April i, 1889.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
THE BITTERNESS OP COMPETITION. 
We do not pretend to feel any surprise that 
those whose interests have become affected by the 
active measures taken to push the consumption of 
Ceylon tea feel 3ore at the success which those 
measures have achieved. It is, however, going 
beyond what is legitimate criticism when, in the 
endeavour to check that success, the growers of 
Indian and importers of China tea apply terms of 
disparagement to that of Ceylon. Only very recently 
our London correspondent stated that in a 
conversation had by him with Sir Alfred Dent, that 
gentleman, who is one of the chief traders in the 
productions of China, stated his view that a taste 
for Ceylon tea, as compared with one for that in 
which he is himself interested, must be vitiated. 
Now, we have in our London Letter by this mail 
the opinions expressed by a gentleman largely in- 
terested in the growth and marketing of Indian tea. 
According to this authority, not only is Ceylon 
tea far inferior to the growths of Darjeeling and 
Assam, but there is no guarantee for the perma- 
nence of its production. In his view, apparently, 
every cultivation undertaken in Ceylon is destined 
to comparative extinction after a certain cycle of 
years. He specially instanced to our correspondent 
in support of that view the cases of coffee, cinchona, 
cinnamon and nutmegs. We have scarcely 
ever seen a weaker argument put forward than 
this employed by a gentleman who, we are 
assured, holds a high status in connexion with 
one of the largest tea-growing concerns of India. 
According to him no cultivation of any kind 
undertaken in Ceyl°n is assured of permanence. It 
is comforting no doubt, to our rivals to be able 
to lay this " flattering unction to their souls," 
but let us just see upon what sort of basis such 
an assurance rests. 
Taking the first instance named, that of coffee, 
we would ask whether the failure that has occurred 
has been confined to Ceylon ? Has it not spread 
throughout, in a greater or lesser degree, every 
coffee-producing country of the Eastern tropics ? 
And has it not been experienced with a severity 
almost if not quite equal in intensity to that felt 
by ourselves, in the very country, India, with which 
Ceylon has been compared to the disparaging of 
the latter ? In this instanoe, therefore, the ground 
of objection taken cannot be of true application. 
Then as to cinchona, it is true that our exports 
have diminished, but this has been due solely to 
the fact that it has not paid our planters to prepare 
their full yields of bark for export. One critic 
assertB, apparently of the whole cultivation in this 
island of cinchona, that after a certain growth 
the roots of the trees reach unsuitable soil, and that 
this has produced a canker fatal to the tree. While 
we may admit that in the early days of cinchona 
planting many sites may have received adoption for 
its growth which have proved to be unsuitable, and 
that this may have led to a proportion of dis- 
eased trees, those who know the circumstances are 
fully able to deny the wholesale conclusions adopted 
by this Indian pessimist. It is quite certain that, 
were the price of quinine to rise tomorrow to 
a paying level, it would not be long before our 
planters could furnish a full refutation of the 
allegation made against this particular form of 
our cultivation. Strong, however, as our oase is 
in relation to the two foregoing products, it is 
even stronger as regards the remaining two which 
were cited to our correspondent, viz. cinnamon 
and nutmegs. We must say it argues either a 
very prejudiced prepossession, or a very remark- 
able degree of ignorance, on the part of anyone 
who may state that the cultivation of cinnamon 
has died out in Ceylon owing to unsuitability of 
88 
the soil to longer maintain it. As fine cinnamon 
can be and is grown now in Ceylon as was ever 
exported from it, the cause of the falling off 
in production has been the enormous yield ob- 
tained in our own and other eastern countries, which 
has caused prices to fall to an extent which 
has removed inducement to continue the plant- 
ing of cinnamon to any large extent. The 
growth of nutmegs, as of many other spices, 
has also fallen into desuetude here from a similar 
cause, the strength of outside competition ; though 
we fully believe that the tide in this respect has 
so far turned that the growth of many descriptions 
of spice plants— especially that of the nutmeg — 
might be again undertaken to advantage among 
us. It is simply shooting very wide of the mark 
to assume that several of our past industries have 
failed owing to natural disqualifications rather than 
from economic causes. 
We make every allowance, of oourse, for the 
very natural dislike in certain quarters to see 
Ceylon coming in first in the race. When the 
winner of a race nears the post, we may be 
certain those who ride horses making a bad second 
and third will have no amiable feelings towards 
their more advanced rival. Such feelings, how- 
ever, should not cause them to attempt to " put 
the saddle on the wrong horse." We may be 
quite certain of this, that if Ceylon tea were not 
what it is represented to be, no amount of ad- 
vertisement would insure its winning the race 
any more than any amount of punishment will 
make a bad horse reach the goal first. Of course, 
we can recognize that these sweeping disparagements 
of our local industries must have in some degree 
an ill-effect. The fact that they are circulated 
should stimulate our making every endeavour to 
prove their falsity ; and if all of them are based 
on such fallacious grounds as those we have above 
dealt with, we may be sure that this ill-effect 
cannot but prove to be transient. 
♦ 
COTTON CULTIVATION. 
Me. F. H. Pf.ice, Assistant Government Agent, 
Kegalla, to the Hon. W. W. Mitchell, m. n. c. 
Kegalla Kachcheri, 28th Feb. 1889. 
Sir, — I have the honor to annex for your informa- 
tion a copy of rules for cotton cultivation in the dis- 
trict of Kegalla which I propose to print and distri- 
bute among the villagers. 
2. I drew up these rules after a visit to Jacktree 
Hill with Mr. Blackett, who agrees with their tenor. 
3. It would be well, I think, if the promoters of 
the cotton industry would collect information from 
everybody in Ceylon who possesses either practical 
experience, or is able to speak with authority on the 
subject, with the view of publishing a pamphlet of 
instructions in as simple a form as possible in English 
and the vernacular languages. 
4. Some of the results obtained by Mr. Blackett 
and myself are noted below for your information. 
(1) The uncleaned cotton of 612 pods (American 
variety) weighed 3 lb. 8 oz. It was then separated 
from the seed: the weight of the seed was 21b. 12 oz. 
while the weight of the cotton was 12 oz : therefore 
(deducting 12 pods for wastage) 50 pods produce 1 oz. 
clean cotton. 
(2) 4,433 seeds (American variety) weighed 1 lb. 
(one acre planted 3 ft. x 4 ft. two seeds in each place 
requires 7,200 seeds) therefore two pounds seed are 
sufficient to plant one acre. 
(3) The largest number of pods counted on one tree 
was 130. The largest number of pods counted on two 
trees planted in one hole wns 123 x 104= 232. 
(4) Mr. Blackett and I consider 30 pods to a be very 
low and sate estimate of the average produce of each 
tree. Assuming that on one acre planted 3x4, two 
seeds in each hole, only one out of every two seeds 
grows. We have 3,600 plains x 30 pod8=108,000 
pods— 2,160 oz.=135 lb olean cotton. 
