850 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1882. 
Exports from minor ports must have made up the 
total quantity to 7 millions, and, as the stocks of coffee 
in Brazil at the close of 1881 were exceedingly heavy, 
it really seems as if, after making allowance for stocks 
at end of 1880, the coffee gathered from the trees 
in Brazil in 1881 could not have been less than 8§ mil- 
lions of cwt. Whether this is to be the culminating 
crop, remains to be seen. The check of low prices 
cannot operate instantly on production ; it can im- 
mediately affect only exports. But, if low prices 
continue, not only will exports be restricted and coffee 
kept on estates, to its damage : the further results may 
follow of coffee lost from inability to gather it and of 
production lessened by neglect of ordinary upkeep. The 
article we quoted from the Rio News, too, shews that 
disease in the coffee trees may prove an important factor 
in the future of the greatest coffee country of the world. 
It is tantalizing that we should be without inform- 
ation as to the nature of the disease. Had Hemileia 
vastatrix really reached the 'western hemisphere, its 
characteristics are too marked not to have been noticed 
and recorded. But whether disease affects the foliage, 
or is confined to the roots in the shape of myriads 
of microscopical insects, the account given shews that 
it is really formidable in its effects and that it has 
the power of rapidly extending. From the editor of 
the Rio News or some other trustworthy source, we 
hope to obtain further information regarding an 
affection which may possibly, as the years advance, 
render the competition between Brazil and her com- 
petitors in the eastern world a more equal one than it 
has been since 1869, when the fatal fungus developed 
in force. 
Some thirty years ago, we know, disease on the 
coffee trees in Brazil was serious enough to demand 
the appointment of an Imperial Commission, which 
reported on the subject, but that report we have never 
seen. Messrs. Cruwell and Blacklaw reported disease 
as prevalent ; but Mr. Cruwell failed to prove what 
Mr. Blacklaw absolutely denied — the presence of 
Hemileia vastatrix. The article on Brazil in the new 
edition of th« "Encyclopaedia Britannica," although 
it states that in recent years a disease of the sugar- 
cane has affected seriously that cultivation, says not 
a word about disease in coffee. The meagre article 
on Gcfft-e is equally silent on disease in Brazil, although 
it prominently notices the leaf disease of Ceylon and the- 
black rot of Southern India. 
NEW PRODUCTS IN CEYLON : OUR SILVER 
LINING. 
At a time when Ceylon shares with the rest of the 
world a common heritage of trouble and depression, 
when many are doubtful of the future, whilst some are 
confident of better times, it is well to look around 
us and see if there be not some set-off against low 
prices and short crops, some grounds for encourage- 
ment. We think it may be found to a great extent 
that, as it has ever been with our cinnamon, and as 
it is still with our high grown coffee, our produce 
takes generally a high position as regards value in 
the markets of the world. 
In Java, Cochin China, and some other parts of 
the world, competitors in th>3 cultivation of cinnamon 
have found to their cost that it is impossible to com- 
pete in quality with th'3 spice of Ceylon, and gradually 
their plantations have relapsed into jungle. Ceylon 
plantation coffee has long been recogn:zed as the 
choicest, next to the produce of Mocha, aud even now 
though rivals in quality have met us in the open 
market, our finest growths of high grown continue to 
be sought for at extreme rates for special consumers. 
La Guayra, Costa Rica, and even some kinds of Rio 
coffee have supplanted our middling qualities, but we 
are not aware that they have succeeded in rivalling 
our finest growths. 
Although Ceylon cacao has not yet been shipped to 
any extent, the parcels that have been placed upon 
the London market the produce or' the Pallikelle estate, 
have been highly reported upon as regards quality, 
an opinion supported by the result of Siles which 
have topped the ordinary market quotations, and yield- 
ed results which show a wide margin of profit on the 
cultivation. It of course remains to be seen whether 
the quality of Ceylon cacao grown in other districts 
equals that of the Pallikelle variety introduced by 
that veteran planter, Mr. R. B. Tytler, with so much 
success, but barring accidents this should be the case, 
as most of the treet in the island have been grown 
from Pallikelle seed. 
Another of our new products, cinchona, has in like 
manner already made a name for itself amongst the 
principal quinine manufacturers of Europe, by whom 
it is infinitely preferred to most of the South American 
kinds ; the new variety of Cuprea bark we are assured, 
cannot be profitably employed by quinine makers with- 
out the addition of Ceylon cinchona, hence it is that 
our produce is much sought for and there is very little 
doubt that this will be still more so when shavings 
from renewed trees are placed on the market, as they 
will offer the greatest facilities to the manufacture of 
quinine. We may rest assured that whatever be the 
state of the cinchona market our bark will always com- 
mand attention even though the shipments from South 
American ports continue as large in the future as in 
the past, which is scarcely probable. 
Our tea although not yet soweli known and ap- 
preciated as it deserves to be, is rapidly rising in favor 
amongst British consumers, and is already far in ad- 
vance in general estimation of the ordinary China article. 
It only needs that our tea be well-known and have 
fair play. 
We have no data as to the value of Ceylon grown 
Liberian coffee compared with that from the African 
colony, but so long as any figure approaching sixty 
shillings can be obtained for it in the American mar- 
ket, our planters may be well content. 
In all these facts there is certainly some ground 
for reassuring the hard working enterprizing planters 
of this island admist much that would otherwise, led 
them to dispondency. — " C. Times." 
Tea. — The number of Gardens under tea culti- 
vation in Bengal during the past year was 274 against 
257 in 1879. The area under plant was 38,805 acres, 
against 38,668 in the previous year.— Friend of India 
Betel Nut as a Febrifuge. — After reading your 
remark about the food of Navvies, it occurred 
to me that M. Colin might now very advantageously 
try what the effect the betel nut would have in 
warding off the malarias, &c, contracted in marshy 
grounds. I think Johnson, in his "Chemistry of 
Common Life," informs us that the betel chewer, 
whether native or stranger, has an invaluable treasure 
in the use of this narcotic, which is a perfect safe- 
guard against fevers, agues, and all other maladies 
incidental to marsh life. If this is the case, is it 
not worth a trial during the extensive canalisation 
soon to be done in France? M. Colin, should he 
try it, would be able to see if the effect of betel 
by itself is the same as when chewed with the betel 
pepper leaf, and quicklime. — F. S. C. in Knowledge. 
