Oct.  I,  1895.]  the  TROPICAL 
LIBERIAN  COFFEE. 
The  Editor,  Madraa  Mail. 
Sir, — With  reference  to  the  correspondence  in 
yonr  paper  about  Liberian  coffee,  kindly  allow  me 
to  state  I have  some  85  fine  trees  of  this  variety 
growing  on  my  Clifton  Estate  here  at  an  elevation 
of  3,750  feet,  and  not  only  growing,  hut  cropping 
heavily.  My  recollection  is,  they  took  5 years  from 
seedlings  before  they  did  crop,  but  they  have  gone 
on  cropping  ever  since  without  any  cultivation  speci- 
ally applied  to  them,  although  no  doubt,  they  have 
likewise  benefited  from  the  cultivation  the  Arahica 
coffee  has  had  among  which  they  are  growing.  They 
resemble  young  jack  trees.  The  last  few  years  I have 
kept  a careful  account  of  the  outturn  of  parchment,  or 
seed,  coffee;  and  all  I can  say  is,  if  Liberian  is  going 
to  produce  on  the  same  scale  in  a large  acreage, 
then  there  must  be  a big  future  before  it  soiue- 
where  in  the  country.  One  drawback  to  its 
cultivation  no  doubt  is  the  time  it  takes  to  come 
■into  bearing.  It  certainly  stands  wind  and  exposure 
better,  and  will  no  doubt  flourish,  more  or  less, 
where  Arabica  will  not.  Mr.  W.  G.  Dawson  quotes 
an  instance  at  Manantoddy.  This  disposes,  I think, 
of  Mr.  Winterbotham’s  surmise  that  Liberian  will 
probably  only  flourish  up  to  3,000  feet.  But,  as  that 
gentleman  explains  in  your  issue  received  today,  he 
only  wrote  of  what  he  had  personally  observed. 
Quite  so.  “ Toda,”  no  doubt,  meant  to  have  written 
4,000,  instead  of  5,000  feet,  at  which  his  Liberians 
are  cropping.  “Nemo  ’ says,  he  should  saij,  the 
average  elevation  of  cultivation  at  Nellacotta  would 
be  3,000  to  3,500  feet,  but  as  I agree  with  him  that 
mere  guessw'ork  will  not  do,  I am  glad  to  be  able  to 
say  that  I have  the  average  elevation  of  cultivation  here 
— that  is  to  say,  Jths  of  the  cultivation — re- 
corded at  3,500  to  4,000  feet.  “Nilgiri  Wy- 
naad  ” has  kindly  determined  the  highest 
point  of  Avondale  at  3,800  feet,  but  it  happens 
just  to  touch  4,000  feet.  I have  made  several 
testa  at  various  times  with  more  than  one 
aneroid.  Then,  as  to  pi’ices.  The  Public  Ledger — 
the  official  organ  of  MinciugLaiie— 1 find  quotes  the 
sale  in  July  last  of  “ 4 bags  broicn  Liberian  Ceylon 
at  72s,  3 bag.s  brown  Liberian  Travancore  at  72s  Cd, 
and  3 bags  Liberian  Wynaad  at  74s.’’  At  the  same 
time,  “78  bags  Liberian  Johore  sold,  good,  bold  and 
medium  yellow,  at  86s.  6d.’’  “ Mr.  Wiiiterbothiani 
quotes  instances  of  Wynaad  Liberian  samples  having 
been  'valued  at  85s  to  94s  per  cwt.  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
if  there  is  anything  in  curing,  the  bulk  will  be  as 
carefully  prepared  as  these  samples  appear  to  have 
been,  but  unless  the  true  Liberian  bean  is  produced 
— that  is,  I believe,  a bold  yellow  bean — I should 
say,  don’t  expect  prices  approaching  Ai'abica.  I 
understand  Mr.  Wiuterbotham  to  say  there  is  Liberian 
and  Liberian  coffee.  I agree  with  him. 
H.  W.  SlIEUDRICK. 
Nellacotta,  9th  Sept. 
PLANTING  AND  PRODUCE. 
Spicks  .^nd  B.\rk  in  Store. — In  an  article  entitled 
“How  Loudon  is  Fed’’  a writer  in  the  Westminster 
(laxette  refers  to  a visit  paid  to  the  London  and 
India  Docks  and  the  stores  of  spices  and  bark  there. 
He  says : ‘“What  though  the  spicy  breezes’ — but 
one  does  not  need  to  go  to  Ceylon  to  experience 
them.  As  the  visitor  ascends  the  stone  stair  to  the 
cinnamon  and  spice  departments  he  seems  to  meet 
all  the  perfumes  of  the  Orient.  Three  great  floors 
are  devoted  to  the  ‘housing,  working,  and  showing’ 
of,  among  other  like  products,  cinnamon  and  cloves, 
nutmegs,  cassia,  and  Peruvian  bark.  Here  at  one 
corner  are  a group  of  men  going ' carefully  through 
great  piles  of  nutmegs,  examining  ^ each  nut,  and 
turning  out  all  of  inferior  quality,  A little  further 
along,  the  ‘weeding  of  mace,  the  inner  covering  of 
the  nutmeg,  is  going  on,  and  this  membrane  is 
actually  lying  on  the  floor  in  cartloads.  Cloves  are 
sorted  in  the  same  way,  and  emptied  into  cases. 
Cinnamon  arrives  in  tightly  packed  bales,  each  one 
of  which  is  opened  out,  gone  through  and  classed 
according  to  quality.  Some  of  the  cinnamon  sticks 
35 
AGRICULTURIST.  279 
are  beautifully  fine  others  are  coarse  and  much 
broken.  Thousands  and  thousands  of  bales  and 
cases  of  these  spices  lie  around,  and  the  wonder  is 
wherever  and  how  the  contents  are  finally  used  up. 
This  is  especially  the  case  as  regards  the  Peruvian 
bark.  ’The  article  which  bears  this  name  looks  very 
much  like  the  bark  of  an  elm  tree.  It  is  peeled 
from  the  cinchona  tree — a laborious  and  difficult 
operation.  The  name  is  derived  from  the  fact  that 
the  Countess  of  Cinchon,  the  wife  of  the  Viceroy  of 
Peru,  had  been  cured  of  an  obstinate  intermittent 
fever  by  means  of  it,  and  thereafter  habitually  dis- 
tributeditto  those  tufleiiug  from  fever.  Itgoes,  of  course 
to  the  manufacture  of  quinine,  which  is  carried  on  by 
only  two  or  three  firms  in  England.  The  conclusion 
one  arrives  at  on  glancing  round  the  many  thou- 
sands of  bales  at  tbe  docks  is  that  it  must 
take  a large  quantity  of  bark  to  produce  a little 
quinine,  or  else  there  is  a very  large  demand  for 
the  drug.  But  London  is  the  market  for  the  hark, 
and  all  the  Continental  supplies  pass  through  here. 
The  bark  comes  largely  from  Peru  still.  Formerly 
the  mode  of  collecting  it  in  the  latter  country  was 
most  wasteful,  and  it  looked  as  if  the  tree  was 
likely  to  become  exterminated.  The  attention  of 
European  botanists  was  called  to  the  matter,  and 
there  are  India,  British  Burmah, 
Ceylon,  and  the  West  Indies,  and  it  is  a very  im- 
portant article  of  export  from  these  countries.  The 
trade  in  the  bark  has  been  active  of  late  years.  Has 
this  been  due  to  the  influenza?” — II.  and  C.  Mail. 

INDIAN  PATENTS. 
Calcutta,  the  29th  August,  1S9-5. 
Applications  in  respect  of  the  undermentioned  in- 
ventions have  been  filed,  during  the  week  ending  24th 
August  1895,  under  the  provisions  of  Act  V of  1888:— 
For  improvements  in  app.a.r.\tos  for  packing  tea 
OR  OTHER  SUBSTANCES  INTO  CHESTS. — 272  of  1895. — 
Samuel  Cleland  D.ividson,  of  Sirocco  Engineering 
Works,  Belfast,  Ireland,  Merchant,  for  improvements 
in  apparatus  for  packing  tea  or  other  substances 
into  chests,  boxes  or  other  receptacles. — Indian 
Engineer. 
LABOUR  IN  NORTH  BORNEO. 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  efforts  of  the 
Government  to  obtain  immigrant  labour  upon  cheaper 
terms  than  have  hitherto  prevailed  have  not  been 
more  cordially  backed  by  the  planting  community 
of  the  Territory.  The  planters  base  their  lukewarm- 
ness chiefly  on  the  allegation  that  it  is  impossible 
to  obtain  a class  of  labourer  as  good  as  those 
brought  down  at  existing  rates  for  the  reduced 
figure  offered  by  the  Government.  No  coolies,  with 
one  exception,  have  come  forward  under  the  arrange- 
ment proposed  and  this  objection  strikes  us  as 
somewhat  “ too  previous.”  Meanwhile  it  may  be 
interesting  to  state  that  the  agent  in  Hongkong  for 
some  of  the  estates  rejected  over  a hundred  men, 
brought  forward  by  the  Government  officer  sent  there, 
at  j^34  per  head  and  a few  days  afterwards  sent  the 
same  men  down  to  an  estate  at  a cost  of  over  $60 
per  head.  No  complaint  was  made  that  these  men 
were  of  inferior  physique  or  otherwise  unsuitable. 
Whether  the  planters  have  been  wise  in  refusing 
to  support  a scheme  which  if  successful  would  have 
saved  from  $20  to  25  per  head  i.e.  $25,000  per  1,000 
coolies,  is  a matter  which  they  will  doubtless  argue 
out  with  their  shareholders  at  home.  The  great  ma- 
jority are  not  of  British  nationality  and  have  large 
discretionary  powers  in  the  matter  of  the  labour 
supply. — British  North  Borneo  Herald,  August  l&th. 
NORTH  BORNEO  PLANTING  NOTES, 
Kabeli. — Fair  rains,  coffee  growing  nicely,  5,000 
holes  made  in  new  clearing  for  Trading  and  Planting 
Co.  Crop  for  May  30  catties,  June  piculs  1.33,  July  4.26, 
plants  30  months  old. 
Loong  Piasow. — Fair  rains,  everything  doing  well, 
coffee  blossoming  freely,  crop  for  May  4 catties,  June 
12  catties,  July  22  catties.  Oldest  plants  2 yettfGb 
