464 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1889. 
the diminution of the export duty has not been 
able to save the Oeylon plumbago industry from 
decay, and during recent years large numbers of 
plumbago mines have been abandoned, and the 
value of the mineral has depreciated to such an 
extent that 15s. per cwt. will how buy a very fine 
quality. Nevertheless, the shipments of plumbago 
from Oeylon during the last two seasons have again 
shown a considerable increase, and in 1887-88 they 
reached 254,046 cwts., a total only once exceeded 
during the last decade. Coffee, once a mainstay of 
the Ceylon planters, has gone very much out of 
favour lately, owing, in the first place, to its 
tremendous fall in price; and from 842,509 cwts. 
in 1878-Q the shipments have fallen to 136,295 cwts. 
in 1887-8. The Oeylon people will, no doubt, regret 
to have participated so slightly in the great speculative 
movement of the last two years, but still it is 
scarcely likely that they will again resort to coffee- 
growing on any increased scale. Many of them 
have found salvation in tea, and indeed, the soil of 
the island. is generally so weU adapted for the cul- 
tivation of all kinds of tropical produce that, if tea 
were to forsake them, the cultivators would have no 
great difficulty in wooing the favours of whatever 
new produce might be in the ascendaut. Ten years 
ago Ceylon tea was scarcely more than a curiosity. 
In 1878-79 81,5951b, were exported from the island, 
and since then every succeeding season has out- 
stripped its predecessor by bounds of from 30 to 70 
per cent., until in 1886-7 the shipments exceeded 
12,000,000 lb., whence they rose in 1887-8 to 20,755,779 
lb.' or about 10 per cent, of the whole of the tea 
imports of the United Kingdom. Nearly all the 
Oeylon tea is sent to the London market, and its 
average value last year was, roughly speaking, Is. 
per lb., nearly 1,000,000?. having thus gone into the 
pockets of Ceylon planters from this "happy hit." 
Cocoa is also a new industry — in fact it is, as a 
commercial venture, even of more recent date than 
tea for none was exported uutil 1879-80, when 122 
cwts. were shipped. From that time the imports 
have increased to 12,611 cwts. last season, represent- 
ing a value of," Bay, 50,000?. For this industry there 
is not so large a scope as for tea, and it is therefore 
probable that it will not develop to much larger 
proportions than it has assumed already, although 
Ceylon cocoa holds a very high rank among the dif- 
ferent grades. In connection with these cultivations 
it may be interesting to state that while the con- 
sumption of tea in the Uuited Kingdom increased 
from 1>22 lb. per head in 1840 to 4-95 lb. in 1887, 
that of cocoa rose during the same period from 0'08 
lb. to 0'43 lb., while that of coffee receded from 1-08 
to 0 81 lb. The cultivation of cinnamon is advancing 
more slowly than that of other staples, having grown 
from 12,192,208 lbs. in 1878 9 to 1,657,424 lb. last 
season, in the face of constant retrogressions in 
price, which are now said to have become so acute 
as to leave scarcely any profit to the grower. The 
immense increase of the production of cassia lignea 
in China and further India and the cheapness of 
this coarser substitute have probably crippled beyond 
recovery the Oeylon cinnamon industry, which is 
known to have flourished in the island from as 
early a period as the thirteenth century, and was 
afterwards most assiduously protected by the Dutch 
colonistH. The fruit of the coconut palm, and the 
products derived from it — copra, poonac, and coconut 
oil— are Bhipped from Oeylon in enormus quantites, 
385.758 cwt. of oil. which may have been worth 
about as many sovereigns, and 5,411,572 nuts having 
been sent abroad last season. The Ceylon product 
of greatest interest to druggists is of course cinchona. 
The surprising extension of its cultivation caused by 
visions of immense profits, tho ensuing over-production, 
the rise of new competition father east, and the 
impending decadence of the shipments have been 
watched and debated anxiously day by day, and 
many luckless speculators have been laid low by 
misplaced confidence in the article, Twelve years 
ago only 16,842 lb. were exported ; the season of 
1870-80 witnessed shipments pass the million Hue, in 
1883 4 the ten million mark was exceeded; and two 
seasons later the exports attained the unique figure 
of 15,364,953 lb. Since then they have been declining, 
and in 1887-8, as we were able to inform our 
readers the day after the close of the season, they 
were smaller than at any time since the close of 
the 1883-4 season, viz, 11,704.932 lb. What the 
coming season will bring it is impossible to say, 
but it seems quite likely that the production from 
other centres will be larg ; enough to keep prices low, 
and in that case Oeylon planters will probably with- 
draw from its culture more and more. Cardamoms are 
another article of which the shipments have progressed 
in an extraording degree, and in value they now rank 
second among the minor cultures, the shipments of 
310,6851b. in 1887-8 having probably been worth be- 
tween 20,000?. and 30,000?., while niue years ago they 
were so small as not to be worthy of separate record. 
Nearly half the Ceylon cardamoms are consumed in 
India and the Far East, the remainder being principally 
sent to Great Britain, though only a small proportion 
is actually used in this country. The two other 
" minor " articles which have risen from unrecorded 
obscurity sii.ee 1880 are oils ot cinnamon and citronella. 
The shipments of both these oils last season are the 
heaviest on record. Citronella has been exported to 
the extent of 9,508,157 ozs., worth perhaps 55,000?., 
against 1,760,677 oz-. in 1880 1, but the price, owing 
to this superabundant supply, has fallen from about 
3^d. to 3JcZ, per oz. during the same time, and, if 
value alone is considered, the shipments in 1880-1 will 
therefore be found to approach last season's pretty 
closely. By far the largest part of this citronella oil 
is consumed in the United States, many of the popular 
toilet soaps made in that country beiug scented with 
it. Of cinnamon oil 144,433 ozs. were shipped from 
Ceylon last year, mostly to the Uuited Kingdom, but 
a good deal also to the States. The value of this 
export cannot very well be determined, as most of the 
oil is known to consist simply of the low grade dis- 
tillation product of the leaf, and not of the highly, 
priced bark oil. Large quantities of cinnamon oil are 
distilled in Europe from the ciuuamon chips, which 
form a separate Ceylon export article. Among many 
other notable products of the island are coir and 
kitool fibres, deer horns, orchella weed, and ebony and 
Japan woods, but with the exception of the first they 
are all of minor importance. We should think that 
the Oeylon planters may find that in future they are 
more likely to reap profits from the cultivation of a 
number of comparatively small articles than from a 
few staples, and among the cultures to which they will 
probably turn their attention in the first place are 
cubebs, black pepper, nutmegs, cloves, annatto, vanilla, 
and other drugs and spices. As the clioiate of Ceylon 
is exceptionally suited for the acclimatisation of new 
products, and only a fraction (it is said less than one- 
niuth) of the island is at present under cultivation, the 
future of the ancient Taprubane is altogether beyond 
calculation.— Chemist and Druggist, Nov. 3. 
* 
Melons — Alphonse Karr owns to a weakness for 
Melons, but has not yet experienced the fate of Pope 
Paul, who died one morning after having eaten two 
large Melons for supper the night before. The 
Emperor Albert of Austria in 1459, according to the 
same authority, died from eating too freely of Melon. 
— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Insect Preventives. — I notice that on p. 472 of 
your last issue soot, lime, and Hellebore powder are 
all recommended for the destruction of caterpillars, 
but perhaps it is not generally known that gas-tar 
is a first-rate preventive, which is better than cure. 
I have had whole plots of Gooseberry bushes devas- 
tated by them, and also Cabbage and Cauliflower. 
Since I commenced to use gas-tar the caterpillars have 
not made their appearance, and it is both a safe and 
a cheap remedy for the Gooseberry caterpillar and 
all others affecting green crops which are subject to 
attack.— John Mc Intosh, Glennaohan. [Please say 
how do you apply gas-tar ?— Ed.]— Gardeners 1 Chronicle. 
