792 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, 1883. 



yield per acre (of 1,200 trees) per annum would thus be 

 80 cwts, and as far as can be made out tbis is not at all too 

 high an average yield to calculate on. Tbe local wbolesale 

 value at Galle or Colombo is usually about RS per owt,— or, 

 at 30 owt, K210 per acre, equal to a nett profit of say K140-~ 

 as RlOO may be considered a liberal expenditure. In 

 Madras and Bombay about R15 per cwt. is generally realized 

 for consignments from here: it may therefore pay letter to 

 ship And of course if the more valuable kinds are grown 

 the profits will be stiU further greatly enhanced— probably 

 more than doubled. Uses, and perhaps a good market, may 

 hereafter be found for the fibre ? The industry not having 

 as yet been put fo the test on a large scale, I may be over, 

 rating it, but don't think so ; and it would at least be 

 interesting to have the opinion of some of your native 

 correspondents. If not, with yrac'«tca«^ an unlimited demand, 

 hundreds nf mil /Ions ol people in China, India, Sec, using 

 arecanuts— it rauks second tofew other enterpnzes and offers 

 at the same time a sate investment for limited capital. I 

 have anyhow beard it put down as, as lasting and good an 

 investment as " coflee in Haputale"— a compliment being 

 meant both to tbe coffee there, and areoa ! 



planting; in burmah. 



The Kangoon correspondent of the Indian Agrkult- 

 urist writes 83 followe :— " I see from correspondence 

 in the Calcutta papers, that Tea planters in Assam 

 are deploring the increaased production of Tea and 

 the absence of new markets. What will they say 

 when the hills in the province at Tavoy and Timng- 

 hoo are covered with the Tea plant? If labour 

 were more plentiful, there would be plenty of room 

 for Tea production in British Burmah ; and the suc- 

 cess of the Arakan plantation, and of a small one 

 under Mr. Petley's management at Tounghoo, which 

 also includes Coffee and Chinchona, shows that, 

 even with the labour difficulty, success attends Tea 

 down here. With the opening of tbe railway to Toun- 

 ghoo, and the probable influx of Shan cultivators from 

 beyond our frontier, no doubt Tea and Coffee gardens 

 will be largely increased iu Burmah in the course 

 of a few years. Until that time, Tea manufacturers in 

 India might do woree than get up a trade in dry and 

 ' pickled ' Tea with the Burmese. The latter descrip- 

 ion now nearly all comes from Mandalay, and the 

 coarsest leaf does best for it. It is consumed iu every 

 Burmese house, and accompanies every invitation to 

 the numerous ceremonies held annually or oftener in 

 almost every Burmese family. When King Theebaw 

 started his monopoly in 'pickled' Tea, a Burman 

 trader introduced the article from some gardens in 

 Chittagong, and obtained a fair proht from his enter- 

 prise Assam could supply British Burmah with ' pick- 

 fed ' ' Tea as easily as Mandalay dois, and possibly 

 more cheaply. Why, a^ain, should China Tea of llie 

 weekest kind be obtainable in small paper packets f(u- 

 an anna or two at every Burman village, when the 

 smallest package of Indian Tea obtainable is a 1-lb. 

 tin at a cost of Ks. 1-4 or Rs. 1-8? If Indian maun- 

 facturers wished to open a trade with three inillious 

 of Tea-drinkera and Tea-ccKecs down here, they might 

 easily do so. For the drinking portion of the public, 

 a good Tea should be packed in eases— m small packets, 

 and sent to the shops here for retail at smidl price?. 

 The Tea would then get known amongst the Burmese, 

 who do not care to invest in lib. of the article at 

 one time. When it was generally known, it could 

 not fail to be appreciated, from its superior strength 

 and flavour, and it would in a year or so oust the 

 inferior Chinese description, n w largely imported from 

 the Straits. But the Chinese have long ago appreciated 

 the fact that to obtain large sales they must pack 

 their Tea in small packets, which can be profit- 

 ahv sold for an anna or an anna and a half, whilst 

 Imiian mauufactumr.? pack in such uzes as require an 

 expenditure of about sixtetn times that amount. 



For the manufacture of pickled Tea of the Burmese 

 market, it would perhaps be necessary to get experienced 

 hands from Upper Burmah, but the trade is a large 

 and paying one, and this would eventually remunerate 

 Indian Tea-gardens handsomely if they could secure 

 it." — Produce Markets' Review. 



THE BRAZIL COFFEE CROP 



is thus discussed by the Rio News: — 



The many reports now being received from various 

 parts of the coft'ee districts about the large falling off 

 in the coming coffee crop should be expected with 

 several reservations- It will be remembered that last 

 year both drouth and rain were brought forward as 

 injuriously affecting the coffee crop, and yet Brazil 

 easily produced one of her greatest crops. Admitt- 

 ing that drouth and rain have here and there caused 

 more or less injury, especially to the old plantations, 

 there still remains the important consideration that a 

 great part of the present producing area is composed 

 of young orchards, the majority of which have not 

 yet reached their maximum of production. For many 

 years to come the tendency will be toward increased 

 production through all these new districts, and that 

 in a greater ratio than the decrease from the decay- 

 ing plantations and from the average effects of drouth 

 and rain. There has long been a belief among planters 

 that they could influence prices by concealing stocks 

 and circulating discouraging reports about the crops. 

 A greater mistake never was committed. Even were 

 it true that such a policy will deceive coneumerB, it 

 must be remembered that it deceives producers as 

 well ; hence both parties are left in the dark. A frank 

 statement of the quantities produced and of the crop 

 prospects can not be other than advantageous to both 

 consumer, and producer, for, while it gives the one a 

 correct basis upon which regulate prices, it gives the 

 other an equally correct basis upon which to regulate 

 production. Had Brazilian planters known just how 

 rapidly production was increasing and stocks accumu- 

 lating during the last ten years, it is inconceiveable 

 that they would have gone on planting new orohards 

 and increasing the area under production. Correct 

 information can be no more useful to the consumer 

 than to the producer, and it is highly desirable there- 

 fore that tbe policy thus far pursued should be 

 abandoned. After so many years of these false reports, 

 the planter ought to have learned that the merchant 

 really gives very little credit to them, and bases bis 

 calculations upon averages instead. They know quite 

 as well as the planter just how much of a drouth it 

 will take to offset the natural increase in production, 

 and just how much to cause a decrease. And they 

 know perfectly well that tht-re has not as yet been 

 siilticieut cause for either of these results. [On the 

 other hand the utterly uuremunera'ive prices for last 



crop must have left many estate owners without 



funds to carry on cultivation. — Ed.] 



RAINFALL IN TYPICAL PLANTING DISTRICTS 

 IN CEYLON BETWEEN DECEMBER AND 



APRIL FOR FIVE YEARS. 

 Tbe return, as furnished by the Surveyor-General 

 at our request, does not yield the data we expected to 

 account for lessened crops, either in amount of rainfall 

 or number of days over which rain wns distributed. 

 We should require to see, what Mr. Giles Walker 

 shewed, diminished temperature or the reverse, force 

 and persistence of wind, amount and continuance of 

 cloud iu the sky, degree of saturation of the atmo- 

 sphere, and so forth, in order to determine the power 



