April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



773 



ABOUT TEA. 



A correspondent with good means of information 

 writes : — 



"I enclose the latest information from London, which you 

 can use in auy way you like. My advice to you and to 

 Ceylon is to send the tea to IMessrs. Stenning, Inskipp & 

 Co., who are the only brokers in the Lane who can tell you 

 what, is wrong with your teas. All the brokers can tell 

 you the market value, but, if anything ia wrong with the 

 rnanufacture of the lea, they cannot tell you how to put it 

 right. The only man in the Lane that thorouglily under- 

 stands the manufacture of tea is Mr. Inskipp, who was the 

 head of William Moran & Co.'s tea business for 17 years, 

 and has been over moat tea districts in India. My advice 

 to all planters in Ceylon who cannot yet know all about 

 matiulacture is to send their teas to some one who can 

 adrise thtm on the subject of tea manulacture. And this 

 Messrs.. Stenninf;, Inskipp & Co. can do in all its branches. 

 I atfl off to the lowcountry to two new districts, Rakwana 

 and Morawak Komle. 1 will give you my opinion of them 

 for the growth of tea on my return." 



Then follows a letter from the brokers alluded to, to the 

 following eflect : — 



"59, MiNciNo Lane, London, 19th Jan. 1S83. 

 The Atherfield and Induranah teas have been offered with the 

 following result in Atherfield 



16 chts. br. pk. unsold Is 8hd bid at auction 

 11 do pekoe sold at Is Id (1/Oi ditto) 



pekoe sou. do at 10:Jd 

 br. pekoe do at 8|d 

 br. pekoe do at 23 

 pekoe sou. do at lid 

 do dust do at 75d 



•' We are endeavouring- to obtain our valuation for the 

 first line ; compared witb our valuations, it is evident 

 buyers preferred the Induranah liquors. 



"Annexed are a few sales th.it have been made of Cey- 

 lon growths : it is evident that estates under your care 

 produce the best prices. 



"Report for week as also enclosed. 

 Ceylon Tea Sales. 



CINCHONA PLANTATION COMPANY. 

 The Suraliaya Courant of the 26th January, in an- 

 nouncing the formation at that city of a Cinchona 

 Plantation Company which has secured an estate on 

 which fifty thousand cinchona trees have already been 

 planted, states that bark, from private plantations iu 

 Java, has yielded such satisfactory results that even 

 were prices to fall 50 per cent there is every prospect 

 of plautiug enterprize in that product proving re- 

 munerative. Another Company has also been started 

 for working a cinchona plantation at Band ong in Java. 

 The promoters of this scheme have circulated a pro- 

 spectus, from which the Java Bode ai the 2Uth January 

 quotes the following regarding the prospects of the 

 cinchona culture in that island : — 



"At a lime like the present, when high profits from 

 tobacco planting have become things of the past in 

 Java, and when tea plantations only render very 

 moderate returns, and when also coffee growing, from 

 the great fall in the prices of that article, is becoming 

 more and more a cultivation from which planters can 

 barely make a living, it is not surprising that, for 

 some time past, attention has been drawn to another 

 description of cultivation which gives promise of higher 

 profits, namely the cinchona culture. Encouraged by 

 the splendid results yielded by the Govrrument cin- 

 chona plantations here, several private individuals in 

 Java began planting cinchona five or six years ago. 

 At first cautiously, then with greater confidence, several 

 cinchona estates have successively been called into 

 being, their number increasing greatly within the 

 the last two years. Hitherto large fortunes have 

 not been made from cinchona in Java. But that they 

 will be made may now be asserted with almost ab- 

 solute certainty. So firmly have experienced persons 

 been convinced of this, that they are very much sur- 

 prized at the slowness and reluctance of persons and 

 companies with much available capital in investing 

 their money in this cultivation. It cannot, however, 

 be otherwise. Until private enterprize can snow very 

 large profits such as those realized on (Government 

 plantations, there is no prospect of capital in large 

 amounts becoming available for cinchona growing. 

 This, in one respect, is of importance to proprietors 

 of cinchona plantations both at present and in the 

 immediate future. It is true, the number of these 

 plantations have increased very considerably in Java, 

 and that much cinchona has b( en planted in Ceylon, 

 India and Jamaica; but, on thu other hand, the con- 

 sumption of quinine is also steadily increasing, and 

 market quotations for it continue very high. Besides, 

 in Java, thanks to the careful researches of the 

 Director of the Government cinchona Culture, we 

 are in possession of seeds of the best description, and 

 have also the Ledgeriana, the best variety of cin- 

 chona under cultivation — so that should even the 

 market value of sulphate of quinine, which now is 

 180 guilders per kilo, fall below half that amount, 

 the cultivation of this plant will prove to be mort 

 profitable than that of almost auy other product grown 

 in Java. If ever any Government has led the way 

 and steadily continues to do so for private planting 

 enterprize, by the careful cultivation of a product 

 under clos; observation, this isctrtainly the case with 

 the cinchona culture in Java. It is wellkuown that, 

 50 years ago, the possibility of the introduction of the 

 cinchona plant here was under consideration in Hol- 

 land, From great difficulty in jirocuring seeds, it was 

 not until 1854 that Hasskarl, dtspatched for the pur- 

 pose by tlie Dutch Government under an a.ssumed 

 name, succeeded iu returning with both seeds and 

 plants. In 1856, Junghuhu was charged with the man- 

 agement of the Government Cincliona Culture in Java. 

 Since that time, planting operations have been con- 

 ducted on a large scale. In spile of years of careful 

 management, the Government cinchona culture would 



