77 8 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1889. 
India aud Ceylon, has nearly ceased. It was profit- 
able only so long as the tree existed wild in large 
quantities within easy reach of the Magilalena river, 
and whilst the price of quinine was high. The allied 
species, Remijia pedunculate:,,* which is to be found 
in considerable quantities on the slopes of the 
mountains bordering the llanos, has not been largely 
exported, owing to the cost of transport. 
Various sorts of trees producing caoutchouc, mostly 
castilloas, are indigenous to Colombia, but only one 
sort is cultivated, and that, at present, to a very small 
extent. This is a hitherto undescribed species of the 
family of the Euphorbiactje, allied to the Oeara and 
the Hevea of Brazil; but it grows at a greater elevation 
than any of the Brazilian species. In Chaparral there 
is a plantation of 70,000 trees, at 6500 feet, which 
are doing well. They are ready for tapping in six 
years from the time of planting. 
Eucalyptus trees have been largely planted during 
the last twenty years in many parts of the country, 
especially on the savana of Bogota. E. Globulus is 
the species which has been most planted, though others, 
such as the E. citriodora, E. rostrata, and E. setlicpncL 
have been tried. Many attempts have been made to 
introduce some species of the tree into very hot 
districts, such as Carthagena and some parts of the 
Magdalena valley, but I believe without success. — 
Pharmaceutical Journal, 
COFFEE &c. IN BRAZIL. 
" The Municipalities of Cape Frio and Araruama 
have not, unfortunately, been spared by the great 
drouth that has devastated the province of Rio de 
Janeiro. The plantations of maize made during the 
latter part of Oct. and iD Nov. are completely lost ; 
the coffee crop which would have been much smaller 
than last year is also lost. Fire has destroyed entire 
coffee orchards and sugar-cane fields. The Concerto 
and Papicil plantations have lost all their cane. In S. 
Matheus, Sapucaia, Ara£a and other points of the two 
Municipalities, the destruction has been terrible; coffee- 
trees, pastures, manioc-fields, hedges, everything has 
been devastated by the terrible element of destruction. 
Many cattle have died from want of pasture, and water 
is scarce in some localities. The heat has been horrible, 
the thermometer marking 38dg. C. (91-4dg. F.) in the 
shade and there is no atmospheric appearance of raia. 
At night the sight that is presented to our eyes is hor- 
rible ; in whatever direction one looks the glare of 
fires is seen ; it appears as if we were in a great pot 
completely surrounded by flames. A veritable calamity." 
— Gazeta de Notieias, 12th Feb. [Quoted in Rio Neios 
of Feb. 18th.] 
JAVA TEA COMING TO THE FEONT. 
We have been favoured with the following copy of 
memorandum sent to a London firm by Messrs. Rucker 
& Bencraft, 37 Mincing Lane, on 26th March 1889 :— 
We send you three samples of a very desirable quality 
of "Pekoe Souchong." It possesses great strength 
as well as flavor and a bright infused leaf. It is a 
very useful class of tea and sold today for 9Jd. 
As showing to what perfection tea making is brought 
in Java we send a sample of fine Pekoe. It is rather 
destitute of flavor and strength, but realized Is 6d 
per lb. 
Hoolankande Pekoe made in same style realized 
2s 6|d. 
«. _ 
Tea. Prospects in Bengal. — A correspondent 
■writes to a Calcutta contemporary : — " The tea season 
has commenced in the Darjiling Hills. On account 
of the abundant rain in the cold weather it was 
suppoeed that the season would commence with an 
early bumper flush. I am sorry to say these 
prognostications are not verified. The flush is a 
very thin flush, in some places banji, and perhaps 
will not weigh more than half the flush of last 
year." — Pioneer. 
* The botanical names of these trees have evidently 
been transposed.— Ed. Pharm. Joum. 
Opium. — Mr. W. J. Moore writing on the subject 
of opium, and Mr. Caine's resolution on the Indian 
trade in opium says :— " There are so many false 
impressions abroad with regard to the use and 
effects of opium that it will be well that a few facts 
on the subject should be plainly stated. The preva- 
lent idea is that the person using opium descends 
from bad to worse, that he continually increases the 
amount of the drug consumed, that he cannot, 
having once taken to the habit, break it off, and that 
he becomes emaciated, decrepit, feeble, and physi- 
cally and mentally incapacitated for all business. 
Now these are not the facts. No one denies that the 
immoderate use of opium is eventually most delete- 
rious ; but this may be said of the immoderate use 
of almost anything. The moderate use of opium — 
as it is consumed by the very great majority of those 
either eating or smoking it- — is not prejudicial, and 
to very many persons, and in many positions, it is 
actually beneficial. Among the Rajpoots, for exam- 
ple, the majority use opium in one form or other — 
either swallowed in the shape of little pills, or drunk 
as ' umal pawnee,' or smoked as chandul. Yet the 
Rajpoots, speaking generally, are as fine a race of 
men as any to be found in the Eastern Hemisphere. 
I have known middle-aged men, hale and hearty, 
and capable of the greatest fatigue, who have used 
opium from their youth upwards. It is very 
raraly, these people exceed the accustomed quantum, 
and I have occasionally known individuals break 
off the habit. But, as a rule, finding it does them 
ho harm, and that they are exhilarated and 
strengthened thereby, the habit is not left off. 
Again, in the more malarious districts of India, as, 
indeed, in some other malarious countries, opium 
eating is very prevalent. Opium has long been 
noted as an antiperiodic, and there .is no manner 
of doubt that it is prophylactic against ague and 
malarious febrile diseases generally. If it were 
not for opium, the mortality from malarious fevers 
in India would be very much greater than it is. 
It is also an inestimable boon to the very poor, 
and especially in times of scarcity and famine, 
for it enables persons to exist upon less food than 
they otherwise could live on. Neither is the con- 
sumer of opium mentally incapacitated. I had for 
many years a Mussulman servant, who travelled 
with me thousands of miles, and whose duty was 
to rise in the early hours, prepare tea, and other- 
wise get ready for the march. Although a con- 
firmed opium eater he nevec forgot anything, and 
was always at his post. A telling commentary 
on the assertion that opium dulls the mental facul- 
ties is the practice of the Chinese, who take their 
opium before business bargaining, and not like a 
Briton, who takes his glass after the business is 
concluded. All this, however, refers to a moderate 
use of the drug. An immoderate consumption will, 
doubtless, produce all that anti-opiumists assert ; 
but, comparatively, the number taking opium to 
excess is not so great as the number taking liquor 
to excess. But opium has been ignorantly said to 
induce the very ailments for the relief of which 
it is resorted to. Travellers visit opium shops, 
and find therein people suffering from all kinds of 
maladies, and an erroneous inference is drawn 
that opium is the cause of such maladies, the 
fact being that individuals so afflicted resort to the 
opium shop for relief. Others of the poorer classes 
resort to the opium shop because they know opium 
will allay the pangs of hunger. I will not trespass 
longer on your valuable space, nor is it necessary, 
for any one desiring to learn something about opium 
may do so from my book, entitled ' The Other Side 
of the Opium Question,' and ' The Opium Shops 
of Bombay.' "-H . <& C. Mail. 
