May i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 771 
In other words, cotton is not a crop like tea, 
coconuts, grain, to be depended on by itself, and 
the cultivator in Ceylon must have his fruit and 
vegetable garden or rice field as well. 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE WESTERN 
PROVINCE. 
Hapitigam Korale, lGth April. 
Two months of rainless weather m'isfc be a sore trial 
to the tillers of the ground anywhere, but here it 
is an annual infliction. We have to bear it as best 
we can. The dry season on the last occasion began 
on the 9th December, and lasted till the first March, 
during which wo had rain more or less heavy on 
six days, with eight to ten days dry between each 
break, and since April bogan we have had alternations 
of cloudy and showery weather. The fall of unripe 
leaves has hardly been so great this as in somo past 
seasons, but the four or five last opened flowers are 
almost entirely denuded of fruit, which will tell 
sadly on the crop, but as it is au annually recurring 
fact, we have no right to complain. I am not by any 
means certain, however, that we lose much in the 
number of our nuts by the dry weather. The loss, 
lam inclined to think, is in the size, and not in the 
number. Even when the dry season is broken by 
frequent showers, it is still between March and Nov- 
ember that the bulk of the year's crop is gathered 
and tho flowers opening between November and 
March, still drop the bulk of their germs ; I there- 
fore think it probable that irrigation during the dry 
season will do more in the way of enlarging the 
crop already on the trees than in adding materially 
to the number. My desiderated annual crop has 
always been limited to an average of one hundred 
nuts per tree, but I have lately seen a patch of four 
or five acres that must give double this return. It 
is a level spot close to the river, and about teu feet 
higher than its bed. Whenever it is in flood this 
piece is overflowed, and on the subsidence of 
the water about a quarter of an inch of soil is 
added to the surface of the very richest quality. 
As this process has been going on from immemorial 
time, the fertility is inexhaustible and nothing to 
be done for it but to keep it clean and gather the 
crop. — I should like to moot with a more recent analy- 
sis of bones than that of Forcroy and Vanquellin which 
gives 51 per cent of easily decomposable matter, chiefly 
albuminous, :t7'7 phosphate of lime, carbonate of 
limo 10, and phosphate of magnesia 37 — 100.* What 
I would liko to know is, how much nitrogen there is in 
the 51 per cent of decomposable animal matter ? — I ob- 
nitvii by a note in the '/'. . I. that tho coleopterous ene- 
mies of the coconut so well known here havo made 
their appearance m tho Straits, and that tho people 
thero aro groping in tho dark for a way of dealing with 
them. Tho large black beetle so destructive to the 
leaves, the kuntmema of the Sinhalese, deposits its eggs 
in dung heaps or any other mass of decomposing or- 
ganic matter. The best way of dealing with them is to 
turnover all sueli deposit-; in the neighbourhood from 
time to time, and kill the grubs. The red beetle katlda- 
panuwu that eats into tho stem, and finally destroys the 
tree is to be met by negative rather than posit ive treat- 
ment. The dangerous time for the trees is hetween 
the Brat appearance of the stem till the flowering begins. 
At this period tho old leaves cling tenaciously to tho 
stem, and remain till they rot and fall oil". This is 
Nature's provision for the protection of tho tender 
stem till its surfuco is properly ripened and hardened. 
If the leaves aro left untouched till they drop of thoin- 
solvos, tho insoct ran iniko nothing of the stom; but 
if by their removal, however carefully the stein is too 
early exposed to the weather, crunks open and tho in- 
sect has iU elmnce. And again tho slightest wound in 
tho stem is its opportunity. In n plantation where the 
loaves are left to nature, a few accidents may occur 
(hi ring tho dangerous period, but with trimming they 
will ln> multiplied indefinitely. Whenever tho pre- 
sence of the grub is detected iii a trro, tho host thing is 
to root it out, chop it up, and burn it, olso in a fow 
months then- will be thousands instead of tens seeking 
weak spots,— . 
PRIVATE T. GOVERNMENT CINCHONA- 
GROWING IN JAVA. 
[How Java cinchona exports are increasing may 
be seen from the figures given in our planting 
column yesterday: and here is further evidence 
of progress in extracts from tire Chemist and 
Druggist, while we call further attention to the 
letter of Mr. Anton Kessler in another column, the 
gentleman who frightened us all a year ago. Alto- 
gether the outlook is not encouraging for Ceylon 
bark owners. — Ed.] 
The Java cinchona-pianters consider themselves 
aggrieved by the action of the Dutch Indian Govern- 
ment, which is vigorously extending its cinchona plant- 
ations in different parts of the island and sending the 
bark for sale to Europe in competition with the, 
private growers. A number of the latter, therefore 
have now presented an address to the Governor Gene- 
ral of the Dutch Indies, in which they call attention 
to what they allege to be the unfair Government 
competition, and request that the Director of the 
Government cinchona plantations may be instructed 
not to lay out any new gardens, or to renew planting 
where trees are cut dowD. The memoralists point out 
that originally the Government plantations were com- 
menced solely for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
cinchona cultivation was practicable in the Dutch 
colonies, and of encouraging and assisting privato 
planters in raising trees, while the commercial 
aspect of tho Government undertaking was 
limited to the sale of a sufficient quantity of bark 
to defray the working expenses of the gardens. 
It is further asserted that the private planters 
are heavily taxed, while many of them also 
work with borrowed capital, and are otherwise ham- 
pered in their undertakings, and it is pointed outthat 
tho cultivation of cinchona is still extending very 
largely, while the estimated consumption of quinine only 
increases by about 10 per cent, per annum, and that, 
moreover, at the present market prices of the bark, 
the Government gardens, so far from being a source 
of profit, are worked at an absolute loss. In 1S85, for 
instance, the last year of which complete official figures 
have been published, the Government bark, which 
averaged 315 per cent, quinine sulphate, cost 37£ 
cents per half-kilo., or 6,ijd. per lb., to produce, so 
that it must have left a loss of about 2d. per lb. at 
tho unit figures then ruling in Europe. The case of 
the Java planters certainly appears to be a strong 
one, but it is doubtful whether the Government will 
accede to their request, and diffioult to see how they 
could do so except by selling their cinchona gardens 
outright to the highest bidder. It may here be men- 
tioned that, although the shipments of Government 
bark have risen from 1:'..,71S half-kilos, iu lS8. r > to 
525,698 half-kilos, in 1886, and are estimated at 700,000 
half-kilos for 1SS7, yet the exports of bark by privato 
planters have increased in very much larger propor- 
tions, and are now four timoa as heavy as those of 
tin- Covernment, whereas in 1 S3 1 they barely equal- 
led tho latter.— Chemist and Druggist', March 28rd. 
♦ 
PLANTING AND LABOUR IN NATAL: 
a uRioirr picture of CHEAP work, and tea yields 
UP TO 1,2001b. PER ACRH I 
Aii cx-Ccylon planter, writing to a Colombo cor- 
respondent, says : — 
I notice the ObstTVtr editors aro a little at sea as to 
cost of "labor" here. You may tell them from me that 
employing an average of 100 hands, one-tbird coohos, 
two-thirds katlirs, mv average daily rate which includes 
all nativo overseers, ploughmen, domestics, \e , varies 
from ('<iil t» Sd„ and has not in two years exceeded the 
latter, moreover 1 cniplON no women. Of course this 
rate includes all food and overy charge of o»ery des- 
cription. 
Further, from the constant tine weather and long sum- 
mer days, 1 I wo, king hours nearly, I am able to work 
, iW acres ot cultivated laud with about 100 hand*, 
