Se^t. 2, 1901.] 
THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
175 
come either from Spain or from England, 
but it is hoped that German goods will iind 
a market if they are once introduced. A 
" Fernando Po Committee " is being formed 
in Berlin for the purpose of promoting 
German trade Kud of directing the attention 
of German manufacturers and merchants to 
the commercial possibilities of the island. 
A BOER PRISONER— EX- JAVA PLANTER 
—ON COFFEE CULTIVATION. 
Sir,— Having, from past experience of t^'^' 
and coffee planting in Java, always retainetl 
a strong interest in these important branches 
of tropical agriculture— I could not help 
noticing in your issue of the 16th instant the 
article, " Wynaad Planting Notes " and the 
reprint from the Ceylon Observer headed 
" Coffee in Brazil." What struck me more 
particularly in the lirst-named article was 
the reference made therein to a seemingly 
enthusiastically advocated system of leaving 
coffee plantations (old ones, I presume) un- 
weeded. "Weedy" gardens must be detri- 
mental to the production of the crop. This 
at least is my experience both in Java and 
Sumatra, while during a visit in 1895 to an 
important coffee-growing district in Mexico 
I had ample opportunity to see the superior- 
ity of weeded over unweeded coffee gardens 
illustrated, and that under climatological con- 
ditions and nature of soil vastly differing 
from those of Java and Sumatra, Ceylon and, I 
should say, theNilgiris as well. In Swazie- 
land (South Africa) I visited a small coffee 
plantation, started by some enterprismg 
Scotchman (but unfortunately guided by a 
West Indian planter of limited experience), 
•where the three year-old trees were only fit 
to be pulled up hj the roots, standing in 
almost a forest of weeds, and black and 
shrivelled up by the Bemeleia vastatrix. 
Although unacquainted with the state of the 
coffee industry in India, I should say that 
the words of the President of the State of 
San Paulj), as quoted by you from the Ceylon 
Observer, might be studied with advantage 
by " HerobolloUos." To " give no attention to 
fanciful measures that can effect no real 
remedy and only make things worse," is 
sound advice to coffee planters in every part 
of the world, where the enormous output of 
the Brazilian article threatens the very ex- 
istence of the local industry, a danger only 
to be warded off by studying quality rather 
than quantity, and which so far has enabled 
Java coffee planters to maintain their foot- 
hold, and prevented their being swamped by 
the ever-increasing flood of the Santos ariicle. 
While in charge of the Java exhibit at the 
World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, 
during 1893, I noticed the strenuous efforts 
made by the Ceylon Tea Growers' Associa- 
tion for the capture of the American 
markets, and which I saw repeated at the 
Brussels Exposition in 1897. The brazen 
audacity of modern advertising speaks 
volumes in this revolution of the world's 
tea markets, which towards the end of the 
first half of the 19th century was still in 
the hands of the Chinese and Japanese. 
Jjet us hope for the, honour of the civilised 
world's palate that the tea history does not 
repeat itself in the future of coffee ; for in 
that case we may expect to see some day 
the Liberia coffee holding the same position 
in the civilised world over the coffee Arabica 
which Assam tea holds at present over the 
Chinese article— and why not, with these 
respective articles running on almost parallel 
lines. The Liberia coffee has more body and 
less flavour than the Arabica, and the same 
.qualities hold good in the case of Assam 
versus Chinese teas However, Arabica will 
last our day, and 1 think that I am expressing 
the spirit of our times when I exclaim, Apres 
nous le deluge ! This deluge, however, might 
arrive a little " too previous " at those 
plantations which indulge in " weedy 
gardens," -pour revenir a nos moutons ! 
J. N. Kalff. 
Olificers' Quarters, 
Boer Prisoners of War Camp, Bellary, 
Isth July. — Madras Mail. 
THE INDIAN TEA TRADE IN 1900. 
MR. J. E. O'CONOR'S OFFICIAL REVIEW. 
To producers and all concerned in the trade, 
the year was one of anxiety and depression 
resulting from the decline of prices to a level 
nuich lower than the lowest ever before touched. 
The statement appended of the prices realised at 
the public salfs in Calcutta illustrates the depth 
of the descent (annas and pies per pound 1 : 
1895-96.. ll-li 9 7-3 4/7 6 5-11 5-6 4/5 8-9 
189t)-97.. 9-llf 8-7i 6-9 9/10 5-94 5-5* 5-3 5/6 8-8 
1897- 98.. 8-9 5/d 7-55/7 6 UJ 5 4-lOf 4-6i 8-5 
1898- 99.. 8-1 2/5 7 5-8 4-8i 4-7 4-3 3/7 8-1 
1899- 1900 V-9 1/10 6-9i 5-8| 5-2i 5-0=^ 4-11 8-S 
1900- 01.. 7 6 5 3-112 4-1^ .S-9i 7-11 
While prices were falling ho heavily, liie im- 
position of the additional duty of 2d a lb in 
April 1900 ou tea imported into the United 
Kingdom also filled the minds of producers with 
dread that the additional cost to the consumer 
would have the eftect of reducing consumption, 
and the alarm was revived towards the end of 
the year when it was rumoured, but untruly, 
that the duty was to be increased. The fall in 
prices reduced profits on all tea estates so materially 
that dividends were paid to shareholders in but 
few cases and then on a very reduced scale. 
The reduction of prices was the consequence of 
overproduction, that is, of production expanded 
in excess of the expansion of consumption 
in the strictly limited market which now 
exists for Indian and Ceylon tea. According 
to the returns made by the owners and managers 
of tea estates for 1900, it appears that in the 
five years ending with that year about 107,000 
acres were added to the area under tea in India, 
being an increase of about 26 per cent. This ares, 
in full bearing, can produce at least 40 million 
pounds of tea. Unfortunately, while reduced 
prices were the cons^equence of over-production, 
they also became the cause of the continuance of 
over-production, for, to compensate for the fall in 
prices, as much leaf as possible was taken 
from the plant, and the quantity was increase4 
