THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 2, 1898. 
774 
SiNHAtBsE Tea-Makers for China.— Messrs. Mol- 
chanoff & Co., are advertising in another column tor 
a thoroughly competent native tea-maker to proceed 
to China on a six months’ engagement. A\e under- 
stand that they intend to employ the man, whm 
they have selected him, at a factory belonging^ o 
themselves at Hankow, where they are about to erect 
proper English machinery for making tea. 
Bolivian Rubbeh Synd. , Ld. (56,508).— Kegd. 
March with capital £5,000, in £1 shaves, 
to seek for and secure opemng.s for the emihoy- 
ment of capital in Central and South America 
or elsewhere, and to acquire, own, and ryork any 
rubber bearing or other lands on the banks ot the 
river Amazon or its territories. Regd without ails 
of assn. Regd. office, 22, Charter-house bq., h.C. 
—Investors' Guardian, March 26. 
Plumbago and some Min’or iNDupPdES 
are thus detailed by Mr King in his Annual 
Report on the N.-W. Province 
Of industries not elsewhere referred to, mention 
should be made of plumbago. The quantity ot 
plumbago co iveyed by rail out of the Province was 
about 4,000 tons. A large factory f'?'-, 
cation of the coconut has been established bj iwi. 
John Clovis do Silva close to the town of 
gala, which gives employment to about one hundred 
persons. 
A Simple Fire Extinguisher,— Hand grenades, the 
simplest form of fire extinguisher, can be made at 
S cheaply and easily. And it is well to have 
at hand a simple oontrivauoe for extinguishing at 
small fire at its start. Take twenty pounds of com- 
mon salt and ten pounds of sal ammoniac (nitiate 
of soda, to he had of any druggist,) and dissolve 
in seven gallons of water. Procure quart bottles 
of thin glass, such as are ordinarily used by drug- 
eists. and fill with this, corking tightly and sealing, 
to prevent evaporation. In case of fire, throw so 
as to break in or near the flame. If the hre is in suoh 
a place as to prevent the bottle from breaking, 
as in wool or cotton, knock off the neck and scatter 
the contents. The breaking of the bottle liberates 
a certain amount of gas, and the heat of the face 
generates more, thus working its own destruction. 
—Diocesan Gazette. 
Cheap Coffee.— The very low prices now ruling 
for coffee forces the question. Has the decline 
reached its limit? During the era of high-cost 
coffee, which ended in 1897, the planting of coffee 
trees in Mexico, tlie Central Araeiican States, 
ancL the United States of Colombia was greatly 
stimulated, as it was in Brazil, that Colossus among 
coffee-producing countries, wliicli produced a crop 
last year and this equal to nearly two-thirds the 
total production of the world. Brazil’s vast pro- 
duction makes that country the dominating factor 
in the situation, so tliat any failure of the 
Brazil crop would mean a rebound in price.s. Such 
prolific bearing as during 1897 and 1898 rarely 
continues for three years in succe.ss'on. If history 
repeats itself, and the crop of 1898 99 should 
drop back 25 to 33-J- per cent, beloiv the two 
previous crops, then coliee ^ must advance. 
Below we present figures showing the Rio and 
Santos crops for ten years, and which deinqn- 
strate the fiuctuations in yield and the probability 
of a sudden cliarige from low to high cost within 
two years : 
Bags. 
Bags. 
1887-88 
3,0,33,000 
1802 93 
6 202,000 
1888 89 
6,837,000 
1S',)3 94 
4,309.000 
1889-90 
4,260,000 
1894-95 
6,695,000 
1890-91 
5,3.58,000 
189.)-94 
5,476,000 
1891-92 
7,397,000 
1896-97 
8,680,000 
American Grocer, 
Tea IN America. —T he following instructions 
were issued at M’ashington on March o.li by the 
Tieasury Department 
All teas arriving after May 1st, 1898, shall he 
governed by the new standards adopted for the season 
beginning May 1st, 1898, und ending April 30th 1899, 
excepting such teas as shall have been shipped prior 
to ivfaroh 1st, 1898, which shall be governed by the 
old standards. 
The Quinine Indu.stry in Germany.— Some 
iiitere.stlng figures are given in an article on this 
suhject in the Saddeiifschc Apotheker Zcitunrj last 
week. Daring the 10 years 18S7-1S96 Germany 
imported cinchona bark to the value of 3.5,500,000 
marks, whilst lier exports in this article were 
only 2,000,000 marks. Her exports, however, in 
quinine and quinine salts reached the enormous 
total of 5S,OuO,OO0 tirirks, of which the greater 
part was to the United Stale.s, Russia, Italy, 
and Holland absorb large quantitie.s also. Tlie 
imported quinine totalled, during the decade in 
question, 2,l00,o0D marks. — B. and C. Lrug- 
gist. 
Planting Representative —Why do not the 
leaders of the indigo and tea industries (asks the 
Indian Planters' Gazette) in.sist on having a re- 
presentative on the Bengal Legislative Council. 
The matter has been brought forward on several 
occasions, but been quietly shelved. Surely in a 
matter like the recent amendment to the Tenancy 
Act such lepresentation would have been most 
useful. The industries are, we believe, important 
enough to be rejiresented separately, but if that 
be not feasible, planters should not rest until 
they have some one who is qualified to speak on 
their behalf. 
Alu.minium Uten-sils.— The attemptbeing made 
at the Madras School of Arcs to introduce 
aluminium as a substitute for brass and copper in 
the manufacture of domestic utensils, .seems, says 
the Bladras Mail, to have got beyond the 
experimental stage. About fifty w’orkinen have 
been brought up from the great metal-work- 
ing centres of the Presidency, to work off 
the large number of orders which have been 
received from all parts of India, and it is 
expected that the number will soon reach 
one hundred. Arrangements have been made 
to secure a regular supply of metal, and any 
one desirous of testing the claims put forward 
for the new metal can place orders at the 
School of Arts wiili the assurance that he will 
not be kept waiting. 
Fruit Trees are in some respects — says 
the Planters' Monthly {Haivaii)—\\]io human 
beings. They live, eat, drink, get diseased and 
die. If trees could talk, they would probably 
say : “ Save ns or we perisli ; give us .some- 
thing to eat, we have too much to drink ; 
remove the weeds that are growing all around 
us ; and poison the gophers that are devour- 
ing ns.” Every year tlir.c you take a crop 
from your trees give them something for it. 
Don't ask them to give off their substance .vith- 
out an adequate return. Fertilize every year by 
u-ing a good article of commercial or otlier fer- 
tilizer. If we want our orchards to live to a 
good old .age, we must take cate of them. If 
tree.s need fumigating, have it done ; don’t say 
you cannot alford it. As a matter of fact you 
cannot afford to neglect it. A well-cared for 
orchard of fruit or coffee trees will produce good 
crops for several generations. 
