164 
'IHE I'ROPICaL agriculturist. [Sept. 1, 1899. 
ALLEGED CEYLON TEA CONFISCATED 
IN LONDON. 
There is more in thi.s matter than we 
understood at Mrst and we hereby call on 
the Chamber of Commerce or '• Thirty Com- 
mittee" to investigate the same. It seems 
from all we have been able to learn that 
the tea actually confiscated and desti'oyed 
in England, ivus landed there hi bugs and 
is alleged to have been discharged by one 
of the "Maru'' boats. Now, we understand 
that no such shipment was made by any 
steamer from Ceylon : ;rnd Ceylon tea is never 
shipped in bags. Either "an enemy hath 
done this" — some one ii r-ni Japan sending the 
stuff on and labelling ic as froin Ceylon — or 
the London Customs iias made a mi.stiike 
as regards the port from which the bags 
came. Could not the Agents of the "Maru" 
boats be asked to make inquiry in London 
and ascertain on what documents the Cus- 
toms officials fixed "Ceylon" as the country 
from which the stuff came? We do not think 
the matter should be passed over, as it ought 
to be easy to trace where (if not by whom) 
the shipment was made. 
JAVA QUININE. 
Mr. C. W. van Heeckeren, Direct or of the Bandoeng 
factory, has written a very long letter to a .Java paper 
to protest against certain serious insiuuations made 
in that journal, in which it was alleged that the 
Bandoeng works had carried on a private specula- 
tion in quinine m 'de by them for .lava planters. It was 
said that the laotory had led the planters to believe 
that this quinine was held in stock for the plant- 
ers' account, whereupon in reality it had been priv- 
ately sold by the factory. Prices subsequently rose, 
and when the planters gave orders for their quinine 
to be sold, it transpired that it had already been 
di-;poied of months ago, whereof the planters decided 
to break off relations with the Bandoeng works, and 
to consign their barks to Amsterdam as before. The 
statement was made that the German qniniae-makers, 
oat of their enmity to the Bandoeng works, had 
purposely engineered a rise in the market as soon as 
they got wind of the aforesaid speculation, so as to 
bring about a breach between the plaiiters and the 
Bandoeng works. Mr VanHeeckereu denies all these 
allegations. He says that the factory is debarred 
by its articles of association from trading in qoinine, 
all that the works ,make being sold through to 
Messrs McNeill & Co., of Samarang. The accounts 
between the works and the planters are settled in 
March of ,each year, when Messrs McNeill are in 
possession of the account sales for the whole of the 
preceding year. No one could have foreseen the 
sudden rise of quinine to Is 9Jd last March, and 
Messrs .McNeill before that rise had sold at from 
12id to 14d per oz on delivery. On January Ist a^Dont 
5 000 kilos of quinine had been made by the factory, 
for which the owners had not .yet received an account 
sale. Of this only 120 kilos were at the work8,l,000 
kilos were at Batavia, and 3,600 were on the way to 
various ports. During January and March about 
3 200 kilos made at Bandoeng were sold. Mr Van 
Heeckeien complains that the Bandoeng factory 
ia badly supported by the Java planters. Some of 
them habitually belittle it, and carp at its working. 
The total production of the Bandoeng factory between 
January Ist and March 13th was 320,000 oz, of which 
Messrs McNeill had sold in the same time 253, .580 oz, 
at an average equivalent of 7c per unit gross. Incom- 
menting upon Mr Van Heeckeren's letter the Java paper 
maintains its allegations, although it acknowledges 
(bat the speed latiou was Dot undertaken for motives of 
illegal personal gain, but wna merely an ill-considered 
speculacion in the interest of the planters, who, un- 
fortunatt^ly, have turned out losers over the affair. 
Chemist aiul Urur/yist, June 2i. 
AGKICULTUKAL PRODUCTS OF TOGO- 
LAND. 
The principal products of Togoland (a German 
colony ill West Africa, between the British gold coast 
posse.ssions and Dahomey) are oil palms, coco palms, 
India rubber and coffef. The most important from 
the European point of view is the kola nut, to the 
onltivatioa of which great attention is being paid. 
Ri-gulati'.ins have been issued to prevent the wanton 
d.-stiuction of iunia-rubber trees, and the dealers 
receive linenses from the Ooverument. Only natives 
are allowed o collect th,is product, strangers being 
fnrbid en to pJy the trade without a special license, 
which costs Jt'uO a year. It is not allowed to give 
natives an advance on the year's yield. According to 
a recent report by tho Second Secretaries of H.M 
Embassy in Berlin, the cultivation of the oil palm hat 
not yet been unnertak^n by Europeans, and remains 
in the hands of tho natives. Good building wood is 
supplied by the following trees ■. — CMoropliora cxceha, 
borassiis flahellifonni.-i and enjodendron an/ractuositiii. 
There are six coffee plantations, the number of tieeg 
varying from 30 to 3,000. The yield is given as 4,300 
kil ogrammes (9, -479 lb.) Coconuts laet year were 
grown in five plantations, varying from from 33 to 
1,000 in each, and the yield was 10,006 nuts. New 
undertakings are in view, lu the mountains, five days 
journey from the coast, the natives are growing coffee 
v/ith success, and plantation on large scale with 
European capital will shortly be commenced. The 
india-rubber tree {manihot <jlaziovii) is grown in the 
coffee and coconut plantations. It does fairly well, bnt 
suffers from a blight (Loronthocos) which does much 
damage. Cassava (tapioca), yams, maize, and earth 
nuts are also cultivated with success. An experimental 
plantation is carried on at Sebbe. It has been found 
that the trees which do best are mangoes, eucalyptus, 
banana, bixa oreliana, oranges, and coffee. Mulberry 
trees do well in the rainy season, but three-quarters 
of them die in the dry season. A new garden is being 
started at Lome, where native gardens are being 
trained. Coffee, manihot, Idkxia africana,{7iophyllum, 
(Ice , are being raised from seed. The following 
annuals are being grown : — IHcinus, sesairmm indicum^ 
oil plants, inaize, aadropoqon and corchorus capaularis. 
— Journal of the. tiocietij of Arts. 
Coffee and Tea in the Nilgiri : Ooty, 
June 3rd. — A doleful year this is likely to be, my 
masters, for planters of coffee, for prices are 
falling, falling every day, and there seems no end 
to the depths into which they are plunging. And to 
make matters worse, if worse they could be, the 
rain on the open blossom has done immense harm 
to crops. Kotagiri way they are still hopeful, 
but there hope is getting thin, Goonoor, -well 
there is an end of hope for them, and the damage 
to the coming crop is put down at one-third to 
two-thirds of the whole. On the western slope.s 
in the Ouchterlony Valley and Nallacoctah| 
things are a great deal better, one enthusiast 
declaring liis 1899-1900 crop will be one of the 
best on record. Tea, of course, is sharing in the 
general improvement in prices, and the season is, 
moreover, and exceptionally favourable one. New 
Hope, one of the Valley estates, is attaining 
quite a respectable position in the home market, 
and for very good all-round breaks too. Another 
estate, long known for its excellent prices, Non- 
such to wit, on the Coonoor side, is also coming 
forward aeain after a year's i\\xm.~The Indian 
Plmier's Gazette, June 10, 
