96 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



send on your letter to. those places in order that if this 

 were t he case some report of their condition may be ob- 

 tained, but I diil not see anything of them in either places 

 on my last visits there, though I carefully inspected the 

 Af i ic in Coffee, Cloves, Chinese fruits and Australian plants 

 growing on the Residency hill at Thaiping. There are many 

 JJistricts in Perak which would, judging from what I have 

 read of the Hevea habitat, be very suitable to the culti- 

 vation of these plants, this hill on which they are now grow- 

 ing well is of river gravel and I have no doubt they would 

 have been much stronger in alluvial soil. — I have the honour 

 to be, Sir, your obedient servant, (Sd) Hugh Low, Resident. 

 The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, S.S., Singapore. 



From this letter it will be seen that Sir Hugh 

 Low was not the introducer of the Para Rubber 

 plant to Perak, but that the plants were brought 

 to Perak by Mr. Murtan. This has been proved 

 by other letters in an earlier n mber of the Bul- 

 letin, but the error still frequently appears in 

 various publications. It was probably started 

 by a rather misleading statement in Mr. Wray's 

 memorandum published in 1897 which begins : 

 " Tue first seed of Para rubber [Hevea Brazilien- 

 sis) was introduced into Perak in the year 1882 

 by Sir Hugh Low, the then British Resident. It 

 was sent to me to plant, bnt did not germinate 

 having been kept too long after picking. A 

 second lot was received a short time after and 

 was planted at Kuala Kangsar.'' These seeds 

 were from the Botauic Gardens, Singapore, 

 where the trees began to fruit in 1882 — Ed, 

 — Straits Agricultural Bulletin for June. 



[A. very interesting account, but it is to be 

 regretted that it was not published sooner. If 

 Singapore was so many years ahead of Ceylon, 

 surely even the Government Printing Office 

 might have been able to publish accounts of 

 the work before our office in Ceylon. To ac- 

 cuse me of inaccuracy because I did not men- 

 tion unpublished work, of which I knew noth- 

 ing, is hardly just, and is best answered by 

 the reply of Mr. Samuel Weller to Sergeant 

 Buzfuz in the famous case of Bardell v. 

 Pickwick. 



Mr. Parkin does not mention the biscuit by 

 name, but his rubber was prepared in soup 

 plates, and took the form of small circular 

 sheets or biscuits. 



Dr. Trimen evidently did not show Mr. 

 Ridley all the trees at Henaratgoda. When we 

 arrived in 1896 we found the original plantation 

 of 45 treea made in 1876, and another of 350 

 trees made about 1885-7. — J- C. Willis.] 



OUR COCONUT PRODUCTS. 



THE FIRST HALF OF 1910. 

 The demand for Coconut Oil has been very 

 steady over the half-year. The isoap makers, 

 owing to its high price, have been turning 

 their attention to other oils, including soya 

 bean, for certain kinds of their manufacture. 

 There seems to be no end to the ever-increasing 

 demand for Ceylon coconut oil, which seems 

 to suit them better than that of our South 

 Indian neighbours, always £3 or £4 above us 

 We never exported so much oil in any year over 

 the period now under review, it reaching no 

 less than 240,983 cwt. against any previous half 

 year ; and we think we are sure to exceed our 



record year 1908, with its total of 670, 121 cwt. 

 This increased demand is, we believe, entirely 

 due to the refining of a very large quantity 

 of it for the new product Palm in, or Coconut 

 butter, which is taking such a strong posi- 

 tion on the European and American markets. 



The sarai applies to Copra, the figures speak- 

 ing for themselves in the half-yearly exports 

 for 1907 (116,466 cwt.) and 1910 (316,581 cwt.) The 

 buestion is : How much longer are we to allow, 

 this steady stream of coconut raw material, i.e., 

 Copra and Nuts in Shell, to leave our shores 

 free of export duty, to help to teed the 

 masses in foreign lands, from which we derive 

 no benefit whatever in return ? The grand 

 axiom, " Encourage local manufactures " seems 

 to be lost sight of altogether. To our mind, 

 there seems no reason why Ceylon should not 

 work up these new products locally, and so help 

 to find work for our densely populated towns. 



As regards Desiccated Nut the year, so far, 

 is a very remarkable one, there being a decided 

 falling-off in demand in the great European and 

 American countries, owing, it is said, chiefly to 

 the unusually high price of sugar which retards 

 the manufacture of confectionery and biscuits. 

 Our export to end June shows onlv 9,561,812 lb. 

 against 10,526,959 1b. for first ha'lf of 1909; so 

 that it looks as if we are to be a good 1,000,000 

 lb. short for the year, against other years a 

 substantial increment — the greatest being tha^ 

 of 1908 with 4,000,000 lb. odd in exct)ss\>f our 

 greatest previous yearly export. 



Owing to very high price of nuts— b S-ter 

 in quality, we understand, than before— and 

 comparatively low selling price of the article 

 buyers and millers could not come together, 

 but, it looks now as if with our short nut 

 crops, buyers (foreign and local) begin to see 

 they must advance their prices. Some mills are, 

 we hear, shut down, while others are going on 

 very slow. 



The export of Poonac is far in excess of any 

 year in the last two decades, strange to say ; and 

 it appears that a lot of it goes to feed foreign 

 stock — while, owing to high price, our native 

 carters are starving their bulls and their gene- 

 ral appearance seems to confirm this. The 

 total export for the six months was 108,203 cwt. 



We find a considerable falling off Nuts in 

 Shell. The prices ruling were apparently the 

 cause of this, the export being5,807,647 nuts 

 against 7,732,281 nuts at date in 1909. Our 

 largest crop season is now upon us ; but we 

 hear on all sides of considerable shortage. This 

 in view of our disjointed seasons and miser 

 able rainfall over the best nut districts, is not 

 to be wondered at. 



There is very little change in regard to Coir 

 Yarn and Fibre. The export is a fair average 

 one. Prices improved considerably, but still 

 the demand is poor. Several mills had to shut 

 down temporarily owing to shortog3 of water 

 during the drought ; and others biopped work 

 owing to the very low non-productive prices. 

 This led to a scarcity locally, and prices are 

 now higher than they have been for a con- 

 siderable time. 



