i7<3 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
The subsidy granted by the German Goverament 
to the North German Lloyd Company, has enabled 
Deli planters to save two hundred thousand guilders 
in freight charges between that colony and 
Amsterdam. A German trade journal cannot see 
the expediency of subsidising German steamers to 
supply the Amsterdam market with cheap tobacco, 
that port being a rival of Bremen. 
The importation of Sumatra tobacco into America 
has increased from 8,277 bales in 1881 to 23,932 
in 1886. 
In England an association has been started for 
carrying on plantation enterprise in the State of 
As^han. It is styled the Qualla Asshan Company, 
and intends to grow tobacco. Mr Verwaaien will 
be manager and Messrs. Wilson and Meredith, 
commissioners. 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
THE DROUGHT AND ITS EFFECTS ON CROPS — COOLIE! 
OUT OF EMPLOY — PROSPECTS Or COFFEE. 
15th August 1887. 
You hear nothing but wails about this dry season, 
the worst for ever so long, is the general opinion. 
Will there be a wet N.-E. to make up for it ? 
is an anxious question. We hear from India that 
the signs there are all pointing to drought : for 
the meteorologists watching the snow line on the 
Himalayas report the shrinkage which is ominous. 
The snow does not lie, they say, falling evidently 
as sleet, and disappearing immediately. Fortun- 
ately with us there is another factor in the calc- 
ulation — the sea, which is pretty constant. 
Meanwhile the cardamom crop his suffered much, 
and estimated returns from that source will be a 
long way behind. 
As to the young tea plants, even in wet dis- 
tricts like Maskeliya they have had a rough time 
of it, while in drier places they have had a 
rougher. " Will you have much supplying to do in 
your new clearing ? " asked one planter of an- 
other the other day, and got for a reply " Well no, 
it will be replanting 150 acres rather"! "I pat 
out 20,000 plants when we had last rain, and 
there has been ten days' sun on the top of them, 
not a drop since," is another man's tale. He was 
not looking for much good from that effect. But 
all over it is pretty much the same. 
Gangs of coolies are going about seeking employ- 
ment: "no work," on the estates they say, andjare being 
paid off in consequence, the precious " fundus " they 
produce revealing their all but hopeless indebtedness. 
The smaller the gang the bigger the ,debt is the 
rule which seems most generally to obtain. The 
bearer of this tale of pecuniary bondage is always 
very hopeful, he can easily increase his gang if the 
" master" wants, has a good connection at the Coast, 
but everything is in the future. Toooften the amount 
of advances tells of "funk" at some time on 
the part of tho superintendent fearing a short 
Jabour supply. In some of the recruiting districts 
of India, the want of rain there is turning the 
minds of the labourers Ceylonwards, aiid there 
is reasonable hope that the stream of immigrants, 
which is trickling now, will ere long swell to the 
proportion of our wants. Just at present it 
s((;ms as if we had more than we needed. 
Coffee in the lower districts is beginning to ripen 
o little. Hut there is so little of it, that although 
the incs are bearing well, where the bug has 
been tlijht, an.l better whore they have been alto- 
gether inc of the prist, still, when all will bo 
told, a will be but a puoi show. PepperCOBN. 
CINCHONA IN JAVA. 
The following is a translation of Mr. Van 
Romunde's report on the Government cinchona 
enterprize in Java for the 3rd quarter 1887: — 
The weather continued very rainy during the past 
quarter also, with the exception of the eeoond half 
of July. The continuous damp weather was goed 
for the nurseries and the young plants, but inter- 
fered greatly with the regular gathering of bark. 
The crop of 1887 amounts to about 270,000 half- 
kilograms, which was obtained almost without excep- 
tion by the needful thinning out of dense ledgeriana 
and succirubra plantations. In 1886 the crop for a 
similar period amounted to about 120,000 pounds. 
The plantations on the Southern Mountains are 
specially those that are increasing .largely in pro- 
ductiveness and productive power, so much so, that 
at the gardens on Goenoeng Malabar the crop of 
ledgeriana for the first half of 1887 already exceeds 
that of the whole year 1886. Of the harvested bark 
by the end of the second quarter 221,227 half-kilo- 
grams had been despatched to Britain. The whole 
crop of 1887 is estimated at about 700,000 half-kilo- 
grams, that is, if the weather does not interfere 
greatly with the operations connected with the gather- 
ing and drying of the bark. On 10th Maroh and 21st 
April sales of Government cinchoDa bark of the crop 
of 1886 were held at Amsterdam. The average prioes 
obtained at these sales were 57'42 and 66°72 cents 
per half-kilogram. Experiments with the grafting of 
C. ledgeriana on C. succirubra in the open were re- 
newed, after a cessation of some years on account of 
the unfavourable results, and, as far as can be judged 
from the initial results, with very marked success. 
The propagation of ledgeriana and succirubra seed- 
lings was, thanks to the continuous moist weather, 
carried on vigorously and incessantly, so that in the 
course of this year, more than ever before, the root- 
ing out of inferior varieties of cinchona and the 
replanting of the uprooted ground with C. ledgeriana 
and O. sueeimbra can be carried out. At Tirtasats 
a commencement was made with the clearing of 
jungle for the formation of ledgeriana graft plant- 
ations. In consequence of the mild east monsoon of 
1886 the harvest of ledgeriana and suocirubra seed 
is so small, that hitherto it has been impossible to 
have any sales of cinchona seed. 
MR. J. L. SHAND ON THE LIVERPOOL 
EXHIBITION. 
Planters' Association of Ceylon, 
Kandy, 19th August 1887. 
To the Editor, Ceylon Observer. 
Sir, — I beg to enclose copy of a letter received 
from Mr. J. L. Shand on the subject of the 
Liverpool Exhibition. — Yours faithfully, 
A. PHILIP, Secretary. 
(Gop!/.) 
London, 28th July 1887. 
The Secretary, Planters' Association of Ceylon, 
Kandy. 
Dear Sir, — I duly received and thank you for your 
letter of 17th June. I note the wish of the Associ- 
ation that I should receive offers for the show 
cases and submit such offers to Ceylon, but as I 
mentioned before, nobody will make an offer worth 
entertaining upon these terms. I hope, however, 
Mr. Christie may be able to arrange for the cases 
being used next year at Glasgow. I have been in 
correspondence with him on the subject. The Glas- 
gow exhibition will be decidedly the exhibition of 
next year and it will be important that Ceylon should 
be well represented there. 
There is I think rather a growing feeling in Ceylon 
against exhibitions and the idea that we have had 
enough of them is net. unnatural, because in spite 
of the money spent on exhibitions Ceylou tea — has 
