7o8 the tropical ACRICULTURIST. [April i, 1891. 
•atKxpsire.f'TVjga a it . -tTr K^. '' 
Ji’rotn these it would appear thit no special fan or 
stove IS in general use in Ceylon, any »rdimiry stove and 
an air propeller to cause a draft of hot air through tlio 
room being all that is necessary. * * *— RouEra' 
Macduide, Director of Public Works. 
The Hon. the Colouiii Secretary, Colombo. 
From John Walker d; Co. to B. B. Ormshy, Esg. 
19th Nov. IPbO. 
Sir, — We are sorry we have no fans or stoves in 
stock. What was used is a Clerihew stove with 
exnanst fan. We have not made any for some years. 
— David Pace, Manager. 
From IF. H. Davies d- Co, to B, D. Ormshy,Esq. 
Colombo, 19th Nov. 1890. 
Dear Sir, — Eeferring to your letter of date, if an 
ordinary stove is erected at one end of a room and 
B propeller at the other to draw the warm air 
through the tats on which the cocoa is spread, you 
will find this all that is necessary. Propellers can 
be had from any size 12 deg. to 60 deg. diameter. 
* * * — Yours, &c. , W. H. Davies & Co. 
From Mr. M, J. Vollar to Robert Machridc, Esq. 
Pallekelly, Kandy, 19th Nov. 1890. 
Sir, — In reply to yours of 15th I would have no 
objections to auy sketches being made of the f .ns 
used for drying cocoa. If it is only the fans, however, 
that are required, it would be unnecessary for you to 
send any one to sketch them, as Blackman's air pre- 
pelier is found the most suitable, and oue of them 
should, I thii.k, be easily found in Colombo. * * 
— H. J. Vollar. 
♦ 
NOTBS ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Indian and Ceylon Tea in IIdssia — We under- 
stand that the Russian merchants who, only a few 
months since, so strongly protested against the intro- 
duction of ludian and Ceylon tea into Russia are 
beginning to see the error of their ways, and that 
since the opening of the magazine for the tale of tea 
by the Ceylon representative, the prospects for the 
sale of Indian and Ceylon teas have claci ,edly im- 
proved. 
A Higher Standard. — A correspondent of the 
Grocer, moved by reading an account of the high price 
realised at the recent sale of the parcel of fine tea, 
says: — “As an old grocer I cannot but think that the 
present feeling should prompt the trade at once to 
graduate their prices and aim at a higher standard of 
tea altogether ; the time and occasion are most oppor- 
tune, ai.d should be utilised uniformly and universally. 
The grocer has now a chance of retrieving his long- 
lost dignity as a tea vendor. Grocers’ associations and 
co-operative societies can do much to conn tei act the 
vile stuff as sold by reckless adventurers. Why should 
tea (the greatest socialisiug beverage) be made the 
target of unscrupulous traders ?” Echo answers why? 
and the answer is because a large number of people in 
the tea trade, having no scruples in particular, aud 
being utterly iudifferent to all standards but that of 
tbo largest profit, sell whatever they can find a 
market for. 
Tub Produce Clearing House.— Although the faci- 
lities for speculative dealing in produce afforded by 
the Produce Clearing House are not likely to find 
favour with tlio steady-going Miucing Lane stagers of 
the old school, the Clearing House is evidently a well- 
conducted establishment. In his speech at the fourth 
ordinary general meeting of the Company, tbe Chair- 
man said that the members felt that their system was 
a necessity under the new condition (f trade, and, 
time being on their side, their future might be con- 
sidered as beyond all doubt. Their engagements 
during tlio past year had amounted to £86,500,000, 
and in fulfilling these engagement they had not made 
a single bad debt, nor bad they had a single dispute 
with any of their customers to refer to arbitration. — 
Jl. (J, Mail, Feb. 20, 
Dr. Voelckee’s full Report on his deputation to 
India will be published in England and sent out to 
the Government of India. He left however, an 
abstract of it with the Government before his de- 
parture, and this, together with tLe reeommtndations 
of the Agricultural Conference held at Simla in 
October last, are now before the Provincial Govern* 
ments for their consideration. — M. Mail, 
A Wynaad Plvntek writes: — “We, the few 
North Wynaad planters, look forward wi h hops 
and say verily the bumper is bound to oome next 
year, not of fever mixture but of coffee. Wo 
had a heavy shower last week, which has pushed 
out a fine show of tpike. Coffee is E350 per candy, 
of 660 lb. Tbe pepper crop has been bad, very 
bad ; but the price is going up,”— il/adras Mail, 
March 2. 
China Tea to be Blotted Out or Revived. 
— The Foochow Daily Echo is terribly exercised 
about the gloomy pro.spect before China tea and 
winds up an editorial on the subject as follows : — 
If tbe stern fact of thousands of Chinese who are 
entirely dependent upon the trade for very existence, 
beirg out of employment, and if reports be true, 
verging upon the briuk of starvation and the yearly 
aud serious decrease in the lekin and Export duties 
levied upon Tea, are powerless to appeal to the 
beans, or the pockets, of the Imperial Offici’ils ; it 
is beyond our pow; r to hazard a remote guess as to 
what cn7i bo done, though auy body of merchants might 
advance an army of feasible pr.opositions. At present, 
the barriers between the iu’roductiou of improved 
methods ot growth, cultivation, aud manufacture, are 
impenetrable. No foreigner can acquire land for the 
culture of the plants uuder improved methods, nor is 
there any protection for tho investment of capital or 
introduction ot machinery, uuder European auspices. 
While even the more intelligent aud progressive among 
Chinese merchants, are themselves afraid to lend their 
aid”toward the desirable end staeding as they do in 
dread of the populace, and possibly also of their own 
officials. 
If however, it could be conceived possible, that pro- 
tection should be accorded them, aud machinery such 
as used in the manipulation of Indian leaf, was allowed 
to be set up in the various Tta districts, — and pro- 
vided the same degree of care and attention was 
bestowed upon the leaf as upon Indian gardens, — 
or even the plants were allowed to be grown, and the leaf 
manufactured under experienced supervision, (not neces- 
sarily foreign by auy means but upon the lines proved 
by experience to produce better results) ; then, it is our 
opiniou, that Ceylon and India would find a very 
powerful aud popular rival in the Teas, which we know 
from experience of long years ago, can be produced 
in the mountainous districts around us. We submit 
— that while it is desirable that encouragement, and 
protection, should be granted to Europeans desirous 
to acquire laud in the interior, it would be a wise 
measure, on the part of the Chinese Government to 
first assure such protection to their own people. Also, 
as far as is con .istent with justice, they should insist 
upon the Tea growers taking more care of their plants, 
by pruning aud weeding, while evi ry encouragement 
ahould be afforded to such as desire to adapt their 
methods of manufacture to the requirements of the age, 
and produce Ttas more in accord with the public taste. 
Not on European markets alone but in Australia, 
America, and t'anada, the taste for Indian and Ceylon 
Teas is rapidly inciv asing, and such once deeply rooted 
in tbe public mind, will be extremely difificult to eradi- 
cate. Any measures to be taken to revive the taste 
for, and improve the quality of, China Congcu, should 
be set in motion at once, and before its traditional 
merits are a matter of history. It is held by some that 
the panacea for the evil lies in the entire removal, or 
at any rate modification of the export duties, but we 
consider that tho first and most important question is 
rather tho improvement of quality, to which end 
BtrenuouB efforts should be made. 
