598 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1882. 
charges &c. ia effected by the latter. The plan they 
were formerly obliged to follow in buying in the 
London market did not give them a chance to com- 
pete with the English manufaturer, and the result ia 
a reduction in the price of quinine, and profit of the 
English maker without a fully corresponding reduction 
bark in the value of bark. 
It is not, perhaps, generally known that, when Messrs. 
Howard & Sons enter into contracts to deliver 
quinine at a certain rate, they reduce the rate at 
time of delivery, if in the meantime the market has 
favored them, but should the market have gone against 
them, they promptly deliver at the contract rate. 
It is evident that such a magnanimous system of 
business could only be carried out where profits were 
very large, and this again accounts for the price of 
bark not falling proportionately with quinine. 
It is evident that low prices mean increased 
consumption, which will not only be a remedy to 
their cause, but, by making the present manufac- 
turer increase and improve his plant to meet 
the rrldiiional business, and by bringing new makers 
into the field, it will tend to reduce the cost of 
manufacture and increase competition to the manifest 
advantage of the raw material. 
At first sight, it would appear that all cinchona pro- 
perty is reduced in value relatively with the fall in 
value of bark, but it must be borne in mind that this 
fall was anticipated, and has been calculated for in valua- 
tions and estimates made in connection with plantations 
and we euppose in no valuation has the full late 
market value been calculated upon. Taking this view 
of the case, cinchona planters have rather to rejoice 
at the expected fall having come in time to increase 
consumption and improve the general stability of the 
market, before the vast bulk of the Ceylon bark is 
ready to be placed upon it. Our aim should be the 
cultivation of barks containing upwards of 2 percent 
of quinine i.e. officinalis and calieaya as theee will suf- 
fer least from low prices. With succirubra we should 
recommend renewing under moss &c, to raise the 
percentage of quinine. 
"FROM ADAM'S PEAK TO MINNESOTA." 
Extracts from the letter of an ex -planter to a friend 
in Ceylon : — 
Heron Lake, Jackson County, Minnesota, U.S.A., 
September 27th. 
I was awfully glad to receive the Observer, which 
I knew came from you by the well-known hand- 
writing. I thought of sending the copy of the Observer 
to our local paper anonymously, but do not dare, as they 
would recognize it. They had an article a short time 
ago against me for writing against their roads which we 
have^to put in a day's work at, with a team, as poll- 
tax. Their method is rotten and you just " hitch up " 
and plough a burrow anywhere it suits you best, and 
nobody thinks of doing anything. I wrote and 
told them I should work my tax out on such a day 
and proposed bringing a pack of cards with me 
and requested the pleasure of all true lovers of euchre 
to join mo, as it was so horribly dull h iving to pass 
all day there doing nothing. They termed the whole 
letter as "unfriendly, maliciously satirical and a 
production of trenchant wit," much to my own amuse- 
ment. Since writing to you I have cut & Co.'s 
establishment and taken a section of land (640 acres) 
about \ mile out of town, with 230 in grain, a nice 
house, barn, and granary ; the wheat, of which I had 
75 acres, was as usual a signal failure, on account of 
wet weather. My flax, however, of which there is about 
120 acres, paid me well, and I was luckier than my 
neighbours with regard to my oats, and notwithstand- 
ing rain for five months, almost without intermission, 
I shall get 10 per cent on the capital invested, and ex- 
perience that grain-raising .'done in this locality i* 
not so paying as "mixed firming." I have been 
joined by a very nice fellow from home, and we intend 
buying sheep extensively, and also raising stock, colts, 
and hogs. A business which pays hand over fist here 
is hay pressing. A machine cobts about i,'300, you buy 
hay (prairie grass) for $2 per ton, press it, and ship to 
St. Paul's, Minneapolis and Chicago, and make a 
clear profit of from $575 to $6 per ton. This line is 
at present monopolized by an American in this 
village, who has mortgages on pretty well every- 
thing belonging to the small farmers, and so has 
the whip-hand, but I am feeling my way around, and, 
as the country gets settled up with Englishmen, I 
shall probably go in for it myself. Upland grass 
averages from 1£ to 2 tuns per acre, while bottom 
bmd hay varies from 3| to 5. With hired labor it costs 
about SO cents to 85 cents to put up. Sheep cost 
about $2 in the fall (auiumn). They live on hay and 
in winter on £ pint of Indian corn per day. You 
then have the clips of 6 lb. p»r head at 25 c. per lb. and 
sell as fattened stock for $S5'50 and may allow 75 per 
cent of lambs. I think you will allow that this is a 
pretty paying investment. The tip for stock is to buy 
calves (six months old) in fall for $5, keep them through 
the winter and spring, and in summer you get $15 
as fattened cattle. Hog-raising is a very paying spec- 
ulation, but I have no reliable estimate to quote. I should 
advise fellows with £1,000 or so, to buy half section, 
put in enough corn and oats for sheep and horses, 10 
acres wheat for home consumption, and the rest of 
their funds into sheep, which give a quicker return 
than cattle, for which you must wait till you can get 
them into a favourable market, whereas the sheep 
give you an income from their clip?, and you can also 
afford to wait until you think proper to sell. Raising 
colts requires great experience, and I only do it in 
the smallest way, such as having eight mares instead 
of horses, which are requisite for cultivation. Down 
south in Kansas, there is a lot of money to be made 
in stock, but you have to live in a "dugout" (a 
hole in a river bank), and are sure to die of fever, 
bo I prefer making a little less in these healthy and 
more civilized parts. 
I often think of the old days in Ceylon, and have 
a heap of your old letters with me, which I ofien 
look over, and pick up some good tips in buddings. 
I have had a lot of shooting lately. Duck, geese, 
prairie chickens (partridge) and snipe swarm, and you 
can feed yourself from them, but one gets to hate 
the sight of a bird, especially as cooking is not their 
forte in this land, the great object apparently being 
to cook the meal in ten minutes and to eat in five. 
THE LANKA (CEYLON) COFFEE COMPANY. 
We have been favoured with the Report and 
Balance-sheet of this Company for the half-year end- 
ing 30th June lust, and we think the perusal of these 
documents is calculated to re-assure a good many 
who are inclined to criticise rather harshly the local 
planting enterprise. If it had not been for the ex- 
penses incidental to the starting of a new enterprise, 
the profit available for division would have been a 
good deal larger than it is, for we observe that the 
gross grain on the three estates Rappahanock, Am- 
pitiyakande andArnhall amounts to£10,255,theproperties 
having cost £67,500, a sufficient proof surely to any 
unprejudiced mind, that coffee can still be profitably 
cultivated in Ceylon. We think the Report and Balance- 
sheet give a clear statement of the actual position, 
