978 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1882. 
from a considerable number of members of Parliament, 
and has also been assured of the sympathetic action 
of all the leading Chambers of Commerce in the North, 
it may reasonably be hoped that this petition will 
not be burked. To the letter addressed by Mr. Dick- 
son to Lord Cairns, he has received no reply. This 
cannot but be considered discourteous, but it is thought 
that his lordship probably considers that coffee adulter- 
ation and fiscal arrangements properly come only under 
the jurisdiction of the House of Commons, and that 
on that ground he deems it wiser not to commit him- 
self to the expression of any opinion. Mr. H. Pasteur, 
of Mincing Lane, has issued a further notice concern- 
ing the late Treasury order, and you will find it 
enclosed. It reviews the facts of the case with much 
strength and clearness, and you will probably like 
to reprint it in full. You will also receive with this 
the result published by Mr. Pasteur of the analyses 
of 37 samples of coffee purchased at various shops 
in and about London. Of these, as you will per- 
ceive, only two were genuine coffee, the adulteration 
of the others varying from 32 to 90 per cent ! One 
instance, indeed, exceeds even those figurese, the sample 
containing no coffee at all, but then it was sold as 
" Dandelion Coffee " ! 
Passing along the Strand this week, an announcement 
in the East India and Colonial Tea Agency's window 
struck my eye. It was simply a placard announcing 
" Ceylon Tea, 2s 9d per lb." Now, as very recently the 
same window announced Ceylon tea at 2s 3d per lb. , 
it is evident that it is rising in public favour, and 
its sale extending. A tremendous future (this is not 
too superlative an expression) lies before Ceylon tea. 
COFFEE ADULTERATION IN ENGLAND. 
An interesting and most important document relating 
to the consumption of coffee in the United Kingdom has 
recently been issued by Mr. H. Pasteur, of Mincing- 
lane. It appears that in 1847 and 1848 duty was paid 
upon over 37,000,000 lb. of coffee for home consumption, 
and that, during the past year, with an increase of 
population on 1848 of at least 10,000,000, the home 
consumption of coffee was just under 32,000,000 lb. 
There can be no doubt that the consumption of "coffee" 
(the inverted commas are very necessary) is much more 
general now than it was in 1848, and that the consumption 
of genuine coffee has fallen off to the extent of 
5,000,000 lb. is a startling fact which every purchaser 
of coffee should take to heart. The consumption of 
spurious coffee is likely to increase still more, for a 
Treasury Minute was issued, on January 20th, 1882, 
directing Her Majesty's Board of Customs to permit 
the importation under a duty of 2d. per lb. of " coffee, 
chicory, or any other vegetable mattter applicable to the 
uses of coffee or chicory, roasted or ground, mixed with- 
out reference to the proportions of the mixture." Those 
who like to know what they are buying will do well 
to buy their coifee whole and raw, and to roast it and 
grind it for themselves. Coffee contains an alkaloid, 
caffeine, and certain aromatic principles which gave 
to it its stimulating and pleasant qualities, and 
the larger or smaller proportions of which in the 
various samples imported determine the market value. 
It certainly seems odd, to use the mildest 
term, that the importation of chicory, turnips, 
carrots, cabbage-stalks, and various other vegetable 
rubbish which our continental neighbours choose to 
roast and send to us, should be encouraged by the 
Government, to the detriment of the dietaries of the 
masses, and the business of colonial merchants who 
have a soul above vegetable refuse. It seems little 
short of disgraceful that the fine coffee of Ceylon 
should find a readier 111 irket on the Continent than 
in the parent country, the good people of which are 
about to turn (as some appear to think), from the 
drinking of adulterated alcohols to the consumption of 
still worse adulterated "coffee." One well-known 
firm that deals in coffee incites the Britsh public by 
its advertisements to " call a spade a spade " — a whole- 
some doctrine, and we trust it will soon be penal to 
apply the name of coffee to anything but the genuine 
article ; for it is not well that the public should pay 
Is. 4d. or Is 6d. per lb. for materials which are dear 
at a quarter of that price. We have heard much 
in times past of a "free breakfast table"; we 
hope soon that it may become an unadulterated 
breakfast table, and that those who have a fancy for 
drinking decoctions of strange things will be able to 
do so without the expense of having the name of 
coffee given to whatever may happen to be able to 
impart to boiling water a brownish colour and a 
bitter taste. — Lancet. 
THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL. 
We now quote the whole of the document alluded 
to as mentioning " the plague " in coffee. It is a re- 
markably outspoken paper, and, although its authors 
look to Government for a central sugar mill, as well 
as roads and instructions, they yet deplore the want of 
private enterprise and the selfishness of the wealthy 
classes. Neither do they, spare the free population for 
leaving most of the production to slave labour. The 
picture drawn of the state of a society where the slave 
population considerably outnumbers the free is not flatter- 
ing, and to those interested in the future of Brazil not 
reassuring : — 
In an extra session of the Municipal Council of 
Santa Maria Magdalena, the following address to the 
president of the province of Rio de Janeiro was ad- 
opted : — 
Sir, — In compliance with the orders of Your Ex- 
cellency in the official letters of the 21st of last month, 
and of the 11th of the current month, in which you 
ask for information regarding the state of agriculture, 
stock-farming, silk and hee-culture in this municipality^ 
the Municipal Council have to say as follows: — 
The lands of this municipality are in general ex- 
tremely fertile and are suited to a great variety of 
products, such as coffee, cereals, sugarcane, tobacco, 
grapes, cotton, mulberry, potatoes, rice, mandioca, etc! 
The only article of export from lhe municipality, 
however, is coffee. The production of corns, beans and 
sugar is scarcely sufficient for home consumption, and 
already there has commenced a considerable importa- 
tion of sugar, rice, tobacco and rum. 
The cultivation for export in the municipality i s 
therefore limited to coffee, and this cultivation is 
carried on in the rudimentary routine system which 
leaves much to be desired both as to the quality of 
the product and the quantity produced in relation to 
the population. 
The number of slaves in the municipality being 13,010, 
and supposing that only 10,000 are employed in the 
cultivation of coffee, there might be produced, giving 
an average of 150 arrobas for each laborer, 1,500.000 
arrobas ; the exportation is however only 900,000 to 
1,000,000 arrobas. The free inhabitants, numbering 
10,366, might very well produce, if nothing else, the 
articles of home consumption, as we have no other 
industry, no important trade, nor mechanic arts. 
The planters whose profits can be calculated at 
more than 10 per cent, are mre, and these live on 
exceptionally good lands and consume but little. In 
general the planters obtain from 8 per cent, down- 
ward. It may be added that a terrible disease, called 
