Junb r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
841 
To the Editor. 
CINCHONA SUPPLIES AND PKOSPECTS. 
England, 10th April 1888. 
Dear Sin,— I am very much obliged to 
you for giving in the Ohservt r some very 
valuable information re cinchona in Java. As 
practical planters are aware, the produce per acre 
is much the same whatever may be the number of 
trees, so what we require to know is the acreage of 
the private plantations. If we could ascertain this, 
wo could guess fairly at the total annual yield, 
as the Java Government are good enough to publish 
full particulars of their estates. 
I give below the heads of information we re- 
quire. I am sorry 1 am unable to give you the 
yield per acre of estates in Wynaad ; on my own 
estates there the cinchona is mixed with the coffee. 
The price of bark in London is very low, and is 
likely to continue so, while stooks and imports re- 
main so large at each sale ; the quantity offered is 
beyond requirements, so that the buyers oan pur- 
chase at nearly their own price. — Yours faithfully, 
W. T. HODY. 
We require the following information : — 
1. Of the Java Government estates, («) acreage, 
(h) number of trees exolusive of those in nursery, 
(c) yield, (d) price obtained. 
2. Number of private estates. 
8. Their acreage, average of eaoh if exact acreage 
cannot be obtained. 
4. Proportions of the kinds of trees, (a) Ledger, 
(b) other kinds. 
FUEL SUPPLY : " X. Y. Z." IN DEFENCE NOT 
DEFIANCE. 
Bh May 1888. 
Dear Sir, — My letter of 26th ultimo .baa been 
pretty strongly commented upon in your leading 
articles of 2nd and 4th instant. I am glad of it 
for the subject cannot be too well ventilated, and 
my humble efforts have brought forth statements 
and figures which must be interesting to all. 
I addressed you with the object of showing 
that in my opinion at least 
1st. The quantity of firewood, as stated to be 
necessary for continuing the tea enterprise in Cey- 
lon was not neoessary. 
2nd. That, if it wore necessary, the means pro- 
posed to find it were not the best calculated to 
pay the planter. 
As regards No. 1, I am under the impression 
Mr. Bother ford, for instance, based his calculations 
on t he suppesition that every tea garden was to 
manufacture its own tea on its own ground, and 
that knowing how few estates could boast of hav- 
ing sufficient water motive power, a large quantity 
of fuel was reckoned as a n'cetsity for generating 
Bteam. I endeavoured to show that much might 
be dune by the natural motive powers our tea dis- 
irictH are possessed of, and that it would be found 
MiAre judicious for many estates to seek other sites 
for th< ir factories than thoir own land offered, 
Transmission of power by elootricity, I darcsav, 
is too oxpensivo to the thought of, though I think 
I saw the snmo onco advocated in the ObieHer, 
and with reference to the waterfalls in the districts 
of Lower Dikoya and Atnbagamuwa. Tho question 
of transmission of power ia rather oast into ridi- 
cule by you in speaking of Iran .milting ftp the 
power of a turbine over 1,000 feet, by means of 
bolts, though I do not know that it is impossible. 
Everything in reason, Mr. Editor I I daresay you 
are well acquainted with the fact that water power 
is transmitted for long distances in the mother 
country by means of wire ropes. Do you not 
consider that with our fine falls and rivers, muoh 
could be done in Ceylon by similar means ? If ao, 
will you not admit that the number of steam engines, 
said to be necessary for tea gardens, might be 
greatly reduced, and if so the quantity of fuel 
reckoned on as absolutely necessary be likewise re- 
duced ? Estate A may have a river frontage, but 
cannot raise the water to its factory : by wire rope 
could the power not be transmitted to the machinery? 
B adjoins A, but has no river frontage ; could not 
B for " the consideration " perhaps secure a site 
from A, and if it could, and had even to carry 
its leaf one or two miles, would it not be bettor 
off to do so than erect a steam engine, and either 
purchase fuel for same, or plant up one-third of ita 
available area for tea? There is no reason why A 
should not supply half-a-dozen sites for factories 
if each man must make his own teas. Though, 
how about central factories which you have 
always so wisely advocated ? Will you not agree 
that the estimated quantity of fuel said to be 
required can be reduced in this way ? And that 
the difficulties the tea planter in Ceylon has in 
prospect can be, to a great extent, obviated by 
such means ? 
My sole object in writing these letters is to 
reduce the prevailing fear that starvation, as far as 
fuel is concerned, stares Ceylon in the face, a fear 
which I still maintain has been exaggerated, and 
to a great extent unnecessarily raised. 
You set your face against the idea of coolies 
burning primings and cow-dung, and perfectly right 
too, for an estate which can afford to let them burn 
anything ch(> ; but these points were merely brought 
up, to show that an estate having " nothing else," 
its coolies could pull along with such supplies, and 
therefore that such estate could modify the difficulty 
of how its labour could exist. You consider tho 
burning of cow-dung as a great sin ; so do I ; but do 
you or I ever give a thought to the indiscri- 
minate waste of cow-dung on our estates for the 
enamelling the nails and concreting the floors of 
our oooly lines? Pruniugs are better buried no 
doubt, but if you require them for cooking either 
your tea or your pudding, you cannot drink or eat 
these luxuries and have them too. 
An estate plants 20 acres of fuel trees ; would 
such an estate, do you consider, allow its labor 
supply a stick of such fuel for its own purposes, 
if ana other article for burning is available ? which 
it always is. 
You do me an injustice in hinting that 
I recommend the cooly to steal from Govern- 
ment forests ; far from it; but that such an im- 
pression was formed by you, I admit I have myself 
to blame; my expression of "a never-failing 
sourco of firebrand the Government" was not 
explicit. My meaning was that (lovernment 
had been for so long a source of " firebrand" 
to tho cooly, that if he were likely to sutler from 
want of fuel, tho Government would look after 
his warming and cooking comforts, as they have 
eo wisely or unwisely pestered bun with their 
medicinal remedies. It may be too, that some 
day tho Government will reserve for the emigrant 
oooly forests for fuel as they do for his more 
lazy and indolent friends, tho Sinhalese. —Steam 
engines on estates (unless supplied with immense 
stocks of fuel), I still maintain, will prove a 
durte, and I honestly and humbly gi\o my opinion, 
that unless a tea estate can drivu its machinery by 
Water-power, it ought to seek that water- 
power within r.ny reasonable dinancs, and I think 
