918 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1882. 
quantity available for shipment from the two places at 
only 5,000,000 bags. 
As regards the effect of low prices upon production 
of coffee in the Brazils, Messrs. YVursten & Co. write : 
— "We have not as yet arrived at prices which cease 
to be remunerative. With intelligence and economy 
the planter finds, even at present prices, a moderate 
profit. Whatever may take place, we are inclined to 
believe that the low prices will have the effect of in- 
creasing the production, as no other article of export 
rivals coffee, and all parties interested are endeavour- 
i r gi by every means in their power, to increase their 
production, in order to repair the losses made by the 
continual decline in prices." 
Messrs. Kern, Hayn & Co. write that a fair aver- 
age Rio crop must now be calculated to be from 
4,000,000 to 4,500,000 bags, but that, as long as present 
low prices last, the low qualities will be kept back 
in the interior in expectation of hetler times. 
In Mr. SchSffer's celebrated circular of 1879, he 
gave the following table of the average pi-oductiou of 
coffee during two periods of 5 years ending reBpect- 
y ; — 
1872. 
1879. 
Brazils ... 
200,000 
283,000 
Java 
65,000 
90,000 
Ceylon ... 
47,000 
45,000 
East India and Mani 
a 20,000 
23,000 
St. Domingo ... 
20,000 
30,000 
La Guayra 
16,000 
40,000 
Costa Rica and Gua- 
temala 
10,000 
27,000 
Porto Rico and 
Jamaica 
4,000 
6,000 
Mocha Africa ... 
5,000 
6,000 
387,000 
550,000 
Since Mr. Schoffer's circular was written, the pro- 
duction of coffee in the Brazils has further increased, 
say 100,000 tons, and the other countries of pro- 
duction, taken as a whole, will probably also now 
yield more than in 1879, but no corresponding in- 
crease in consumption has taken place, and no large 
increase is likely to take place, till there has been 
some continuance of low prices, and until the low 
prices reach the consumers, which we hardly think 
they have done so far. 
The fact that stocks in Europe have been steadily 
increasing for the past 4 years is an undoubted proof 
that the production of the world is in excess of the 
couosumption ; the equilibrium can only be re-established 
by 0 continuance of low prices. — Robert Von Glenhn 
<£ Sons' Monthly Coffee Circular. 
RIVALRY IN SILK AND TEA. 
A Chinese tradition attributes the discovery of silk 
to one of the wives of the Emperor of China, 
Hoang-ti, who is said to have reigned about two 
thousand years before the Christian era ; and since 
that time — so the tale runs — a special spot has been 
allotted in the gardens of the Chinese royal palace 
to the cultivation of the Mulberry tree — called in 
Chinese the ' golden tree' — and to the keeping of 
silk-worms. Without waiting to discuss the proba- 
bilities of this item of folklore, which has possibly 
as much foundation in fact as most other popular 
notions on similar subjects, we proceed to known 
facts. The Mulberry plant is a native of Persia, 
from which country the secret of silk manufacture 
was introduced into Italy via Constantinople, and 
over Europe, becoming domiciled in the South of 
France as a great manufacturing industry before the 
close of the fifteenth century. This is a brief histori- 
cal summary of an article now used in nearly all 
countries as a luvnry in apparel, but only befitting 
those of a higher social gradation, or those whose 
means permit of the indulgence of wearing such a 
comparatively costly texiile fabric. Sericulture is 
now extensively practised in various parts of the 
world, temperate and tropical. The conditions which 
favor the plant are prejudicial to the insect, and vice 
versa. The Mulberry thriv -s better in a cold climate, 
which implies a larger size of tree beaiing a more 
abundant crop of leaves than in warm regions. But 
in these latter the silk-worm develops more rapidly 
and obtains maturity in less than half the pi-riod 
in the former or colder localities. This is an over- 
whelming advantage, as it minimizes attendance and 
risk by a saving of more than three weeks. Cards 
of seed carried from China and Japan have been 
found to reproduce successfully in those countries 
where the mulberry can be cultivated. The silk- 
worm has been introduced into various parts of 
America with favorable results; but the most in- 
teresting sericultural experiments of the period are 
those now undertaken in reference to the acclima- 
tisation of the insect and plant in Australia and 
Ceylon, in both of which countries there are reason- 
able grounds for believing that silk-growing may in 
course of time prove a profitable industry. " In 
Europe the silk-worm takes about forty-five days to 
obtain maturity, but it has been found by experience 
that in the temperature of Colombo only from twenty - 
three to twenty-five days are required." This quo- 
t ition supports what we have already stated on this 
subject. It is a most important consideration, as 
the shorter period reduces the liability of loss from 
disease, and other well-known causes which prey 
upon the worm, as well as lessening the cost and 
trouble in looking after it. We have been induced 
to dwell upon this subject from the apparent fact 
that local products, which at one period were almost 
exclusively confined to China, have been produced 
successfully el-ewhere, and, in some instances, left 
China far behiud in the competition. This is parti- 
cularly conspicuous in the matter of porcelain wares. 
The chief exports of China are, as our readers are 
doubtless aware, tea and silk. India is fast assuming 
a position in reference to China tea that, judging 
from the progress made during the past few decodes, 
there is every possib lity in the immediate future of 
its becoming something more than a powerful rival. 
In silk, China will have to dread a more wide-spread 
competition. It forbodes ill, as regards the future 
of this industry in China, that sericulture is com- 
mencing to be developed in intertropical countries, 
which will preclude China from monopolising the 
advantage she possesses re cheapness of production. 
It has been already acknowledged tbat silk-growing 
cannot be remuneratively carried on by white labor 
in Australia ; which objection does not exist or 
militate against the industry in Southern Europe. 
The conditions are, of course, different in Ceylon 
were coloured labor is the only agency that could 
be employed for the purpose, and it is chiefly from 
such countries that China and Japan have to dread 
rivalry.— China Mail. 
CINCHONA BARK: MARKET PROSPECTS. 
It must be remembered, that though on paper present 
stocks appear very large, a certain portion of them, perhaps 
a larger portion of them than is generally supposed, is very 
common Bark. "We all know that some of the Cuprean 
Barks, a description which has so much helped to augment 
stocks, have been very common. If then a very large pro- 
portion of the stock, carefully chosen and selected, is held by 
speculators, who, if circumstances favor them, will sell only 
on their own terms, the remainder being in the hands of 
importers, who, even if they disapprove, cauuot well help 
assisting this speculation, it may be that manufacturers, if 
forced to buy later on bark iu quantity, in order to fulfil 
their contracts for delivery in Quinine; may find priceg 
