THr. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
879 
June i, 1892.] 
shoots below into the huge iron rollers Uriven by 
ste m, and consisting of two large lUt tables moving 
in rapid rotating motion- Usually half-an-hour suffices, 
but in cool weather it is often extended to an hour. 
The third process is tho fermenting stage- This is 
a most important process, as undor-terraenlation pro- 
duces poor quality tea, and overfermentation is fatal 
to quality and gives four tea. The letf Is fermented 
to a bright even satmum colour, and when tiie correct 
stage is reached, it passes into the drying machine, 
called a Harry & Gibbs’ long, cylindrical, ritted dryer. 
The tea leaf once inside ia preeijjated round and 
round for about 15 ninutes in an intense heat, and 
after the whole tea leaf has passed Ihiuugh, it goes 
through the same treatment a second time more 
rapidly, and issues fr, m the maohiue virtually as 
tea, as wo know it. The remaining proocfs ia the 
fourth one, viz., the siftiug. Variona sieves, with of 
course difforently-S’zed meshes, produce the fire or 
rough qualities in the tea ; the rougher kinds being 
the poor aorta and cheaper ones. 
These large works at Kearsjiey ato well worth a 
detailed visit. Ample lofting accommodation, two hug.j 
steara rollers, two patent dryers, sifters and rutting 
machines, with two ateam ouginea of not li sa than 10 
horse power, do tho over increasing work. Large store 
rooms, where an enormous stock of tea is kept in bins, 
with a large packing d- partmeut, with bufy children 
packing up tho fragrant lutf and labelling packets for 
outsiiie trade form a busy and most iuteresliiig seeno. 
Mr. Huleifs sturdy sens have built neatly the whole 
of these works, iociuding alargcateaiu saw mil', whire 
the trees from tho estate are cut up ui.til they iisoo 
as neat packing caseaHud uiao ex'ousive atabling. Over 
201) Indiana sro employed on the estate, who are in 
charge of Sird.ar Poniah Pillay, a learned Boi galesp, 
who, bnsiiles supervLiug his tlcok. is quite capable of 
entering into a philosopbioil argument with tho vieitor. 
Koarsney Estate, its proprietor and his famdy show 
a most reraHikahle iHnstration of the old poverb, 
“ Unity ia strength; ” a d tliat tho indnsliy initiated by 
Mr. Hulett and his family will pro.'per to a still grea’er 
extent mast be the sincere wish of evirvtno who 
desires to help in tho local watchword ■ “ Advance 
fair Natal.’’ 
— Natal Mcrvitrt/. L. W. 
MK. A. IIO.SS’S J’APKK ON rJillU. 
MR. CtiEMBSTS MARKHAM ON CINCHONA PRICES. 
Monday's meeting of tlie Koyal Geographical 
Society Mr. Alexander lloss read an interesting paper 
on his joiu'iioyings in Peru. Mr. Uosa is a Ceylon 
planter, who formed one of a small party of English- 
iiion sent out to Central Pern last year under tho 
auspices of tho I’eruvian Corporation (Limited)— to 
whom a considerable piart of assets of the country 
has been pawned by its rulers— for tho purpose of 
investigating its economic resonrees from a planters' 
point of view. In tho course of his paper Sir. Rosa 
observed that he had come across a Peruvian coffee- 
rower who liad many cinchonas around his coffee- 
olds, and who told him that fifteen years ago, when 
bo started coffee-planting, the land was covered with 
largo numbers of tho same trees ; hut, as he did not 
know what tiiey were, lie simply liad them ont down 
and burnt. (N.II. — South American cinchona hark was 
worth from .Is to os per lb. at that time.) Mr. Clements 
Markham was present at the meeting, _ and took part 
in tho disensaion. In the course of his remarks he 
called attention to the fact that wh.atovor econoinio 
roducta Peru produces are uanally tlie best of their 
ind ; and ho instanced coffoe, rubber ftlio Para rubber 
of oommoree, much of wliich ia really produced in 
Kastern Povii), wool, and cinchona. Although of the 
d.l.tKK) bales of batk iiniiortod into London in a year 
only tt.dOO otiiiie from Soutli America, he said, it was 
«• significant fact tliat East Indian bark did not now 
rise ill value above bd per lb., whereas tliat grown 
in I'cru realised Is bd to bs per lb. The moral he 
deduced from those figures was that “if you (tho 
Peruvian Corporation) undertake the cultivation of 
cinchona on your new land in Pern, tlie average 
ptices pt bark will advauco to more (ban double o 
what they are now.” It may seem presumptuous to 
contradict Mr. Markham on a subjoct upon which 
he ia so eminent an authority; but wo must taka 
leave to challenge these statements of bis. 
Tho cinchona barks to which he apparently 
alludes are tlie “ Loxa ” and “Huanoco” barks of 
cpnmierce, which realise high prices (though not 
BO high aa ho stated) not on account of their 
ticbocse in quinine — which is mncli less than that of 
gi od E lit Indian bark — but simply because there ia 
a certain demand for them in some Continental 
countries For certain pharmaceutical purposes— a de- 
mand which rests, we think, entirely upon a fanciful 
baaia, and which would bo altogether unequal to tbs 
absorption of largo quantities than rro now placed 
upon the market. Apart from this, the cost of carriage 
and of hsrveaticg these barks ia ao great that they 
coaid never pay if grown as quinine barka. The 
cultivated Oalisayas of Bolivia have not paid their 
growers for a long time. Only last year, aa we an- 
nounced at the time, one of the principal among them 
bad to give up the struggle, and about the worst use, 
we should think, to which tho Peruvian Corporation 
could put their acquisitiouB would be to plant cinobona 
upon them. 
THE PIONEERS OP THE EASTERN aNCHONA INDUBTBT. 
Mr. Rosa’s statement that "the valnable medicinal 
plant cinchona was first introduced to the Eastern 
world by Mr. Oloments Markham” is also one which in 
justice to a disliuguished botanist now living in ripe 
old age and in clove ralirement in a small Gorman 
country town, should not pass unqualified, eapeei- 
ally as tho servioea rendered by Mr. Markham him 
sell are so cousp'cuuua that bis brilliant reputation 
can suffer notbiog by the rooapitulatiun of tbo strict 
facta of the ease. Leaving out of account the in- 
trodiiotion in the forties of oinchoua plants and se-ids 
by M’eddell into France, and by certain unnamed 
individuals into Algcris, aa these efforts led to no 
practical result, the hononr of first introducing the 
cinchona plant into the “Eastern world” belongs nn- 
queationably to Justns Karl Hasvkarl. a German 
botai iat sent to Suntb America in quest of the plant 
by the Dutch Government, and who, after a long 
and perilous expedition, delivered twenty-one War- 
dian caves of ciuobona ceedlinga on beard of a Dutch 
man-of-war, vent there expressly to receive them, 
in the port cf Callao on August 2l8t, 1854, some 
3 ears beforo Jlr, Markham set out from Europe, 
llnsvk.irl’a snrviving plant reached .lava in Duoomber, 
1854. Mr. Markham shipped the 456 seedlings which 
were the pioneers of tbo einchona indnstry in British 
India at the port of Ivlay, in South America, in Jniio 
1860. But in the meantime a quantilv of Lancifolia 
seed, prooured by Karsten in Colombis, had also 
been sent to Java on account of tlie Dutch Govern- 
ment in 1854. Mr. Markham’s exploits might also 
have been ran close, but for untoward Booideuts, by 
Mr. George Ledgir, who. about the same time as 
Mr! Markham himself, succeeded in onlleoting a sup- 
ply of seeds and plants in Southern Fern, but whose 
expedition was ilesiroyed by Indiana on its way to 
tho coast. It Is owing principally to Mr. Markham’s 
powerful advocacy uf the claims of his less fortunate 
rival that Mr. Lodger’s merits in the pioneer-work 
of tho cinchona indnstry have been somewhat tardily 
acknowledged as they deserve. P'Uckiger and Han- 
bury, in the 1879 edition of tho ’• Pharniaoographia.” 
for insianoe, make no mention whatever of Mr. 
Ledger’s expeditions . — Chcmiit and Druggist, April 1st. 
Sake op Ceteon Goepen Tips in Svcney, — The 
Queenslander ol 2nd April says ; — 
Messrs. Murrell Bioa., of .Sydney, have forwarded 
us a sample of tho golden tip Ceylon tea, which was 
offered at Klcssrs. Fraser and Co.’v tea sale last wusk 
on account of Messrs. I’arlmry, Henty, and Co-, and of 
which they hecamo tho purchasers after brisk competi- 
tion. The prii-o paid was 67s per lb. A larger price 
for a similar sample has bean obtained in Melbourne 
but this is the highest sura ever paid for tea in the 
Sydney market. The tea is of oxoelloiit flivour, having 
that delicate aroma which ia a distinctive feature of 
tho Coylon leaf. 
