636 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1892. 
hcarteil Tea and firmly seated threw forth an exceeding 
branch, loafed a rich waxy green, and wa' not this a 
moat wonderful aebiovement ? bnt how Indicrona his 
ambition ainoe ho could not “ flush ” 1 “ Wbat manner 
of thing ia this ?"• eked the planter. 
And Ternalromiaot !U shouted — “ Ijotanthua, the 
murderer! he Uvea to robe himaelf by robbing ua of 
onr aap.” . 
“ The juice he does. Surely botany is oat of jomt 
since 1 as a planter must needs turn chirop' dist.’’ 
"A Crfkpkh. ’ 
The peculiarity of the loranthua is that it 
spreads over the stems and branches of trees and 
from the bark cells tucks nut the life-blood, as the 
mycelium of Ilemikia vastatrix does in the oasa 
of the coffee leaves. The leaves of this tropical 
misletoe do not, however, so closely resemble tea 
loaves as the blotsoms coiinterfoit honeysuckle. 
We have seen Acacia melanoxylon trees withered 
and jak trees dead from attacks of the parasite, but 
wo never saw it on tea. It could only occur on a 
seed bcearer ? — Eu. T, A.] 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The Strenotu of Indian and Oeyi/'N Tea. — Wo 
may shortly see a discussion by correspondents in thn 
Press on the respective merits and strength of Indian 
and Oeylon tea. This is not desirable, nor will it servo 
any useful purpose. A rivalry between Indian and 
Ceylon growers, if it should take the form of polling and 
depreciating, is not desirable. For ius'auoe, Mr. C. 9. 
Hicks, a member of the Oeylon Association in London, 
writes to one of thodaily papers as follows “With 
roferenoe to the criticisms on tea now appraring in the 
Press, I shall bo glad if you will allow me, as the largest 
shipper of Ceylon tea ‘packed in Cojion,' to say a few 
words on the subjeot. Oeylon tea is produced from 
both the Indian and the Chinn variety of the ten 
plant, and pofsesaes very varying qoslities. Some of 
the Oeylon tea shipped is very near akin to Indian 
tea, and possesses a very largo amonnt of as'rin- 
genoy, while other gardens produce tea in which the 
China characteristics are predominent ; and in all 
Coylon teas which are of any value si all fliivonr is 
the groat obsraoteristio, while astriugenoy is notable 
by its absence. lu Indian tea, on the contrary, thero 
is a great absence of flavonr, and a great predomi- 
nance of astriugenoy and thickness. Obion tea is 
practically out of the question for the ordinary oon- 
Burner (who must really be considered), as the ques- 
tion to be dealt with is not what the onnnoisseur 
buys, who is able, out of a very small area, to make 
his selection by paying any fanoy prices he chooses 
to'indulge in, but what the ordinary everyday people 
of this country are able to pay to satisfy a demand 
for a really good loa. With this end in view there 
is no donbl that Ceylon tea at any given price will 
beat any China tea that is offered both for flavour, 
for purity, and for absence of all forms of tannin 
in proportion to its strength. The one great 
of tea which ia available to everyone who is a 
tea drinker ia the comparison of the infusion, and 
there is not a tea-tsatur in Mincing Lane who 
would dare to contradict this. Tho leaf of all 
good tea, when infused, obangos tea to a bright 
copper colour ; absolutely bad tea, when infu.sed, 
is of a black colour, or vrry dark brown.” This 
reference to the absence of want of flavour and 
predominancy of astringency in Indian tea is likely 
to offend susceptibilities with'ut assisting the ob- 
ject of Mr. Hicks has in view. He might score off 
China tea to his heart’s content withont depreciat- 
ing Indian ten. _ . , , 
A New Tosk Analysis ok Cetlon Tea,— A sample of 
the Oeylon tea sold in London at 53dola. pur lb was, ac- 
cording to the AmcriVau (yi'Octr,Bubmitted for nnaly^s to 
J. F. Oeisler, Ph.O., official obemist to the New York 
State Dairy Commission and IhoNew York Mercantile 
Exchange. The result of the analysis of the Covlon 
tips gave the following da*a: — Moisture (loss by dry- 
ing at lOOs 0.), 6 20 put cuwt. i lolublfl ash, 3' 77 I ioaolu- 
ble ash, l'l>.S (total ash, 5 30); theine, total 
tannin, 22 79— total extraotive matter, IS -IO; in- 
lolnble leaf, .SO-IO per cent. In tho above 
data there is nothing psrlicularly noteworthy, 
excepting that the per cent, of tannin is very high. 
An infusion of the tea was made by treating one 
part of tea with 100 pirta of boiling distilled water 
and allowing ten minutes for the maceration. Under 
these conditions the tea yielded to water the follow, 
ing percentages; — Theine, 2 44 per cent ; tannin, 17 19 ; 
total extractive matter, 3.3'25 ; ash (total) 3’44.; 
pliosphorio acid (P«0‘) in ash, (118 percent. Tho 
alkalinity of the nsh was equivalent to 1'798 per 
cent of K’O. Tho infusion obtained was of a dark 
golden yi-llow colour, and had a very agreeable aroma 
and pleasant taste. From the above it will he seen 
that the infusion took np 96 0 per omt of tho total 
theine, 75*3 per cent of tho total tannin, and 91 per 
cent of the soluble ash, data charaotcrislio of a lino 
tea. 
Bkazii.ian OorFEE. — The Rio de Janeiro papers con- 
tain the following respecting the prospects for next 
season’s Brazilian ooffee crops: — “The delegafos of 
the ooffee factors of liio de Janeiro appointed to 
organise the estimate of the coffee crops to be exported 
from this market now present their opinion relative 
to the 1802-3 crop. By mnob informa'ion carefully 
collected, it is known that in certain district* the 
blossom was fair, and that in others it was abundant, 
but generally only a small part matured, not oiilv from 
tho want of strength in the trees, already weakened 
by the delay in gathering the preceding crop, bnt 
also from the scarcity ol Ubour and and its disocganl- 
satioB. With tho data in hand, wo think wo may 
affirm that the crop in perspective should be 
stimated at about 3 000,000 bags, which figure 
is susceptible of modificarioiis, according to 
the weather, up to tho end of Fobtusry. 
The delegates must also clearly point out that ut the 
present cop, which appeared under favonrablo oir- 
cninstanc; 8, a great part was not saved through the 
want of labour. This loss, which may be estimated 
at 600000 bags of ooffoo, should be a suffioient incen- 
tive to furnish agriculture with a supply of useful 
and indispensable labour.’' A report on the oourso of 
the Rio de Janeiro and Santos coffee markets dated 
Deo. 6 is as follows “ There has been a well devel- 
oped struggle between exporters and factors, without 
a decided victory for either side. The former are 
apparently basing their campaign on the usnal limited 
bneincss m foreign markets during the approaching 
holidays and a consequent increase of stooka abroad, 
while tho factors have in their favour tho unsettled 
condition of the exchange market here. On the 4th 
instant, brokers advnnoed qnotatinna by about 800 reis 
por arroba, since when there has been no changt 
althongh it is easier to sell than to bny at the quo- 
tationa. Shipments have fallen off, possibly because 
the November pnrobases are pretty well all on board 
ship, and receipta show some increase, from which 
resnlts an increase of about 20,000 bags in stock.’’ — 
H. ^ O'. Jlfail, Jan. 8. 
Ir AN early mango crop foretells a season of 
drought, the prospects of the next monsoon ate 
not bright. The royal fruit is already being hawked 
about Madras and oan be bought for something 
lees than two annas each. By oarotul cultivation 
it ia possible, we believe, to have mangoes all the 
year round, but not often at the above price at 
this time of year . — Madras Mail. 
The Sanitary Comuissioner of Absau has called 
the attention of Oovernment to the fact that, owing 
to the absence of any system of conservancy in 
tea-gardens in that Province ansemia is spreading 
among the coolies, The malady known as kala- 
azar ia also referred to the same source. The 
particular form of ana-raia under oonsideration is 
said to bo so prevalent that in one garden alone 
30 per cent of the new coolies were found to bt 
suJttering from it.— JI, Mail, Jan. 19tb. 
