Junes, 1890.] THE TROPICAL 811 
It is rumoured that orily four steamers 'will load teaB 
in Hankow for London this season. It would he better 
if none went there to load, and that steamers should 
be despa* 0 h"d from Shanghai on fixed dates with part 
oargoes onlv. This sounds retrogressive, but if the 
Chinese will not keep level wi>th other pro^uoitiR coun- 
tries eithor in quality of their teas or by reducing 
their tariff and giving a cheap article, we must look for 
retrogression, if not extinction. It is a sad comment on 
the trade that four steamers should be now con idered 
enough, whereas fifteen were atone time nob p ought 
too many. 
There is very little doubts that as far as English 
buyers are concerned the buiness this year will be a 
dragging one, end muoh of the first crop teas will have 
to be held by the Chinese »nd brought down to Shang- 
hai for sail. It would be a great boon to many teamen, 
if they were allowpd to bring down their teas in bond 
and pay duty in Shanghai at the time of export. At 
present it necessitates obtaining an adyanoe on which 
interest has to be paid, of 30 per c^nt to 50 per cent of 
the value of a sood deal of the tea which comes to 
Shanghai for sale before it can be forwarded, and this 
prevents much tea being sent down which would other- 
wise find its wav to this market. This would probably 
have the double effect of encouraging the use of the 
bonded svstem, as well as of bringing the tea trade 
back to Shanghai. 
The stock of China Congou in London on 1st June 
next will be at least 30,000,000 pounds, or six months 
supply at the p-esent rate of deliveries for England 
and the Continent. — G. Mail. 
♦ 
COFFEE IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
The Rajah of Jembrana, in Bali, intends.it is 
said, to carry on coffee cultivation there as a 
Government enterprise. He has already sent a com- 
missioner to Java to see how that branoh of plant- 
ing is managed there, and to engage labourers for 
his behoof. 
The Batavia Nieuwablad says that the Java 
coffee crop this year will fall so short as to give 
rise to serious financial difficulties with the Govern- 
ment. Thep^dv crop too looks unpromising, and 
the sugar yield is no better. A deficit in the 
Budget looks alarmingly near, but the diminished 
tax-bearing powir of the impoverished people allows 
no hope of additional revenue. — Straits Times 
April Jfjtb,. 
*a ♦ 
CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING REPORT. 
HOPEFUL TIMFS AND THE PROSPECTS OF THE 
PLANTER — SIR ARTHUR GORDON AND HIS ADMINIS- 
TRATION IN CEYLON— HIGH PRICES FOR CACAO — 
OPINION OF A VISITOR ON CEYLON CACAO — COFFEE DOING 
VERY WELL. 
April 23rd. 
The spirit of the times is very hopeful, and we 
hear on all hands that the prospeots of the tea 
planters are good. Knowing ones who profess to 
have their fingfr upon the pulse of the tea industry 
don't hesitate to talk of " a boom" coming ; and 
there are visions, more or less distinct, of the near 
advent of the " gilded youth" seeking investments 
in tea property, and insisting on playing sterling 
money, and that down. The Tea oompanies are 
doing us a lot of good among the moneyed olass, 
is what we are told ; and it only wants time to 
allow the knowledge of what handsome returns 
some of thorn give, to filter into the imagina- 
tions of home investors, and then — we will be 
all in clover. Even the V.A's, as your oolums 
show, are turning hopeful, and it is pleasing to 
learn of the authority of those infallible^, that we 
have all made a mistake in our estimates of young 
tea, but a very muoh greater one in understand- 
ing what it will do when old. It is a comfort 
that the bright vision is ahead and not behind 
us; and that some having already lived through the 
original blunder. They will find the latter more 
easily borne with, when their old tea giveB more 
than they expected. But against all thiB, we have 
to plaoe the rising exchange, sickness among our 
coolies, and the Governor : things to " hand us 
doon," and keep us humble. As to exohange, although 
we may not benefit when it spurts up, somebody 
else does; the influenza epidemic helps the consump- 
tion of quinine, and makes, or at least tends 
to make, our bark more valuable : but the Governor 
and his despatches— how can they be estimated? 
Is Sir Arthur benefited in any way by his wrong- 
headedness, is the planter benefited, are the coolies 
benefited? I don't know what object His Exoellenoy 
has set before him as his aim in life : but if it 
is the high one of an inscrutable providence, he has, 
in his action regarding our labour laws, surely 
attained it. His ways are past finding out. I 
suppose it would be too funny a thing for Sir 
Arthur to leave a oolony over which he has ruled, 
in peaoe and love with all men, or even on decent 
terms with the majority. He has not done it in the 
past, and it is dear he is not going to make an ex- 
ception with Ceylon. 
The splendid prices which Cocoa is fetohing make 
a cacao garden in these days a veritable Eldorado, 
and the tree itself seems to be responding as 
if it wanted to live up to the good times. Where 
it has been at all well oared for, there is now 
a fair spring crop, and a luxuriance of blossom 
whioh speaks well for the coming autumn one. 
The other day the island wasa visited by one of the 
big continental ohooolate makers, and he was 
strong in praise of our Caracas variety and as 
vigorous in denouncing the Forastero. There are 
very many more difficulties to be overcome in the 
roasting and manipulating of the latter ; and it 
never does produce the same delicate flavoured 
chocolate which can be made from the plumper 
bean of the Caraoas sort. The highest prices will 
always be got for the red kiDd, whereas the others 
have to meet the competition of the West Indian 
growers. A planter who has both kinds growing 
has come to the oonclusion that the Forastero pays 
better. He made a careful experiment of the weight 
of beans got from an equal number of pods of the 
two varieties, and found that the Forastero took 
considerably less to make a owt, than the Caraoas did. 
This extra weight more than counterbalanced the 
lower price whioh Forastero gets in London, and that 
taking the thing all round Forastero could be grown 
at a better profit than Caraoas. To establish this 
a good many more experiments would have to be 
made. Meanwhile it is settled beyond doubt, that 
in Ceylon's possession of the true Caracas variety 
which has died out of the West Indies, we have 
one reason why our produce has a booming market, 
and prices at 112s: whereaB West Indians are 
dull, and go down as low as 50s. No doubt we 
cure better, and generally take more pains, but a 
flat bean would never be oured into a plump one, 
and it is the round, red, fat one whioh the oho 
colate manufacturers desire, and for whioh they are 
prepared to pay. 
What Coffee there is promises to do very well on this 
side. There have been some three blossoms, two of 
which at least have set well, and the other may do 
so in spite of the rain whioh fell while the flower 
was out. But there is a little bug hanging about, 
whioh one would rather be spared, as it is a factor 
whioh may upset oaloulations however oarefully 
they may have been made. Peppekcobn. 
