January 2, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
619 
finer varieties must be separated by picking out by hand, 
but this is seldom worth while, and they are left mixed 
with the others. After tho sorting, the tea is again 
thoroughly dried and stored in tin-lined boxes, or sent 
to market in tin canisters. The varieties usually separ- 
ated, with their prices, are as follows : — 
Familia (unrolled leaves) . . 3$200 per kilo 
Hyson (cartouche-shaped, coarse) 5 200 ,, 
Ochin (do. do. fine . . 8 000 ,, 
Aljofar (round, fine) . . . . 8 000 „ 
Perola (round, coarse) . . 8 000 „ 
It will be seen that the process of manufacture is 
very simple, requiring only inexpensive apparatus and no 
great amount of skill in the workmen, since this work 
has been done by the ordinary slaves of the fazenda, 
producing teas that even at the high prices given above, 
have almost excluded the foreign teas from the Ouro 
Prcto market. The best evidence of their superior quali- 
ty is the fact that it has been found of advantage to 
imitate tho mark of the Thesoureiro factory in the 
market of Rio de Janeiro, and that the proprietors have 
first-class medals not only from all the national exposi- 
tions, but also from the international expositions of 
London, Vienna, and Philadelphia. 
Let us now examine the question of the cost of pro- 
duction. The leaves lose in drying about 75°/ 0 of their 
weight. A good panman will wilt, roll and dry half an 
aroba of tea per day, and an active picker will gather 
the same quantity of green loaves. Pour pickers and one 
panman can therefore prepare half an aroba per day at an 
expense (counting wages at 2$000 per day, a very liberal 
estimate) of 101000. An equal sum should cover the 
expenses of weeding and cultivating tho ground (very 
light work) and those of sorting and of tho final pre- 
paration for the market, which is work that can be 
done when other work is slack. This gives a total ex- 
pense of 201000 per each half aroba (7J kilos) which 
at the lowest price is worth 241000. The mean price 
is, however, much greater (owing to the mixture of 
varieties), and practice has demonstrated that it is about 
45$000. Supposing even that by the eventualities of 
bad weather or bad management the expenses were 
doubled, there would still bo left a handsome profit of 
about 12 J per cent on tho cost of production. 
It is not pretended that so favourablo results have 
been attained at Thesoureiro where the unsystematic 
employment of slave labour makos it impossible to arrive 
a l an- reliable estimate of tho actual cost of produc- 
tion. Tho fazenda has about fifty slaves, including 
many women, children, and old men, who havo been 
employed in tea-making, mining, and general work. Tho 
annual production has varied from fifty to eighty arobas. 
The advantages of this species of cultivation, asido 
from ilmt already mentioned of combining a high value 
with a small volume, so that tho product can bear a 
high rate of transportation, are intuitive from tho above 
description, and only need to be enumerated. Thev are : 
firei planting only requires a slight a 
oleamng the ground of woods and 1< 
The Thesoureiro plantation is, as air. 
jroai old and is still good. 
Bid. The freedom from injury froi) 
4th. The small cost of tho buildup 
for the manufacture, making this a vei 
of industry for small proprietors, ospc 
pressing work of the harvest, that 
leaves, is such light -writ that it 11m; 
men and children. Even this small 
avoided by the establishment of central factories since 
as the h aves may be kept for twenty-four hours or more 
before going to the tiro, a factor)' could draw its supply 
of green leaves from an area of several milos. 
tuts. 
and appliances 
lesirable branch 
illy as the most 
gathering tho 
ie done by wo- 
pense may bo 
5th. The absence of risk of loss from bad weather 
because the new and tender leaves fit for tea-making 
only appear after rains which do not prevent the picking, 
and, when once gathered, all the rest of the process is 
under cover. Coffee planters who pass anxious weeks 
during the drying season will appreciate this advantage. 
In view of the favourable results obtained in this one 
experimental establishment, the farmers of Minas and 
other parts of Brazil will do well to carefully examine 
this question of tea culture, and many will doubtless 
find it to then- advantage to embark in it. It seems 
particularly well adapted for the pequena lavovra, and 
the grande lavoura with free labour since the harvest 
is very fight work which can be done by hands too 
weak for other work, and being extended over a con- 
siderable season requires a less number of hands than 
those crops that must be gathered in a few days or a 
few weeks. The empire itself offers a very extensive 
and ever-increasing market for the product, which even 
if produced on a very large scale would for many years 
at least be almost absolutely independent of the fluctua- 
tions of foreign markets. Orville A. Derby. 
FRUIT JOTTINGS FROM SINGAPORE. 
(Gardeners' Chronicle, 8th October 1881.) 
We have just got through our fruit season in Singa- 
pore, only a few scattered fruits of Rambutan (Nephe- 
lium lappaceum), Pulasan (Nephelium mutabile), Mat a 
kuching (Nephelium eriopetalum), Rambeh (Pierardia 
dulcis), and Mangosteens, now remaining on the trees. 
The crop in Singapore of nearly all kinds has been a 
very heavy one ; in fact " everybody " says the heaviest 
ever known here. The regal Durian, as Mr. Burbidge 
justly styles it (Gardeners' Chronicle, May 31, 1879), 
has been particularly plentiful; and as Mr. Burbidge 
has sounded its praises so loudly and ably, he may be 
pleased to know that they have been selling here at the 
rate of twenty for a dollar, and fine frait too. 
The quantity of imported fruit has also been very 
great, especially of such kinds as do not succeed well 
in Singapore; notable among these being the Langsat 
(Lansium domesticum), and the Mango. The Langsat 
does well in Malacca, whence the fruits are exported 
to Singapore and other places ; but, strangely enough it 
has not, so far as I am aware, ever done well in Singa- 
pore. Mangoes come to us from Siam, and delicious 
fruits they are ; but those grown in Singapore have 
mostly an intensely tcrebinthiuo flavour, and the trees 
are very subject to the attacks of boring larva which 
tunnel their way for long distances through tho central 
pith of the medium-sized branches before emerging, and 
it is not uncommon to see ahnost the whole heads of 
largo trees killed by this pest. A close ally, the Beon- 
jai (Mangifera ccosia), does well in Singapore, but its 
fruits are only used for malting a sort of " sumball," a 
name applied to numerous kinds of preparations eaten 
with curry and rice. To appreciate it, however, even in 
this stylo, one has to bo educated to it, as with tho 
Durian, but when ouco a tasto for it is acquired, the 
pleasant sub-acid and peculiar flavour is missed with 
regret when it goes out of season. 
The Rumaniyahs (Bonea microphylla an 1 1". uiacro- 
phylla) are professedly relished by somo Europeans, but 
I must confess that my taste has not vet been educated 
enough to appreciate them, which is also tho case with 
Jack-fruit (Artocarpus intcgrifolia), although it is much 
relished by many people. By-tho-byo, while staying with 
some frionds in Singapore last week, I was treated to 
some very delicious home-made Sour Sop (Anomi nmri- 
cata) jam and jelly, which obliges mo to acknowledge 
that they wore simply perfection. What a pity it is we 
cannot grow ouough Sour Sops to render us independent 
of (.'rosso .V l'.luck veil's and Morton's preparations in 
this line.— H. V. Mli.ton, August 30. 
