Jan, 1, 1901.] 
THE .TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
505 
HOW TO DEAL WITH "TEA" NOT FITTED 
FOR EXPORTATION ? 
We are reminded by; an upcountry corre- 
spondent that when rinderpest was bad in 
Scotland (and we suppose in England) a fund 
was formed, whereby the owners of any cattle 
that had to be slaughtered, were indemnified 
for their loss. The question is, can the 
principle be adopted and a fund formed to 
deal with teas which ought not to he 
exported from this island to the detriment 
of the good name of Ceylon teas and to 
the in jury of the London market? Naturally, 
and equitably, the money to form such a 
fund should come out of the Tea Cess ; but 
for the present all the available collection 
has been voted away. Nevertheless, if any 
feasihle scheme were formulated for buying 
up what are talked of here as "rubbishy" teas- 
all produce sold below a certain fixed limit and 
thereby considered to Ije imsuited for exporta- 
tion—we cannot believe that the Government 
would make much difficulty in allowing 
the Cess collection to be forestalled in order 
to deal with an emergency like that 
which has been disturbing the Tea Market 
lately. At the same time, it is possible such 
a lesson has already been taught and 
learned that the crisis may be said to be over, 
and that a continuance of 10 cents-a-lb. teas 
is not to be feared in the local market. 
We should like to be assured of such produce 
and prices being things of the past. But 
wise men should act against the risk of 
recurrence, and in order to prevent any 
possible chance of the further exportation to 
London, Australia, America— in fact, to any 
of our customers— of anything like 10 cents-a 
lb. tea. The parallel of " rinderpest " would 
point to the destruction of the condemned 
tea ; but might it not be dealt with chemi- 
cally to some useful purpose for the extrac- 
tion of the tannin and perhaps of a useful 
dye ? If this could not be done in Ceylon, 
some precaution would have to be taken to 
ensure that only for chemical (and not 
for food) purposes was such tea sent out of 
the island, 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
TuA AND Coffee. — Some interesting and suggestive 
facts are contained in the Board of Trade report on 
tea and coffee just published. Tlie English people 
and peoples of English descent are still tho greatest 
consumers of tea among the Western nations. The 
average consumption of the home-staying Englishman 
is six pounds a year, while the Australian colonist 
consumes as much as seven and a half pounds. Why 
the fragrant leaf is less popular in the United States 
it is not easy to say. The Americans and the Russians 
are conservative in their taste, and continue to prefer 
China tea, but the work of pushing British-grown tea 
goes on steadily. The tea consumed in England is 
nearly all grown in India and Ceylon. The production 
of coffee, like that of tea, is largely increasing, and 
may be said, speaking generally, to have doubled in 
the last ten years. The chief producing countries are 
all in America, Mexico being the most northern and 
Paraquay the most sonihern of the countries of that 
continent whore cr ffee is produced. The chief coun- 
tries of pvoduction, in the order named, are Brazil, 
Venezuela, the United States of Colombia, Mexico, 
Costa Rica, Guatemala, and llayti. The United Sts.tes 
holds a very similar nlace in the coffee trade to that 
held by the United K ngdora in the tea trade, the 
relative consumption in eacli case exceeding that of 
all the other countries of the civilised world put 
together. The coffee trade of the United States, there- 
fore, may be said to virtually control the trade, as 
well as to a certain extent the prices, of coffee 
throughout the world. 
Fij[ AND Its Produce.— A paper on "The Islands 
and the People of Fiji" was read before the Royal 
Colonial Institute on Tuesday by Mr. Morgan L. 
Finucane, Provincial Inspector of the Provinces of 
Tarlever and Ra, a id medical officer of the colony. 
Referring to the industries of the colony, Mr. Finu- 
cane pointed out that the wealth and future pro- 
sperity of the colony undoubtedly depend ou the 
output of sugar, and it has been shown that in the 
Fiji Islands sugar-cane is capable of high cultiva- 
tion and growih in nearly every district with profit 
to the cultivator in spite of the falling prices in 
raw sugar. The sugar industry is entirely in the 
hands of the wealthy Colonial Sugar Refining Com- 
pany, who possess practically the monopoly for 
the supply of sugar in the whole of Australasia, 
and are even now sending Fijian grown sugar into 
Canada. The system adopted is that of local planters 
— European, Indian, and Fijian — cultivating areas of 
cane land and selling the product to the central 
mills of the company ; proper cultivation of the 
land is brought about by the terms in the company's 
contracts with growers by which they are paid, not 
in accordance with the quantity of cane grown and 
delivered to the mills, but on the percentage of raw 
sugar obtained by analysis of the cane supplied with 
a sliding scale. Coffee grows well in Fiji, both the 
Liberiau and Arabian varieties, and does best in 
shaded mountainous districts, such as are found iu 
the upper reaches of the Wai-ni-Buka in Viti Levu ; 
large areas have been put in by the Fijians as an 
addition in future years for the payment of their 
taxes an>i self-betterment. Vanilla grows well, and 
has realised good prices in the open market. To- 
bacco, ramie fibre, cocoa, cinchona, tea, and india- 
rubber are all to be found in Fiji. Tea does exceedingly 
well, and has a delicious flavour, says Mr. Finucane: 
There were, when I went to the colony, two flou- 
rishing estates with a perfect soil and altitude for the 
growth of this beverage: at present the local con- 
sumption of the product is entirely drawn from the 
group, and it is also exported to New Zealand and 
Australia. 
Abyssinian Coffeh.— A Consular report from Harrar 
says: "The Harrari coffee is of a very good quality, 
known in the London maiket as ' Moka long berry,' 
where it is preferred to the real Moka. Occasionally 
its piioe in London is higher than that of Moka. 
Plantations of coffee are increasing slowly, because 
the natives prefer to cultivate the Kiatt (Celastrus 
edalis) as more lucrative, 1 lb. of leaves of which 
are sold for 1 do]., and sometimes 2 dol. ; the natives, 
as in Arabia, are eating these leaves. Nevetheless, 
more than 150,000 coffee trees have recently been 
planted, especially in the districts of Chercher and 
mo."—B. and C. Mail, Nov. 3 ». 
. ^ 
Sport in British Central Africa.— The 
second letter of the interesting series of 
letters we have been publishing on leopard- 
shooting in B.C. A. ajipears on page 501. The 
sport appears to be full of variety, the article 
describing the despatch of a leopard that 
raided a fowl-house through the roof and 
made its exit by the same route ! We look 
forward to further " experiences" from "H.B," 
whose adopted country evidently abounds in 
sport of a hazardous nature. 
