March 2, 188s.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



099 



COFFEE CULTURE IN AMERICA, ASIA 



AND AFRICA. 

 We have received a copy o£ the Dutch edition 

 of the report on coffee culture in Brazil, by Mr. 

 VaD Delden Laerne, of the Java Civil Service, the 

 comprehensive title of which runs thus : — 



Brazilio en Java. Verslag over de Koftieeultuur in Am- 

 erika, Azie en Afrika Aangeboden aan Z. E. den Minister 

 van Kolonien door K. F. van Deldeo Laerne, Referendaris 

 bij het Departement van Biuuenlaudsch Bestuur te Bata- 

 via, door de Nedcrlandsche Regeering belast mot eene 

 zencling uaar Brazilic, in het belang van de koffieteelt en 

 ,]cu kottiehandel in Ned.-Indie. 



There are to be editions in French and English of 

 the work, and the Dutch title is done into "English 

 as she is spoke," after the fashion following :— 



Brazil and Java. Report on the Coffee-culture in America, 

 Asia aud Africa, offered to H. E. the Minister of the 

 Colonies, by C. F. van Delden Laerne, Referendary at the 

 Department of the Interior at Batavia (Java), charged 

 by the Dutch Government with a special mission to Brazil 

 011 behalf of the Coffee-culture and Coffee-commerce in 

 the Dutch Possessions in Iudia. Translated from the 

 Dutch. 1 vol. 8vo. With maps. Cloth. Price 1 Guiuea. 

 " Offered," of course, means furnished or submitted 

 to the Minister of the Colonies. We have ordered the 1 

 English edition, and we must wait for that befoie ' 

 reviewing the report or extracting from it. But we | 

 may say at ODce that the information collected seems 

 ample and well arranged, and that the value of the 

 work is greatly enhanced by the two splendid maps 

 attached to it. The first, prepared by Professor | 

 Orvillc A. Derby, so lately as 1884, indicates the 

 geological formations of the coffee area of Central - 

 Brazil, an area embracing the couotry between 19° i 

 and 2i South latitude, and somewhat beyond 41 I 

 to 4S° West longitude. The space includes the larger 

 portion of the three great Provinces of Rio de Janeiro, 

 San Paulo (Sautoe) and Minas Geracs. Six colours 

 are used to indicate the different formations. The 

 second map embraces the same area, but here Mr. 

 Van Delden Laerne has laid on colours to indicate 

 the Rio and Santos zones, respectively, while rail- 

 ways in operatiou, under construction, aud contem- 

 plated, are laid down and give a vivid idea of the 

 extent to which railway facilities have aided slave- 

 labour iu swamping the maikets of the world with 

 coffee. On this map there is a very interes'iug 

 diagram of the celebrated San Paulo railway which 

 at one place goes up an almost precipice by means of 

 " lifts" similar to those which we :o happily escaped 

 in CeyloD. The " Lengtiprotiel van de Spuorweglijn 

 (steam-road-liue) van Santo^uaar S. Paulo en Jundiahy " 

 gives a very vivid idea of the character of this 

 extraordinary work, by meaus of which trains leap, 

 as it were, from the lowcountry to the mountain 

 plateau of San Paulo. From the table of contents 

 we gather that there is a full account of the '■ Spoor- 

 wegen," and that " Slavernij en Emancipatie" are 

 fully discu sed, also " Immigratie en Kohmisatie,' 

 with " Klimaat," &c. But wc hope to give an idea 

 of the numerous subjects embraced in tins volume, 

 and, perhaps, translations of some portions of the 

 contents, in a future number. 



"CEYLON AS A FIELD FOR THE IN- 

 VESTMENT OF CAPITAL AND ENERGY :" 



BOYHOOD THE HAPPIEST TIME OS LIFE — CEYLON IN 

 OLD DAYS : ITS CONQUEST BY TUB BRITISH — THE 

 ROAD TO KAN1>Y : HOW IT WAS MADE AND ITS 

 EFFECT ON THE REVENUE OF THE ISLAND— THE RISE 

 AND FALL OF THE COFFEE INDUSTRY — THE RUIN 

 CAUSED BY LEAP-DISEASE NOT CONFINED TO THE 

 EUROPEAN COMMUNITY' — NEW PRODUCTS— THE NEW 

 KINO, TEA : ITS UBIQUITY OF GROWTH— DANGERS 01 

 HURRY — ADVANTAGES ENJOYED BY CEYLON TEA PLANT- 

 ERS— LIKELIHOOD OF A FALL IN PRICES COST OF 



PRODUCTION — THE BEST TEA SOIL— CHOICE OF PLANTS 

 — HYBRIDS — NEW AND OLD LAND — ELEVATION AND 

 RAINFALL— COST OE OPENING A TEA ESTATE OF 100 

 ACRES - PROFITS — A HEALTHY CLIMATE— THE CEYLON 

 PLANTERS — DISTRICT ASSOCIATIONS. 



Vanilla.— Our Vanilla Market is still dull. There 

 have been no sales. All the prepared vauilla is shipped 

 for the planters' accouuts. Tms is the first time for 

 many years that this has been the case. It must be 

 said, however, that buyers, in presence of the unfavor- 

 able news from Europe are not disposed to give the 

 prices demanded, and prefer to abstain from buying. 

 [Mauritius and Bourbon so fully supply the market 

 with the aromatic pods that we are not sauguiue of the 

 suceesBof experiments in Ceylon. — Ed.] 



My dear Mae. D- , — Your letter came duly 



to laud, and I was at first a little excited about 

 how you discovered my address, but I suppose you 

 came across Ferguson's Directory, which tiavels far 

 and wide over the face of the earth, or perhaps you 

 may have met with one of the few old planters who 

 may have known me in other days. I never was a 

 very conspicuous person, but for the last dozen j ears 

 nothing could be more obscure than my existence. 

 You remind in- of those winter evenings 51 years 

 ai;o, when 8«me little assistance old Mrs Maokay 

 solicited for h> r grandson, in getting up his lessons, 

 led to the nightly gathering of half-a-dozen boys 

 round me, to be coached in ihe questions the dominie 

 was likely to ask next day, and then we indemnified 

 ourselves with much fuu aud frolic for our hour of 

 study. I have often thought that the clays of boy- 

 hood, siy from ten to fifteen, are the only real good 

 times that lif- has to offer. 



You wish me to give you my opinion of the Ceylon 

 of to lay as a field of life work for a young man of 

 twenty with fair t dents tolerably cultivated, and who 

 can command a capital of ,t'"2,0l)0, two or three years 

 hence if the life and work should be satisfactory. 



The Ceylon of today is very greatly changed from 

 the Ceylou that 1 first set foot in forty-four years 

 ago. Th Ceylon of that day was one of the poor- 

 est countries on t he face of the earth. It had been 

 conquered from the Dutch in 1796, and was kept by 

 Britain at the peace, because it was not desirable 

 that any foreign nation should have a footing so near 

 our Indian Empire. A large garrison was maintained 

 chiefly at the cost of England, and in 1815, the 

 whole island was brought under British rule by the 

 conquest of the Kaudyan kingdom, which added some- 

 thing to the strength if not to the wealth of the 

 Government. It was for the more secure military oc- 

 cupation of the new conquest that a road was run 

 into the centre of the mountain zone. The Govern- 

 ment of those days was not rich enough to have made 

 twenty miles of carriage road in any direction on 

 the system that now obtains ; but it had inherited 

 from the native rulers' an unlimited right of corvee, 

 and by this custom all the unskilled la our r- quired 

 for the construction of the skilfully planned sys em of 

 roads was supplied. Else it is nut easy to see how 

 the island could ever have become other thm it had 

 been for a thousand years, a land of tons s and 

 swamps inhabited by an indolent apathetic race, living 

 from hand to mouth, decimated by famines from time 

 to time, aud keeping population in check by the 

 practice of polyandry aud female infanticide. In t e 

 towns on the sea coast, there was a mix lire of other 

 races, European descendants, half-caste Moors, Tamils, 

 &c, and there alone the scanty capital of the island 

 , was concentrated, and the small trade transacted 



I A man who could give bis daughter one bundretl 



