October i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AtaWhCOLTURIST. 
2 77 
Bhops, and to the station on tho railway from Cairo, 
for there are now railways on both sides of the 
Nile. 
It is impossible to assess in figoros the enormous 
benefits of a work like this to tho people of Kgypt, 
the boon it ia to tho fellaheen in diminishing forced 
labour, and in almost every way to the culiivating 
and corainorcinl classes. Ik) take a single instance, 
while the work may be said to bo still incomplete, 
for its full benefits Imve hardly yet been folt, the 
cotton crop of tho delta has alone increased in vnluo 
to the extent of .i'H(X),(M.K} a year, a very large share of 
which has moat certainly to bo credited to tho barrages 
and speaks volumes as to their financial result. — 
Pioneer, 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA SALES. 
{TeltgrdUi fro\'^ our Coi'^fsponilenti) 
Amsteudam, Thuref^ay evening. 
At tO'day’a cinchona nctions, 2,553 packagesJava bark 
sold at an average uuit of 6 cents (=1 i^d. per lb) .which 
is a very slightly lower figure than 'bat prevailing at 
tho last IjonHou auctions. Manui’aotnrerR* bark in quills, 
broken quills, and chips, ioMat 10 to 47 cents per J 
kilo. (=5 lj|d. to 8id. per lb.); ditto root at 0 to 42 cents 
=lid. to 7id. per lb ); druggists* barks in qnill, bro- 
ken quill, and chips, 11 to ill cents (=r2d. to Is. 8jd, 
per lb.); fiitto root, 11 to 1.3 cents f— 'id. to 2^d per lb). 
The principal buyers w/'ro tho ISruriswick factory, 
Messrs. C. L. Sohepp A Zoon, of Riitterdara, and the 
Auerbach works . — Qktmist and Druggist 6. 
♦ 
THE EXPORT OP TEA FROM INDIA 
TO AFGHANISTAN. 
A telegram to the Madras Mail summarizing 
Mr. O’Oonor’s Raviow of the Indian Foreign and 
Trangfronlier Jtrflde for 181)1 Fays: — 
Mr. O’Conor takes the case of a camel load of 
Kaugrateaof the value of 11140, consigned to Kabul 
or Bokhara. In its transit to tho former town 02 
Kabuli rupees will be levied as Cusiouis dues by the 
time it has crossed tho Oxus. At Kilif tho charges 
will amount to 138 Kabuli rupees (RlOO India currency) 
or about 70 per cent of the value of tho tea. But 
the troubles of the trader are not over even then. 
“Tea has to pay 2i percent ai valorem at Bokhara 
value, being the value there and not what was tho value 
atPeshawur.” The conclusion arrived at is that, add- 
ing to this the cost of conveyance by camel between 
Peshawar and Bokhara (H81) it is clioaper to ship 
tea from Bombay up the Persian Gulf and send it 
through Persia, whore tho 5 per ,cont duty clears it 
through tho countrv. 
-4 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Who Shall Dncinn ? — When medicine men and 
analysts disagree tlie consumer acts wisely in deciding 
tlie case for liimsolf. Some corrospondenco has ap- 
oarod in tho Globe about the rospoctive merits or 
emorita of China, Indian, and Ceylon tea. One of 
these scribes rehashed tho old story about the 
quantity of tannin in the latter. In answer to this 
“ Yorke Davies, L. R. Coll. Phys. Bond., Ac." writes 
as follows: — “1 cannot, in justice to tho Ceylon tea 
industry, allow the fallacious statements of your corroa- 
ondent,’ ‘A Connoisseur,’ to go unconUudiotod. 
t ia quite evident that be knows nothing of the 
subject ho writes about. Ho says that Indian and 
Ceylon tea contains ton times more tannin tlian 
Chinese tea. As the latter contains, as a rulo, about 
10 per cent., it follows, if your correspondent is correct, 
tlnrt Indian and Ceylon teas are more than all tan- 
nin. Ceylon tea ia really the moat delicate of 
ftll. The reason tea is injurious when it is so ia 
that people will buy cheap tea, and then not take 
the trouble to inako it properly. Tlio price of tea 
and its llavour depend upon when tho loaf ia pluokcd 
and bow it ia harvested ; the finest tra is plucked in the 
bud, and if your readers can imagine plucking tho 
buds of a goo.seb^rry tree, and plucking the leaf when 
itia fully doveloi>ed, they will see what I mean. The 
fully matnred tea Uaf is coarser and more full of 
tunnin than the bud tea or half-developed leaf. Tea 
to bo hoaltby shonld only infuse eight miontes ; if 
infused longer the bitter extractive «nd tannin nro 
brought out, and these spoil its flavour. As a dietitian 
I always recommend my patients to drink Ceylon tea 
only. I get mine direct from a Ceylon plantation, and 
I think if your readers did the same they would 
soon give Chinese tea a wide berth. Ceylon tea is 
machine mado and is not handled and pressed liko 
Obiuese fca by the baud and feet of tho Mongolian, 
and this is a desideratum. Ceylon tea has a great 
futnre before it, but, unfortunately, cheap, coarse, 
Chinese tea is often palmed off as the produce of the 
Gem of the Kustern Sea.' '* Thereupon another 
oorr»spondcnt, Carl H. Gold, says: — “ You mustallow 
nio to inform your other correspondent, Mr. Yorke 
Davies, that the result of some experiments, made a 
short time sgo, show the relative proportions of 
tannin to be as foUows:— 
Percentage of tannin 
Percentage of tannin 
Mark of 
By weight extracted 
by weight extracted 
Sample. 
by infusion for .f 
by infosion for IG 
minuteg. 
miontes. 
A 
11-30 
17-73 
B 
7-77 
7-97 
G 
0-37 
1M5 
D 
>ve9 
12-03 
A was the finest Assam ; B the finest China ; 0 Com- 
mon Congou ; D tho finest Ceylon. 
“ I think,” says Mr. Carl H. Gold, “ that the above 
analysis will clearly prove that China still produces the 
best and purest tea/' But, fortunately, consumers do 
not accept this statemeut. 
Lart Week's Salks.— Of last week’s sales the 
Produce Marketa" Review says:— “The demand for 
Indian tea shows greater activity, and a good busi- 
lu-ss has been transacted, generally nt firm prices. 
Excepting on Monday, wh^n about I5,(XJ0 packages 
were offered, tho public sales have been small, 
and up to the present the qu&ntitv catalogued 
ia le.^s than that of last week ; this falling off, how 
ever, is only temporary, as the imports arc large, and 
the market wi'l be well supplied later on. Many of tho 
teas frem the A^8^m mid Darjeeling districts are of good 
qunlity vnd have fetched firm prices, while the finest 
pHreeU sold at very high rates. These high values, how- 
ever, are not hk» ly to be msintained, and a considi rable 
fill may be expected when the immediate requirements 
of the trade are ftati^fiod. Less Ceylon tea has been 
offered, aod.a recovery io the prices of ell grades has 
rcfiolted, Theadvancohas been only fractions!, however, 
in tho lower descriptions, and tcai nt from djd. to 7id. 
are siill remarkably cheap, but Pekoes from 7id. and 
upwards show a distinct improvement. Broken teas are 
again generally dearer, but extremely good value is 
still obtairnble at from lO^d. upwards ; indeed, these 
grades are undoubtedly the cheapest on offer, many of 
them being good enough in losf to suit any district, and 
they much burpasB any other class of teas in water. The 
general quality of the teas offered has heoii distinctly bet' 
ter, and it is to behoped that growers will strive to main- 
tain the improvement. Finost deKcriptious, althongh 
rather more plentiful, are still scarse, and oouinjaiid 
high prices. The public sales coraprisedl8,644 pack- 
ages, ^of which 2,120 were withdrawn. 
Tea Drinking in Australia..— M r. Christie Murray, 
who after bis stny in Austral a is again in Loudon, 
acting iu a piece written by hiniself, says that 
the AuatralUu n^es strong language, drinks strong 
tea and strong liquor. “In all np-country places,*' 
snys Mr. Murray in his ssoond srtiole on *• The 
Autipf>deaiis '* in tho Conie'n}>ora'i'y^ “ men driuk 
tea. They drink it all day long and at every meal 
in anidzicg quantities, au<l at a most unwhoRsorae 
dtreugtli. The method of preparation is simple, 
aud one would think that if tho aim wero to 
