and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society, 



379 



with estimates of expenditure and receipts by a 

 practical planter ; but no one has yet led the 

 way with a regular plantation or clearing. We 

 fhink Government might well give a free grant 

 of land a'irl some other privileges to the man who 

 guaranteed the planting, cultivating and crop- 

 ping of at least 100 acres. In Natal 1888 is 

 given as the date of the first cultivation there 

 of the black wattle of Australia, and now we see 

 that the area covered with it was 80, 762 acres 

 in 19U6 with a steady extension last year 

 "Wattle bark" has consequently attained to 

 the third place in the list of Natal's exports to 

 over sea countries. The return begins five 

 years after planting and it 16 found in Natal 

 that no amount of cutting interferes with the 

 life of a tree which is regarded as perennial. 

 The export of bark rose to 35,537 tons in 1902 

 and the value of the export was from £90,OOC to 

 £100,000 for three years 19C 4-5-6. For the ten 

 months ending with October, 1907, it rose to 

 £125,000 — or Rupees 1,875,000— quite a res- 

 pectable amount. We are told that the trees 

 are felled and stripped of their bark gradually 

 after they are rive years old : complete felling 

 can take place after ten years. So far the 

 average yield is half-a-ton per acre per annum- 

 The cutting must take place when the sap is up 

 and the bark is then stripped from the entire 

 tree, extending to all branches of 2 inches 

 diameter. The bark is then dried in large 

 sheds or often, if fine, in the ( pen. After 20 to 

 2o day 8 of drying, it is cut, ground or shredded 

 into small bits and packed in bags of 'iOOlb. 

 each. Germany, Russia, Austria and Belgium 

 are customers as well as the United Kingdom. 

 Now, it is quite possible that Natal has special 

 advantages in soil, &c, over Ceylon : the 

 analysis of Natal wattle bark shows as much as 

 40 per cent of tannin ; and clearly it may pay 

 better here to deal in other products since 

 there is a waiting of five years. Rubber, ot 

 course, would seem to be far more attractive ; 

 but there is a limit to the zone of rubber and it 

 is just far above that zone that the wattle grows 

 here. It may be again that camphor is Ihe 

 more profitable venture at a high elevation. 

 That remains to be seen, and there is a good 

 deal of talk in Germany and America about 

 "synthetic camphor." So that We do nob 

 think that a black-wattle tanning bark industry 

 should be altogether forgotten or despised. It 

 may be found in years to come a useful " second 

 string" to either camphor or high-grown tea 

 *-who knows ? 



EXPORT OF CAMPHOR SEED FROM 

 JAPAN SHAY BE STOPPED. 



A PROPOSED GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY. 



In the course of a business letter to us, Mr. S. 

 Idia, Managerof the Yokohama Nursery Co., Ld., 

 states that the Japanese Government contem- 

 plate creating a monopoly of the camphor seed 

 trade; or they may, before long, stop exportation 

 of camphor seed altogether. The authorites have 

 already cautioned firms engaged in the seed 

 trade against exporting large quantities ; and 

 this our correspondent regards as "a very mean 

 and narrow view unworthy of the Imperial 

 Government." " When your planters fail in 

 raising camphor seed in Ce3'lon," he continues, 

 "they attribute their failure to our poisoning 

 the seeds before we export them in order to 

 prevent germination. As seedsmen no one has 

 any interest in doing such a trick : it is to 

 their interest to deal honestly and see the 

 species they sell propagated in other countries.' 1 

 In this connection the latest information re- 

 garding the Formosan camphor industry and 

 the steps being taken by the Japanese Gov- 

 ernment to retain its pre-eminence will be 

 of interest. In the Japan Times (February 

 29th) just to hand, we find the following state- 

 ment from that journal's commercial oorre« 

 spondent ;* — 



The total output of camphor and camphor oil 

 during the current fiscal year up to the end of 

 January reached 3,339,000 and 3,538,000 kin 

 respectively. The Government income from 

 this monopoly source amounted to 7,118,451 yen 

 indicating an increase of 813 868 yen ever the 

 estimation which stood at 6,205,583 yen. Com- 

 pared with the actual receipt of the 38th fiscal 

 year, which was 4,865,226 yen the figure shows a 

 great increase of 2,254.225 yen. So abundant 

 was the amount of output that in spite of the 

 slump during last year a good income was ex- 

 perienced. Since the camphor industry was 

 monopolized by the Government several years 

 ago it has made conspicuous development. At 

 presei t the world yearly consumes about 8 mil- 

 lion kin of which Japan supplies some 5 million 

 kin the rest being supplied by the production 

 from Ceylon, Canada, Florida and South China. 

 So far there seems to be nothing to be regretted 

 with regard to the industry. Rut the trouble is 

 that recently along with the development of 

 manufacture the stock of raw materials, namely, 

 camphor trees, is fast growing scarce so that if 

 the situation continues it is feared they will 

 hardly stand the coming 15 ytars' supply, lender 



