460 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan,  I,  1897. 
Japanese  Tea.— Owing,  as  they  say,  to  the  late 
war  the  Japanese  have  been  doing  little  of  late  as 
exporters  of  tea. 
This  season’s  exportations  have  been  only  about 
half  those  of  last  year.  We  inclined  to  the  belief 
that  it  is  the  competition  of  India  and  Ceylon  that 
is  the  real  cause. 
Coffee  Prospects. — Although  coffee  drinking  is  on 
the  decline  in  the  United  Kingdom  owing  to  the 
wonderful  increase  in  the  popularity  of  tea,  coffee 
still  holds  its  own  on  the  Continent  if  we  except 
Russia  ; the  demand  for  France,  Germany,  the  United 
States,  and  South  America  being  sufficient  to  sti- 
mulate a constant  increase  of  production.  The 
coffee  planters  of  South  America  have  found  coffee 
growing  so  remunerative  that  they  have  extended 
the  area  devoted  to  the  crop  with  some  recklessness, 
and  the  result  is  that  the  supply  is  in  excess  of 
apparent  requirements.  Authorities  estimate  “ an 
enormous  crop  in  Brazil  for  1896-97 — viz.,  a total  ex- 
port of  not  less  than  8,000,(X)0  bags.  This  is  a total 
far  beyond  the  yearly  average  for  seven  years  end- 
ing June  30,  1896,  of  5,657,286  bags  (332,781  tons) 
Brazil  has  furnished  54  per  cent,  of  the  world’s 
supply.  On  that  basis  the  crops  of  1896-97  will  ag- 
gregate 14,814,800  bags.”  The  estimate  for  the  total 
crops  is  14,000,000  bags,  based  on  a minimum  Brazil 
yield  of  8,000,000  and  6,000,000  for  other  countries, 
or  about  500,000  bags  above  the  average  crops  of  the 
past  three  years.  It  is  anticipated  that  the  improve- 
ment of  trade  in  the  United  States  will  bring  the 
demand  for  coffee,  which  the  working  classes  use 
sparingly  in  hard  times,  into  line  with  the  enormous 
supply. 
To  Detect  Ciiicouy  in  Coffee. — The  following 
method  of  detecting  chicory  in  a sample  of  pow- 
dered or  ground  coffee  is  suggested  by  a French 
paper : Take  a sample  of  the  suspected  powder, 
and  add  to  it  about  ten  times  its  weight  of  water. 
Add  a few  drops  of  hydrochloric  acidjto  acidulate 
the  water,  and  then  shake  up  the  whole  mixture. 
The  coffee  powder  will  float,  and  will  impart  a yel- 
low straw  tinge  to  the  water.  Chicory,  on  the  other 
hand,  will  form  a deposit,  and  will  give  the  water 
a brown  colour. 
Tea  and  Coffee  in  the  Uniter  States — Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley, the  President-elect,  is  moderating  his  zeal  on 
behalf  of  protection.  It  is  said  that  he  is  not  in 
favour  of  a tax  on  tea  and  Coffee. 
Jeddah  Coffee. — A curious  fact  about  the  Jeddah 
coffee  trade  is  mentioned  in  a report  to  the  Foreign 
Office  for  the  year  1895  from  that  consular  district.. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  year  the  price  of  coffee 
remained  high.  But  after  a time  the  arrival  of  an 
enormous  quantity  of  coffee  from  the  interior  of  the 
Yemen,  where  there  is  no  sale  for  this  article,  the 
people  themselves  using  coffee-husks  called  “ Kesher,” 
brought  the  price  of  coffee  down.  This  led  to  a 
large  quantity  of  coffee  being  shipped  at  the  eud  of 
1895. 
Very  Soothing  to  their  Feelings. — While  the 
sugar  planters  of  British  Guiana  are  bemoaning  the 
decay  of  the  sugar  industry  their  Governor,  Sir 
Augustus  Hemming,  has  returned  to  them  full  of 
hope  on  one  point.  He  is  bent  on  soothing  their 
feelings  with  good  cricket.  He  has  arranged  with 
Lord  Hawke,  who  will  take  out  an  Englisn  cricket 
team  early  next  year  to  Georgetown.  Sir  Augns-tua 
Hemming  remarked  in  conversation  before  his 
departnre  a few  days  since  that  at  Georgetown  they 
had  a very  good  cricket  ground  and  a very  good 
team;  and  one  could  play  cricket  ii  British  Guiana 
all  the  year  round.  Planters  who  do  not  play  cricket 
to  any  groat  extent  are  more  interested  in  the 
^taving  off  the  crisis  which  must  inevitably  come 
unless  something  is  done  about  sugar.  In  answer 
to  the  suggestion  that  they  should  improve  their 
methods  of  manufacture,  they  say : “ What  is  the 
good  of  laying  out  our  dwindling  capital  on  new  sugar 
machinery  in  order  to  produce  a better  article  at  a 
lower  price,  when  we  know  that  Germany  will 
respond  by  increasing  her  bounties  ? ” Tliey 
maintain  that  they  have  been  sacrificed  in  the 
interests  of  cheap  jam  and  the  expansion  of  the 
confectionery  trades,  forgetful  of  the  fact,  perhaps, 
that  this  is  a free  trade  country,  and  that  the  home 
consumer  who  has  a vote  would  kick  if  his  sugar 
were  taxed.  The  decay  of  a West  Indian  industry 
counts  for  little,  as  against  the  great  principle  or 
fetish,  as  some  prefer  to  call  it,  of  free  trade.  Any- 
way it  looks  like  it. 
Latent  Life  i.\  Seeds. — Professor  Casimir  de 
Candolle,  of  Geneva,  recently  contributed,  according 
to  Nature,  some  exceedingly  interesting  notes  to  the 
Botanical  Section  of  the  British  Association  on 
latent  life  in  seeds.  The  author  gave  an  account  of 
some  experiments  recently  carried  out  on  the  power 
of  germination  of  seeds  exposed  for  different  periods 
to  a low  temperature.  He  also  recorded  striking 
instances  of  the  development  of  normal  seedlings 
from  seeds  which  had  been  kept  for  a great  number 
of  years.  Robert  Brown  obtained  perfect  seedlings 
from  seeds  of  Nelumhwm  speciosum  more  than  a 
century  old.  Plants  buried  under  rubbish  heaps 
collected  by  the  Greeks  have  been  found  to 
develop  and  bear  flowers  from  seeds  which 
must  have  been  at  least  1,500  years  old.  To 
test  the  condition  of  a dormant  seed,  M.  de 
Candolle  exposed  the  seeds  of  several  plants  to  a 
temperature  too  low  to  permit  of  the  continuance 
of  the  process  of  respiration.  Seeds  of  corn,  oats, 
fennel,  &c.,  w'ere  exposed  for  118  davs  to  a tempe- 
rature of  40  deg.  F.  below  zero.  The  experiments 
were  carried  on  atLiverpool  in  refrigerating  machines, 
in  which  during  eight  hours  each  day  the  average 
temperature  recorded  was  40  deg.  F.,  and  occasion- 
ally far  lower.  Nearly  all  the  seeds  of  corn,  oats, 
fennel,  and  many  of  the  others  germinated.  The  con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  from  the  experiments  seems  to  be 
that  in  resting  seeds  the  protoplasm  is  not  actually  living, 
but  has  reached  a stage  of  inaction  in  which,  although 
not  dead,  it  is  endowed  with  potential  life.  In  other 
words  protoplasm  in  resting  seeds  is  not  analogous  to 
a smouldering  fire,  but  rather  to  those  chemical  mix- 
tures made  up  of  bodies  capable  of  combining  under 
certain  conditions  of  temperature  and  illumination. 
^ 
MARKET  FOR  TEA  SHARES. 
Thursday  Evening,  Nov.  19,  1896. 
Business  in  Tea  Shares  of  the  Indian  companies 
has  been  ” a shade  ” quieter  during  the  past  week. 
A steady  investment  business,  however,  still  continues 
in  progress,  more  especially  in  the  Ordinary  shares, 
the  high  yield  of  interest  obtainable  on  which,  com- 
pared with  what  can  be  got  on  their  securities  of 
equal  soundness,  seeming  to  tempt  investors  even 
more  than  the  greater  security  offered  by  the  Pre- 
ference issuer  few  of  which  latter  can  now  be  got 
to  yield  5 per  cent. 
Mincing  Lane,  though  still  steady,  has  shown  a 
slight  weakness  in  the  face  of  the  largo  supplies 
brought  to  auction.  News  from  India,  moreover,  by 
wire  gives  rise  to  the  belief  that  the  shortness  of  the 
late  “ fall  ” crop,  recently  forecasted  in  the  public 
press,  will  not  be  so  marked  as  was  at  one  time 
expected,  though  the  total  available  for  shipment  to 
the  United  Kingdom  is  still  expected  not  to  be  in 
excess  of  actual  requirements. 
meetings. 
The  Empire  of  India  and  Ceylon  holds  its  first 
statutory  meeting  to-morrow  (Friday),  2 p.m.,  at 
■Winchester  House. 
Our  readers  will  learn  with  regret  of  the  sudden 
demise,  while  presiding  at  a business  meeting  at 
Winchester  House  to  day  (Thursday),  of  Mr.  John 
Berry  White,  whose  cheery  face  and  stolid  form  were 
well  known  to  all  Tea  shareholders  o.ving  to  his  close 
connection  with  tho  Tokai  and  other  companies,  as 
well  as  his  stalwart  championship  of  Indian  Tea 
interests  for  many  years  past. — //.  and  C.  Mail, 
Nov.  20. 
