398 
THP TR0P5CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[December i, i8go 
** t&ndstn whBels at the faotoiyi passant 
I must express my admiration of the grand leaf, 
as well as the fine fruit, of the tree tomato. A 
leaf from plants grown on a trellis at 4,700 feet 
measured 21 inches by 16. 
INDIAN TEA NOTES. 
Dehra Dun, Sept. 30th.— On the 23rd we had 
1-25 inches of rain, and since then it has been 
cloudy but no rain. The rain has done a lot of good, 
Luokimpore, Sept. 22nd. — Rainfall for the week 4-71 
inches. Mofquito blight very prevalent and general 
in the district, and it is a struggle for most gardens 
to keep up with last year. Increases on last year are 
diminishing slowly with little hope of pulling up again. 
The mornings and evenings look'*"very much like an 
early close. Rainfall to date 142’98 inches. 
Dooars, Dam Dim, Oct. 4th. The weather during 
the past week has been very unsettled and varying. 
Showers have fallen at night, and days are fairly warm. 
Snow fell on the lower range of Bbootan hills, which 
is uncommon for this time of year. Rainfall from 
20 to 30 inches ahead of last year on same date. 
Outturns going further behind, but quality showing 
some improvement . — Indian Planters’ Gazette. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The Dealers and the Duty. — The tea dealers have 
carried their point about the proposal to weigh tea to 
the half pound, and the Customs authorities will not 
insist, at least for the present, on any departure from 
the old plan. All over the country tea dealers had 
protested against the new order, and now that it is 
temporarily rescinded it will probably never be heard 
of again. The tea trade of the country is a powerful 
interest, and the Government cannot afford to add to 
the ranks of its enemies. 
Tea at Thibty Shillings per lb. — Oommenting on 
the remarkable price paid for some small boxes of 
Ceylon tea, as recorded by our “ Commissioner in the 
‘ Lane,’ ” last week, the Grocer says : — “ One of the 
rarest and most curious kinds of tea that has been 
imported into this country in modern times was offered 
by auction in Mincing Lane on Tuesday last, when a 
small parcel of three boxes Ceylon, weighing only five 
pounds each, very showy, and described as “ clioicest 
golde n-tipped flowery Pekoe,” fetched the astonish- 
ingly high price of thirty shillings and sixpence (30s 6 i) 
per pound. Just fancy seeing tea marked up at such 
an extravagant figure in a grocer’s shop window ! 
and the effect, we should think, would be to scare 
away customers, instead of inviting them to buy, for no 
one surely but some magnate or a crowned head would 
ever think of drinking tea that cost so much money, 
as, at the rate of nearly twenty-three pence (Is lid) 
per ounce, it would be dearer than many bottled wines 
of the finest vintages. The estate or garden in Ceylon 
where the said tea was grown is named ' Hethersett,' 
and it is probable that the proprietors and owners there 
may be stimulated to fresh exertions to produce a 
larger quantity of the same sort, and then perhaps 
further consignments may be sent forward for the ap- 
proval of those who pride themselves in being connois- 
seurs in drinking tea of the greatest excellence.” 
I’usuiNG THE Sale op Tea. — A correspondent of 
The Times writes : “ Whilst my wife was entertaining 
a number of friends at her afternoon tea, the servant 
biinouuced ‘Mr. ,’ who walked into the room, 
and, seeing a lady without a bonnet, asked her to 
patroiiise bis lea, at the same time offering her cir- 
culars of ‘ The Company,’ Tower Hill. The lady 
hapixned to bo a visitor staying in tlie house. My 
wife had some difiiculty in getting the intruding 
tout to withdraw. Publicity may, xierhaps, tend to 
abate a nuisiince of tins olfeusivo kind. I may men- 
tion tliat twice wifliin the |'ast twelve months ni.y 
jjrivKcy has been intiuded upon hy tuuts. They came 
to the door in broughams and took the servant in by 
asking lor me by iiame. My servants ate pretty 
wide-awako now, but ‘ Mr. — — — ’ managed on this 
occasion to elude the vigilance of the one who answered 
ms double knock and ring.” 
Hop TEA.--Mr. Patrick Maegregor, late of Assam, 
, as will be seen from a reference to another 
cclumn, showing the men of Kent how to make 
hop tea. Although less hopeful than the promoters 
ot this new industry as to its succ-ss we feel sure 
tnat Mr. Maegregor will bring the necessarv energy 
to bear upon the new undertakieg, and he mav 
succeed m makiug hop tea popular. 
Russia.— W e referred recently 
to the quantity of adulterated tea sold in Russia 
In order t^o protect the public and to assist those 
Government 
now permit tea dealers in Russia to sell their 
wares under Government labels, which are placed 
OQ packets of tea of various weights, by persons em- 
ployed by the Government for that purpose, and who 
of effioial inspectors. The cost 
ot labelling, which is small, is defrayed out of the 
money realised by the sale of the labels. Tiie label- 
hng IS not imperative, but most of the tea merchants 
m the retail trade have recourse to this epedient to 
in crease their sales. ^ 
Coffee and its Adulteration.— Public analysts 
complain with justice that there is no unaniniitv on 
the magisterial bench on tlie important subject of food 
and drug adulteration. One analyst finds that 67 
out of every 100 samples of coffee he examined con- 
Gin on an average 40 per cent, of chicory. 
On this point the dififieulty of the magistrates is not 
.0 be minimised. Some people prefer a mix'ure of 
coffee and chicory, and if anywhere in the packet 
carried away by the customer the words “ sold as a 
mixture are found, one magistrate may h.iitateto 
inflict a fine. Another, bearing in mind that coffee 
IS worth at least sixteen pence a pound while chicory 
costs but four pence, will hold that the purchaser is 
not bound to stay in the shop and read the printed 
wrappers of each article he buys. If he asks for coffee 
and gets coffee and chicory the seller is punished. 
The more leiiient magistrate, it is complained, will 
make no distinction between the case of a m m whose 
packets are one-half chicory and another who only 
inakes them one-third chicory and gives two thids 
of the weight in genuine coffee. .Some uniformity of 
practice among magislr,ites on this subjict would tend 
to miDimiBe confuaioi]. 
The Indian Gold Mine Boom, — By way of pre- 
paring people on this side the Financial News has the 
tollowing Private advices from Calcutta report 
that a gold fever has broken out in India, and that 
great preparations are makiug for the floating of 
oompanus in Bugland. The Western Bengal Pro- 
spectmg Company has been got up by Mr. G. Tosco 
I^ppe, one of the most active prouiottr?, who will 
shortly offer it here for £200,000, in return for which 
the English^ purchasers a;e to have the right to 
jirospecb 1,500 square miles of territory. The 
Souapet Compaiiy has been floated in Bengal, and 
has begun buying up adjoining properties, including 
Ihe Chota Nagpore. Messrs. Ogilvie, Gillanders, and 
Co. are credited with the intention of intioduoine 
the Kapurgaailh Gold Mines on this market, and 
Messrs. Jerdine, Skinner, and Co. are reported to 
have acquired the Patcom for a Loudon syndicate 
Other properlies, of more or less value, dest'ined for 
Lughsh investors are the Kharsiwon, the Pat Pat 
and the Tamur, of which more anon.’’ ’ 
Burhah Ruby Mines Co. — The company, for which 
there was such a rush for shares, was floated in 
I'ebruary, 1889, and was formed to acquire a couces- 
Hon granted by the Secretaiy of State m Council of 
India for the Ruby Mines of Burmah. The giant was 
fixed for seven years oiil.v, from November 1889 
(with certBin provisions for renewal), at a rent equal 
t j about £28,090 per annum, the Government, in ad- 
dition, receiving one-sixth of the net profits. The 
price paid for the transfer of the grant was £55,000 
in cash. No dividend has as yet been paid. The 
murket quotation, which curried a good premium all 
last year, and retained some of it during the first 
mouths of this, now shows a discount, — C, Mail. 
