a middle course and that is to form some Indian Coffee Association 
• in London with a view to the watching of the interests to the 
grower and pushing the sale of Indian coffee with the trade and 
the consumer. Discussing the coffee position generally we notice 
that the London Commercial Record refers to the necessity of 
finding new outlets for Indian Coffee, It says: If there is one 
trade more than another which baffles those connected with it, it is 
the Coffee trade. The enormous supplies of Brazil sorts have 
been the surprise of bears and the alarm of bulls for a long time, 
and although the planter vowed some years ago the production of 
his coffee was carried on at a great loss, yet the shipments from 
Brazil have been larger year after year. No frost, storm or vermin 
have been able to insure a diminution of those gigantic supplies. 
Most extraordinary resolutions have at times been passed calcu- 
lated to establish a falling off in receipts, o" even in the total 5 T ield 
of the crops, but all to no purpose. It would, seem that the planters 
of Rio and Santos descriptions are anxious to make up in quantity 
what they cannot in quality. Ruinous as the decline in the value 
of Brazils must be to their producers, the sorry part is that coffees 
of less magnitude and importance have to suffer in sympathy. 
They are unable to make up their losses by doubling or trebling 
their output, and they will have to go to the wall unless some 
means can be devised to save them from such a calamity. We 
have all followed with regret the low value which East Indian sorts 
— which, perhaps, more than other coffees, suffer from the over- 
production of Brazils— have fetched this season, feeling, as we must 
do, that to many planters such prices as London paid, or rather 
had to pay, could not possibly compensate the Indian planter for 
his trouble and expense. We all saw that a crisis in India would 
undoubtedly be the outcome of the depression in the Coffee trade, 
and we are seriously afraid that such a crisis is near at hand, for 
according to reports just received from the coffee growing districts, 
the monsoon has so far been very unfavourable to the new crop, 
and small yields are likely to ensue at a time when big ones are 
most urgently wanted. No wonder that great depression prevails 
among the planters generally, and .that the coming season is look- 
ed forward to with considerable misgiving, and even alarm. We 
hear that European managers and superintendents are dismissed 
from many plantations, manure is sparsely used, or not at all, and 
some estates are allowed to grow wild, as their owners no longer 
possess the means of maintaining them. This must be regarded 
as a very serious matter, not to India alone, but to London as well, 
and support should be given to the struggling planter where con- 
sistent with fair competition. We understand some planters are 
desirous of sending a delegation to London to study the Coffee 
question here, and to find, if possible, some way or other of push- 
ing their products or find new outlets for them. There is no doubt 
that some wholesale Coffee dealers are responsible for the little 
appreciation in which the fine East Indian Coffees are held in some 
parts of our country. As a matter of fact they are not known to 
the average man, to the ordinary consumer, and hence they are 
