Mat I, 1891,] 
THE TROPICAL AQR10ULTUR8ST. 
755 
CEYLON TEA IN AMEEICA. 
We venture to take the follo\viDg extract from 
a letter of Mr. E. B. Pineo, under rate, New York, 
23rd February : — 
“Although I have not rushed into print I yet 
feel very keenly bow misunderstood and how little 
appreciated in Ceylon my efforts here have been. 
It has not been easy work to get Mr. May to 
help us in our great cause, but 1 feel encouraged 
by what he is doing and am delighted that you 
appreciate and understand him through his manly, 
straightforward, honest letters that cannot but 
convince you how strong and conservative he is. 
We are making slow, but I think sure, progress ; 
and, in time, I hope our work will be better 
known and appreciated by our friends in Ceylon. 
“Our work is being honestly performed , and through 
us pure Ceylon tea is becoming known. We are 
getting agents, but as we are very particular about 
securing the right men our progress may be 
thought slow.” 
Mr. Blwood May’s last letter to Ceylon, we may 
tell Mr. Pineo, certainly did not create a favourable 
impression as regards manliness I 

TEE CINNAMON TRADE. 
Tbe newswe published on March 17th of the quarterly 
Oinuamon Siles held in London last mouth, was not 
very cheering to Proprietors. The supplementary in- 
formation contained in our commercial columns 
yesterday, was not calculated to lighten anxiety. It 
will be seen from the prices realised, that some of 
the finest Harks, which always commauOed top price?, 
fetched about the lowest prices. The explanation is, 
not that there has been any falling off in the quality 
of the spice turned out by the crack Estates, but 
that the higher qualities had lo be bought in. Looking 
at the Sale Lists received on Tuesday, we find th3,t 
of more than halt the catalogue which failed to find 
buyers, the better part wa.s fine Cinnamon. Thus, 
the only quality of the A. S-G. P. (Golua Pokuna) 
Mark wnioh was sold, was No. 4. Of Firsts 28 Bales, 
of Seconds 41 Bales, of Thirds 46 Bales, and some 
even of Fourths had to be bought in. So with the 
higher grades o£ F. S. W. S, (Wester Seaton) and F. 
S. K. (Kirohoolpitiya)— they found no buyers. Some 
part of these Maths was, we believe, sold subsequently 
at A decline ot a lb. These Marks had long com- 
manded Is. 7d. to Is. 8d. for their highest qualities— 
prices low enough, when far coarser Quills of the 
same classification fetched about double those prices, 
so late as 15 to 2 q years ago. The highest price last 
month was ietohed by the J. D. S. R. Mark; and 
that was obtained after tbe sale. The conclusion 
seems inevitshlc, from a study of the results of the 
last and the preceding sale (at which, too, a large 
quantity of the best Cinnamon had to be bought in) 
that buyers have decided ou a maximum ot Is. 2d. 
to Is. 3d. a lb. Unless, therefore, the manufacturers 
of fancy quills are prepared to reduce their prices 
by almost one-third, they must hold their stocks. 
The more important question, however, has reference 
to the future Will Estates continue to manufacture 
Cinnamon of a quality for which there is no demand 
commensurate with the cost of preparation? There 
should be only one answer to the question. 
When dealing, about a fortnight ago, wilh the note 
of warning sounded by a Veyangoda correspondent 
against fine cutting, as injurious to the productive- 
ness or Estates, tbe thought occurred to us, that the 
need of manufacturing quills of extraodiuary thinness 
might cease by a falling off in the demaud lor them. 
We had not forgotten that at the November Sales the 
finest spice had been neglected ; but, in view of the 
strong demaud that there bad beau a few quarters 
before for fine ((ualitics — medium^ and coarse sorts 
having shown a decline ! — wo hesitated to discius a 
contingency which did not seem imminent. But 
the news brought Touuosdny points to the proba- 
bility that buyers have noted the continued overpro' 
duction of the spice, and have also, perhaps, discovered 
that bark of coarser make might servo their purpose 
almost as well as fine quills. Whether this feeling 
is temporai’y, or is likely to be established per- 
mamently, it is impossible to say with certainty ; but 
experience with tbe downward tendency of prices for 
a long time past, and the ready market found for Chips, 
justifies the fear that growers must be prepared for 
a further fall. In these circumstances, it would be 
absurd to continue the manufacture of over-fine Quills, 
to the detriment of Estates. We have no faith, how- 
ever, in combination ; and fine manufactures, we fear, 
will continue to depress the prices for medium makes 
ou one side, just as Chips have done from another. 
It is not easy to sea a remedy, to avoid, on the one 
hand, the Scylla of deterioration of Estates, and on 
the other the Charybdis of over production. One 
point seems clear, that extra-payment for extra fine 
quills should cease. If an arrangement be practicable, 
limiting 30 quills to the lb., the fall in price may be 
made good by an increased outturn, and by the revival 
of Estates.— Local “Examiner.” 
' 
POLISHING WOOD. 
The method of polishing wood with charcoal, now 
much used by French cabinet makers, is thus des- 
cribed in a Paris technical journal : — All the world 
now knows of those articles of furniture of a beauti- 
ful dead black colour, with sharp, clear-cut edges and 
a smooth surface, the wood of which seems to have 
the density of ebony. Viewing them side by fide 
with furniture rendered black by paint and varnish, 
the difference is sensible that the considerable margin 
of price separating tbe two kinds explains itself. 
The operations are much longer and more minnte in 
this mode of charcoal polishing, which respects every 
detail in carving, while paint and varnish will clog 
up the holes and widen the ridges. In the first pro- 
cess they employ only carefully selected woods of a 
close and compact grain, then cover them with a 
coat of camphor dissolved in water, and almost im- 
mediately afterwards with another coat, composed 
chiefly of sulphate of iron and nutgall. The two 
compositions, in blending, penetrate the wood and 
give it an indelible tinge, and at the same time render 
it impervious to the attacks of insects. When these 
two coats are dry, they rub the surface of the wood 
first with a very hard brush of conoh grass {chien dent), 
and then with charcoal of substances as light and 
friable as possible, because if a single hard grain 
remained in the charcoal this alone would scratch 
the surface, which they wish, on the contrary, to 
render perfectly smooth. The flat parts are rubbed 
with natural stick charcoal ; the indented portions 
and crevices with charcoal powder. Alternately with 
the charcoal the workman also rubs his piece of 
furniture with flannel soaked in linseed oil and the 
essence of turpentine. These pouncings repeated 
several times cause the charcoal powder and the oil 
to penetrate into the wood, giving the article of 
furniture a beautiful colour, also a perfect polish 
which has none of the flaws ot ordinary varnish.— 
Ceylon Advertiser. 
■ ® 
Anotheb Paper Mill for Bengal, — A Calcutta 
paper says that a paper manufactory under the 
auspices of several respectable zemindars of Behar 
is to be started at Patna under competent European 
supervision, and with this view arrangements have 
just been completed in Calcutta to import the 
necessary plants and machinery from Eogland. 
The services of a competent foreman are also to 
be imported from home, and a certain wellknown 
paper manufacturer of England has been addressed 
on the subject. It is anticipated that the venture 
will succeed, as Behar possesses an abuudanoe of 
tho raw materials suited to the manufacture of 
paper,— Pioiiccr, MaroU 8th, 
