i6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July 
but no extra fine Teas should be sent. Nothing worth 
over about 14 As., and this should only form about 
a quarter of the Consignment. 
Packing. — The packages should be as uniform as 
possible in size, strongly nailed, but not iron-hooped. 
The size of the box should be 25" x 17" x 12", 
inside measurement, 451b. to be packed in each package 
The Boxes should be neatly made, and Tares as even 
as possible. 
Marking.— The only mark required is the garden 
mark, to distinguish the boxes on arrival in Calcutta, 
and " Tea Syndicate" on the opposite side. 
Invoice. — To accompany each parcel. 
It is the province of the Calcutta brokers carefully 
to inspect and value every parcel and to set aside for 
bulking only those parcels which they consider suit- 
able. The proceeds of sales are returned to the various 
contributors of tea in proportion to the value fixed 
on each parcel before bulking. The Syndicate was 
started with a contribution of R20,000, subscribed by 
merchants and agents, and a grant from the Indian 
Government of RIO.OOO towards the expenses of the 
undertaking. We believe the Government grant was 
made on condition that the operations of the Syndicate 
should be gradually extended to " general produce" 
and not simply confined to tea. 
Now here we have information of great value in 
helping us in Ceylon to decide on the best course 
for promoting the interests of our young and pro- 
mising Tea industry. The advantages of the course 
of action adopted in Calcutta are not confined to the 
better opportunity afforded of establishing a large 
trade in the class of tea required for the Colonies, 
but the system also ensures that unity and identity 
of interests so essential to success where it is attempted 
to create a market for a new and comparatively un- 
known description of product. It seems to us in the 
first instance that the Ceylon tea planters and their 
agents could not do better than unite to form them- 
selves into a branch of the Calcutta Syndicate. All 
approved teas supplied to the local Committee would 
then be inspected, and if approved, valued, bulked 
and classed as Ceylon Tea and forwarded to the Syndic- 
ate's Agents in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, or to 
whatever other destination it may be intended, in 
which operations have been begun. The great advant- 
age of working along with India would be that we 
should at once share in a system and concern already 
well-known, and profit by the wide-spread advertise- 
ments of its teas already circulated by the Syndicate. 
Under the same head of "Indian Teas," the produce 
of Assam, Cachar, Ceylon, Darjeeling, would thus, 
hereafter be offered for sale by the Syndicate's Agents. 
Whatever new efforts might be deemed needful in 
Great Britain or Europe generally, would be for the 
benefit of Ceylon equally with that of each of the 
Indian Districts. Already the Syndicate have determ- 
ined to operate in America, and they have sent 
Mr. D. A. Sibthorp (who is a professional Tea-taster) 
thither in charge of considerable consignments. This 
gentleman has become acquainted with the nature and 
quality of Ceylon teas at the Melbourne Exhibition, 
and we feel sure he would do justice to bulked con- 
signments sent from this Colony. It only remains, 
therefore, fur the planters and their agents to con- 
sider whether the hint dropped by Mr. Magor when 
pacing through Ceylon, should not be taken up and 
acred on, enquiry being made in the meantime as to 
tbe terms of affiliation and the conditions under which 
Ceylon tea would be taken charge of by the Syndic- 
ate's Agents. 
CAL1SAYA LEDGERIANA FLOURISHING IN 
MASKEL1YA. 
Nothing will give us greater pleasure than to be 
placed in a position to assure Mr. MoenB (and the 
cinchona planting world generally) that, whatever may 
be the case in Java, " a long dry season " is not 
required in Ceylon to enable the precious Ledgeri- 
anas to blossom and seed, any more than to t;row 
luxuriantly. And a few more facts added to those 
furnished in the interesting statement made by Mr. 
Christie of Maskeliya, ought to convince even Mr. 
Moens of the fitness of certain portions of our younger 
districts between Adam's Peak and Great Western for 
the cultivation of this valuable species. After all, 
although blossom is an important matter, it is not the 
most important in respect of cinchona. If the Ledgeri- 
ana trees grow vigorously and put on bark after the 
fashion of the "succirubra" species (as stated by 
Mr. Christie) certainly the cultivation should be pro- 
nounced a decided success. His comparisons speak 
for themselves, and we trust these wiii be followed 
by others made by the possessors of Ledgeriana cali- 
sayas of an appreciable age in Boltumbe or West 
Haputale, in Madulsima, Maturata, and other districts. 
The piece of bark sent to us by Mr. Christie requires 
no microscope to discover its quality ; to break it and 
taste it is almost sufficient ! The analysis shews that 
Ceylon " Ledgerianas " of the true type are not likely 
to be a bit behind those of Java in their value to 
the manufacturers of quinine. Mr. Howard will be 
greatly interested in the experience of Mr. Christie 
(whom we heartily congratulate), and we shall for- 
ward to the veteran Quinologist the piece of bark 
sent to us, to enable him to judge of the result even 
at this early stage. 
The Produce Market : the Falling-off in 
Prices. — This time last year prices were higher than 
now, as follows : — 
Middling Plantation Ceylon 14 per cent. 
Good Ordinary Native Ceylon ... 19 ,, 
Mysore Coffee 22 
New York Fair Rio ... ... 35 „ 
Coconut Oil 12£ 
„ Cochin 10 „ 
Mid. Uplands Cotton in London ... 15 ,, 
Tinnevelly „ ... 13 „ 
Fair Dhollerab „ ... 26 
Good Fair Westerns „ ... 26 ,, 
"Gold in Ceylon." — We are indebted to a corre- 
spondent signing " Granite" for the following : — " A 
quick and inexpensive method of testing quartz is 
much needed at the present time. Here is one : take 
a candle and a blowpipe and apply the flame to the 
face of a promising lump of quartz, concentrating the 
heat on one particular spot for three minutes more or 
less. If there is gold, it will very shortly become 
coated with the precious metal. ' Contrary, no.' This 
test I have seen applied to good specimens of silver 
ore, with the result, as may be supposed, of com- 
pletely plating the heated surface. Having fancied 
that the ardour of the gold-seekers was abating some- 
what, I have sent this note, and am in hopes it may 
give a fillip to their flagging zeal." 
City Analyst's Report. — Mr. Thomas Jamieson, 
F.C.S., public analyst for the city, has examined in 
the course of the past three months examples of milk, 
confections, tea, oil, and butter. In the milk there 
was no excess of water and no deficiency of cream. 
In two cases the confections contained no injurious 
ingredients, two varieties were " harmless," one was 
injurious, and one " suspicious." The oil was free 
from injurious ingredient, and the butter was fonnd 
to contain 51 per cent, of butter fat and 49 per cent, 
of other fat. Mr. Jamieson examined four samples 
each of teas of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th qualities. Of 
the 1st and 2nd qualities the samples were unadul- 
terated, in the 3rd quality one contained 8 per cent 
of other than tea leaves and in the 4th quality there 
were two such samples one of which contained 21 and 
the other 3 per cent. The amount which the analyst 
earned in fees was £1.— Aberdeen Journal. 
