July i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
CEYLON TEA. 
We call special attention to the letter which our 
late Governor Sir Wm. Gregory has very kindly written 
in I he interests of Cevlon tea planters. We feel sure 
that the continued interest thus manifested in the 
promotion of our planting industries will be generally 
appreciated. We do not, of course, forget that it was 
during Sir Wm. Gregory's term of Government that 
attention was first properly directed to "new pro- 
ducts," more especially to tea and cinchona, and in 
respect of the quality of the former our late Governor 
has all along been a firm believer in the capability 
of Ceylon to produce the finest teas. The suggestion 
now m ide is one well deserving the attention of our 
planters, many of whom have individually been enter- 
ing into arrangements with retailers in different parts 
of the old country. Why not combine and establish 
a West End " Ceylon Tea and Coffee Room," or 
simply a store for the sale of packets of such produce 
from a few lb. up to a cwt.? The subject is one which 
might well be discussed by the Plauters' Association 
as preliminary to definite action. The custom of the 
large number of metropolitan residents now connected 
with or interested in Ceylon would, of itself, ensure 
a fair amount of support for a vVest End Store of 
the kind we speak of. 
NEWS FROM BRAZIL. 
{From Our Own Correspondent.) 
Patent Laws — Labour Laws — Coffee Prospects. 
Fazenda Angelica, S. Joao do Rio < lai o, 
20th March 1881. 
In answer to a correspondent's enquiry in your 
paper a few weeks ago, I would say there is every facility 
for getting a patent for an iuvention in Brazil. Give 
some one a power of attorney, plans and specifica- 
tions, and copy of original patents given in another 
country (latter not practically necessary), and the 
attorney through himself or an agent in Rio de 
Janeiro will make application. The cost will be from 
£50 to £100, including agency. 
I have not time at present to give you a report. 
I will merely say that coming crop (1881-82) is ex- 
pected to be two-thirds the last one. 
Here in S. Panlo, it will be nearly the same, as 
young coffee coming into bearing will make up for 
old coffee trees, which have very little fruit on them 
this year. 
A blow has been struck at international or inter- 
urovincial slave trade. In the three coffee-produc- 
ing province*, a tax of £150 (1,51)0^000) in province Rio 
de Janeiro, and £200 (2,000§000) in provinces of S. 
Paulo and Miuas Geraes, on each slave entering from 
any other province, has to be paid at time of regis- 
tration. Coffee cultivation can now be extended only 
by the use of free labour. This weakens the power of the 
Emancipation party, as they expected that the other 17 
irovinces of the Empire, a? soon as they got rid of 
their slaves, would outvote, the three coftee, -produc- 
ing provinces, who had bought them, aud declare for 
immediate emancipation. 
The hands of the advocate* of the "dying out" 
system of emancipation are thus strengthened. I am 
willing, however, to believe that the real intention 
of the law-makers in framing, and of the Government 
in sanctioning, the law was to enforce the coffee planter 
to use more energy in obtaining free labour. — Yours 
*™iy. A. Scots Biaqklaw. 
CEYLON TEA IN AUSTRALIA. 
(From a correspondent.) 
Melbourne, April 24. 
I have be?n out of town seeking for information 
respecting Ceylon tea, and from all I can learn it 
appears that we must try up-country, if we wish to 
break down the hold that China tea has upon the 
market. I asked a storekeeper up-country the other 
day if I should send him some samples of Ceylon 
tea. His answer was: "I never buy from samples, 
unless the bulk is at hand to be compared with the 
samples. Show me a few chest?, and then, if they 
are equal to samples, I may buy." 
Three persons in Melbourne, are trying to sell Tea by 
sample. They do not, and will not succeed. I have 
written to two geutlenrn in Colombo, asking them 
to send me down a few chests of Tea, and if they 
do, I will take it nearly 100 miles from Melbourne, 
and try the country. I bought a few pounds of Tea 
before leaving Colombo, and have given it all 
away. I gave a small quantity to a farmer's wife 
without telling her what it was, and after trying it, 
she Slid " that is fine Tea [where did you get it?' 
Coffee still quoted at 81s :— It strikes me that is 
things go on as they are doing we shall all be short 
of coin very soon. The German firms report a 
panic as prevailing in coffee at home. Short crops 
kill us here , it will be a funny thing if extraordinarily 
big crops should kill Brazilian coffee planters : prices be- 
coming unremunerative, and at the same time the price 
of labor rising is not a healthy state of things ! — Cor. 
Shevaeoy Planting Notes, April 26. — I understand 
that a company has been formed to open out tht' 
Kollymullays, a range of hills lying to the south or 
the Shevaroys, very accessible from the plain, and 
favourably situated as regards rain, soil and elevation 
for coffee planting. The area available for planting 
on the Sbevaioys is becoming much circumscribed; 
and capitalists are forced to look for " pastures 
new." With heavy jungle and abundance of water, 
some of us might do better by migrating " bag and 
baggage " to the Kollymallays. There is, however, one 
drawback — the hills are said to be very feverish. 
For all that I wish the pioneers of coffee-plantiDg 
on the Kollymullays every success. So mote it be 
— Madras Times, 
Food Adulteration. — Not long since the New York 
Hour referred to the discouraging report of a Com- 
mittee of Experts appointed by Congres to inquire 
into the adulteration of articles of foods and drink in 
this country. A similar inquiry in Vienna, by a 
Society for the Protection of the Public Health, has 
resulted quite as unpleasantly. Almost everything 
examined proved to be more or less adulterated. Out, 
of nine hundred and fifty i-amples of milk, nearly all, 
were found to be skimmed and diluted with water- 
while some had come from diseased cows and some 
were given a delusive richness through the medium 
of borax, soda and soap. Of two hundred specimens 
of butter, all contained an excessive proportion of 
water, and many showed component parts of beef fat, 
lard and stearine. Lard, in its turn, was adulterated 
with borax and lime, but this came from Hungary 
and America. Ground coffee co n sisted mainly o^' 
roasted grain, beans and chiccory. Bread was found 
to contain numberless less savory and wholesome 
ingredients than Hour. Even the wine and beer, those 
mainstays of the Fatherland, had not escaped adul- 
teration. Of one thousand one hundred samples o' 
Austrian and Hungarian wines, fifty-two vvero artificial 
concoctions outright, while many others were found 
I to be largely watered and artificially colored. Finally 
I Pilsner beer showed soda, Vienna beer contained 
I glycerine, aud pcventv-three of the liqueurs examine I 
I had traces of arsenic or copper, besides other del. - 
terious substances. -.V tie Fori Hour. 
