42 
IHt TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
lJULY I, 1890. 
and manufacture of tea. TLe idea is an enlightened 
one, but wliether it will be prosecuted with vigour, 
and receive enough official support to ensure its suc- 
cess, remains yet to be seen. It is also an open ques- 
tion whether tho adoption of the most perfect methods 
can be attended with success while the inland and ex- 
port duties on the article continue to be out of all pro- 
portion to its value, and so far in excess of the like 
imposts in all competing countries. 
The paragraph is so perrinent that we have repro- 
duced it at length ; though wo have left ourselves, 
in doing so, little .space to review various other features 
in the reports that invito comment. — X. and 0. 
Express, May 23rd. 
InOTES on PRoirUCE^'AND FINANCE. 
SiLVEB — T ea — Peppeb — Cocoa — Coffee. 
The rise in the price of silver, and effect of 
American legislation on the value of silver, are events 
which are keenly watched by those interested in tea. 
Undoubtedly the depreciation of silver has stimuhited 
the export of Indian p-oduce, and every rise in the 
price of silver tends to check exports from India. The 
exporter from India sells what he exports in Europe 
for gold, and cheap silver means that he gets more 
rupees when he exchanges his gold. In addition, there 
is the enhanced cost of production. Tea has benefited 
considerably by the depreciated rupee, and the rieo 
in its value, should that advance be considerable, will 
ha anything but a matter of congratulation to garden 
proprietors. They must look for a rite in prices at 
home and a lowering of freights to compensate them. 
That which will prove a blessing to the Indian Civil 
servants i.s not hkely to be regarded as a bcon by 
Indian exirorters. 
Those who are responsible for the reports and 
accoirnts of tea companies must mind what they are 
about. The citizen has its eye on them, and if there 
is any weak point in the armour of their accounts our 
contemporary will doubtless discover it. The Balijan 
Company has not escaped criticism, and even the 
directors of the Dooars Company are reminded that ‘the 
figures (of the report) are not convincing on the point of 
the ‘ far more ’ value of the estate. The estates com- 
prise, according to official authority, 10,500 acres, and 
the cost per acre of about a third of this number is 
no proof of the present value of the whole acreage. If 
the directors will provide, as they should do, the 
particulars of the estates generally, in addition to the 
information they have given in the report, a better 
opinion could be formed upon the matter. It should 
also be stated in future reports that the preference 
shares are entitled to a cumulative dividend and priority 
in repayment of capital.” 
Those who find it profitable to adulterate Pepper 
are fertile in their application of adulterants. The 
latest is a composition consisting of the following 
ingredients — namely, rice-starch, chalk, barytes, and 
lead chromate — which are all reduced to a very 
fine powder and intimately mixed. The following 
is suggested as a useful process of treating a sus- 
jrected sample : — Let a portion be well shaken with 
chloroform ; this will give the mineral ingredients 
of the adulterant in their natural combination. The 
residue is well wasired and then gently warmed, 
until every trace of chloroform has evaporated ; it 
is then treated with a few drops of sodium carbonate 
solution, and allowed to cool. Having separately 
shaken a little ether with some aqueous hydrogen 
peroxide, a few drops of the jiropared ether are added, 
and the mixture carefully acidified with hydrochloric 
acid. A dolicato blue colouration will thus ha obtained, 
and the barium and the lead can then be estimated 
by any of the usual methods. 
J luring the delivery of the Cantor Lectures at the 
Society of Arts, the lecturer displayed a table show- 
ing tho variation in the consumption of alcoholic 
and non-alcoliolic drinks and sugar from 1856 to 1888. 
'I'l A had jumped from about 65, 001), 000 to 185,000,000 
pouHde; coffee hud fall' n slightly, sugar and cocoa showed 
almost a parallel rise, each faster than that of the popu- 
lation ; spirit;; mid wine rose rapidly until 1873, and 
beer until about 1875, tiuco which time they had as 
ateadily declined, 
In 1873 the British East Indies sent us 20,326,882 lb. 
of tea ; in 1889, 127,160,409 lb.; China meanwhile had 
fallen from 133,307,196 lb. to 88,848,574 lb. Our total 
imports were 162,344,395 lb. in 1873, rising steadily 
to 221,602,660 lb. in 1889. Corrc.sponding figures 
for consumption showed 132,022,155 lb. in 1873, or 
4 1 lb. per head ; in 1889, 185,621,800 lb., or 4-9 lb. 
per head. In the Australian Colonies 7'66 lb. per head 
were consumed in 1884 5 ; in Spain, -01 lb. A large 
and varied assortment of teas — including brick tea — 
was on view. 
In hia lecture on “Cocoa” before the Society of 
Arts, Mr. Bannister said there was great difficulty in 
uuderstauding how the name cacao had become 
changed into cocoa, Linneeus was bo much struck 
by its properties that he regarded it as fit drink for 
the gods, hence naming it Theobroma Cacao. When 
(iortes visited Mexico, lie found the cocoa beans being 
used as money, and one writer of Lis time remarked 
that it was better to have such money than silver and 
gold, for no one could possibly hoard it up, as it would 
not keep. The Emperor of Mexico received it as a 
tribute from various parts of the country, and he was 
said to have had no less than fifty pitchers prepared 
for bis own use daily, so that, however small the 
pitchers were, he mu.st have had great taste for it. 
The consumption in Mexico was very large, and it 
was said that abiut 2,444,600 cwt. were used, which 
must, however, have been an exaggeration. In 1806 from 
fix to nine million pounds were used in Spain, and from 
fourteen to seventeen millions in the rest of Europe. 
In 1662 it was sold in Loudon at 2r per lb. Clubs, 
where it was largely used, were formed, one of 
which was the Cocoa Tree Club in St. James’s. 
These clubs became divided into Whig and Tory 
ones, and eventually deteriorated into gambling clubs 
and places of resort where the drinks were no longer 
of the non-intoxicating kind. There was a large 
proportion of fat in cocoa, the Trinidad variety 
possessing as much as 51-77 per cent. This was 
tiken objection to, and starch and sugar was 
added to let down the quantity. The cocoa plant 
belonged to a very strange class of plants. The leaves 
grew at the ends of the branches, and the pod, or 
fruit, hung from the thick stem or trunk of the 
tree, and it was no uncommon thing to see ripe pods 
and flowers on the same stalk. The pod contained 
from thirty-five to forty seeds, enveloped in a soft 
pulp, which vias often used by the natives as food. 
The process of fermentation to which the fresh, 
gathered seeds were submitted was of great impor- 
tance, as it not only removed the slimy substance 
surrounding the seeds, but it also tended to remove 
much of the bitterness of the seeds themselves. 
On reaching this country the seeds were roasted 
and the husk removed, leaving what was known as 
cocoa-nibs. 
When cocoa was first introduced there was much 
difficulty in preparing it for drinking, owing to the 
thinness of the liquor and the amount of fat which 
rose to the top. Then some clever person thought of 
adding starch, which had the property of holding the 
cocoa in suspension, and so giving more body to the 
liquor. The next point which arose was how to make 
a cocoa free from starch and sugar, and ye.t t be 
soluble. They found that it was necessary to remove 
a considerable amount of the fat, which was done 
by grinding it in a warm mill, which caused the fat 
to melt, so as to be extractable by pressure, so that the 
percentage of fat was reduced to from 23’38 to 29 60. 
Flake cocoa, cocoa extract, chocolatiue, and the nibs 
themselves contained starch or sugar; while the Ice- 
land moss cocoa, of all prepared cocoas, contained mo.st, 
as there was only 23'74 of non-fatty cocoa present. 
Ohocolat de sante contained 2 per cent, of starch, 61-2I 
of sugar, and 13'27 of cocoa. A further step in the manu- 
facture of cocoa was the addition of alkalis, such as 
■ammonia or potash, by which it was rendered solublci 
The drink jn-epared from cocoa was a bland and whole- 
some drink, and there was a chance of its taking its 
position among the non-alcoholic drinks. When made 
into a sweetmeat it was far preferable to an inordinate 
use of sugar, and such a use was to be encouraged 
rather than condemned, as it nourished rather thai} 
