April t, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
69 1 
publick Prints at Coffee-Houses, are dropping their 
Two-pences on the Bars, and returning to their 
separate Habitations to Dinner. . . Frequent En- 
quiries made at Lloyd's Coffee-House in Lombard- 
Street, by the Clerks of Under- Writers to know if 
anything new has happened, p. 89. Resolving lawful 
(Questions by Coffee-Grounds. 78. Coffee Grounds in 
great Use with stale Maids and green Widows who 
live in constant expectation of altering their Condition. 
Pharmacopceia I^emeriana contractu,. 1700. 
An Extract made of Thea turned veinous blood 
into a darkish black colour, but did not coagulate it 
in the least. Being mixed with arterial blood this 
caked in the middle, and appeared of a lively vivid 
colour : the rest looked like common serum. 
Experiments on the constituent parts of some 
astringent vegetables. " The strongest infusions of the 
teas are very similar in their agencies upon chemical 
tests, to the infusions of catechu. An ounce of 
Souchong tea produced 18 grains of tannin. The 
same quantity of green tea gave 41 grains." 
Works of John Davy, 1839, Vol. II. p. 281. 
The Oxford Sau.iai/e, 1815, p. 90. An Epistle, to 
Mr. Robert Lowth :— 
If Pope, the prince of poets, sick-a-bed, 
O'er steaming coffee bends his aching head, 
The fools in public o'er the fragrant draught 
Incline those heads, that never ach'd or thought. 
Do p. 92. The Lounger : — 
Dinner over, to Tom's or to James's I go, 
The News of the Town so impatient to know, * * * 
From the Coffee-House then I to Tennis away, 
And at five I post back to my College to pray. 
I suppose the following coincidence has been noticed 
before, though I never happened to have met with 
any mention of it : — 
Oongreve. The icay of the World. Act. II. sc. 1. [1700. j 
Mrs. Mam-ood. But say, what you will, 'tis better 
to be left, than never to have loved. 
Tennyson. Memoriam. 
'Tis better to have loved aud lost 
Than never co have loved at all. 
A. M. Ferguson. 
TRINIDAD AND BRITISH GUIANA. 
At the end of last year there was a balance 
to the credit of the Trinidad general revenue of 
£59; 030 and the prospect -was held to justify the 
proposal to raise the loan of £500,000 now about 
to be issued. Of this sum £250,000 will be ap- 
propriated to the construction of new railways 
in extension of the existing Government lines, 
aud the remainder will go to harbour improve- 
ments, drainage, waterworks, and public build- 
ings. The total population of Trinidad is about 
200,000 persons, of which a large proportion are 
Indian coolies. The extreme fertility of the island 
allows of the very successful development of 
sugar, cocoa, and other plantations, which are 
largely cultivated by coolie labour. The expenses 
of immigration have hitherto been borne in a 
proportion of two-thirds by the planters and one- 
third by the Government. In consequence of the 
fall in pnqes which has affected the sugar industry, 
application for relief from a portion the immi- 
gration expense has been made by the planting 
interest, and it is now in contemplation to remit 
for one year the export duty on rum, sugat. and 
in ilasses, which has been collected for the pur- 
pose of meeting the expenses of immigration. 
This appears to be the fairest method of giving 
relief to the industry which is suffering most 
severely from the tall in prices, but the differen- 
tiation which it inolves between the .interests , of 
the sugar-growers and other planters may not 
unnaturally cause the proposal to be viewed with 
some disfavour by certain sections of colonial 
opinion. 
In the neighbouring colony of Britsh Guiana, 
where sugar has long been regarded as the staple 
produce, the gold-mining industry is now rapidly 
developing, and the gold output is becoming every 
year more valuable. Both quartz and placer 
mining are carried on and placer claims are being 
actively marked in 15 different districts of the 
colony. The annual output of gold in British 
Guiana has increased during the last ten years 
from 250 ounces obtained in 188-1 to 138,527 ounces 
obtained in 1894-, and still premises a steady rise. 
— Times, Feb. 25. 
CHINESE TEA. 
Under date of October 31st, 1891, the French 
Consul at Foochoo, M. Frandon, states that as the 
exportation of tea constitutes the staple trade of 
Foochoo, the Chamber of Commerce in its reports 
and calculations starts the year from April 1st, when 
the tea of the preceding season is despatched, and 
when many of the native brokers go on foot into 
the interior to buy the future crop. From April 1st, 
1893, to March 31st, 1891, the exports of tea to France 
had not increased. Although the firms Roblot, Jar- 
din, Oppenheimer, Gien, &c, always make their 
purchases directly at Foochoo, the important firm 
Derode, formerly the greatest buyer, does not now 
take anything direct from this market. If compared 
with last year, the exports for the rest of the world 
have not diminished, but they are far from attain- 
ing the figures of between 1870 and 1880. From that 
time onward the English, who used to be the prin- 
cipal buyers, have purchased less and less tea here, 
and more and more of the teas their compatriots 
gather from plants grown in India. Are these 
Indian teas worth more than those of Foochow ? 
Decidedly not ; the latter are always the finest in the 
world in the opinion of connoisseurs, and nothing 
equals a mixture composed of three kinds gathered 
here, Souchong, Fleur de Pekoe, and scented tea. 
But these teas are 
LESS CHARGED WITH TANNIN AND TAR 
than those of India, possess a less accentuated taste, 
and won't bear as much milk. To obtain the same 
infusion it requires three times the quantity of leaves, 
and to remain three times as long as those that come 
infused from India. Besides, the desire to favour 
their own colonial products has since 1881 caused the 
English to abandon the Foochoo market. The 
immense decline that has taken place in the tea 
trade here since fifteen years ago will be under- 
stood when I state that in 1881 the amount of tea 
exported was 44,015,603 kilogrammes, of the value of 
64,237,125 francs, while in 1891, the amount exported 
was 27,767,148 kilogrammes of the value of 
47,510,557 francs. Since 1892 the decrease, which 
had been continuous and increasing hitherto, 
has stopped, and the trade has been somewhat better. 
This is probably owing to the English doctors hav- 
ing stated that the Indian teas are so charged with 
tannin that they exercise by degrees. 
AN" INJURIOUS INFLUENCE 
upon the coating of the stomach, which they harden ; 
the gastric juices circulate less easily, and indigestion 
is the consequence. These doctors advise, therefore, 
the use of teas that are not so full-bodied, and to 
let them remain infused only one to two minutes, 
according to the French practice, instead of from five 
to eight minutes, as their countrymen used to do. 
By doing this the perfume ouly is communicated to 
the infusion, the excess of tannin remaining with 
the leaf. It will be many years before these things 
are sufficiently understood by the publio to restore 
to the Foochoo market the prosperity it had fifteen 
years ago, even if this result ia ever entirely attained. 
— Commerce. 
