400 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[Dbc 



Jt, 



i8S6. 



values. What will Cejfloii Ship iu the coming 

 Season ? This is the special question affecting every- 

 one interested in Bark, wliether Buyer or Selltr. 

 Although estimates ranging from 12 millions upwards 

 have been mentioned, I do not think at this date it 

 is possible to form any definite conclusion. The 

 quantity that may be harvested (under any circum- 

 stancesj to make room for Tea or other produce. 

 Amount likely to be cut for financial reasons, and 

 still more important the course of market, all 

 these uncertainties render an estimate at present 

 moment of little value. But unquestionably the 

 principal point that will guide the bulk of the merch- 

 ants, will be the price likely to be obtained, and it 

 is to this I desire to direct especial attention. All 

 interested in Bark are anxious to see the Ceylon ex- 

 port as moderate as possible and yet the same mis- 

 take made in previous years of quoting values too 

 high is actually bemg made at the present moment, 

 when the error can only be of disadvantage to owners. 

 From the various analyses I have made, compared 

 with the Manufacturers Tests, I state positively that 

 the bulk of the Bark sold in Public Auction during 

 the past month has been quitted at '2Jd. to 23d. per 

 Unit, and for very low grades occasionally 2d per 

 Unit. I heartily wish the rates were doubled, but 

 there is no good in disguising facts, indeed at the 

 present moment it is especially a mistaken policy to 

 quote the Unit value above what is obtainable, and 

 Manufacturers know that they have purchased on 

 this (and very Fine Barks) at other Markets at the 

 above prices. 



The explanation of the principal cause of the Unit 

 value being quoted too high is the most unpleasant 

 duty I feel thrust upon me, but in the interest of 

 owners I cannot avoid it, although the knowledge 

 ci'.me to rae during the first month I was estab- 

 lished, I have deferred any reference to the fact, 

 until my business was thoroughly successful, to avoid 

 any reference. 



For some considerable time past certain Analyses 

 of Cinchona Bark have shown a failure to obtain 

 the FULL and proper per centage of Quinine con- 

 tained in the Bark Analyzed and as a necessitous 

 result the price realized has worked out Sd to 3id 

 and in some cases even more per Unit. This failure 

 to obtain a proper result or in other words an under 

 estimate, is to me inexplicable with a thoroughly 

 practical test ; I have Analysed samples of Bark and 

 seen the Parcel manufactured confirming my Tests 

 and cannot give way to anybody in the question of 

 accuracy and therefore feel confident in repeating 

 that where Analyses during the past mouth have 

 repeatedly shown a unit value of over Hd such results 

 have not found the proper and full contents of the 

 Bark, or in other words the Analyses were incorrect. 

 But beyond the statement already made I would 

 point out that German Quinine has been sold in large 

 quantities recently at not over 2, - per oz. and manu- 

 facturers are now making fairly satisfactory profits :— 



£ s. d. 

 Now ^ sa per Uuit=100 Units = l ft. 



-100 Units vg: 3d 1 5 Opertb. 



Manufacturers' charges, Buying Com- 

 missions, Clearing, Making, &c., say 

 About . . . < • • • < ..076 „ 



1 12 15 



1 ft>.=^](i o/-. Quimue i' 2 -. . 1 12 

 Thi.s 1 think is conclusive proof that buyers can- 

 not affort to pay- regularly even .'id per Unit at the 

 present price of Quinine, as a matter of fact they 

 have often purchased Utely at nearer 2d per Unit 

 as reckoned by the proper and full Analysis of 

 the Bark. 



Before clobiug my letter, there is one small matter 

 I would refer to- Several Samples sent me the owneia 

 have desired an Analysis made giving all the Sulphates 

 and Alkaloids (charge 17(1) and of course I am 

 pleased to comply with the request, but as the 

 SulfShate of Quinidino and Cinchona and Amorphous 

 Alkaloids are not now of any particular value to ]\Iauu- 

 facturers and consequently the proportions do not 

 affect the value of the Bark in the least, and it is 

 po advantage to kcow the (juaatities coutaiued thereiu, 



with the present low value of Cinchona Bark I would 

 point out that an Analysis showing — 



Sulphate of (Juinine . . . . per cent 



Sulphate of Cinchonidine . . do. 



for which my charge is 12 fi is really all that Im- 

 porters require, to determine the value of their 

 Consignments. 



The variation in prices of Ceylon Bark, I recently 

 announced by Circular, continues ; Parcels containing 

 a heavy quantity of Cinchonidine. realizing less per 

 Unit than pure Barks with little Cinchonidine. 



I recently Analyzed some Ceylon shavings giving 

 about 2 per cent of Quinine and about 3* per cent 

 of Cinchonidine, a most unsatisfactory Bark for 

 manufacturers to have to work. — Yours truly, 



T. E. ViSKY. 



Ceylon Tea. — On the 27th instant, in the Cou- 

 ference-hall of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 

 a lecture was delivered by Mr. J. L. Shand. repre- 

 sentative of the Planters' Association of Ceylon, on 

 the subject of " Ceylon Tea." In the course of his 

 lecture Mr. Shand said that at the time when the 

 prospects of coffee growing in Ceylon were brightest 

 the whole industry was checked and finally blighted 

 by the appearance of an ineradicable disease in the 

 coffee leaf. Industrial attention in the country was 

 then directed to the cultivation of various other pro- 

 ducts, but it soon became apparent that if the large 

 area of hill property in European hands were to re- 

 tain its value it must be by the agency of tea. The 

 coffee plantations were gi-adually converted into tea 

 plantations ; and as the first specimens of Ceylon- 

 grown tea sent to test the London market were very 

 favourably received the industry developed rapidly. 

 It was not, however, till 1880 that' the Ceylon planters 

 began to send tea to the English market in any quan- 

 tity. In that year 115,000 lb. of tea were shipped to 

 the United Kingdom, while tlie year 1885 this amount 

 had increased to no less than 4,353,000 lb. There 

 were now about 120,000 acres in Ceylon planted with 

 tea, and it had been proved that the country was capable 

 of producing a greater yield of leaf per acre than any 

 other country iu the world, and that its tea could com- 

 mand higher prices than any other tea in the market. 

 In the very near future the tea export from Ceylon 

 would amount to 40,000,0001b., and, indeed, the only 

 danger which the industry had to apprehend was lest it 

 should overflood the markets of the world, scientific 

 authority having declared that the fatal disease which 

 had attacked aud ruined the Ceylon coffee plantations 

 was incapable of injuring the tea plants. Did the British 

 people thoroughly understand the difference between 

 the pure, clean, machine-prepared leaf which was turned 

 out from the Ceylon planter's factory, they would never 

 touch the far from pure article prepared by the 

 hands and feet of the natives in China or Japan. 

 Ceylon offered advantages for tea growing which 

 no other country could afford. The climate wag 

 favourable and thoroughly congenial to European life, 

 there was an abundant supply of labour at hand, the 

 facilities for traui^port over the country by road and 

 rail were exceptionally great, and the i^oil was very 

 favourable. The Ceylon planterrt had .suffered consider- 

 ably by the action of di.sbonest tradesmen in pawiug 

 of? cheap China tea:* as genuine Ceylon tea, which cost 

 them nearly twice as much. The Ceylon tea wan 

 pre-eminent for purity, wholesomenesK, and economy; 

 and though nominally it could not be purchased so 

 cheaply as some of the worthless China tea, yet it 

 would be found to go much further than its low-priced 

 competitor. In regard to openings in Ceylon for young 

 men from England, be would advise that no young 

 man should go out unle.ss he had a certain prospect 

 of employment or had enough capital to embark in 

 tea industry and enough caution to control the capitil. 

 The field of employment was limited, only 14G Euro- 

 pean planters being at work, while varancies were 

 chieflv in the pitronage of London fiims. Slore- 

 over, "there were no other directions in which a young 

 man who had failed to find an opening in the ts,> 

 industry could turn bis energies. 



