where fine teas are produced " tar is 
pretty well unknown, because the teas are fired over 
charcoal. In smaller and inferior districts the natives 
cannot afford charcoal, and must use wood more or less 
green. If the weather be bad, damp, and the leaf not 
picked on a sunny day more firing is required, and upon 
the character of the wood used depends the question 
of "tar" more or less. In some of the teas from the 
interior districts "tar" is constantly present— Oanfas 
and "Tow Yuens " are almost always more or less 
" tarry," " Pingkongs," " Lyeliugs," and " Liowyongs 
are always "tarry," excepting the best head chops. 
"Tar" is caused, not by anything in the leaf itself, 
but— although it may in a measure depend upon the 
weather duriug which the leaf is picked— there seems 
little doubt that the characteristic arises in the firing. 
As, therefore, the virtue or the defect of " tar " seems 
to have existed since above-named districts were known 
—about 18G5, we believe— it appears somewhat hyper- 
critical to proscribe it now, nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury subsequently. Tea which is inherently pure, al- 
though '.' tarry," must he quite as wholesome as the 
self-styled "pure" descriptions, which probably owe 
their absolution more to the accident of dry weather 
than to having been " cured " solely over charcoal 
instead of wood "firing."— We are, sir, yours faithfully, 
Verbatim et Literatim. 
London, Feb. 21st. 
* 
HOW WE RID OUR VINES OF 
- MEALY-BUG. 
With the exception of Phylloxera this is the worst 
pest the Grape grower has to contend with. When 
I took charge of these gardens I found two vineries 
very badly infested, and the Vines were also in very 
bad condition, and most of the bunches of Grapes were 
full of the bug. I had been told it was impossible 
to clear Vines of bug, but I determined to try what 
could be done with those, in one house. A tew of 
the bunches were not affected, and by tying pieces 
of wadding round the stalks of these the fruit was kept 
clear until it was ripe. When the fruit had been con- 
sumed the laterals were shortened back, and the spurs, 
which were only 9 inches apart on each side of the 
rods, were thinned out to about 18 inches apart; the 
Tines were then heavily syringed with warm water 
in which 1 oz. of soft-soap and one tablespoonful of 
paraffin per gallon was mixed, taking care to keep it 
well stirred. This operation was repeated several 
times until the leaves had fallen, and it reduced the 
numbers ot the insects considerably. As soon as poss- 
ible after the fall of the leaf tho Vines were pruned, 
the loose bark pulled off, and the crevices and spurs 
scraped with a knife; the glass, woodwork, andiron 
trellis thoroughly washed with hot water and soft-soap, 
and the wood and iron painted all over with paraffin. 
Finally the houses werefilled with fumes of sulphur, and 
the walls were scraped and theu dressed with hot lime- 
wash in which some sulphur and carbolic acid had 
been mixed. The top soil was taken off the border 
to a depth of 3 inches, the Vines were scrubbed with 
hot water and soft-soap at the rato of 9 o/.. to the 
gallon, and were then painted over with a mixture 
of gas-tar and stiff blue clay, the latter being dried 
and rubbed into a powder before being well mixed 
wit h the tar, the whole forming a stiff puste, with 
which tho Vines were coated all over, care being taken 
not to injure the buds. Some fresh loam was put 
on the border, and we thought that the last of the 
AGRICULTURIST. \$i 
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mealy-bugs was killed; meanwhile steps were taken to 
assist the roots by renewing the outside border which 
had got into a very bad state. The Vines having 
started gently on January 5, all went well, and on traces of 
bug were found: but as the sap began to rise the coat- 
ing of clay and tar expanded, and no examining the 
Vines, just as the buds were breaking, ttiree or four 
young bugs were discovered — a proof that not as yet 
were all killed. A.S a last resource a gallon of boil- 
in"' water was procured, and into which were put 
five wineglasses full of paraffin, five of carbolic acid, 
and half a pound of soft soap ; this was carefully 
applied all over the rods, with the exception of the 
growing buds, and decided the fight in our favour, as 
we have not had any bug on the Vines since that time. 
This last application may appear to be too strong to 
be safely applied generally, and I have no doubt it 
would have injured the Vines had they not have been 
partially protected by the previous application of clay 
and tar, which formed a hard coating alljover them. — W. 
H.DlvEES,Ketton Hall, Stamford. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
« 
COFFEE GROWING AND CURING. 
The recent effort which has been made to enlist 
public interest in coffee-growing by the formation of 
a chartered company to engage in it on a large scale, 
under the patronage and supervision of the Govern- 
ment, has unfortunately terminated in failure by the 
refusal of the King to approve the bill providing 
the sum which was deemed necessary by its friends 
to ensure its success. That the fiuest coffee in the 
world can be grown here is a fact that is patent to 
everyone ; but how to grow it on a large scala in a 
manner to make it profitable remains yet to be de- 
monstrated. It was the same furruerly with sugar and 
rice; every venture in either of these staples resulted 
in embarrassment and failure, and, prior to 1876, 
there was never a plantation of sugar or rice that 
paid a profit to its owner from its earnings. It was 
only after the Government took the matter in hand 
and secured from the United States what is tanta- 
mount to a bounty of two cents per pound on every 
pound of sugar and rice produced here, that a rea- 
sonable profit was secured, which may in time lead 
to our plantations being placed on such a solid basis 
as to continue to pay small profits after the termina- 
tion of the treaty, which must eventually cease. All 
thatwas sou ght in the recent effort to secure legis- 
lative aid was, that the Government should co-operate 
with private parties and endeavor, by the introductou 
of new and improved machinery and the service of 
competent coffee-growers, to make a trial on a scale 
which it was thought would ensure success. It might 
have proved a failure; but if so, it would have been 
a satisfaction to know that with every advantage 
that could be secured by Government aid and patron- 
age, the fact was demonstrated that Hawaii could 
not compete with Brazil, where liberal Government 
aid is given, or any other country in growing coffee 
and that the thousands of acres on Hawaii, supposed 
to be adapted to it, must still be allowed to run 
waste to lantana weeds and forest. 
Coffee-growing is a branch of agriculture that holds 
out greater inducements in Hawaii than any other 
product, except sugar and rice. The duty of three 
cents a pound levied on coffee imported here amounts 
really to a bonus of three cents on every pound 
grown in the country, and to this extent is a pro- 
tective duty, as may be seen by the present price, 
which fluctuates in Honolulu accordiug to quality from 
18 to 22 cents a pound. Even at the first-named 
figure it ought to pay any person or company en- 
gaging in its cultivation after the enterprise fairly 
becomes established. For this reasou we regret vary 
much the failure of the recent effort to aid coffee- 
growing on such a basis as might have given a per- 
manent impulse to a new and profitable- industry, 
which seems to need only national help to demon- 
strate that it may become a successful industrj, in 
which native and foreign labor can be advAiitaijeou-dy 
combined, and Hawaii receive the credit and profit 
derived from a product which is incomparably superior 
to that grown in any other country. — Planters' Monthly* 
