March i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
purposes not far from the truth. The year 1887 opened 
With a unit quotation of about 314 to' I I. Hark then 
became a falling article, the lowest point being readied 
□ tiout the 8th of November, when We quoted the unit at 
IJd to ljd. ft then became evident thai the price was 
stopping shipments, and the market rallied. The spirit 
of tho times was in favour of speculation, the great 
corner in tin and the great advance in copper stirring 
up the gambling spirit all over Europe and America. livery 
article was about to I .-m-rcd uncording to some authorities, 
and naturally an article like quinine, abnormally depressed 
experienced a heavy advance. The hark sales on tho 6th 
of December went with great spirit our quotation for the 
unit being 2Jd tu Sd, but at the sales a fortnight later, 
prices were not maintained. The history of the year 1 8^7 , 
as regards bark and quinine can thus roughly be told in 
a very few sentences. It appears to us that the im- 
portant feature to be observed is that as fur as Ceylon 
is concerned, ljd the unit, stops shipments. Turning to 
market prospects, experience has taught us that as regards 
Ceylon it isnext doorto impossible toestimate the shipmcntsof 
the crop season. When the unit was about ljd to 2d, one of 
our most experienced friends advised us tlu»t on that 
basis he looked for very small harvesting, say 5,000,0X'0 
lb. On a basis of 2d to 2±& per unit, more would of 
course come forward, and as a check on too sanguine 
views, we always keep by us the Planters' letter in the 
Ceylon Observer affirming that at Ud per unit not a stick 
of hark would be left standing in Ceylon. As regards 
South America, at present rates the industry continues 
practically a dead one, but the ricli cultivated Bolivian 
Calisayas increase, about 7,0uo packages having arrived 
during 18S7 against -1,000 in I860, As regards barks from 
the Continent of India, urrivuis arc likely to increase 
trom all the new districts, and we are promised rich 
Ledgerinna Bark from Wynuad. Java of course is an im- 
portant factor. During 1887 barks from Java have arrived in 
Ijondon and Holland in some quantity. During 1883 it is 
estimated that some 20,000 packages will be put on the 
market in Holland, a considerable proportion being goo.l 
to rich bark, about three-fourths being for private ac- 
count. During 1887 about .'i.iioO packages of private barks 
have been sold in London alone, and this quantity is 
certain to be increased during 1888. It appears tons t lint 
the present position of the hark market justifies moderately 
sanguine views; now-a-days it is not wise to look too far 
a-heud, but for the next twelve months the way appears 
to us to be fairly clear, provided that the information 
which reaches us be correct, viz., that Ceylon Planters 
owing to their improved position, are not likely again to 
break the bark niurkot by excessive haversting, a con- 
siderable proportion of which would again, if shipped, 
inevitably prove unreniuneralive, 
4 
LOWCUUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
DHY WBATHEB — COCONUTS — CAltliONIC ACID— THE 
VITALITY OT SEEDS. 
1st Eebruiry 181=18. 
January has passed away without yielding one drop 
of raiu, or leaving tho most minute symptom of a 
charge from the blight hot days and the bright 
cool night) that have prevailed for :il days. One 
week witl oat rain on tho uplands, and the grass ceases 
to grow ; another week, and ovcry stalk and blade 
is as dry as sun and wind can mako it. The dry 
noasou io always a trying time for tho stock on coco- 
nut estates, and makes tho introduction of silos a case 
for sorious consideration. It is neither pleasant nor 
profitable to bco one's cattlo reduced to walking 
skeletons every year. 
Tho draught has not affected the coconut trees to 
any serious extent, but wo have still a long spell to 
look forward to, which may or may not, he broken 
by the outskirts of thunderstorm", which is our solo 
depeiidonco for tho next two months. The crops on 
the trees are numerically satisfactory, but if we loso 
10 per cent in tho weight of our copra, as wo did 
last v car, it will touch ua on tho raw. One long- 
headed and heavy-pursed proprietor at Katukamlu 
is Butting up works, that by estimnto are to givo 
8 gallons of water daily to overy tree on 
a 7(H) aero estate. Tho result is awaited 
With deep interest by all the planters in the valley, 
though hardly any of us combine the uoccssary 
qualifications to follow a successful example, such as 
local facilities, available capital, and cntcrprizing 
spirit. 
I have been searching In v.iin for the latest sell u. 
tilic decision as to the source from which growiug plants 
derive tin ir carbonic acid, to that I suppose tho 
old thuory holds good, that both carbonic acid aud 
AGRICULTURIST. 619 
oxygen are solely derived from the atmosphere. ' 
believe that carbonic acid, though always present i" 
tho air, is there in different proportions in different 
seasons aud situations, hut always sufficient for tV ! 
wants of growing plants, the supply being kept up 
by the decomposition of organic bodies, and the 
restoration of their component elements to tho source 
from which they were derived. Thus, while I admit 
that so far as I know plants derive nil their 
carbon from the air, I am not prepared to 
accept the theory that smoke baths frequently ad- 
ministered helps the growth of any plant whatever. 
About lifteen years ago, a coconut planter, since 
deceased, announced the discovery that smoke baths 
had a more beneficial effect on the growth and bearing 
of coconut trees than any other thing that could bo 
done for them. I held it to be nonsense: I could not 
reconcile it to facts established by scientific inquiry, 
and neither before nor since have I seen any effect on 
coconut trees that I could not ascribe to far more 
likely causes than smoke. At the time I in- 
dulged in somo chnff about manuring the atmo- 
sphere, aud I heard no more of it till very re- 
cently when I found that my old acquaintance had 
leit a school of disciples with earnest faith in the 
smoke ba'h. It would be easy to bring the matter to 
the test of experiment, but its conduct could only be 
trusted to an impartial party with any chance of con- 
vincing the advocates of opposite theories. I admit 
that I myself would be rather a refractory subject. I 
would admit nothiug on the report of anyone com- 
mitted to the smoke bath theory, nor would I expect 
more complaisant treatment from them. 
I cleared a piece of jungle last season that could not 
be less than fifty years old; I got a very good fire, and 
after the first rains the usual crop of weeds appeared, 
and on a spot of less than an acre in the centre of the 
field there came up a number of plnuts of the pigeon 
pea, called dal in India. On inquiry I found that a 
tradition was current in the village, that this spot wns 
sown with dal the last time it was chenaed. It, 
thus appears that the seeds of this plant have retained 
their vitality in tho grouud, while jungle trees sprang 
up aud attained a girth of stem from three to four feet. 
The ideas of the natives are rather loose aud indefinite 
on many matters, aud ou none more so thau the lapse 
of time, so that I cannot ascertain exact'y how long 
it is since the land was last chenaed, but it was 
oldish jungle when I bought it twenty-years ago, 
and I have no doubt that tho full half century 
has passed since it was last cropped. 
INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA STATISTIC:*. 
Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton's valuable paper, 
illustrator! bj diagrams, issuud «s their annual ro- 
port, will be perused with deep interest by all con- 
nected directly or indirectly with thp tea enterpri/.e. 
It will be seen that the consumption of tea in Britain 
has advanced until in 18s7 the figures representing 
this consumption exceeded 1 millions of pounds. 
Of this quantity Indian and Ceylon teas— the one 
dating only half-a-ceiitury and the other only about 
a dozen years back— constituted 51 per oent., a 
percentage representing more than the actual 
figures imply, owing to tho greatly superior 
strength of the Indian and Ceylon products. Tho 
Indian and Ceylon teas are gaining rapidly on 
China kinds in Britain, hut, important as tho 
British market is, it becomes evident from the 
figures that the opening ol new markets is essentially 
necessary if prices lowered in proportion to our fast 
increasing production are to be averted. In the 
nine years since 1879, fair medium Indian pekoo 
had gone down from Is ttd per lb. to IDd, that is 
exactly one-half, while the simultaneous fall in pokoo 
souchong has been from Is 3d to '.id. Ecnnoinv in 
production which has enabled planters to bear so 
great a depreciation in tho market value of their 
produce, must now ho approaching its lowest possible 
limit; so thai extended consumption in other oouatnc 
