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THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
Messrs. James Cook & Co. The actual 
An usfc 31 
ugus 
in each year are as follows 
Tons. 
• 
lon9. 
1881 
175,000 
1883 ... 
1UU, 0/1 
1880 
... 147,266 
1872 ... 
90,935 
1879 
... 133,218 
1871 ... 
132,786 
1878 
... 116,259 
1870 ... 
129,182 
1877 
... 122,572 
1869 ... 
139,944 
1876 
... 114,377 
1868 ... 
142,677 
1875 
... 114,253 
1867 ... 
102,693 
1874 
... 110,685 
These stocks include the amount in warehouse in 
the whole of France, Holland and England, and 
the ports of Hamburg, Antwerp, Trieste, Genoa, and 
Bremen, and in the six principal ports of the United 
States. The stock held in France has increased very 
considerably of late. In 1879 it ranged from 30,000 
to 45,000 tons; in 1880, from 36,000 to over 47,000 
tons; but this year the stock, which at Dec. 31 last 
was 41,000 tons, has accumulated, and at present 
is about 73,000 tons. This is mainly due to the action 
of French speculators, who bought largely in the spring, 
notwithstanding the stock being equal to about nine 
months' consumption, irrespective of exports. 
The effect of the lower values received for their 
produce sent home by the Coffee Companies is seen 
in the reductions of dividends paid by three joint stock 
Companies below. The dividends paid are much below 
those of four or five years ago : — 
Company. 1880 1879 1878 1877 1876 1875 
Hunasgeria (Ltd. ) nil nil 5 5£ 5£ 7 
Moyar (Ltd) 2\ 2£ nil 4 5 12 
Ouvah(Ltd) 8 8 3 12 12 15 
—South of India Observer. 
CINCHONA. AND TEA. 
Lindula, 19th Jan. 1882. 
The fall in the minimum temperature to 51°, as 
noted yesterday morning, betokened rain, and during 
the day masses of vapour gathered and slight drizzle 
fell, resulting in '16 of an inch as gauged. During 
the night ihe conditions favourable to rain increased, 
and this morning we found that the figures for maxim- 
um temperature had gone down from 74° to 72°, 
while the minimum had risen from 51° to 54°. The 
morning rose close, misty and drizzly, and we had a 
few showers of most grateful and welcome rain. They 
have freshened up the face of nature wonderfully, and 
there is a decided promise of the continuance of this 
weather. " The January rains," occurring in the 
latter portion of the month, are indeed a reg- 
ular institution and relied npon by many 
for planting out cinchonas, gums, &c. It will require 
a week yet to decide whether the experiment can be 
safely tried. Of the beneficial effect of the rain on 
tea bushes and their flushes and on tea seed put into 
beds, there can be no doubt. We are now, at length, 
after a lapse of five to six years from the sowing of 
best hybrid Assam plants, obtaining a plentiful harvest 
of seed. While the best quality is thus slow of seed- 
ing, the difficulty is to prevent the inferior kinds 
from blossoming and bearing seed in their infancy. 
I suppose others, besides myself, were unfortunate 
enough to be supplied, in the early da>s of the en- 
terprise, with seed from Hakgala of a variety which 
throws all its energies into fruit, and which would be 
valuable were tea seed desiderated as food for cattle 
(the coolies eat them), or were tea Reed oil an article 
of commerce. We saw the effect of low elevation 
(1,500 feet) and hot [dry climate with a stimulating 
soil in Java, where Assam hybrids, grown with con- 
siderable difficulty, wore bearing seed at 3£ years old. 
We have found by experience that the best sites for 
tea nurseries are ilats or awamps, where moisture for 
the seeds and plants rises by capillary attraction 
through the soil of beds which are well raised, and 
over which is spread a coating of the ashes of burnt 
timber, weeds and earth. The careful shading origin- 
ally resorted to has long been entirely abandoned, 
the discovery having been made that tea, instead of 
being a tender plant, is one of the most robust and 
tenacious of life we can grow, — provided it is not 
poisoned by the symplochos. 
P.S. — 3 p.m. Raining steadily. 
CEYLON PRODUCTS. 
(To the Editor of the London and China Express.) 
Sir, — In your issue of the 21st Oct. last you were 
good enough to insert a short article under the above 
heading, with a view to induce Government to assist the 
planting enterprize in our island, by sending us scientists 
to discover the cause of certain so-called failures in the 
cultivation of various products. The article was writ- 
ten in a kindly spirit, for the benefit of our planting 
community, and, indeed, of all interested in Ceylon, and 
we must give you thanks for taking up the cudgels on 
our side ; but it is unfortunately very misleading, and 
calculated to make would-be investors hesitate before 
embarking in any new enterprize in Ceylon, and I vent- 
ure to hope you will give space to the following remarks, 
and allow me to contradict your statement, " that little 
success has attended the cultivation of our new products 
in Ceylon. " It is no secret that the ravages of leaf-disease 
(hemileia vastatrix) and other causes have injured the 
enterprize in coffee arabica, and planters have been turn- 
ing their attention to other products, but you will find 
that all those that have been started long enough for 
us to judge of their results have been successful in a 
very remarkable degree, and that there is nothing to 
lead us to fear that others will not not prove equally 
successful. 
Whilst the old ent rprize in coffee arabica is under 
a cloud it is of importance that capital should be at- 
tracted to the island, ar.d I believe there are no better 
openings for capitalists in the world than they can 
now meet with here. Even planters of long experience 
who have pinned their faith to coffee arabica for the 
last twenty or thirty years will tell you that the pro- 
spects now offered by new products are far better than 
any that the most sanguine could at any time expect 
from coffee arabica. I need not tell you that cinchona 
(perhaps the oldest of the new products) is succeed- 
ing very well in the more elevated districts, but will 
pass on to • 
Liberian Coffee. — Several estates have come into bear- 
ing, and I am told that on one estate the estimated 
crop this season is 24 cwt. per acre, of which 11 cwt. 
have already been picked. This is a lowcountry pro- 
duct, and it is doubtful whether it will ripen its crop 
properly at an elevation over 1,500 feet. No doubt 
those who have tried it at. a higher elevation may 
have discovered this, and have, therefore, condemned 
it as a failure, but if you could interview the owners 
of Putupaula Estate (Kalutara), and one or two others 
I could name, you would soon lose any fears you may 
entertain regarding the success of this cultivatipn, and 
the recent sales in London and New York point to a 
ready market at top prices. 
Cardamoms are doing well wherever they have been 
tried, and on one estate, in a very unfavourable dis- 
trict for coffee, indeed on which the coffee (arabica) 
has been abandoned, they are now yielding very large 
profits. 
Pepper and Nutmegs promise almost fabulous returns. 
The managing director of our Company has recently 
made a visit to the Straits, for the sole purpose ot 
inquiring into the cultivation of these two products, 
and expresses it as his opinion that they will yield 
very large profits, as they are there doing. 
