46 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882. 



<Jay to balance against the immediate serious evils 

 whicli beset Mm, dare picture the future in sable 

 colours only. There is a silver lining to the dark cloud 

 of depression and though it may be 



" The hidden but the common thought of all," — 

 or at any rate of a majority, that " coffee " is in 

 the " sere and yellow leaf " in Ceylon — never to regain 

 its potency — we fearlessly avow that we are not among 

 the number of those who would confine " the silver 

 lining" of the future to "new products" alone. No 

 one dare say we undervalue any of these ; for where 

 but in the columns of the Ceylon Observer was the cultiv- 

 ation of cinchona, tea and cocoa urged on jilanting 

 attention in season and out of season, durmg the years 

 when as yet " king coffee" I'uled the banker, niercliant, 

 would-be proprietor or pioneer, with undisputed sway ? 

 Not another acre of Arabian coffee would we see ijlauted, 

 until the "more light" which apparently only time 

 can bring, is thrown upon the course of the leaf- 

 fungus ; but we refuse to i-ush to the other extreme 

 and say that tlie coffee land now bearing from seven 

 bushels of berries per acre downwards, is to be con- 

 sidered past recovery. Let us again illustrate. We 

 have before us the possibility — not a few would say 

 probability — that 500 acres of Maskeliya coffee all in one 

 sheet of ' ' living green, " valued the other day at £6,000 

 (against .£24,000 five or six years ago), may (should 

 February prove dry as in 1878) yield in one season 

 as much crop and profit as will clear the whole 

 valuation. We do not find fault with the estimate 

 on that account ; but we do say that mortgagees who 

 can afford to wait, more especially when they have 

 evidence of new " products " being zealously and judi- 

 ciously cultivated in addition to the coffee, ought to 

 be loath to consider and cast aside their security as 

 worthless. 



We have referred above to tlie several crises in the 

 past history of the local planting enterprise. Perhaps 

 a few autlientic uistances of the vicissitudes of projierty 

 will best illustrate what "coffee" has ab-eady j^assed 

 through. In 18158, at the close of a jjeriod of severe 

 trial, we asked two gentlemen of large and varied 

 experience to relate what they knew, and so to afford 

 some further evidence of ' ' truth being stranger than 

 fiction." One of our correspondents replied as follows ; — 



"I could, as you suggest, by raking up my re- 

 miniscences of the labt 20 years, give yi'U some curious 

 facts illustrative of the unsettled and changeable value 

 of coffee properties in Ceylon. Tliis arises too from a 

 variety of causes, frequently of a description over which 

 neitlier buyer nor seller can liave any control nor with 

 which the character or condition of the estate has 

 anything to do. A run upon a district or a run from 

 it may raise or depress the value of properties. An 

 incursion of rats, or an invasion of bug, may depreciate 

 to an extent hardly credible a very Hue plantation. A 

 scarcity of moni-'y bere or at home, or « /all hi tliemarbt, 

 will lessen to an equal extent the worth of an estate, 

 while a panic will sometimes depreciate it in much 

 greater proportion. Oil the other hand, a bumper crop, 

 a beautifvd looking estate, a lonvement locality, or a 

 favorite mark, will, in an equal ratio, secure it a fancy 

 price." 



From the goodly number of examples then given, we 

 reprint a few for the benefit of our present readers : — 



"Example No. 1, consisting of about 100 acres old 



coffee and some 300 acres jungle and abandoned land 

 was, wheu I first knew it, leased by two gentlemen 

 for £5 a year, at which rental they lost money ! It 

 WHS afterwards purchased by one of them for £15, 

 was partially manured aud sold within a year for 

 £700 ! In a few months more it changed handa a^ain at 

 £1,200! Subsi-quently it was bought for £1,000 and 

 by the same party sold after a .year's working, with 

 a very showy crop on the trees, for £G,0()U! Of this 

 price, £3,000 was paid in cash and, the buyer failing, 

 the seller took it back for the other £3,000, — then 

 leased it to another party for ten years at £600 a 

 year. Tliat party failing during his lease, it was sold 

 for something under £3,000. 



"No 2, in the same district, and on the high rnad 

 containing about 100 acres good old coffee, consider- 

 ably neglected ; 100 niore, abandoned ; and probably 

 300 good standing forest — was sold or rather thrown 

 away for i'lOO. After a few months it changed bauds 

 at £700. Again in two years it brought £14,000. It 

 has since ruined the last buyers, and were it in the 

 market now, might n it probably bring £7,000. 



"ISo. 3, containing about 800 acres fine forest, was 

 opened in a new district, upwards of 20 years ago. 

 Shortly after, with about 50 acres good coffee, it was 

 sold for £800 : neglected again and almost abandoned 

 it sold for£200 : the distiict was then decried and 

 deserted It was re-opeued up to about 500 acres by 

 the pu chaser at £200, who then sold aud retired with 

 about £16,000 in his pocket, the result of the cultivation 

 of that property. It has since, when more enlarged, 

 and improved, changed hands at £28,000, and the dist- 

 rict is now one of the most favored in tlm country. 



" No. 4, contained 100 acres very fine coffee, and 

 about 500 excellent forest ; but the bug had ching to 

 the estate for several j^ears, and shortened its crops. 

 It was also in a district fur from a shipping port, and 

 theu consequently in low repute, although now a favo- 

 rite district. It was sold at Fiscul's sale for £300. 

 Two years afterwards it changed hinds at £700. It 

 was opened up lo 250 acres by the new purchaser, who, 

 after several years working aud it having cleared itself, 

 sold it for £16.000. 



" iS'o (>. containing 120 acres coffee and 89 forest, 

 was a perfect picture of a place — and was like an 

 oasis in the desert : the onlj e^'tate then in iis dis- 

 trict that had not been in whol» or in part ab-mdoned. 

 The district itself being very much blown was much 

 run down, and almost deserted. 



"It has sin;e rallied — many sheltered uooke hating 

 bein found in it. It is believed iu again, and now con- 

 tains some of the fiuest estates iu the country. 'I'lie one 

 in question, at the date of ray first acquaintance with 

 it, was bought for £3,<I00. It was jierfectly clean, 

 and iu fine order ; but bug unfortunately overran it, 

 and hugged it closely for several years. The proj.irietor, 

 fearina it would never leave him. sold the property 

 for £1.700. SO acres were added to it by the new 

 proprietor. The bug left the tstate ; but it hud no 

 roads nor permanent buildings. He, however-, binding 

 the lessee to erect these and manure the whole e.slate, 

 leased it out shortly after for 10 j ears at £1,000 per 

 annum. This lease is still running. 



"No. 9 was conveniently situated in what was then 

 thought a good district. It contained about 100 acres 

 of coffee and 50 good fiuest. Iu 1846 £5,0110 were 

 off'-rcd and refused for this property. Yet in 1848 it 

 was knocked down at public aucticni. for £250 and 

 everybody thought the purchaser had made his for- 

 tune. But it was not so. His first crop sold iu Lon- 

 don at 353 per cwt., and after working the estate with 

 grt-at economy for 4 years and planting up the spare 

 land, he cleared out of it with a loss of £400. Those 

 were ticklish times and bold was the man who ven- 

 tured to open new laud then. An estate was valued 

 exactly iu proijortiou to its immediate leturus — coffee 



