Dec i, 1894.] THE TROPIC \L 
AGRICULTURIST. 
away, we are told, a silver tea and sugar caddy, 
the value of which amounted, in weight of silver, 
to at least twenty times more than the sum demanded. 
On reflection, however, and after taking the advice 
of a friend, the gallant raider came to the conclusion 
that discretion would be the better part of valour, 
and accordingly retraced his steps towards Wimble- 
don. Tooke had at once authorised two friends to 
proceed to London, engage an attorney, and set the 
law in motion ; and these gentlemen, as they were 
travelling townwards on the Putney road, met the col- 
lector hurrying back with the tea-caddy under his arm. 
They turned with him ; the caddy was restored to its 
owner with ample apologies for the illegal seizure, and 
Tooke generously refrained from taking any further 
steps in the matter. Such were the adventures of at least 
one silver tea-caddy — an article which would have 
taken high rank in Mr. Wemmick's notions of 
" portable property." 
Fifty or sixty years ago, a tea-caddy always formed 
part of the domestic impedimenta of a family sojourn- 
ing in one of the numerous English " colonies " to 
be found in many parts of Europe — in such cities as 
Tours, Pisa, Florence, and in many other foreign 
towns where living was cheap. Tea was not then so 
easily obtainable on the Continent as it is at the 
present time, and English people, who always love 
the steam of the teapot, valued the genuine 
loaf-sugar and the grateful Bohea, which they 
carefully guarded in their caddies or tea- 
chests. Tea of fair quality is now procurable at 
mo st places on the Continent visited by Britons, 
but many English residents abroad still get their tea 
in small quantities from England, or through 'an 
English grocer, and keep it in the modern equiva- 
lent for the old-fashioned tea-caddy. 
Caddy is a word that does not often appear in 
recent literature, but in older books it is common 
enough. Cowper, in one of his letters, reminds his 
cousin, Lady Hesketh, that she had taken the " key 
of the caddy" away with her. The word itself is 
supposed to be a corruption of "catty," a Chinese 
word, or " kati," a Malay term for a weight equal to 
a little more than a pound avoirdupois. Tea, as ex- 
ported from China, is usually reckoned in weight by 
the " catty," and it is not improbable that, originally, 
the compartment of the tea-chest properly known as 
the "caddy" held that weight of tea or thereabouts, 
and thence obtained its slightly Anglicised name. — 
Globe. 
TIMBER-FELLING. 
(From the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales.) 
The Best Time to fell TiMbEE Trees. — Mr. 
Forester Allan, of Milton, writes : — " The simplest and 
most reliable guide to find out the best time to fell 
timber trees, for public works and other purposes, so 
as to secure the greatest strength and durability de- 
rivable from its timber, is to fell the tree when the 
bark adheres firmly to the sapwood. On the coast 
districts we have always been of the opinion that the 
winter months was the best time to fell trees, think- 
ing that the sap would be dormant during that period, 
as in the case of trees of other countries, but I find 
from close observation that in many instances this 
opinion is wrong. The sap is flowing at the present 
time (July) in the spotted gum, woolybutt, red wood, 
stringy bark, and in some of our ironbarks. The idea, 
therefore, that the winter months is the proper time 
to fell timber on the South Coast is a fallacy. I 
should, therefore, point out that the above test is the 
simplest and best, and in no instance have I known 
it to err." 
THE FRUIT MARKET OF VENICE. 
This is indeed something to see — and more than 
see — on a September morning ; what bunches of 
grapes, sweet with the sugar ot the vine, big almost 
us tin; clusters of Eshcid which used to adorn the 
Sunday picture-books of an age less realistic thai) 
the present ! What piles of peaches, rolled aboiu 
as recklessly as apples (and sometimes, it must be 
confessed notwithstanding their beauty, almost as 
hard) ! What baskets of figs : green and purple, 
little and big— not the sapid, soft-soap articles which 
our shivering sun professes to ripen, but balls of 
semi-liquid syrup, half-melted sugar, dissolving in the 
mouth bursting with their ripe fulness, with rinds 
that slip off at a touch of the finger ; and then 
the water-melons, those great globes which hide 
such a tender heart under a rugged skin. Who that 
has eaten these— and how recklessly one does eat 
them at breakfast— can help sympathising with the 
Hebrew wanderers when in the thirsty desert tbev 
remembered the fish which they did eat in Egypt 
freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks 
and the onions, and the garlic ? They could have 
refreshed themselves at the Rialto ; for hard by are 
all these vegetables and many more— gourds of various 
kinds, with rmds smooth and rinds rough, cabbages 
and artichokes, scarlet capsicums and great purple- 
bellied fruit of the egg-plant— contributions of all 
sorts from the gardens of the mainland.— From 
(.assell s Picturesque Europe for Oct. 
TEA versus COFFEE PLANTING IN 
CEYLON. 
A correspondent who writes us that lie has read 
with interest our former article on the relative 
healthiness of the pursuits of tea and coffee 
planting m Ceylon, remarks that we have 
ignored one great advantage to the credit 
of our present chief industry. The advantage to 
which he refers is entirely of a financial 
character ; but there can be no doubt, that 
the lightening of " financial worries," as our 
friend terms them, has an immense deal to do with 
the healthiness of those exposed to them. What 
were the financial conditions in the past, from 
which the planter of the present clay is, fortunately 
free ? Coffee was an annual crop only, save in a 
few exceptional cases. It resulted that the ex- 
penditure on cultivation could only be re 
couped after a long period. All the money that 
had to be laid out upon this had to be found 
in advance, and we all know how seriously this 
burden told upon the resources of the coffee 
planters. It was almost the invariable rule 
that money had to he obtained either from the 
banks „r the agencies. The former adopted the 
practice of making advances against crops ; hut 
certainly did not (ind the system work altogether 
satisfactorily for themselves, and had to adopt 
very stringent conditions to guard as far as 
possible against loss. The stringency of these 
caused many planters to prefer resort to the 
several large agency houses. Once in their 
grip however, the coffee planter often found 
that his independence was comparatively g6he 
The agencies insisted, as one of the conditions 
under which they made advances, that the 
curing of the crops should he placed in their 
hands, as well as all matters connected with 
their shipment. Not content with this thev 
further frequently claimed to supply all the ne 
cessanes required on the estates. Rit-e, tools, snmnv 
hags, and a hundred other items had to be procured 
solely through this agency. In those days in fact 
the agent, and not the planter, was the principal' 
It was probably the case that from the com- 
mencement 01 this labour to the receipt of pay 
ment for its fruits some fifteen months <>r even 
more, had to elapse. 
How different are the circumstances of our 
tea planters! They are forwarding, and receiv- 
ing payment for, their crops every month or 
even at shorter intervals. The" labour for 
plucking and preparing is paid for probably 
