March 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



677 



anye 11' live wiirn a uciguui'm 11. uuv»v- »»c*u v**\j 



ir the jungle and so the erection of a bungalow 

 lid be delayed until he saw that his "agricultural 



are equal iu size and strength to a stem of the same 

 age from an original plant. 



A cinchona estate arrived at the age of three 

 years old from jungle would be rather costly, because 

 buildings would be required, with the exception of 

 store, to the same extent as a small coffee estate. 

 A bark store would be necessary. 



Roughly speaking 1 would not recommend a smaller 

 capital than £2,000 for an estate of ICO to 150 acres. 

 Of course, as in entry on a farm, the whole amount 

 is not immediately necessary ; but whereas the har- 

 vest would come in a year, say, on a Michaelmas 

 entry; iu the cinchona estate it would be delayed 

 for three. In the first year all the planting oper- 

 ations would be done, the buildings put up at least 

 for the labourers, and subsequently, weeding and 

 improvements and supplying losses of plants by death 

 and insect enemies. Handbooks on the cultivation 

 are written, and in these all the details will be 

 found. It is just possible that the proprietor might 

 arrange to live with a neighbour if there way one 

 near 

 could 

 venture was a financial success." 



But some one will say : " How long is this cinchona 

 plantation going to last that you talk of buildings 

 and bungalows ?" I reply that if it be a success it 

 will last quite long enough for its owner to epend 

 bis capital and get a very fair return for it : after 

 that perhaps he may wish to enter upon some other ] 

 speculation. Three years before harvest and three years 

 of harvesting are ample time for a man to decide | 

 whether he will remain in his voluntary exile, and | 

 ample time for him to " spoil a horn or make a spoon." '; 

 I do not think a cinchona plantation would last for 

 ever, nor any cultivation in the tropics that meets 

 the approval of the European. If he means to spend 

 h'S life in a climate admittedly unsuitable to the 

 European constitution — and in many cases made so 

 fatal by utter want of commonsense in personal 

 habits — he should plant coconuts, nutmegs, or buy 

 paddy (rice) fields, and live as abstemiously as a high- 

 caste Hindu. Cinnamon, too, is a good lasting invest- 

 ment, and has enriched more people than any spice 

 the white nan has grown. There are so many draw- 

 backs to all these products that it is scarcely necess- 

 ary to mention them except in the way I have done. 

 The European planter as a rule has in his mind's eye 

 large profits and quick returns and will not wait for a 

 slow but sure concern. 



But to return to Cinchona. In it as in tea there 

 is no fruit, no blossoming season, which have of ; 

 late years given the poor coffee planters ao much i 

 anxiety, but in contraposition the uncertainty of 

 the market value n ay be placed. If it be true that 

 present prices only rtmain as they are on account 

 of the large sum? lent- nn the stock.-) of bark, then 

 I fesr that there is a bad ime coming for the 

 cinchona planter, but if increased consumption (owing 

 to the price of the manufactured art cle being low 

 enough to place it within t'each of the million) 

 Continue, then od prr unit will make the planter a 

 piotit, and every Id above that will lighten his 

 anxiety and increase the weight of his purse. Prices 

 are now rising. I feel that to enter deeper in de- 

 tail and mention the varieties of cinchona, — all house- 

 hold words to the experien ;ed planter, — is here out 

 of plac, so I dismiss the subject of cinchona and 

 will proceed to coffee. 



At the commencement of this subject I fancy I 

 see the pessimist who 



" beheld their plight 



And to his mates thus in derision called " 



at the bare idea of a man writing about coffee 



in these days ! Laugh and deride, Sir. Pessimiit, 



Mr Merchant, or whoever you may be ; but per- 



haps you have not much to laugh at. You had 

 not the money to invest in the year 1874, before 

 alluded to, and now take credit for perspieieuce. 

 Or, you recklessly risked your own and other people's 

 money in 1874, and now regard yourself as a special 

 subject for compassion — one who has received no 

 Providence. Yes, I know well the ways of the 

 'turn-coats'! " Ruined, eh ?'' "Yes; but, has coffee 

 ruined you"? "No, but leaf-disease (Uemileia mxt. 

 atr'u) has." "Has leaf-disease killed your coffet? " 

 "No, but it has spoilt the crops, and there was no 

 money for cultivation, so it snvffed out." "What be- 

 came of all your large profits when coffee paid well 

 say from 1809 to 1876 ? Was there no leaf-disease 

 then';" "I thought the large profits were goinc 

 on for ever : indeed some said coffee would 

 go up to 200s perewt., so I spent them. Yes, there 

 was leaf-disease, but manure and cultivation seemed 

 to keep it from being very bad." "And could you 

 not get any credit for working your estate, if not 

 expensively in such a manner that you would be 

 ready for a good season if it came '!" " Well no I 

 was pretty heavily mortgaged, and my agents' would 

 not allow a cent beyond what paid from the mort- 

 gagee's point of view." "So your coffee after 

 being highly cultivated and stimulated was starved, 

 eh?" "Yes, I suppose it was?" "And have none 

 cultivated their coffee since these hard times came?" 

 " Oh, yes, a few I believe." "And in what con- 

 dition are these estates — 'snuffed out?" "No I be- 

 lieve the other day there was a case of an 'estate 

 cultivated well, being much admired by the 

 mortgagee or an agent, and he said that he 

 should not think of turning out the mort<*aoor. " 

 " Then it is possible to cultivate coffee to a pr, fit 

 even with short crops and low prices." " Well I 

 am out of it, so I cannot give you my experience • 



but I suppose if it were not and and - 



& Co. would have shut up shop long ago. They 

 are all heavily mortgaged, and if they did not pay 

 would be sold up ; so there must be the interest 

 that they have to pay above and beyond working 

 expenses allowed." " What about a proprietor who is 

 free of all mortgages, cannot he make a good coffee 

 estate pay, for I suppose a bad coffee estate would 

 be just as great a lo-s as a bad farm or a bad horse ?'■ 

 " Yes, I suppose he might show a profit over working 

 expenses, but he would not be able to show anything 

 like a fair interest for his money, if he bought in 

 1S74 at the then market rate." " Exactly, but in the 

 latter emergency he is not different from many capit- 

 alists who invested in land in England about 1870. 

 Laud was then bought to pay about the same inter-' 

 est as consols at 92J, and rents have now fallen so 

 low that perhaps it only pars about 1 per oent or so." 

 I will not proloEg the conversation, but I do 

 not hesitate to say that a great deal of the depression 

 now being experienced is owing to human folly and 

 not divine iuiervention. My own feeling was when 

 I first cime to the island that perhaps if I were 

 fortunate I would obtain double the interest for 

 money that I should get in the old country, but 

 of course there was more than double the risk. 

 At first I was very cautions, and would not accept 

 the off-hand representations of huge profits which 

 were given to me. But at last I doubted my own 

 judgment and listened to crafty people and " plunged," 

 with the result that I have learned a very bitter 

 less-ra, I did not do as I have advised. I invested 

 before I had gained experience, and oihers made 

 money while 1 lost the capital which I introduced. 

 Like many others I had something good and some, 

 thing bad, and the bid wa9 always drajging me down. 

 At la«t I cut the Gordiau knot and let it drift at a 

 ruinou3 sacrifice, and now am free to speak of only the 

 good, I believe that besides a living I can mako a 



