July i, :;S82.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



27 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Obsen^er. 



SALES OF CEYLON COFFEE AT GOOD 

 PRICES. 



Edinburgh, 12th April 1882. 



Dkai; Sir, — I have read with interest in your 

 Weeklj/, of Slst March, a short uote from "E. J. T." 

 giving a ijiiotation of fine prices realized for Stock- 

 holm estat? e^jffee, so :— Ic lb 113^; iU It 993 6d ; 

 2c It 107s Gd ; and Ic It 67s. Prices received for 

 tlie North Pnnduloya coli'ce fully come to this. Take 

 a, shipment, ex Qnetta, thu3 : — lo lb lISs; lo lb 

 109s ; lo lb 1043 lid ; 9i; 'Ms ; 9o 903 ; and Ic 102s : 

 ex Dorunda, Ic llOs; Oo 2b 100s; le 1033 ; and 3o 

 lb 963 6d : ex Duke of Buckinyhara, 4c 1023 

 6d ; 4c 101s; and 24c 90s. "E. J. T." states that 

 the prices he gives will shew that " Ceylon cofTee 

 can hold its own against the world." I will go further 

 than this : 1 say that onr line Ceylon coffees can 

 beat any other — produce it where they m>iy — which 

 is proveil by these good samples continuing to realize 

 snch fine prices, while the European stocks are so 

 heavy and prices for middling and inferiors have 

 fallen so heiivily. Superior preparation, both on the 

 estates and in Colombo, I have no doubt, has a 

 good deal to do with good prices, and it would be 

 interesting to all connected with coffee, advantageous 

 both to managers and curers, if planters could give 

 increased publicity in your columns, as to the results of 

 their sales. — Yours truly, P. D. MILLIE. 



MR. A. SCOTT BLACKLAW ON COFFEE PLANT- 

 IXG PROSPECTS : 



PRODUCTION I.N' BRAZIL ARRE.STEI> ; WHILE t'ONSl'iMP- 

 TIOX IN' THE UNITED .ST.VTES IS YE.VRLy INCREASING. 

 Dollar, 12th April 1882. 



Dear Sirs, — 1 am mncli pleased with the way you 

 have turned out my letters; you must have had some 

 dilliculty in the editing of them. My facts were taken 

 from good aiithoritis, and can be relied on, but the 

 puiting of them together was generally rather hur- 

 riedly done, always at the last moment before the mail 

 left. Living here out of the coffee world 1 do not 

 know how the letters m:iy have been appreciated by 

 those more immediately interested, the proprietors 

 of coffee estates in India and Ceylon. Your last come 

 Ohsermr — that of Mui-ch 1 1th — contains the last two of 

 my letters. 



Poisihly I may have said too much. There are 

 some things betier to be left unsaid, and I do not 

 think my exposition, of the «ase with which Brazil 

 can produce and send to Europe and the United 

 States such large coffee crops will meet with the 

 approval of everyone, considering the straits many 

 Crvlon coffee-planters arc in, first f ro o the effects 

 of leaf-dibeasii on their plantatioua ; and .second, the 

 low price of coffee brought on by Brazil's large crops. 

 While in London, two months ago, I put myself to 

 the trouble to call on the CimsulGeneral of the 

 United States in London to get information on the 

 increa.se of population in the United States during the 

 last thirty years ; in other words, during the time 

 that the consumption of coffee has been steadily in- 

 creasing. Brazil's coffee crops ai-e consumed principally 

 in thi United States. When the crcps .^f llrazil are 

 larger than can be consumed in the United States, 

 the snrijlus finds its way to Europe, and the price 

 of Ceylon and Java coffees comes down. Considering 

 that, Ottiug ti the stojipage of the inter-provincial 

 shue trade in Brazil, the coffee crops there will not 



be larger than they are now, we might expect that, 

 as the population of the United States increasis, so 

 the consumption of Brazilian coffee and the present 

 surplus that is now being sent to Europe will follow the 

 regular course as of old, and be sent to North America. 

 Ceylon, East India and Java will then, as before, supply 

 the Eurojiean markets. 



The Consul-Gcneral was very obliging, and, althounh 

 1 could not get returns as to the consumption of coffee 

 in the States, he kindly furnished me with particulars 

 as to the pi.pulation, Here are the figures : — 

 I860 the population was 31 443 331 

 1«70 ... 38,558,.371 



1880 ... 50,000,000 



Emigration to I he United States last year reached 

 a total of 776,000, and at present it is going on at 

 a larger proportion. We may safely calculate on an 

 increase of 25 per cent of the population in the next 

 ten years. 



I leave you or some of your correspondents to work 

 up the figures. I think one could get data sufficient 

 '-?«?° "1'°" ^^ studying the coffee prices cm rent. 

 Coffee planting has got a future. I do Rot think 

 the Ceylon planters should lose patience by consider- 

 ing the present price of coffee as likely to last. 



I hope the experiments now being made to try to 

 get rid of the leaf-disease may be successful. A cure 

 for that will help Ceylon more than a rise in the 

 price of coffee. — I am, yours very truly, 



A. SC 'TT BLACKLAW. 



HYBRIDITY. 



May 4th, 1882. 



Dear Sir, — I thinkyour correspondent "X.," in the 



Observer ol 2nd instant, is in error when he assumes 



by asking the question— " do, or do not, rabbits .and 

 hares cross freel.v ?" Domesticated they may, but in 

 their natural state it is comparatively rare, if not 

 altogether unknown. The dog and fo.x, however, have 

 often been known to cross. In that case, one at least 

 is in the natural state, proving hybridity possible. 



In the vegetable kingdom, how .about dkecious plants? 

 Are we told they never fructify naturally ? if they 

 do, then why not hybridity ?— Yours faithfully, 



SI VERUM SCIRE VIS. 



THE CINNAMON TRADE. 



Sth May 18S2. 

 Sir, — Referring to the discussion now going 



to the effect of the trade 



on as 

 cinnamon chips or the 

 price of quilled cinnamon, I find from your DirectMry 

 that the exports for the year ending the 30th Sept. 

 1880 amounted to 474,484 lb of chips as against 

 1,395,534 lb hales. It will thus be seen that the one- 

 turn of chips is over one-third of quills, considerably 

 more than a planter allows, and there can be no douI:t 

 that tiie withdrawal of this enormous quantity of chips 

 from the market must beneficially affect the price of 

 quills. It is, alas ! perfectly true that the sale of 

 chips leaves only four or five cents per lb, after de- 

 ducting the cost of scraping ; and the apparently higher 

 prices realized in the London market just suffice to 

 cover the heavy charg-s The demand for chips is 

 always reported brisk and steady in London, and it 

 seems only reasonable to infer that in the absence of 

 chips there would be more inquiry for quills. If this 

 results in prices advancing by oneihird of four or tiv, 

 cents (say 1^ to 2 cents) we should not lose by throw- 

 ing away our chips ; but I anticipate the rie in price 

 will be ctmsideraljly more It only requires that my 

 fellow-proprieto'S fhould see the matter m this light 

 to secnre the practical abolition of the trade in chip- 

 and steady lise in prices. "A Merchant," in reply Xo 

 "Planter," in a late issue of the Observer, sugocstg 

 local Biiles as a means of doing away with the middle 



