February i ( 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
555 
PLANTING REPORT AND CROP ESTIMATES. 
A planter who travels about a good deal sends 
in his estimate for the current season's Exports, 
too late to be incorporated in our average results, 
bo we reprint it in full, together with a report on 
prospects :— 
Tea. — I doubt its reaching the 40,000,000 lb. Coffee 
90,000 to 100,000 cwt. Cinchona bark : a very big 
drop may be looked for--probably to 5,000,000 lb. 
Cocao: — crops are not lasting eo well as was expected: 
16,000 cwt. at the outside. Cardamoms : 200,000 
to 250,000 lb.; people are rushing in for cardamoms at 
a great pace and uo doubt prices are encouraging. 
I have no fear of Labour Supply running 
short, except it may be a sudden rush of leaf 
here and there; people will complain of it then! 
Rioe— Chetties all craok it on terriblel I hope it 
does not go muoh higher. 
Our N.-E. monsoon is full of vagaries ! and one 
does not well know what to think, dry weather 
is succeeded by welcome rain which came down 
on 12th, and 13th ; we expected more, but alas ! 
this cold wind is driving it all away again ; 
meanwhile the little we have had has mad e 
tea jump again I 
I went through the Dikoya and Maskeliya dis- 
tricts a short time back and was surprised and 
pleased to see the '-Old King" looking so well, 
on the patches still reserved, and I have advised 
some friends to "pull out the tea"; and fig the old 
"chappie" up with matter that may do his heart 
good and put on another crop or twol 
Parchment in one or two favoured stores knee 
deep, and the old pulper being rattled round right 
merrily by the waterwheel quite reminds me of 
'• old time." May we live to see some more of it.' 
• 
THE RICE CROP IN BURMA. 
The report oa the prospects of the crop on the 
31st December is as follows: — "The area uuder 
rice cultivation in the ten chief rice-producing 
districts of Lower Burma is now estimated at 
3,813,294 acres or 182,214 acres more thau the 
area under cultivation in 1888, and 5,154 acres 
more than was estimated last mouth. It is re- 
ported that there is a 20-anna crop in two dis- 
tricts, an 18-anna crop in one district, a 17-anna 
crop in four districts, a 16-anna crop in two districts 
and a 15-anna crop in one district. It is estimated 
that there will be available for export 1,260,000 tons 
of cargo rice, including what will be required for 
Upper Burma." — Government of India, Calcutta, Jan. 
11th. 
«. 
GEMMING IN CEYLON THROUGH 
LIMITED COMPANIES. 
A contemporary pretends not to understand how 
the present multiplied attention (through Syndi- 
cates and Companies) to the Ceylon Gemming 
Industry has arisen. He wilfully ignores or under- 
values the influence of the press 1 We think that 
the persistent way in which during the past year, we 
have urged the olaim of our gemfields to the attention 
of European capitalists, affords the explanation re- 
quired. Ever since the formation of the Burma 
Rubies Company, we have preaohed from the text that 
if Burma deserve to have so much British capital 
(over £300,000) thrown into it for a new and, to a 
certain extent, speculative industry, much more ought 
the peaceful and readily accessible Colony of Ceylon, 
with its old established gem pits worked solely 
by the natives with primitive appliances for more 
than a thousand years. We think this argument 
is unanswerable, and as the result proves, it took 
effect on the minds of leading financiers in Lon- 
don and Paris, who, it is evident, aro now 
fully prepared to do justice to the development 
of local gemming resources. One expert 
who first had his attention drawn to the subject 
in this way, went straight to tho Colonial Office, 
Downing Street, and asked for any works of re- 
ference to the Minerals and Precious Stones of 
Ceylon, and at once our compilation of " All About 
Gems, Pearls, &c. in Ceylon and Southern India" 
was produced, and perused with full satisfaction, 
We learn again that it required but a glance on 
the part of an expert at the native workings in 
Rakwana, to see how modern scientific appliances 
could be used with immense economy and of 
course far more complete results. Without at all 
wishing to make too much of the start made, we 
think we are safe in saying that for the first time 
in the history of the island, a full and satisfactory 
investigation with machinery and other soientifio 
appliances is to be given to our gemmiferous country, 
and that not through one Syndicate or Com- 
pany, but through several Associations owning 
or leasing or prospecting over a very considerable 
area of land. So muoh even now, from the in- 
formation at our command, we regard as settled; 
and whatever be the result, we think such trial 
workings— which we trust and are hopeful may 
prove very successful — should be regarded with 
gratification in the interests of the Colony, while 
the faot of their being undertaken is undoubtedly 
due largely, if not mainly, to the information 
supplied and circulated from the Ceylon Observer 
press. 
« — ~— . 
GEM FIELDS AND PROSPECTS. 
(By A Good Authority.) 
As regards big gems, the Morawak Korale is coming 
to the front very much this season. A catteye 
weighing 4^ rupees has been recently found. This 
stone, I am informed, sold for R19.650. It will 
have to be cut into three pieces. A ruby weighing 
2J rupees has also been quite recently found, and 
1 am informed sold for R40.000. I have myself 
seen a ruby 23 carats (rough), and six other 
smaller ones, a sapphire weighing 156 carats, a 
eatseye of 32 carats, and some ruby stars, for 
which the owner a c ked the modest sum of R25.000. 
By dividing this amount by 5 you arrive at their 
full value. A rough ruby changed hands for 
R2.500 last week. All Morawak Korale stones, a 
sapphire Rakwana Rl, 400, two catseyes (Rambuk- 
oya and and Ratnapura stones) R2,000 and R3.000 
in the trade. The latter, I believe, have since been 
sold to Mr. H. M. Stewart who left by the "Rohilla." 
Mr. Stewart bought a lot of rough Burma rubies 
in Singapore,, but I am informed they were not 
up to much, being full of silk and flaws. Burmah 
rubies beat Ceylon for oolor, but also for silk and 
flaws and want of fire. 
New fields are being discovered every day for 
gemming. I had a stone offered me by a Sinhalese 
who is gemming in Maskeliya, near a Mr. Wright's 
estate lie says. Beside this I have been stones 
from Dikoya. The great prospectors will no doubt 
open our eyes this year if they don't loosen our 
purse strings. Fahey will get Brown (brown), 
Brown will be feeling Baddeley (badly) and Baddeley 
will want to go to Galway (Gallwey) or perhaps 
Galle way if things get too hut for him up in old traots. 

DOMESTIC FUEL HERE AND AT HOME. 
The recent and prospective rises in the nrioe 
of coal throughout Groat Britain have caused 
very serious misgivings, not only on the part of 
manufacturers and others who are large user3 
of the article but on that of the ordinary householder. 
The coat of fuel is a very large item in tho 
