September 2, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
165 
stopped the preparation and the shipment of 
chips, would cinnamon be used in the place of 
chips' in England : in other words would cinna- 
mon be used for the same purposes for which 
chips were now used. He thought if they settled 
that question they could agree to any resolution 
and sign any paper. He himself, with his long 
experience, was inclined to think that any amount 
of resolutions would not stop the scraping of chips 
hv the small landed proprietors. [The Chairman : 
We do not expect that.] He believed the chairman 
mentioned the quantity of chips exported annually 
from Ceylon as from 500,000 lb. to 600,000 lb. 
Some large proprietors also scraped, and if they 
took a proportion of that quantity and placed 
it towards those large proprietors, he thought the 
balance would be found larger on the part of 
the small proprietors. If the large proprietors 
combined not to scrape chips they had still to 
deal with the small proprietors. He thought the 
step that was now being taken a good one, and 
if they did all in their power to prevent the 
preparation of chips themselves, the small pro- 
prietors would probably find that it would not 
pay them, and would cease from scraping. He 
begged to support the resolution. 
The Chairman said the question raised by the 
last speaker was one that he was not in a posi- 
tion to answer. He could not say for certain that 
the suppression of perhaps one half of chips, which 
was what they hoped to effect, would cause even 
the lower grades of cinnamons to be used for 
purposes for which chips were formerly used, but 
he was inclined to think that if cinnamon 
chips had been used for certain purposes for 
a number of years and they were withdrawn from the 
market, there was nothing else to take their 
place, and that inferior qualities of quill bark 
would be used for those purposes. He thought 
that was a reasonable surmise, but it was a ques- 
tion, of course, that would have to be tested by 
time. They did not expect to get the consent 
of all the "small proprietors, as they knew that 
was impossible, but they hoped to get a sufficient 
number to represent one-half of the chips now 
exported, and if they did that he thought they 
would have achieved something. — The motion 
was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously. 
Mr. Schrader proposed the second resolution. 
He regretted to find so few proprietors present as 
this was a matter concerning them all, more par- 
ticularly tbose who were largely interested in it. 
They loft the small proprietors alone, because he 
thought the large proprietors might endeavour to 
influence them hereafter, but for the present it 
was necessary they should all combine to make 
one strong effort to put down the shipping of 
cinnamon chips which, to a very great degree, 
had brought down the price of good quill bark. 
If chips were not shipped to England thev 
might be positive that the inferior quality of quill 
cinnamon would take its place, and whatever 
loss there might be in withholding cinnamon 
chips it would be more than recouped by the 
higher prices for quill bark which would be 
obtained in England. (Hear, hear.) The resolution 
was as follows : — 
That in order to give 'effect to the foregoing 
resolution a committee of the following gentlemen 
be appointed to draw up and circulate amongst 
owners of cinnamon properties, a letter for sig- 
nature of proprietors and representatives of pro- 
p-i-tnrq binding themselves on their honor to stop all 
scraping n£ chins from their cinnamon for a period 
of 2 years from 1st October 1889 and to adopt snch 
other measures as may seem to them necessary to 
secure the end in view. 
Thoy might limit the effort to two years, and 
if they found there was no improvement thev 
might revert to the old system. The effort, how. 
ever, could only be made with unanimity, and ho 
trusted they would find that. (Hear, bear.) 
Mr. Mir and o seconded the resolution, remark- 
ing that though there were few cinnamon proprietors 
present he believed they would mostly give their 
support to the object aimed at, and the proposed 
letter would bring them nearly all to combine.— 
The following gentlemen were then proposed to 
form the Committee : — Messrs. S. R. De Ponseka, 
C. H. De Soysa, Jacob De Mel, R. A. Mirando, 
J. F. Drieberg, W. Jardine, G. De Croos and 
Jeronis Peris. 
The resolution being put was carried unanim- 
ously. 
Mr. Jacob De Mel proposed "That all who 
sign the l°tter referred to above should also agree 
not to permit the manufacture of cinnamon 
leaf oil upon their properties, or allow the re- 
moval of leaves for that purpose." 
Mr. Cockburn seconded the resolution, and 
pointed out that good cinnamon oil in 1877 fetched 
4<s 8d per oz. ; the same quality of oil in 1886 
fetched only Is 8d per oz Many of the stills in 
consequence, he believed, had stopped manufac- 
turing cinnamon oil. If it did not pay to manu- 
facture pure oil he could not for the life of him 
make out how cinnamon-leaf oil would pay. 
The Chairman said those were all the resolutions 
that had suggested themselves as being necessary, 
but he had come prepared with a draft of a letter 
to be signed by all present at that meeting who 
were agreeable to give up the preparation of 
cinnamon chips and to sign their names to a 
document to that effect, but he thought it was 
better that they should not do so until they 
had had a meeting of the Committee to de- 
cide upon the tenor of the letter. He was 
very glad indeed that they had achieved so 
much. Things seemed to him more hopeful, 
and he trusted that by the efforts of the Com- 
mittee they would be enabled to carry the matter 
to a successful issue. 
The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to 
the Chairman, proposed by Mr. De Fonseka and 
seconded bv Mr. Schrader. 
A Committee meeting was afterwards held. 
SWARM OF BEES IN CEYLON. 
(To the Editor of " The Field.") 
Sir, — During our stay at Colombo, Cevlon, the other 
day, a curious case of bees swarming occurred, which I 
venture to send an account of to you, if you consider 
the case uncommon. 
On Saturday, April 27th, at about 8 a.m., an enor- 
mous mass of bees swarmed under our foretop, almost 
covering tho fore-end of the trestletrees, viz. a space of 
2 ft. 3 in. long and 2 ft. 4 in. deep Cthis was the extreme 
depth of the swarm.) They continued to swarm, and 
remained for the space of two and a half hours, when 
thev suddenlv flew awav in a small cloud to the island, 
clear of the houses, &c,, a distance of one and a half 
miles. Such a strange sight has never heen seen hv any 
nflfieer of our ship before. I may mention that the 
" little monsoon " had broken, but that day it was hot 
and fine. The nsnal noise, and more, was going on. as 
steamers were cln>e to 'is, passing in and out of harbor. 
Georoe 1\T. Leckie. Senior, Lieut., R.N. 
H. M. S. " Sapphire," Suez, May 3lst. 
THE DECADENCE OF CINNAMON. 
In the time of the Dutch monopoly the famous 
cinnamon of Ceylon, the finest by far produced in 
the world, and the export of whioh wag restricted 
