472 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan.  2,  1893. 
Shares 
Thomas  McMeekiD,  Falkland  Park,  South  Nor- 
wood Hill,  Surrey,  tea  planter  ...  1 
Sir  Alexander  Wilson,  Bart.,  2,  Dartmouth- 
grove,  Blackheath,  S.  E.  ...  1 
W.  L.  Watson,  35a,  St.  James’s-street, 
S.  W.  ...  1 
F.  Oateaby  Holland,  46,  Quean  Viotoria-street, 
E.C.,  eolioitor  ...  1 
H.  A.  Adkin,  46,  Queen  Victoria  street, 
E.  0.,  folioitor  ...  1 
John  MoEwan,  5,  Billiier-avenue,  E.  0.,  tea  im- 
porter ...  1 
R.  A.  Lemon,  5.  Billiter  avenue,  E.C.  ...  1 
Number  of  directors  not  less  than  two  nor  more 
than  five,  the  first  being  Thomas  SIcMeekin,  W.  L. 
WatsoD,  and  Sir  Alexander  Wilson.  Qualification, 
£500  stock  or  shares.  Remuneration,  £1C0  per  annum 
eaob.  Thomas  MoMeekin  managing-director  till 
Deoember,  1896,  with  a salary  as  fixed  by  the 
directors. — Financial  limes. 
♦ 
THE  PRODUCTS  TO  CULTIVATE  IN 
EAST  AFRICA. 
coffee  versus  tea. 
The  following  letter  appears  prominently  in  the 
London  Times  of  Nov.  10th: — 
The  Resources  and  Development  of  Uganda. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Times. 
Sir,— At  a time  when  the  commercial  importance 
of  Uganda  is  attracting  attention  it  may  be  well  to 
mention  one  important  tropical  product  which  can  be 
cultivated  successfully  in,  and  abundantly  supplied 
from,  this  division  of  East  Africa.  One  authority, 
indeed,  has  already  mentioned  in  your  columns  that 
coffee  is  indigenous  to  the  forests  of  Uganda.  This 
I can  well  believe;  for  Abyssinia— the  recognized 
habitat  of  Coffea  Arabica— is  not  far  distant,  and  al- 
ready flourishing  coffee  plantations  have  been  formed 
by  Ceylon  planters  further  south  at  Blantyre.  I wish 
specially  to  emphasize  the  fact  I tried  to  make  clear 
in  a paper  read  before  the  London  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce a few  months  ago— namely,  that  the  present 
supply  of  coffee — unlike  that  of  most  tropical  and 
other  products — is  scarcely  equal  to  the  demand ; the 
price  of  good  coffee  is  abnormally  high,  and,  since  the 
appearance  of  the  fungus  disease  in  Ceylon  and  India, 
British  dependencies  especially  have  been  able  to 
supply  very  little  coffee.  Brazil  and  Central  America 
are  now  the  great  coffee-growing  countries,  and  it  is 
a matter  of  some  importance  to  British  merchants 
and  planters  (the  latter  available  from  Ceylon)  to 
revive  a great  coffee  industry  in  a British  State. 
On  the  other  hand,  I would  venture  to  repeat  what 
I stated  in  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  that  there  is 
no  such  encouragement  to  introduce  and  extend  tea 
cultivation  in  East  Africa.  India  and  Ceylon  (leaving 
China,  Japan,  and  Java  cut  of  view)  have  of  late  years 
so  increased  their  outturn  of  tea  that  the  price  has 
fallen  perilously  near  the  average  remunerative  limit, 
at  any  rate  for  a new  country. 
Cacao  (the  “ chocolate  ” shrub)  is  a product  that 
can  be  recommended  for  Uganda;  while  the  collec- 
tion of  rubber  from  its  forests  ought  to  be  specially 
profitable,  considering  the  increasing  demand  both  in 
Europe  and  North  America. — I am,  &c.,  J.  Ferguson, 
of  the  Ceylon  Observer  and  Tropical  Agriculturist. 
Genoa,  Nov.  5. 
P.S. — I would  just  add  that,  while  coffee,  cacao, 
and  rubber  are  recommended  to  the  notice  of  British 
capitalists  and  planters  for  East  Africa,  the  products 
which  are  in  danger  of  being  over-supplied  include, 
besides  tea,  pepper,  cardamoms,  cinnamon,  and  the 
oil,  fibre,  and  nuts  of  the  coconut  palm,  though  for  local 
consumption  the  latter  should  be  valuable  in  East 
Africa  as  everywhere  else.— J.  F. 
VARIOUS  NOTES. 
Mauritius  Tea, — Mauritius  is  now  amoDg  the 
tea-growiDg  oolonies.  Samples  of  leaf  cultivated 
and  prepared  in  the  hilly  parts  of  the  island  are 
pronounoed  of  good  quality,  so  that  even  if  none 
is  exported,  it  may  before  long  supply  not  only  itB 
own  population,  but  much  of  the  neighbouring 
parts  of  Afrioa. — British  Trade  Journal,  Nov.  1. 
The  Coffee  Entebpbise  in  Bbazie.— The 
ooffee  fields  of  Brazil  cover  an  area  of  two  million 
acres,  and  contain  upwards  of  eight  hundred  million 
trees— that  is,  four  hundred  per  aore,  each  tree 
producing  on  an  average  one  pound  of  berries  per 
annum.  The  industry  finds  employment  for  over 
eight  hundred  thousand  men  .—Horticultural  Times, 
Coffee  in  the  United  States.— The  imports  and 
exports  of  coffee  for  the  fiscal  year  were  as  follows  : — 
1891-92  1890-91 
Imports,  free  of  duty.  .Pounds  632,942,912  519,528,432 
„ dutiable  ..  7,268,876 
Total  ..  „ 640,211,788  519,528,432 
Exports  ..  „ 10,539,040  8,486,973 
Net  imports  ..  „ 629,672,748  511,041,459 
Average  import  value  „ 20.07c.  18.50c. 
The  increase  in  the  average  import  value  of  coffee, 
nearly  l£c  per  lb.,  was  no  doubt  due  to  the  impo- 
sition of  the  duty  of  three  cents  per  lb.  on  certain 
mild  grades,  under  the  reciprocity  provisions  of  the 
tariff.  The  announcement  of  the  intention  of  the 
President  to  levy  the  duty  caused  heavy  importa- 
tions of  the  said  grades  and  the  relative  increase  of  the 
average  value  of  the  total  imports  of  the  bean  for 
the  year.— New-York  Merchant's  Review,  Aug.  2. 
The  Introduction  of  Coffee.— Paris  is  oelebrated 
above  all  the  oapitala  of  Europe  for  its  oafds ; and 
the  beverage  which  gives  its  name  to  these  establish- 
ments seems  to  have  been  known  earlier  in  Fraaoe 
than  in  any  other  European  country.  Coffee  was  in- 
troduced into  central  Europe  in  1863,  the  year  of  the 
battle  of  Vienna;  and  from  the  Austrian  oapital  the 
use  of  oofiee  spread  rapidly  to  all  parts  of  Germany. 
The  circumstances  under  which  the  Austrians  first 
beoame  acquainted  with  it  were  somewhat  ourioua. 
The  Turks  had  brought  with  them  to  Vienna  an 
imposing  siege  train.  No  European  power  po?sested 
such  formidable  artillery;  and  their  stone  balls  of 
sixty  pounds  each  were  not  only  the  largest  pro- 
jectiles ever  fired,  but  were  regarded  as  the  largest 
which  by  any  possible  means  oould  be  fired.  Accord- 
ing to  the  ingenious,  but  incorrect,  view  of  one  of 
Sobieski’s  biographers  (the  Abbd  Coyer),  the  amount 
of  powder  requisite  for  the  discharge  of  a missile  of 
greater  weight  would  be  so  enormous  as  not  to  give 
time  for  the  whole  of  it  to  become  ignited  before 
the  ball  left  the  cannon.  Kara  Mustapha,  the 
Turkish  general,  had  also  brought  with  him  a num- 
bor  of  arohers;  and  when  a letter  from  Subieski  to 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine  was  intercepted  by  a Turkish 
patrol,  the  document  wss  attached  to  an  arrow  and 
shot  into  the  town,  aooompanied  by  a note  in  the 
Latin  language  to  the  efftot  that  all  further  resist- 
ance was  out  of  the  question,  and  that  the  Vienna 
garrison  had  now  nothing  to  do  but  accept  its  fate. 
The  Turks,  moreover,  brought  Vienna  an  immense 
number  of  womeD,  whose  throats,  when  the  Turkish 
army  was  forced  to  retire  in  headlong  flight,  they 
unscrupulously  cut.  The  stone  cannon  balls  of  pro- 
digious weight,  the  arrows,  and  the  women  oould  all 
be  accounted  for.  But  the  Turkish  left  behind  them 
a large  number  of  bags  oontaining  white  berries,  of 
whieh  nothing  could  be  made.  Of  these  berries,  how- 
ever, after  duly  roasting  and  pounding  them,  an 
Austrian  soldier,  who.  had  been  a prisoner  in  Turkey, 
made  ooffee  ; and  as  he  bad  distinguished  himself 
during  the  bat6le,  the  Emperor  granted  him  per- 
mission to  open  a shop  in  Vienna  for  the  sale  of 
the  Turkish  beverage  which  he  had  learned  under 
such  interesting  circumstances  to  prepare.— From  “ Old 
and  New  Paris  ” for  November. 
