December i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
407 
FORTUNE-SEEKING IN EAST AFRICA. 
Mr. Henry Brown, the Ceylon Police Inepector 
and formerly coffee planter, who is also known by 
his book on “Sport in Ceylon," is on his way to 
East Africa, having obtained six months’ leave from 
the Inspector-General of Police. Writing from Aden 
on Oot, 14th, he says:— ‘‘Here I am vegetating 
amongst the barren rooks of Aden, and a more 
wretched plaoe I never saw. I leave here tomorrow 
by a vessel of the new German line called the 
German East African Line. The steamers of this 
line call at all the ports on the coast as far down 
as Mozambique, and from thence I shall get a 
Portuguese steamer to Quilimane. I see the Bombay, 
Madras and Calcutta newspapers, but none of them 
come up to the Observer for news and items of in- 
terest. * * * I had to leave Colombo with only 
four hours’ notice, and— what do you think — missed 
my steamer for the African coast owing to having 
been put 24 hours in quarantine, which seems absurd, 
for the ‘Navarino’ was 24 hours in quarantine at 
Trineomalee, and brought the General and party 
round to Colombo, and obtained a clean bill of health 
from that port. Only myself suffered, however, and 
I was put on a wretched lights-hip all alone. There 
is no newspaper published in Aden, but there is 
much need of one, for the carrying on of some of the 
official and unofficial residents is scandalous, to say 
the least, especially as regards their observance of 
the Sunday." 
HOP TEA. 
To the Editor of the Home and Colonial Mail. 
Siir, — I have read with great interest the two ac- 
counts of “ Hop Tea" in your issue of Oct. 3rd, taken 
from the Dai’// Ttleijvaph and Pall Mall Gazette. The 
former paper is very misleading, as the produce is sold 
in packets, all marked in large letters, " Indian and 
Ceylon lea, mixed with English hops.’’ The word 
“ adulteration,’’ which is so freely used by the Daily 
TeLegra}jh, is a very ugly one, and quite uncalled for. 
No mail with a single spark of honour would bo as- 
sociated with a company that rnannfaclared an article 
for adulteration. I am in no way connected with the 
Hop Tea Oompau}', Limited, further than I received a 
fixed salary during tlie bop season, which ends this 
week. But for my own and the sake of others I state 
that there is not one iota of truth in the statement 
made by the correspondent of the Daily 'I'eleyraph as 
to adulteration. Farther, his statement “that the 
buyers give tho farmers 4J to ti 1 per lb. for green hops, 
the mar;.' in of profit is obviously geeat,” is misleiding, 
and requires explanation. Your readers will easily 
make tlieir own calculations from the Lot that it takf s 
four to five, pounds of green hops to make one pound 
ol dried hops ; then add to this cost of English la- 
hour, machinery, and all manufacturing charges, &c. 
The tea planters of India and Ceylon are satisfied as 
long as it creates a demand for their teas and helps to 
pu-ih China out of the market, and they know that 
only a very imall proper! ion of the precious hops can 
be used in their toa. There is no doubt that tho mix- 
ture is a g. oat iiuprovcuient. The hop growers like it 
because it makes a new market for their hops, and 
Boine of them are of opinion that the "Sirocco” is 
lik( ly to prove a .successful rival to the old-fashioued 
way of drying h qis. This only shows how many uses 
that valii'ihlo machine invented by Mr. A.C D.ividson, 
the popular Uacliar p'auter, can be i>ut to. The tea 
consumers like it, and n'peat their orders, and those 
that couhl not drink tea before are obtaining the fane- 
ton of their medical advi.sers to use tea with hops in 
it. G.-ocers like it because it is likel by their cus- 
tomers. 1 know of one grocer in tliia town wlio has 
sold on an average over twenty chests per week. It i.s 
with tho deepest intercit I h ivo road Me.ssrs. Gow, 
M’ilson, h Stanton’s most intoresting yearly statis- 
tics, showing how Indian and Ceylon teas are year 1 y 
year superseding China teas, and now your fellow 
countrymen from the “Garden of England" join hands 
with those that have invested millions of British capital 
in India and Ceylon. — Yours truly, 
Pathick E. Macghegob. 
“ Ye Ancient Bsll Hotel," Maidstone, Kent. 
Oct. 7th, 1890. 
« 
NUTMEGS. 
An old planter writes : — 
“I do not know much about nutmegs. The climate 
of Hanwella would I think do very well and the soil 
might be suitable and perhaps those portions with 
an easy slope might be got to grow them. 
“ 'This product wants great care for 4 years, the 
plants requiring side shade removed every six months. 
planted 800 plants near Kurunegalaaud had them 
shaded with cadjans, but their growth was very slow. 
It is now 7 years since he planted them, but I have 
not seen them for 4J years. He planted also 300 
clove.s. I will write to the present owner and inquiie 
how they are.” 
SOME CURIOSITIES OF THE TEA 
TRADE OF CANTON. 
Pdr. Alabaster’s report on the trade of Canton for the 
past year contains references to some odd featuies 
of the export trade. Eighty thousand pounds of human 
hair, va'ued at £319, ajipear in the returns, and the 
0. n.‘ul wishes it did not, for, as the greater part of 
it comes from the heads of beggars, criminals, and 
dead persons, it is not pleasant to think that it is 
worn by ladies at home, even though it goes through 
long processes of purification before it is made up 
into wigs, chignons, waterfalls, &o. The demand for 
what are called old silk embroideries is unabated ; 
in fact, the majority of these garments are not old, 
but soiled, and the Ohiue.se must look on the pur- 
chasers much as we should regard collectors of dis- 
carded teagowns or worn-out tennis suits. “ It is 
true, much of tlie embroidery is very beautiful, but 
the association of ideas is not pleasant.” The “scented 
tea ’’ of Canton is the only branch of the China tea 
trade which the Indian cultivators cannot imitate.* 
'The trade in matting is iacr. asing; last year 228,929 
rolls, valued at £123,957, were exported, chiefly to 
America, where it is largely used for carpets, and in 
a dry, hot climate nothing can be cooler, cleaner, or 
better; but it is not so suitable in damp weather, for 
it gets rapidly mouldy, and breeds fleas to an intoler- 
able extent. An article of export which has come 
into prominence of late years is glass bangles, of which 
tho value last year was £78,202. These bangles are 
exported chiefly to Bombay, “ and it is strange that 
Canton should supply a British province with glass- 
ware.” Brass buttons, 660,0001b. in weight, were ex- 
ported. The manufacture was introduced by foreigners, 
bub has now passed into native bauds. “ Buttons are 
the jewelry of China.” The magnitude of the export 
of fans from Canton is shown by the fact that 114 
milli ns were sent threngh the Customs in the oonrso 
of the year. 'The majority are simple palm-leaf fans, 
and go chiefly lo America, where thtir lightness and 
ccol appearance have brought them into great favour. 
For decorative purposes Oaufon fans cannot compete 
with Japanese, and for artistic beauty the Canton 
P'lper fans are surpassed by those of Foochow and 
Shanghai ; bat the feather fans made from the quills of 
the wTd goose are strong, useful, and cheap. Pre- 
served ginger, ebowchow (a mixture of ginger, bamboo, 
^ We do not see why it could not be imitated 
if there were a sufficient demand for it. In the 
paper on tea which Mr. Brace contributed to our 
columns, there is a long list of plants, the blossoms of 
wh ch could be used lo flavour tea, and wo have hoard 
of a lawyer-planter in Ceylon treating his lady iriond 
to tea perfumed with rose leaves. — Ed. 7\ .1. 
