Oct. 1, 1886,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



245 



when we tiist had a trial of this plant and agonized 

 over the few seeds supplied by the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Peradeniya, seeing in them the potential- 

 ities of future fortune, the price for the coca 

 leaf was said to be 13s a lb. and now, — 

 well it is down to 8d. I suppose it was because 

 we threatened to grow it, that there was this truly 

 characteristic Ceylon decline. Had we done it, 

 we would have had to give the leaves away 

 for nothing. PEPPEuroRN. 

 ♦ • 



MANILA NEWS. 



(Translated for the Straits Times.) 

 In the Philippines, too, the prospects of sugar 

 growers are far from encouraging. The future 

 gloomy enough already owing to low prices has 

 become more unpromising still by the Home Finance 

 Minister directing that sugar imported from the 

 Philippines into Spain should be saddled with a 

 duty amounting to seventeen pesetas and a half on 

 every 100 kilogrammes. This rate comes to ll'Ol 

 per picul. The average price of the sugar for- 

 warded to Spain is 14 per picul, so that the duty 

 is almost 40 per cent on the value. Under these 

 conditions, the sugar trade with the mother country 

 will become impracticable. A congress of sugar- 

 growers is shortly to meet in Spain. It is expected 

 that they will take steps to secure greater liberal- 

 ity to their Philippine fellows in fiscal matters. 



PLANTING IN THE WYNAAD. 



Rain, rain, rain for six continuous weeks, and still 

 rain, and yet all the difference one notices is that 

 the streams run through the sJioias a trifle nioro 

 noisily, and the cataracts leap down the distant Neil- 

 gherries a trifle more furiously, so that one ponders 

 as one paces the verandah, how many inches might 

 have been registered during those memorable forty 

 days some six thousand years ago. Still this weather 

 is not to be grumbled at, for up to now it has been 

 perfect for planting, but as nearly all the young 

 plants are out, a few warm, sunny days would be 

 most acceptable. Another great advantage of this 

 weather is the necessity for fires; for what is more 

 pleasant than after a hard day's work trudging about 

 ankledeep in slush and mud, with water spouts burst- 

 ing over you and a bleak sou'-vvester howling round 

 you, than to throw yourself into a long arm-chan- 

 before a blazing fire and give yourself up to the pleasui'es 

 of a cheroot and the latest Indian Planters' Gazette. 

 At such time the most truculent coolie might cheek 

 you and fear not, and the distant belling of a sam- 

 bhur, as he invites his mate to come and browse off 

 your choicest child cinchonas, merely causes you to 

 remark with the Newmarket tout, '" Another little 

 trial sent for my good." 



Coffee is beginning to look up again, the latest quot- 

 ation being M. P. 70s. and lucky are they who have 

 not yet sold. Though some of the first sliipments 

 fetched good prices, one small lot of twelve tons we 

 heard of averaging 71s which means at the present 

 rate of exchange RtiOO per ton net on the estate. The 

 estimates for the coming season are in the majority 

 of districts below the average, owing to the failure of 

 the early rains, but the bushes themselves are in 

 good fettle, so if the clerk of the weather will only 

 prove propitious next March and April, 1888 ought 

 to find some of us smiling 



Our cinchona trees continue to grow and grow fast 

 but alack a day (wish we had one) the unit eve, 

 sinks, sinks faster, but being planters we hope for 

 better times, for a planter without hope is as a preacher 

 without charity, and besides Peruvian bark has lately 

 been discovered to be an antidote to alcohol, and 

 forty-two diseases, and they are daily discovering more, 

 are attributable to alcohol, therefore if the statis- 

 tics given at Blue-Ribbonite meetings are the truth 

 and nothing but the truth, the demand for cinchona 

 in some form or other ought to be on the. increase. 



A young planter of an enterprising but economical 

 turn of mind is opening out an estate this season 

 on a rather novel plan. He has planted up fifty acres 

 thusways, — cinchona, six by six, coffee five by 

 five, tea four by four. Where to put each plant 

 causes the thoughtful coolie more heart searchings 

 than would the puzzle 1.5. When last heard of, our 

 friend was meditiiting, seeing there are still some five 

 inches of bare soil left, whether it would not be as 

 well to put down ground nuts or ginger to keep down 

 the weeds; and as he pursues his trivial round, his 

 daily task, he piay be heard chanting this roundelay: — 

 Weeds, weeds indeed I 

 I am going to do without them ; 

 Won't have them any more, 

 I am going to do without them. 

 As none have done before ; 

 I am going to be a planter 

 On a very novel j)lan, 

 And agents and neighbours all will say 

 Oh 1 what a 'cute young man 1 ! 1 

 May we for weeds never have to read coffee, tea, cin- 

 chona, ground-nuts, &c. &c. — Indian Printers Gazette. 



The Sikkhim Cinchona Plantations. — We 

 find the following notice in the Madras Mail : — 

 "The Government cinchona plantations in Bengal 

 now contain upwards of five million trees, of various 

 ages, of which the red Succirubra and the yellow 

 Calisaya Ledgeriana are the most numerous. A 

 considerable addition was made to the number 

 of plants last year, upwards of 400,000 of the 

 yellow varieties being planted out. The yield of 

 the plantations amounted to 205,410 lb. of dry 

 bark, principally red, and the bulk of it was made 

 over, as usual, lo the febrifuge factory. The ex- 

 penditure on the plantations amounted to R79,728, 

 and the receipts to R93,476. The capital account 

 now amounts to R10,96, 2.5.5, but this has been 

 recouped by the saving effect by the substitution 

 of cinchona febrifuge for quinine in medical in- 

 stitutions." 



German East African Plantation Company. — 

 This company has been formed in Berlin, the 

 promoters including Count Behr, Dr. Grimm 

 (Karlsruhe), Rear- Admiral Count von Hacke, Karl 

 von der Heydt (firm of von der Heydt-Kersten and 

 Sons, Elberfeld) ; Dr. Otto Kersten, Vice- Admiral 

 Livonius, Captain von Luck, Dr. Karl Peters, Herr 

 Paul Rcichard, Dr. Schroder, and Dr. Zentzytski. 

 The capital is to be 2,000,000 Mks., of which only 

 a quarter will at present be called up, the re- 

 mainder being called up at the rate of 2.5 per 

 cent, yearly. The company will cultivate tobacco 

 on lands to be acquired for the purpose in East 

 Africa. German growers, trained in Sumatra, and 

 coolies will be employed. The German East African 

 Company grants to the company 25,000 hectares of 

 land, receiving shares to the amount of the pur- 

 chase money, viz., 4 Mks. per hectare. — Kuhlmr's 

 German Trade Review. 



The Planting op Gutta-percha. — We hear 

 that the Netherlands Government has caused ex- 

 periments on a large scale to be made in the gardens 

 of Buitenzorg in the cultivation of the plants which 

 yield Gutta-percha, and thus far the planting of the 

 following varieties has been attended with favorable 

 results. Palaijuium Gutta (Isonandra Gutta Hookerii) 

 from Singapore ; Palaquium Oblongifolium and 

 Payena Leerii, of Sumatra; Palaquium Treubii and 

 Palaquium Parrifolia, of Banca and Palaquium 

 Borneese, of Borneo. The plantations are at an elev- 

 ation of about 2,000 feet above sea-level ; where 

 fully 4,000 plants are growing so well as to leave no 

 doubt as to the success of the experiments. — We 

 have had the above translated for the Obsfrri-r from 

 the Indische Mercmtr of the 18th August, 188(5. 

 Have experiments been made in Ceylon with these 

 varieties ? 



