THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE 



Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine of the C. A. 8, 



Compiled and Edited by A. M. & J. FERGUSON. 



No. 2.] 



AUGUST, 1911. 



[Vol. IX. 



MESSRS. LEVER BROS.' COCONUT 

 VENTURES. 



MR. WICHERLEY'S STATEMENT 

 REFUTED. 



In an article reproduced in our July num- 

 ber Mr. Wicherley stated that Messrs. Lever 

 Bros., after sinking thousands of pounds in 

 trying to work the copra trade of the Solo- 

 mon Islands direct with England, decided early 

 in the present year to cut their losses and leave 

 the Solomon Islands and its copra trade severely 

 alone. This, Mr. Wicherley added, was because 

 the cost of collection was found to be enormous, 

 often amounting to over £50 per toil when copra 

 could be purchased in England at £22 per ton 

 delivered. As a result Messrs. Lever Bros, were 

 now turning to the palmforests of the Belgian 

 Congo in the endeavour to obtain supplies. 



A very different report has been given us by 

 Mr. Wallace Westland who has visited some of 

 the properties and has frequently met Mr. Fred. 

 Wernham, Messrs. Levers' Manager in the 

 South Seas. The latest innovation Mr. West- 

 land saw was a tank steamer for transporting 

 the Coconut Oil direct home. The oil is pumped 

 from vats into the steamer's tanks. On the 

 voyage home it solidifies in the colder northern 

 clime and at the port of destination steam is 

 introduced to the tanks to melt the oil, so that 

 it may be pumped out. 



Mr. Westland states that hs never saw finer 

 coconuts than on one 700-acre estate included 

 in Mr. Wernham's charge. This was an exceed- 

 ingly fine property with excellent trees, yielding 

 heavy crops. Since then Mr. Wernham has 

 planted up a 2,000-acre block of good fiat land 

 and this, too, is doing splendidly, while further 

 developments are still proceeding. This gives 

 an entirely different complexion to Mr. Wicher- 

 ley's statement : but perhaps he was confusing 

 Messrs. Levers' coconut ventures with their 

 attempt to grow rubber in the South Sea 

 Islands which was not attended with success. 



22 



CEYLON'S RAINFALL. 



Sh YEARS OF 'A DRY CYCLE OF 11 

 YEARS.* 



Mow that intelligence has come of the fears 

 prevailing in Bombay on account of a deficiency 

 of the monsoon rainfall— and of the dire conse- 

 quences, if it should continue— we are reminded 

 how clearly this year so far has demonstrated 

 that we are still in the " dry cycle." The local 

 rainfall statistics long ago supported the view 

 that Ceylon was liable to cycles of eleven com- 

 paratively " dry years " succeeded by eleven 

 " wet years." The late Mr. R. B. Tytler was 

 the first to draw attention to this circumstance, 

 at a time his material dependence lay on his 

 estate in the Ooombera Valley, when the ex- 

 perience or absence of a good fall of rain on the 

 coffee bushes, at a critical point in the season, 

 made a difference of at least £10,000 to him. The 

 matter was fully worked out in columns and 

 carried on in our Ceylon Directory statistics, 

 until the question came under the notice of 

 Sir J. Norman Lockyer, when out in Ceylon and 

 India, during the Eclipse Expedition in 1871, 

 and he connected the variation in the Ceylon 

 rainfall and weather with the sun-spot cjole. 

 Be that as it may, it is a fact that while our 

 average annual rainfall for Colombo for 41 years 

 is close on 83 inches (82 - 91), the fall for the past 

 8 years has been below the mark, going down in 

 1909 and 1910 so low as 58 - 41 and 66-13 inches 

 respectively ; while for the first half of 1911 

 Colombo has only got 20*82 inches or little 

 more than half the average for that period. 

 The last year of copious rainfall was 1902 which 

 gave 118'70 inches and then the following years 

 reoorded as follows : — 



inches inches inches 



1903 = 79 39 1906 = 71-55 1909 =66-13 

 1904„75-62 1907 ,,70-6-2 1910 ,,57-30 

 1905,, 65 66 1908,, 50 41 1911(i'i,, 20'82 



