Nov. I, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
319 
cups ot the juice allow five cups of sugar and 
the juice of tluee limes : boil till it jellies. It is 
not clear, hut a nice red colour. If a few guavas, 
about six big ones, are added to the plantains 
and all boiled and strained together, it makes a 
nice variety. 
A savoury tomato jelly to eat with meat is not 
much known. To each lb. of tomatoes allow 2 oz. 
sugar. Melt the sugar, stirring all the time, 
taking care it does not burn. Into this put two or 
three Bombay onions cut up very fine, for each lb. 
of fruit, and boil up nicely. Add the tomatoes cut 
up fine, a little pepper and salt, and if liked, some 
apice. Boil all to a pulp, strain, and then boil up 
the juice till it jellie.'^. Put into small pots, as it 
does not keep well when once opened. 
Sweet loose jacket oranges make delicious mar- 
malade too. Scrape the skin slighily and boil till 
very tender ; cut up all, ouly taking out the pips 
and allow ?i to J lb. sugar to each lb. of fruit. 
Simmer till nice and thick. This is more like a 
jam, being sweet, as maranialade is always 
slightly acid. 
Roselle jelly is too well-known to require any 
describing. This is a fascinating subject, but I 
have run on longer than I intended and yet have 
not added any recipes for preserves for dessert, of 
which I have several. They may do for another 
article.— iW. Mail, Sept. 6. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
We remark on Mr George [Seton's interesting 
table of the working of forty-fivo 
INDIAN TEA. COMPANIES 
for the past season. It will be seen that about half ot 
these companies show increased profits, as compared 
with the previous year, while the other half have had 
their profits reduced. Taken all round, the profits 
were larger than in the previous year, but the amount 
distributed in debenture interest and dividends was 
much smaller. The total nett revenue works out at 
£319,000, as against ±'297,600 in the previous year, 
and the average rate of dividend, including debenture 
and preference interest, is 2.72, as against 3.90 per 
cent. This lower return, iu spite of bigger takings, 
is not due altogether to increased capital on which 
distribution has to be made, but may be attributed 
to the more cautious policy of the directors in keeping 
larger sums in hand, so that whilst the aggregate 
capital has only grown 4 per cent, and is accounted 
for by the fresh issues of four concerns, the total 
sum placed to reserved and carried forward has 
expanded more than 15 per cent. The production per 
acre .fell from 487 lb to 421 lb, but the profit per lb 
increased from 0.85d to 1.03d, and the sale price was 
nearly a third of a penny per lb better. The 
ratio of operating expenses to receipts was 86, as 
compared with 88 per cent, and the profit on the total 
capital employed is equal to 3 50, as against 3 20 per 
cent. The situation revealed by this carfully-compiled 
table is that each garden or group of gardens should 
be considered by itself, and that it is difficult to 
generalise on the whole industry from the results of 
any particular working. 
The GovernmentLaboratoryreport, states that COP- 
FEE substitutes areadmitted free provided they contain 
no coffee or chicory. Needless to say, there is no lack 
of such substitutes. Roasted tigs, turnips, acorn and 
dandelion are the favourites. This must be parti- 
cularly gratifying to coffee planters. It appears that 
molasses form an ingredient ot soy, cattle foods, and 
blacking, and these are now charged a shilling per 
cwt in respect of the sweetening matter in them. — 
//. i£- 0. Mail. Augst, 29, 
FRENCH-GUINEA RUBBER. 
Captain Cromie, His Majesty's Consul at Dakar, in 
his Report on the Trade of French-Guinea for 1899 
and 1900, which was not received at the Foreign Office 
until July 21 last, deals with a subject of much in- 
terest to tropical Colonies — the collection ot rubber. 
The fall in the price of rubber in 190i) was especially 
felt in French-Guinea, eight-tenths of whose exports 
consist ot that article. And there were special reasons 
which caused the Colony to suffer. '• Having been 
a rubber-producing country for many years," says 
the Consul, " the vines, owing to wasteful methods 
of tapping them, had become comparatively scarce, 
and in order to increase the quantity of rubber for 
sale, the natives adulterated it in various ways. The 
merchants, anxious to profit by the In'gh market, 
accepted the bales without examination, with the 
result that the rubber bought from the 
natives during the season 1899-19iJ0 contained aa 
much as 25 per cent, ot impurities. The home markets, 
who could obtain rubber of a much higher quality 
from other sources, refused to buy the Guinea rubber, 
which thus remained on the hands ot the merchants, 
who, in many cases, were compelled to sell at a loss. 
In the meantime European goods were accumulating 
in the merchants' stores at Conakry, as they had 
given their orders before the fall in prices. But the 
natives, alarmed at the low prices they were offered 
for their rubber {.^O per cent less than the year 
before), only sold enough to pay their taxes and to 
such European articles as had become indispensable 
to them. As they had long ceased to cultivate 
anything but rubber, the fall in that article found 
them with nothing to replace it. The Government 
has adopted several measures which, it hopes, will 
remedy this state ot aflairs, so as to improve the 
quality of Guinea rubber. A Decree was issued in May, 
1900, forbidding the sale ot rubber iu unopened bales. 
This has already had a good effect, as the natives, 
finding they were certain of detection, ceased adding 
foreign matter; but as the method of coagu- 
lating the rubber in calabashes ordinarily employed 
by the natives made it difficult to detect adulteration 
with resins, a further Decree was issued to the effect 
that, dating from the wet season of 1901, the only 
rubber allowed to be exported would be that prepared 
by the Foulah method, in red filaments, which was 
found to be the only one which permitted the detec- 
tion of resinous adulteration." — London Times, 
CEYLON TEA IN AUSTRALIA. 
(From an ex-Ceylon Resident.) 
Melbourne, Sept, 3. 
I advised you by last mail of the Regulations 
which must now guide Colombo Exports of Tea to 
the Commonwealth. I feel I must, however, send 
you a line by this, to show you how acute the 
situation has become between the Importers whose 
tea has been seized, their sympathisers and the 
Minister of Customs. Sir Malcolm Mc Eacharn, 
who has been very dissatisfied with the new regime 
at the Customs ever since the fuss over the 
breaking of ship's seals, has told his constituents, 
he can no longer be looked upon as a sujjporter of 
the Government. Though his interests are ship- 
ping, it was over some reinarks of his that the 
House discussed the Tea ditiiculty the other night. 
In one of the recent issues of the Observer 
apropos to tea stealing, you make the very per- 
tinent observation, that " if tliere were no receivers 
there would be no thieves," Now, I hope you will 
persevere on your text that, if there were no 
EXPORTERS OF FAKED RUBBISH 
from Colombo, there would be no importers in 
the Commonwealth of any article or grade bear- 
