354 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1884. 



while in the Society's Gardens that the Calabash Tree labelled 

 " Crescentia cujete" is the winged petioled one, C. A/ata* 

 (sometimes placed in the genus I'armentiera); suggesting 

 that the Society has probably the true C. Cujete also, though 

 he did not see it, and that it not he can send it ; asking for 

 seed of the C. Alata, which he has not ; apologising for the 

 delay iu sending the Bread-fruit Trees, of which about a 

 dozen had been propagated for the Society, but by some 

 mistake during his absence were sent to the north of the 

 Island, whither he had also intended to forward some ; 

 and promising soon to have another lot ready iu the low- 

 country, where they are propagated. Recorded with many 

 thauks. — Read the following extracts from a letter from 

 Messrs. William Brothers, Merchants & Planters, Heuerat- 

 goda, Ceylon, dated 22nd May, 1884:— "We have tapped 

 a Ceara Rubber tree of six years age at the beginning of 

 April. Three clays successive tapping by an ordinary knife 

 gave 8j oz. dried rubber. Ceylon Ceara rubber has already 

 been valued in London at three to four shillings per 

 pound. The operation can be done twice a year, Three 

 hundred Ceara trees to the acre at 12 feet apart, at one 

 pound rubber per tree— per annum 300 lb. — pays at Rl, 

 R300 ; coolies' pay for tapping, superintendence, and other 

 expenses, per acre, per annum, say R100; profit per acre per 

 annum, R200. Certainly this is very encouraging, consider- 

 ing the little outlay it requires. The quantity of rubber 

 increases yearly with the age of the tree, but our experi- 

 ence shows that it is not advisable to tap Ceara trees under 

 five years age." ***** "Ceara Rubber seeds can be 

 grown without filing, as follows : — Keep the seeds in cold 

 water for six days, put in the nursery covered about half 

 an inch with soil, about 2 or 3 inches apart, and water 

 twice a day — morning and evening — in dry weather. The 

 nursery should not be shaded, or the seeds will perish. 

 Seeds will begin to germinate one month after planting 

 from time to time, and will take from two to four months to 

 complete the germination." Recorded with thanks. 

 Certainly, Messrs. William Brothers of Henaratgoda 

 are much more sanguine about Ceara rubber than most 

 European planters are. We add the following : — 



On 19th July. 1884, the Superintendent cut a mature 

 fruit of Litndolphia, sp., from one of the plants growing up 

 one of the shade trees in the nursery ,f and has successfully 

 preserved it, with leaves and flowers, in spirit. Resolved, 

 that this specimen, being probably the first fruit of Landol- 

 phia matured out of its native country, be sent to the 

 Government Museum, and that Sir John Kirk be informed 

 of the success of his efforts to introduce the plant. 



THE PROSPECTS uF ENGLAND'S TROPICAL 

 COLONY. 



AN INTERVIEW WITH A CEYLON JOURNALIST (ME. JOHN 

 FERGUSON). 



(From the " Pall Mall Budget," Sept. 5th.) 



" We have not now ' all our eggs in one basket.' At 

 present the city will not look at Ceylon as a field for 

 investment. Money is scarce owiug to the fall of the 

 Oriental Bank, and our credit has been greatly damaged 

 by the collapse of the Ceylon (more properly the Mauritius) 

 Company. It should be known, however, that in our climate, 

 roads, railways, cheap free labour, we have every encourage- 

 ment for tropical agriculture in Ceylon. Our natives are being 

 so rapidly educated that by 1900 a.d. English will practically 

 be the language of the majority of the people. Colombo is 

 the centre of the Eastern world, thanks to Sir John Coode's 

 new harbour ; and capital judiciously invested in tea and cacao 

 culture especially, is as likely to bring a good return as any 

 agricultural enterprize I know of anywhere." Such is Mr. 

 Ferguson's summing-up of England's tropical colony. He is 

 inclined, it will be seen, to take an optimistic view of 

 Ceylon and its future, but he speaks with the accumulated 

 experiences of twenty-three years' residence iu the colony. 

 Then he has the numerous correspondents of his papers, 

 the Ceylon Observemnd the Tropical Agriculturist, scattered 

 all over the tropical world where English planters are at 



* This error had been already discovered by the Super- 

 intendent and the label removed, 

 t Vide page 263, ante. 



work ; some reporting on tea iu Assam ; on planting pros- 

 pects iu Java and Fiji ; on the new Liberian coffee iu West 

 Africa; and on planting iu Brazil: while he himself has 

 just been making the all-round the world trip, visiting 

 California and Florida en route. " Nowhere is tropical 

 agriculture so thoroughly studied and experimented on as 

 in Ceylon." 



Young Men Wanted. — •' We now ask for young fellows 

 of the right sort — even public schoolmen, university men — 

 any one with pluck and energy who comes determined to fight 

 his way against all odds. Do not mistake me. We do not 

 want to be flooded out by thriftless ne'er-do-weels, who 

 have failed at everything they have turned their hand to, 

 but resolute chaps with a little capital to invest, though 

 they must first serve an arduous apprenticeship, for there 

 is no royal road to tea-planting. No young fellow should 

 come out without some money and letters of introduction 

 to planters or merchants. A tropical country is so different 

 in its conditions from Australia and New Zealand, where 

 a man can turn to at once. Let us suppose our model 

 young man landed at Colombo ami despatched to a station 

 to serve bis novitiate. In some cases he might have to 

 pay from £50 to £100 a year for his board and training, 

 but if he shows any aptitude for his work and is a willing 

 horse, he would well repay his cost for food and shelter." 

 The Fungus Scoubge. — " The story of the coffee blight is 

 soon told. A few years ago, coffee alone was seen over 

 hundreds of square miles of hillside and valley, eastward, 

 south, and north of Adam's Peak. Then in 1869 the fungus 

 appeared, and year after year it did its deadly work, and 

 half ruined us. Here are some figures which put the 

 matter in a nutshell. Take the coffee production from 

 1847 to 1883 now. You have in 1847 an acreage of 

 45,000, with an export of 200,000 hundredweight; in 1857— 

 86,0 «i acres, and 450,000 hundredweight ; in 1867 — 168,000 

 acres and 868,000 hundredweight : iu 1877—272,000 acres, 

 and 926,000 hundredweight ; in 18^3— 174,000 acres, and 

 265,000 hundredweight; whilst 1S84 is expected to give 

 from 360,000 to 400,(100 hundredweight. I 'think we may 

 fairly say that the point of depression has been turned, 

 if the estimate proves anything like correct." 



Tea will Save us.—" What happened after the coffee 

 blight became serious ?" " Why, naturally enough, many of 

 the plantations were deserted, the capitalists took fright, 

 superintendents were thrown out of employment, and set 

 off to other countries. There was a regular migration to 

 Northern Australia, Fiji, Borneo, the Straits, California, 

 Florida, Burmah, and elsewhere. I should say that out of 

 our 1,700 planters we lost at least 400 in this way. In Nor- 

 thern Australia, at Port Darwin, three or four of our Cey- 

 lon planters have planted coffee and cinchona; in California 

 some are busy with vines and oranges. Some have gone to 

 Florida among the orange groves • but a Floridan orange 

 grove requires twenty years to come to full maturity, 

 though the trees bear long before that, say in six years. 

 There is a ready market in America for the fruit, but 

 a man requires to work hard there and to know his 

 business before his speculation is likely to prove re- 

 munerative. But our indomitable planters, who stuck to 

 their posts, began to turn their attention to other pro- 

 ducts — tea, cinchona, rubber, cacao ; some 175,000 acres 

 of coffee being still under cultivation. Now the coffee 

 planter runs belts of rubber trees and cinchona between 

 his coffee bushes, thus helping to check the spread of 

 the dread coffee fungus. I think the statistics show 

 that the scourge is abating; but whatever comes of 

 coffee, Ceylon will become a great tea-growing country 

 within the next few years. When the 35,000 acres of 

 laud now under tea come into full bearing, in three or* 

 four years we expect to export ten million pounds. Some 

 day Ceylon will have 150.000 acres under tea. and an 

 annual export of sixty million pounds aud upwards. Home 

 capitalists have only to say the word. From 4S2 pounds of 

 tea exported in 1N75-6, the amount in 1S82-3 reached a 

 million and a half pounds. The yield of cacao for this 

 year is likely to reach 10,000 cwt. Last season we exported 

 7,000,000 pounds of cinchona bark, this year it will be 

 10,000,000; while of cinnamon and palm tree products 

 (grown chiefly by natives) we ship nearly a million sterling's 

 worth. The Sinhalese and Tamils are quite ready to follow the 

 European planters in reference to the new products of late 

 years being introduced into Ceylon. They have planted 



