August i, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
103 
Cacao Cultivation in Assam. — We have an 
inquiry irom a Calcutta firm about informaticn 
respeoiing cacao, and they mentioa that an ex- 
ptrimentftl plot is to be xried on an Assam tea 
estate. We ehall watch the rettult of the experiment 
with the greatest possible interest. 
Tha and Coconut Palm Industries in 
Cetlon. — The following extract is from the 
" Jaffna Catholio Guardian " and the comparison 
instituted is worthy of attention : — 
The vast; majority of the labourers on the Tea 
E'kBtes are immigrants from India, while those in the 
Cocount plaiitatioLB are almost exclu-ively natives of 
Ceylon. Acourdie retu nsare gif en fi ona yec.r to year 
cf the I) dian imroi/irants who mutter about 250 
tliousand- Of the natives w ho ate engaged in Coconut 
plautiLg, it 18 uitlioul'.iu th- absence of returns pre- 
pared oliioially or otherwise, to give auytbing like a 
correct estimate, but their number must be consider- 
able. Besides those -who are emplojed in planting, 
fencing, watering, ruauuring, picking nuts, converting 
them into copptrah, and other operttione, there are 
a great manj persons who tind a living by the pursuit 
of one or other of the various indnstries connected 
wi! h the palm, euoh as the drawing of toddy, the making 
of jaggery, the distilling of arriick, the expressing of 
oil, the making of cadj ms and the mauutboture of 
coir and ci rdage. According to thp Census of 1891, the 
number of Arrack Distillers was 1,009, of Arrack renters 
and Tavern keepers 2,407, ot Toildy drawers 11,907, 
of Jaggery manafaotuiers tnd dealers 2,494, ot Cadjan 
Makers, 1,368, of 0.1 Millers and Moogera 6,903, and 
ot (Joconut driers and Coppertih sellors 6,646. Of the 
indattnes to which the coconut has given rise, the 
one that tnppoita or employs the largest number of 
persons is lhat ot coir-uiaking', of which Mr. Lee baa 
given the following account : — 
" In point of numbers, the Industrial Class comes 
next to the Agricultural, containing 485,766 persons or 
about one-siitth of the wbole populaiion. Of these, 
64,815 persons, of whim 89 per cent are Sinhalese 
and 77 per cent females, belonging, three-fourths of 
th m, to tbe Galleaud Matara districts, are engaged 
in making and selling coir, the fibre of the husk co- 
veting the coconut. The beating out of the fibre from 
the husk, which is tte first process after the steeping 
of the husk in wiiter, ia the work of the women, vrho, 
sitiiiig half nude by the side of the water-holea, ttrike 
tbe husk with a short cudgel upon a stone until the fibi e 
i-i reparated. A woman wurkiog nil day makes from 
10 to 12 cents at this labour. The next process, 
which a so employs women and girl', is the winding of 
tbe fibre into thin rojie. This is done in front of the 
houses and there 18 hardly a house on the sixty miles 
of road between the Bentota and Matara rivers which 
hiis not Its little heap of golden coir-fibre and yellow 
rope. MiddleiJ eu collect tlie rope thus made for the 
meicbantfl, by whom it is sorted, twisted and exported." 
That tuo adVHntages indirectly conlerred on the 
island by tea cultivation are incomparably great, we 
are piepateJ to admit; but from the lew lacts and 
figures given above, one feels juatitied in thinking that 
the coconut is of far more service to the p^or inhabi- 
tants of tbeisland generally than the tea eutetpriae, iu 
keeping the wolf from the door. 
The writer of the above has soaroely recognised 
the great and increasing extent lo which the Sinha- 
lese are benefitted by leaf-plucking and ether 
operations on tea eBtrttes in the Kalutara, Kelaci 
Valley and several other distriota. Then he ought 
to refer to the chapter in our '• HandbDok " 's 
Agricultural Iteview showing the va:t amount of 
work given lo the permaneno inhabitants of Ceylon 
by the great upcountry plantation iiduatry, in 
faolory Work as anisuus, in box making, bull ling, 
iu oomiBtio sjrvice, in oaitingatid tracU tg ; while 
alltbe vilUgtB in iha Central Province along the 
roadsides may be said lo depend mainly on tea. 
Finally of the 250 000 ooolits on estates, a large 
proportion now tegaid Oeylon as their country, 
modt of them being bom and brought up hero. 
jAVi Cinchona Profits. — At the annual me sting of 
tbe sbarehldera in the compuny for cinchona-cultiva- 
tion, ' Melattie" in Java, held in Amsterdam onJnne 
7tli a diuiiend of 7 J per cent was declared for the year 
1892, after distribution of which the amount of 1,250/ 
was c rried over to he reserve fund. — Chemist and 
Druggist. 
Ceylon Men and Coffee in the Stbaits. — Mr. E. 
V. Carey sends a chatty letter from Sslangor: — "You've 
no idea what a strong Ceylon community we have in 
the little State — Spooner, the two Vennings, and 
Frcn'.h among the Government servants. Gatehouse, 
Cumming, and myself aiiiorg the planters ; F. G. 
We t, who is piling op the dollars for himself and 
bis company over tin, and the Burgher contiogeut 
w ho are as plentiful as bees. A wonderfully strong 
c'icket team wo can play, too: Gatehouse has made 
one or two scores over fifty, and is looked upon as 
one of the best bats in the State on a fast wicket. 
Coffee grows very well. Come over some day and see 
18 months old trees being stripped to get the wood 
on! But our friend Ramasamy is absolutely hopeless; 
compare him to hia Oeylon brothers, and your soul 
is plunged in woe. He ia the best workman to be 
get here, though, in spite of all his ehortconningB, 
and when onr Tamils bave a fow more of their woman- 
kind to keep them in the way they should go, things 
will imprnve a great deal. At present the average 
on most estates is about 10 per cent or ly of women, 
and if ene loses her husband by any chance, the com- 
petition for her hand is something astonishing ; the 
dorai haa to settle the questioa and adjudicate upon 
the merits and virtues which each ccmpeiitor advances. 
1 am told there is lots of sport if you like to go for 
it, and I have seen the tracks of tiger, leopard, pig, 
and deer of all sorts. Tha climate of SeUngcr is 
distinctly goo.1, and Selangor men a reol good sort. 
We shall do bdtter still, I hope, when we get our 
church, which ia shortly to be built, and is to coat 
1 10,000, half the amount being subscribed by the 
(Tovernment." 
QuiNiNK FOR THE MiLLioN ! — The Govern- 
ment of India readily respond to the wishes of the 
Madras Government in the proposal we quoted the 
other day. "It is learnt with eatisfaotion," writes 
the Secretary, Sir E. Buck,—" that the Madras 
Government has resolved to reduce the price of 
the quinine packets. " Suggestions for improvements 
in packets are however made, based on experience 
gained in Bengal. Then comes the following rather 
amusing paragraph in the official order : — 
The Government of India are still advised that the 
fimultaneous distribution ot quinine and j^ilap powders 
IS likely to afford a handle to ignorant village and 
country practitioners for discrediting the efficacy of 
the former drug. It is believed that poor natives 
seldom require purgatives, or that when they do 
they recognize the fact for themselves and resort to 
indigenous drugs which are effectual for thn purpose. 
I aili to suggest, therefore, that the separation of 
the jalap powders from the quinine m»y be tried as 
an expiriment in selected districts. 
Dispensing eatahlishments have to make up the 
packets; but it was objected in Madras that these 
were overworked already ; an objection Sir E. 
Buck ia instructed to overrule by submitting the 
following Bgures to show that Madras does far less 
for the money than other Indian divisions : — 
Cost of €sta- Number of 
Province. blishmenta. patient*. 
E 
North- Western Provinces 
and Oudh 289,532 2,890,369 
Punjanb, 250,433 2,580,496 
Madras 420,054 2..580,746 
111 Oeylon over 400,000 patients were treated at 
180 outdoor dispensaries iu 1891, and perhaps about 
E30,000 paid by these patients on account oi medi- 
cines, but we have no means of knowing what the 
total goat) to Government waa. 
