594 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1889. 
at Home, and this year's supply is a short one, we 
hope the prices will keep up to next season too. 
An average of 85s for ordinary kinds, and 77s for 
triage allows a margin for profit '. We are not getting 
much work out of Public Works Department just 
now, funds are said to be short. I hear that several 
basketfuls of earth have been thrown down at the 
approach to the Koonooth bridge, so that a bandy can get 
on or off it without jumping. Can yet any of your 
correspondents tell me where, on the hills, good tea 
seed, of Assam or hybrid trees, be procured ? There is 
lots of China tea seed about, but the habit of the plant 
is not suitable to climate." — South of India Observer. 
[Couleur de rose we suspect about coffee, — Ed. T. 
♦ 
THE CEYLON-AMEBICAN TEA ASSOCIATION. 
Mr. Whitham is good enough to send us the 
original circulars and to write to us in explanation 
of his tea scheme for America. It seems to be a 
right movement. Mr. Whitham says : — 
"As far as my own idea goes, there is no intention 
of superseding the Tea Fund which might, on the 
contrary , help the Association or Company very much 
by acting as its avant courier to a certain extent. 
There is a much bet'er chance of getting a pood 
scheme if we leave it lor a general meeting to decide 
what it's to bt . I don't believe in holding out hopfS 
of a dividend which may possibly not arrive for some 
years, and, as an investment or speculation, there are 
many things I would sooner go in for. But we must 
sell a lot of our tea in America, and check the 
downward course of prices, orhalf ourfactories will be 
shut up in a year or two. Tea averaging 9d or even 
9§d can only be made to pay in a few places." 
The circular letters originally written, which it is 
well to publish for general information, are as 
follows: — 
To the Planters of Dolosbage. 
Gentlemen, — Everyone seems agreed as to the ne- 
cessity for some steps to be taken to fully introduce our 
teas into the markets of the United States and Canada, 
but no one seems prepared to say exactly what should 
be done towards that end. 
The idea of a Company was mooted some time ago, 
bat has so far come to nothing, more, I believe, from 
individual unwillingness to take the initiative than 
from general objection to the scheme. 
It is very clear that no sufficient impression can be 
made in America by private and individual enterprise, 
even if largely assis'ed by grants from the Tea Fund. 
What is wanted for the campaign is a Company or As- 
sociation, which ought to include every tea grower in 
Ceylon, whether proprietor or superintendent. • It is 
not my place to say what should be the exact aims and 
scope of such an Association. These must be settled 
by the subscribers or shareholders themselves. The 
scheme only requires starting, and will develop itself 
as it goes on from the collective ideas and experience 
of all who take part in it. And, as few districts are at 
present producing more tea than Dolosbage, it might 
well be the first to set the ball rolling. 
I do not ask you to commit yourselves at present to 
any actual undertaking. If you will put your names 
down as supporters of the general idea, and state to 
what extent you are prepared to take shares in a Com- 
pany as constituted by yourselves and other subscribers, 
I shall send the list when complete to Mr. Rutherford, 
with whom I had a long conversation on the subject 
borne weeks ago, who is quite prepared to help in the 
mat'er, and who too, no doubt, on receipt of a well- 
filled Dolosbage list, will get come one to start a similar 
one in '-very district in the island. Myonly suggestion 
uj^tbatth/B total liability; on each shim' should not ex- 
oee<3 fifty rupees, in order that uoone engaged in plant- 
ing may be debarred from taking odo at least. — I am 
gen'lemen, \ ours obediently, Habby Whitham. 
Narangalla, Aranayaka, Jan. 8th, 1889. 
Nuwara Eliya, 10th January 1889. 
My dpar Whitham,— I willingly subscribe to your 
scheme lor a Ceylon Tea Growers' Company working 
in America, and I am quite at one with you in 
thinking it is about the only way we will introduce 
our teas iDto that country. Such a Company ought 
to have the support of every proprietor and superin- 
tendent in Ceylon. 
I think it is quite enough for our present purpose 
simply to get subscribers' names to the general idea 
of a Ceylon Tea Growers' Company for the purpose 
of pushing Celon tea in America. 
The c'etails of working the scheme must be settled 
by a general meeting of subscribers or by a Board 
of Directors. The capital should not be less than 
R300 000. If each of the 600 estates enrolled in the 
tea fund scheme invested R500 in the undertaking, 
the money would be found. 
Please put my name down for B.1,000. As I am 
going home in March, and will be away for about 
8 months, I am sorry I will not be here to assist 
in your deliberations, but it cannot be in better hands 
than your own. I will be very pleased to do what I 
can in support of the scheme in England. 
If your district meeting takes this matter up I 
would suggest printed circulars be sent out to each 
district, with the names of those who have already 
subscriber 1 printed on the list, so as to give a start 
to the scheme.— Yours truly, H. K. Rutherford. 
* . 
COCONUT AND CINNAMON PLANTING IN 
THE WESTERN PROVINCE, CEYLON. 
COCONUTS AND CINNAMON : SHOBT CROPS — AVERAGE LIFE 
OF COCONUT TREES — EFFECT ON THE COCONUT TREE 
OF TODDY- DRAWING — TAPPING V. FBUIT-YIELD1NG — IN- 
TERESTING ANALYSES. 
Siyane Korale. 
I very much fear that the drought in the year we are 
about to enter on will be a severe one. Except on lowly- 
ing flats on which coconut trees seem to benefit more 
than suffer during periods of rainlessness, crops of next 
year are likely to be short in numbers and in weight. 
From all I hear cinnamon crops too will be short 
everywhere this year. Not a very great calamity 
however, as the balance is likely to be restored in 
better prices for the spice. There are two marked 
periods during which the bushes grow, in July-August 
and in December-January. The bushes are then decked 
will all the glories of a leaf bud, ranging in color 
from a light rose pink to a crimson red : * this is the 
period of the greatest vegetable activity. This year 
like the last the principal bud in July- August was 
a comparative failure and the cinnamon bushes have 
in consequence made very little growth. 
In the interesting notices on the coconut palms 
occurring on the Bentota extension and in its neighbour- 
hood, you incidentally ask for reliable information 
on the average life of coconut trees. This it is 
not quite possible to obtain, I believe ; but was not 
the seacoast from Galle to Colomho planted with 
coconuts dnring the Dn'eh period ? In the review of 
agriculture in the " Directory and Handbook " for 
1878 it is said that Governor Vanlmh'ff in 1740 
''proposed surveying and distributing " the land bet- 
ween Kalatara and Colombo in limited blocks to 
" persons who are inclined to plant these with coco- 
nuts and to pay Government duties," so that the trees 
on this portion of the coast must be considerably over 
a century old even if allowance be made for a rea- 
sonable interval between Imhoif's proposal and its 
fulfilment. Simmonds says on the authority of the 
" Agricultural Gazette of India " that trees grow- 
ing in fertile soils will live for a century. The 
natives of Ceylon limit the age of the tree to the 
same period, I believe. Porter in his " Tropical 
Agriculturist " limits the age of the tree from 80 to 
85 years, but on what authority it is not stated. O.A.L. 
on "The Coconut Tree in the West Coast of India" 
says that a coconut tree on attaining the age of 70 
yearB is cut down for its wood, while if it is allowed 
to grow on it will live for a century; Marshall says 
that a coconut tree bears fruit till it is 60 years 
* In some cases the flush varies from purest white 
to ruby red, and no language can exaggerate the beauty 
of an expanse of cinnamon clothed in its spring or 
Bummer tints. — En. 
