September i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRlCULtURlST. 187 
only way which I know to get out of the difficulty 
is the Central Factory, which is the property of the 
contributing estates, and which runs and divides its 
profits, as a separate concern. 
The following about Mr. Lipton is from a home 
correspondent “ I intended sending you a cutting 
out of an evening paper about Mr. Lipton’s great 
purchases in Ceylon, but you seem to know all 
about him already. He is a wonderful man, and I 
don’t think you would know the tea he sells to 
be pure Ceylon tea. It may be pure when it leaves 
the island, but not when it reaches the tea-pot. 
Mr. Lipton has quite a regiment parading the 
Glasgow streets just now advertising his goods. 
About twenty or thirty men rigged out in white 
suits, red turbans, red and yellow umbrellas, and 
a commander on horseback with his face coloured 
to match his turban. There must be a good profit 
off the tea after all.” The next thing we shall 
hear of will likely be that an arrangement 
has been made with Mr. Lipton's men in Ceylon, 
that when at any time they go home on leave, part of 
that leave will require to be spent in pushing the tea 
trade in the ranks of the above-mentioned corps. Only 
the V. A’s should be mounted, and this privilege 
should be granted on the understanding that 
while on duty all orders should be given, with 
the view to impress the public, in a stentorian 
voice, and in the Tamil tongue ; uniforms to be 
supplied at Mr. Lipton’s expense, and like the 
historical toothbrush to ‘‘ belong to the ship ” ! 
A friend of mine has a pathetic tale to tell me 
of a popular resthouse run out of drink. It seems 
that this poor thirsty soul arrived after a journey 
of something like twelve miles in a pony-bandy 
with bad springs. He had been smoking all the 
way to keep himself cheerful. The boy as usual 
was nowhere, and a thirsty throat was made 
drier, in shouting around for him. When 
he did appear, a whiskey-and-soda was or- 
dered : but there was none. The visitor then said 
he would have beer, but the reply was ‘'Beer all 
done, sir.” “ Then what have you ?” “ Got no- 
thing, sir 1 plenty of gentlemen here yesterday, 
everything drink 1” My friend, I suppose, must 
have looked desperate, when this awful truth was 
made known, for the boy immediately assured him 
that they had plenty of empty bottles 1 He has 
been puzzled ever since to know what there was 
in his appearance to justify that boy in fancying 
that a smell alone would do him good. It is 
rather funny the idea of his expecting sympathy 
from me when an alcoholic famine is on, as my 
settled opinion is, that it would do a lot of good 
if this kind of scarcity were more general. 
I was at one time visiting the menagerie of an 
Indian Bajah, which was a poor, poor affair. The 
place was badly kept, the animals few and dirty, and 
the attendants were numerous. As I was leaving in dis- 
gust the guide pressed me to wait and to see the tiger. 
Beaching his haunt, the fellow stopped and pointing 
to a big empty cage, said, “ This is the tiger’s cage, 
but the tiger is dead ” ! I fear rny friend looked 
with as much disdain on the empty bottles as I did 
on the vacant cage, and to this extent only can I 
enter into his feelings. 
Coffee is ripening up a little, the fruits of the first 
blossom. The sample of bean however is somewhat 
small, but if there will just be plenty of it, that 
need be no cause for complaint. Liberian dried in 
the cherry sells locally very much better than when 
pulped. The Moor buyers readily give B5 a bushel, 
and as it takes about three to make a bushel of 
parchment selling it as cherry coffee is very much 
more profitable. 
The weather is simply perfect for planting pur- 
poses. Pepi’ERCOKN. 
GOLD IN AUSTBALIA AND INDIA. 
The following extracts from recent letters on the 
Victorian gold fields by a special correspondent of En- 
gineer may be of special interest at the present time : — 
That some of the Sandhurst people have learned to 
mine and crush quartz economically is beyond dispute; 
in fact, in a few cases, the mine records are astonishing, 
and point a most useful lesson to miners and millmen 
all over the world. The St. Mongo Mine atEaglehawk 
being notably one of this class, some particulars con- 
cerning its work for the past half-year supply the les- 
son. The quartz in this mine is not in a defined lode, 
the western wall is the only one marked ; the eastern 
wall is entirely broken up ; from 600 ft. to 803 ft. the 
deposit is almost vertical, then it underlies west. The 
quartz is nearly pure white intersected by bands of slate, 
and both show pyrites but little or no sold, the width 
of the deposit varies from 3 ft. to 35 ft. ; a general 
fair average would be about 14 ft., and of this only 
about 6 ft. is put through the battery, the remainder 
being barren bands of rock. For years this mine 
has worked on quartz, giving a yield of under 6 dwt. of 
gold to the ton ; on this return some £28,000 has been 
paid in dividends ; the machinery has been kept in 
thorough repair, and the mine properly worked and 
developed. 
Another of the typical mines on Sandhurst is “Land- 
sell’s 180 i” the depth of the shaft was on July 31st, 
2,590 ft. This is the deepest mine in the Southern 
Hemisphere, and if I mistake not the deepest gold 
mine in the world.* When the property came into the 
hands of Mr. George Landsell, the present owner, the 
shaft was at a depth of 460 feet, and no machinery on 
the ground ; all the winding was done by a horse 
“ whim.” During Mr. Landsell’s tenure of the pro- 
perty, he has taken out over 160,000 tons of quartz which 
have yielded 88,346 oz. of gold the value being about 
£353,384, and he is still working the mine vigorously. 
The correspondent of Engineering concludes his article 
as follows : — “ Where miues have to bear the burden of 
supporting boards of ornamental directors each draw- 
ing £100 or 200 per annum, together with highly paid 
secretaries, managers, consulting engineers, staffs of 
clerks, and costly offices, &o., other and richer fields 
than those of Great Britain or even the majority of 
the present fields of Australia, must be sought before 
subscribing shareholders can expect a return in the 
shape of dividends.” These extracts contain both en- 
couragement and warningto our local gold Syndicates. It 
is evident that if quartz containing only 6 dwt. of gold 
to the ton can be raised 2,000 ft. and crushed probably 
in Australia with expensive labour, to contend with 
quartz at least equally rich should yield a handsome 
return here, with care and economical supervision. The 
Mysore mines, which are only 200 or 300 feet deep are 
said to require 20 dwt. to the ton to cover cost and we 
believe the special correspondent of Engineering has 
pointed out the cause of this, in the concluding para- 
graph which we have quoted . — Indian Agriculturist, 
July 19th. 
♦ 
COCHINEAL. 
The Belgian Consul-General in the Canary Islands 
devotes a very considerable poriion of his report to 
cochineal, describing in detail its production, the 
dffetent commercial classes of the product, and its 
analysis, also enumerating the various substitutes 
which are now in use iu place of cochineal, as well as 
a tabular statement of the exports, price per pound., 
find total value for each year from 1831 to 1888. In 
1831 only eight pounds were exported, fora vatteoS 
80 francs ; the maximum export was reached in 1869j 
when it amounted to (1, 076, 869 lb. for 19,749,821 francs, 
fluctuating then for several years between four and 
live million pounds, declining iu 1886 to 2,330,9 17 lb., 
in 1887 to 2 169,341 lb., and in 188.8 to 1,735 200 lb.— 
{liecvril Consnlaire, vol. Ixiv., part 4, 1890 .) — Chamber 
* The deepest mine of any kind in the world, v>e 
suppose, unless the record is beaten by a salt mine in 
Germany -Ed. 2\ -It. 
