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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March 2, 1885. 



wb) growing, go and learu the art of preparation for 

 the London markst. In this way the first three years 

 of proprietorship could be profitably spent and the 

 realization of profits rendeied all the sweeter by an 

 iot mate acquaintance with the cause and effect. 



It is highly improbable that any tabl s of estimates 

 would be understood by the tyro, and therefore 

 tignrei which prove anything will be avoided ; but 

 briefly to give some idea of how capital would be 

 exp nded is only reasonably to be expected. 



First then let as take the case of ao old coffee estate. 

 An est te of 640 acres or a square mile of land is 

 purchased, say for R20,000, or, to make it clearer, 

 £1,660. On this there would be a bungalow, a good 

 store with wa'er-wheel and machinery, and ample 

 a- c nimodation for the co"»ly labour. There then might 

 be 300 acres of offee, good, bad and indifferent; 20 

 acres 'if cinchona, some good forest and some chenaor 

 eecond growth of jungle or land ore? opened. The annual 

 expenditure on such a place would be, -ay, £1,200 and 

 crop value of coff e and cinchona £1,440. Thu coffee 

 crop being 400 cwt and the cinchona about 2 tons, a 

 profit of £240 would be left with which to plant tea, 

 nd i he cost would be about R50 to R60 per acre. 

 (Toe rupee is estimated at Is 8d ) The weediDg and 

 all expenditure on roads and drains for upkeep would 

 be found iu the estimated cost of maintaining the 

 deebniug coffee, estate: hence the capital required for 

 Buch an undertaking would be £2,000 to £3,000, and 

 the prourietor should be perfectly free under such con- 

 ditions from all agents and mortgagees. 



Having finished with the last favorite, I will now 

 proceed to touch upon the last but one, viz., Cin- 

 chona. This product was in great favour a short 

 time ago, until it was discovered that it did not 

 flourish, like Horniman's tea, always good alike. On 

 reference to Ferguson's Directory it will be seen 

 that the product was known a long time ago, but 

 during the halcyon days of coffee little attention 

 was paid to it. A well-known instance is quoted 

 of the fabulous prices realized by sales of bark in 

 the early days — that is to say, up to 18S0. Ten 

 shillings and two-pence per lb. was obtained for 

 cinchona officinalis quill bark. But space will not 

 admit of going in for all these details and statistics : 

 they may all be found in that marvel of compil- 

 ation, the said Ferguson's Directory. The subject 

 now before us is the present position of the enter- 

 prize. To deal with this, we must leave alone isolated 

 instances of great profits and take the market value 

 of the unit of sulphate of quiuine on which to base 

 our calculations. 



Before, however, looking at the financial success 

 of the product it should be viewed agriculturally. 



1 quote a sale of a cinchona estate which has 

 just takeu p'ace to show how bargains can be picked 

 up The estate was the Tullibody estate near 

 Nuwara Elija and the price paid was RI3,000 or 

 £1,000 sterling at present rates of exchange, The 

 estate was thua described in the local pipers i — 

 "248 acres more or less— 65 000 trees fiom J) mouths 

 to 7 years old. Buildings consisted of a buugalow, 

 g'or; and cooly habitations. The estate was well 

 dta'ned ami 'admirably suited for the cultivation 

 of tea.' " 



Circumstances alter cases ; but there nlilst be some 

 very peculiar circumstances ab >ut this estate if it be 

 not a case of a bargain. For my own part, I would 

 rather have a p'autatiou at Awisaw.lla or Ivalutaia, 

 twi> lowcouufy places, than live at the high elev- 

 ation of Nuwara Eliya, where oue encounters the on i 

 thing to avoid in a tropical country, namely, cold ! 

 My first experience of theplac^was in Christmas lS7-\. 

 when I a-cended Pidurutalagula, the highest point in 

 ','eylon, and felt such a chill as I shall not forg t, 

 My companion, nn old gentleman, got congestion of, 



the liver from it. There were frost and ice on the 

 puddled in the road, jam satis terris, &c. I came 

 to avoid cold, and here I was in the zenith of the 

 Christmas Father's glory. I do not recommend 

 Nuwara Eliya and its neighbourhood. 



Of course, it must be thoroughly understood that 

 the typical estate is one that has been forced into 

 the market in times of great depression, for it might 

 bs truthfully said that a practical planter who so 

 sacrificed a good concern would be a fool. The pict- 

 ure is not altogether overdrawn. 



Where can cinchona be grown ? For my part, I 

 am prejudiced in farour of a certain district ; but 

 I do not fear contradiction when I say that it 

 cannot be grown in clay. When the product was 

 looked upon as a means of evading ruin it was the 

 fashion, wherever a bare ridge or patch of vacan- 

 cies was seen in the coffee and elicited criticism, to 

 say : " Oh ! plant it up with cinchona" (and to lealize 

 the full weight of this you must pronounce the 

 word with a Scotch accent). Time proved however 

 that this was as great a mistake-as the indiscrimin- 

 ate selectiou of land for coffee. When there were 

 a few planters and a few coffee estates, men of 

 experience used to select good land, but when the 

 rush came, people sought the flimsiest excuses for 

 making out that land was suitable. A well-known 

 visiting agent, — an itinerant land agent — used to say 

 to me when I first came to the country, 'good soil' 

 or 'good climate' of nearly every estate that I asked 

 him about. Now as it is notorious that the soil of 

 Ceylon is not generally good, this was peculiar to say 

 the least, and did not argue in favour of the gentle, 

 man's good sense. 



Cinchona requires a soil with a good mixture of 

 stone and sand or quartz Heavy moist soil does not 

 suit, nor slab rock ; and a field that I know has 

 apparently nothing but quartz, but here the plant 

 seems quite in its element. 



And as to climate. A dry climate is the best, and 

 this is found on the eastern side of the mountain 

 zone. The critical time, viz , the age of three years, 

 can here be passed safely, and one may look for trees 

 of a great age comparatively speaking. The present 

 fashion is to spokeshave the bark off the trees and 

 after the first operation, wait 9 to 12 months and 

 repeat it. The first is the original bark and the 

 second the renewed, of commerce. I will give an 

 instance of what the cinchona succirubra will do. 

 Original shavings off 5A acres weighed 1,500 lb. and 

 analyzed 1'65 sulphate of quinine, the renewed off 

 the same acreage weighed 2,000 lb. and analyzed 

 3 31 sulphate of quinine. The trees are still 

 standing and the bark has renewed very well the 

 third time. In the first instance the bark would 

 be worth 8d per lb and the second Is 4d, so that 

 the gross proceeds (with unit at 25 cents currency 

 or 5d) would have been 1st year £50, and second vear 

 i.'130—the actual results were much better than this. 

 The cost of harvesting may be put at 2d per In. 

 1 should not recommend shaving any tree under 

 three years old, a id indeed it would require that 

 soil and climate were all in favor of the plant's 

 growth to shave at so early an age. At four years 

 old the operatiou may be considered safe, anil the 

 tree sometimes seems to thicken and grow after it. 

 Great care is necessary however not to injure the 

 ' cambium.' 



M ist people know how to destroy trees by ' ring- 

 ing ' the bark, and if the actual wood is exposed 

 ttie O; erations of shaving and ringing are synonymous. 

 After the second shaving it will be well to coppice, 

 and in so doing cut off the tries leaving a good 

 slope on the stump— suoners soon spring up, and two 

 or three will grow to a great Siae from the cne 

 stump. I have suckers growing in this manner that 



