September i, 1882.J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



241 



$ot|i]^6Iiondm"K!0. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 

 THE " CEDRELA TOONA" ANfJ ITS INSECT 



ENEMY, 

 Houses of Parliament, Brisliane, 1st June 18S2. 

 To the Editor of the Tropical Ayriculturist, Cei/lon, 



SiK, — 1 was much interested by the account given, 

 in your issue of 1st February, of o borer which at- 

 tacks the young trees of Cedrela Toona in Ceylon ; 

 because the same thing has come under my observ- 

 ation here, where the tree is also indigenous. As I 

 write I have within sight two trees eleven years old 

 which .Tre little better than stunted shrubs from this 

 cause. Year after year the tender shoots have been 

 attacked in the manner described, the giub commenc- 

 ing at the terminal point and eating its way until, 

 apparently, the shoot became too woodv for its oper- 

 ations. These are the only oases shewn to myself, but 

 I have heard of others where the trees has been arti- 

 ficially planted. 



This season is the first in which my trees have es- 

 caped, a circumstance probably attributable to a suc- 

 cession of ^ery dry seasons which have had a dis- 

 turbing influence upon much insect life. We have 

 no entomologists in Queensland except a few dilettante 

 butterfly collectors, and I have therefore not been 

 able to learn to what insect the injury done to our 

 young cedars is attributable. If however the subject 

 is likely to be of any importance to Ceylon, I shall 

 be glad, on the first reappearance of the grub, to send 

 specimens for your determination. — Yours faitiifuliy, 

 LEWIS A. BERNAYS. 



[We shall be glad to receive specimens : it is strange 

 the tree should suffer so much if indigenous to Queens- 

 land.— En ] 



THE CEYLON PLANTING ENTERPRIZE AND 



THE PROSPECTS OF OLD AND NEW 



PRODUCTS. 



12 Great Tower Street, Lon on, June SOth. 



Sir,— In reading your leading article in the Over- 



land Ohsfrvir headed "The Tropical Swing' I was 



glad to find you bear out my own stated views 



as regards the continuous shortness of the crops 



in the chief districts on the Kandy side of the 



country (in contradistinction to the Uva side) to 



be owing to rain in February, and not to debility 



in the trees from leaf-disease, as so mauy suppose. 



It would be interesting to compare the rainfall 



return for January, February, March and April, for 



the last ten years with the crop returns of some 



of the leading districts, say Dimbnla and Dik- 



oya.* I think the comparison would show that given 



fine weather from 15tli January to end of February, 



with one or two thunder-storms at the most, the blossoms 



for the year, even if paitially rained upon, will have 



produced a very fair average crop ; and'when the fine 



weather has been prolonged to the end of March 



or the first week in April (compare the Dikoya crop 



of 1878 and the great Dimbula crop of 1876) the 



crops have b€en a good dtal above the average. My 



object in writing this is to help to point out that it 



is the badni-sss of the last four blossoming seasons 



that is at the root of our present misfortunes in 



Cejlon, and not so much the fungus pest, as people 



at home especially seem to think. Leaf disease cert- 



• This can be done on a reference to our Cejlon Handbook 

 lor lb82, where we give a table of rainfall during the 

 blosBoming season for a number of years. — Ed. 

 31 



ainly has diminished the possible average crops from 7 

 or 8 cwt. an acre to 5 or 6, but it is not responsible, 

 I maintain, where estates have been kept in heart, 

 for the present miserable average of the last three 

 crops, and the coming one, which will even reduce 

 the average further in many cases. 



We all know with fair average crops and fair aver- 

 age prices coffee always pays well. A period of dry 

 weather is perfectly essential to enable any fruit- 

 producing tree to put out a healUii/ blossom. I was 

 down in K^nt in April last in the blossoming season, 

 and never had there beensei-na finer show of blossom. 

 In addition to all the orchards there was not an isol- 

 ated plum tree even in a 'cott.ager's garden all the 

 way down from London, that was n't a mass of 

 bloom. I attributed this to the prolonged drought 

 dating as far back as last November interrupted of 

 course by an occasional shower. I was not in 

 England during the blossoming season of 1881, 

 but I was told the drought was longer then and 

 the blossoms apparently as heavy. I can vouch 

 for it that the fruit season in Kent in 1881 was the best 

 in quality and the most in quantity they have had 

 for many years. The coming season will be even bet- 

 ter, judging from the blossom, especially as there have 

 been no damaging frosts to speak of, and nothing to 

 injure the prospects, except a severe storm in May, 

 which in some places did harm. 



The fruit in many cases is sold on the trees before 

 it is ripe, and I hear that the fruit of the cherry orch- 

 ard, which is supposed to be the finest in England, 

 has been sold for £100 more than last year. Agoud 

 blossoming season not only means, I think, a large crop, 

 but a good quality of crop. Both the quantity and 

 quality of the Indian coffee crop this past season has 

 been excellent, and helps with the large supplies from 

 Costa Rica to flood our overladen markets. 



The quality of last season's Cejlon coff'eeasa whole 

 has been disappointing. It is very evident that the 

 metereological conditions of Ceylon's atmosphere have 

 been out of gear from some unknown cause, but that 

 is no reason why they should continue so, and we 

 may reasonably look for a series of favourable blos- 

 soming seasons again. I feel quite confident in my 

 own mind that Ceylon will come round even more 

 rapidly than one can just now hope for. 



The position of Ceylon cinchona not only as regards^ 

 present prices in the London markets but as regards 

 the competition for it, and the new profitable methods 

 of harvesting bark, is all that could be de.iired. If 

 planters could only see the dullness of the South 

 American bark sales at auction compared with those 

 of India and Ceylon they would be much inspirited. 

 The cinchona saleroom every alternate Tuesday is be. 

 coming quite a rendezvous for Ceylon planters in 

 England. 



I am engaged in collecting the statistics of the im- 

 portations of bark into the different European count- 

 ries and America for the last five years, and hope 

 shortly to finish my researches. As far as I have at 

 present gone, the increase everywhere is of a most 

 encouraging nature, both as regards quantity and value. 

 I think it is a great mistake to send home any bark 

 that is not likely to realize Is per lb. A slight loss 

 owing to a small proportion of bark being required 

 for samples will not be felt or noticed when shipments 

 change from 5001b. to 50,000 1b., as the same amount 

 for samples would be suflScient in either case. 



Any estates that have gone in largely for cinchona 

 would do well to establish their marks in England, in 

 the event of an overstocked market, when known and 

 tried marks would probably have the first attention 

 of the buyers. —I am, yours faithfully, 



JOHN HAMILTON, 



