July 



^■] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



the world ? We have had the troubles of British farmers 

 brought prominenlly before us, and more recently 

 there came a sad tale of distress from many parts of 

 the Australian continent, the result of a terribly pro- 

 longed droirght. Very noteworthy is it I hat there, 

 as hero, the "silver lining" to the dark cloud is 

 found -in the opportunity presented for cultivating 

 "NEW PRODUCTS." The vignerons of France, the 

 potato-cultivating Irish peasants, the wheat farmers 

 of Australia, equally with the coffee planters of Ceylon, 

 made the grand mistake of placing their sole depend- 

 ence ou one product. Let us listen to the comfort 

 offered to the wheat fiirmers in South Australia in the 

 Adehiide Register : — 



[The extract which was to have been inserted here has 

 unfortunately been mislaid by the writer: it reported, liow- 

 ever, the great distress existing amongst the farmers of 

 South .\usirQha, many of whom had been absolutely ruined 

 by the proloii^^ed drought ; a farmers' relief fund liad been 

 started at Adelaide ; and ihe Register dwelt on the need 

 for encouraging Iruit culture to meet the ease of dry years. 

 Many large gardens and orchards had been planted, and 

 estaldishments for preserving fruit tor export were springing 

 up about Adelaide.] 



Would tliat the "rush" into new products in Ceylon 

 had commencud ten years earlier ; but surely, as it is, 

 there is comfort for planters and capitalists in the 

 indisputable facts already before the public. The 

 Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens must be con- 

 sidered the very embodiment of caution and imparti- 

 ality, and yet we are aware that the encouraging 

 report he has made ou the prospects of several new 

 economic plaTits — notably on cinchona, cocoa, Liberian 

 coffee and rubbers — expresses less than he feels about 

 the importance of these industries. We feel sure that 

 the omission of any reference to tea was not due to any 

 waut of interest in the extending cultivation of this 

 most important product, nor to doubt of its suc- 

 cess. Dr. Trimen, no doubt, considers our tea indus- 

 try to have got beynd the experimental stage, 

 while there was nothing about it calling for scientific 

 criticism or remark. A glance at the export table 

 is sutEcient to shew how rapidly the figures for cin- 

 chona and tea are running up. Cardamoms also are 

 making a decent display ; but the exports of cocoa 

 are rather " lang o' comin," no doubt due Jto the 

 steady extension of the cultivated area. [In connec- 

 tion with our export trade generally, it is satisfactory 

 to see that, though coconut oil has fallen off, coir 

 yarn is being increasingly exported, as also plumbago, 

 cinnamon bark and oil, citronella oil and some other 

 minor products.] 



The want of capital will alone prevent a good 

 many thousands of acres being planted with tea this 

 season : there are large expanses of coffee land which 

 have yielded very jjoor returns of berries of late 

 years, which offer great facility (and encouragement) 

 to the planting with tea. Nowhere in these districts have 

 I heard of tea bushes failing : everywhere this product 

 seems to be flourishing; luxuriantly. Surely the tea-plant 

 ought to be ruitable to our moist liot climate. Leafage 

 ratlier than blossom and fruit distinguishes our 

 natural veget:;tion ; and if the old Indian tea 

 planters in our midst are to be believed, nowhere 

 in the opposite continent is so much encouragement 

 offered to go into " tea" as in the Central Province 



of Ceylon. A great deal will be done in extending 

 the area planted this year, now that good hybrid 

 seed can be had for ten rupees per bushel ; but this 

 not so much in new clearings from forest reserves 

 as in planting up fields and perhapi estates for 

 which coffee has been found to be unsuitable. It 

 behoves capitalists interested in coffee property to 

 consider the advantage of adding tea as well as cin- 

 chona to the estate products. Few plantations are 

 without patches, if not fields, which have never 

 done and never will do much good in coffee and 

 where it is equally useless to try the bark-tree, but 

 for which tea seems well adapted. On badly grub- 

 bed Coffee land, where cinchona cannot be got to 

 grow, the tea-bush seems to luxuriate. We believe 

 one of the most promising fields of tea in the 

 country was, some years ago, the scene of abandoned, 

 because completely grubbed-out, coffee. Cut alas ; 

 for tea, as cinchona and many other experiments 

 full of promise, money is wanted, and that 

 commodity is scarce in proportion to our coffee 

 crops. It ought not to be so in respect of tea, if 

 there is a steady profit of from R70 to RSO per acre 

 to be made under the circumstances we refer to, 

 counting the crop at 400 lb. and upwards per acre and 

 the cost as equal to 40c. per lb. of tea f. o. b. at Colombo. 

 As regards cinchona cultivation in all its varied 

 divisions and experiences, no one can say that, amidst 

 many disappointments, there is not also much to en- 

 courage. Failures of plr.nts and trees innumerable there 

 have been, but nevertheless the value of the growing 

 cinchonas at this moment must be very considera'de, 

 and if a large proportion of the succirubras are suc- 

 cessfully utilized for the valuable " Ledgers " through 

 the " Mattakelle ' process, a very important addition 

 to the wealth of the country must take place. As 

 recent examples of success, encouraging enough to 

 warrant still greater things from cinchona, the figures 

 for the harvest gathering from an acre of red bark 

 trees coppiced on an estate not a hundred miles distant, 

 have been placed at our service : — 



1,573 succirubra trees 6 to 7 years old, have given of 



Good quill bark 5,8li0 lb. 



Branch quill 1,055 „ 



Bottle-branch bark 2,269 „ 



Shavings ... 2,840 „ 



Root bark (of a few trees) ... 3G „ 



Total (as dried on the estate). ..12,000 W 

 The pecuniary result is not yet made known, but 

 probably this acre of land will give as much to the 

 proprietor now as the rate paid and demanded for 

 additional station accoratnodation on the extension 

 line, while of course coppiced and shaven trees are 

 readj to yield again in due season. In another case 

 in Lower Dikoya, 2 acres of land useless for coffee, an 

 eyesore, planted with cinchona which began to canker 

 at three years old, gave bark of all kinds which yielded 

 K700 in Colombo the other day. 



Still more satisfactory perhaps is it to hear of 

 Mr. Martin's experience on Nanuoya, where the shav- 

 ing of an acre of succirubra trees, five years old, has 

 given 1,400 lb of produce which has beeu sold 

 (? valued) for Rl,084. No doubt these are the 

 exceptions. Mention could be made of dire 



