JULY I, 1S85,] 



THE TKQPICAL AGKICULTUKIST, 



39 



forest, much of it close to the seashore. The gentle- 

 mau who recently left Ceylon for Europe with the 

 purpose of getting tea boxes manufactured from the 

 pines of Scandinavia, may dud his plans affected by 

 this sudden opening of imports of boxes in shoolia 

 from Yokohama. But as neither the forests of Northern 

 Europe nor those of Eastern Asia are inexhaustible, 

 it may be well for Ceylon tea planters to devote some 

 portions of their estates to the cultivation of trees 

 which in the miuimum of time will supply useful 

 timber from their trunks and firewood from their 

 branches. Next to the Australian blue gum in rapidity 

 of growth and perhaps the superior of the euoalypt 

 in available timber seems to be this Japan cypress 

 (it grows also in China) which the botanists call Crypto- 

 mcria japoijca, Mr. Gamble describes it as of ex- 

 cessively rapid growth in Darjiling, where it is largely 

 cultivated. Ho says it is a large tree of China and 

 Japan, the seeds of which were originally brought to 

 India by Mr. Fortune. It grows best at 3,000 to 

 6,000 feet, say 4,000 to 7,000 in Ceylon, and probably 

 seeds could be more easily obtained from Japan than 

 from Darjding. It seeds abundantly, and the seed- 

 lings are, according to M r. Gamble, very easily raised 

 in boxes and sheltered beds. He describes the tree 

 as brittle, the tops and branches being easily broken 

 by high winds. Thickly planted we should think the 

 trees would shelter one another. Wo quote what 

 follows from Mr. Gamble : — " Bark brown, fibrous, 

 peeling off in narrow strips. Wood soft, wliite, with 

 a brown, often almost black, heartwood, very uniform, 

 with narrow bands of darker and firmer tissue at the 

 end of each annual ring. Medullary raya short, flue 

 and very fine, extremely numerous," 



THE 



DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE IN 

 MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 



We attract the attention of Sir Arthur Gordon, 

 his Executive Council and Revenue Officers to the 

 following letter from the Director of Agriculture to 

 the Madras Board of Kevenue, dated 26th March last. 

 We now merely ad,l that the Madras Government, 

 on the 2nd May, passed an order approving of tlie 

 Director's proposals. The system which prevails in 

 India, of the Baard of Revenue publicly dealing with 

 administration proposals laid before them by the Civil 

 Officers, BO encouraging a general and progressive 

 iQterest, is much superior to our Ceylon mode of 

 inanasing provincial and district affairs. It is time 

 too, that the Cej lou Government and revenue officers 

 did much more than thf,y are doiv.ir to promote a 

 divirtijifd Agriculture. We quote as fallows :— 



The Goyeriiment Farm at SaMapet is to be closed, and 

 direct agricultural operations on the part of Government 

 arc for a time therefore at an end, I do not, however, 

 think that agricultural experiments need on tliis account 

 be abant'oned, but I propose that they should now be 

 imdertaktn in a new direction. There are two objects 

 which I consider wortliy of the eon.sideration of Govern- 

 ment in this connection- one of a purely agricultural 

 nature, the other intimately connected indeed with agri- 

 culture, but of a more c0mmerci.1l and speculative nature. 

 The former relates to the introduction of a more diversi- 

 fied agriculture in irrigated tracts that are now almost 

 exclusively (kvoted to the production of rice; the latter 

 to injprovements in the curing of country tobacco, eo as [ 

 to make it a more marketable and commercially more 

 valu.ible article than it now is. The introduction of 

 a more diversified agriculture in tracts where rice is now ' 

 the sole or chief product is intimately connected with 

 the more economic use of water provided for irrigation, 

 (w as to mnko the same quantity available for wider areas I 

 by the growth of crops which are either not generally ( 

 trigatcJ ot Jo uot tccjuiro such au abundance of wat«r '• 



as rice docs. Such crops often suffer much from the 

 failure of rain, and would often be saved altogether or 

 greatly benefited by partial flooding from artificial irrig- 

 ation. If this end can be secured by the contraction of 

 the area of rice cultivation, a largely-increased area of 

 land would be perfectly protected, which, at present, is 

 only partially and intermittently protected, and the »rea 

 and volume of production largely increased to the great 

 advantage both of the cultivating classes and ot the 

 public generally. I propose, therefore, that with the permis- 

 sion of Government, this department should cuter uito 

 an arrangement with some substantial cultivator for the 

 cultivation on a block of land, say, of 50 to 100 acres in 

 extent in one of the delta tracts, which ordinarily is cult- 

 ivated with rice only, of a diversity of crops, one only 

 of which shall be rice and the others crops that are not 

 usually classed as irrigated, the cultivator being guaranteed 

 against less by a covenant on the part of Government 

 to make good to him the loss, if any, incurred by him 

 in making the experiment. The question ot less or no 

 loss would be determined by the relative value of the 

 products other than rice with that of rice grown on the 

 same area ; this again being determined by reference to 

 the value of the produce raised on the rice-cultivated 

 area of the block or by consideration of what, in ordin- 

 ary years, the same land can be shown to have produced 

 when cidtivafed with rice. For an experiment of this 

 kind, Mr. Kistnasawmi Mud.ali of Shiyali would, if he 

 cau be induced to undertake it, be admirably fitted, and 

 I have to request the sanction of Government to my 

 negotiating with him on the matter. There is another 

 Point of view from which the introduction of a diversified 

 agriculture in irrigated tracts of wide area is desirable. 

 The losses sustained every year by cultivators in these 

 tracts from the attacks of insects, from fungoid diseases 

 and from closed ear-shoots (k-odu) and deaf ears may not 

 impossibly, be due, in a great measure to the exolu,sive 

 cultivation, for a long period of years, of a single product, 

 and the introduction of new and varied products might 

 not impossibly have a considerable etfect in mitigating, if 

 not removing, the evils from which the single product at 

 present suffers so seriously. 



CINCHONA BARK IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



The past year has brought occurrences of wide signifi- 

 cance, which have put au end to the unnatural situation 

 that has existed so long. On January Slat, ls84, the 

 " ring" of quinine-makers broke up, and during the first 

 half of August came the I'ailure of the great quinme factory 

 of Milan and of the largest London holder of bark. It is 

 kuown that the "ring" was the work of the former di- 

 rector of the Fabbrica Lorabarda. From the reports sub- 

 sequentlypublishedofthe rash engagements of this establish- 

 ment it appears clearly that the situation, from the very 

 formation of the "ring," was quite hopele.ss, and tliat this 

 last anchor of salvation was also deceptive. The loss of the 

 subscribed capit.al of 6,000, OOOf., with a further deficit of 

 5,000,0'-'0f. duo to creditors, could only be the result of sever- 

 al years of excessive speculation. In tho first h.alf of the 

 past year attempts were made frcm Milan to bring about a 

 new turn. In May and Juue, with I he co-operatioii of tho 

 London speculator, bark was artificially raised to Bd 

 and t)d per uuit. But in July the bark market became more 

 and more uncontrollable, and in August, after the cata- 

 strophe, Oeylon bark reached 6d and 6d per unit. That a 

 complete panic was avoided was due to the fact that tho 

 stocks of quinine and bark were in the hands of powerful 

 banks, and have come on the market only by degrees, and 

 perhaps nut even yet. The reduction in the price of manu- 

 facturing barks was, therefore, slow, and when 5cl per unit, 

 the lowest point, was reached in November the Oeylon 

 planters affirmed that the collection of bark would no longer 

 pay. By withholding their stocks they were able to secure 

 in December not only a better tone, but high prices, for in 

 January fid and 8J per unit was regained. The cause of 

 this recovery is to be sought in a combieatinn of circum- 

 stances. First, the London holders of South American 

 barks continued to make such high demands that the buyers 

 at the auctions confined themselves almost entirely to Kast 

 Indian. Then in January came the report of revolutions iu 

 Oulumbia. Thu etatiitical positiou at tUv cud of Docuubcc 



