and Magazine oj the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 203 



"This is going to be Malabar's record year, as 

 in fact it will be for the whole island, as far ay 

 tea is concerned. I believe I am correct in 

 saying that our production for the first four 

 months of 1908 is, roughly, 9,0110,000 lb. more 

 than for the same period in 1907. I think our 

 crop will be about 40,000,000 lb. for the year. 

 In some ways we do not trouble to do things 

 so very much cheaper than other lands— as, for 

 instance, our opening work. Take Bandjarsarie 

 the property of the Anglo- Java Rubber Co. — at 

 the end of March, 1908, approximately £13,000 

 had been spent or say G156,000, less G20,000 pur- 

 chase price, thus G136,000 on planting 927a 

 acres with rubber, of which 437£ acres were 

 25/27 months old ; 262£ were about 12 months 

 old ; 227J were just planted. Take Sagga in the 

 P. M. S.— according to the last report at 

 September 1907, the Assets and Expenditure 

 amounted to £14,491—15-7, of which £283—8— 

 8 was cash at Bankers, £754 — 12 — 7 was 

 cash and book debts, £2,400 was purchase price, 

 leaving a nett expenditure on the property of 

 £11,053—14—4 or say G 132, 644/60, for which they 

 had 196 acres about 24 years old ; 300 acres about 



years old ; and 400 acres 4/5 months old, total 

 896 acres. From the above you will see thero is 

 not so much in our favour as far as initial capital 

 expenditure goes." 



JAVA AND STS TEA PRODUCTIVITY. 



July 20th. 



Dear Sir, — Much is said in the Tropical Agri- 

 culturist (May and June) about the fine qualities 

 of Java from a planter's point of view. It is com- 

 forting to see one s working ground praised, but 

 it may be good to rectify and emphasize some 

 points. Will you let me try ? It is obvious that 

 agriculture gives better results here than in 

 Ceylon. Cinchona is a great success. Coffee is 

 still important here, and tea also on the whole 

 seems to give greater profit. I grant that. But 

 not greater fertility of the soil, only, must be 

 credited for the fact, I think. 



I should like to speak of "fresher " soil, and 

 further, beside cheaper labour, to take in ac- 

 count the judicious system prevailing here, of 

 interesting Managers in the results of their 

 work — giving them a good percentage in the pro- 

 fits of their estate, guaranteed by contract. It 

 may be the laht point is not the least one. You 

 concoii^, no doubt, that an estate depends in the 

 first place on its Manager. An estate cannot 

 flourish without a good Manager ; without any 

 other personage, working for the same Company, 

 it may do. Directors and Superintendents are 

 indispencable for a Company, but it is possible 

 to imagine an estate flourishing well with- 

 out them, for a time ; whereas for the good 

 Manager I should not like to assert the same. 

 A good Manager is the very essential condition 

 for the success of an estate. But, if this be 

 correct, it entails that the liveliness and dis- 

 position of the Manager must make a great 

 difference to the estate. 



And it is only human that for those qualities 

 of the Manager it should make a great differ- 

 ence whether he be paid a fee, a variable pay- 



ment according to the Supcrinl ondont's viows, or 

 interested in the result of his daily work in 

 the manner as given above, which gives him 

 very distinctly a sense of partial ownership in 

 his estate. 



x\griculture is a' fine and delicate profession 

 the soil reacts on sentiment. No doubt most 

 sentiment shall be found with the owner of the 

 ground; with him the sentiment approaches love. 

 And besides, who ever could better economise, 

 in the full sense of the word, than the owner 

 of the ground ? 



As for Java's competition in the tea market, 

 I do not think Ceylon planters need be uneasy 

 about that — if it won't be disturbed by some 

 35,000,000 lb. more in addition to our 25,000,000 

 of now-a-days. The Pengalengan tea district 

 is quite exceptional, and probably Malabar is 

 exceptional in it. In that district the soil, and 

 shape of ground, and climate, all are equally 

 splendid. The soil is much too fine to be described 

 by me; it should be done in verse. The district 

 is essentially a plateau, and as for the climate, 

 sunshine is abundant at an elevation, where 

 moisture is its chief characteristic ; it could 

 not be better. No doubt we will see some 

 extension of the culture in this district, in 

 some other well-situated ones, and elsewhere, 

 but certainly not all districts are half-Penga- 

 lengans — and besides, possibilities are limited. 

 Appropriate lands are becoming scarce, and 

 the price of labour is steadily rising with the 

 demand. Government wishes to secure some 

 ground for wood culture, and some place for the 

 natives in the future. 



Therefore, in my 35,000,000 lb, of increase 

 the conversion of other cultures into tea and 

 the future improvements in exploitation are 

 done with, 1 dare say. I cannot imagine a Java 

 production of 60,000,000 lb. for a number of 

 years to come, and I see clearly that we will 

 gradully lose some of our advantage compared 

 with Ceylon, viz., cheap labour and fresh soil. 



DUTCHMAN. 



WAX AS A BY-PRODUCT OF 

 SUGAR-CANE. 



The "Daily Argosy" (Georgetown), British 

 Guiana of the 13th June states that a patent has 

 been applied for with respect to a process for 

 the extraction of wax from the Sugar-cane. It 

 seems that the rind of the cane contains a cer- 

 tain proportion of wax which has hitherto been 

 lost with the refuse. By the new process this 

 wax is now recovered from the filter refuse and 

 turned to commercial uses. It is estimated that 

 one ton of cane will yield 0"4 kilo, of wax, and 

 very similar in its characteristics to beeswax or 

 Carnauba wax, and suited to the same purposes 

 for which those waxes are utilised. The wax in 

 question, which resembles that now used very 

 largely for making cylinders for so-called talking 

 machines is exceedingly hard and capable of 

 taking a high polish. It is understood that 110 

 factories in Java will be using this process dur- 

 ing the present year.— Board of Trade Journal, 

 July 9. 



