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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May i, 1885. 



now twice that number wod punuish one-half of 

 the offenders ; and why ! because it was theu the 

 duty of a particular officer to carry out the work, 

 and is now the duty of everybody — or actually no- 

 body — to do so Yours faithfully, 



W. S. FRASER. 



NEW PRODUCTS : BARK OF ALSTONIA 

 SGHOLARIS. 



Dear Sir, — I have pleasure in sending you London 

 report ou the bark of the Alstonia scholaris. With 

 cinchona bark at fivepence a unit, it is at present 

 hardly worth attentiou, but, when the value rises again 

 to about a shilling, then the Alstonia may become 

 deserving of consideration. 



Alstonia scholaris, called " rukattana" in Sinhalese, 

 and " mohira vingai " in Tamil, is a very common 

 jungle tree in Ceylon up to the elevation of about 

 3,000 feet. 



The wood is bitter, white, close-grained, useful for 

 boxes, etc. 



The tree abounds in milk, which is very hurtful 

 should it touch the human skin. 



Alstonia constrkta is an Australian member of the 

 same family. 



It is much to be regretted that the Government 

 Medical Department does not test and report upon 

 the many native drugs allowed to grow wild and 

 waste in Ceylon, save their occasional secret use by 

 the native wedarala, when compounding his mixtures. 

 About two years ago I repectfully begged Dr. 

 Vanderstraaten of the Government Civil Hospital 

 to test a common vegetable drug used and recom- 

 mended iu India, and sendiug him a small quantity 

 for the purpose, but I have never even received 

 the courtesy of an acknowledgmeut. — Yours faith- 

 fully, A. G. K. BORRON. 



ALSTONIA BARK. 



The specimen lately imported was the bark of Alstonia 

 scholaris, the Devil Tree, a tree belouging to the natural 

 order Apocynacete, aud indigenous to India, tropical Africa, 

 Siam and Eastern Australasia. It is highly esteemed by 

 the Hindus as a tonic, antiperiodic aud general febrifuge. 

 In consequence of its undoubted value, it is official iu 

 the Indian Pharmacopoeia. The chemistry of the bark 

 has been exhaustively worked out by Jobst and Hesse, 

 who isolated from it the alkaloid Ditaiu and, iu a sub- 

 sequent research, several other definite bodies. Kecent 

 therapeutic investigations conducted in America have proved 

 that ditaiu in the same doses as quinine sulphate 

 produces similar and equal physiological effects, but that 

 the exhibition of large doses do not give rise to any 

 such unpleasant after-symptoms as follow the adminis- 

 tration of large quantities of the cinchona alkaloid. 



The specific name scholaris is derived from a curious 

 use to which the Hindus apply thin boards of the wood 

 of this tree sprinkled with saud: they are used by the 

 children to trace their figures and letters as we use slates. 



There is, at present, little or no demand for it in 

 England. Alstonia constricta, or Queensland fever bark, 

 has been found to contain some important alkaloids, 

 one of which — Alstonidine — is said by Dr. O. Hesse to 

 combine properties similar to those of quinine and nux 

 vomica: this opinion has been confirmed by Dr. Bixkv, 

 who met with considerable success with this drug in the 

 treatment of cases of typhoid, synochal and puerperal 

 fevers, coryza, &c. 



GRAIN CULTIVATION IN EASTERN CEYLON. 



Sir, — The Grain Commissioner, after working with his 

 assessor aud clerks for some time, has at last commenced 

 to hold meetings. A few groups of villages have been 

 finished, and he has declared the assessment to be about 

 R2 per acre for auuual commutation, and R2 - 50 for crop 

 commutation. This, for two groups of villages where the 



crops are not in any way benefited by the irrigation works, 

 is an assessment that takes all by surprise. The average 

 price for the last fourteen years may be taken to be Rl 

 per bushel in the town and 75 cents in the country. To 

 bear an assessment of K1'75 or R2, the produce must be 

 about 21 bushels per acre near the town, and about 28 

 bushels in the country. We are prepared to show satis- 

 factorily that both the average yield and the price are set 

 much higher than they should be. 



1. That Batticaloa, with a coast line of more than a 

 hundred and fifty miles, with a sparse population, with 

 only one port, and that too closed for five months every 

 year, has not abundant facilities for disposing of its 

 surplus paddy, is well-known to all. The poor peasant 

 proprietor and even the majority of the so-called well-to-do 

 people, borrow the seed and consumption paddy, and are 

 compelled to pay the usurious interest of 50 per cent for 

 the same. The cultivator is therefore obliged to deliver his 

 paddy to the man that advanced his capital at B5 per 

 avanam of 7J bushels in the suburbs and for much less in 

 the interior, i. e., at the rate of 50c to 75c per bushel, but 

 the Government has been usually selling it to the renters 

 at Rl per bushel, and, during the famines of 1878, 1879, and 

 1885, at much more than a rupee. During the last fourteen 

 years Batticaloa has unfortunately been subject to four 

 seasons of drought and scarcity. With starvation before 

 them and the crops rotting in the fields, the cultivators or 

 their creditors buy the tithe at any rate. 



2. Assuming that the people must anyhow abide by the 

 averages calculated by theKachcheri records for the past 14, 

 years, the Grain Commissioner must equally abide by the 

 averages calculated from the same records as to the yield of 

 paddy per acre. But this he rejects in toto and almost 

 arbitrarily adds from 80 to 100 per cent to the average 

 yield, the rumoured reason being that the former assessors 

 and headmen must have been systematically underrating 

 the yield. Though this may be true as to some fields, in 

 all cases of estimates this cannot be correctly asserted of 

 the whole of the district. The Commissioner estimates a 

 yield of seven to eightfold per acre in unirrigated fields. The 

 " Ceylon Directory " and Mr. Mosse estimate only a fourfold 

 yield. The Paddy Tax Commission of 1867 would not go 

 beyond fivefold, i.e. 12± bushels to the acre. Nor can two 

 crops be raised from the same land, as at Matara. In 

 the irrigated portions of Batticaloa, or in the hest of the 

 unirrigated portions, a man with a pair of bulls is able to 

 cultivate 6 acres of laud, and the cost of production is the 

 following : — 



For Six Acres. Bushels. 



(1) Seed paddy ... 15 + 



(2) Consumption paddy ... 15 + 



(3) Ploughing expenses ... 7} + 



Profit to 

 Capitalist. 



7i 



3| 



Jl 

 13| 



(4) Vaddai Vitan and Adikari by 



Government rule ... 1 



(5) Threshing buffalo ... 4 



(6) Bird boy ... 2i 



(7) Mamoty ... l| 



(8) Ploughshares ... 3| 



(9) Additional men for reaping 



and stacking ... 7 J 



(10) 3 do. for assisting in 



threshing ... 3 



(11) Carriage for 14 avanams i.e. 



at sevenfold yield ... 6f 



bus. bus 



64J + 13J =78*6-13 

 The cost of production would be 13 bushels per acre, 

 and to this must be added the bare expenses of the cult- 

 ivator for about two months from the time of reaping to 

 the harvest; his commutation tax Rl'50 and his April new 

 year paddy. For otherwise he would require 18j instead 

 of 15 bushels for his consumption paddy, and for this 

 addition of 3J bushels his creditor would charge 50 per 

 cent interest. As the lesser of the two evils, the cult- 

 ivator takes at least 4 bushels after the harvest or during 

 the time, and this represents his sole gain for a year. 

 Adding these four bushels, deferred wages of labor, to the 

 13 bushels, the entire cost of production is 17 bushels per 

 acre including the profits of capital and the wages of labour 



