8l2 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, i886. 



The Siiralmya Cmirant has received less discourag- 

 ing advices regartWhg the root diseases among the 

 cincliona plantations in the Preanger Kegencies. 

 It seems to be chiefly confined within limited 

 area comprising estates fewer in nnniber than in 

 other localities to the West and North West. Hence 

 the extent of the evil is not so great as was at first 

 anticipated. The disease has, however manifested 

 itself on isolated spots in other plantations wher- 

 ever the subsoil is bad and hard or but slightly 

 porous. On such spots, cinchona plants naturally 

 cease to grow up as soon as their roots reach the 

 subsoil, upon which they drag on a lingering ex- 

 istence until at length they succumb fur good. 

 Elsewliere in that ijuarter the estates are thriving 

 notwithstanding the want of rain for many months. 

 The bark exported from .lava is increasing in cjuan- 

 tity yearly, but is yet barely one-eighth of that 

 shipped from Ceylon. Prices continue falling owing 

 to tlie supply exceeding the demand without any 

 chance of recovery. The moment any rise does 

 take place, cinchona trees are rooted up in Ceylon 

 and their bark thrown upon the market thereby 

 again bringing quotations down. In that island, 

 confidence m cinchona cultivation is gone owing 

 to the prevalence of canker, and tea growing is 

 rapidly taking its place. So long as there are trees 

 to be uprooted for this purpose over wide areas so 

 long will prices continue low from the market being 

 liable to be overstocked at any moment in conse- 

 quence. The only encouraging sign is the steady 

 increase in the consumption of quinine, and the 

 discredit into which the substitutes for it have 

 fallen from their inability to ward off fever. 



CKVLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTINU REPOET. 



APPEOAOHINQ PLANTING SEASON — TKA PLANTS AND 

 PEICES — TKA SEED — OKATITUPE. 



2(;th April 1880. 



As the planting season approaches the interest 

 in tea nurseries becomes intensified. ' How much 

 should we ask a thousand?" is the uppermost 

 thought in the minds of those who are fortunate in 

 having for sale good, strong, well-grown plants. 

 As for the buyers, there are the ardents souls who 

 book early and pay high ; but then they are neither 

 disappointed nor worried once they have plunged. 

 Others, however, hang back content to let the over- 

 anxious get satisfied, as they are ever an element 

 to keep a market unsteady, disturbing it always in 

 an upward direction. 



For the early H.-W. there are not, I believe, a 

 very large stock of plants to draw from, and 

 prices are at present lirm, at high rates. Shonid 

 the season be a favourable one for planting, it is 

 more than likely that buyers will easily be ob- 

 tained for all, but the extensive nurseries which 

 have been put in everywhere since December last, 

 are being run up with all expedition, and it does 

 not recjuire one to be a prophet, nor the son of a 

 proplut to foretell that by and bye there will be 

 cheap enough plants to be had, and this more 

 esi^ecially for the N. E. Should therefore the 

 rains bo delayed, the earlier results of these 

 late sowings will be in the market to comiicte 

 with those which in the meantime are " masters 

 of the situation." As to present prices, I have 

 heard of one nursery which luis been sold 

 at RT-.IOper 1,000; another at IJM'.O; and as for 

 what is asked, R12 per 1,000 is as yet the most 

 sublime point which my information makes me to 

 register. A local lirm lately advertising lamps in 

 your columns drew the public attention to tlie 

 " absurd prices " it was charging. It is on the same 

 principle that I cUtonicle Ely a thousand for tea 

 plants ! 



Orders for tea- seed, which were booked at the 

 end of last year or the beginning of this are fast 

 being executed ; but new orders are slow in appear- 

 ing. The crop of seed is good on the whole and 

 the advance of price which obtained when it was 

 scarce, is not now being sustained. The appear- 

 ance in the advertisement columns of some of 

 the favourite estates having seed for sale, is evidence 

 enough that in the meantime the demand has been 

 satisfied. The feverish haste for seed which was 

 so visible a tew months ago, is now transferred 

 to the tea plant, around it are all the heat and 

 excitement, whereas the other is neglected, and 

 has to woo a market, instead of having to be won. 

 Those who buy Indian seed rnn a very consider- 

 able risk, and this you come to realize the longer 

 you have to do with it. The mixed j;U which 

 can be seen in some properties where the seed has 

 been imported is a warning. Such stufl'. Plants 

 with leaves like "curly kail " while others are about 

 hard enough for shoe-leather. Of course it is 

 not all like this, but the i:)resence of the better 

 kinds scattered throughout a new clearing is an 

 added sting, as showing what might have been. I 

 should say that those wlio buy imported Indian 

 seed, except with a guaranteed pedigree, when 

 there is so much of really high-class local seed to be 

 obtained, invite a catastrophe, and merit their fate. 

 I am told that so very particular are some of 

 the Indian tea planters regarding the seed they 

 buy that they will not trust others to gather ic 

 for them, but stipulate to be permitted to harvest 

 it themselves, and yet, trusting Ceylon has tons 

 of anything and everything sent into its market, 

 and it is all sold somehow, and gets planted 

 somewhere. 



There are some nations said to be utterly devoid 

 of gratitude, but ours is not among the number. 

 There was a canny Scot who had ventured into 

 tea, in whose heart there was a remembrance of 

 favours past, and who had made up his mind to 

 show his sense thereof by sending, as a token, a 

 box of tea. He had a hardworking superintend- 

 ent whose estimate for expenditure he had pared 

 to the bone, whereas the estimate for crop was in- 

 flated far beyond anything reasonable. It was all 

 but hopeless to expect to get it, and yet he pro- 

 posed to send on the tea in question, as soon as 

 the estimate was realized I His manager got his 

 instructions to do this ; meanwhile on the strength 

 of this the proprietor had that pleasurable sense 

 of having done what hi; could to acknowledge a 

 favour of some moment, and this too at little cost. 

 It was the manager who stopped the current of his 

 gratitude, for the estimate was never obtained. 



Peppkrcobn. 



"THE TEA GARDEN OF THE WORLD." 



MR. JOHN HAMILTON ON THE PUOSPECTS FOR VOUNQ 

 TEA PLANTERS IN t'EVLON. 



Mr. .Tohn Hamilton of Newton, Dikoya, and 

 latterly and at present of a well-known firm 

 of London Produce Brokers, is full of inter- 

 est in all that appertains to the planting 

 enterprize of Ceylon. The full title of the season- 

 able hroi-liiiiY wliich he has just published is as 

 follows: - 



The Ceylon U-.x ludcistiy, an opining for iiieu of 

 modi inte Oiqiital. By .loliu llaniilion (Late of Vfi/hn). 

 I'li.e one shilling, Man-b l«f(j. 



And he iulrodiices his 17 pages of closely packed 

 information and advice by the following preface :— 



I liave endeavoured in the following .short notice 

 of the Oeylon Tea Industry to convey to people's 

 minds a fow of the most material fiicts c.punected 

 with the new uuterpise, and to explain the opening 

 that exists, aud the career that is possible, for men 



