THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1881 
alternating in the lines Liberiau coffee and cacao I 
plant?, by tilling in the vacancies of the latter at once. 
1 now know that all the losses of plants, on land 
not exposed to the S. W'. wind, has be u due to too j 
nuicli dry weather, either immediately or remotely j 
before the young plants got a lirm hold of the j 
ground. Now I see plants that two months ago j 
mt i looked all but dead, expanded into brilliant and j 
abundant foliage, and running up like Jonah's pumpkin; 
and though I may still have many failures, I now j 
entertain no doubt of ultimate success, even in such 
.=eisons as we have had during the last, two years, 
which, from all I can learn, were considered by my nat- j 
ive neighbours unusually dry. _ J 
Those who carry on planting operations in the 
midst of native villages ought to be thankful for j 
i w rinkle, with regard to the material of an im- 
penetrable fence. The Calcutta bambu, Bamhusa 
iruiiiHrirtcea, planted three feet apait, becomes a per- , 
feet fence in twelve months ou tolerable soil, and 
needs no more labour to keep it in order than any 
other living fence. I sowed the seed twenty-three 
months ago, and have it now in good spots thirty 
feet high. I find it grow well on all soils, except 
hard gravel or wet swampy ground, and it can be 
freely propagated to any extent, by dividing the 
roots. Nothing could be better as a belt to break 
the wind in exposed situations, and, when a few 
years old, it will supply nearly all the material for 
light temporary buildings. I planted it ten feet 
apart with a teak plant midway, but even at that 
distance it has. rilled up the spaces in the best soils 
in twelve months. 
DATE COFFEE IN AMERICA. 
It is satisfactory to learn that the coffee merchants, 
retailers and consumers of North America are inclined 
to give no quarter to the attempt to foist on them 
"date" or any other abominable coffee mixtures. 
The following is from the New York Daily Tribune 
of March 17th :— 
MAKING COFFEE OF DATES. 
A VAST SCHEME PROPOSED IN LONDON. 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SOON TO BE GIVEN AN OPPOR- 
TUNITY TO INVEST IN THE DATE COFFEE COMPANY 
—$25 SHARES SOLD IN LONDON FOR. $160 — 
SELLING PATENTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES — WHAT 
IS THOUGHT OF THE SCHEME HERE. 
The people of the United States are soon to have 
j.n o importunity of investing large sums of money in 
a wild speculation now occupying the attention of 
the English public. This is a project for making coffee 
out of dates. A company has been formed in London, 
called the Date Coffee Company, which proposes to 
revolutionize the coffee trade of the world. It has 
issued naming prospectuses, has expended large sums 
of money in advertising and has actually succeeded 
in selling its shares in the English market at $160 
each, their par value being only $25 ; and all this 
before the company has made a dollar of legitimate 
profit or fairly begun operations. The originators of 
this bold scheme have succeeded so well in England 
that they have already turned their attention to 
America, and they are publishing in London glowing 
accounts of their prospects here. They estimate their 
profits in this country to bejiin with at $2,500,000. 
They have already opened correspondence with some 
brokers in this city, and an agent is soon expected 
here to bi gin operations. The first movement will 1 e, 
it is said, to close a contract with an advertising 
firm by which $50,000 will if necessary, be spent in 
advertising the project, after which the projectors 
anticipate no difficulty in relieving the American 
public of a few millions of dollars. The whole scheme 
from its inception to its present wonderful success in 
Loudon reads so much like a chapter of the " South 
Sea Bubble/' or John Law's exploits in Paris, that 
persons on this side of the water almost doubt, the 
truth of what they read in the London press in 
regard to it. There is no doubt, however, that 
even in this age of enlightenment such a project can 
be successfully carried out in London when it would 
fail here. 
The Date Coffee Company (Limited) was finned 
over a year ago to manufacture a partial substitute 
for coffee out of dates according to a patent obtained 
by T. F. Henley. The patent consists in drying the 
date fruit by a process which separates the seeds 
from the pulp. The seeds are then placed in a re- 
volving vessel, and subjected to heat, under the in- 
fluence of which they become in color like roasted 
coffee. When cool t'hey are crushed and mixed with 
real coffee and a little chicory, and the whole is 
claimed to produce a mixture "superior to the best 
Mocha coffee." The company was etaried in London 
early iu 1880, with a proposed capital of $250,000, 
divided into 10,000 shares of $25 each. A few months 
afterward application was made to the London Stock 
Exchange for an official settlement and a quotation. 
The settlement, which gave the company au official 
standing, was granted, but the quotation was refused 
on the ground that there were too many shares in 
the hands of the director?, it appearing that only 265 
shares had been really purchased. The i ompany then 
found that the English Government would not allow 
this adulterated coffee to be manufactured in England, 
but would allow it to be imported at a duty of 4 
cents a pound. 
The works were then started in Kurrachee, India, 
where da T es are said to be plentiful. As the sale of the 
article as coffee is accompanied by a statement of how it 
is adulterated, it does not come within the prohibition 
of I he adulteration act. 
At the end of the first year the Company showed 
no profits. It then occurred to Mr. Haymen, the 
chairman, according to the Company's reports, that 
as the Company only owned the patent for England, 
the patentee, Mr. Henley, might establish companies 
elsewhere and thus open undesirable competition. 
Negotiations were therefore opened with Mr. Henley 
to get the whole of his patents without further pay- 
ment. He saw the force of this brilliant idea at 
once. It would virtually pay him by "the enorm- 
ously increased value " of the large number of share* 
he already held, or by " the enormously increased 
value of the dividends he would get from organizing 
in different countries companies to work the patents.'' 
From that time forth the projectors saw" fortunes 
within easy grasp. It became their business to sell 
patents rather than manufacture adulterated coffee. 
They claimed to manufacture coffee at less than half 
the cost of the genuine article. The samples they 
exhibited from the manufactory at Kurrachee were 
slightly adulterated with " date coffee," and, of course, 
were principally composed of real coffee. How the 
managers revelled in figures may be understood from the 
following letter, written by the chairman to an inquirer : 
" Herewith statements showing the profits the Date 
Company expect to make. The original prospectus 
showed a profit of $250,000 a year on a make of 
forty tops of coffee a week, or 100 per cent per 
annum on the entire capital, but our capital is, even 
when tiie debentures are converted into shares, onlv 
$200,000. The estimates upon which this profit was 
worked out have been proved by actual working tc 
be correct. Since these estimates were made we have 
obtained the whole of Henley's patents, and our 
capital account is the eame. 
