76 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August t, 1888. 
have been found to thrive at high elevations on the 
mountains. Sugar has taken as kindly to the soil in 
ICriaD on the Gula estate. The article, turned out as 
it is of excellent quality in increasing quantities, com- 
mands a ready sale. These results, satisfactory as 
they looU,do not come up to the mark, owing to the 
extension of roads not keeping up to requirements. 
To meet the latter, an extension of the railway is 
under consideration. The growing surplus amply 
justifies expenditure under this head. Indeed, money 
spent in this direction would prove of more benefit 
to the tountry, than laying it by in Indian securities. 
—Straits Times, June 23rd. 
+ 
THE AMERICAN TEA MARKET : INDIA AND 
CEYLON. 
By the Peuipatetic Planter. 
There has been no meeting yet of the new Sub- 
Committee of the American Syndicate, owing to 
Mr. Watson, one of the members, not having ar- 
rived from India. There has been consequently 
very little advance made since last week. The 
New York gentleman has been written to, very 
much to the effect hinted at in my last ; and the 
hope is entertained that the modesty of the pro- 
posal now made to him will "choke him off." Sub- 
scriptions are not coming in as fast as could be 
wished, and it is becoming more and more evident, 
that the policy of affording subscribers the oppor- 
tunity of a say in the programme to be adopted, 
is not popular, and that it will have to be replaced 
by a cut-and-dried scheme, prepared before-hand, 
for all to worry over— and for affording ex- 
cuses for not subscribing, perhaps. The pro- 
posal, that the Ceylon and Indian interests should 
unite in this matter seems Utopian. If we cannot 
unite among ourselves, we are not likely to rind union 
with a rival, no matter how friendly, a very easy 
matter. Indeed the feeling is already " in the air, " 
that such a union will not come off — and this entirely 
from Indian considerations. The Ceylon people 
would probably join willingly. On the Indian side 
one already hears such remarks as, " We shall both 
do better if we work independently, but in a friendly 
non-antagonistio way. Especially if, as in England, 
Ceylon follows India, the new oomer will then re- 
vive interest in the older, and attract attention 
to both." Or, again, " The Ceylon people must 
work America, whether we do or not. They are 
almost at bay already, with their back to the wall. 
Their teas are already growing thinner as prophesied 
of them, and, as their teas lose their characteristics 
and as they increase their outturn, they will be 
compelled to find new markets, or again find fore- 
closure on mortgages the rule. Their men are able 
and enterprising, and this cleft stick, in which they 
see themselves only too likely to be caught, will 
assuredly excite their well-known 9nergy, in self 
defence. We are not within measurable distance of 
any such dilemma. Our estates are not over mort- 
gaged, but, on the contrary, have done fairly well 
of late, and if we found no new market, we should 
hardly see ruin staring us in the face, for some 
years to oome. Why, then, should we draw the 
nuts out of the fire for Ceylon Planters ? " I 
confess, I prefer the first of these views ; and, 
selfishness apart, is it not rather soon to count 
the evil prophecy, respecting the chronic falling 
off in Ceylon tea i, as fulfilled ? One thing, however, 
seems common to the general run of Indian opinion 
here, and that is, that we should work indepen- 
dently of Ceylon in this matter ; although there 
are some leading men, too, who would gladly see 
the Indian and Caylon interests united, not alone 
in this, but in all matters, with one Association for 
both,— Indian Planters' Gazette, June 19th. 
WHY SHOULD QUININE ADVANCE? 
If an account could be published of the money 
lost and won by speculative dealings in quinine from 
May 1877, when the alkaloid attained the highest 
price of recent years, until the present month, the 
largeness of the balance on the wrong side would 
probably astonish the most confirmed pessimist. 
But we question whether even such a review, though 
eloquent with many a tale of financial shipwreck, 
would have much effect in checking speculative 
enterprises. Investors hope against hope, and argue 
against reason, for a return of the old times. Times 
out of number have they been disappointed, and 
yet, whenever the bark shipments from Ceylon show 
a momentary gap, or the unit value at the auctions 
advances a point or two, clients are found prepared 
to lend a listening ear to advisers for ivhom the 
tortuous ways of mysterious syndicates are clear as 
daylight, and who know to an ounce the stock of 
quinine throughout the world and the precise 
acreage of the cinchona plantations in every country 
under the sun. Just at present there are not want- 
ing signs that we may be on the threshold of a fresh 
outbreak of speculative activity in quinine. The 
movement, it seems, is expected to Bet in on the 
other side of the Atlantic, and its backers are ready 
with elaborate arguments to prove that quinine 
ought really to be very much dearer than it is, 
and why it may be expected to shortly advance 
to what they deem its fair market price. The 
principal reasons given in support of these views 
are : (a) the decrease of the bark shipments from 
Ceylon ; (b) the smallness of the importations of 
quinine into the United States, coupled with 
an alleged increase in the consumption, and 
the smallness of the stock of the alkaloid in 
that country on the eve of the season of the largest 
demand ; (c) the belief that it does not pay the 
quinine makers to manufacture the alkaloid at its 
present market price ; and (d) the idea that the 
syndicate, of which so much has been heard in 
the winter, is ready to recommence its operations. 
Very little reliable information is obtainable con- 
cerning the " syndicate " in question, and there 
is no evidence that that body, if it exists at all, 
has any ideas of buying immediately. It is ru- 
moured that during the winter the syndicate bought 
— mostly through the London brokers, who are 
represented as its principal agents — over 2,000,000 oz. 
of quinine, which, even at so low an average price 
as Is 6d per oz. represents the respectable figure 
of 150.000Z. or more than most people would think 
it reasonable to risk in quinine now. This heavy 
stock the " syndicate " is said to hold still, and it is 
further affirmed that it will presently buy more, until 
it completely oontrols the market, and has pinned its 
opponents securely into the corner. But admitting 
the existence of such a plan of campaign, the 
important faotor remains that such operations, 
even though executed by a " syndicate," are 
hazardous in the extreme, and are abundantly 
proved by modern commercial history to have a 
knaok of breaking down just at the critical moment. 
In the vast majority of cases where combinations, 
corners, syndicates, trusts, or other organisations 
of that class have been formed, they have either 
come to grief themself or brought disaster upon 
the outsiders who thought it safe to follow in 
their track. And in the light of this experience 
it does not seem safe to pin one's faith to the 
sucoess of the present shadowy combination. The 
fact is, quinine is now almost too big an article 
for continued successful manipulation. Even a 
superficial calculation will prove this. The absence 
of any official analyses of tbe bark sold at 
the London auctions renders it impossible to esti- 
