and Magazine of ihc Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



93 



By all means let us keep the land in the 

 uplands, known as the white settlement area, 

 for whites only ; but outside this I see no reason 

 why we should not give small allotments of land 

 to agricultural Indians— not to Indian traders, 

 who would not themselves cultivate— on the 

 terms proposed by the Commissioner of Lands. 

 I am instructing Col. Montgomery accordingly. 



Lord Elgin, in his concluding despatch ap- 

 proves of this view. 



M'lanje, May 24. 

 I am glad to see by the grand old Observer 

 that Ceylon is going ahead with Railway 

 Extensions. Fancy getting into a train for 

 Katnapura and Badulla (and I hope Man- 

 nar for the cooly emigrants' sake in no 

 very distant date) instead of the hard tedious 

 and wearisome journey by roads as in days of 

 old, on horseback, coach, bullock bandy, or 

 hackery. I shall never forget some of the jour- 

 neys I made between 20 and 35 years ago to those 

 out-of-the-way places. 



Tea seems booming again with an average of 

 8d. in London. Ceylon planters should be 

 cheery, but they are never otherwise seemingly. 

 Even rubber dropping to 3/6 per lb. does not seem 

 to affect them in the least. You are to be envied, 

 indeed, with such capital at your command, and 

 such go-ahead men to utilise it. 



Poor Nyassaland is not advancing as it might 

 do and our railway, although completed to 

 Blantyre, does not seem to do much for the 

 country. It was thought when completed that 

 this Protectorate would be boomed a hit ; and 

 capital and men would turn up to develop the 

 resources of this " Cinderella of Africa " as Sir 

 Harry Johnston called it. 



Coffee crops are .good this year on those 

 properties that have any in cultivation, and 

 there should be a decent export before the 

 end of the year. 



Cotton is now only planted in a few favoured 

 localities where it has been found that soil and 

 climate are favourable, it is a very risky crop 

 indeed. An estate near here planted up some 

 300 acres last year, and the whole of it was so 

 blighted that it might be termed a complete 

 failure as it only yielded a few cwts. of cotton. 

 Strange to say the same land was planted again 

 this year and has a grand crop of cotton, the 

 finest I have seen in the country. 



Tobacco is being cultivated to a much 

 greater extent than it ever was in the 

 country before, as the Imperial Tobacco Co. 

 of Great Britain and Ireland have tendered 

 their support to planters and are not only 

 growing tobacco themselves, but are buyers 

 for spot cash. Huge stores and factories are 

 being erected at the Railway Terminus Blan- 

 tyre for storing, packing, &c, by this Companv. 

 Prices of tobacco range from 2d to 8d. per lb., 

 and as it is an annual crop that never fails, I 

 may say there is encouragement for planting 

 this weed and money sh< uld be made out of 

 this product by those who have the means to 

 go in for it on a large scale. 



Tea gave a very good yield last year, as we 

 had a good rainy season. Our total for the 

 year was 107 inches well distributed too. The 

 growth of tea on young clearings has been very 

 satisfactory, too. 



There is a line chance now here for would-be 

 tea planters. Labour is going a-begging every- 

 where and land and living, as well as labour, is 

 cheaper in Nyassaland than anywhere in the 

 world, I may say. Further I do not think 

 Ceylon can extend in the tea line very much 

 further, neither can India; so the price must 

 keep up as consumption has overtaken pro- 

 duction. 



H. B. 



COPRA. 



A BIG PRODUCING SEASON AND A 

 LOW MARKET. 



REMARKABLE EXCESS IN PRODUCE FROM CEYLON 

 AND SINGAPORE. 



The remarkably large excess in the shipment 

 of copra from Ceylon to Great Britain and 

 Europe, during the period between Jan. 1st to 

 June 15, this year, as compared with the first 

 five months of last year, is worth calling 

 attention to. The figures are : — 



January 1 to June 15, 1907 . . candies 108,246 



„ „ „ 19LS .. 158,640 



■Showing an excess of . . candies 50,394 



The ruling price today, according to our 

 Copra expert, is from 50'00 to 50'62 per candy : 

 and the tendency is towards a decline. A few 

 years ago the ruling rate was R45 to R46 per 

 candy for good estate stuff; and this rose until 

 tho record price of R86 was obtained in 

 February last year. Such a condition of affairs 

 was, of course, abnormal. The South Sea 

 Islands, a notable producing centre, had 

 suffered badly from hurricanes, and stocks in 

 Europe were low. 



Looking at 



the Singapore Market Report 

 also, we find the same remarkable excess of 

 exports : — 



To Great Britain for first 5 months of 



1907 .. ..piculs 12,227 



Do do do of 1908.. ,, 29,491 



■Excess in 1908.. 17,261 



To Continent of Europe in same period 

 of 1907 .. ..piculi 163,097 



Do do do of 1908.. ,, 317,761 



Excess in 1908 - 154,664 



It will thus be seen that while Ceylon has 

 increased by 50 per cent. Singapore has practi- 

 cally doubled its exports so far this year; 

 providing the contributory factors to the 

 decline in present prices and the prevailing- 

 tendency of the market. Of course, too, the 

 big crop season is now "on"; and with the 

 present abundance of nuts on estates there 

 is bound to be a further drop in prices. 



According to our copra expert there is just 

 now a strong likelihood of another important 

 local firm entering the market, which should 

 contribute to improved competition. 



Unless some unforeseen calamity takes place, 

 such as an unlikely repetition of the South Sea 

 disaster in our own, or the Singapore estates, 

 there i3 a likelihood of present rates not being 

 reached in the near future, and a low price 

 prevailing throughout the coming season. 



