94 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1888. 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
TOBACCO — AND TEA — EHE COMING CACAO CROP-*TEA AND 
LOW PRICES — COOLY-BACHELOHS AT A DISCOUNT — 
"WEATHER. 
The activity in regard to the cultivation of 
tobacco still continues, and besides those who are 
already in the field, there are many more anxious 
and willing to enter it if the result of the present 
experiments are at all favourable. The cautious 
ones are " wanting to know, you know," how the 
curing is to be managed &c. before the plunge, 
and are prepared to encourage the sanguine to try 
their luck as sort of test cases. They don't fear 
to be too late for the market, nor of its being 
flooded either : the demand for " the fragrant leaf" 
all over the world being a steady and increasing 
one. 
You hear of tobacco being tried in all kinds of 
places, by allkinds of people, and in all kinds of ways, 
perhaps the least likely combination of products is 
tobacco and tea, and yet there is one man who is 
planting it between his tea lines, and is waiting the 
result with what serenity he can. It is pretty clear 
that before Ceylon is done with this new product, 
it will have had as queer companions as the bed- 
fellows of poverty. There is very little danger of 
anything being missed for the w^nt of an experi- 
ment, and when you hear of a man having been 
dispatched to Sumatra on a six months' commission, 
with the view to pick up tobacco wrinkles, you get 
impressed with the idea that the local knowing 
ones are not long to have it all their own way, nor 
pose for ever before an inquiring public as 
dungeons of knowledge. A well-known native culti- 
vator waa very bitter at the inaccessibility of 
tobacco lore. He had fallen in with two of our local 
tobacco authorities, but their information was 
un-get at-able. They made a very "squaro" attempt 
to impress his mind with the difficulties, the vast 
expenses, the uncertainty, and he felt that their aim 
was simply to "choke him off" and not to assist 
him, much less to encourage him to go on. 
He had not looked for this. " Why," he 
said, " is there not room enough for all ; " and then 
he added, "but they were not likethe usualEuropean 
planter, they have become just like a Sinhalese "1 
The fun of the thing was that the speaker belonged 
to the nation he had levelled the tobacco 
authorities down to. But these knowledgable gentle- 
men need not be put out by a rub of this kind. 
It certainly showed a want of reverence on the part 
of their native brother, but that after all is only 
the crying sin of the age. It invades everywhere, 
even such high mightinesses as V. A.'s don't escape 
its baneful influence, I heard them once wittily 
described as being simply on the business level of 
a tamby : for, like him they had to hawk about 
from place to place to pick up a living ! After that 
to be compared to a Sinhalese may be endurable. 
In one of your " notes " you were becoming 
jubilant over the prospects of the coming oacao crop. 
1 hope you are right; but as far as my observation 
goes, the cacao crop which has set is not as yet 
either a bumper or an average one. There has been 
lots of blossom, but it has not left very much behind. 
There is blossom now and blossom coming 
which, however, is setting very slowly, and not 
nearly so regularly as the cacao planter would 
like. The trees too are showing that the pro- 
longed drought has told upon them, as there are 
many more dead boughs about than one cares to 
see. Howevt r, it is to be hoped that you have 
drawn your inspiration from a wider field of facts 
than mine, and that the good time you have her- 
alded is really approaching us. 
Canker in Cinchona is rather pronounced just 
now, and Uk.jq who would keep theirs back are 
forced to harvest more that they would, rather 
than lose all. On many places there is steady 
employment for a small gang to harvest the dying 
trees. 
The low range of prices of tea at home has put 
the factories that buy leaf into a state of ex- 
citement and uncertainty. Some wisely wait and 
see ; while others have made a plunge into the 
abyss, and offered rates for leaf which have 
caused much dissatisfaction, and are evidently 
the outcome of " blue funk." If big factories are 
to flourish they must be less susceptible to panic, 
and have at least a yearly policy to guide them. 
The other day a man offering leaf for sale put 
it that he was ready to supply " well matured 
leaf"! The buyer would of course prefer that the 
leaf he bought was plucked from well matured 
trees, but he was not quite satisfied that " well 
matured leaf" meant that — as the expression was 
certainly capable of covering a good deal more. 
The rush of coolies from the Coast has abated 
now for some weeks ; but most estates are fairly 
well supplied with labour, and some have more 
than they want. One planter who has more men 
than he has profitable work for, is about to give 
notice to all the bachelors. Rather hard lines this. 
As long as Ceylon is a tea-producing country, that 
question which is beginning to bother the European : 
— "What to do with your girls," is not likely to 
come to the surface among the Tamils. If bachelors 
are to be paid off because they are unattached, 
the downtrodden woman of the East is clearly in 
a fair way to become master of the situation. Let 
this new but powerful factor in her civilization be 
herewith noted, and due credit given to the Ceylon 
planter. 
The weather lately has been rather trying on 
young plants which were put out a little while 
ago, being somewhat drier than we would like. But 
too little rain is not worse than too much, and then 
when you think of it " things maun aye be some 
way." For the worried, if they dig deep enough, 
there is a world of comfort in that philosophy. 
Peppercorn. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE, 
CHIEFLY TEA. 
(From the H. & C. Mail, June 22nd.) 
Shareholders in tea companies should be in good 
spirits, for the prospects are hopeful and directors 
are cheerful. Wonders have been accomplished in 
the way of economy in working, and the amalga- 
mation movement has played an important part in 
this. At the meetings of tea companies held recently 
reports have, as a rule, been well received, and 
prospects generally are considered good. 
By the way, Mr. White is not among those who 
foresee a large and successful development of the 
tea industry of Ceylon. He told an inquiring share- 
holder of the Jokai that he had no great faith in 
Ceylon ever growing very much tea, for the climate 
was too forcing, and it produced wonderful results, 
but only for a short time. Coffee had died out, so 
had cinchona and cocoa, and, although they cer- 
tainly had a very hardy plant to deal with in the 
tea plant, the fact that every man who had a tea 
estate in Ceylon had it in the market for sale, told 
its own story.* Here is a subject that has given 
rise to so much controversy that it is time the 
respective opinions for and against Ceylon were 
openly debated. 
We are told sometimes at public meetings that 
the interests of Indian and Ceylon tea planters are 
identical, a suggestion which the planters themselves 
do not entirely endorse. Certainly the rivalry up 
* The statement is, of course, recklessly incorre 1 -, 
born of narrow and unworthy jealousy. — Ed, 
