October i, 1891.] THE TROPIOOT. A^trntTORlST. 
»57 
in payment. Tbe l ontract^T declines to pledge him- 
self on h s eide to carry out the agreement to thnt 
extent, beciuse, as he has very ]ustly remarked, 
to do so would, in tbe event oi his dea h occurrir<g, 
too heav'ly b'lrden his heirs He has howev. r 
stated that he is hopeful of being able to carry out 
the sobenie to the larger amount should his hfe be 
spared. You will, therefore, see that a very great 
stt-p in advance ha,ri been m^da tov^nrds pushing 
the sale of ''eylon tea in America. ' Advertising," 
thev say, "is the soul of trade,'' and too ma' y 
proofs of the correctness of this saying come under 
our o^Q observation to admit of its being doubted. 
And this end, under the arrangements cone uded 
as above detailed, will be gamed without its being 
necessary lor the Company to advance a single 
dollar in cash. Tbe contiaotor, of course, is imbued 
with the belief that he wiil be able to plaoe the 
stook among his friends at a profitable r.ite, and 
Mr May augurs from this important arrangement 
that he w/U soun be ».hle to extend the sale of Cey- 
lon tea in a most considerable d-gree. Knowing 
what we do o' Mr. May, and of the energy with 
wbich he works, we h^re entertain very little doubt 
whit he now anticipates will shortly be realised. 
The QontTiotor believes that by the method 
he proposf s he will bo hbla to distribute the 
shares of the Comp my, partly for cash and partly 
in stock, amo g fully 1,500 of the leading newe- 
paper proprieiors of the United Slate^ each of 
wnom will then havo a dir. ct interest in furthering 
the development '^i th'i i^aie of ''eylon tea by the 
0' mpany. Mr. May sle'ttir proceeds to say that it 
would be an invaluable th-ng 'or him if ho cou'.d 
su ceed m (ibtBiiiin!:; Sir Wil im Or gory's ai;_d 
a r Arthur Birch's names a v.ce presidents of his 
Company. He told Mr. Ltake, when in Entilan <, that 
if he ecu d get ''your aristocracy" to lend their 
Dames to his scheme it wouH ensure him fuooeds. 
Well, we oun hardly rank the nimea of the two 
gentlemen above indicate! smong those of tbe 
British aristocracy, but no doubt even simple kinght. 
hood goen c ose to a great exient Rmong our 
American cousins. We know that Sir Arthur Birch 
has shown great intfre-t in Mr. May's scheme, that 
gentleman, as }0u were infornied by i;>e, having 
brought with him on the oooassion of his late visit 
to England a very str ng letier vi. introduction 
to Sir /irthur, v.ho, Mr. May fur her informs us, 
hao since he had leiurre! to New York written 
him very warm wishes for his sucjcess. If both 
your former Governor and your fnroier Colonial 
Secretary will consent, in view of the greit imp tus 
it would give to the sain of Ceylon tea in America, 
to pi rmit the nse of their names aa suggested by 
Mr. M»y, it would no doubt greatly aid the latter 
in h s en'erprise. 
No one, we are told, vecognises more fully 
than does Sir Aiibur Birch the pi essing necessity 
that there is for opening up new niiirkots for 
Ceyh n tea, and thit with all possible spa d. 
He ie, we hear, himself conneeted in a large de- 
gct-e with your leading industry, and he is c rtain, 
therefore, 'u closely watoh the markets. He cannot 
have failed to notice how seriously the competi- 
tion for your teas has fallen iff of late. All 
those with whom I have commenced on the 
BUbjflot admit this to be tha case, and attribute 
it to the imports overreaching the present demand. 
The advisiibility, therefore, of giving Mr. May the 
fu'.lesl a 'pports possible must be freely recognised 
by Sir Arthur B rcb, ai>d possibly Sir William 
Gregory may also recognise that desira- i^ity. But 
even should thosa gentlemen hesitate to Hf^l 
what Mr, Mny desires of them, the '.\c\\s I have 
been able o give you oaunot but be plessui'able 
to the whole of your readers, • '~ 
33 
Below is given an extract from the Times 
summarizing a most interesting article in the 
Kew Bulletin with respect to the adulteration 
of otiffee in the United Statea, Of course we 
have often heard of the artificial beans to 
which reference is made, but it is — at all 
events to myself — quite a novelty to learn to 
what a large extent the manufscture and use 
of them has extended. The matter is not now 
of the same importance to your planters as it 
would have b, en before the failure of cofiee in 
your island, but it cannot even now be said to 
be wholly a matter of unconcern to some of them 
that this method of adulteration should be checked. 
Spurious Coffee. — The current issue of tbe Eeio 
Bulletin contains Home information respecting the 
manufacture of artificial coffee beans, an industry 
which appears to have assumed some importance in 
the Uuited States. As far b.ick as 1860 'ho late Dr. 
Lmdley presented to Kew carefully-modelled artificial 
bems, intended for mixing with tbe genuine beans, 
and whioh were supposed to be made from finely- 
powdered chicory. Ttie Ameiioan beans are supposed 
to be composed of rye flour, glucose and water, and 
are prepared to resemble in sizn and colour a moder- 
ately good sample of roasted coffee beana, and by the 
introduction ot a few genuine beans they acquire the 
aroma of true coffee. Tbe modeling is snfEcieutly 
goo i to deceive tbe public, although if critically ez- 
am ned differences appear. But "the general chirao- 
teri^tica are those of fair coffee with small and some- 
what broken beans." It is said that 20 per cent of 
the coffee seld to consumers in the United States is 
artificial. The spurious beans can be made at a cost 
of £6 per l,0U01b. and the latter when mixed with 
501b. of pure coffee finds a ready sale, and yields a 
profit of cent, per cent. " Coffee substitutes " are 
also lar;^ely manufactured in the United States, one 
firm alone producing 10,0001b. a week. The article 
is sold by the manufacturer as " coffee substitute," 
not as coffee, and therefore ho violates no law against 
adulteration ; but tue retailers throughout New Eng- 
land and the Central Spates who purchase it by the 
barrel either sell it «s genuine coffee or mix it with 
coffee v/hich is genuine. The production of artificial 
coffee has also received some attention in Germany, 
An Imparial decree has forbidden the manufaotnr© 
ttnd sate of machines for producing the artificial beans. 
Ibese latter were recently extensively advertised in 
German newspapers and attracted the attention of the 
Gi'Vernment. Tbe beans are intended to mix with 
genuine coffee, and not to produce a beverage whioh 
might act as a subsiitute for coffee. The Br tish 
Embassy in Berlin found it impossible to obtain any 
of these gpurious beans for Kew, as the machines for 
making them have been confiscated. — London Cor , 
• — I ,.111 
The Cultivation of the Yokohama and Houg 
Kong bamboos is to be tried in various parts of 
ihe Madras Presidency, and arrangements have 
been naide to import a large quantity of seed for 
A Quantity or Ceylos Tea made up in J lb. 
packets is to be distributed free in Perak. The 
duty has been entrusted to Mr. Hanson by 
the Tea Fund committee of the Ceylon Planters' 
Association, who are endeavouring with commend- 
able energy to push the sale o( Ceylon tea in aU 
parts of the world.— /^triaK^r Gazette. 
Allgge.d New Tea Pe.st,— A former tea 
planter now on the Nilgiris writer to a local 
contemporary about an alleged new disease in tea 
which, although affecting Vne branches and not 
the jeavea, he Venturas to think must be the 
" orit^m " oi the coffee leaf disease, Hemiliae 
va^tU rix ! The statements are vague and unsoi- 
entio ; and the object seems to be to bring an 
alleged remedy into notioe. That a few branches 
of tea bushes should bo affected with "insidious 
defunotion " ia neither wonderful nor alarming. 
