April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUR/ST. 



•75 



44 of these grafts, placed or 14 trees on 7th July, 11 on 

 8 trees coulcT, on 6tli .September, be considereJ successful. 

 This raethod succeeded almost only when the grafted scions 

 were placed on young succirubra stems, two years old 

 at the most. Of 16 which wer& fixed on older trees 

 scarcely one succeeded, thrown grafting gave the worst 

 results. Tlie succirubra stems were for that purpose cut 

 off at about a fool above the ground, and then, accord- 

 ing to the diameter of the stem, one or more Ledgeriana 

 grafts placed on u. On 3rd June 17 tiees were treated 

 in this way, but on 2Sth August not one of the grafts 

 was alive. The stems were provided with a covering of 

 iern or pisaiig leaves, in order to avert, during the first 

 few days, the too great sunshine. These experiments, which 

 are slill being continued on the same and on other jtems, 

 have succeeded only with with yotmg succirubra frees, 

 two years old at the utmost. Older trees were also sawn 

 off, with the object of grafting on them, but they bled so 

 severely, and did this at the end of two months to such 

 an extent, that the placingof grafts on them was not to be 

 tliought of. It was thus seen that in practice grafting can- 

 not succeed in the cleft of succirubra stems over two years 

 old. The chemical analyses were made with the view, 

 besides the determination of the alkaloids of specimens of 

 the cro]), to test still further the alkaloids and especially the 

 yield of quinine of the young Ledgeriana barks. From 

 the same plantation, of which it was reported in the pre- 

 vious quarter lh.it in the bark of four year old trees an 

 average of 9 per cent quinine was found, some more 

 trees of each of the numbers (23 and 38) were selected, 

 which appeared to e.'chibit the best type. The result 

 confirmed this, for these four year old barks contained: — in 

 descendants of No. 38, 12-05, lO'OO, 11-91 and 1140 per 

 cent of quinine, and in those of No. 23, 9-46, 11-54, and 

 10'02 per cent. These individuals already surpass in their 

 yield of quinine the bark of the tree fi'om which they have 

 sprung, although the latter was analyzed at seven years of 

 age. The pretty lai-ge harvest of Ledgeriana seed from 

 the plantations of original trees rendered it possible to 

 supply all applicants — private cinchona planters — with a 

 quantity of it. For the government gardens the graft 

 plantation at Tirtasari has already yielded a, sufficient 

 quantity of seed of the best quality. 



J. O. BernelotMoens, 

 Dii: Govt, cinchona Enterprize. 

 Baudong, Cfli October 1882. 



THE COFFEE ENTEKPRTZE IN BRAZIL. 



Reverting to Messrs. Kern, Hayn & Co. 's circular, we 

 find it .stated that as a consequence of over-produc- 

 tion the tendency of prices for coffee was down- 

 wards for 11 months out of the 12 in 1882, the re- 

 action upwards having set in only in December. 

 Besides over-production, as the result of high prices 

 ruling in previous years, the position of the market 

 was aggravated by the increased facilities af- 

 forded by railways for conveying the crops of the 

 provinces of Rio and San Paulo to the sea-ports 

 and by steamers instead of sailing vessels to the 

 consuming markets ; while, to crown all, the new 

 system in Havre and New York of selling "futures" 

 added to the ruinous depression. The facilities are 

 now such that 20.000 bags per diem can be received 

 at Rio and 10,000 at .Santos, or a million bags per 

 mensem. Of course this unexpectedly adverse effect of 

 railway facilities will be discounted in future years 

 and if we are ever again to compete, even at a re- 

 mote distance, with Brazil, we must be equally 

 favoured in the matter of railways. Messrs. Kern, 

 Hayn & Co. anticipate the near approach of the time 

 when the whole crop can be dispatched iu 7 or S 

 months, and they therefore argue that buyers should 

 keep tlieir eye more on the probable total of the 

 crop than on the fluctuating daily receipts at Rio and 



Santos. Fresh planting has not only been stopped 

 ill Brazil, but "many plantations for w-ant of rent- 

 ability are neglected or abandoned." In fact the 

 position of tlie Brazil coffee planters is so precarious 

 that neither lowering of duties nor lessening of rail- 

 way rates can help them much : only a material 

 rise in prices can save them. The vast majority of 

 owners of large plantations added greatly to the cult- 

 ivation within the past five years, only to increase 

 the amount of their indebtedness. The necessity laid 

 on planters by the urgency of " Commissioners " 

 (agents who had lent money) to realize, contributed 

 largely to the rush of coffee from tlie plantations 

 to the sea-ports. Very curious and interesting details 

 are then given of the purchase and working of a plant- 

 ation. The Brazilian reis approach closely to our own 

 rupees, so that our readers can appreciate the figures at 

 once, bearing in mind that the interest paid by planters 

 in Brazil is generally " murk hi;/her than 1(5 or 12 

 per cent. " A plantation with 750,000 coffee trees 

 (generally about 300 to an acre) cost R7S0,000, or 

 somewhat more than Rl per tree. Then RSO.OOO 

 were expended for a purpose which happily planters 

 in Ceylon know nothing of, the purchase of slaves ; 

 -«'hile the planting of 300,060 additional trees and 

 repairs led to a furtlier expenditure of R20,000. a 

 total of RS80,000. Salaries and tlie clothing and 

 feeding of slaves, &c., cost R22,000 per annum, and 

 the average crops were 23.000 arrobas (say 4,.500 cwt.) 

 of merchantable coffee. Had the old price of 3SO0O 

 net per arroba been obtainable, the interest 

 received on the money invested would be R47.0IU1 

 or about 5 per cent. The planter in this case 

 worked with his own money, and, besides selling his 

 coffee at unremunerative rates, he had 7,000 arrobas 

 of unsaleable triage on his hands. The difference in 

 truth, between Ceylon and Brazil seems to be that 

 we have suffered from deficient crops plus bad prices ; 

 while Brazil has suffered from enormous crops plus 

 bad prices. The unfortunate planters of Brazil were 

 really worse off, for they either had to payor go into 

 debt for the transport of heavy crops to Rio or S.antos 

 for the benefit of consumers in America and Europe, 

 and the benefit of future coffee growers who will 

 profit by the extent to which low prices have stim- 

 ulated consumption. Between January and November 

 1882 prices of "good first" in the United States 

 went down from 10-32 cents to 7'82 per lb. ; while 

 the cwt. of "ordinary first" in the cliannel fell from 

 41s 6d to 29s 8d. The latter price reminds us of 

 the deplorable crisis of 1847-48. The quality of the 

 Brazil crop of 1882 is said to have been good, though 

 the bean was somewhat small. It is the progress of 

 Santos which planters in Ceylon and India have 

 chiefly to fear, as much of the San Paulo coffee com- 

 petes with plantation kinds in Europe Of Ui2.521 

 tons of Santos coffee in 1882, the proportion which 

 went to Europe was no less than 82,082 tons ; while 

 of 241,362 tons Rio coffee, the United States took 

 141,075 against 20,439 of Santos. Of 343,883 tons 

 exported from Rio and Santos in 1882, the United 

 States took 161. .514, or not far from one-half of the whole 

 of the enormously increased crop. The reports from 

 Rio and Santos for the past three years have been: — 



1880: tons. l88l:tons. 18S2:ton3. 



Rio 202,124 258,313 241,362 



Santos 62,61.5 80,140 102,5--1 



Total 264,739 338,459 343,8S.( 



It will be observed that in Rio there was a gr.-al 

 rise of 56,000 tons in 1881, followed by a reacti .u 

 of 17,000 tons less in 1S82; so that probably 2."i0,000 

 tuna IS the figure beyond which Rio is not likely to 

 go for many years to come. Hut the progress of 

 Santos, in consequence of the concentration of slaves 

 ill San Paulo province, has been rapidly onwards 



