THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[July i, i882_ 



men, who, by means of qnaiterly sales, aud other- 

 wise, swallow up so large :i share of the profits vvhieh 

 a'.ioulil go to the producer. If local sales do away 

 with two classes of middlemen, how comes it that 

 .bMcrchaut " makes no higher otlVr than is represented 

 .y Loudou prices? If growers failed to realz^ in 

 London at least as much as they do here, I hardly 

 think they would continue the practice of shipping 

 on their own account. We seek to do away with 

 middlemen, not as such, but as absorbents of our 

 protits. "Mercbant" proposes to do awav with the 

 middlemen, only to put their protits into his own 

 pi oket ; otherwise, he would pay us Loudon prices 

 pUis the profits of the middleu-'en, or at least of as 

 many of t.iem as he does away with. 



Again, there is this to be observed, that " Merchant," 

 under the guidance of interested brokers, otl'ers the 

 same for well-known brands wbich fetch over over u's 

 iu London as for bark which sells at Is (id. The 

 resnlt is that small-holders sell to the native emissary, 

 who sells to the merchant, rather than to the mer- 

 chant direct ; for the native gentleman pays a high 

 price to mix with inferior stuft' and sell to the mer- 

 chant. If merchants deal direct with responsible meu 

 ■H^illiug to let their marks be used, the result is likely 

 to be satisfactory to both parties.— Yours trul)', 



PROPRIETOR. 



WAVES OF PROSPERITY SUCCEEDING DE- 

 PRESSION : MAURITIUS AND CEYLON. 

 Colombo, 9th May 1SS2. 

 Dear Sik,— The date is not so remote that it is 

 ditheuU to recall the time, when the state of agri- 

 culture in the Mauritius was synonymous with ruin. 

 The liCcoants of the Ceylon Comp;iny,LiMU(ed, published 

 1. uni time to time, furiiifli ample evidence of the losses 

 sustamed by the precipitate reali-sation of sugar estates, 

 of «hich it had one way or anotlier become the owner. 

 No aooner had tlie Company realized their propei t- 

 ies at the lowest point of depression than the tide 

 chaut'td. A couple of seasons favorable for agriculture 

 emilcd on the island, and the tide of proe|jerity be- 

 gan to follow. A short time ago, you published an 

 extract from a Mauritius paper, shewiug the wonder- 

 ful eubanct-ment that bad taken placn in the value 

 of estates, in consequence of their having bejome the 

 property of more intelligent persons. This change 

 was not brought about by the increased value of the 

 etaple product, but simply by a change of seasons ! 

 By the enclosed cut'ing from the overland edition of 

 the Mtrchants' and Planters' Gazette you will see 

 that the prospect of a favourable season f-r the 

 coming or 'p has further increaseil the wave of pros- 

 peritv, and everything in the Mauritius has a roseate 

 hue. 



Is this not a warning to Ceylon planters aud 

 mortgagees, many of whom are, I believe, about to 

 commit pecuniary euicile by abandoning or neglect- 

 in" the cultivation of estates, whicli only three or 

 four years ago were considered a mine of wealth, 

 because their maintenance may add some small addition 

 to the money already invested ? In Mauritius pro- 

 sperity was dependent upon one staple product : here, 

 iu the majority of cases, we have two, and in many 

 three or more.— Yours truly, MEKCATOR. 



A NEW USE FOR MANIOC OR CASSAVA. 

 Puttalam, 9th May 1SS2. 



Dear Sir, — I beg to forward, for your information 

 aad that of your readers, the following extract, which I 

 haT5 .->i>*~<aed from the Sciciifi/ic Amerkaii, December 

 31st, 18SL aD'' trust that it may be of some use to 

 those interested in "ra^sava," or Uinse wi-hing to try 

 new products— Yours, BO.STON. 



(Extract re/erred to.) 



A New Source or Gluco.se. — A company has been 

 formed in Philadelphia to manufacture glucose from 

 cassava, the source of tapioca. As at present manu- 

 factured from corn, the average yield of corn being 

 taken at 3.5 bushels to the acre, the glucose product is 

 about ],000 pounds to the acre. The yield from 

 cassava is reckoned to be fully twenty times as great. 

 The company's expectation will doulitless bear cou- 

 siderable paring down. They say that well antlicntic- 

 atcd evidence is at hand to the etfect 1 hat 20 tons of 

 of cassava to the acre is no unusual crop in Florila. 

 This, at 56 'pounds to the bushel, would give give a 

 y eld of over 700 bushels per acre, or, at the rate of 30 

 pounds of glucose per bushel, would produce over 

 21,000 pounds of glucose per acre. A comparison of 

 the yield of glucose from corn, and cassava shows that 

 1,000 acres of corn yields about 500 tons of glucose ; 

 1,000 acres of cassava yields about 10,000 tons of 

 glucose. 



[We bad seen this statement, aud meant to draw 

 attention to it, as important to lowcountiy planting in 

 Ceylon. When we visited what is probably the largest 

 cassava plantation iu the world, the property of a 

 French gentleman at Singapore, he told us that supply 

 bad outrun demand, aud that he had a heavy stock of 

 well prepared cassava iu Lnndon. If the statement now 

 made turns out to be correct, Ceylon planters may be 

 able to take a share in supplying with glucose the 

 breweries of the world, including that just started at 

 Nuwara Eliya.— E.] 



SALES OF FINE COFFEE. 



Colombo, 11th May 1882. 



Dear Sir, — Some not well acquainted with the 

 subject might be misled by the letter of your cor- 

 respondent, P. IJ. Millie. It is true that a lew par- 

 cels of tiuest coffees fetched the [jrices he names, 

 about February last, and at the time middling 

 coffees were at their lowest point ; but it must unt 

 be forgotten that these high rates were only paid 

 bi cause coffees of such rpiality have been so very 

 rare amongst our shipments this ye.ar, and that the 

 number of marks \\dnch have fetched those top 

 prices could be counted on one's fingers. Ccfl'ees 

 wbich were hut slightly interior, indeed so little 

 so that planters would probably nut distinguish any 

 difference, have been sold at 15s to 20s per cwl. be- 

 low these rates, and now even the marks named by 

 your correspondent would probably fetch less by 10s 

 per cwt. than in February la^t, owing partly to 

 the influx of tiue East Indians, against which it can 

 scarcely be said that Ceylon is holding its own. 



If estates are not kept up as formerly, not only 

 shall we be deficient iu quality, but Ceylon will rap- 

 idly lose its name quality also. — Yours tri-ily, 



VERY PALE. 



THE BROUGHTON ESTATE CINCHONAS. 



ISadulla, 12th May 1SS2. 



Sir, — My attention has been drawn to your articles 

 in the Observer of 5th and (Jth iiist. on the analysis 

 of " hybrid bark '' obtained from some cinchona trees 

 grown on Broughtou estate, Haputale, particularly 

 alludiug to that portion of the estate that was once 

 my property, ant soliciting "enlightenment" from 

 me on the now puzzling question of cinchona "hjdjrids," 

 or at least infomation about the " uffs^jrinij" of 

 those (succirubra mil officinalis) parent trees planted 

 by me on Mahaintiya estate iu the year 1865. I ob- 

 tained the origin d plants from the UaUgala garden 

 when the late Mr. McNicoU was Superintendent of the 

 Government Ciie'iona Plantation. As far as I can 

 recollect there were only the two varieties, viz. micci- 



