666 
THE TROP10M. AQR1COLTUR18T. 
[April i, 1890. 
Lines 
Stock 
Timber Trees 
Contingencies 
Manuring 
Weeding 
Pruning 
Plucking 
Manufacture 
Fuel 
Packing Cases, Lead, 
Tea House Sundries 
Machinery 
Transport to Colomt 
Shipping 
92,210 lb. 
Cost per lb. 
cents. 
R. 
c. 
... 
'041 
37 
95 
"147 
135 
55 
•367 
338 
43 
•612 
564 
39 
... \ 
... 3'871 
3,569 
09 
... 3 - 011 
2,776 
21 
•978 
902 
02 
no oiaiVi 
... 8'739 
8,058 
03 
do 
... -809 
745 
53 
do 
... '406 
374 
28 
&c. do 
... 2-449 
2,257 
90 
do 
... '220 
203 
77 
... - 355 
327 
49 
0 
... 1-376 
1,268 
57 
... -511 
471 
09 
cents. 28-553 R26.328 52 
Remarks. — Fields 4 and 5 from let January to 31st 
August 1888 ran almost level, so far as yield per acre 
went or at least within 51b. per acre of each other, 
No. 5 being least. No. 5 from 15th July to end of Sep- 
tember was all manured with an artificial mixture 
oosting R54'62 per acre applied. From let October 
1888 to 30th September 1889, the increase in yield over 
No. 4 was 195 lb. No further increase was gained 
during the following 3 months of 1889 as both fields 
were coming away from pruning, the primary and 
secondary flushes being almost the same, per acre, in 
both fields : in fact, the unmanured field had the ad- 
vantage by 1 lb. per aore. In January, however, the 
manured field is again shooting ahead. Field 9 was 
all manured by end of October 1889, and by December 
was giving a largely increased yield. In December 
it gave 73 lb. made tea per aore. No. 1 and No. la 
were both pruned in August 1888 : in the former the 
prunings were buried green; in the latter they were not. 
The inorease over No. la is considerable, but I can 
scarcely believe that it is all attributable to the bury- 
ing of the prunings. The principle in plucking ad- 
hered to all round during 1889 was to leave two 
full leaves on all primary shoots after pru- 
ning, and then one full leaf, till one year had elapsed, 
when bard plucking, on to the abortive leaf, 
was adopted, and carried on till the bush closed up, 
some 16 to 21 months, from the previous pruning- 
The estate being closely planted, the sides of the 
bushes were plucked. In many of the fields the yield 
was considerably affected by a severe attack of the 
scale insect on the stems of the bushes. 
A NEW LOCAL INDUSTRY. 
Messrs. H.W. Cave & Co. have just completed what 
is certainly a ouriosity in its way, namely, a Har- 
monium constructed by them in their workshop 
here, by their native workmen, under European 
supervision. It is an interesting fact as showing 
what intelligent natives are capable of when pro- 
perly directed, the tone of the instrument being 
equal to English-made ones, while the frame, case 
etc are certainly stronger and better calculated 
to resist damp. Two years henoe, we understand, 
may see this enterprizing firm with a big factory 
employing 50 hands or so in the manufacture of 
organs and harmoniums 1 
Very little of the material is imported — in fact 
scarcely anything beyond what even manufacturers 
at home have to import, such as the ivory for keys, 
the reeds, &c Messrs. Cave & Co. will make the 
instruments quite as cheaply as home firms, and 
the chances are very much in favour of their being 
of a better quality, as the local requirements are 
better known and would be better provided for. 
The case of the harmonium we have seen is made 
of teak, and the tone of the instrument is excellent. 
Beside these harmoniums it is also the intention 
of Messrs. Cave & Co. to build American organs, 
and in course of time we should not be at all 
surprized to see them manufacturing pianos, though 
at present they have no sueb intention. 
THE CHEAPNESS OF QUININE. 
The leading journal has been enlightening its 
readers on the subject of the causes which 
have been contributing towards enabling them to 
purchase quinine at the present abnormally low 
prices, and its issue of last Wednesday con- 
tained the following paragraph assigning the pro- 
duction of Ceylon as the chief among those 
causes : — 
The Cheapness of Quinine. — According to the 
annual report of the Bengal cinchona plantation and 
factory for the past year, part of which is extracted 
in the new Kevi Bulletin, the chief cause of the ex- 
traordinarily low price of quinine and other cinchona 
alkaloids for some time past is the immence expor- 
tation of the bark from Ceylon. When coffee, which 
for a long time was the staple production of that 
colony, began to fail because of a disease which 
attacked the trees, cinchona was largely substituted 
by the planters for the failing staple. The following 
figures will give some idea of the extent to which 
this was done. During the year ending September 
30th, 1880, 1J million pounds of cinchona bark were 
exported from Ceylon to London. In 1883-4 the 
quantity rose to 11 million pounds, and in the succeed- 
ing year was about the same. In 1885-6 and 1886-7 
the exports amounted to 16 and 14 million pounds 
respectively, while in 1887-8 they fell to about 11 
millions. The explanation of the decline is that when 
cinchona began to fail from disease and depreciation in 
quality, the Ceylon planters turned tbeir attention to 
tea with so much energy that they cut down their cin- 
chona trees to make away for tea bushes, and 
not being able to hold their bark they sold it in 
the London market for what it would fetch. The 
result has been an enormous fail in price, so that 
the bark has been obtainable at less than the 
cost of production, and quinine has fallen to a 
figure far below anything previously heard. The 
export from Java has also increased in recent years' 
South American bark, which a few years ago was the 
on'v source of quinine, has practically been driven out 
of the market, and the world has been drawing its 
supplies of quinine from the British and Dutch colonies 
in Asia. "The efforts of the Goverornents of Great 
Britian and Holland to seoure for their tropical subjects 
a cheap remedy for the commonest o! all tropical 
diseases, have thus culminated in a more triumphant 
success than wa3 ever anticipated. But this state of 
affiars cannot last much longer. Ceylon planters will 
not go on planting cinchona trees to sell tbeir product 
at a loss. As a matter of fact, planting has already 
ceased, and the exportations are beginning to diminish. 
And in the course of a year or two the price of cinchon a 
products must rise." Hence importance is attached to 
a new process of manufacturing sulphate of quinine, 
called the fusil-oil process, invented by Mr. Wood 
late quinologist to the Bengal Government, of which a 
description is contained in the same report. Mr. Wood 
claims that by it — (1) the alkaloids are completely 
extracted from the bark in a much greater state of 
purity, so that the final operations for obtaining pure 
and finished products are muoh simplified ; (2) that 
the whole process of extraction can be performed at 
common temperatures ; (3) that the appliances are all 
of a simple character, and therefore well suited for 
plantations ; and, finally, that quinine can be produced 
at a cost not exceeding the present unprecedentedly 
low market price. The last point is probably that which 
has most practical interest for the general public- 
London Cor. 
"VANITY FAIR" ON CEYLON GEMMING 
INDUSTRIES. 
Having triumphantly passed through the ooffee 
crisis, whioh at one time threatened to involve the 
island in absolute ruin, Ceylon has, within the 
last few years, taken a new lease of prosperity. 
Success, as the old saying has it, begets success ; 
and the people of the oolony are now applying 
their minds with surprising eagerness to a big 
