THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1893. 
lor oaoao. You will no doubt remember I have 
proved the same on Maria estate with coffee when 
in November 1883 I oballenKed all to come and see 
the result. His Excellency the then Lieut. -Governor 
Sir John Douglas was good enough to pay us a 
visit ; full description was given in the your paper 
of 20th November 1883 by a correspondent, from 
which I take the followinp extract: — "In the dinini;- 
room there was ' Kicf^ Coffee ' in letters rrado 
with ripe cherry and wiro, ' Queen Cacao ' with 
a fine sample cacao pod underneath, next (ihe 
pretender) ' Cinchona ' covering his hfad for a 
time with cacao leaves ; at the other end of the 
room was ' Prince Tea ' who detires to become 
emperor (if care is usod in planting and prices 
keep up be maybe)." Now how (rue this prophesy 
made ten years ago has turned out. Planters 
should take a lessen from experience in Coffee 
which I maintain was abused not used, in many 
ways ; bad planting, overbearing, uo cultivation ; 
in some instances too much forcing manure used, 
bad pruning ; and now I have shown ooniidence 
in coffee when nearly every one has given it 
up by planting some on Nikatenna estate 
in Panwiia and will ehow good results before 
long. You know I like to take in hand what 
others are frightened to touch and prove what 
practical cultivation can and will do. You must karn 
<o understand by the appearance of the leaf and 
bark and soil what is required to be done with or 
added to the soil to make the plants healthy. I 
cannot bear to see the treatment many of our 
products receive ; eometimee allowed to struggle on 
for mere existence where a little money spent in 
the proper time ard with practical knowledge of 
what to do would make them good plants and 
profitable; remember the old sayi-ng — a stitch in 
time saves nine — even plants have a language, they 
show tbeir wants through leaves and bark ; when 
they get what is wanted their gratitude is shown by 
the uew healthy leaf and sappy bark. I much 
enjoy the letter of Doctor Dale and agreed with it in 
many arguments he has used. " Theory is doubtful, 
practice is safe." The writer advising cocoa pods 
for planting should only be plucked from the stem 
is entirely in error ; 1 have tested pods from stem 
and branches in planting as well as curing and 
found good and bad from stem as well as branch. I 
noticed a remark in the Agricultural School Magazine, 
referring to my letter about weeds ; surely I did 
not put Illook among useful weeds. I must say it 
all depends, in some soil I look — as long as you do 
not let it get too thick— will actually do good by 
keeping soil moist, and open ; the roots taken out 
and washed clean and given to cattle raw or boiled 
is much relished and cows fed on same will give 
much milk.— Yours truly, HOLLOW AY. 
THE DUTY ON TEA IMPORTED INTO 
HOLLAND, 
Netherlands Consulate, Colombo, Nov. 9ih, 
Dear Sie, — With regard to your enquiry re duty 
on tea imported into Holland, I am informed by 
the Department for Foreign Affairs at the Hague 
that the duty levied is 25 florins per 100 Kilo- 
grammes. 1 may mention that 12 florins £1 and 
50-76 Kilos. 1 owt. The communication from 
the Hague further states that the tare of packages 
IB fixed in the following manner. Packages of 68 
Kilos, or more 18 per cent ; packages below 58 
Kilos, weight 25 per cent. I remain, yours faithfully 
A. SCHWARZ, 
Consul for the Netherlanig. 
THE FUTURE OF CINCHONA BARK 
AND QUININE— JAVA AND 
CEYLON BARK 
Colombo, Nov. 14th. 
Dv.ku Bib, — With reference to an article pablisbed 
in your paper re oinchona bark, we quite agree 
wi h you ae regards the future output of bark 
in Ceylon. There is no doubt about it that Java 
holds the key of the situation and it only depends 
on tbe polioy of the Java oincbona planters whe- 
ther prices will have to suffer a further reduction 
or not. The consumption of quinine has always 
been over-eEtimated and tbe consequence was that 
the cinchona bark produced and chipped during 
the last years has been far bejond tbe requirement 
of the demand for quinine. With the increasing 
production of baik and quinine, tbe speculation 
in the latter article baa attained great propor- 
tions and if the manufacturers ate afraid of the 
increasing output of bark it is quite natural be- 
cause the overproduction of baik and quinine will 
only encourage tbe speculators and interfere with 
tbe consumptive demand of quinine. There is no 
danger of Ceylon overflowing the market as there 
aie only small quantities left. The Java planters 
not only inoreused their shipments as rig^rds 
quantity, but their shipments show an increase 
in tbe percentage aa «ell. If they don't put a 
slop lo tbe increasing export, prices are sure to 
go even below the prisent limit. The average 
analyses of Ceylon bark compare with tbat oi 
Jiiva like 3 to 1 or in other words 5 mi'liou pounds 
Java bark are equal to about 10 million pounds 
Ceylon bark. If Java limits its output to 5 
million pounds at 5 per cent average, the Bitua- 
tion is bound to improve as Ceylon and India 
are quite out of the question. The great question 
is to regulate the supply according to the de- 
maud for quinine, a problem which remains with 
tbe Java bark produoerb to be solved.- Yours faith- 
fully, CH. & A. BOHKINGER. 
DAMMEEAND SEALING WAX— AX INQUIRY. 
Clilivers, Nagercoil, Travancore, Friday, Nov. 10. 
Deab, Sib,— Could you kindly let me know how 
black dammercan be coavetted into good s'^aliug wax r* 
I have melted some with coc imt oil but tbe sticks 
do not dry EufficieLtly and are not brittle like those 
oi:e buys in the shops.— Yours sincere'y, 
A CONSTANT HEADER. 
SPLENDID COCOA PODS FROM 
WATTEGAI^IA. 
Wattegama, Nov. IG. 
Dear Sib, — I have sent you by this morning's 
train eight cocoa pods gathered yesterday from 
Frankland Estate. There are 4 varieties, two of 
each : — Forestero, Condamara, Criolo and Car- 
raoBS Hybrid. This will show you what this estate 
can do — last year's crop was 1,555 pods to the owt. 
Glad to say my son plucked fully one owt. per 
acre in one plucking the last round. Crop it is 
true is Eoaiewhat late this year, but we have 
secured up to 10th inst., 30 cwt. 1 quarter 14— not 
bad for the little Watte. Marakona Estate Cocoa 
is now coming on finely — a leaf plucked measured 
25 inches by lOj inches and some pods weigh 3 lb. — 
Yours truly, HOLLOW AY. 
[This i3 certainly the finest collection of Cocoa 
pods we have ever seen; the eight weigh 19 lb., and 
the heaviest one of all is 2| lb. and measures 11 
inches in length and 13^ in largest girth. We 
shall t^cy that all interested in tbe Fort see them. — 
Ed. T.A.] 
