May I, 1891.] 
TPJOPICAL AGRIOULTURiST. 
779 
pressed of a rise in prices “next time" are the 
usual buoys that keep those engaged in agricnltural 
pursuits from despondency. 
The necessity of supplying certain demands often 
threatens an industry. The suicidal inclination to 
meet them is fostered by high prices. The encourag- 
ing prices paid for fine Tea stimulate fine picking, 
in spite of its having been shewn by a competent 
chemist that it is a great strain on the bushes. Not 
only the prices realised, but the reputation an Estate 
and its kdanager acquire, promotes a pernicious pract- 
ice. The reference to Tea is only to exemplify what 
is being done with another product with which I am 
more immediately concerned. Those who are in a 
position to compare cinnamon estates as they were 
20, or even 15, years ago with their present condition, 
cannot fail to be impressed with the evils of fine cutting. 
It is not to be supposed, however, that the dill'erence 
in appiearance is mainly due to the difference in the 
height of the bushes. No, the growth is decidedly 
weaker now than then. The ljushes are less healthy. 
Those whose accounts of crop cover the period I 
have named will, I am sure, find, on reference to 
tliem, that the difference in quantity will range from 
20 to 40 °/o between then and now. The mischief is 
that the decline has been so gradual as to be hardly 
perceptible. For 2 or 3 years the yield is kept at the 
old average by forced cuttings. Then the inevitable, 
that crop has decreased, is faced, and a lower figure 
is accepted as tlie annual yield. It is attempted to 
keep up to this lower figure by a system of forced 
cuttings for a few years, with a like experience — a 
lowering of the estimate of yield in a few years — 
till now, as I said before, the difference in yield, 
though imperceptibly, has declined materially. The 
growth of wood, as before stated, is not as healthy 
now as it was before. The sticks are stunted. This, 
however, is not to be wondered at, and is the natural 
result of shoots from immature stools. Where I 
wonder is this system of fine cutting to end '! I see 
no end to it, however, as long as the demand for 
fine cinnamon lasts. The manufacture of cinnamon 
is becoming a fine art. The older generation of 
peelers is quite out of it, and the “quilling” is 
entirely in tire hands of young men and boys. 
Tlie improvement in the make of the quills will Ije 
best understood when one circumstance is mentioned. 
About a dozen years ago, and after the craze for 
manufacturing fine quills had set in, a Manager of 
a crack Estate drew special attention to a parcel of 
exceptionally fine cinnamon of “superiors" which 
averaged 19 quills to the lb. Now 40 quills to the lb 
of the same quality of cinnamon is thought to be 
nothing unusual ! 1 warn proprietors, however, to look 
carefully into tlie question of fine cutting, and to 
decide whether it is to their interest to persist in 
it. — Local “Examiner." 
TEA AND COFFEE SEDSTITUTES. 
(Coniinuedfrom page 732.) 
C0MP0SIT.E. 
44. Tlelicliri/suin qvii.qwinerve, Lessing. — A sample 
of the dried leaves of this plant were shown in the. 
Cape of Good Hope Court of the Colonial Exhibition, 
1880, as Bushman tea, and said to be used as a substi- 
tute for China tea. 
4.5. i’arclw»<iiitkiis camplioraius, Linn. — A shrub, 0 
to 8 feet high, native of the Cape of Good Hope, 
were it is known as Dagga. When fresh, the leaves 
have a peculiar camphor-like smell, hence the specific 
name ; tiiey arc infused in the form of tea, and are 
supposed to liave medicinal effects. They are also 
chewed by the Mahomedans, and smoked Ijy the 
Hottentots. There is a sample of the leaves of tliis 
plant in the Kew Museum. 
VAc<.'iNiAcr,.'>;. 
40. Vaccinimn A rctoMapliqlos, Jiinn. — Under the 
names of The do Bel Hugh, Trebizond tea, and 
Broussa tea, the dried leaves of this plant have boon 
variously known. It was noticed in the /‘hnrmficeuliai/ 
Journal for January 17. 1S8.5, pp. .57:i-l. and March 
21, 188;5, ))p. 771-2. In 1817, I\lr. tleorgo iMaw brought 
for the Kew Museum from Asia Minor a small 
sample of a native tea obtained at Broussa in An- 
atolia, where it was sold for about Sd. per pound 
In a report by Her Majesty’s Consul “ On the Town 
and Port of Samsoon, and on the Circassian Colony 
in the District,” contained in the Commercial Reports 
front Ecr Majesty's Consuls, 1884, part 1, p. 147 i-e- 
ference is made to the production of a native tea 
which considerably interfered with the import of 
China tea into the country. The Vaccinimn tea is 
in appearance very like coarsely-prepared black Indian 
or Ciiina tea, and has a similar aroma — so much 
so, indeed, that the Customs authorities de- 
manded duty upon the samples sent to Kew by Her 
Majesty’s Consul; the taste of the infusion, however 
has no lesemblance to true tea. Upon submittin*^ 
samples of the Trebizond tea for the opinion of a 
well-known firm of tea brokers, they remarked that 
common China tea showed a better value in every 
respect, so that the admixture of the Trebizond tea 
could hardly reduce the cost, while it would certainly 
not improye the liavour. 
The following further notes on this subject are 
gathered irom a memorandum by H. M. Vice-Consul 
at Samsoon. Hie tea in question became a commer- 
cial article so recently as 1880. At first its consump- 
tion was limited to the country, and particularly to 
those districts in which Circassian colonies had been 
founded. .If is manufactured by Circassian planters 
in the neighbourhood of Amassia, Tokat, and Horek 
all in the province of Eoum, at a short distance froiil 
^ clothes the mountain chain 
called Beldagh, and on wMch the plant wliioh fur- 
nishes the tea in question grows in great abundance. 
J-he iiicUiutDiCtuic IS Ccirriecl on in the houses of the 
Circassian colonists wdio undertake this industry 
and who appear to be pretty numerous, d’here are 
several gatherings of the tea ; that which yields 
the best quality takes place in May. About 5 000 
oeques (an ocque equals lb.) are manufactured 
annually, but tins quantity could lie considerably aug- 
mented if there were occasion for it. The tea is 
sold on the spot at about 5 piastres per ocque. The 
cost of transport to Samsoon might amount to about 
1 piastre, which brings the price per ocque to fj 
jiiastres in that town. 
The consiunption is almost limited to the require- 
ments of the vilayets of Sivaz (Roum)and Angora 
(Anatolia). It is to the town bearing the last-men- 
tioned name that the greater part of the croii is 
sent. In 1881 a consignment was sent to France, 
but the transaction was not a profitable one Some 
further consignments to Constantinople also do not 
appear to have been successful. 
47. / "aecinium hispidulum, L.— A sample of the twigs 
of this plant is shown in the Kew Museum, under the 
name of Anise tea, from St. Pierre and Miquelon 
48. A ejapetes saliyna, Hook, f.— Described as a large 
epiphytic shrub of the Sikkim hills, at an elevation 
of from 1,000 to 5,000 feet. The leaves are said by 
Hooker to be used as a substitute for tea. 
EiiicACE.n. 
49. Lcdumpahistre, L.— An erect, small-leaved 
bushy shrub. Native of Canada and Labrador, where 
the leaves are used as tea under the name of 
Labrador tea. 
50. Leduifi hillfolhii/i, L.— The Cree Indians in 
the Hudson s Bay territory use the fiowering tops of 
this plant as tea ; tiiey are gathered when in full 
flower, and dried, when they have an odour between 
that of Tansy and Camomile. The leaves are 
esteemed pectoral and tonic, and are said to have 
been used as a substitute for tea during the war 
of Independence. It is called Karkar-pukwa, or 
Country tea. 
51. Kalinia anyustifoUa, L.— The twigs, with the 
leaves and flowers, are known by the Cree Indians 
in the lludson's Bay territory as Bitter tea; the in- 
fusion is used more as a medicine than as a be- 
verage. 
52. Caultheria procumhens, L. — A small, crcepiim, 
shrubby plant, native of shady woods in nioiiiitainous 
districts in , Southern Canada and the Northern United 
States; it is known as Mountain 'L’ea, .Jersey Tea. 
