236 
THE TROPICAL A-QWCOLTURIST. 
[October i, 1890. 
and that it is advisable to wind np the same, and 
accordingly that the Company be wound up volun- 
tarily.” 
It was thereafter proposed, and unanimously agreed 
to by the said meeting. *• That Mr. Robert Dempster, 
Chartered Accountant, 149 Hope Street, Glasgow, be, 
and he is hereby appointed, Liquidator of the Com- 
pany for the pnrpose of the winding up.” 
Andrew Polson, Ohairmnn. 
THE DRTERIOEATION OP IRISH STOCK. 
Miss Cooper, in a paper in the National Review 
entitled “ Some Curiosities of Irish Farming,” ven- 
tures, woman though she is, to lay her finger on the 
most serious point of the Irish difficulty, namely, 
the deterioration of Irish stock. Ireland, it should 
never he forgotten, is a great farm, and the lack of 
good sires is as much and more serious a matter to the 
Irish people than even the lack of good land laws or 
good landlords. Miss Cooper says : — 
It became the general custom for landlords to keep 
a good bull, ram, or boar for the benefit of their tenants, 
and one of the evil effects of the land agitation and 
the 'Bill of 1881 has been that the practice is row 
given np, and the consequent deterioration of stock 
is becoming quite perceptible, it is said, in many par*^s 
of the country. There is great reason to fear similar 
deterioration in all branches of agriculture, now that 
the landlords and their agents are powerless to insist 
on some degree of good farming. 
Miss Cooper does not say so, but one of the first 
duties of the first Irish Minister of Agriculture will 
be to establish a good bull, ram, horse, and boar in 
every district in Ireland. The first Coercion Act 
needed under Home Rule will be to compel the 
peasants to discontinue resort to “ the shilling bull.” 
There is much in Miss Cooper’s contention. To 
get rid of landlords is to banish capital and the 
benefits which follow on its use. The crusade has 
been against all landlords, good and liberal as well 
as bad and grasping. 'What Ireland wants is what 
she is frightening away : capital in abundance and 
well applied. 
OOLONG TEAS— NEW USE FOE QUININE. 
The following paragraph from a daily paper 
seeming to me to be likely to have interest from 
your planting readers, I give it place in this letter : — 
Formosa or Oolong Tea. — The statistics for last year 
show a reduction in the export of t< a from Formosa, 
which had hitherto escaped the depression in the China 
tea trade generally. On this subject the British Con- 
sul at Tamsui, in his last report, says that the tea season 
of 1889 has been most unsatisfactory both to foreign 
and native merchants. The teas of the island which 
formerly had a distinctive character are rapidly losing 
it, owing to the reckless competition amongst Chinese 
buyers for the Amoy market, and the careless pre- 
paration and fraudulent admixture by them of the teas 
after they come into their bands from the growers. 
This has told its tale on the oonsumii g markets, and 
■a lower basis of price than has ever been known be- 
fore has been established, while the consumption shows 
(1 very marked decrease. With the ye -rly iiicreasinc 
romp'lit'ou from India, Japan, Ceylon, anb Java, etich 
of whi h countries fosters its tea trade while Hhina 
does nothing for it, but rather taxes it beyond its en- 
durance, the ground that Formosa has lost in the con- 
suiiiii g markets is nnlikely ever to be made up ; and, in 
the i.piniiui of those most competent to judge, ttedavs 
of the trade are numbered, unless steps are tnki t. by 
the Ctiinese themselves in (he diredion of rudicid re- 
form. The Governor, who is one of the most energetic 
and liberal-minded of Chinese officials, has, m con- 
junction with a foreign merohant, procnicil :he services 
of an exporiencodHplantor fn.m India, who is to (siali- 
lish a model tea farm, and endeavour to show the 
people the advantages of the proper cnltivation and 
manufacture of tea. The idea is an enlightened one, 
bnt whether it will be prosecuted with vigour and 
receive enough official support to ensure its snccess, 
remains yet to be seen. It is doubtful also whether 
the adoption of the most perfect methods can be 
attended with snccess while the inland and export duties 
on the article continue to be out of all proportion 
to its value and so far in excess of like imposts 
in all competing countries. America takes 90 per 
cent, of the Formosan tea, bnt there are indications 
of a growing change of popular taste in the matter 
of tea. As Oolongs seem to be little appreciated 
elsewhere than in the United States, any change of 
this nature would be the death-blow of the Formosan 
tea-trade as at present conducted. Hence the scheme 
already referred to is intended to include the prepara, 
tion of teas of the Indian, Ceylon and mainland 
types, a market for which will, it is hoped, be found 
in London and elsewhere. It is merely peculiarit y of 
preparation which produces the variety known »- 
Oolong; the raw material is the same as that of Foo- 
chow, Hankow, and India, and a proper maiiipnia- 
tion will produce a tea of precisely similar quality 
to the Souchongs and Oongons of other tea pcrti< of 
China. 
It has never occurred to me to hear that quinine 
has been supposed to have the eSect of absorbing 
actinic rays. My knowledge of such subjects is too 
defective to enable me to discuss the matter of the 
following paragraph cut from a scientific journal ; 
but there may be those in your community to 
whom the subject treated of in it may be possessed 
of special interest, and who may be able to inform 
you of this property alleged, or presumed, to be 
inherent in the sulphate of quinine. 
Dr. E. Liesegang says, in the Vhoto Archiv, as 
translated for Wilson’s Magazine, " The expedient of 
covering a window with a fluorescent solution of 
quinine sulphate has not proved sufficient to keep out 
all actinic rays. This is better accomplished thus: — 
It is'known that an aqueous solution of three parts 
green chloride of nickel, and one part red chloride 
of cobalt, is colourless by transmitted light, and quite 
clear when dilute. The two colours are complemen- 
tary, and completely nentralise each other. Hence 
the light passing through the mixed solution has no 
effect on the salts of silver. Although it is quite 
white it is perfectly nonactinic, and does not any 
longer affect the sensitive film. To completely 
neutralise any possible rays in the ultra-violet, another 
glass is coated with a solution of quinine sulphate 
in collodion somewhat acidified with sulphuric acid. 
The quinine cannot be used in the same solution 
because it is precipitated by the cobalt salt. As the 
cobalt chloride, red when containing water, becomes 
blue when free from it, the mixture must not be 
allowed to dry. It mav he made with gelatine and 
glycerine, but even a high temperature around the 
window may dry it. Silver paper which was left 
exposed for a week behind a thin layer of the cobalt- 
nickel solution thus prepared, did not show the slightest 
alteration. I have not as yet experimented with 
plates, but with sufficiently concentrated solution 
these also should not suffer change.” 
THE CHEMICAL ANALYSES OP TEA. 
Any opinion expressed by Mr. John Hughes, the 
veil known chemical anahser, we may be sure to 
be deierving of the fullest consideration, We 
need not, therefore, apologize for recurring to Mr. 
Bughes’ opinions as to the tannin test of ti e 
quality of tea. The opinion he has given to 
oiir London Correspondent on the subject of the 
analyses of tea should therefore be well weighed 
hy us. We, therefore, recapitulate the facts. 
In the Tropical Agriculturist for Febrovry last 
wo ]iiihlii-tud an abstiaot of a paper read by 
Mr. David Hooper on the subject of the proper- 
