December ii 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
44i 
(hen about our tea ? Will they oontinue to eulogise 
it? The answer is apparent to. us all. 
X. mention the loregoing oiroumstanocs in order to 
show that the taetios employed by Mr. May will 
materially increase the difSeulties^ of our Oommia- 
eioners. They wHl have to conciliate numbers of 
irate newspaper shareholders, and possibly buy up 
some portion of the valuless scrip held by them 
in order to obtain notices in the leading journals. 
To have to do all this, and at same time look 
alter the general interests of the island, will lax the 
energies of the roost hard working man ainongat us. 
Fortunately^ however, we have identified with Ceylon 
a dozen or mo>e men from whom to select Com- 
miesioners, acceptable to all sections of our 
commuoity. The sooner they are selected the 
better. They will have to bo heavily laden with 
rupees, and each man amongst ns must put his hand 
in his pocket for the general good of the island. 
—Yours faithfully. A MEBCANTIliB MAN. 
J>,S . — The National Association count amongst 
their members a large number of men interested 
in trade with and products that go tp America. 
Perhaps they are waiting, lor a public meeting to 
be held, before taking any .eteps in the matter. _ 
[Any excuse for not aubsoribing, apparently, is 
olutched at ; the Kioak, the tea companies and 
Mr. . Blwood May 1 Our view . is that Government 
should choose one Commissioner and the Planters' 
Association another ; the latter to have special 
charge of tea and estate products. As there are 
so many good men available, let ns get plenW 
of money and then the beat man can bo selected. 
—Ed. T. ^.1 
Abnobmal Tea Leaves, two united even 
more closely than vfote the Siamese twins, are 
pretty common. Not so triplets, a specimen of 
.which haa been sent to .us. Such eccentricities 
are not oon&oeil to tea, bat aro common to many 
forms of vegetation. Tbo Ourdentr't Chrojucle 
xaoently .figured a leal streaked with brilliant 
a^nrs, which had made a daaperate effort, largely 
saoceBafal to) beoome a flower. It is almost in- 
conceivable that the moat formidable thorn and 
tbo loveliest blossom ate but modifications of the 
same principle 
Cinchona Combination Rumoues.— T he OhmtH 
and DruggUt of Slat Oct. says .trr The projeotod Java 
quiaine laotory atiU. continues to agitate the cinchona 
interest in Java and in Ifolland. Mr. IX. I. Prina has 
his say on the subject in thaJaat issno of the Indische 
Mercuur tq the extent of two columns; but his con- 
tribution cannot be said to throw much additionsl 
light upon the question, Mr. Prins ascribes the failure 
of the old SUlan quinine factory to the oooclusion of 
the well-known agroomeut between the Soekawana and 
Diaiac'iri plontationa and the Brunswick quinine 
wom*^ which he says was signed in 1886. He does 
not explain how it is that the Milan factory failed 
about two years before that agreement was heard 
of ,He oalonlatca that the only serious item in the 
establishment of a quinine works in Java is the eoat 
«t • the machinery. Wages, coal, chemicals, and 
petroleum ate very cheap, and there will bean enor- 
mous saving in freight and sale expenses in 
Europe. The freight from Java to Halland is about 
719 per ton; sale expenses ace also heavy, the total 
chsr^ betwoen the port of sbipmeot in Java and 
the "^livery to the buyer in Holiaod heiog about 
20a. 3d per tale. Mr. Berkliout, an old resident 
in JaTa,alfO devotes a lengthy arliolo to the 
question, and succeeds in broaching one or two new 
Ideas He admits that quinine has found a very 
letlous opponent in antipyrin, the large consumption 
of which he asoribos partly to the free manner in 
which it has been adverliood. Arguing upon these 
premiseB, he advises the planters to oombino tor the 
purpose of making known by advertisements that 
quinine is now obtainable at very low prices, a fact 
of which the public, be thinks, are still ignorant. 
Mr. Beckhout estimates that a qaifuna factory in 
Java would have an advantage over European makers 
of a saving in cost of Id per oz. of sulphate of 
quioioe. On tho other hand, the coat of making 
sulphate ol quinine would be much heavier in Java than 
in Enrope. Mr. Borkhoat estimates, from an inspeetion 
of the books of a Oermau factory, that the produc- 
tion of one kilo, of quinine in Europe coats Is lOd 
in chemicals, and requires cwt. of coal. The total 
cost of manufaetufing qnioino in a German faetory 
in the years 1890-91, according to its published 
balanoo-ahcet, was a fraction over 2d. per tb. He 
recommends the formation of a ayndioete cumiKMisd 
of brokers, mannfacturers and pleoters, aud disposing 
of a onpital of say, 25,0001., which would buy up all 
bark for whioh manufacturers were not willing to bid 
Id, per unit at auction. 
Libei-s on Indian and Cevi.on Tea. — IVe attract 
attention to a letter from Glasgow with referenoa to 
an offensive advertisement by dealers in China tea. 
It is only natural that the .Glasgow dealers should 
desire tq. preserve the “ craft " by which they have 
so long profited ; and had they contented tbemselvee 
with exalting the mild merits of China black 
tea (whioh, however, the tea-drinking public are 
appreciating less year by year) their advertisement 
might be allowed to pass. But their virulent iibala 
on the superior teas of India and Ceylon are, we 
regret to believe, knowingly falsa ; for Messrs, 
Stuart, Cranstoun & Co. desoribe themselves as 
tea iastors of 2S years' exparionce. As each they 
most know that medium Indian and Ceylon 
pekoes, obtained at moderate prioes, aro rqual to 
tbo very finest high piioed pekoes which China pro- 
duced in her beat days, and that the statement that 
Indian and Ceylon teas yield four or five time$ as 
much tannin as China is absolutely untrue. There 
is in the Indian and Ceylon teas just a suQi- 
oiently larger percentage of . tannin to oonatitute 
their eoperiority to China. If China tea is so 
treated that all the tannin is eitraoted from it, the 
brew will be neither a pleasant nor a wholesome 
beverage; and no person I who knows bow^to. infuse 
tea properly will leave the boiling water more than 
five to seven minutes over the leaves. The 
proportion ol tannin in Euoh an infusion of 
the strongest Indian and Ceylon tua is not 
injnrious but beneficial, the very rash and 
discreditable utterances ol Sir Andrew Clark to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 'The abusive lan- 
guage applied to Indian and Ceylon tea, by in- 
tereated persona, like Stuart Cranstoun di Co., and 
the dishonest person who was prosecuted for 
soiling Oliioa tea under the name of Ceylon, re- 
minds us of tbo insane ravings of a firm of 
brokers called Sellar & Co., who, in the days 
when Indian tea was first making itself felt in 
the English market, wore only loss demented in 
denouncing tbo new product than in condemning tho 
sin of lending out money at interest I Our readers 
will be amnseil at tho warning of tho Glasgow 
dealers in China tea, against blends, becauso they 
are composed ohieily of Indian and Ceylon tea I 
The publio know their own interests, and tbo 
benefioial effect of good tea properly made, too woll 
to bo affeoted by the ill-advised nUeranoes of modiaal 
eooentrioa, or the selfish ami false libels ol 
dealers like the Glasgow men ; and in spite of 
medical cranks * and morosntile partizans, Indian 
and (espeoially) Ceylon lea will ineroaso in favour 
and in consumption, to tho benefit even more of eon- 
sumera than producers, although we trust with ever 
a fair profit to the latter. 
• Ono of them obtained notoriety, which was no 
doubt his object, by denouncing that valuable sub- 
stance Liebig’s extract of beef as being merely a 
stimulant, similar to alcohol, 
