r 



Dec. 1, i8S6,] 



fHE TROPICAL AGRtCULTUHI^f. 



4«i 



CKYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING BEPOKT. 

 Jackson's and law's t kolleus comiuned — tka under 

 cinchona. 



8th Nov. 18815. 



I hear that if the table of Messrs. Law 

 and Davidson's Simplex lioUer is supplied to 

 any of .Jackson's rollers, it has the effect 

 of getting about twice as much work out of 

 the machine as it would otherwise accomplish. 

 IMiere is an arrangement of battens which brings 

 about this result, assisted by the peculiar shape of 

 the table. 1 fancy we will be hearing more of 

 this combination by-and-bye, as there arc several 

 trials being made. 



Tea grown under cinchona, is as we all know, not 

 a happy combination : but it is being observed 

 that although cinchona does not suit tea, the tea 

 suits the cinchona giving it a more vigorous 

 growth, and benefiting it all round. If this really 

 be so, there is some comfort, and one will be able 

 to regard the slow progress of the tea plant 

 when shaded with cinchona with less litiulness 

 than before. The time will not be altogether lost. 



The weather still keeps very suitable for 

 planting and cacao — but we would all willingly 

 take a little more sunshine just to brighten 

 up things. But the dark skies are pretty per- 

 sistent, and almost daily there is ram. There 

 are very general complaints of the effects of this 

 dull weather in retarding the flashing of tea, and 

 the returns of quantity up to date are considerably 

 below what were anticipated, and might have been 

 got had there been more of our usual genial warmth. 



The rise in the price of coffee is bringuig round 

 more than the ordinary number of Moormen who 

 are all anxious to buy refuse. Evidently there is 

 a little excitement among these keen traders, and 

 thay are not afraid to speculate. But their means 

 of doing so are now very limited as compared to 

 what obtained in the happy joast, and one bad 

 shot generally closes up the unfortunate for that 

 season anyhow. 



ytill it is wonderful how they return to the 

 charge, season after season, and are willing 

 to try again so as to turn ''the honest penny" 

 if by any means possible. To deal with them, 

 however, one wants to have a good temper for they 

 will haggle for an hour over a few cents, and 

 hang aboal for a day if halt a rupee can be 

 saved. Peppekcokn. 



NEW INDIGO COUNTRIES : 



Tkopical Ceylox. 

 When youngsters, long before we even dreamt 

 that our life shjuM be spent in the East, we often 

 pictured to ourselves p;iddliiig lougrafts or rough 

 canoes s!ia;.cd from tree trunks through mter.-ninable 

 forests, cr inhabiting a cottage of wicker or hut made 

 from the unbarked lo^^'s of some j^igauMc tree on every 

 fide suiTounded by luxuriant vcget^ition, ami jungle.'? 

 infested by wild boisls and poisonous reptiles. The 

 reality of the picture is th"^ plains of Hindustan, with 

 their dry, arid landscaj)^, where four n'onth.'j in the 

 your wc are roasted, four stewed, leaving f nr wouths 

 to revivify the rcmnins of vitality leti by the two 

 preceding operation". Tbi?; reali'y wa.t a sore blow to 

 our youthful imaginations but years of labour and 

 toil have tutored us to find some beauties even in the 

 uncongenial clime of India. Nor do we admire the 

 native, but long intercourse with him, his ways and lu.s 

 conditions of life make us sympathise, and in some 

 cases have a sneaking foudncss tor the Hindoo. He 

 is not ft bad fellow if you have a touch of autocratic 

 dignity added to the fellow feeling of man to niau ; 

 but he is never grateful and never will be so. Let 

 us take him as he is. He was made so and cannot help 

 himself. 



Oeyloii reilized the vague dreams of our youth. 

 Here we found th« vegetation of the tropics ; on every 

 side some new palm or gorgeous dowering shrub, while 

 the elephantine polonga und the cobra proved l)y 

 their presence that there were big beasts and reptiles 

 to be found in the spicy I.^^^ The native; there, 

 probably like all (Orientals, were to the youngest child 

 open and smiling. The young girl tu-ued not away 

 her heal, as though we intended to eat her up, but 

 though not understanding our iJirticular liuguage 

 gave us a sunny smi'e and jabbered iu her own 

 tongue son-irons syllables of Sanscrit-like sound and 

 merrily passed on to her work. The ter.'ac^d rice- 

 fields peculiar to C?yloa attracted our attention 

 when travelling by rail, and miles and miles of tor- 

 race I ringes.from cne to many yards wide, roio up 

 and up till thousands of feet still saw thesa won- 

 derful terraces rising one over the other to the momi- 

 taiu top. Rice is the staple crop of the Cingalese 

 and the rice season varies, there are two sowings 

 and reapings according to locality and elevation. The 

 countr}- in some places seemed suitable for the growth 

 of indigo and in some parts of the island Mr. Falkner, 

 a Bengal planter who visited it, found the mdigo plant 

 growing spontaneously and in considerable quantity. 



The following notes are from one of the many 

 useful books publislied in Ceylon by the Oh- 

 serrer Office. The cultivation of indigo in the 

 seven Korales begun by the Dutch in IHIO 

 was nu'-uccessfa', and Governor Barnes in 182(5 lost 

 money over this article. Mr. Henley, a Bengal planter 

 tried indigo also in the S inthern Provinces, but failed 

 iu his attempt to grow it properly. An attempt has 

 moie recently been made ti grow it in the Naithern 

 Provinces. Bennett condderod the Tangilla district 

 the best adapte 1 for the culture and manufacture of 

 indigo, an 1 he thinks it almost incredible that no export 

 of the dye has taken place since the Dutch Rule in 

 1791, thougli the p'ant; (Indigofera tinctarin) iu both 

 the varieties, sativa iuid agrestis grows iu mos^ prolific 

 abundance. He adds that in 1817 an exteusivo Bengal 

 planter, Mr. Falkner, who visited Ceylon, was 'dolighte.l 

 to see indigo growing wild and made a propjsi! to com- 

 mence the industrj', but it fell through. 



A Swedish gentlemiu, a Mr. .John Tranc'jell, next 

 proposed the formation of an indigo factory to Sir 

 Edward Barnes, but Mr. Tranchell's dea'h in 1328 

 knocked the scheme on the head. From the abive it 

 seems that indigo has never be"n properly tried iu 

 Ceylon. The drawbacks are labour and getting land. 

 Thouijh the land in the low cjuutries is very oh ap. if 

 the Government were anxious to helj) the introduction 

 of a new industry, Crown land m ght be had on very 

 favourable terra«. There is no doubt that the climate 

 of Ceylon would prove just the thing for in ligo, and 

 that indigo made in Ceylon would equal the finest 

 marks of Bengal, .Java, San Salvador or Guatemala, 

 The difh'julty of labour is every year becoming less, as 

 large quantities of the Tamil c )0.ie class, are rea'ly 

 settling in the island, and the increase of .steam iinple- 

 racnts to the indigo industry in all its brancUes, 

 such a steam ploughs, steam diggers, tramways, j) unp- 

 iug water — heating boilers— all by steam, only leave 

 the pr.'ssiog operations for hand labour ami th-- n^cefi' 

 sary fine work such as hoeing, weeding lud pioug'iin^ 

 for manual labour. — Indian Panters' Gazette. 



bl 



ARTIFICIAL QUININE. 

 The par.igraph declaring that an Engii-h dnctdi' 

 bad discoverei a process for manufacturing artificial 

 quinine is still on its travels roviud the g obe. Tlii^ 

 week an East Indian merchant sent to oin- ofHce to 

 a'^certain where he could buy aom". Customers of 

 his in Calcutta and Bornlay had dccid 'd to try it. 

 A cable message from us to our Australasi-in subsi- 

 diary journal anticipated any possible scare there on 

 the subject, and we may nlso claim <-> have saved 

 America to some extent from a reign of terror in 

 the quinine market. The representative of tb-^ larg>st 

 New York d-ti'v paper called on us imm^diat-ly artcf 

 the discovery had been announced, and infimaled 

 big intentiou of iuoluding the item in his daily laes* 



