Feb. I, iSSd] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



565 



cocoa remains in the bags. Tliis is known as cocoa 

 extract, and 100 lb. weight of liquid gives 70 lb. of 

 powder. If prepared cocoa is required, the solid 

 blocks abovementioned are broken up, thrown into 

 a pug-ruill, and mixed with powdered sugar and 

 arrowroot. The solidified oil, or cocoa butter as it 

 is called, is used by chemists, and I noticed the 

 other day an advertisement of cocoa butter 

 soap said to possess wonderful qualities. The pro- 

 cess of making chocolate is also interesting, and all 

 the various works connected with it are now done 

 under the same roof. Thus I visited saw-mills, 

 box-making rooms where very ingenious machinery 

 was in use, tinsmiths' workshops, and a forge, n- 

 well as the rooms where the packets of cocoa ar^ 

 made up. This is done with great speed and neat- 

 ness by the girls employed, each of whom fastens 

 up about 1,000 packets a day. 



I naturally made special inquiry about the jiro- 

 duce of our island, which the manager told me 

 was very highly thought of. It is lighter in colour, 

 smaller, and more brittle than the Trinidad bean, but 

 stronger in flavour. Mr. Machin, who showed me over, 

 .said he imagined the soil in Ceylon was lighter than 

 that of Trinidad, which is no doubt the case. The 

 Trinidad bean is. as he e.xpressed it, more mat i( red. 

 One of the Messrs. Fry gave it as his opinion that 

 the sweetmeat prepared from our produce was 

 sickly in flavour, but I do not think the manager 

 was of this opinion : indeed several people who have 

 tried it. especially ladies, who are credited with a 

 delicate taste in sweets, have told me it was the 

 best chocolate they had ever lasted. 



All were agreed that there was no room for im- 

 provement in the preparation of our produce, and, 

 while there was a faUing-oii in quality some months 

 before my visit, at the time, no doubt, when the 

 drought and fly were at their worst, the later 

 shipments. I was told, were quite up to the old 

 standard. A bag from Isobel estate was being 

 treated at the time of my visit, and in the books 

 I saw entries of several well-known marks. From 

 the light colour of our beau a good deal of 

 Ceylon cocoa, it seems, is mixed with other 

 varieties when a light chocolate is desired, and 

 I noticed a large quantity of this kind being dis- 

 patched to the U. S. A. 



Mr. Machin was of opinion that our produce is 

 better suited for chocolate than cocoa, and as far as 

 my experience of Ceylon prepared cocoa goes, I 

 should be inclined to think he is right. The "Cobra 

 Brand' of cocoa extract, though of delicate flavour, 

 seems to me lacking in strength. 



Besides the tablets of Ceylon choclate which are 

 now often to be seen in confectioners' shops, 

 Messrs. Fry are making chocolate creams put up 

 in tasteful boxes, with a couple of which I was pre- 

 sented. With the tablets are given directions for 

 making chocolate in the cup. 



I may mention that casual visitors are not shown 

 over the factory, an introduction to one of the firm 

 being necessary, but, that obtained, one is treated 

 with tlie greatest courtesy by all connected with this 

 thriving establishment. B. 



♦ 



CINCHONA CULTURE IN JAVA AND INDIA. 



Amongst other interesting and important papers 

 on agricultural and horticultural subjects in the 

 Tropiial AiiricuhurUt, for which it is impossible 

 to lind iiTom in our daily and weekly issues, is 

 a long account of a visit to the cinchona plant- 

 ations in the I'reanger Regency of Java, to the 

 correctness of which. haWng gone over the same 

 gtonnd, we can cordially testify. In the paper 

 of Mr. Henry 15. Brady, r.n.s., read before the 

 Pharruftccutieal Societf , and the djscuMion which 



followed, all the species of the fever-plant 

 introduced into Java, India and Ceylon are de- 

 scribed and their merits discussed, from the ahnost 

 worthless Paliiidiana (named after Mr. Charles 

 Pahud, one of the best Govcrnor's-General of Java) 

 fo the monarch of all the tribe, Lfilflin-Uuia, the 

 quinine results of which when first tested by the 

 Dutch analysts filled them first with incredulity 

 and then with astonishment and delight. Ledijeri- 

 ana is, unfortunately delicate, like so many other 

 valuable plants, but, apart from some successful ex- 

 periments in Wynaad and in Ceylon, the . richest 

 of tlie fe^-er-destrojing plants has found a con- 

 genial and permanent home in Java. The cinchona 

 enterprize, in the face of all cankering and dying- 

 off, has been unprofitable or profitable only in a 

 limited degree, to individuals, from the very facility 

 and rapidity with which the plants grew and pro- 

 duced bark so as to swamp the market. But the 

 benefit conferred on humanity has been incalculable 

 and the great cheapening of the product lately 

 cannot but lead to a vastly increased use of the 

 valuable alkaloid which is almost a panacea for 

 malarious fever, besides its tonic effects. 



Com FiBKE Dust. — Mr. C. E. H. 8ymons, as 

 Managing Director for the Horrekelly Estate Com-, 

 pany, has called on us to say that he is quite prepared 

 to justify the position he took up before the Bail- 

 way Committee the other day as to the useless- 

 ness of great heaps of coir fibre dust now 

 lying on the Horrekelly property. Mr. Symons 

 will give full particulars to our correspondent 

 " Agriculturist " if he calls on him ; but mean- 

 time he has reminded us how the late Mr. 

 David Wilson made a variety of experiments 

 with a view to turning this dust to profitable use 

 without result. It has been analyzed at home 

 with the result that it is considered to be the 

 equivalent very much of cork or saw-dust. The dust, 

 however, is used on Horrekelly as far as needed 

 for cattle-bedding purposes, and it is also occasionally 

 ploughed in between the coconut trees, to keep 

 the "soil moist ; but its value as a manurial applic- 

 ation even when mixed with ammoniacal liquor is 

 nil or nearly nil. Ammoniacal liquor is, however, 

 freely used on Horrekelly otherwise. But there are 

 large heaps of coir dust refuse on the estate wliich 

 "Agriculturist " or anyone else can have for the 

 carting away. 



Maximuji Yield ok Te.i in Cevlon — We 

 commend the following authentic report on the past 

 year's results on the 100 acres' field on Mariawatte 

 Tea Garden near Gampola to the attention of 

 our Indian critics. It was not expected that 1885 

 would show so good a return as the former year; 

 but as a matter of fact the yield is in excess : — 



Mabi.\w ITTJB Estate.— Yield from 100 acres and rain- 

 fall :— 



Tear. lb. lea per acre. Bainf ill. 



1881 136 10306 



1883 312 113-60 



1883 560 91-83 



1884 1,0!)2 827-' 



lt-85 1,180 10141 



H. K. RUTHEKI'OBli. 



The fortunate proprietors of Mariaw-atte may well 

 be congratulated on this result, ami we suspect 

 their experience is unequalled not only in Ceylon 

 but in Indiaj more especially it they go on for 

 a third and a fourth year to cro)) at the same 

 ratio on their magnificent hundred acres. On 

 smaller areas even larger returns have been 

 gathered:- -for example 1.200 lb. per acre on 1.5 acres 

 of which 2001b. weregatbered and made in one month 

 18 an exi)ericnce on one place in Ambagamuwa. 



