May h 1900.] 
THE TR©P1CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
m 
TEA TWADDLE. 
Apparently the iucreasing popularity of Indian and 
Ceylon teas iu the United States is causing uneasi- 
ness among certain sections of the grocery trade which 
have been vending the Chinese product with profit in 
the past. There have been many tirades written 
against the cup that cheers without muddling one's 
brains ; but one does not look for twaddle from per- 
sons who are credited with intelligence. Doctor Kel- 
logg, who " rnns " a sanitarium at Battle Creek, in 
Michigan, U.S.A., with branches at Calcutta and 
Darjeeling, seems to have outdistanced all previous 
detractors of tea. According to Doctor Kellogg, tea 
"is a most dangerous drug." He tells of servant girls 
arrested in the streets of Boston for being drunk and 
disorderly who had tasted no alcohol, but who had 
" chewed tea constantly ; " also, of an old lady in Min- 
neapolis who drank thirty or forty cups a day and 
ended her life in a lunatic asylum. Bat even worse than 
these oases are those in which tea plays a more silent 
and insidious part. Among women it produces a kind 
of mania — " the mania for acting the persecuted 
saint." Among men, unlike the much-condemned 
alcohol, it produces fear. " One patient who 
was Buffering from tea poisoning in this way 
never passed a high building without locking up to 
see if something was going to fall upon him. Tea 
ia responsible for sleeplessness, and, in fact, most 
of the ills which flesh is heir to." This is the kind 
of language one expects from the illiterate. How- 
ever, tea will go on making its wav in public favor 
so long as men like Lord Kitchener sing its praises 
as the beat snstainer for fighting men, — Indian 
Gardening ( Calcutta.) 
[Similar tactics are employed to win favor for imita- 
tion coffee and other articles. It is a wonder that 
retail grocers will put into stock articles made by 
parties who persistently and systematically discredit 
staple and universally used articles in order to create 
a demand for some cheap and enormously overvalued 
substitute or rival brand. There is need of reform 
in this direction. Some makers of gelatine seek to 
win favor for their brand by discrediting all other 
makes. Some manufacturers of soup hint that rival 
makers use stock of an obnoxious character. This sort 
of publicity leads people to ignore all goods of the 
class attacked, and thus injures the demand in all 
directions. The retailers have a remedy within con- 
trol by throwing out of stock goods made by manu- 
facturers who persistently attack quality. — Ed. Ameri- 
can Grocer.^ Feb 14. 
BRAZIL COFFKE NOTES. 
Should the French Government impose double its 
present import duties on foffee, who will suffer most? 
In our opinion the French people will hardly care to 
pay the cost, nor will they wish to do without coffee. 
Brazil will suffer, of course, but less perhaps than 
France. 
The minister of industry has advised the director 
of the Central railway that he has assented to the 
petition of the coffee commissaries to be relieved of 
the obligation of having their coffee sent to a central 
deposit. They can hereafter take their coffee to their 
own deposits. 
The ship " Somali," which cleared for New York 
on Thursday, takes a cargo of 82,169 bags of coffee, 
shipped by Messrs. J W Doane & Co. of this city. 
This is not only the largest cargo which has ever left 
this port in a sailing vessel, but is the largest that has 
ever cleared in any vessel with but one exception. 
And in the case of the exception, the cargo came 
partly from Santos, while the "Somali's" cargo was 
entirely made up here and was shipped by one firm — 
probably the largest single shipment on record.— 
Bio News, Feb. 6. 
THE " TROPICAL *AGK1CULTUKIST " : 
A COMPLIMENT. 
(From Mr. Montague Kirkwood, Japan. J 
I have always read that excellent periodical with 
the greatest interest aud cousider it invaluable to 
all those who desire information of a thoroughly 
practical nature with regard to agriculture and 
kindred industiiea in tropical or semi-tropical coun- 
tries. If you have rot already done so, you would do 
well, I think, to bring it prominently to the notice 
of the American oflicials and merchants and planters, 
who are now engaged in the development of the 
Philippines. Should you forward copies to the 
"President of the United States Commission to the 
Philippine Islands," you are at liberty to say that you 
do so "on the recommendation of Mr. Montague 
Kirkwood of Tokyo, who has furnished Reports to 
the Commissiou in regard to the Government of 
Britain's Dependencies in Asia." 
PORTMORE TEA COMPANY OF CEYLON. 
Report of the Directors submitted at the 
Tliird Annual Ordinary General Meeting of 
Shareholders, held at 24, Kood Lane, Loudon, 
E C, on Thursday, 8th March 1000. 
The Directors have the pleasure to submit the Gene 
ral Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account for 
the year ending 31st December, 1899, duly audited. 
£ n. A. £ a. d. 
The net amount at credit of Profit 
and Loss after providing for 
general expenses, Income Tax, 
&c., and writing off New Clear- 
ings and Withering Shed £166 
lis. 6d ia 4,393 11 4 
To which should be added 
Balances forward from former .->;)-ji..c.. 
years, viz :— 1897 ... 116 16 7 
1898 367 5 8 
484 2 3 
An Interim Dividend of 5 per 
cent was paid September Ibth, 
18J9, amounting to ... 2,000 0 0 
It is proposed to pay a final Divi- 
dend of 6 per cent (making il 
per cent in all, free of Income 
Tax) which will absorb 2,400 0 0 
And to carry forward to next 
year . . . . 477 13 7 
4,877 13 7 
£4,877 13 7 
In presenting their Third Annual Report, the 
Directors have pleasure in recommending a dividend 
of eleven per cent. 
The yield of tea has been 242,740 lb., being at the 
rate of 510 lb, per acre, the cost of production has 
been £4,249 15s 9d being at the rate of 4d 201 per 
pound, and the crop has netted £9,024 lOs Id, being 
8d 92 per pound, equal to a profit on the capital of the 
Company of 11'93 per cent. 
The lower price realized for the tea has not been 
due to any falling off in quality, but to the un- 
precedented demand for common tea which has existed 
during the past year and which has withdrawn the 
attention of the market from higher class teas. 
The average rate of exchange for year has been 
la 4 13-64d against Is 4 5-64d during 1898. 
Mr. W. Herbert Anderson retires from the Board 
by rotation, but being eligible offers himself for re- 
election. 
The latest reports from the Manager in Ceylon 
describe the estates, buildings, and machinery as all 
being in good order, and the estimates of crop and 
expenditure for the current year give promise of con- 
tinued satisfactory results. 
The Directors desire to express their unqualified 
satisfaction with the manner in which the Manager 
and the Superintendent of the estates in Ceylon have 
discharged their duties during the year.— By ordw 
of the Board, 
Shanu, HAldane & Co., Secretari« 
