256 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
I Oct.  I,  1896. 
of  £20,u00  for  ilivLion  among  the  Ordinary 
shareholders. 
The  caj  ital  i.s,  a.s  we  were  enabled  to  anti- 
cipate, C1,UUU,UUU,  divided  into  e<|ual  propor- 
tions of  live  per  cent.  Cunuilati\e  i'rei'erence 
shares  and  Ordinary  .sinues  of  10  each.  At  pre- 
sent it  is  only  )>roposed  to  is.siie  40,000  iTe- 
ferences  and  40,000  Oulinary  shares,  wliile  on 
the  latter  only  £2  is  to  be  called  n]>.  ^V  e are 
sorry  that  no  more  satisfactory  ligiires  could 
be  given  than  those  “ supplied  by  the  previous 
owners,”  since,  however  much  it  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  people  who  want  to  sell  tea 
estates  ))ut  the  e.xact  particulars  before  the  pur- 
chasers, it  has  become  a general  rule  to  take 
independent  valuations  of  concerns  which  are 
being  bought  at  a large  outlay  of  money. 
The  fact  that  over  10,000  acres  of  the  43,000 
acres  being  aci{uircd  are  already  planted  with 
tea  is  a good  point,  but  it  might  have  been  better  if 
some  information  had  been  given  as  to  how  much  of 
the  remaining  33,000  acres  would  be  available  lor 
tea  planting.  It  is  always  possible  that  little 
of  it  might  be  adapted  tor  the  pur])ose.  ihe 
Company  intends  to  go  in  for  coil'ee,  while  itvyill 
also  cultivate  coconuts  in  Ceylon  ; but  a period 
of  nine  years  must  elapse  before  the  coconut 
trees  now  planted  will  yield  a sullicient  crop  to 
earn  dividends.  Their  ultimate  cultivation  is  said 
to  be  prolitable,  and  the  cost  of  planting  and  main- 
tenance is  comijaratively  cheap. 
The  Directors  arc  probably  acting  wisely  in  not 
calling  up  much  of  the  Ordinary  capital  until  it 
can  be  seen  how  much  it  will  cost  to  increase 
the  cultivated  area ; but,  on  the  whole,  it  seems 
to  us  that  it  might  have  been  advisable  to  start 
with  a smaller  capital  or  with  limits  to  the 
power  of  calling  it  up  without  taking  the 
opinion  of  the  shareholders.  The  Directors  and 
oliicials  of  the  Company,  hovvever,  are  much  the 
same  as  those  of  the  Consolidated  Tea  and  Lands 
Company,  Limited  ; and  while  wc  are  calling  at- 
tention to  one  or  two  weak  points  of  the  prospectn«, 
we  do  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  we  take  any- 
thing but  a hopeful  view  of  the  prospects  of  the 
undertaking. 
There  are  some  faults  to  be  found  with  the  jiros- 
pectus,  and  lack  ofinformation  isoneof  them  ;but 
as  this  prospectus  has  only  been  privately  issued  to 
the  shareholders  of  the  North  and  youth  yylhct 
companies,  the  Land  Mortgage  Lank  of  India,  and 
the  Consolidated  Tea  and  Lands  Company,  wesnp- 
‘ pose  it  is  amatter  which  more  directly  concernsthem 
than  the  rest  ol  the  public.  Lut  for  an  undei  taking 
with  so  big  a capital  wc  cannot  help  pointing  out 
that  the  jiavticulars  are  nut  sullicicntly  anijile. 
— JJiilliunidt,  Aug.  15 
<j 
PLANTINC  AND  TKODUCE. 
TEiiKiBLE  Eefects  OF  CoFFEE  DiUNKiNG.  If  there 
Bhould  be  any  difficulty  in  finding:  a sujiply  of  O'J'go- 
ments  in  favour  of  tea  drinking  as  conix'ared  with 
coffee,  the  Paris  correspondent  of  a daily  paper  sup- 
plies a few.  It  probably  is  not  generally  known 
that  coffee  caused  the  Trench  llevolution.  Lut 
I'Tench  doctors  have  discovered — they  appear  to  have 
been  some  time  about  it,  by  the  wa>— that  cottee 
caused  the  excitability  of  the  geuenvtiou  of  writers 
who  were  the  precursoi-s  of  the  lievolutiou,  and 
of  advocates  who  accomplished  it.  Aoltaire  and  Lo- 
besvierre  were  intemperate  drinkers  of  colfeo.  Miche- 
let savs  that  the  want  of  coffee,  consequent  upon 
Napoleon’s  Continental  blockade,  so  depressed 
p'lance  as  to  make  tho  return  of  the  Lourbona 
not  only  possible  but  welcome.  Ihore  had 
been  for  soino  years  before  a colleo  famine. 
t<  Those  used  to  coffee  were  out  of  their  wits  with 
joy  when  they  could  have  it  cheap  again.”  This 
line  of  argument  is  perhaps  a little  farfetched,  but 
that  is  the  fault  of  the  I'Tench  doctors  who  have  made 
these  important  discoveries.  Now  is  the  time  to  push 
the  sale  of  tea  in  Fiance. 
Coffee  Pi.anting  in  Biiaeil. — An  official  report 
lately  issued  fiom  the  Foreign  Office  refers  to  the  po- 
siiiou  of  Brazilian  coffee  and  the  condition  under 
which  it  is  grown.  In  his  report  on  the  trade  of 
Bahia,  covering  the  years  1803-35,  Mr.  Nicolini,  the 
British  Consul,  makes  some  interesting  remarks  on 
the  decline  in  the  Brazilian  e.xchange.  The 
low  rate  which  has  prevailed  for  the  past  two 
or  three  years,  he  tells  us,  has  had  consider- 
able influence  in  inducing  capitalists  to  invest 
money  in  coffee  plantations,  the  producers  bene- 
fiting to  the  extent  of  about  70  per  cent,  on  the 
prices  in  Brazilian  currency  realised  at  the  recent 
rates  of  exchange,  as  compared  with  those  obtained 
when  exchange  ranged  from  Is  lid  to  2s  .3d.  With 
regard  to  the  causes  of  ihe  decline — the  latest  tele- 
giaphic  quotation  is  9 3-l(5d — Mr.  Nicolini  says  that 
the  constant  disturbances  occiuring  in  mo.it  of  the 
Northern  States,  coupled  with  the  enormous  cost  of 
the  civil  war  which  for  several  years  raged  in  liio 
Grand  do  Sul  and  the  naval  revolt  at  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
together  with  the  efforts  of  the  monarchical  party 
towards  a restoration  of  the  Empire,  have  greatly 
tended  to  destroy  confidence;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  exceptionally  enormous  natural  resources  of  the 
country,  it  is  tho  general  opinion  of  those  most  inter- 
ested that  for  years  to  come  exchange  will  Huctuale 
between  9d  and  Is.  Brazilian  coilee  growers,  by 
the  w’ay,  ai’e  taking  measures  for  an  active  propaganda, 
one  plan  being  to  establish  cafes  and  permanent  exhi- 
bitions in  Europe  in  order  to  demonstrate  the  “deli- 
ciousness” of  Brazil  coffee  when  properly  supplied 
and  prepared. 
The  Mysteiues  of  the  Cocoa  Tkade.— At  Lough- 
borough, Leicestershire,  recently,  Dr.  Dyer,  the 
county  analyst,  stated  that  of  the  twenty-seven  sam- 
ples of  cocoa  which  came  before  him  nine  consisted 
of  genuine  cocoa — that  was  to  say,  of  cocoa  par- 
tially deprived  of  its  fat,  but  containing  no  material 
addition  to  its  bulk.  The  other  eighteen  samples  all 
consisted  of  mixtures  of  cocoa  with  various  propor- 
tions of  sugar  and  starch,  the  starch  used  being 
generally  some  variety  of  arrowroot.  In  all  but  three 
cases  the  fact  that  tho  articles  consisted  of  mixtures 
of  cocoa  with  other  ingredients  was  declared  on  labels 
attached  to  the  packages  or  parcels  in  which  the 
mixtures  were  supplied.  In  the  otlicr  three  cases  tho 
admixture  was  either  not  declared  at  all,  or  not  de- 
clared until  after  the  vendor  had  been  informed  of 
the  purpose  for  which  tho  sample  had  been  pur« 
chased.  Seeing  that  “ cocoa  ” was  tho  article  de- 
manded in  each  case,  he  had  in  his  official  schedule 
enumerated  all  the  mixtures  as  “ adulterated  ” — i.e., 
as  not  of  the  nature,  substance,  and  quality  de- 
manded, although,  as  already  said,  the  fact  of  the 
admixture  was  in  most  cases  actually  declared  by 
label,  and  in  such  cases  the  sale  was  not  to 
be  regarded  as  fraudulent.  The  prices  of  tho 
various  “ mixtures  ” in  the  market  were  very 
variable,  and,  generally  speaking,  might  be  said  to 
correspond  fairly  with  the  proportions  of  cocoa 
present,  so  that  the  purchaser  could  not  be  said  to 
bo  defrauded  in  purse.  It  appeared  desirable,  how- 
ever, that  the  public  should  know  that  in  purchasing 
mixtures,  or  at  any  rate  tho  lower  class  ones,  they 
were  buying  chielly  sugar  and  starch,  with  only  a 
small  quantity  of  real  cocoa.  8ugar  and  starch  wore, 
of  course,  nutritious,  and  the  mixtures  were,  in  most 
cases,  intrinsically  worth  the  prices  charged  for 
them.  Cocoa,  however,  was  an  article  which  was  not 
used  merely  for  actual  food  purposes,  but  also,  like 
tea.  and  coffee,  for  the  sake  of  the  stimulating  pro- 
perties which  it  possessed  ; and  if  the  consumer  was  to 
get  the  full  stimulating  benefit  as  well  as  the  mere 
feeding  value,  of  a cup  of  cocoa,  ho  must  u.so  several 
times  as  much  of  tho  cheap  mixture  as  he  would  of 
pure  cocoa,  so  that  he  does  not  gain  in  tho  end,  but 
pays  for  sugar  that  ho  could  just  as  well  add  himself, 
and  for  starch  which  is  not  more  nutritious 
than  broad  These  starchy  inixtiuos  of  coiu'scj 
