May i, 1889.I THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Tea in Singapore. — Mr. A. Annamalai brings us 
a sample tin of Singapore grown tea from his 
plantation on the Bukit Timah Road, and the 
tea will be duly tried. It is intended to sell it 
in tins, retail, at a dollar a pound. — Straits Timet, 
1st April. 
The' Prospects of Coffee in respect of high 
prices in the markets of the world, probably never 
were so good as at the present time. Stocks are 
comparatively low, and Brazil can only show 
short crops while there is no other coffee country 
to make up the deficiency. 
Cinchona Baek Prospects.— While the anti- 
cipated increase in the supply of Java bark this year, 
is by no means formidable at 838,268 lb. (even if this 
averages 4 to 5 per cent sulphate of quinine) and 
while the Ceylon exports really seem at last to have 
received a check, — there is a new feature to be 
considered in the increasing supply from Contin- 
ental India. The planters of Southern India follow- 
ing those of Ceylon appear to have begun to cut 
down rather recklessly, and as a consequence, at 
recent London sales, Indian bark has been offered 
almost as freely as Ceylon. The consumption of 
quinine, however, is steadily on the increase and 
there is good reason to anticipate a better market 
for bark erelong 
Another Ceylon Tobacco Company. — Mr. 
Thomas Dickson made it plain by his letters in 
our columns, that tobacco growing in Ceylon was 
engaging the attention of home capitalists, and 
Messrs. Cumberbatch & Co., now afford us definite 
information on the subject. Our compilation 
" All about Tobacco" has evidently appeared in 
the nick of time, for one effect of the working of 
two strong Companies in our midst will undoubt- 
edly be to encourage careful garden cultivation — 
many planters and farmers who would not think 
of preparing and curing themselves, being ready to 
cultivate 5 to 20 or 30 acres with tobacco if they 
know that their crop is likely to be bought off 
their hands at a remunerative rate. It will be very 
satisfactory if the new enterprise brings life and 
activity into one or more of our almost deserted 
Colombo mill establishments. 
Dr. Talmage, the .popular American 
preacher, has been lecturing on " tea " in a way 
that ought to help the movement for an increased 
consumption in America. His utterances are quoted 
by the American Grocer which characteristically 
takes exception — see page 743 — to the reverend 
Doctor's depreciation of green and other similar 
teas. Now we maintain in the face of our con- 
temporary, that all the Japanese teas, to the amount 
of 45 millions lb., imported into America, are arti- 
ficially " faced." We have it on the authority of 
the largest American buyer with whom we travelled 
from 'Yokohama to San Francisco in 1884. The 
tea-drinking people of the United States, he said, 
will have their teas from Japan and largely from 
China, specially treated ; the treatment and sub- 
stances added (prussian blue, &c) being distinctly 
deleterious. Now in the case of Ceylon teas, their 
absolute purity and freedom from all artificial 
matter can be guaranteed. We shall take care 
that copies of this Observer reach both Dr. Talmage 
and the American Grocer. 
Cinchona in Java. — The Secretary of the 
Soekaboemi Agriculi ural Association, Java, sends us 
several copies of a sheet of " Statistics of the Java 
Cinchona Bark Crop " prepared by that Association. 
A list of 114 estates, with their managers, is given, 
the various UeBidencies being specified. Then oome 
the headings :— 1888 : estimated crop in kilograms, 
content of sulphate of quinine, sulphate of quinine 
in kilograms ; actual crop in kilograms, oontent of 
sulphate of quinine, and sulphate of quinine in 
kilograms. The estimates for 1889 follow in the 
same manner. Out of the 114 estates 32 sent no 
returns, some had been abandoned, others had 
not yet come into bearing, and one had replaced the 
cinchona with tea and another with coffee. The 
totals are as follows : — 
1888 crop. 1889 crop. 
Content Sulph. Estiina- Con- Sulph. 
of quin. ted crop tent quin. 
Actual sulph. in in kilos, of in 
crop in quin. kilos. sulph. kilos, 
kilos. .quin. 
per cent. per cent. 
Total.. 1,320,687 4-14 54,861 1,605,900 4'20 67,509 
Govt, cinchona en- 
terprise* 350,000 4 14,000 450,000 4 18,000 
Grand total ..1,676,687 4-11 68,861 2,055,900 4-16 85,509 
!;t The content of sulphate of quinine is here given approxi- 
mately, as the Association have received no reply from the 
Director of the Government cinchona enterprise to their re- 
quest for statistics. — Secretary. 
We shall be happy to send a copy of the circular 
to anyone wishing for it, — It will be observed that 
at 2,055,900 kilogrammes, the Java Cinchona Bark 
Crop for 1889 is estimated at 4,522,980 lb. or an 
increase of 83S.268 lb. on that of 1888. 
The So-called Coconut Disease. — We had a 
call yesterday from Messrs. W. H. Wright and 
Akbar — the well-known, enterprising estate proprie- 
tors, the former looking as hardy and well as if 
he were still coffee pioneering in Haputale, in place 
of coconut-planting in the lowcountry of Hapitigatn 
Korale. But Mr. Wright does nothing by halves . 
he takes care of himself, his family and his coolies, 
by building thoroughly comfortable well-ventilated 
quarters, and then he takes special care about the 
water supply. Half the fever and dysentery among 
coolies in the Kelani Valley, Mr. Wright considers, 
is due to bad water: "now I do not allow my 
men drink poisonous surface water : I have a good 
deep pucka cemented well for them and they keep as 
healthy as coolies in Colombo." We commend the 
plan to estate owners in the Kelani Valley.— Mr. 
Wright is as full of confidence as ever in his coco- 
nut plantations, and both he and Mr. Akbar simply 
pronounce the outcry in a certain quarter about 
a palm leaf disease never seen before as unmitigated 
"bosh"! Mr. Wright says, that fifteen years ago 
the late Mr. Wm. Ferguson showed him in Kollu- 
pitiya a big group of coconut palms with drooping 
dying leaves, the result of the work of a small fly, 
appearing after prolonged drought. Very frequently 
since he has seen patches and trees similarly affected 
for a time. In 1884, a year of drought, Mr. Akbar 
had a number of trees in one of his Negombo fields 
affected, but by fumigation and manuring he speedily 
brought them round. The Veyangoda district, these 
gentlemen affirm, has, as a rule, a hard dry soil, and 
palms there are peculiarly liable to suffer from 
drought; but there is nothing new nor serious in the 
whole business. Mr. Akbar's Irrigation works con- 
tinue to do splendid service, and the result in dry 
months such as have been experienced of late, is 
peculiarly satisfactory. The Mirigama distriot where 
Mr. Wright is located is the scene of greatly ex- 
tended and successful cultivation of late years 
and throughout the Korale (Hapitigam), there ia 
no appearance of any disease. Mr. Wright and 
other residents speak in high terms of the energy 
and public spirit of the Korale Mudaliyar (Dissa- 
nayake) whom we have long known as one of tha 
most intelligent as well as experienced headmen 
in Mr. Saunders' Province. There is no question 
of low-caste folk being oppressed in Hupitigam 
Korale: all are treated fairly in coming before 
Mudaliyar Dissanayake. Belonging to an old and 
renowned family and with a long roll of good s> rvice 
of his own, this gentleman may possibly be selected 
by a new Governor as successor to the Muha 
Mudaliyar when the time cornea for the latter 
to retire. 
