July i, 1S91.] 
THP TROP?OAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Mr. Kogivue ha9 written much of the difficulties 
he has expevienosd and of the obstacles placed in 
hia way by the wholesale tea traders of Kassia. 
To overoome such a disposition popular demand 
must first be established, and of his success 
hitherto in doing this Mr. Rogivue does not write 
very glowingly. Not that hia letter is at all dea- 
pondent. On the contrary, he evidently feels ultimate 
sucoesa to be assured ; but he certainly recognises 
that hia will not be a case of " Veni, vidi, vici." He 
haa, he tells us, prepared the ground for a great 
experiment which he is desiroua of making, 
this being the opening of a kiosk specially 
for the sale of Ceylon tea, both infused and in 
packet, at a French Exhibition which is to be 
opened in Moscow today. Mr. Sogivue writes that 
he waa not aware that specialists would be allowed 
to retail gdoda at that Exhibition in time to admit 
of hifi seeking authority from your local Tea Com- 
mittee before incurring expenditure m the direction 
ha has tiadertaken. Oq his own responsibility 
therefore, ho has agreed to pay £200 rent for the 
privilege of selling your teas in a private kiosk 
10 be erected in the grounds of the Exhibition, 
and he will have also to incur the iurthor expense 
and responsibility of the conatruotion of the neces- 
sary building. For this aod contingent expanditure 
ha asks from your Tea Committee a grant of £500, 
and the details as to his proposal — with which my 
space will not permit of my entering — seem to 
justify the confidence with which he makss this 
application. The Exhibition, it appears from the 
letter under reference, is assured of a very large 
number of visitants— estimated at a million — con- 
sequent upon the expressed desire of the Tsar that 
the oooasioa should be made to express the cordial 
feelings now existing between his own people and 
those of France. 
Mr. Rogivue's letter further informs us that the 
draft of £150 (I think that was the amount) 
which you were recently told by ma had gone 
astray has never reached him. It was enclosed 
in a letter to him from Mr. Leake which has 
never yet been traced. However, vvo laarn that 
the bank has paid tha amount notwithstanding 
the loss of the draft. In addition to the ill- 
disposition shown by the wholesale trades above re- 
ferred to, Mr. Bogivue writes that ha haa to encounter 
a strong prejudice on the part of the people against 
your tea, and he has to confess that he has not 
as yet been able to make his agency pay its way, 
and has, besides, had to expend iarge sums in 
advertising. Among the forms adopted for this 
latter course he had had large coloured copies of 
hia trade mark— a Sinhalese woman working on 
a tea estate— posted up and distributed, while 
large placards have been exhibited calling attention 
to the superior merits of Ceylon tea. Apparently 
there are several large houses in St. Petersburg 
and Moscow which are already considerable importers 
of your produce, but this is for mixing purposes 
only. Mr. Bogivue think Mr. Popoff's late visit 
to Ceylon and his proceeding's subsequent to that 
visit will aid greatly in establishing your teas on 
the Russian market. 
He mentions a Mr. Wogall of Mincing Lane, a 
Ruaaiau merchant, as a large purchaser of Ceylon 
teas in London for shipment to St. Petersburg, 
and states him to be still buying largely, though 
only for the purpose abovementioned, that of mixing, 
lour Commissioner admits that he haa still very 
busy work before him before " crying victory "; 
hut be anticipates marked good result from the 
six montha' course of experience at the forthcoming 
French Exhibition in Moscow. 
We read a good deal in a late issue of the Kew 
ulkdn about ooooaut butter, and a good many 
of us wouderdd to what uses this new material 
waa likely to ba put. Evidently these are not to be 
confioed to alimentary purposes only, for it is stated 
thdt it 13 already escensiveiy employed in the making 
of soap for oleanmg uiatal work. It may probably 
be a leading ingredient in the well-known Brooks' 
soap so largely usad for that purpose. The soaps 
ordinarily employed for this are said to be com- 
posed of vaseline, oleic acid, aud fat, mixed with 
d little rouge ; but they are stated to soon get 
rauaid and worthlbss, while those soaps of which 
ttie base is cocoimb butler are reported to ba 
wholly free from this liability and can therefore 
be kept for any length of (ime. The demand for 
soap o£ this character is so enormous, that we can 
uiiUerstand now how it was that, according to the 
Kew Bulletin, the factories ah'eady established for its 
manufacture wore altogether intsdequato for meeting 
the supply required of coconut butter. The 
knowledge should sdmuiato your local merchauta 
to some endeavour to enable Ceylou to bhare in 
the beneficial results to this, demdud, — London Cor. 
GOLDEN TIPS. 
The sale of tea from the Havilland estate in 
Coylon, meutioned iu today's telegram, is the most 
remaikabla yet recorded, the bigaesi price hitherto 
realised having been ovor £11. Wo noticed some time 
ago in au Indian newspaper an illcouditioaod ladiaa- 
planter gruuting out his disapprobation of these high 
priced sales of Ceylon tea. Tuey were "ianoy " prices j 
there were scores of tea gardens ia India wbioh ooulc;! , 
do the same tiling if they choea : only Auglo-Iudiah 
maaagets were far too seusible to spoil a whole flush, 
pluuderiug its golden tips fur the sake of oue unique 
parcel. No doubt £17 per pouud is a fancy price, and 
possibly the value of a portion of oue seasoa's yield 
un the Havilland estate may have beeu impairett for 
the sake of this one parcel ; but what theu ? The 
Oeylou pliuter, his luuiau critic may rest assured, ia 
not eu ass ; and if he Siscrifioes somethiug to make a 
show in Miiicing Lsuo, he does it with the knowiedgo 
that the aii ,'ert,isement wili pay in the oud. Hia appie- 
ciation or the value of a good iidvertidement, hia energy 
and resource ia pushing hia wares, have had this result, 
thatOtiyloa tea iu tin years has become rather better 
known all over the world than has ludiau in forty. There 
is another sense besides the literal in which the parcel 
from Havilland might be said to contain "golden tips." 
— f to>i«e)', May 8th. 
Tea Consumption and Ddit. — With the com- 
pletion of the tea returns for the port of London 
for the past month we able to sea what eflaot the 
reduction of tha duty has had on the trade since 
it came into operation a twelvemonth ago. The 
imports show tha extensive increase of 13,985,949 lb. 
as compared with last year's figures, the total quantity 
imported being 147,863,010 lb., against 133,877,0911b. 
last year. This increaso is almost entirely in Ceylon 
tea, the production of which is increasing very 
rapidly in consequence of the favour which tha 
public have shown towards it. — L. and 6'. Express, 
The Amstekdam Quinine Works. — The annual 
general meeting of the shareholders in these worka 
took place on April 30th, Dr. J. E. de Vrijin tha 
chair. The directors' report shows that although 
sufficient profit waa made during the year to provide 
for the amount which, according to the statutes of the 
company, must be written off annually, yet no 
dividend could be distributed. The output of tha 
factory in 1890 amounted to about 350,000 oz. 
(9,952 kilos.) sulphate of quinine, and the sales to 
about 300,000 oz. (8,628 kilos.)— C/iemist and Drug- 
gist, 
