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PLA.NTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 



{Translated for the " Straits Times.") 

 The Chinese Commissioners recently travelliug through 

 Java, hAve returned to Cuina direct. The Batavia JVic- 

 uwshlad reports that, amon^r the Chinese there, rum- 

 ours are afloat to the elfect that the Chinese Govern- 

 meut intends, shortly, to station consuls at all the chief 

 towns in Java. These consuls will be charged to look 

 after the interests of the Chinese there in every way. 

 It is said that plently of land highly suitable for to- 

 bacco cultivation is available in the islands round Lingga 

 and Rhio. "Where the soil does not answer, there is 

 coal enough underground to reward the judicious invest- 

 ment of capital. The Sultan of Rhio is reported to be 

 well disposed towards Europeans. Assistance on his 

 part may be confidently counted upon. 



A Java Newspaper calls atti-iition to the fact, that, 

 though the so called betel nuts or rather arecanuts 

 have long been articles of trade, and have been used 

 for a considerable time as mt'dicine in Europe, yet betel 

 leaves did not reach Europe until recently. The latter 

 are derivable from the betel or sirih vine. Etherised 

 oil from them has been found useful in catarrhal 

 affections and as an antiseptic. Experiments made in 

 Germany, have proved that etherised betel leaf oil is a 

 sovereign remedy in throat diseases, diptheria &c. The 

 importation of the leaves is attended by difficulties owing 

 to the oily substance therein deteriorating by the action 

 of the air. 



PLANTING : COFFEE, CINCHONA AND TEA IN 



CEYLON. 



We are now in the interval of broken, but 

 on the whole, moderate weather, between the 

 " little " and " big " monsoons. Already this 

 very moist hot weather has made tea come 

 on with such a rush in the lower dis- 

 tricts that the flushing can scarcely be over 

 taken. But higher up there has been dry and 

 less forcing weather. Everything however points to 

 a very busy tea season with full croppings from 

 all acreage in bearing. In the Kelani Valley we hear 

 of some wonderful returns of tea : as much as 85 lb 

 per acre being made in one month off tea 

 bushes 2| years old, while 130 acres are said to have 

 given 10,000 lb. made tea in the same time. This 

 is from propeities owned by Messrs. W. Mackenzie 

 and Forsythe. 



Coffee also is looking up with good crop pros- 

 pects and high prices ; while Cinchona, reviving in 

 price with less supplies, is likely to be of great 

 help, and Cocoa is quite as promising in price and 

 crop as coffee. Labour supply is the present bug- 

 bear before many of our planters, but in a num- 

 ber of districts, Sinhalese can be freely availed of 

 to pluck tlie tea leaf and do other estate work, 



QUININE. 



The necessity for urging the great wholesal® 

 Drug Houses or Manufacturers of Quinine, to 

 devise and carry out some means of bringing the 

 fact home to the masses — especially in feverish 

 countries and districts — of the present abundance 

 and cheapness of quinine, is being afresh re- 

 alized out here. There must be immense scope 

 for extending the use and consumption of the 

 most valuable of febrifuges in the Fen and low 

 riparian or marshy districts even of England ; 

 also in the South of Europe especially in the 

 Eastern portion, and in the Southern States 

 of America, apart altogether from the great fields 

 preeeuted in Asia, Africa and Central America,.* 



It would be well if English philanthropists — more 

 especially Anti-Opium and Temperance Societies 

 — rea izid that one of the best means of fighting 

 opmm, of putting down the taste fer it as well as 

 often for intoxicating liquors is by supplying cheap 

 quinine. In this way India (and adjacent countries) 

 may give the cure to China for the evil (opium) 

 which it has so freely bestowed on the Chinese. 



to give a place 

 the sale of our 

 Messrs. Wilson 

 glance at the 



TEA. 



We omitted m our last issue 

 to some useful figures respecting 

 teas in Colombo compiled by 

 & Co., Brokers of this city. A 

 table we append shows that " during the past six 

 months 14, 752 packages have been offered at Pub- 

 lic Auction locally (against 11,637 packages during 

 the corresponding months last year) at rates which 

 must be very satisfactory to Planters. Judging 

 from the prices realized in London of some of the 

 Colombo bought teas which we have been able to 

 trace, we cannot but think that those planters who 

 have sold their teas locally have benefited consi- 

 derably in a pecuniary point of view" : — 



Table showing the Colombo monthly sales of 

 seasons 1885-1886 and 1886-1887 with averages, also 

 London sales and averages for the corresponding 

 months. 



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S-Sj?|'-S. 



In this connection we may mention as &a in- 

 stance of the progress making in tea that at last 

 Colombo sales, tea prepared by Mr. De Soyza'e 

 Sinhalese Superintendent on Charley Valley estate, 

 Maturatta, realized over Kl a lb. Mr. De SoyzaV 

 extensive properties will no doubt turn out an 

 immense quantity ol tea b/'and-bye ; bat ittiU 



