22 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JULV I, 1885. 



haa had a good pull out of the sale of otherwise useless 

 land, it would seem fair that tbey should give the 

 introducers of this new product some compensation, 

 as au encouragement to others to introduce plants. 



Mr. Massey has stated that he had sent the editor 

 of the Observer some of the first beans, so he, and 

 Mr. Massey could prove the introduction years before 

 Mr. Bull or Kew Gardens knew anything about the 

 coflfoe. Mr. Bull considered each of the wardian cases 

 and plants worth over £100. Mr. Gordon had about 

 £G for them, which was the bare^cost of charges. 

 Mr. Gordon was not charged for the plants, nor did 

 he make a claim for them on Mr. Tottenham. 



[John Gordon is now no more, and we believe he 

 left his widow and family well off, the foundation 

 of his competency having been laid in Ceylon,— 

 Ed.] 



CINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA IN UVA. 

 TEA GROWING APACE IN MADULSIMA. 



31st May 18S5. 

 Cinchona. — Five acres one rood 20 poles planted 

 in 1878-79 and 1879 80 :— 



June 1S83. — The clearing was shaved and gave 

 1,536 lb. of original bark which sold locally at 51 cents 

 per lb. ; analysis being 1 05 C. S. of Q. 



February, March and April 1884. — The clearing was 

 shaved and gave 1,851 lb. renewed bark and 390 lb. 

 original bark. Renewed sold locally at Rl 0201 cent, 

 and originil at 25 cents pur unit, analysis being 3'31 

 and Til respectively. The drop in the analysis of 

 the original is owing to the fact that some very 

 young trees were shaved tbis year aud the bark from 

 the clearing not kept apart. 



In lSS-1 85 (season current) the clearing has been 

 coppiced leaving sufficient trees standing to make a 

 good cover to the ground and the result is 

 Quill 2,GS9 lb. wet. 



O. chips 3 283 ,, ,, 

 R. chips 8,079 ,, ,, 

 Twig 4,3.'-)3 ,, ,, 



0. shvgs. .520 ,, „ 

 R. shvgs. 059 ,, ,, 

 Twigs 52 ,, ,, 



20,235 

 At 33 per cent 0,743 lb. dry bark. 

 33 per cent is the actual outturn of all bark dried 

 at this date. S.il'?s and analysis of this season will bo 

 Bent' on completion of the necessary statistics. 



[The correspondent who sends us the above, remarks: — 

 "I send you some particulars of cinchona succirubra 

 in Madulsima. 1 think the result is satixfartory, to say 

 the lei.st. I hnpe my tea will some day do as well. 

 I am certain that we can grow very tine tea in Uva, 

 and Lave seen some very lately 2' 0" high at one year 

 old planted on patana soil. If we had been sending 

 our pioduce to Colomho by rail for the last five years, 

 we should Ui'ver have heard the name of distress in 

 Uva, aud the whole distr.ct would have been a 

 monument to the man who had given the word to 

 extend to BaduUa. \v'ould that it could have been said of 

 the Governor of that year : " .Si thu immentvm quaris 

 circumspice ! "] 



REPORT Olf THE GOVERNMENT OINOHONA 



ENTEBPRIZE IN JAVA FOR THE 1ST 



QUARTER OF 1885. 



(Translated for the " Ceylon Observer.") 



The past quarter was marked by much heavy r.iin. 



Whilst as a conseiiuence of this plautiug could be 



carried on without ccs.'iaUon, in respect of other branches 



of work £Oaio delay was e.vpericuced on account of tbo 



continuous wet weather. At the beginuingof March several 

 storms were experienced, which caused a little damage 

 to plants and nursery-houses, especially at Naejrak. The 

 product of the harvest of 1884 was dispatched to Batavia 

 in bales and chests at the end of the quarter. A total 

 of 400,236 half-kilograms was gathered, of which 394,663 

 half-kilos were reserved for sale in the Netherlands aud 

 5,573 pounds for the local military medical service. 

 On account of the continuous wet weather a very small 

 quantity of bark was gathered during the past quarter, 

 which still lies stored in the packing-houses. The supply 

 of labour was very large, so much so, that in conjunc- 

 tion with the managers of private estates in the Bandoeng 

 and Tjitjalengka divisions the wages were reduced 20 

 per cent. The diminution of wages was applied only in 

 the case of coolies and newly engaged fixed bocdjangs, and 

 was not attended with the slightest difficulty afterwards. 

 On 18th Feb. a sale of cinchona seed took place under 

 the Government order. The prices obtained were on the 

 whole pretty high : for a small lot of Ledgerirana seed 

 from the plantation of grafts and cuttings at Tirtasari as 

 much as /7'50 per gram was paid. The total netted was 

 /l,463-75. A portion of the 1884 crop, viz. 1,112 bales 

 containing 78,725 kilograms net, was sold on 4th March 

 by public auction at Amsterdam, realizing an average of 

 fO-Qi per half-kilo. The markedly low price given for the 

 portion sold is to be referred to the large proportion of 

 inferior bark of which the 1884 crop consisted. Now that 

 the bark of young branches and twigs is no longer 

 gathered, it is to be expected that the average prices 

 win gradually rise in a correspondiug degree. The 

 plautations from which in 1884 and 18S5 inferior varieties 

 like C. Josejjliiana and C. Calisaya have been rooted out 

 were during the late west monsoon jdanted with C. Ledyeriana 

 aud partly with C. bucciruhra, whilst the graft plantation at 

 Tirtasarie was largely exteudcl. The plantation now consists 

 of about 78,000 grafts aud 7,000 cuttings, occupying an extent 

 of about 40 bouws. In the nurseries at Tjiujiroean are about 

 25,000 more grafts, a portion of which are to be planted 

 out during the jirevalent rain in the second quarter of 

 this year. The plants have during the last three months 

 made a vigorous growth chiefly as a result of the thorough 

 working of the soil carried out last year, and promise to 

 yield a largo harvest in 1885, 



Van RoJinNDE, 



Director Government Cinchona Enterprize. 



B»ndoeng, 7th April 1885. 



THE INDIAN TEA CROPS, ESTIMATED AND 

 ACTUAL: OUTTURN FOR 1885-86, 



From the interesting report by William Moran & 

 Co., which we reproduce in our commercial columns, 

 it will be seen that for 1884-85 the estimated 

 outturn of tea for all India, was Ol),(;04,0001b. ; the re- 

 vised estimate reduced this quantity to 02,514,0001b. ; 

 while the actual outturn was 03,4 1-4,000 lb. 



The estimate for 1SS5 80 is more than live millions 

 ofpnunda in excess of these figures ; but. the require- 

 ments of India and exports to Australia and other 

 places will reduce the supply for Britain to about 

 05,000,000, a quantity which, judging from the increased 

 figux'fS fur monthly consumption and the lowness of 

 stocks, is certain to ba readily absorbed. There had 

 been .an increase of more than a million of pounds in 

 the average monthly deliveries for 1884 against those 

 for 1SS2, the comparative figures for three years 

 being 



1882 ... 4,322,0001b. 



1883 ... 4,53.3,000 „ 



1884 ... 5,444,000 „ 



An average not higher than these last figures would 

 more than exhaust the 05,000,000 lb. So that all 

 Ceylon can add to the production of India is likely 

 to go to a good market. An improvement ia prices 



