52 Hoiv lo Pay for I he War 



must start with a firm grip of the idea that in the Tropics, 

 as elsewhere, tlie foundation of wealth must be welfare, 

 //we cannot have tropical produce cheap, let us have it 

 dear, and arrange our costs on that basis." Those who 

 know what the near future holds in the palm of its hand 

 for us will agree that Captain Jebb is right, and be glad 

 that the Royal Colonial Institute gave him the chance of 

 expressing his views at so propitious a moment as now. 

 We certainly are, and so will others be, when they have 

 read the paper and subsequent debate. 



CHAPTER VHI. 



By encouraging Ceylon or elsewhere within the 

 Empire to Produce Camphor. 



Tropical Life, January, igi8. 



Thk American papers have, from time to time, been 

 mentioning the words " Camphor Production in the 

 United States," especially the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, 

 of New York, in its issue of February 17 last, which dealt 

 with the matter at some length, and more particularly with 

 the experimental work carried out by the Satsuma concern, 

 which, we are told, had at that date (February 17) about a 

 thousand acres under cultivation, with another thousand 

 being planted up. These two thousand acres it is reckoned 

 will contain about 1,000,000 trees. This means 500 to the 

 acre, and so might seem at first to be rather closely planted, 

 but Macmillan ^ tells us that about a thousand acres were 

 estimated to be under camphor in Ceylon in igo8, when 

 about 15 cwt. of the commercial product was exported, 

 against about 5,200 tons as the world's total supply, almost 

 entirely raised, of course, in Formosa. The area in Ceylon 

 was coppiced or cut back to a height of about 4 to 5 ft., in 

 order to obtain successive clippings. If planted 6 ft. by 



' Seep. 507 of "A Handbook of Tropical Gardening and Planting." 

 iiy H. K. Macmillan. Price 15s. post free of I'ropical Life. 



