536 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 2, 1908. 
revelation to the ordinary dweller in this country. 
A playful young Ijull, of the size of a growing 
elephant, sleek and covered with hair like fur, was 
getting its morning meal when your correspondent 
arrived upon the scene. It was the kind of animal 
to inspire ability to climb through the thorniest 
of fences in the shortest of time, but the genial pro- 
prietor did not hesitate to pat and caress the animal 
and the latter evidently appreciated the attention. 
Mangel wurzels grown in the locality, and gram 
and butter milk, with any amount of green fodder, 
are what the buffaloes are given to eat. They also 
have grazing in the open. Their wonderful condi- 
tion and the surprising quantity of n)ilk they yield 
afford remarkable illustration of what care and 
good management will effect with the elsewhere 
neglected Indian buffalo. 
The enterprise is entirely self-supporting and 
deserves the prosperity it has attained, — Bomhmj 
Gazette, Dec. "29. 
TRADE IN STRAITS PRODUCTS 
FOR 1902. 
The following is the report on certain products 
exported from Singapore, in which Ceylon is more 
or less interested ; — 
Copra. — Expert figures of this article shew a very 
marked increase over 1901, being indeed almost double 
what they were in that year, and as prices have ruled 
very high, touching at one time $11-25 per picul for 
Ball and eimilar types, this industry must have been 
an exceedingly remunerative one for those engaged 
in the cultivation of coconuts. Demand throughont 
the year has been good and a feature to be recorded 
ia the steadily increasing consumption by local Oil 
Mills. 
Black Pepper. — From Jan. /June prices varied from 
!S29f to ^33 and Jnly/Dec. $29| to if37, value on 31st 
Dee. being $ST. Supplies have increased abont 15 
per cent on last year and are liljelv to show a further 
increase in 1903. Stocks in Europe and America are 
considerably smaller than they were at the end of 
1901, which proves that the consumption has exceeded 
production. 
White Peppeb opened in January at $53 (.5 per 
cent loss in weight) and declined to $46J in March, 
advancing again in June to $56Jj. Heavy arrivals in 
Aug. /Sep. drove the price back again to $51i but a 
recovery soon afterwards took place and the market 
advanced steadily to $Qli which is closing quotation. 
Had a number of the Sarawak plantations not been 
destroyed by floods, supplies would have shown an 
important increase, but as it is they total only about 
7i per cent above last year. The demand for the 
United Kingdom and Continent has been active and 
prices have kept firm throughout the last three or 
four months. 
LiBERiAN Coffee. — At the close of last year No. 1 
Liberian Coffee was valued at about f^l9 per picul, 
and with a few fluctuations the price has advanced 
to $22. Quality on the whole shows an improvement, 
and less has been heard of claims for sourness said 
to be caused by defective curing. During the last 
two months supplies have been small and a good 
demand for India has led to as much as $24 being 
paid for small lots of good quality. 
MuTMEOs AND Mace. — After a long period of de- 
pression during which 110s Nutmegs were sold as 
low as lJ44 per picul and Banda Mace $68, an active 
demand has sprung up, and prices have advanced to 
$65 for the former and $120 for the latter. Ihe 
average quality of Nutmegs coming to market is far 
from satisfactory, and the proportion of shrivelled 
and unsound Nuts seems to increaee every season. 
—Straits Times, Dec. 31, 
AN EXPERT ON GREEN TEA. 
Having seen a good deal i f the green tea industry 
both here and in other countries perhaps a . few 
views may be acceptable to my fellow tea men. 
As, I suppose, is but natural there appear to be very 
confused ideas prevalent in India regarding the 
vaiieties of green tea on the markets of the world, 
Indian planters seeming to think that it ia a plain 
article, the same fundamentally throughout with- 
out regard to its outside appearance iu the dry leaf 
which is diversified. Ic follows from tliis errone- 
ous impression that many efforts are directed 
towards producing a nondescript style of tea, with 
the appearance of one kind and the characteristics 
of anotber. JSlow, if we are to follow the lead of 
Far Eastern countries and produce teas sufficiently 
close to theirs to compete with them successfully 
in countries where they have established the 
national taste it is clear that we should study the 
characteristics of their teas thoroughly and in 
working to our end endeavour to follow out the 
principles on which their teas are made. 
To begin with, I have been informed by several 
tea makers that their ambition was to reproduce 
the round roll of China hysons, gun-powders and 
imperials. Now these same tea makers were pro- 
ducing their green tea by the steam process. The 
result of rolling steam-made tea in the Chinese 
fashion would be to produce a tea which would 
possess a liquor of quite a different character to 
that of Chinese tea, and consequently the tea 
would not reproduce Gbinese, and having the 
Chinese roll would equally not represent any 
other description. 
Tiie two standard descriptions of green tea are, 
of course, the Chinese and the Japanese, and they 
differ very fundamentally in their character. The 
initial operation which destroys the fermenting 
principle of the tea leaf, and thus divides green 
(or untermented) from black (or fermented) tea 
manufacture is differently carried out in China 
and Japan. In both countries heat is the agent 
used for sterilising the fresh leaf, after which 
operation it is not subject to fermentation, but 
the heat is applied in a different manner in the 
two countries. In China dry heat is n.^-ed ; the 
leaf is thrown upon open p'ms heated by .stoves, 
and the contact of the leaf with the heated metal 
causes the temperature to rise above the point 
at which the natural ferment in the leaf 
dies. This preserves the whole constituents in the 
leaf, which is, after being thoroughly panned, 
rolled and dried in the usual manner, and panned 
again at the end of the manufacture to bring up 
the grey-green colour characteristic of the dry tea. 
The Chinese roll by hand in a manner to secure 
the round curly teas with which the market is 
familiar. Very good imitations of these teas are 
produced in the North- West of India tea estates. 
These North- Western teas truly represent China 
characteristics in form, colour and cup, and are 
as they should be, for this style of manufacture. 
The China teas are pungent and bitter, of greaO 
strength with a darkish liquor, but they do not 
possess the delicacy of Japan teas for a reason 
to be explained. 
The Japanese, on the other hand, sterilise their 
fresh tea leaf by the moist heat of boiling water, 
which from the first differentiates their manu- 
facture from that of China. The leaf treated in 
tliis way becomes wet, and in the process of roll- 
ing, which immediately follows, a good deal of 
the juice of the leaf is expressed and comeB away 
