7G0 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May I, 1895. 
TEA IN JAPAN. 
Nothing to be said about the new Tea crop, flirt hat 
than that March commenced with strong "budding" 
which has probably been checked by the late change in 
the weather. The season was expected to be early, 
but will probably commence about the average date. 
The past season's export was 29J million pounds, 
against 28| millions the previous year.— Japan Vail, 
March 16. 
A GINGER PLANTER, 
A "Ginger" Planter! There ie something too 
comical in the idea, and this is w hy, a Cal 
contemporary thinks, no one has seriously taken to 
the cultivation of that useful root in India, Vet 
the process is simple enough, and would suit the 
festive taste much more than the rigorous routine 
of Tea, Coffee or Indigo. " Patches are burnt bo 
make room for it, and a ' cutting riiatch ' is one of 
the distinctive features of it. The inchoate planter 
invites all his friends to come and dest roy as many 
trees as they can ; he feeds them, they laugli and 
sing, and romp, and do as much damage to the 
forest as possible, treating the whole tiling as a 
pic-nic: they then set fire to the brushwood, and the 
patch is soon cleared. The planter does anything 
else necessary, and the result is excellent ginger. 
Surely this is sufficiently inviting to atone for any 
lurking sense of comicality in being termed a 
" Ginger" Planter.— -Madras Times, April <». 
THE DRYING OE TEA. 
A VALUABLE DISCOVERY. 
The mail has brought us a copy of a leaflet 
advertising "The Universal Digestive Tea in 
which it is explained that a process has beeu 
discovered and patented for neutralising or 
rendering inactive the tannin to be found mall, 
especially line, teas by means of ozone-a pro- 
cess which it is said has been tested and approved 
by over one thousand medicalmen, and several 
eminent analysts, including Dr. lhos, W. Drink- 
water, of the Edinburgh School of Medicine, 
and Granville H. Sharpe, f.c.s., late principal 
of the Liverpool College of Chemistry. Quota- 
tions are also given from leaumg medical 
journals showing that the tea is treed from 
all noxious ingredients, and that the introducers 
of the universal digestive tea have provided the 
dyspeptic With a boon. It appears that there are 
demonstrations of the process every Wednesday 
afternoon in Manchester. W e quote the following 
from the circular :— 
WHAT COLOUR OUGHT TEA TO BE WHEN 
MILK IS ADDED ? 
1st It ought not to be a very bright golden 
colour ; this shows an excess of tannin, and the 
^ rlPt, colour is produced by the tannin, tanning 
fhe fat sacta of the cream, and turning them into 
S ° 2 nT 0 n le ought not to be a dull, lead colour. 
3rd It should be a medium between these two 
« n A I this is what the proprietors of the Universal 
DltSve 1 TeTaim strenuously to obtain Their teas 
^r^taininff the injurious tannin like all other 
Las do no produce Ihe very golden bright colour 
caused by tannin, and they never show the very dull 
lead colour. 
INDIAN TEA. 
Writing on last year's shipments of tea, which 
/r^ieallv over by the end of March, Capital 
were P r ^* liy t °a s hipped by the Line Steam- 
g? reP — atotal 3 116,5^7,519 lb. of which 
the New India Mutual Line secured a little ove 
% million^ or one-third of the total, and, had th 
crop come up to the original estimate of the Tea 
Association, there is little doubt that the India 
Mutual Line would have considerably exceeded 
the original quantity allotted to them. The City 
Line secured about 25J millions, the Clan Line 
about 2.'{ millions, and the Harrison Line about IJJ 
Bullions.'' 
TJli: AMSTERDAM MARKET. 
Dm' Amsterdam resp lent reports thai tilts (i.lKW 
packages of Java cinchona bark will be offered for public 
Kale on April -4 1 1 1 contain the equivalent of 2S.S&4 kilo* 
of Sulphate of quinine, which gi\.-. an average percent 
age of manufacturing bark of 4V\. The total weight of 
the lark to he oltereil is 4114,177 kilos.- Cltrmmt ami 
DruagiM 
BRAZIL COFFEE NOTES. 
A New York telegram of the 2Sad say* that 
the cotl'ee deposits belonging to Messrs. Ar 
bnckle Brothers have been reduced to ashes, 
the losses being eotiinated at one million d«»l- 
am.—£io Xrirs. 
A HAIL-STORM IN ASSAM. 
Talup. one of the Assam frontier gardens, suffered 
badly, from a storm. The roof of the tea-house was 
blown off. The house was new. being built last year, 
and the hail did some damage. There is also a story 
going round that two windows were blown out of 
different sides of the Assistants' bungalow and into 
the roofless tea-house. There was only one pane of 
glass broken and the distance is said to be about 
:!iO yards.— Planter, April 6. 
THE PROJECTED JAVA cH'IMNE- 
FACTORY. 
The prospectus of the "Java Quinine and Chemical 
Factory," which is to be built (capital forthcoming) at 
Bandong, in the centre of the principal cinchona -growing 
district of the island, has at last been published. The 
capital of the company is 1,000,000 florins (about b.5,000/), 
in 1,000 shares of ],<JUU Soring each. The object of the 
company is the manuiacrurc and sale of quinine and 
other chemicals. The factory is expressly prohibited from 
entering into engagements or contracts of any kind with 
any otner quinine-factory. All that is now required b#- 
for'e the factory can commence operations is an under- 
taking on the part of the cinchona-growers to supnly 
their' output exclusively to it for a definite period.— 
Chemist ami Druggist. 
TRAMWAYS ON MOUNTAIN ROADS. 
(From London " Engineer.") 
We observe in a colonial journal mention of a 
problem which we believe will be somewhat dirti- 
cult of solution. It is not only within the 
United Kingdom that the need of some system 
for railway feeding is just now engaging atten- 
tion. In India, as we know, that is one of the 
most prominent features of the day. The condi- 
tions existing in that empire differ greatly from 
those that have to he dealt with in this country. 
Similarly those that prevail in many of our most 
important Colonies differ from those of India ; 
and it is these that are now occupying consider- 
able space in their local journals. It is not ne- 
cessary that we should specify any particular one 
f these Colonies. In all of them wherein plant- 
ing operations are extensively carried on by 
Europeans the needs and conditions are the same, 
or sufficiently nearly so to make their require- 
ments as to feeding lines closely identical. In all 
of them, as the rule, the natural conditions are pretty 
much the same. Their coast lines have heen mainly 
formed by the detritus brought down from the hills 
by streams having their sources among the latter. 
This has formed a fringe of the flat land, varying 
from thirty to forty miles in width, between the 
