552 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
and  the  scions  of  noble  houses  may  be  ‘ in  tea  ’ with- 
out shame.  Similarly  it  is  no  disgrace  to  the  daughters 
of  Mayfair  to  serve  tea  in  a West-end  shop.  Some 
of  them  perform  this  action  with  an  air  of  con- 
descension that  reduces  the  timid  man  to  pulp.  A 
shy  friend  once  told  me  of  the  tortures  he  had  suf- 
fered in  these  resorts.  ‘But  I was  revenged  at  last,’ 
he  said,  ‘ for  an  old  countryfellow  and  his  daughter 
who  had  been  to  the  Academy,  or  Maskelyne  and 
Cook’s,  or  somewhere,  came  in.  When  he  paid  the  bill 
he  left  an  extra  sixpence  in  the  patrician’s  hand.  She 
fixed  him  with  her  refrigerating  eye,  and  told  him  cut- 
tingly that  he  had  paid  sixpence  too  much.  ‘That’s 
all  right,’  he  said  heartily,  in  a stage  whisper ; 
‘ that's  for  you,  my  dear.  Buy  yourself  a ribbon 
w'ith  it.’  I like  this  story,  because  tea  has  not  done 
too  much  for  the  humourist.  Compared  with  alcohol 
it  has  done  nothing.”  The  writer  recalls,  too,  the 
story  told  with  great  glee  by  the  late  Arthur  Cecil, 
the  comedian,  of  the  cannibal  tea  to  be  obtained  down 
at  Kew — thus  : ‘‘  Tea,  plain,  6d”  ; ‘‘  Tea,  with 
shrimps,  9d” ; “ Tea,  with  children,  Is.” 
Coffee  Adulteration. — The  question  of  coffee 
adulteration  is  one  which  presents  itself  to  the  public 
mind  occasionally,  but  it  never  awakens  strong  feeling. 
The  consumer  thinks,  apparently,  that  a kind  pro- 
vidence having  ordained  that  coffee  planters  should 
grow  coffee  and  experts  manipulate  it  afterwards,  it 
is  the  consumer’s  duty  to  accept  the  situation  without 
complaint.  A writer  in  the  Grocer  is  good  enough  to 
tell  us  how  some  of  the  coffee  adulteration  fraud 
are  carried  out.  One  frequent  kind  of  fraud  has  been 
the  colouring  of  inferior  berries  to  make  them  re- 
semble those  of  better  quality.  For  this  purpose 
yellow  ochre,  chrome  yellow,  burnt  amber,  arsenite 
of  copper,  and  coal-tar  dyes  are  a few  of  the 
pigments  which  have  been  pressed  into  the  service  of 
those  ’cute  pe-sons  who  devote  themselves  to  ex- 
emplifying the  dictum  that  “ things  are  not  what 
they  seem.”  Take  as  an  example  the  salvage  coffee 
which  is  occasionally  fished  out  of  the  sea  after 
a wreck.  Salted  and  sodden  when  recovered,  it 
certainly  does  not  look  as  though  it  would 
furnish  a very  saleable  article.  It  is,  how- 
ever, by  no  means  to  be  despised  ; after  being 
purchased  for  a mere  trifle  it  is  washed  with  lime- 
water,  dried,  and  then  either  browned  by  roasting 
slightly,  or  else  coloured  with  an  aniline  dye.  In  the 
result  berries  are  obtained  which,  in  appearance  at 
least,  may  even  be  superior  to  the  original  ones. 
Essentially  the  same  kind  of  manipulation  is  said  to 
be  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  making  green  South 
American  berries  resemble  the  brown  Java  coffee, 
thus  considerably  enhancing  their  market  value.  A 
variant  of  this  procedure  is  to  take  berries  which 
have  been  already  used  to  prepare  ‘‘  coffee  extract  ” 
from,  roast  them  up  again  with  a small  quantity  of 
sugar,  and  then  send  them  into  consumption  as 
genuine  coffee.  Another  brilliant  idea  is  to  soak 
genuine  berries  in  syrup  before  roasting ; this  causes 
the  beans  to  retain  more  water  than  they  otherwise 
would  hold,  and  so  increases  their  weight.  A still 
more  effective  plan  is  to  steam  the  berries  after 
roasting,  and  then  coat  them  with  a film  of  glycerine 
or  vaseline  to  prevent  drying.  The  weight  of  the 
beans  can  in  this  way  be  increased  as  much  as  20 
per  cent. 
Spurious  Coffee  Berries. — Coffee  adulteration 
offers  a fine  field  for  the  man  of  genius.  The  writer 
in  the  Grocer  gives  particulars  of  another  kind  of 
deception  practised  on  the  Continent,  and  especially 
in  America,  where  the  manufacture  of  spurious  coffee 
berries  has  developed  into  quite  a flourishing  indus- 
try. Only  a few  weeks  ago  the  writer  had  brought 
under  his  notice  a sample  of  coffee  ‘‘  made  in 
Germany,”  in  which  the  ‘‘  berries”  were  composed 
of  ordinary  wheaton  dough  mixed  with  sugar  ; the 
mixture  had  been  cast  in  moulds  so  as  to  closely 
resemble  genuine  berries,  and  then  roasted  till 
brown.  By  themselves  the  pellets  were  easily  seen 
to  be  factitious,  but  when  mixed  with  genuine  coffee 
dn  appreciable  proportion  would  readily  escape  notice 
[Feb.  r,  1897. 
if  not  subjected  to  sharp  scrutiny.  As  a rule,  arti- 
ficial beans  of  this  character  are  made  of  flour, 
chicory,  and  sugar,  with  other  additions  such  as 
bran,  acorns,  peas,  and  coffee-grounds.  Some  much 
rnore  gross  impositions  have,  however,  been  prac- 
tised ; for  example,  ‘‘  berries  ’ have  been  moulded 
from  fire-clay,  and  then  utilised  for  roasting  with 
genuine  coffee.  During  the  heating  process  the 
factitious  clay  beans  absorb  some  of  the  oil  and 
colouring-matter  from  the  genuine  ones,  thus  simu- 
lating the  appearance  of  the  latter  sufficiently 
closely  to  pass  muster  on  a cursory  examination. 
Clumsy  frauds  of  this  nature  are,  however,  rather 
matters  of  ancient  history  now  ; at  all  events  in 
the  United  Kingdom  they  are  practically  never  met 
with  at  the  present  day. 
Adulterated  Tob.vcco. — Planters  grow  produce  and 
manipulators  adulterate  it.  Tobacco,  like  coffee,  is 
treated  very  badly  at  the  hands  of  the  adulterator. 
According  to  official  reports  it  is  adulterated  with  sugar, 
alum,^  lime,  flour  or  meal,  rhubarb  leaves,  saltpetre, 
fuller’s  earth,  starch,  malt  commings,  chromate  of 
lead,  peat  moss,  molasses,  burdock  leaves,  common 
salt,  endive  leaves,  lamp  black,  gum,  red  dye,  scraps  of 
newspapers,  cinnamon  stick,  cabbage  leaves,  and  straw 
brown  paper.  The  grower  would  have  some  difficulty 
in  recognising  the  original  product.— 7/.  and  C.  Mail, 
Jan.  1. 
YATIYANTOTA  CEYLON  TEA  COMPANY 
LIMITED. 
Registered  December  15,  by  Davidson  and  Morriss 
40  and  42,  Queen  Victoria-street,  E.C.,  with  a capital 
of  £260,000  in  T 10  shares  (7,500  of  which  are  prefer- 
ence shares).  Object,  to  adopt  and  make  binding  on 
the  company,  and  to  carry  into  effect,  with  or  without 
modification  or  alteration,  an  agreement,  made  Decern 
ber  7,  1896,  between  the  Yatiyantota  Tea  Company, 
Limited,  Colombo  (a  company  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  Ceylon),  and  George  Hay  Alston,  the  liquida- 
t ir  thereof,  of  the  one  part  and  C.  S.  Lott,  for  and  on 
behalf  of  this  comnany,  of  the  other  part  ; another 
agreement,  made  December  7,  between  the  We  Oya 
Tea  Company,  Limited,  Colombo,  and  G.  H.  Alston 
the  liquidator,  of  the  one  part  and  C.  S.  Lott,  for  this' 
company,  of  the  other  part  *,  and  a third  agreement 
made  same  date  as  above,  between  W.  J.  Smith,  S.  L. 
Harries,  A.  C.  Roper,  and  Jn.  G.  Smith  of  the  one 
part  and  C.  S.  Lott,  for  the  present  company,  of  the 
other  part,  and,  generally,  to  carry  on  in  all  9t  any  of 
their  respective  branches  the  businesses  of  tea,  &c 
planters,  and  growers,  manufacturers,  merchants’ 
exporters,  importers,  traders,  estate  or  commission 
agents,  shipowners,  engineers,  shipping,  insurance  or 
advertising  agents,  bankers,  bill  discounters,  to 
acquire  and  turn  to  account  any  tea  estates  or  other 
landed  property  in  Ceylon  or  elsewhere ; as  miners 
smelters,  and  metallurgists;  to  construct  and  maintain 
rail  and  tram  roads,  reservoirs,  warehouses,  work- 
shops, &c.  The  signatories  are  : — Shares 
R.  S.  Corbett,  Highmore,  Streatham-common l 
W.  H.  Figg,  Casewick-road,  West  Norwood. ...” ! 1 
J.  Stevens,  Loch  Goil,  Romford j 
S.  Gray,  9,  Tregathnan-road,  Clapham. . l 
G S.  Lott,  97,  Stormont-road,  Clapham...!!!””  i 
W.  H.  Bartlett,  24,  Sudbourne-road,  Brixtoii-hili!!  1 
F.  R.  Carr,  9,  Fenchurch-avenue,  E.C....: i 
The  number  of  directors  is  to  be  not  more  than 's'ev®“ 
nor  less  than  three.  The  first  are  C.  Young  W J 
Smith,  and  W U.  Figg.  Qualification,  50  shares' 
Remuneration,  TlOO  each  per  annum  and  TT50  for  the 
chairman.— 7/.  ,C-  C.  Mail,  Jan.  1. 
Tobacco  ('ui/hvation  and  Cicau  Manu- 
KACTURK  IN  Ckvi.on.- In  answer  to  the  paiiens 
of  the  bontli  India  Expert,  we  liave  some 
interesting,  practical  information  from  a few 
Ceylon  planters  witli  tobacco  experience,  wliich  we 
.shall  collate  and  give  in  an  early  i.ssue.  One 
paper  has  still  to  reach  us. 
