March  2,  i8<)6.J  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURist.  615 
ried  out  it  would  be  well  for  all  concerned.  It  is,  no 
doubt,  all  to  the  advantage  of  a District  for  the  resi- 
dents to  have  a direct  intei'est  in  the  staple  enterprise 
and  not  to  be  merely  paid  servants.  There  has  been 
and  always  will  be  a tendency  to  convert  tea  properties 
into  Companies,  but  as  Mr.  Capper  pointed  out  in  his 
letter  to  us  the  other  day,  in  Ceylon  at  any  rate  this 
course  only  means  that  instead  of  a man  having  all 
his  capital  invested  in  one  concern,  it  is  distributed 
over  several.  Coffee,  both  Arabica,  Liberian  and  Hy- 
brid, still  floirrish  in  the  Wyuaadand  so  do  pepper  and 
cinchona,  to  say  nothing  of  cardamoms,  vanilla,  jalap 
and  annatto  seed ; indeed  there  is  no  district  where  so 
many  products  have  been  proved  to  thrive  and  give 
their  yield  in  due  season.  Many  of  these  unfortu- 
nately have  small  commercial  value  now-a-days,  but 
tea  is  still  a very  profitable  cultivation.  Given  the 
assurance  of  a central  factory,  every  planter  within 
the  proper  radius,  wise  in  his  own  generation,  will 
own  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  tea. 
—JI  iVail,  Feb.  18. 
WEST  AFRICAN  COFFEE. 
A small  sample  parcel  of  coffee  has  just  arrived  in 
Liverpool  from  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  As  this 
is  the  first  lot  grown  on  the  coast  and  brought  to 
this  country  some  considerable  interest  attaches  to  it, 
as  very  gr.  at  things  are  expected  of  this  new  industry. 
Some  considerable  amount  of  money  has  been  spent 
in  the  experiment  to  grow  coffee  in  the  vicinity  of 
Lagos,  and  the  Haro  Estates  and  Plantations,  Limited, 
have  at  last  succeeded  in  proving  the  capabilities  of 
the  soil  and  climate  in  producing  a coffee  of  very 
rich  flavour,  which  has  been  valued  by  experts  at 
lOy.s  per  cent.  The  coffee,  made  without  any  adul- 
teration by  chicory,  contains  all  the  stimulating  pro- 
perties and  carries  the  delicious  aromatic  flavour 
necessary  to  please  fastidious  coffee  drinkers.  The 
estate  covers  an  area  of  about  60  square  miles,  and 
contains  over  70,000  plants, — Jottnial  of  Commerce,  J&n.  31, 
ANOTHER  WONDERFUL  COFFEE  YARN. 
South  Carolina,  as  is  now  widely  known,  is  already 
producing  a first-rate  article  of  tea  for  drinking  pur- 
poses from  plants  grown  in  the  State.  We  are  glad 
to  be  able  to  make  the  encouraging  annonucement 
that  there  is  now  a very  good  prospect  that  it  will 
soon  be  in  a position  to  produce  at  home  also  much, 
if  not  most,  of  the  coffee  it  requires  for  such  pur- 
poses. 
We  have  seen  some  of  the  home-grown  coffee.  A few 
seed  were  obtained  last  year  byMr.  .J.C.  Ball,  of  Cordes- 
ville,  and  were  planted  on  his  farm,  the  Middleburg 
(ilace,  Cooper  River,  yielding  a crop  of  about  a bushel. 
Some  of  the  product  was  roasted  and  ground  and  made 
into  coffee, which  was  served  to  guests  at  his  New  Year’s 
dinner  a few  days  ago,  and  was  pronounced  by  them 
to  be  of  fine  quality  and  flavour.  Mr.  Ball  only 
claims  for  it  that  it  is  superior  to  Rio,  and  is  sure 
that  it  will  bear  that  claim  at  least. 
Mr.  Ball  is  so  well  satisfied  with  his  experience 
of  the  new  plant  so  far  that  he  will  plant  several 
acres  this  yea,r.~  Charleston  ICeirs. 
The  above  is  evidently  the  work  of  the  profes- 
sional liar,  for  a similar  report  is  going  the  rounds, 
but  applicable  to  other  sections.  Possibly  it  ema- 
nates from  the  same  follow  who  described  the  man 
with  a marble  leg,  and  who  is  given  to  originating 
all  manner  of  improbable  stories  and  sending  them 
to  the  press.  As  it  requires  from  four  to  six  years 
for  a coffee  tree  to  come  into  bearing,  it  is  apparent 
that  the  South  Carolina  climate  must  be  phenom- 
enal in  its  adaptability  for  coffee-growing,  if  a 
tree  produces  “about  a bushel”  in  one  year.  Two 
pounds  to  a tree  is  a big  average  yield.  We  ima- 
gine it  will  be  some  centuries  hence  before  our 
Charleston  friends  will  meet  their  requirement  for 
coffee  from  local  plantations. 
p.  s._The  above  was  written  based  upon  the 
clipping,  which  evidently  was  condensed  from  the 
prigmal  by  one  unfamiliar  with  the  characterietice 
of  coffee.  The  full  text  of  the  article  in  the  Neirs 
indicates  that  the  South  Carolina  coffee  is  not  the 
coffee  ^[rabira.  or  C.  Liherica,  but  a tree  which 
produces  a “bean”  about  the  size  of  a “ cowpea,” 
and  that  in  Europe  it  is  called  “ Gei-man  coffee,” 
and  is  used  as  a substitute  for  true  coffee.  We 
imagine  it  is  no  more  like  coffee  than  burnt  peas 
or  rye  mixture.  The.  Kens  article  is  misleading 
and  calculated  to  puzzle  the  editor  hunting  for, 
sensational  paragraphs.— Hi/tericaa  Grocer,  Jan.  15. 
A DISCRIMINATING  DUTY  ON  TEA 
IMBORTED  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
'riiesiiecialcon  espoiulent  of  t\\&  American  Grocer 
at  Washington  writes  on  Jan.  14:  — 
The  first  gun  in  the  pure  tea  campaign  has  been 
fired  in  the  House  by  Congressman  Cummings,  who, 
has  introduced  the  following  bill  providing  for  a 
discriminating  duty  on  teas  imported  from  this  s.ide 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ; 
“ Be  it  enacted,  etc..  That  there  shall  be  levied, 
collected,  and  paid  on  all  teas,  the  growth  or  pro- 
duce of  the  countries  east  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
when  imported  from  places  west  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  a duty  of  ten  per  centum  ad  xalorem.  And  teas 
that  have  been  entered  for  consumption  or  ware- 
house, or  that  have  been  permitted  to  remain  un- 
claimed, or  that  have  been  permitted  to  remain  for  any 
purpose  in  any  country  intermediate  between  the 
country  of  export  and  the  United  Btates,  shall  not 
be  considered  as  in  transitu  through  such  inter- 
mediate country,  but  shall  be  treated  as  teas  im- 
ported from  such  intermediate  country,  and  be  valued 
and  rated  for  duty  accordingly.” 
This  bill  is  being  urged  upon  the  attention  of 
Congress  by  representatives  of  the  tea  trade,  and  a 
memorial  has  been  presented  to  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee,  in  which  some  of  the  reasons 
for  the  legislation  are  set  forth,  and  from  which 
I abstract  the  following : 
“ Heretofore  when  the  subject  of  duty  on  tea  has 
been  suggested,  it  has  generally  been  opposed  with 
the  fiction  of  the  * free  breakfast  table’  by  some 
who  have  not  understood  the  subject  and  ttie  con- 
ditions which  affect  the  production,  distribution  and 
consumption  of  tea.  The  fact  is,  the  removal  of 
the  duty  on  tea  has  been  a positive  injury  to  the 
consumer,  because  of  the  poorer  quality  which  has 
been  imported  since  then. 
“ The  Bureaux  of  Statistics  shows  that  in  1873  the 
average  import  price  of  tea  was  double  the  price  of 
today,  and  the  consumption  1’53  pound  per  capita 
which  is  now  only  1’34  pound  per  capita.  The  con- 
sumer pays  the  retailer  nearly  as  much  today  for  a. 
pound  of  tea  as  he  paid  in  1873  and  receives  a. 
much  inferior  quality,  which  accounts  for  the  falling- 
off  in  consumption.  In  contrast  with  this,  we  find 
that  in  all  countries  where  there  is  a tax  on  tea  the 
consumption  per  capita  has  increased,  most  notably 
in  England,  where  the  consumption  lias  increased 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years  from  3'63  to  5 53 
pounds  per  capita. 
“ In  England,  where  the  duty  is  8 cents  per  pound 
and  the  consumer  gets  better  value  for  the  same 
money,  the  consumption  is  four  times  greater  than 
in  the  United  States,  where  there  is  no  duly 
Some  twelve  years  ago  Congress,  upon  the  recoin- 
mendation  of  the  tea  trade,  passed  a bill  excluding 
adulterated  and  exhausted  tea.  Although  the  bill 
has  been  of  advantage,  it  has  not  luevented  the 
importation  of  large  quantities  of  poor  tea.  Duty  is 
the  only  real  safeguard  ; its  imposition,  as  has  been 
proved  by  experience,  would  retard  the  importation 
of  poor  quality  by  American  merchants  and  at  the 
same  time  prevent  native  shippers  in  the  producinrr 
countries  from  exporting  to  this  country,  where  there 
IS  no  duty,  the  inferior  and  trashy  teas  they  can 
not  send  elsewhere.  ^ 
“In  conclusion,  our  Government  would  obtain  con- 
siderable revenue  from  a tax,  which  is  recognized  bv 
all  governments  imposing  a duty  on  tea  as  the  most 
satisfactory  tax  that  has  ever  been  levied ; and  when 
the  cqtuumei:  can  obtain  a better  quality  of  tea  foj 
