February i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
545 
♦ 
To the Editor of the "Tropical Agriculturist," Colombo. 
COFFEE AND THE AFRICAN LAKES COM- 
PANY, LIMITED. 
Mandala, East Africa, via Quilimane, 10th Nov. 1S87. 
Deaii Shi,— Some little time ago Messrs. Buchanan 
Brothers, planters, Zemba, pointed out to me the 
parngraph on page 658 of your Agriculturist of 
April last. 
The Messrs. Buohanan have a larger plantation 
than our Company, and the greater part of the 
coffee referred to was their produce, but shipped 
by our Company. The first plant was brought from 
the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens in 1878 by the 
Blantyro Mission, and from them we bought our 
first plants. 
We have as yet no leaf disease, but have suffered 
from borers, both grubs and matured beetles, 
especially at Zomba. I attribute our comparative 
immunity here to a flock of turkeys, which I 
brought up, for the express purpose of keeping 
down insect life among the coffee. Our plants are 
at present in magnificent bloom, and promise a very 
heavy crop. Irrigation seems necessary, at least 
for young plants; labour is cheap, but difficult to 
obtain regularly ; carriage to the coast, though of 
course a consideration, is becoming cheaper and better 
for produce. Still I fear you are right, and it will 
be long ere we seriously affect the world's markets. 
We read your valuable journal with much 
intorest.— I am, yours very truly, 
JOHN W. MOIE, p. Manager African 
Lakes Company (Limited), of Glasgow. 
PLANTATION AND NATIVE COFFEE : WHICH 
IS THE MOKE PROFITABLE TO CULTIVATE. 
28th Dec. 1887. 
Sir..— There is a question I should like to submit 
to your experience regarding the economical pro- 
duction of coffee, and that is whether it is on the 
whole more prjfitable to grow native or plantation 
coffee. 
The question should, I think, be considered under 
the following heads : — 
a. The cost of growing and cultivating the two 
kinds. 
b. The cost of picking and preparing the crop 
for the market. 
c. The difference in prices between the two kinds 
and the ueope of the markets to take them up. 
</. The cost of upkeeping the two kinds of estate, 
with consideration of their lasting and productiveness. 
t. As to whether diseaso affects each to an equal 
extent. 
The collapse of tho coffee industry in Ceylon 
and South India during the last decade was in my 
opinion due to the great charges of opening and 
upkeep which had become stereotyped into a fashion, 
so that when crops failed and prices fell, the shock 
was sustained entirely out of the profits of the 
estate and to an only small degree out of the charges. 
Tho standard works on coffee present a regular 
budget of charges, felling, lining, pitting, filling in, 
walking up a row, walking down a iow, nicking 
a leaf, pruning all manners of devices for spend- 
ing money, which I am quite certain are nevrr 
thought of by the native cultivator. Look again 
at thu enormous expenses of the pulping machines, 
•Uorcheu >r-, barbiicues, cement, tar. piping and su 
forth, while Mr. Hamaswamy Chetty bins half a- 
dozen women and pulps his collet) in the family 
rice-unll. Small properties, again, though buited ot 
the native, are in my opinion entirely hostile to 
large profits, for the expenses of management 
aro so enormous. Tho owner entertains a superin- 
tendent, pay 11300 a month with a fine bungalow, 
a pony, carriage, and a piano for his wife, nice 
drive up to his house, rose bushes and claret, if 
not orchids and champagne. I wonder if any 
emigrant in Manitoba raising horses, or in South 
America raising cattle, or in New Zealand growing 
wool, indulges in a superintendent and such luxuries! 
I believe that a large property say of 1,000 acres 
plantation coffee ought to be opened and brought 
into cultivation for one lakh of rupees including 
10 per cent for interest, and that if operations 
and accounts date, say from October 1888, a crop 
of £Sj cwt. an acre ought to be gathered in December, 
January '91-'92, and that at present prices, .E90 for 
plantation coffee per ton, this should yield £11,250, 
or RH lakh. Native coffee would cost less and 
fetch less. The question I submit for an answer 
and for which I should be excessively obliged is 
whether these views are right, and which sort of 
plauting it is best to go in for, native or planta- 
tion. — Your obedient servant, S. 
P.S. — I have omitted charges for land, for that 
is an undeterminable factor. At what distances 
apart should native coffee be planted? 
[See our answer and discussion on this subject, 
page 553. — Ed.] 
To tlic Editor of the " Ceylon Observer" 
CINCHONA. 
London, 22nd Dec. 1887. 
Deau Sir, — The interest I take in cinchona must 
be my excuse for again troubling you on this subject. 
The enclosed two letters which I have cut out 
of the Financial News you may consider of suffici- 
ent importance to publish. I can bear out Mr. 
Hicks's statement of " be ir talk " regarding quin- 
ine, as a broker offered me a few days ago 30,000 
ounces German make, to be delivered 10,000 oz. 
a month for January, February and March at 
1/10; I at once accepted the offer, when he raised 
the plea he must consult his clients, which, I need 
hardly say, was the last I heard of the matter. 
The cinchona auction held on 20th went off 
flatly, as 8,700 packages were catalogued ; out of 
this 1,577 was Ceylon ; this was the largest 
quantity of Ceylon ever offered with one excep- 
tion. The result of forcing the market in this way, 
especially at this time of the year, was to bring 
the unit down again all round to 2.4d. 
This large quantity represented about one-twelfth 
of the entire London Stock, and was far too much 
for the trade te swallow ; as only 2,000 bales 
Ceylon, 230 South American, 210 Indian, 200 Java 
found buyers. 
I remarked to two of the largest buyers and 
manufacturers of quinine, at the auction: "I hope 
you will never have to grow cinchona for a living, 
to sell at the prices you are buying at." The reply was 
very true : " How can you expect better prices when 
you force the stuff on us in this way? Keep it back 
and we will be able to give you bettor prices." I 
therefore repeat to exporters, keep your supplies 
back; those that hold the longest will renp the 
greatest benefit.— Yours truly, E. T. 1H .1.M Dl • B. 
THE QUININE MARKET. 
(fio.Hon t'omiiififinl linllrtin.) 
Active movements lire understood to be on foot 
among both the domestic and foreign ninim'nctur. i-- 
of quinine to form an association or combination for 
the purpose of removing the prpsent itevere com petit [on 
an.l relieving the imrkot from the overproduction 
whicli at present prevails, anil which nil fort"'.! 
| pilots down to a very low poiut. Lower price* »ud 
