244 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 2, 1893. 
drunk aod sold at Obioago now, there is not j 
meroantile or private enterpriBe enough to follow 
up the "Show" and profit by its advertisement, 
than can the Ceylon Courts and our tea ba really ; 
Baid to have made a due impreesion and to be 
the practical succees credited to them ? We do I 
not know, of oourae, how far Mr. Bleohynden is 
justified in his reports; but he has stated to his 
AsBooiation that some Chioago Stores are eager 
to buy and sell Indian teas as the result of hie 
Indian Tsa-oourt and canvas. And again, our corres- 
pondent "I. A. 0." discovered an " Imperial 
Company" at Detroit, already selling Ceylon tea ; 
and surely the business of such a Company will 
receive a great impetus from the work of 
the Ceylon Courts. But will there not be the 
danger of setting this Company and other dealers 
or would-be dealers in our teas, against ^'Ceylon's" 
if they find the planters promoting rival 
retail Stores ? These are questions which ought 
to be duly considered. For, it would be 
a thousand pities if private enterprise were inter- 
fered with and discouragement offered to the im- 
portation and distribution of our teas by native 
American Companies or Firms. 
On the other hand, if it ba decided by the 
planters themselves that a free hand is to be further 
given to the Commissioner to open one or more 
Ceylon Tea Stores, we should say that the beet 
way would be to work through the Ceylon Tea 
Company, making Mr. Orinlinton in bis private 
oapaolty, Agent for the Company and affording the 
nooesaary guarantee either from the Tea Fund 
Committee, or the Planters' Aeeooiation as more 
fully representing the Customs Cess. We should 
much prefer the latter ; because we think the Tea 
Fund resources are very epsoially required for, and 
are more likely to produce earlier and bigger results 
by being devoted to, Russia and the back-country 
of the Australian Oolonies. Our Commissioner 
ought to be able now to say definitely what his 
Exhibition expenditure is likely to aggregate, and 
if he were to estimate how much would be re- 
quired for two or three years to run the required 
Ceylon Tea Stores, the planting representative 
bodies would be in a better position to judge how 
long their "Cess" would take to cover the whole. 
The Qovernment grant is, of course, only promised 
for the Exhibition expenditure. The Customs Cess 
by itself would next year, probably produce about 
B86,000 and in 1895 over B90,000. 
4 
SOME OP THE OLDEST TEA IN CEYLON : 
LOOLE-OONDURA FIELDS. 
Time after time, it was eur pleasing duty to 
inquire of worthy James Taylor as to the condition 
of his oldest tea fields planted between 1866 and 
1869 and his reports were uniformly satisfactory. 
Mr. Taylor is alas no more ; but the present 
Manager of Loole Condura (Mr. G. F. Deane) 
very readily responds to our wish to have informa- 
tion for the " Ceylon Handbook and Directory." 
What Mr. Deane has written, will be read with 
interest by all who wish well to the permanency 
of the tea industry in Cbyloo : — 
LooLEcoNDBBA, Dbltota, Aug. 31. — In reply to 
yours of yesterday's date I am pleased to tell yon 
that the oldest Tea field her*, Assam .Hybrid planted 
in 1868 or 1869 (20 acres), is full of vigour shew- 
ing no signs of decay aod up to date from 1st Jan- 
nary last hiB given yield at the rate of 471 lb. made 
tea per acre per ennam. The Tea (appareatly 
China Jat) planted out along roadsides in 1866 now 
2 years old is also flourishiag and yielding well. 
And we infer that very little manure, and that 
only at intervals, has been given to this good old tea. 
TEA-BOXES' SHOOKS FOR CEYLON FROM 
BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
The start of the steam&hip Fervioe between Aus- 
tralia and Canada is, aacordiog to the Canadian 
Gazette, already sugg'sting new developments of 
Canadian trade, and Mr. J. B. Spencer, {? Mr. J. A. 
Spcnoe) of Ceylon, has made arrangements with 
the Bathburn Company, of Deserouto, for a trial 
shipment of shooks for the conetruotion of tea- 
boxes. The wood now in use is obtained from 
Japan, but the Douglas fir of British Columbia, 
the Ceylon man says, is far superior to it.— Pall 
Mall Gazette, Aug. 5th. [We euppose the ehooks are 
to curan to Yokohama and thence to Colombo. 
— Eu. T A.] 
CLN'CHONA IN JAVA. 
Amstkedam, Aug. 9. 
A planter of Cinchona bark in Java has sent an 
open letter to the Chamber of Comaiprce in this city 
in connection with the report of the latter on a 
question made by the Minister of the Colonies, what 
to do to improve the deplorable condition of the 
article. The Chamber had adviaed the docrease of 
the Government's cultivation. In his letter the 
writer points out that it is urgently necessary to 
avoid the total ruin of the cultivation by the low 
prices ruling at present. According to the statistics 
the private undertakings will produce during the 
current year a total quantity of 3,482,839 kilos 
bark. The number of undertakings is 82, bo that 
the average production of each undertakings is 
42,486 kilos, with an average af 4 27-100 per cent, 
lulphas quinine. About tha half of tbe undtrtekiogs 
are fituated too high to enable the cultivati >n of any 
other pcodncfl, and thus these undfrtakiog* will be a 
total loss. Calculated at unit value of 5 cents 
(which price, however, receded in the auction of July 
6, list to 3-6-10 cents), Ibo yearly prooeedn of an es- 
tate producing 42,488 kilos would be f.18,141. from 
which is to be deducted freight aud chsr^es in Am- 
sterdam, f 3,398, »o that there is a bulanosof f. 14,741, 
With this amount the working charges cannot be 
covered. The ezistiug system of Sfjlling at any price, 
adopted by the Government, should not be maintained, 
or if this is impossible lha lots of private importer* 
ehoald be offered at auction before those of the Go- 
vernment. Probably in this way an improvement of 
prices would take phce.— i. and C. Express. 
COFFEE PEOSPECTS IN NICARAGUA. 
An American ref-ident of Matagalpa, a coffee 
district in Nicaragua, states in the Bo«ton Herald 
that there is now in the centre of Nicaragua a fornst 
of coffee land 300 miles long and 200 miles wide 
which is not yet explored. There are three ways' 
for a m»n to begin the coffee business in Nicaragua- 
buy land from the Indian?, buy government land, or 
make a private purchase from a regulsr resident. 
The first way appears to be the best from the fact 
that in getting Indian land you have generally 
something with which to begin operations. The land 
is in condition partially; the plantations must always 
have some trees on them— probably 4,000 or 5,000— 
which give the purchaser a start. It takes five 
years for a tree to bear from the planting, and if you 
purchase an Indian plantation the trees will be from 
two to three years old when yon purchase. Thus 
while your young trees are getting their five years' 
growth, in two or three years your Indian trees will 
be hearing eoongh to pay expenses. Tou can boy 
100 or 200 acres of this Indian land with the trees 
lor $-500. These plantations are commonly known as 
'•finoas." A "finoa" is a plantation for a certain 
purpose; that is a coffee finca would be a plantation 
for the cultivation of coffee and nothing elee. There 
are banana finoas and cocoa fiaoas. In getting go- 
vernment land one has to start from the very beginning 
