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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
27 
(From April 10 to April 16 .) 
COFFEE MIXTURES AND ADULTERATIONS. 
A planting correspondent in the low-country writes:— 
"There appear tome two things that the Planters' 
Association ought to do about the Date Coffee: — 
" 1st.— Obtain a legal opinion, as to whether an in- 
junction could not be. got to prevent the Company 
from using the word ' coffee, ' in describing their 
preparation of date stones. If they produce a bever- 
age, that is cheap, palatable, wholesome, and nourish- 
ing, it is quite able to stand on its own bottom, aup 
make a name for itself, but, whatever it may be, it 
is not coffee, and has no right to usurp a name 
which belongs to an article costing much more in 
production, and the value of which rests on qualities, 
which no cheaper produce can lay claim to. The 
English Parliament has legalized the sale of a mixture 
of chicory, because the grocers of Great Britain 
are a more important factor in elections than coffee 
planters, but the same privilege is certainly not 
exteuded to date stones, and the grocer interest is 
not likely to avail the Company, as it will naturally 
prefer the preparation it can mix at its own dis- 
cretion. 
" 2nd.— A memorial to Mr. Gladstone, shewing that 
this new commodity avowedly comes into competi- 
tion with a whole group of duty-bearing products, 
and prajing that date stones may be placed on the 
same footing at the custom house as the tea, coffee' 
cacao, and chicory, it proposes to displace.* For once 
in a way, the coffee aud chicory planters are in the 
same boat : a common foe should lead them to the 
same platform to fight for a common interest. The 
tea Hiid cacao planters are less directly interested, but 
if this Company succeed in creating a taste for their 
trash, it will more or less affect the whole group, 
especially when the genuine commodities are loaded 
with a customs duty, and the spurious imitation enters 
free. The Company seem to be moving heaven and 
earth to push their wares on the markets ; while the 
planters sit idly by, to watch but never act. We 
can have no hope of checking to any appreciable ex- 
tent the fraudulent practices of British trading, which 
a high authority has declared to be the legitimate out- 
come of free trade, but when those practices touch 
our own interests at a vital point, nothing should 
be left undone that may possibly tend to our pro- 
tection. " 
Our correspondent, and many more of our readers, 
will be glad to learn that the Chairman of the Plant- 
ers' Association has taken up the question of memo- 
rializing the home Government on the subject of 
coffee adulteration and the sale of coffee mixtures, 
and that a result long pressed for in these columns 
will now be attained. We take it for granted that 
the draft memorial submitted by Mr. Wall to a Sub- 
committee of the Planters' Association, after any 
needful amendment, will be unanimously supported 
throughout the country. We trust the Chamber of 
Commerce will either make it their own or take in- 
dependent action to endeavour to secure the same 
end, namely, the restriction which the most ordinary 
fair play calls for in the case of the retail sale of 
coffee mixtures in the United Kingdom. We want 
both the local bodies to send home a petition annu- 
ally until the present grievance is redressed. Coffe e 
alone among colonial produce is placed at the serious 
disadvantage of having all kinds of legalized, but 
: It was expressly stated that duty is paid on the 
date stouos.— En. 
I abominable, mixtures sold under its name in the United 
Kingdom. We do not see why the prohibition of all 
such mixtures should not be asked for. True, chi- 
cory and the trash of " dates " which is to be used 
for coffee pay the same customs duty (14sperewt.) 
as the fragrant berry, but that is no safeguard against 
the most rascally deception which is openly and almost 
avowedly practised on the mass of the consumers. 
The working and even the lower middle classes are 
unable to protect themselves in buying the cheap and 
attractive coffee mixtures, so neatly and conveniently 
assorted. Then by degrees their taste becomes viti- 
ated, until real coffee would positively be a strauge 
and unpleasant drink to them. Chicory or some other 
powder they must have, and it becomes possible to 
palm off upon them 90 per cent of some wretched 
stuff to 10 of ground coffee. How is it to be wondered 
that the consumption of coffee in the United King- 
dom should have gone back steadily, while tea has 
so marvellously increased, under these circumstances ? 
Our Handbook shews that the consumption of coffee 
in the United Kingdom was 16,730 tons in 1847 
against only 14,540 tons in. 1880 ; while the consump- 
tion of tea in the same period has quintupled, the 
increase alone being equal to 72,500 tons. Forty 
years ago, in fact, coffee was drunk in the mother- 
country to the amount of fully l^rd lb. per head of 
population, while now the ratio is - 09 lb. Tea, on the 
other hand, from lfrd lb. has gone up to nearly 6' lb. 
per head of population ! Can any stronger evidence 
be required by Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues of 
the injurious effect of the iniquitous " Order of Coun- 
cil " which sanctions the sale of coffee mixtures ? If 
it be the wish of the British Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer and his Lords of the Treasury to suppress 
the consumption of coffee altogether iu the United 
Kingdom, let them say so; but surely the present 
system of depraving the public taste ought to be 
stopped in the interest of everybody concerned. 
Whether, however, the Home Government will con- 
sent to stop the sale of chicory and date mixtures 
of coffee or not, there is one reform which, if put 
as an alternative in the Ceylon Memorial, it seems to 
us, cannot possibly be refused at this time of day. 
We refer to the declaration on the label required ou 
such mixtures of the proportions of each substance 
which they purport to contain. If this is done, it 
will open the eyes of the consumers to the small 
quantity of coffee they are really receiving in their 
mixtures, and, moreover, it will enable a check to 
be put on coffee, as on other, adulterations ; for, should 
the proportion of coffee be found less ou analysis than 
is declared, the retailer can, of course, be punished. 
Most heartily do we comineud this movement to the 
support of planters and merchants. We have always 
thought it a reproach that the agitation commenced 
by Mr. Leake was not continued by his successors in 
the Association. Surely public men in Ceylon do not 
require to be told that here, as iu the old country, 
if a grievance of long standing is to be redressed . the 
efficacious mode of action is that which has been 
made memorable in Anti-Slavery, Reform, Free Trade 
and so many more legislative victories, namely Agi 
tate. Agitate, AGITATE ! 
