222 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1881. 
Since then the increase has been more rapid, the area 
under tea at the close of last year being estimated at 
close upon 9,300 acres. As in the case with Liberian 
coffee, the increase of tea cultivation does not imply 
a reduction of the. area under coffee, the soil and 
clima'e best suited for the one being more or less un- 
suitecl for the other. The rapid rise of this industry 
is seen from the exports for the past five years, as 
given in the Customs account- : — 
Year lb. value. 
1876 757 R 1,907 
1877 2,105 3,457 
1878 19,607^ 20,900 
1879 95,969 85,229 
1830 139,752 
This does not represent the whole annual out-turn, 
there being a large local consumption. The crop for 
the current season is estimated at about 50' 1,000 lb. 
The Ceylon planters are sanguine that they will be 
able to produce a finer tea than that of Northern India, 
and at a cheaper rate. In support of the latter con- 
sideration they adduce their superiority in the matter 
of cheap transport and labour, as well as in being 
nearer the commercial centre. As to quality, they 
appeal to their long list of awards at the Melbourne 
Exhibition, and to the comparative results of the 
analyses of Ceylon and Indian teas made by the Vic- 
torian Government analyst. Indian tea-planters need 
not grudge their southern brethren this consolation, 
considering the cold reception accorded to Ceylon teas 
in Mincing-lane. The colonists are more indignant 
than discouraged at their failure to conciliate the vested 
interests of the London brokers, upon whom they 
are at present inclined to turn their backs altogether, 
looking to Australia as the market for their teas. 
A still younger industry than tea is cocoa, 
which gives promise of being a valuable addi- 
tion to the vegetable products of Ceylon. Demand- 
ing a lower elevation and more sunshino it can be 
gio vn in situations where the Arabian coffee cannot., 
It is grown successfully in districts as widely apart 
as the Central Province, Galle on the South- West 
and Triucomallee to the North-East; a fact which 
indicates the suitability of Ceylon for the plant. On 
many estates where climate and soil are suitable, cacaos 
arc planted between the rows of coffee trees. This 
makes it difficult to judge precisely what progress has 
been made in extending their cultivation. At the end 
of 1877 only 500 acres were planted. At the end of 
last ye~r this had increased to about 5,400 acres. Little 
has yet been exported, the demand for seed having nearly 
exhausted the indigenous supply. Ten cwt. were ex- 
ported in 1878, 42 in 1879, and 121 in 1880 In the 
matter of spices, with which Bishop Heber's hymn 
has associated the name of Ceylon in the minds of 
the Sunday school-going youth at home, the island 
scarcely keeps up its reputation. It is estimated that ' 
about 30,000 acres are cultivated with cinnamon, 
but the area is hardly at all extending. It shews the 
fluctuations that occur within a short period in 
certain articles of produce, that though ibere are at 
the present moment prosperous coffee planters in the 
irdand who made their first step on the road to 
fortu le throu ;h remunerative investments in cinnamon, 
its cultivation does not at present yield a profit 
sufficient to attract capital. Cardamoms have of late 
been profitably cultivated, but the area covered by 
them is not great, though increasing. 
of all the newer products now bein g:ultivated 
in Ceylon it is to cinchona that the planter most 
looks for the re-adjustment of the financial equili- 
brium so grievously disturbed of late years. It ' is 
hardly possible to obtain anything like accurate 
information as to the extent' of this cultivation. 
There ar ; considerable patches in different parts 
of the country devoted to cinchona alone; 
but almost all estates, especially the older | 
ones, have trees planted along road-sides or in the 
midst of the coffee. In soma instances, cinchonas are 
plauted only in places where the coffee trees have died 
out, but iu other estate ;, almost the whole acreage has 
been planted with them in regular rows between the 
lines of coffee. Some of the species are grown at 
lower elevations than ha?e usually been considered 
suitable. Thus they are said to grow in the Yatiyan- 
tota district on the western slope, at 500 feet ; and 
at Kalutara, about 30 miles south of Colombo, nearly 
at the sea level. The number of cinchona plants 
growing in Ceylon at the beginning of this year is 
estimated in Ferguson's Handbook at from 50,000 000 
to IOO.OOOjOOO. C. succirubra is the most numerous, 
being reckoned at more than one half. Tne remainder 
consists of c. officinalis, and c. calisaya, with such 
varieties as c. ledyeriana and c. pubescent. Of course, 
the majority of these are very young, say, not more 
than three years of age ; the cultivation not having 
increased at a very rapid rate till about 1877, when 
the depression in coffee forced planters to look about 
them for something to take its place. It will con- 
sequently take some five or six years before there 
will be any marked increase in the export of bark. 
By that time a serious fall in price may ha open ; 
and in any case, it can hardly be expected that prices 
will continue to maintain their ;present level after 
Ceylon, in common with other parts of the world, 
has begun to pour a largely increased supply into 
the home markets. But the Ceylon planters do not 
despair of a profit on the cultivation, even should prices 
fall to one-half or one-fourth of their present rates. 
The following is the official Customs' returns of the 
export of cinchona bark for the past eleven years : — 
Value E. 
1869... 28 oz. 50 
1871... 80 packages 313 
1872... 11,547 lb. & 694 pkgs. 64,102 
1873... 44,836 ,, 32,667 
1874... 40,354 „ 25,277 
1875... 19,152,, 17.963 
1876... 14,932,, & 1 pkg. 14^20 
1877... 72,127 ,, & 1 ,, 88,738 
1878... 186,797,, 1,71,292 
1879... 507,368,, 5,19,086 
1380.. 1,161,939,, (say) 12,00,000 
It is not expected that the rate of progress indicated 
by the figures of the past two years -will be kept up 
during the next three or four years, as the hard times 
recently experienced led many planters to cut or bark 
their trees prematurely. 
THE CULTIVATION OF CINCHONA 
CALISAYA. 
The following paper from one of the June num- 
bers of the Journal of the Society of Arts is of value 
as shewing the idea entertained of the best mode 
of cultivating the richest of the cinchonas in. their 
native habitat. We must be prepared to find the 
cultivation succeed in some parts of the Southern 
"United States". 
Cinchona in the United States. 
Consul General Adams of La Paz, Bolivia, states 
that he has no doubt but that the cinchona may be cul- 
tivated in some parts of the United States, where the 
soil and climate are favourable to its cultuture. After a 
full investigation into the cultivation of the Cinchona 
calisaya iu Bolivi>, he gives the following information 
to those wishing to make the experiment of growing 
the tree in the United States, which is taken from the 
Oil and Drug Neivs :— "The seed is sown broadcast 
upon a hot-bed, such as gardeners prepare in the spring 
