214 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[September i, iSgn 
novel and useful information before the caoao 
planters ut Gejilon. 
borne months baok my letters told you of a 
negotiation which had been going on between Mr. 
John UugboB, the well-known agricultural chemist, 
and your Planters’ Association, as to his under- 
taking certain analyses of tea with the view of 
determining fully the oharaoloristios of such kinds 
as might appear to be most in demand in the 
homo markets. Somehow or other no datermi- 
nation scorns to have followed on this negotiation, 
and nothing further had been heard as to it 
until the matter was brought — as I believe, by 
Mr. Borron, to the notice of the lea committee of 
the London-Ceylon Association. Influenced by the 
representations made to it, that committee passed 
a resolution statiug its opinion that such an 
analysis us had been suggested by Mr Hughes 
should be carried out, though X believe the 
recommendation was accompauied by a rather 
narrow limitation of the amount to be ex- 
pended upon it of £16, Bearing of this action 
of the committee, 1 sought an interview with 
Mr. Hughes outing the present week to learn 
if he could comuiunicate to me anything farther 
beyond what 1 was enabled to write you when the 
(lueslion was first mooted. Certainly one thing 
that Mr, Hughes remarked to me on this subject 
was a novelty to me, as we suspect it will be to 
a good many of your readers iu the colony. Mr, 
Hughes told ms that he had oome to the conolu- 
sion, from his experience with the tea-tasting 
fraternity in Hondon and elsewhere, that it was 
the presenoe of a greater or lesser degree of tannin 
in the tea that determined the valuation put upon 
it. These experts looked in a very large degree to 
strength us goveruiog the prices whioh can now be 
obtained lor teas, and they slate that it is the 
proportion of tannin which determines this strength 
and therefore the market value. No doubt this 
view applies mors fully only to those teas which 
we driuk by tue classes to whom economy is a 
necessity, but there is no doubt that these form 
the bulk of tea oonaumers and that it is their 
taste or requirements which have mainly to be con- 
bidered. Auyway, it Mr, Hughes has riguily cou- 
cluded, it appears to be a fact that the mure tannin 
there is In yuur teas the better prices they fetch, 
and of course, as this must govern the action of 
your planters, they will doubtless try and produce 
leas lu which a high proportion of tannin Is to be 
lound. Now aoootding to all my exporienoe, it has 
always been rscoommended to us tea drinkers at 
homo to purchase Bu.:h teas as are possessed ot 
the least amount of tannin, and delicate flavored 
teas at high prices have been sought lor. If what 
Mr. Hughes tells mo prove to be oorreot, we 
are Iherelore on the eve of a revolution as to the 
highest qualilicalions of tea, so fat as the prioe 
it may fetch is concerned. 
During my conversation with Mr. Hughes the 
topic of the rag manure sent out by him fur the 
Mariawatte estate oome up ones again. Hu told 
mo with relerenue to this that he bad heard nothing 
further as to the results obtained with this new 
fortiliiser on the estate mentioned ; but ho remarked 
that he felt the most entire conlidenae that sooner 
ot jlator its benefloial eileot must become evident 
f‘ Indeed,” he said, “ having seen the elleut ot its. 
applioatiou myself to the olive bushes both iu 
i'fttnoo and Italy, I do not tot an instant doubt 
that similar good results must follow its applioalion 
to the lea bush. There is only one point on which 
there is any doubt in my mind, and Ibat 
is that no opportunity was given me for 
testing a sample after the cousignmeut had 
been put on board ship. It was most 
desirable that this should have been done, 
bcoause. of course, it is impossible for ms to 
say whether the manure sent out really oou- 
taiued all the constituents on whioh 1 relied 
when recommending it. It is only within 
the last few days that I saw a shipment of 
manures just starting lor Ceylon, and it is 
evident, tnerelore, that the planters there are com- 
mencing to use fertilizers prepared at boms. 
You cannot too strongly urge on your friends in 
the colony the desirability of learning, before 
their orders leave Bngland, that they have been 
executed in exact aocordanco with their 
iustruotions or the advioe of any expert they 
may have consulted. If this bs attended tu, 
manuies sent out from home ought to be 
just as reliable as to their results as is the 
application here of farmyard manure. We 
krioio that the last must pruduos certain 
results. We do not think twice • about it, 
and indeed, if failure as to this does occur, 
we may be quite certain that it has cither 
been badly applied or that there has not 
been the rainfall sulhoient to soak the 
ground with its oonstituents. For a similar 
reason, therefore, I say that the manure sent 
out for Mariawatte must if it was mauu- 
faotured in acoordanoe with the specifloation 
of its constituents yield sooner or later all that 
had been anticipated of it by me.”— London Cor, 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
This ” Lancet ” on Tea Drinkino. — The Lancet 
although never weary in euggeating new sources of 
danger to the community, finds it uecessacy occasion- 
ally, to tall baok on au old one : It vacies tlia mono- 
tony of the situation by dividing its favours between 
aloohol and tea. In oommeuting upon the examina- 
tion at the Waltham Abbey Petty Sessions of a woman 
who is charged with the wilful murder of her two 
children, it says ” that a statement of some impor- 
tance was made by the divisional surgeon of police, 
Dr. O. Fulcher, with roferenee to the habits of tho 
prisoner. On being interrogated with regard to 
tea-drinking, she said she had been iu the habit of 
taking a largo quantity, that she had given it up, 
but hud recently resumed the habit in consequence 
of her troubles. Dr. Fulcher was of opinion that the 
pcisouec was the subject of melancholia, and he ex- 
pressed the belief that the taking of lea in excess 
tended to undermine the constitution. The powerful 
etfeot of alcohol in excess as a nerve poison is a matter 
ot daily experience. That many ot tho ailments from 
which wom-n suffer am ot least aggravatui if notoxcit- 
oj by excessive indulgence in tea— not as an infusion, 
as It ought to be, but ns a deoootion — is equally woll- 
*i?'V*'* although wo are not prepared to admit 
that this habit would actually induce a con- 
dition of melsncholia, there is little doubt that 
in 0 woman of neurotic temperament, especially 
if her were deficient in quantity and 
of poor quality, the use of this beverage in excess 
would be one of the factors in produoing and pet- 
potuiting a couditiou of mental instability. It would 
bo well it those to whom tbe frequent cup of tea 
from the pot— which has a permaiuout place at so many 
fire8ide.s, and has become almost a necoaaity, as they 
,hinU— recognised fully the poruioious effects of this 
ovor-inUalgeuoo, effects whioh arc only surpassed iu 
importance by those of the oocosioual ‘drop of gin,’ 
ot which so much is hoard in the out-patient depart- 
ments oi our hospitals.” The evils of stowed tea taken 
in Urge quantities have been pointed out again and 
again m the Lancslaud other medical papers. It is 
not the tea that is at fault, it is the ignorance of tho 
people who prepare it. If people will persist in making 
soup ot lea instead of inf using the leaves, tho blame 
is not attributable either to the tea or to those who 
grow i|. 
