THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1889. 
MORE ABOUT CEMENT. 
A short time back we discussed in this journal 
the question of the practicability of superseding 
our large import of Portland cement by local manu- 
facture. What we wrote with respect to this 
matter attracted the attention of a friend now at 
home, who took an opportunity of asking Mr. 
Leake, — who is prominently connected with the 
Tunnel Cement Works, his views regarding it. It 
is news to us to learn that correspondence had 
already paBsed between Mr. Leake and parties in 
this island in which this topic was discussed ; 
and it is singular to learn that the result of the 
discussion showed that the main difficulty which 
would appear to quite prevent local competition 
with the home production of cement, is an 
economic one. 
In our first article, to which we have above 
referred, we wrote that it was a fair presumption 
that the chief basis of all artificial cements — viz. 
chalk — being absent from this and other tropical 
countries, was the main reason why their manu- 
facture had not been attempted locally. We find this 
presumption, however, to hold good, but in part only. 
It does not seem to be contested, that coral lime, 
which is an almost pure carbonate, might form an 
efficient substitute for chalk as the basis of such 
manufacture, but figures showing the cost of the 
burning such lime supplied to Mr. Leake conclusively 
demonstrated that it could not be made to 
compete in the matter of cheapness with the 
use of chalk. Now Mr. Leake's experience with 
the manufacture of cement in England has been 
exceptionally great. The outturn of the Tunnel 
Cement Works is very large, and its works are 
so looated as to be able to obtain their supply of 
chalk under very favourable conditions. Mr. Leake 
told our friend that from the hill above his works 
this material could be almost thrown down into 
the kilns. No cost for its transport had therefore 
to be inourred, while the further fact that the 
works are by the riverside, so that barges can 
bring up the clay and take away the prepared 
cement to and from the factory, furnishes a great 
additional facility for very exceptionally cheap 
manufacture. The competition in the production 
of Portland cement in England is so great that 
it is only in places where great facilities such 
as we have named exist that prices can be kept 
so low as to ensure a free market. In estimating 
the chances for the manufacture of cement in this 
island and in other tropical countries competing 
successfully with that of Great Britain, we find, 
therefore, that at the outset those chances would 
be heavily handicapped. The only set-off we 
could anticipate to counterbalance in any degree 
this disability would be the saving that could be 
made on the sea transport of the cement and 
that which might fairly be claimed for the 
lessened liability to the deterioration to which 
it is known cement is exposed from long keeping 
and change of climate. When we come to consider 
all the circumstances, we fear such savings could 
hardly make up to us for the striking advantages 
possessed by English manufacturers. These have 
their raw material piled above their kilns in huge 
masses which can be thrown down in enormous 
quantities at the mouths of the kilns almost, with 
the expenditure of a minimum of labour. The stick 
coral, from which most of our lime — at least upon 
the coast — is burned, has to be laboriously collected 
over what is— relatively to the English supply 
ground— an exceedingly wide area, and ail of it, 
when collected, has to be carried either by water 
or by coolies to the burning plaoes. Although ex- 
ceedingly light, stiok coral is very bulky, and it 
can readily be seen ihow difficult it would be, 
quantity for quantity of yield, for such a material 
to compete successfully as to cost with the vast 
chalk supplies of Europe even if the items of 
collection and carriage had alone to be dealt with. 
When we have to add to these items the further 
one of relative cost of fuel, the difficulties in the 
way of making cement in Ceylon to compete with 
our present source of supply became still more 
crushingly increased. 
Year by year our stores of timber available 
for fuel are decreasing and have to be drawn 
from annually increasing distances. It is not 
probable that, even at the present time, the cost 
of this item of fuel for preparing the cement in 
this country could bear a favourable comparison 
with that of the coal used at works situated as 
are the Tunnel Cement Works, when it can be 
laid down probably for something like ten shillings 
or twelve shillings the ton. Both as regards the 
main raw material therefore and the fuel for burning 
it, we must see that Ceylon, in any endeavour to com- 
pete in the production of cement, must be " out 
of the running." It has been urged, however, 
that the cost of packing the article for export 
would be saved to the local manufacturer ; but 
cement is such a delicate substance, and parts 
with its strength so readily if exposed to air, 
that it would probably be incumbent on producers 
here to pack it almost as carefully for a day's 
journey as it is necessary to do for an ocean 
voyage. We felt much interest in this subject 
when it was first mentioned to us, as it seemed that 
it might be practicable to add the manufacture 
of cement to the list of those industries which 
we would desire to see undertaken in Ceylon. But 
facts are stubborn things, and so long as Europe 
possesses chalk and coal in their present abun- 
dance, so long will it be certain that we must regard 
it as impossible that we could locally prepare 
cement here at anything like the cost at which 
it can be obtained from home. It is one of those 
cases in which economic conditions upset all theory, 
however at first sight apparently sound. 
Many centuries ago the natives of Ceylon were 
able to make and use very good cement in the 
constructions of tank spills and sluices, and of 
anieuts across rivers like the tekkam on the Aruvi- 
aru, above the Giant's Tank. But Portland cement 
was then unknown. It is now produced so cheaply, 
carried across the ocean at such moderate rates 
of freight, and is of such surpassingly good 
quality, that no question arose as to its being the 
best material to use for the construction of a new 
spill when the Government of Ceylon resolved to 
restore the great Kalawewa irrigation work, the 
spill being the key of the whole enterprize. We 
gave Mr. John Hughes a specimen of concrete 
from the tekam to analyse, so that we shall hear 
something from the chemist about its constituents 
and quality. We have little doubt that the an- 
cient builders in the North-Central and Northern 
Provinces were sagacious enough to prefer the 
"fat" lime resulting from burnt coral to the 
product of the ancient dolomite rocks, largely vitiated 
as the latter are with magnesia. 
4. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Members of the tea trade in the United States are 
on the alert as to the coming Indian and Ceylon 
tea " boom " in America. Several dealers have re- 
cently arrived in London from New York, with a 
view, as one graphically puts it, of " sniffing around." 
Unless the syndicate which has the matter in hand 
sets about work speedily, the Americans themselves 
will save them the trouble. This would be quite a 
happy way out of the difficulty. 
