675 
TrtE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Apul i, 18*95. 
kind wheels would be sure to precipitate the coaeh- 
horses and fair passenger into the deep rapid flowing 
waters of the Kalutara river. "Whip coachee, whip 
the horses," I shouted out, and he did whip with a 
vengeance. It was a most exciting moment. The 
spirited horses dashed forward and we were saved. 
On another occasion I was the only inside passenger. 
The previous night had been a stormy N.E. and the 
early morn was sad and dreary. Leaves were strewed 
all along the road ; suddenly the coach pulled up, 
and coacheo, a stout Burgher boy, told me to get out 
as a large tree had fallen across the road. The head- 
man was summoned, he procured half a dozen strong 
natives and the coach was run through a native 
garden and pushed up into the Queen's highway, 
the coachee belabouring his fellow brothers mo3t 
vigorously with a cattlejack, which he cut from 
an adjacent tree^such was Rajakariya on the Co- 
lombo and Galle road in the fifties. Again, travel- 
ling in these circumstances from Colombo to Galle 
by night coach, when within a few miles of Galle, 
the two horses suddenly jumped over a low stone 
wall into the stream below. By the time I got out 
of the coach and stood on terra fivnia the two horses 
had pulled the front-wheels on to the top of the wall 
and more or less suspended themselves by the traces, 
though their front feet reached the bottom of the 
rivershed. "Cut the traces coachee," I bawled out, "cut 
the traces," which was quickly done and the horses 
and coach were saved and we reached Galle joyously 
though behind time. 
Once I took a journey with 
LAME JOHN, 
as driver — ancient Galle residents will remember lame 
John, and the accident which caused his death. The 
spirited and unruly horses suddenly sprang over 
a stone wall, into the mighty and deep river below, 
taking coach and all into the rapid flowing waters. 
Lame John escaped, but seeing a lady in great danger 
he hastened to her aid and was dragged under the 
Water by the excited lady and drowned. Lame John 
Was of the Burgher community, a Galle resident, and 
tle3erved a lasting memorial in Galle's ancient city. 
, «^ 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
Mountain air is recommended by physicians as 
remedy for consumption, and for many years Ameri 
cans predisposed to or suffering from tubereulou- 
disease have gone to reside among the hills of 
Colorado. Dr. A. C. Miller has recently drawn at- 
tention to the fact that the observers of Ben Nevis 
Observatory enjoy excellent health, free from colds 
and diseases of the chest or throat so long as they 
are at the Observatory, but are subject to a kind 
of influenzal catarrh or cold on descending to live 
in the valleys, which they do every three months. 
It is believed that this affection arises from germs 
in the lower atmosphere. On the summit of the 
mountain there are few or no germs of disease. — Globe. 
AN ENQUIRY INTO TEA BLIGHTS. 
Calcutta, March 14. — Dr. George Watt, 
Reporter of Economic Products to the Government 
of India, lias left Calcutta for Assam to conduct 
an enquiry into tea bights. — M. Mail. 
TEA IN AMERICA. 
There is not very much life in transactions, and 
yet the market maintains a fairly strong tone for 
Fingsuey greens and for Oolongs, particularly for low 
grades. Congou teas are in demand because of their 
very low price. Buyers state that teas which are 
now costing '20c are fully as good as when they cost 
10c per pound for the same grade. In Japans the 
market is steady for the low grades and rather 
easy for the better grades. In view of the uncer- 
tainty of the financial situation, buyers are acting 
Jo m ultra-conservative maimer. 
Today at noon the Montgomery Auction and Com- 
mission Co. will sell 7,724 packages, viz. : 2174 half- 
chests Moyuue ; l,0ol half-chests and boxes Pingsuey ; 
3<>8 half-chests Japan : 838 half-cheiits Japan, basket- 
fired and sun-dried : 19 half-chests Japan dnst ; 792 
half-chests Congou ; % packages India, Java, and 
Pekoe ; 1.279, half-chests and boxes Ainov ; 143 half 
cheats Foochow: 1,454 half-chests and boxes For- 
mosa, "White Bird " aud "Black Bear" chops.— 
American Grocer, Jan. 30. 
TEA AND SUGAR 
There is a romance in trade which in never 
made enough of by the penmen. Where, for ex- 
ample, is the once princely China tea trade which 
before the days of steam used to keep its fleet 
of greyhound' clippers cracking their spars, car- 
rying away their canvas, and driving their skip- 
pers into insanity from qu\rter-deck wakefulness"; 
The rise of the Indian teas and the enormous follow- 
in" market values (beneficent, indeed, to the con- 
sumers) have brought down all the greatest China 
houses from their high estate. In the sugar in- 
dustry it is the same. Let the traveller truit 
Jamaica today and he will see the relics only— 
the deserted mansions— Hof the old aristocracy of 
sugar planters who ruled there proudly not so 
many years ago. Vastly increased production and 
consumption of the cane have gone hand in hand, 
bringing the commodity into the poor man's 
household, but levelling down the producers as 
well, and the ever-expanding beetroot manufac- 
ture has stepped in to finish the work. If we are 
to credit the Cassandra-like prophecies now ut- 
tered, evil days are at hand for this industry as 
at present constituted. Prices are still tending 
gravely downward*, anil production, it is said, 
must lje curtailed.— A twtramsmn, 
THE COCOA TRADE. 
The rapid growth of cocoa in popular estimation 
as an article of heme consumption is deserving more 
than passing notice. The development of trade 
has been attributable - to a combination of favour- 
able circumstances, chief among which have been 
increasing supplies and declining prices, con- 
stantly giving the reins, as it were to a freer 
consumption by all paities, whether through the grocers 
for domestic use, or by the manufacturers and 
others for confectionery, medicinal, and similar 
purposes in almost every conceivable form, and 
in their requirements consumers at large seem as if 
they know no bounds. It appears that the importa- 
tions of cocoa, both colonial and foreign together (as 
the different kinds are not separated in the official 
returns), into United Kingdom during 1894 were 
close upon reaching double the total quantity received in 
1884, and that the duty-paid clearances for home use 
were progressing steadily in the same proportion, having 
embraced 22,440,8201b,, in striking constrast with only 
13,983,891 lb. in the year just named Yet in spite of 
this remarkable augmentation in the home demand 
the excess in the arrivals was so great and continuous 
that stocks on bond on December 31st last were swollen 
to more than tramble their size of eleven years ago; and 
the receipts of Customs duty on raw cocoa-nibs in that 
period mounted up in a surprising manner till they 
finally reached 93,500/., being no mean contribu- 
tion to the national revenue. With shippers, 
however, the article cannot be said to be an 
especial favourite as the wants of users abroad are 
uncertain and precarious, and the past years' exports 
were actually amongst the smallest of those of the last 
decade. The exorbitant rates that were at one time 
paid, and especially for fancy marks, now no longer 
rule, as quite a fresh and very much lower basis of 
value has been formed, and the market is regularly 
furnished with an extensive and varied assortment of 
I all descriptions on wonderfully easy terms, which 
'-nnot fail to further stimulate the consumption of 
, |hi? beverage,— Grocer, 
