View PDF version of this page

(treacle and Spanish liquorice, and would generally pe appreciated by children, monkeys, pigs, and cattle. {The Cassia fishila of Ceylon resembles it somewhat pn flavour, but the Ceratonia siliqua is free from the 'medicinal properties of the former tree. Since the ^government monopoly was abolished in 1827 the trade has received an impetus, and this extension pue to freedom is an example to our present government in their relations to the oppressive system 'connected with the wine trade. ! According to the consular reports the crop of 1872 [was about 10,000 tons, which sold free on board at £4. 10s. per ton. A t that time the chief purchaser »a s Russia, and the locust-beans were exported to various positions upon the Black Sea. In 1875 England became a large consumer, and I believe •ihe well-known "Thorley's Patent Food for Cattle " contains a considerable amount of this nutritive substance. The influence upon the market of a demand from England raised the exports in 1875 to 18,000 tons. A fluctuation took place in 1876, and although the crop was deficient, the prices fell to £2 13s. 6d. per ton free on board. This reaction was probably due to the large stocks on hand in England, purchased at a high rate, from £ \ 10s. to ^ 5 per ton, which had driven Russian competition out of the market ; therefore the 1876 gathering found but few purchasers. In 1877 the yield was 13,500 tons, and the price rose from £2 \$s. 6d. to £3 5s., and at length to £4. per ton, free on board. The average produce of a tree, taking the mean of all sizes, would be about 84 lbs. or threequarters of a hundredweight ; allowing the mean crop of five years to be 13,000 tons, this would

View PDF version of this page