s6o 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
pulp, let it stand for 24 hours, and then strain it into 
the cask ; add more water to the peels and pulp when 
this is done, and repeat the same process every day 
for a week ; it should take about a week to fill up the 
cask. Be careful to apportion the quantity as nearly 
as possible to seven days, and to stir the contents of 
the cask each day. On the third day after the cask is 
full, that is, the tenth day after the commencement 
of making, the cask may be securely bunged down. 
This is a very simple and easy method, and the wine 
made according to it will be pronounced to be most 
excellent. There is no troublesome boiling, and all 
fermentation takes place in the cask. When the above 
directions are attended to, the wine cannot fail to be 
good. It should be bottled in 8 or 9 months, and will 
be fit for use in a twelvemonth after time of making. 
—I am, yours truly, A PLANTEK. 
CINNAMON PEELING AND ADVANCES 
TO PEELERS. 
August 22nd, 1889. 
Deab Sie, — I cannot undertake to follow or reply 
fully to " B.'s " moral essay exposing all the evils 
which he says follow upon the "immoral and 
pernicious " system of making a yearly advance 
to cinnamon peelers. No doubt it has its draw- 
backs and there may be some objectionable features 
connected with it, but to charge to it the long 
array of evils pictured by him is unwarranted. I 
cannot agree with him that the bulk of the advances 
are squandered in gambling and drink : there are 
some who do get rid of their money in this way, 
and I know a few who as regularly as they re- 
ceive their weekly advance risk it in gambling. 
Would " B." suggest that because those men make 
a bad use of their money that therefore weekly 
advances should be stopped ? We all know that the 
New Year is a time of feasting and merriment and 
arraying in new garments : why then should the 
poor cinnamon peelers, who have very little sun- 
shine in their lives, be debarred from enjoying 
themselves for a day or two according to their own 
fashion. I venture to say that on these occasions 
the proportion of those who become intoxicated is 
small, while the number of those who indulge in 
gambling in a mild wav is no doubt greater. 1 am 
positive that the bulk of the advances made to the 
men just before their New Year are spent in the 
purchase of clothes for themselves, their wives and 
children. "B." would make out that these men are 
heartless and unfeeling, who without thought for the 
comfort of their families are only too ready to 
squander the advance they receive in drinking and 
gambling. That there are a few such is no 
reason to condemn a whole section of the com- 
munity. These men have quite as much natural 
affection as the generality of natives of the same 
station in life. 
" B." says there is no necessity for making 
advances; at one time I was inclined to think 
so too, but I have since altered my opinion. 
He will I think admit that for the last few 
years the supply of peelers has not been equal to 
the demand, and that in consequence there has 
been much competition for their services. The 
men are skilled labourers, and, owing to the pe- 
culiar nature and circumstances of cinnamon pre- 
paration, it is necessary to be certain, as far as 
possible, that at the right time you will have 
the command ol a certain force of peelers. To 
leave this an uncertainty would be to make the 
lif e, of a cinnamon planter a burden to him ; as it is, 
with all the precautions taken, many are the 
anxious days and sleepless nights ho passes lest 
ho should not have a sufficient force to harvest 
his crop. This anxiety was in my opinion the 
factor that first compelled the giving of advances ; 
and as long as the occasion for it lasts, so long 
will the practice of giving advances last. 
Again all peelers are not equally skilful; the cin- 
namon prepared by some will not realize more 
than an average of 8d per lb., while that prepared 
by others will fetch Is. Am I at great cost of time 
and trouble to educate my peelers up to my stan- 
dard, and to have no guarantee that I shall have 
their services for even one year? Am I to be 
placed at the risk of my men leaving me for a 
whim, or of being crimped underhand by some 
kangany of another estate? No, "B."! Iam not 
going to lead any reform in this direction just at 
present : the time for it is not yet. Is " B." 
really so simple as to believe that if estate owners 
do not make advances the system will die out ? 
It is quite a fallacy to think so. How are we 
to get peelers ? Through kanganies of course ; and 
they, to enable them to collect and keep to- 
gether a sufficient number of men to insure them- 
selves a decent living, will compete with each other. 
If they do not happen to have the money, they 
will raise it by a mortgage on their property at 
probably high interest. To insure their own safety, 
they will, before advancing a cent to a peeler, 
get him to sign a bond (nottuwa as they call it) as 
a security for the amount advanced, with interest. 
Now I ask which system is the less objection- 
able,— that a peeler should receive a small sum 
from an estate and be responsible to the estate 
only, or that he should be handed over entirely 
to the tender mercies of a kangany, who would 
scarcely ever rest content with the " pound of 
flesh" his bond entitles him to ? Well might the 
peeler cry out " Save me from my friends." 
On the subject of the three years' engage- 
ment, I am not aware that on any estate the terms 
of the agreement are strictly enforced ; at any rate 
they are not here. If within one year a peeler by 
his labour works off his advance and gives me 
one month's notice of his wish to leave, so that I 
may have time to engage another in his place, he 
is allowed to leave. It depends therefore upon the 
peeler himself as to whether the agreement shall 
continue for one year or longer. The object of having 
it for three years is to protect the estate from loss 
from those who take advances with a very weak, or 
no, intention of working them off. While to a certain 
extent sympathizing with " B." and wishing that we 
could accomplish our work without advances, I yet 
cannot see bow under present circumstances it is 
to be done. He should remember that we have 
not to do with ordinary cooly labor, that can always 
easily be procured, but with a limited number of 
skilled workmen, and the temptation to a man who 
should see his crop ruining before his eyes from 
want of peelers, to, by some underhand means, 
crimp some of his neighbour's force would be terrible. 
" Lead us not into temptation" 1 pray ! As regards 
encouraging our peelers to undertake other works on 
the estate I am sure most estates give them every 
encouragement to do so. They undertake pruning 
readily, but very few care to do mamoty work, 
and rather than do it they go long distances to 
seek for work of a more congenial nature. It is 
hardly to be wondered at that men whose occupa- 
tion (except for a few hours every other morning) 
necessitates their squatting on the ground in a cool 
well ventilated " waddy" or shed should shirk 
ten hours a day in the hot sun and sometimes 
hotter sand beneath their feet. I have briefly replied 
to " B.'s" letter as he has so pointedly referred 
to me, and lest if allowed to remain unanswered, 
the general public should look upon us cinnamon 
planters as a selfish, callous, slave-holding lot ; 
" Lecrecs" in a small way !— Yours truly, 
WILLIAM JARDINE. 
