3o6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1883. 



carper, oi Weddell.(») It is my form A, (Plate IV.), exclu- 

 sive of E and 0. It is only iu part the 0. Ledyeriuna 

 Jfoens, since it is exclusively the macho form. ludeed, in 

 other respects it does not apply to some forms which both 

 Mr. Moeus and I had considered " Ledgtriana" I am much 

 pleased to see that Mr. Moens includes, amongst those, 

 two varieties, a CiiichonidinifCf-a and /* Clnaidiiufci-a. This 

 is an excellent stop in the right direction, and worthy of 

 Mr. Moeus' fame as a chemist, thus to distinguish these 

 forms. It I understand right, my Cn/isiii/a Ani/Uca stands 

 nu<ler the first of these. It is Cinchonidiniferfi, and my 

 Plate IX. Quiiiidinifere. Indeed I am ready to believe 

 that it is very nearly, that he at once fixes upou it as 

 right in the general colouring and aspect ; but then it is 

 very decidedly Ht^whra and so cannot come under "Wed- 

 dell's diagnosis. May it not (pace the botanists) be as 

 nearly related as male and female of any race of animals^ (v) 

 Much yet remains to be put before those interested in 

 the subject iu conuection with the highly important work 

 of Mr. Moens, which I hope you will review for the bene- 

 fit of your readers. ( c') 



John- Eliot How.ied. 



THE CEYLON PLANTING ENTERPRLSE : 



OLD AND KEW PEODUCTS, RUBBER IN HAPUTALE ; COCOA ; 

 TEA-TASTINO OF CEYLON TEAS ; LETTEu FKO-M 

 MR. LEDGEP. ON PBESH CINCHONA SEED, &C. 

 Those who may still be sceptical as to the vitality 

 of the I'lautiiig Enterprise iii this Colony ought to be 

 referred to recent issues of the Tropical Ayricul- 

 ittrist. In continuance of the instructive and thoroughly 

 practical paper on Tea Cultivation read by Mr. Arm- 

 strong before the DiUoya riauters' Association, we 

 lately presented our readers with Mr. Owen's 

 still more comprehensive Essay dealing not only with 

 tea culture iu Ceylon as compared with Northern 

 India, but treating of the courbuiation of coft'ee, tea, 

 cinchona, cardamoms and aloes on one plantation. 

 Scarcely had the local pulilic time to digest all the valu- 

 able and encouraging information thus afforded, be- 

 fore a series of experiments conducted on Ccara 

 Rubber trees at Peradeuiya claimed attention as 

 showing that a "new ijroduct" which had latterly 

 fallen into disrepute, really promises to do all that 

 was originally prognosticated of it for Ceylon. The 

 inventor (Mr. Gilliat) of a very suitable Unife tor 

 tapping such trees, whose samples of prepared rubber 

 are the finest yet seen iu Ceylon, explained his mode 

 of collecting and preparing tlie rubber at the General 

 Meeting of the Association on the 21st Sept. and the 

 interesting discussion which resulted will again 

 show readers that nothing is likely to be overlooked 

 iu this Colony at this time of day connected with 

 tropical products As if to fuither sti'engthen the hopes 

 based on rubber, a few days ago a Haputalc planter 



(;/) Mr. Moeus objects rightly to the ilefective colouring 

 of my plate Plate I\'., which is the fault of my artist. 

 Plate X. I took from nature. 



(v) " Hybrids (?) between Sucri}^uht'a and Ledger, foimd 

 amongst Ledger seedlings, have been fouud to contain 10 

 to 12 per cent, of sulphate of quinine, so that while 

 possessing the robustness of the one they have been 

 blessed with the richness of the other." — "A Java Pro- 

 prietor" Cei/lo/i Observer, July 27th, 1883. I thought the 

 Ledgers were kept select from crossing with Saccirifhra 

 in t'eylon. Surely the.se plants are from Culisaya Anglica 

 crossed with real rojo, as aVjove. 



(«') Although we are aware that Mr. Moens has published 

 such a work, we have not receiveil a copy, and have only 

 recently had au opportunity of seeing one accidentally in 

 the pharmaceutical exhibition in Vienna. — En. I'harsi. 

 JouuN. 



wrote : — '' By today's tappal I send for your inspection 

 a small parcel of Ceara rubber, taken from trees from 

 1 to '2\ years old, each cake was a day's collection, 

 and from the same trees every successive or alternate 

 day. As there are 11) cakes, eacli tree shows the 

 marks of being ten times tapped within a fortnight. 

 This, of Course, was merely an experiment 'over a 

 small area, to see w'hether frequent and successive 

 tapping injured the trees, or lessened the flow of rubber. 

 It appears to have done neither, but the dilTeience 

 in quantity fi-om the older trees over the younger oues 

 was so great that for the present I have given up 

 the idea of tapping until the whole acreage (over 40 

 acres) is over 2i years old, and meanwhile I contented 

 myself with collecting the seed from the old trees, as I 

 find that to sell them at R25 per bushel-pays me to 

 gather them." The "cakes" are splendlw as regards 

 size — the largest Ceylon samples we have yet seen. — 

 but the rubber is not clean and our broking rfferee for 

 rubber, reports it insufficiently elastic : the samples 

 are, however, like and equal to the Mozambique 

 quality which sells at 2s. (id. per lb. Samples are 

 to be sent to Europe at once for report. We 

 may expect erelong to liave the report on 

 these Haputale samples both from London and Ger- 

 many, and it is pretty evident that we are now in 

 a fair way to turn the rubbers growing, we su|ipo3e, 

 to the number of some millions in the country to 

 some practical ga'n. During the commercial season 

 which opens on the 1st proximo, we may expect to 

 see "rubber" occupying a satisfactory place iu our 

 export table. 



Another new product "cocoa" (cacao), of which but 

 3,600 cwt. have been exported in the season just 

 closing is certain to show a large Ceylon "next 

 year." The high esteem in which Ceylon cocoa is 

 held has by no means fallen, and we have heard of 

 a local sale lately at over R53 per cwt. But, after 

 all, tea is the most generally favoured and, indeed, 

 most promising of our new products. 



In addition to the encoui-aging news brought back 

 from India by Mr. Owen, we have just had a series of 

 tastinss iu C'olombo of Ceylon teas by Mr. MacLaren 

 (of Messjp \V. Moran & Co., Calcutta, one of tbe 

 first houses in the trade), and the general i-esult is 

 that ali-eady Ceylon tea planters have little or nothing 

 to learn from the expert, whether Indian planter or 

 tea-taster. 



The samples tasted by iSIi'. MaoLaren, included 

 teas from the following estates : — 



1. iNnrH-VKi. — Bulk of useful character, considerable 

 quantity per acre probably, liquors well, no fault to be 

 fouud with it. Nominal value as unassorted 11 annas 

 = Is 5d. 



2. Se.mbawatte. — Perfect tea, make of leaf being all 

 that is wished. Proportion of Pekoe contained in it is 

 fair. Liquor pungent as well as with flavour. Nominal 

 value Is Sd. 



3. Ruanwelle. — Shows rather large proportion of coarse 

 leaf, but is well luanufactured and shows remarkably good 

 fermentation. Flavor of this tea will sell it well, though 

 it is a little deficient in strength in couseqtience of 

 large proportion of coarse leaf. Komiual value about 

 Is 3d to 'is 4d. 



4. Athkbfield. — Leaf very well rolled : but shows 

 such a largo quantity of Pekoe tip that it is doubtful 

 if sufficient outturn per acre to pay could be got with 

 .such fiTie picking. Liquor comes out strong without much 

 fine flavor. Nominal value as unassorted might be down 

 at Is 9s to Is lOd ; but princip.ally on account of large 

 proportion of tip. 



5. Makiaw-atte. — Biokcn mixed : This is all that is 

 wanted as a broken tea. It is useful either by itself or 

 for mixing. Leaf good style and first-rate liiiuor. Prob- 

 able Loudon value Is. 



6. JIaeiawatte.— Pekoe : This tea is sliglitly over- 

 classed, well-made, but it is really a fine Pekoe Souchong. 



