July i, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
" In 1861, in my psmpblet on ' Cheap Cotton by 
Free Labor,' I made a forecast of the whole cotton 
aeet^ industry. 
What is row being done with palmira-stalks 
in Ceylon, might be quoted in favour of the ide** 
that cotton Btalks may yield valuable fibre. HaS 
the soja bean ever been t^-rown in Ceylon ? It Beem^ 
to be the richest in nitrogen of all the legums. 
NEWS FROM THE CENTRAL PROVINCE : 
PLANTING AND OTHERWISE. 
(Notes hi/ Wandirer.) 
June 6th. 
Tea Prices.— Gow, Wilson & Stanton's circular 
of the 19th May was anything but pleasant reading ; 
the average for the week hting 8^d, what sort of read 
or reading will thia circular be when we get the 
mail of the 2nd June, the average Jor that week 
being only 8d. Of the illustrious four estates men- 
tioned in that circular enly Ravenswood sent its 
tea in chests. Charley Valley tea was packed in 
boxes, and H enfold and Walaha in packages. The 
Bogawantalewa estates are certainly not to the 
front, but Glenalpine at lOd shows what Uva can 
do with good management and good machinery. 
Tea Chests are getting very scarce. If the West 
Coast of India or the new Galle Company can 
supply us with good chests, we shall be more in- 
dependent of Japan than at present. A cold-shiver 
passed through me the other day when told that 
.Japan might soon stop the present export of shooks 
for tea chests. 
Trade and Finance — indeed anything in which gold 
comes in — are bad at home. "London is panicky" were 
the words used by a London Correspondent by last 
mail. Australian Banks that have gone to the wall, 
will not be so easily reconstructed as some people 
imagine, and our Yankee Cousins are likely soon to 
have a bad time of it. 
June will likely be a good month for the harvesting 
of tea, for the weather is still mild, and the leaf comes 
in gaily. Planters who end their financial year on 
the 30th instant, will thnf be able to wind up with 
their estimates better realised than they some time ago 
anticipated. 
Cocoa. — The weather in Matale and Dumbara has 
been rather dry the last fortnight and the Cocoa is a 
little light in consequence Kurunegala has been 
favoured. 
COCAINE-MAKING IN PERU. 
May 18. 
In an ofiioial report on the trade of Callao (Peru), 
which has just been i^saefl, the name of one German 
firm (Bernard Fruosf) is given as the manufacturer of 
crude cocaine at ihat port. The leaves used in the 
preparation of the aitxle are those fiom the provin 'e 
tf Huanocc, aod the f sports of cociine during 1892 
amounted io 2,672 lb. (valni- 16,362;.) to London, 932 lb. 
(value 5,71U.) to Hamburg, and 2211b. (1,350^) to 
New York— a total ol 3 825 ib. worth 23,428;. We 
btl'evu that theie are at least three or four maunfac- 
lurors of cocaiue in Pi ru iu additii n to the firm named, 
tti.d that ihe export figures re'present their aggregate 
iMl^mt. — Chemist and Drugyist, May 20. 
THE AMSTERDAM MARKET. 
Amsiebdam, May 13. 
The oiuohona auolioos to be held here on June 1 
1893, will consist of 39cuBes and 5,695 hales, or about 
500 tone, of bark, divided as follows : — From tlif Gov- 
erumeut plantations, 11 oases and 346 bales (i'out 
32 tona) ; private plantations, 28 cases and 5,349 bales 
(about 46 tous.) This quantity contains of druggists' 
bark : Succinihra quille, 17 cafes ; broken quills and 
ch'ps, 282 bales 14 c ipex ; root 8 bakp. Olficinalis 
quills, 4 oases. Massharliana, 4 oaees. Of mftnufio- 
turing-bark : Ledgeriana broken quills and chips, 4,187 
ba'es ; root, 554 bales. Hybrid broken quills and chips 
551 balPB ; root 70 ba'es- 0 fficiiialis bvoken qoiUe and 
chips 33 bales; root 10 bales. — Chemist and Druggist, 
M»j 20. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE. 
In Priaman, on the West Coast of Sumatra, the 
cultivation of Liberian coffee has been taken in hand 
with labourers from Java, though there is a source 
of labour supply among the people of the land. As 
the law now stands, planters there cannot enter into 
labour contracts with them for work locally, though 
the natives can engage themselves for labour in other 
lands. The Governor-General's instructions direct 
him to lay no needless impediments in the way of 
useful enterprises in Netherlands India, yet the law 
countenances the absurdity of allowing planters on 
that coast to recruit labourers there to work in 
other countries, while refusing these planters the 
right to recruit them for labour on the spot. Planters 
in business there hence have to engage labourers 
from other parts of Netherlands India, and find it 
highly expensive. — Straits Times. 
THE GRASSE PERFUME INDUSTRY. 
Our information from Grasso is to the eBeot that the 
orat ge and rose flower harvests are at present in full 
swing. The farmers are able to obtsiii fairly satiiifao- 
tory prices for their flowers, 60c per kilo, being freely 
paid for orange flowers — a fact which is the more 
noteworthy as the demand for ecspntial oil of ncroli ia 
generally poor, many consumers having taken advan- 
tage of the extraordinarily low prices of laFt season to 
lay in a stock snffloitntly large to cover part of their 
wants for the present year. The violet industry, which 
hau expanded greatly in the Grasse district since the 
olive-tress, a few years ago began to show signs of 
exhaustion, is unfortunately menaced by a danger so 
grave as to threaten its destruction. About two years 
ago the violet plants at the moment of flowering were 
attacked, for the first time, by a blight which caused 
them t J lade and dio. The blight, it now appears, is 
caused by a minute, bright-red insect, which attacks the 
under-surface of the leaf and destroys the parenchyma. 
The icaect 6i.irea'!s with great rapidity, and the plague 
has taken enormous proportions this seas n. Watering 
with dilute infusion of tobacco (1 part by weight of 15 
per cent juice to 20parts of water) is recommended as 
a curp, but meanwhile the violet-growers are much 
perturbed by the visitation.— Chemist and Druggist. 
FROM THE HILLS. 
{By Old Colonist.) 
THE GRAND STAND — KANDT RACE COURSE — GETTINft 
abreast op THE TIMES ! 
June 6th, 1893. 
I write from this spot for reasons that may appear 
further on. It's the first time — as far as I can re- 
member that I ever entered a racecoiftse. It was 
only the other day I for the first time entered an 
opium den (I'm getting' on !) and as I escaped from 
Little Bourke St., a wiser and happier man, so here 
I leel that if all racecourses are like the Kandy race- 
course — the more the merrier for me 1 
In short, I'm a shareholder in this concern. Never 
you mind how infinitesimal my share may be. It ia 
enough to give me a right to be here, and I may 
as well explain at once, that " the Ceylon Land and 
Produce Company" have tat^en a long lease of the 
interior of the course (about 30 acres) and are planting 
it up with tea — planting it very well too. 
My chief object however, in climbing this monnd 
was to obtain a view of the surroundings. But before 
I proceed to speak of this — just allow me a moment 
to moralize on planting matters generally, and if 
my language smacks clumsily of the stables— recollect 
wheie 1 am, an^ that I am a novice. 
