Aug. i) 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
»35 
ment 13 certain, and the prioe will not for years 
go below E6 per bushel and moBt probably for 
ten years it will average RIO per bushd. With 
the failure of Arabian coffee oame the cultivation 
of cinchona, alocg with tea ia a srna'l way and 
as an experiment, and to many then a very doubtful 
one. It is cow the staple produot, but though the 
plant is not troubled with many enemies, the pro- 
fits from its cultivation is lessening, end before 
another fiva years are o\er further extension will 
almost cease. The opening of n°w markets will 
some years hence meet the excessive supply. The 
benefit in a small way will bo for the future pro. 
prietors, but as for 1 lie profits in future being as 
much as it is even now, that is a very doubtfulmatter. 
Ceylon is not the only tr-a-yieklmg country. When 
Arabian coffee fpilcd the 01 y was : " Serve the plant- 
ers right, why did they put all their money into one 
produot." It was thc-n sheets and sheets cf coffee 
wherever you went in the Central Province chiefly. 
It is now " sheets f.nd sheets " of tea in several 
provinces. With Exchange improving even 
slightly some day, scarce Tamil labour costing an 
advance of about T!30 per head and the 
price of tea gently dropping what will be the pro- 
fit is a sum that can be easily worked out. The 
only remedy against small profits is planting other 
products in places where it is feasible. Why have 
cardamons been negleoted ? At a much smaller 
rate psr lb. than they now fetches, they pay. Then 
again the markat for crotou has not been over- 
supplied. Thosa who have the means would do 
well io open in suitable scii and climate 
with the certainty of a very fair profit for years to 
come both Cacao and Libeiim Coffse or even 
Cacao, Arccanuts and Coconu!s at once. Libo- 
rian Coffee bexins to yield early enough and the 
first three years' yield if it does not If ave a margin 
of profit will leave amply to cover the cost of its cul- 
tivation and of Cacao together leaving the property 
unencumbered and worth at leust R400 to R6G0 
per aero. Tea Companies are plentiful now and 
generally provide in their Articles of Associution 
for the cultivation of other products, but very 
few of these Companies have as yet ventured to 
open special estates or even portions of existing 
estates with other produots. The Ceylon Tea 
Plantations Company has set a good exsmp'e in 
opening a large property of Coconuts and Liberian 
Coffee and clearings of other products. By so 
doing it will weather any storm that may come 
and not as the late Ceylon Company, Limited, 
did not, with its auxiliary o! eugar estates, not in 
Ceylon but in a land miles away I I am not try- 
ing to increase the alarm about tea. It will,hold out 
for a long time yet ; but the profit will be far from 
what it has been and its extended cultivation 
must not only be stopped, but many aoies of it 
abandoned as yielding too little per acre to make 
it pay and as only increasing the bulk to be ex- 
ported. Many who started with this cultivation 
arrived at a certain income from a certain acresge. 
Low prices reduced the possibility of this income 
and. 0 secure it, the acreage is being extended, 
and matters are getting from bad to worse by 
thus adding or.e chief item contributing to re- 
duced prices. Surely many have the means to 
lcok about aud try other produots and that 
promptly on their own p.opertk s besides acquiring 
other plices singly or 'n company. As matters 
stand now an aore of an estate of Caoac, Liberian 
Coffee and general product is likely to yield as much 
profit as 3 to 4 acres ot average tea. 
The movo to deter Government from selling land is 
a foolish eno. R s'.rctioi of Government land 
falei will seriously injure the advancement of the 
■u uvntion of other pi-oduott", whioh Ceylon is 
ii;iuuingto need vtry much now. The condition 
might be made that suoh lands are not to be 
planted with tea. There is a stretch of land 
from the Western sei coaBt to the Ceutral moun- 
tain range available for other products ; bjt with 
such revenue officers and Government Agents and 
more especially Assistant Agents ts we have, 
the sales of thousands of aores of small blocks 
of Government land lying in and brtween lands 
belonging to private parties cannot be easily and 
promptly effected for the beiiefis of all. The 
prompt appointment of Crown Land Commissioners 
is muoh needed and these Assistant Agents must 
bo relieved of muab. of their present work ami be 
employed otherwise in the police and o.her de- 
partments. Thoy are, as a rule, stumblingblocks 
in the way of in ended cultivation of any t-roducts. 
The moment Ce\ Ion's present i xport cf G;oa is 
quadrupled bnd 250,000 ewt. of Liberian Coffee finds 
its way out, then ar d there a'one . will theD bo 
some sound prosperity such as Ceylon had be 'ore, 
but has never had in the best days of tho tea 
enterprise. ADIDAH. 
THE EXTENDED CULTIVATION OF TEA : 
A WARNING. 
Sir, — I regret to see that still many aores of 
Crown Forest and chena land are every year being 
bought for the extended cultivation of tea, in the 
face of falling prices and the lik-.lihood of supply 
soon exoeeding demand : and this apparent reck- 
lessness and short sightedness is due primarily to 
the following cause. 
Planters, be they proprietors or superintendents, 
residing on high elevation estates, opine that their 
estates by reason of the bettor flavour and higher 
prices obtained, will be able to survive any period 
of depression longer than those of low elevation 
or which have less advantage in soil. In other 
words that the latter in any coming crisis will 
go to the wall first, leaving, after the horizon has 
oleared, a frsefield to the furmer as survivors. And 
on the reverse side of this picture are the low- 
country planters, who imagine it is they who have 
the advantage, and stake their hope in their 
superior yield and consequent leas cost of produc- 
tion, to pull them through the comiog crisis. Each 
party, though not desirous of seeing the other go 
under, yet are confident in their superior position. 
So this reckless and fatal game oonti^ues. As lane! 
is offered possessing in the purchasers' eyes some 
peculiar advantages for tea cultivation, i is greedily 
seized and opened ia feverish haste, on the off 
chance that these presumed advantages will enable 
them to hold their own in the ooming trial of 
strength, and rising out of the scramble viotors, 
like lusty occks to flaps their wiDgs and crow 
defianoe to the world. But I would warn them 
against hugging this delusion to their breast, lest 
one day they wake to find they have been 
nourishing a serpent and it has bitt-n them. And 
eaoh party would do well to weigh all fautd fairly 
in the balance, before they make themselves quito 
sure of the truth of their deductions. 
Leaving out of aocount tbose estates which bv 
their published .lividendo prove themselves re-xllv 
far and away above the ru.u, let us compare =a'y 
the Dimbula estates with those in the Kehiii 
Va'ley. As far as the generJ public oan surmise 
from published accounts and On k ra 1 statistics 
the a-lvanta,;o is neither witli ono nor tho O'her' 
fcr every high country estate which shows a big 
dividend, a low country ono c.n be put n { . • 
it witn one (qual. Tho former tuvo gj^d Lnaea 
with a yield ot about 400 to 450 lb, per aor^, aod 
also a dearer transport thau tho latter, whioh have 
lower prioes but a yield of 500 to 000 lb. per acre 
