THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888. 
word being given to light the burner. These launches 
will be of admirable service on small and shallow 
streams 
On the Thames just now may also be seen a naph- 
tha launch, recently imported from America, in which 
naphtha is vapourised, and then used, as abovo, like 
steam, except that it stinks vilely. A spirit lamp 
supplies all the heat necessary to warm the vapou- 
liser. The engine driving this new lauuch only 
weighs 000 11). and is equivalent to six horse-power. 
The weight of the launch and engine combined is only 
800 lb. 
A new era is evidently dawning for petroleum. It 
has long been used by the .Russians for motive power 
on their Caspian steamers, where special furnaces were 
devised for utilising it. In India, as well as in the 
United States, locomotive engines are now runniDg 
which burn kerosene instead of coal, and it is sai l to 
be less costly. This is an important matter for you in 
Australia to consider. 
4, 
THE FUTURE OF COFFEK IN CEYLON 
AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 
Being among a group of planters and others t^ e 
other day who were all more or less interested in 
the subject of planting either in India or Ceylon, 
it chanced to me to hear many opinions expressed 
as to the future prospects for coffee in your own 
island. The discussion arose out of a remark 
made by a Mincing Lane man, who expressed 
the view that a very large proportion of the 
coffee still received from Ceylon is fully up to 
the standard of quality that was so prized in 
former times. How is it, he asked, that this 
should be the case if, as is commonly said, coffee 
production in Ceylon is to be regarded as doomed 1 
One would naturally expect that the continuance 
of long suffering due to years of leaf disease and 
insect attack would have resulted in a prepon- 
derance of small and ill-formed beans, but such a 
result does not appear to have followed. Ceylon 
coffee, in the matter of quality, indeed, seems to 
be fully up to the standard of the best days of 
its growth, and it was observable that the ques- 
tion put by the colonial broker considerably 
puzzled the planting experts among the listeners 
to his query; Of course, among these by far 
the larger proportion asserted that the day 
could never come when the growth of coffee 
in Ceylon could resume its old footing. They 
quoted the almost universal abandonment of the 
cultivation in order to demonstrate that the 
consensus of island opinion was on their side in the 
matter, but there were some heretics who were 
disinclined to pin their faith to the theory of utter 
extinction. One of these last seemed to me to enter- 
tain very reasonable views on the subject. He 
pointed out that it was the generally adopted theory 
that the introduction of the disease, which first 
struck the fatal blow at your coffee industry, had 
been due to the adoption of an almost single 
cultivation. It seemed almost, according to him, 
as if the leaf disease had been the result of long- 
continued inbreeding, a course of propagation 
which we know to produce evil results in all kinds 
of animal life. Under such conditions probably, the 
extinction of any cultivation would be but a matter 
of time. The tendency to the results of this inbreed- 
ing, it might be assumed, would be greatly checked 
by the extensive narrowing of the area over which 
it had been before exercised. Upon the remaining 
and greatly diminished area the effect of the intro- 
duction of new blood by an even small supply of 
plants from a new country, or from far-off districts, 
would probably be greatly restorative, and the 
Bpeaker thought it oxtremely likely that there 
would be a residuum eventually left of strong and 
healthy trees from whioh a fresh life would be 
widely propagated. That there must still be a 
large proportion of such trees left in Ceylon, he 
believed to be evidenced by the very line quality of 
much of the coffee still received from thence in 
Mincing Lane. He therefore adopted the theory 
that, when things come to the worst, they must 
take a turn ; that there would be a survival of the 
fittest, and that from these there might spring a 
revival of a healthy family. It was noticeable that 
those least inclined to accept this view were those 
men who had no more coffee left to indulge hope 
over. But even men whom I had on previous 
occasions heard express themselves as quite hope- 
less as to the extinction of leaf disease and insect 
pests among your coffee admitted there was some- 
thing to be said on the other side of the question, 
and that, when coffee nearly approached extinction, 
the enemies of it might become wholly eradicated 
and leave ihs trees which might have survived 
their attack strong enough to start a healthy 
progeny once again. Of course it is impossible for 
me to judge whether there is really justification 
for such a hope. Probably Mr. Hughes, during 
his visit to you, might be able to arrive at 
some conclusion, as to whether the soil has 
become by the long continunance of a single culti- 
vation unfit chemically for its ultimate reproduction. 
If he should decide otherwise, there are many 
of us who cannot see why coffee should not 
again be grown with success in Ceylon. 
Now it is very certain that if this could be 
done, the financial result to it would probably 
surpass anything attained in former years by 
your coffee planters; because one has only to 
observe the records of sales in Mincing Lane 
to see how the little you are still able to send 
us is appreciated, and what competition there is for 
it. The increased growths in South America do not 
seem now able to affect the price of Ceylon 
coffee in the Home markets to the extent of the 
effect a heavy crop in the Brazils used to have 
on it. The reduced supply, and the difficulty 
consequently of obtaining the quantity demanded by 
the retail traie, makes your coflee less liable to 
fluctuation than it formerly was. I recently met 
a gentleman of experience, who told me that, were 
he now the possessor of an estate in Ceylon, he 
should certainly maintain a fixed amount of acreage 
under coffee cultivation, whether he did so at 
a present loss or not. He of course was one 
of the comparatively few men who attach weight 
to the theory above-named ; but we find that 
the number of those is increasing, who believe 
that after a certain point has been reached coffee 
is likely to again show to the front in Ceylon. It 
is certain that the reputation of your island 
growth will never entirely die out in the 
London market, and any you can send is sure 
to secure buyers at top-prices. In connection with 
this topic I give you the following extract from The 
Times relative to coffee-growing in a country which 
has as yet been free from the pests which have 
had such a fearful result in your own case. Pro- 
bably, if the lands of that country were as crowded 
with one form of cultivation as yours was in days 
gone by, they might not have escaped the result 
you yourselves experienced : — 
" Coffee Cultivation ith Costa Rica. — The British 
Consul at San Jose, in Costa Rica, in his last report 
states that the cultivation of coffee is the chief and 
at the sanae time one of the most agreeable occu. 
pations of the farmer. To farm successfully in Costa 
Rica the land should not, on account of the high 
rate of interest prevailing, be purchased with borrowed 
capital ; at least two-thirds of it should be bought by 
tho farmer with bis own capital, leaving the balance 
to be paid oft' with the crops. In this way a coffee 
estate will return, one year with another, 12 per cent. 
