382 THE TROPICAl. AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. 1, 1902. 
slag, the stipulation being that the slag 
should contain from 38 to 45 per cent, phos- 
phate of lime. Cargoes which were sent over 
from Brussels were subsequently re-sold by 
the complainant to customers in Ireland. 
There was an arrangement between the 
complainant and the defendant, under the 
terms of which 75 per cent, of the purchase 
monej' was to be paid on the analyst, by Dr. 
Dyer, a well-known analyst, of the sample 
of the cargo, and the balance on delivery. 
The allegations were that, whereas the sam- 
ples submitted to Dr. Dyer contain the full 
proportion of phosphate of lime, on the 
faith of which the complainant made pay- 
ment, the bulk of the cargo contained in 
some cases merely 7 to 8 per cent, of phos- 
phate, and was practically useless, being, 
said counsel, little better than ground brick- 
dust. The customers of the prosecutor in 
Ireland weve naturally furious when discovery 
W.T.S made with regard to the quality of the 
slag, and demanded back the money which 
they had paid, and in the result the prose- 
cutor had necessarily sustained considerable 
monetary loss. — The prosecutor stated in 
evidence that he had paid the defendant in 
respect of slag over £1,900. Samples of cargoes 
showed a deficiency in one case of 20 per 
cent, phosphate of lime, and that it was quite 
unmerchantable. In round figures he was 
about £5,000 to the bad over the business. 
The case was adjourned, the defendant being 
admitted to bail. — Globe, Sept. 27. 
COFFEE PLANTING IN SOUTHERN 
INDIA. 
Nelliampatty Hills, Palglial, P.O. S.I. 
You will probably be surprised to hear froin ine 
and will perhaps not remember me even when yon 
see my name. I left the College in the sprin{i of 
.'94, and came out to India shortly after. As I 
"believe a g^ood many fellows £;o to India from thp 
College, perhaps some of my remarks may be of 
use, and I shill certainly be very glad if they 
are. . . . 
I have been c iffee planting ever since I came 
cub, and am not doing altofjether badly as tliino;s 
go, but from want of capital have not been able 
to do as much as I should have liked. No fellow 
ought to come out here with anything under 
£1,803 if he wants to do anything in coffee, as 
superintendents' billets are hard to get, and there 
are already plenty of men in the country ready to 
jump at any place there is going. The best way 
for a fellow who has a little money, is to get a 
share in a young estate, not all opened, and try 
to get the superintendence or management of that. 
It is a mistake to put in money where there is 
much old coffee, as with prices in their present 
high condition not many men are inclined to part 
with it (unless there is something pretty far 
wrong). 
The life of a coffee-planter is, generally speaking, 
very interesting and jolly, but of course not all 
beer and skittles ; plenty of hard work, both in 
the field and in the office, and many fellows have 
to give up on account of fever, which is to be 
found in all coffee districts with very few (if any) 
exceptions. 
As to kit, a fellow can bring out his ordinary 
English clothes and not go wrong, and it should 
be remembered that a few things can be obtuiued 
in India. Clothes can be copied splendidly by 
native tailors if good patterns are brought out, 
and it is a mistake for a fellow to buy a huge kit 
" expressly made for ludia," the greater part of 
which he will probably find useless to him. I 
speak from my own experience. If a fellow intend.? 
going in for shikar or liiggame, he cannot do better 
th^n the following battery if he has money to 
dispose of : i.e., one double-barrelled 8-bore for 
all thick-skinned beasts like elephants, bison, etc., 
one double-barrelled 450 express and one double 
12 bore shot and ball gun. That is the most 
serviceable battery that can be had. I speak 
from my own experience there too, having had 
some witii every variety of game there is in 
Southern India, If a man has only a moderate 
amount of money to expend on guns, he will find 
a I2-bore paradox the most useful. . . . 
— Empire Beviem, Oct. A. G. M, 
: «i 
COFFEE IN BRAZIL 
A telegram to 0 Paiz from Miracema states 
that the drought has ruined the comins; coffee crop 
in the State of Rio, that had providentially escaped 
the frost and that great misery prevails. Since 
then it has been raininsr hard for several day", so 
we suppose telegrams will be received to the effect 
that the little Hower -left from the frost and 
drought has been finally washed away by the 
floods and that there will be no crop at all. Then, 
we suppose, everyone would be starving but 
happy. — B. Review, Oct. 1. 
RUBBER: A GOOD STORY. 
He is a bold man who attempts to predict the 
price of rubber a few weeks ahead. A friend of 
ours, some eight weeks ago, offered to bet a 
new hat that the price of " Para " would go up 
to .3s. 6d. before the end of November. We like 
to bet on certainties, and as this was not one, we 
did not accept his kind offer. He followed his 
opinions in good time and bought largely for his 
firm. May we be pardoned for saying that he is 
one of the few rubber men at the present time 
going about with an obvious smile and a whole- 
hearted contentedness delightful to witness. At 
the time of writing the price is still below his pro- 
phesy but he has still ten wepks or so to run. Let 
us hope he will still be chuckling at the end of 
I hat period. Some funny stories are told of how 
forecasts of the rubber markets are arrived at. 
We don't mean by this that the arduous study of 
its rise and fail is treated by any of the buyers 
with levity, but still on a matter which ofttimes 
defies the most careful calculations outside influ- 
ences sometimes creep in. Perhaps the yarn is not 
new to some of our readers, but to most it will be. 
A buyer of rubber had wearied his brains out one 
evening late in December of 1901 in his attempt 
to come to a decision as to his purchase 
next day. He could not afford to let the 
matter stand over until the next sale. He 
went to bed late and for a while he could 
not sleep. When he did fall over he dreamed 
that he went into a shop where they sold rubber 
done up in packets like tea. He asked the 
shopman (who by the way resembled one of our 
best known brokers) for a pound and when he got 
it he laid down three shillings and one six- 
pence. Before the shopman could handle the 
money the sixpence went a missing mysteriously. 
After hunting for a time the shopman gave it up 
