56 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1885. 



sum at least has been expended in bringing him 

 from his native village in India to the scene fo his 

 future labours. « 



It is obvious then that without extraneous capital 

 the earlier coffee estatea of Ceylon could never have 

 been planted. And as capitalists -svere hardly liliely 

 themselves to come and open estates, it may be 

 freely admitted with the abovemeutioned Colombo 

 merchant that the man who first induced London 

 capitalists to make advances to Ceylon may be 

 considered in some sort a benefactor to the colony. 

 Once let the cultivation be f.iirly established, however, 

 and the case would seem to be greatly changed. Then 

 the enterprize is thriving, a sound and healthy 

 development will certainly take place, though no 

 further capital be introduced from without. But such 

 development will in that case clearly be dependent 

 on actual attained resultB. And here one sees at 

 once wherein may lie the risk of a~ continued m- 

 ilow of capital from abroad. Extension being uo 

 longer controlled by the results of previous ad- 

 ventures may take place in any direction or to any 

 extent that the most sanguine hopes of the future 

 may suggest. 



And so indeed it happened in the case of the 

 Ceylon Coffee Enterprize. Somewhere between 

 fifteen and twenty years ago, it had become evident 

 to those who were most widely interested in the 

 cultivation, that there was difficulty in keeping up 

 the yield, that crops did not as previously increase 

 iu proportion to the increase of acreage. In the 

 face of that experience it wa9 yet found expedient 

 to begin about the same date the opening of new 

 districts on a scale beyond all precedent, and, as if 

 to prevent any chance of prudent hesitation, about 

 the same date bankers rushed in where agents were 

 fearing to tread and under the name of cash-credits, 

 did in effect place capital in the hands of any, be 

 he novice or not, who wished to speculate in coffee 

 planting. It is needless to dwell on the result, 

 which is only too well-known to all. 



It may be said that this is but ex -po't facto 

 criticism and that it is easy to be wise after the 

 event. But it is the case that there were some 

 who steadfastly refused to join in the rush 

 into the new districts though pr. ssed to 

 do so. and who later when the great rise iu coffee 

 caused a temporary and delusive flush of prosperity 

 were seriously blamed for their inaction. It is the 

 case also, that, before a cash-credit was signed, the 

 proposed system was denounced without hedtation by 

 one at least as "a dangerous trap." 



How difft-rent would bs the position of Ceylon 

 planters today, if, eay from the year 1S70, instead of 

 the wild rush into tens of thousands of ceres of coffee 

 in the new districts, steady progress had been made 

 with the cultivation of tea, cinchona and other new pro- 

 ducts, and if the great Bank, in place of joining in 

 the race to make advances, had confined its operations 

 to the veiy lucrative business legitimately open to it ! 

 But it is idle to cry over spilt mdk. And the only 

 value to us of recalling the mistakes of the past lies 

 in their bearing on the futu'ro , ^ „ . 



Tea is the future King. Will it be prudent that 

 the system of advances, whieh was first so useful and 

 then so disastrous in the case of coffee cultivation, 

 should bo extended to that of tea ? 



It would undoubtedly be safest as far as possible to 

 restrict advances. The conditions under which the 

 planting of tea e.states is takjng place, diffa- widely 

 from those attending the opening of the ct lice estates. 

 The land is in most cases already cleared and in 

 many cases actually giving some return, so that the 

 necessary first outlay is comparatively small ; and 

 again as soon as the plant is in bearing, the crops 



comes in continuously so that the necessity for yearly 

 crop advances does not exist. 



Moreover, Ceylon is now comijaratively well-known 

 and accessible, and capitalists in England will now 

 certainly come themselves in sufficient numbers to 

 carry forward tea cultivation so long as it offers 

 reasonable hopes of good returns. Indeed the greater 

 fear is that, even without any revival of the old system 

 of advances, means will be found for the rapid ex- 

 tension of cultivation beyontl the limits of prudence. 



To end this prolix essay : On this as on every 

 subject our great poet has written not for an age, 

 but for all time. Were Polonius now starting off 

 Laertes as a Tea planter to Ceylon, how could he 

 better advise him than in those well-known words 

 of old ? 



Keitlier a borrower nor a lender be, 



Foe loan oft loses both itself and friend ; 



And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 



San Domingo. — Transportation is still in its prim- 

 itive condition in San Domingo. There is not a 

 single wagon road penetrating more than three or 

 four leagues into the interior. All of the inland 

 traflio is carried on by means of animals. A rail- 

 road is being built from Samaua Bay to Santiago, 

 and if completed will open up rich tracts of lands 

 capable of p roducing great crops of sugar, tobacco, 

 coffee, cocoa, and other tropical articles. — Chamber 

 0} Commerce Journal. 



Copra. — Pli'ladelphia Press : One of the leading 

 articles which the Polynesian Islands send to this 

 country is copra, which is simply the dried meat of 

 coconuts. The natives break the nut into smill pieces, 

 which, after exposure to the tropical sun, turn to a 

 dark brown color. Copra is used in the manufacture 

 of candles to a large extent. Besides pomades and 

 coconut oil, copra furnishes a volatile oil which is used 

 in the manufacture of perfumery. The importation 

 of copra into the United Slates is yearly increasing. 

 — Amerkan Grocer. [The " volatile oil" is new to us. 

 —Ed.] 



A Chancb for INVBNTOR.S. — The Government of 

 the State of Yucatan, Mexico, offer a prize of S'20,000 

 to the inventor of a machine which shall successfully 

 extract the fibre from hcnequin, under the followino con- 

 ditions : It must be automatic and not require skilled 

 and experienced workmen to manage it ; it luu.st be 

 entirely free from danger to the operntives ; it must 

 require less nioiive force than the machines now in use 

 with relation to its producing power ; it must increase 

 the production or extraction of the fibre within a given 

 time, diminishing its loss compared with the various 

 machines iu »8e. The reward is to remain ppon fur 

 three years, and is without prejudice to the right of 

 proprietorship and of vateut.— /'. 7', Jourmil, 



Sawdust Papek. — Paper made of sawdust ii among 

 the latest achievements in wood pnlp and paper making 

 inventions. Tlie Rutland (Vt. ) Herald comes tn us 

 printed on paper made exclus-vely of sawdust. It is a 

 product of a roller pulp miohine invented by (J. H. 

 Pond of Glens Falls, N. Y. There is no grinding in I he 

 process, the material is pressed into pulp by iron rollc rs 

 working inside an iron cylinder, and is ideached by 

 a new process devised by the same inventor. In his 

 machine, shaviugo, chips, sawdust, nnd refuse of saw 

 mills genernlly, as well as bagasse — the refus;* of fugar 

 cnne — are converted into pulp which the maker claims 

 is superior to the pulp of wood and rags. It does seem 

 to be in one respect, it posse-scs the inipnrtiiit advantage 

 of being strong — tougli. The tensile strength per square 

 inch is about di uble that of paper used by most news- 

 papers, which bears a breaking stra'u of only about 

 eight pounds in the tester, while this marks seventeen 

 to the square inch, It is, however, rather hard, harsh, 

 and " rattly."— P, T. Jovrml. 



