March 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
635 
€ov respond once 
T.I iJie EtniciP. 
CACAO PREPARATION AND PRICES. 
Jan. 14. 
Dfi.iR Sir, — With reference to a letter signed " Mia- 
•ellaneous Planter " published recently in one of your 
issues, I wish to offer some remarks. I think that ha 
is mistaken in his stateinjub that the way now 
adopted by many planters of washing the cacao ai'ter 
15 or 39 hours' fermentation is to add weight by 
preserving part of the mucilage, which it would do 
to only a very small txteot. It is then slightly dried 
and heaped again, so as to give it a secondary fer- 
mentation, for two days, and then thoroughly dried. 
This process has been adopted to obtain as bright 
a red colour and glo.-sy and unsplit bean as possible 
which is the desideratum for the London market. 
It ia my experience, however, that cacao treated iu 
the old way by four to five days' continual ferment- 
ation which gives it, if a less prepossessing appear- 
ance, what I consider a far batter and more decided 
taste of chocolate, obtains a lesser price in London. 
Why this is I ;un at a loss to understand as well as 
why the bleaching of cardamoms does add to their 
value, considering that the peel of the cacao as well 
as the capsules of the cardamom are nearly valueless. 
Thus even the raw products have to be " faked " and 
it ia not the case that the Ceylon CdoUo, which 
forma still a portion of the production, has fallen to 
the level of cacaos of other countries, formerly hss 
appreciated. 
The fermentation of cacao wants a scientific investi- 
gation to precise the best method, that is to say to 
determine th.i reason why some breaks turnout with 
a delicate chocolate taste, while others treated ap- 
parently in the same way have not tliat taste. 
The continental cacao buyers seem to have another 
standard to go by for their appreciation of the value 
of that product : they give high prices for earthed 
cacaos as Caraquez and Puerto Cabelloj, the latter 
generally 00 per cent more than the next best and the 
earth obtaining represents about 10 per cent of the 
weight. 
With many other cacao growers, I have little faith 
in the efficiency of the cure proposed by the ciypto- 
gamiat, Mr. Carruthers. The spores of the fuiigtis 
are too " millionoua " ; they not only settle on and 
develop on cacao trees, but on many others and their 
growth is too rapid and often undetected. I think 
that tlie only efficient way is to paint over the trunk 
and the crown, some refuse oil mixed with pulverised 
sulphate of copper, taking care to cut out previously 
any part of the bark already attacked. In the case 
of the cacao tree particularly where the heroic cure 
of excision does such harm to the patient, prevention 
ia better than cure. 
( ontrary to the experience of lilr. Carruthers who 
stated tliat he found no variety of cacao to be im- 
nnme from the disease, I have a robust and hardy 
variety of trees which have been planted iu 1886 and 
which never have been attacked, altliough surrounded 
by CrioUos and Forasteroa which have Buffered 
severely. The pods oval and smooth are largd and 
vary in colour from yellow to doep-red and the shell 
is thin. The beans also arc of laige size and wlieii 
freali, their colour at the section varies from white 
to purple. These trees have different characteti.stics 
loatage also from the other varieties. 
They have given for tlie last three years an average 
of G| cwt. per acre, about half iu October-December 
and half in April-Juno being planted 12 by I'i in 
BtilTsoil. When allowed to spiead they cover a space 
ol 20 ft. Since ItiiH I have pi inted a good niaiiy 
acios with the sjuds of lhone trees and not one of 
the now trees which all have the same chr*cteristic3 
haH, to my knowledge, been attacked by the fungus, 
when it is admillod by neighbours that fields of the 
same age, p'anted from seed of robust Forasteroa 
obtained from Matale, have already suffered much. 
I am thus justified iu asserting that there is a variety 
which is not attacked. 
I have heard it stated that the replanting of 
Criollo fields wit'i hardy varieties was generally suc- 
cessful is to growth. This ia not my experience. I find 
that it is only exceptionally successful, even in good 
loamy soil which has not been exhausted and has 
been left fallow for several years. Hero again an 
agricultural chemist might discover the elements 
missing to render to the aoil its lost fertility. I have 
tried to do this, but without success, with a chemical 
manure possessing a high percentage of phosphoric 
acid and potash. This however has given me aur- 
prising results being applied to full bearing trees, 
increasing the size of the pods and the crop by 40 
per cent, having been applied four months before the 
blossoming season. 
I hope my letter may elicit the publication of the 
experience of other planters pro bono Theobroma 
cacao, — Yours truly, A. V, D. P. 
GREEN TEA: THE STATE OE THE 
MARKET. 
Kandy, Jan. 27. 
Sir, — I enc!o.?e extract from a letter of Mr. 
Larkin to Mr. Mackenzie in reference to (Jreea 
Tea; also some new.^paper cuttiiij;K forwarded by 
Mr. Larkin. — I am, sir, yours faitiifully, 
A. PHILIP, 
De.\k Mr, Mackenzie, — I have your valued favor on 
the 25th inst. to hand. 
I have just been showing those Ceylon Greens to the 
people in the Japan trade, and they all agree with me 
that they are e.xaoily on the same lines as Japan tea, 
only they are finer than even the earliest pickinga of 
Japan, as they are more astringent, drawing the same 
kind of liquor and having the same kind of smell and 
taste. We can thank our stars that, although these 
teas are similar to Japan, so far the Japanese have 
not been able to make a black tea, for the Japan 
blacks I have seen iu the past have been most 
wretched. 
THE TEA MARKET. 
The future of this market seems to be a little more 
hopeful owing to the great expansion of the demand 
in countries outside the Unitf-d Kingdom. In the nine 
months ended September 30th last these outside mar- 
kets have consumed over nine million pounds more 
than in the corresponding period of 1897, and the 
ToUowing figures show that the demand has been 
steadily increasing for some years past : — 
lb. lb. 
1898 42,918,654 1895 25,002,230 
1897 34.859 215 1894 20,905,531 
1896 28,250,961 
Fully one-half of the total for 1-598 was shipped 
direct to these foreign markets from Calcutta and 
Colombo. Ceylon tea is most in favour, the increase 
being about six million pounds as against less than 
two millions of Indian varieties. 
In addition to the increased forcigi demand there 
has also been a larger home consumption. Last year, 
it will be remembered, there was a decrease iu the 
latter, owing partly, it was said, to the engineers' 
strike and partly to the efforts to push cocoa. This 
year the increase is well above the normal. For vari. 
ous reasons th.i Indian growers are expected to 
supply the United King.iom with only about two 
million lb. more tha" last year, while Ceylon only 
shows an increase of from 3 tn 4 million lb. Stocks 
are, therefore, dim nisliing instead of increasing, as 
in past years, and a henlthier tone prevails in llia 
market. Sonie stress is laid upon the altered con- 
ditiona of training which are expected to lead tn nn 
improvement in busine-is later on. The grtat dilTi- 
culty in the tea-trade is tliat four fifths of the 
Indian shipments are made in tlie nix months from 
Anjjust to January. In those sixmonthsof 1897-8 the 
aliipmenia excojded the dclivorioa by about 31 millioq 
