Nov. I, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3'5 
plantiDg of 15,000,000 rubber trees on these lands, 
the Government paying the owners of the land 3 
cents cash for every tree planted, and admitting free 
of duty everyth ing needed for the plantation, Tbe 
subsidy amounts to ^■150,000, and is payable when- 
ever 100,000 trees have been planted. One million 
trees are already growing and forming the nucleus of 
a vast aud steadily increasing fortune. This land is 
of easy access, two mail steamers touching twice a 
month at its two harbours. The title is absolute 
and cannot be forfeited by failure of carrying out 
the concession. The land can be subdivided and sold 
to colonists, who will enjoy all the privileges of the 
colonization lawfor fifteen years. — Mexican Financier, 
« 
THE DUTCH MARKET. 
Amsterdam, Sept. 14.— The cinchona-auctions to be _ 
held here on October 5 will consist of 4,485 bale • 
a- d 278 cases, or about 391 tons, divided as followss 
From Government plantations, 332 bales (about 38 
tons) ; from private plantations, 4,153 bales and 273 
cases (about 358 toijs). This quantity contains; Of 
druggists' ba,rk — Succimhra quills, 14 bales 160 cases , 
broken quills and chips. 80 bales 118 cases; root, 
91 bales. Of manufacturing bark : Led'jeriana broken 
quills and chips, 3,186 bales ; root, 973 bales. Hyhrid 
broken quills and chips, 133 bales. Officinalis root, 
8 bales. — Chemist and Drugr/ist. 
♦ — 
THE JAVA CINCHONA PLANTATIONS. 
The official report of Java Goveramput cicahona- 
plantatioaa for the eecoad quarter of 1393 contains 
interesting account of the alkaloidal developmeut in 
jouns: trees of the C. calisaya Schuhkraft variety ia 
the Lambang plantations, showing that the increa.^a 
in tLe quinine percentage of the trees is largest 
between the ages of 12 and 18 months, whereas artr-r 
four 5 ears of age the alkaloids increase but liit'.e. 
The following table demonstrates this : — 
Total 
Aee of 
Cincho- 
Quini- 
Oinch. + 
per 
Tree. 
Quinine 
nidine 
dine 
Amorph. 
cent 
year 
Alk. 
of Alk. 
2-18 
2-64 
4-82 
li 
4-49 
1-92 
6-41 
li 
5-1.5 
0'64 
2-21 
7-40 
2 
6-90 
0-07 
1 82 
8 79 
3 
J-60 
0-21 
1-40 
11-21 
4 
10-43 
0-30 
110 
11-83 
5 
10-60 
0-30 
115 
1205 
Some trees showed a decline in alkaloidal coutont at 
the age of 15. In one of them the percentage of 
quinine fell from 10 33 to 6 06 per cent nhil<t that 
of 0 nchouidioe increased. There are now in the open 
air ou the Government plantations 2,874,000 cit choni 
trees, of which 2,177,000 are Lsdgers, 1,900 ca isay^s and 
H Rskasliiria?, 650,000 succirnbras and col-ipteras, 
43,900 (fti inalis aud 2,000 lancifolia«, tbe latter in- 
c uiiing 1 500 C. pitayensi'i. The nurseries contsi'i 
1,019,000 plants of which 802,000 are succirubriis and 
the remainder Ledgers. — C'hemistr.and Dnujyist. 
COFFE'e~IN * SELANGOR. 
AN OLD CEYLON PLANTER TO THE FRONT. 
Mr. J. R. 0. Aldworth, the Dietriot tfficer, 
Elang, in his August report, says : — On the 
Ist of August the grant to Mr. A. Forsyth, of 
Medan, Deli, of 500 acres of land near Klang for 
coffee planting was sanctioned. There are now 
about 800 acres of oofifee in this district, 60 per cent. 
o( wh'eh is owned by Asiatic!; it is of all ages 
up to about 10 years, and the unanimous vordiot 
of ti.e Europeans to whom I have shewn it is that 
nothing like it is to bes jen elsewhere in the State, 
Mr. Forsyth, who has been in Sumatra for 13 
years and was previously well known in Ceylon, 
has ma^e arrangements wi h Mr. C. M. (>jmminx 
(now looking after Weld's Hill Est^t' ) to come to 
Elang and open up the land, as Mr, Forsyth intends 
to make tho Frovinca bis head-quarters. — Pinawj 
Qazette. 
FROM THE HILLS IN CEYLON. 
Timber Trees on Estates in DnrsuLA. 
Oct. 12th. 
No one can now-a-davs use the heading of onr 
letter without recalling the hand and pen that made 
it so peculiarlv their own in these columns and 
the flow of spirits which betokened his return to 
his beloved hillsides. 
" When musins; on companion^ gone. 
We doubly feel ourselves alone" — . 
says the poet, and dnring the past few days ill 
revisiting the mountain-home, the paths and dells, 
the vantage-points which "our spnior " loved so well 
it is only natural that the feeling which Words- 
worth so well touches in his " Yarrow Revisited " 
should predominate. How much has occurred in the 
planting district and neighbourhood in which he 
above most, would feel the keenest interest. Not 
the least the multiplication of first-class factories, 
thoroughly eqr.ipped, especially the one which he did 
rot live to see finished on his own property — the mar- 
vellous success shown on plantations in his neigh- 
b''urhood (Mr. Beck's Henfold and St. Regulus) in 
the production of first-class teas in quantity as well 
as quality. How keenly would he have shared the 
good hope that the time is fast approaching when 
a high average price should be attained and main- 
tained for all tea over a certain limit. 4.500 or even 
4,000 feet, as well as for the select portion of 10,000 
acres above the 5,000 feet limited. Again, how 
enthusiastic would the writer of " From the Hills " 
have become over the wonderful change which every 
few months illustrates more delightfully in the 
landscape of tbe planting districts. Where not so 
long all was tea — tea — or a little earlier all coffee — 
coffee — without a break of forest for a thousand, aye 
over five or ten thoxisand acres, now there is scarcely 
an estate without its avenues or reserves of useful 
and ornamental timber trees. Dimbula and the 
sister districts are putting on a truly varied and 
interesting appearance. There is no more monotony 
for the vision ; for as seen from the top of Abbots- 
ford, we doubt if there is a more attractive tropical 
planting district in the world than a clear day 
brings under the ken of the visitor between Great 
Western and Blbedde, Pilot Hill a,n'\ Bill^gala. 
And no one did so much to promote this great and 
beneficial change, to lead the way in introducing 
attractive as well as valuable exotic trees, as the 
late owner of the estate on which we stind. We 
suppose that even now, save in the Peradeniya and 
Hakgala Gardens, no greater variety or larger number 
of diffe-ent trees are to be found than on Abbot=ford. 
We must not say greater extent planted, because 
even as we write we learn from a " V. A.", who 
travels far and wide, of how freely this example of 
interspersing and surrounding the staple with trees 
has been followed in the midd'e and lower districts. 
To hear of one flourishing tea plantation on classic 
coffee ground in Matale, having as many as 
EIXTY ACRES COVERED WITH GREVILLEAS 
gives one a new idea of the advance in re-afforest- 
ing the Kandyan planted districts which has set in 
with the tea era. 
The contrasts between the foliage of the Eucalypti, 
Acacias, Grevilleas, Cedars and Pines and elsewhere 
the ''Toons" and Firs against the handsome indigenous 
Kinas and other forest trees, add a new interest of 
the most gratifying character to our planting districts. 
Henceforward, it will not simply be to see tea or 
coffee, or cinchona or cacao, t^at the visitor or 
traveller can be sent to " the hills ;" but to inspect 
groves and avenues of trees which for variety and 
successful growth cannot be equalled bv anything 
under the care of our ''eylon or Indian Foresters. 
There is to be at least no scarcity of timber or 
I firewood for tea estate proprietors who are thus tak- 
ing time by the forelock, and as 
THE TEA rlANT HAS COME TO STAY IK CEYLON, 
it is well that all due provision for a long spell of tea- 
making, aye, into the generation to come, should be 
