634 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1889. 
moaning " the good old times." When leaving for 
London, the reverend Doctor ventured at last to 
tackle his elder insisting on knowing wherein the 
difference lay : " Weel, " was the reply, "the 
Gaelic preaching is no what it was, and the 
whuskie is no what it was ! " And so if it comes 
to the degradation of lantana and ageratum, we 
do not feel that there is much cause for grief ! 
* _- 
NEW PRODUCTS. 
(From the Annual Report of the Badulla Planters' 
Association, held 13th Feb. 1889.) 
Coffee. — Crops of coffee on moBt estates during 
the past year have been very short, and your Com- 
mittee are not hopeful of the future of this pro- 
duct. The green scale bug continues i^s ravages, 
and some of the poor coffee has succumbed to its re- 
peated attacks. 
Cinchona.— This product unlike coffee is suffering 
from excess of crop throughout the island, the latter 
causing a glut of bark in the home market and a con- 
sequent depression in prices. Your Committee are 
firmly convinced that the stocks of bark iu the coun- 
try generally are being rapidly exhausted, and even in 
the Uva districts the output of bark is decreasing 
year by year. Your Committee are therefore hopeful 
that exports of this product will very soon show more 
moderate dimensions and that a reaction in prices will 
occur. Your Committee would strongly urge upon all 
the advantage of curtailing the harvesting of bark as 
far as possible, until the home markets are in a more 
healthy state. 
Tea. — Another year's valuable experience has been 
gained in the cultivation of this product which now 
occupies so large and rapidly increasing a proportion of 
our acres, and we are now in a position to lay before 
you ideas which are the outcome of a more matured 
experience and a wider range of observation, that your 
Committee had the opportunity oF bringing to bear 
upon the Bubject, when called opon to frame their last 
reports. A more severely trying season than tbat which 
comprised the twelve months ending 30th June last, 
there is not on record ; for out of a total rainfall of 120 
inches registered in some parts of the district repre- 
sented by your Association, more than half that 
quantity appears against December. Were such seasons 
the rule, instead of the exception, the cultivation of tea 
would by no means form a tempting investment for 
capital ; but fortunately we have before us a long re- 
cord of seasons which will bear the strictest scrutiny 
and whose analysis will work out a vote in favor of ten 
in Uva, wherever the other conditions of soil &c. are 
suitable. Notwithstanding the unfavorable season, 
your Committee are happy in being able to report 
that tea has successfully passed this most severe of 
ordeals, in a manner which is alike surprizing and 
gratifying, furnishing evidence that Uva is likely at 
no distant date, to occupy that pre-eminence with 
regard to tea which she has held with coffee in the 
past. Your Committee has further the pleasure to 
report that the only prejudicial effect of the unfavor- 
able season, so far as we are able to judge, was that 
a shorter crop was realized than would otherwise have 
been the case, but this may be by no means an un- 
qualified evil, for it is highly probable that the strength 
of the young bushes was very materially conserved, 
and that they will yield compensatory results later 
od. Indeed this would seem to be the case, judging 
by the manner in which pruned and unpruned teas 
are now flushing. Some very large estimates of made 
tr>a for the current year give every promise of being 
lully realized. 
A great amount of useful knowledge with regard 
to the field and factory treatment of tea has 
been gained < ml is being disseminated in 
tbat characteristically generous spirit for which the 
Ceylon planter has bo justly earned a title. Of tho 
quality of oar produce little needs to be said. The 
London reports testify to our being able to produoe 
teas »ocond to none in the market. 
Altogether your Committee congratulate yon on 
the success of tea, and think they are fully justified 
in predicting that this cultivation will restore a 
measure of prosperity to Uva, surpassing even that 
which she enjoyed in the best days of the coffee 
industry. 
Cacao. — It is satisfactory to note that the appear- 
ance of this product continue healthy, and that the 
teas have been entirely free from lielopeltis and 
other pests. The crop gathered has fallen short of 
that of the preceding year, due mainly to the ab- 
normal season and the continuous drought of January, 
February and March, but the Deoember blossoms 
have set successfully and a fair crop is confidently 
looked for on all estates. 
Cardamoms have generally given fair returns. 
The high prices ruling during the year have induced 
cultivators to increase their average. 
LOQUATS AND PEPPER. 
A Matale East planter writes:— "By the way, 
the senior (in ' Notes from Henaratgoda ') is 
mistaken about loquats. In Ceylon, at an elevation 
of about 3,000, they bear splendidly, but fail below 
1,500. [In Dimbula, the late Mr. Heelis got a 
fine crop once at 4,600 feet above the sea, but 
that was a rare exception, — a crop once in seven years 
being about the rule with him. — En. T. A.} As re- 
gards pepper, I once had a rock most magnificently 
covered with a fine bearing vine, but the dry 
season two years ago quite killed it out, while 
those on trees escaped. There is nothing like a 
dead tree for pepper to secure vigorous growth and 
crop ; but, of course, it does not last. Growing on 
the ground without support I found the vines had 
a reluctance to bear. " 
DANGER OF THE HIDE TRADE OF INDIA I 
(AND CEYLON?) BEING RUINED. 
(Madras Official Paver.) 
Read— the following letter from Messrs. W. J. f 
Eales and Co., to the Chief Secretary to Government. 
We have the houor to report, for information of 
His Excellency the Governor in Council, that it ha§ 
recently come to our knowledge that many tanners, 
both of skins as well as hides, have resorted to the 
means of weighting their produce by the artificial 
employment of sugar and of jaggery. As you fully 
know the leather trade is one of the main industries, 
and certainly the chief staple exports of this Pre- 
sidency, and it is with a view of endeavouring to prevent 
its ruination (which will in all probability happen should 
this sugar process continue), that we venture to address 
Government. 
We do not for a moment imagine that it is com- 
petent for Government to legislate as to how a 
man should prepare or tan his raw produce, but see- 
ing how much actually depends upon a stiaighfor- 
ward use of those customary materials only neces- 
sary for tanning, we would respectfully submit that 
His Excellency in Council might cause some vxpres- 
sion of dissatisfaction to be communicated to the 
various mofussil tanners through the Collectors of 
the different districts. The districts in which we 
have and still find sugar being used to a very 
large extent are the North and South Arcot districts, 
but we have also noticed lhat it is being commeccod 
in Bangalore. For the information of Government 
we annex two certificates from the Chemical Examiner 
— that marked A is an analysis of a skin from the Ambur 
or North Arcot district, and B, from a skin tanned in 
Baugalore. We nave no doubt tbat many other tanners 
in Trichinopoly, Dindigul, Madura, Salem or other dis- 
tricts are also using the like, as we received by last mail 
information from one of the largest German manu- I 
facturers that a parcel of Salem skins received con- j 
tained on analysis 20'25 per cent of oil and sugar, | 
