a66 
the Tropical 
AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. i, 1894. 
"Oudars" on page 814 Is very s'roog about making 
rubbish te>. He says that the makers of it hunger 
after Urge profit-, but if you go round the rubbish 
makers, you wm't find them rolling in wealth ; they 
spend too much in making the rubbish. Ttiey have 
found that rubbish gits thej tame pcioe a< better 
tea, s ) the fault lies with those who won't pay enough 
for good tea — "the men who kuow too ii-ucb." Bat 
note that the low prices have driven oat our rivals 
and go on in that line ; make tei (not necessarily 
rubbish) which yon ran afford to sell at still lower rates 
Does " Oudeis " know that it takes longer to grow 
six leaves than it does to grow fou' le ive*, r-nd that 
if you pluok 2 leaves and leave one, you can 
pluck round your garden in 4 to 6 days 
which means 4 times a month, an I that to pluck 4 
leaves and leave one you wi'l only bo aulo to go 
round twice a month ; you gat no greiter weight of 
leaf, but you want fe wer coolies, f jwer bui diig», less 
expense in every way ; you fcet less leaf, le s prices 
but as a rule as much profit. O^c is led to tnitginu 
the rubbish maker as a bearded ruffian tfaritig the 
life out of his bushes and generally btauoping ronnd 
like a fiend, reck'ng not what he does to long as he 
makes a huge furtune. Whereas you will fi~'! hi u 
an anxious planter striving might and rutin to make 
both ends meet and keep his billi t. Really " Oadfi." 
ought to know better. (Pa<e (819) I see that a Tra- 
ders' Association is to be stnrteJ at UIO sub < rip' ion 
and is to s.-e to the interest') of tea sellers and tea 
buyers. Like the rope in " tug-uf-war " this Asso- 
ciation may bind both sides together, but it must 
be a strong rope. 
(Page 821) The letter from Mr. MUville White 
and bis statement that it is proposed to s-t to work 
among the "Consumers ee ms to me the most 
pro'uising phase of the American UampMgo, but I 
don't see why t ho voluntary subscriptions should tie 
put aside. No matter how little is done by the 
Volunteers thoy should le enoouraged, thoy can't do 
any haim. Why not try all the schemes, evi-n mine as 
an adjunct, and not only cajole thi consumer, but 
persuade him that you are doing your utmost to 
humour his wants. I should Ihe to .o; Mr. Melvillu 
White's comments about the '! men who know too 
much " and whether he think* planters are humbugs 
who pull long faces to get better prioes. 
About the rough tea 1 have spoken up for, Ut me 
say that it was tea of this sort made in past times 
which wou us the British market, because it was made 
cheaply and beoause it is good tea ; it is quite fit to 
drink; it contaius taste and flivour and theine aud 
tannin and all th*t is wanted. There is co fe»r 
of its swamping the n arker, because ore can't 
get more of it than of fine leaf tea ; or I 
should say of medium leaf tea. It will always 
b6 wanted by people who can't i fford to pay for flue 
tea and it will do them less barm. It will cr.-ate a 
demand for tea amongst millions who can now barely 
afford a solitiry cup as a treat, and I dont see why 
it should not be given to horses instead of impure 
water, if we can only make it cheap enough, I bold 
extreme viows, I don't expect them to be taken up, 
but the pulling in both directions always helps to 
steadiness. 
About China tea and fears of infection of the plague 
(is there anything of the sort spoken of V). I re- 
member hearing that on the jetty at Guernsey there 
was once a notice displayed, to the tourists and 
passengers on the steamers, which said that " there 
is cholera in Jersey. " But these two islands are 
supposed to be sisters and nob rivale. " 1874," 
A VETERAN COCONUT PLANTER ON 
THE PRICE OP COCONUTS. 
Aug. 24. 
Dear SiR ( — 1 had no praotical knowledge of co - 
oonuts till 1867, when I left ooffee planting and 
settled in the lowccuutry. I have no notes to 
refer to, as to the price of coconuts then or at 
any subsequent time ; so that I merely depend on 
my memory (or what information I can give. 
Tbcprica of coconuts according to my experience 
hie b;en, first for 4'iality which varies from lees 
than 1 < v up to 1,700 nuts to a candy of copra ; 
second, the price o( . pra has always followeu 
the price of oil in England, which has ranged in 
my time from £'21 to£i6per ton. 
While the exchange value of the rupee was at 
rr abo'it 2s the price of average coconuts ran 
from H20 to B30 per thousand, in the period from 
Apiil to January, but the light gatherings, betw.en 
Deoember and April, ueed to hardly supply local 
c iDsumpiion, and prioes were therefore higher 
at that lime. On one oooasion I got B40 for ihe 
March gatherings, but for the May gatherings I 
had to olot-e with the highest o"er which was only 
R25. I believe that ths gold va'ue of the products 
of the cccoaut is governed by the relations of 
supply and demand, and that the rise in rurtc 
prices for coconuts and copra is due entirely to 
the fall in gold value of the rupee, an average r f 
R25 when the rupee was worth 24d will be 1143 at 
131 the rupee. 
The r?cmaid for ccconut oil ban gradually 
increased w:thin the past fort/ yeart, but as 
Eupply has kept pace with the increasing demand, 
prices remains very rnuoh the same, or have 
rather it anything fallen oil Fomewbat. 
In thoje latter days it is the cheap rupee thit 
has stimulated production and kept it at leatt 
tquare with the very considerable Desiccation 
trade that has sptuog up 115 well at the greatly 
increased demand abroad for the raw material. 
The foreign demand for poonao is an important 
factor in the present trice of coconuts. Twenty- 
five years ago the average price per too was 
R25 ; it is now R70— an addition of R4 to every 
candy.— Yours truly, W.B.L. 
No~~n. 
Aug, 25. 
Dear Sib,— I regret I am not able to g ve you 
the prices of coconuts at the time named. In 
1860 1 know the price varied from R26 to H3o 
acoording to quality, for I purchased large 
numbers in that year for the firm of Wilson, 
Ritchie A Co. The rupee was then worth 2;, so 
that in sterling value the prioe of cooonuts was 
higher then than it is now at from R33 to B40 
per 1,000— Yours truly, PLANTER No. II. 
UGANDA— AND COFFEE PLANTING. 
Iona, Agra Patnas, 29th Aug. 
Dear Sib,— There is an interesting article on 
Uganda and its resources in the Field of the 23ih 
July, page 130. According to the writer, labour is 
practically unprocurable, and transport oosts 
£224 sterling per ton and is dangerous and bad 
at that ! 
So much for Uganda as a cofiee-produoing 
country. — Yours faitnfully, 
A. ROSSI ASHTON. 
[Our correspondent must take care not to con- 
found Uganda with Nyassaland or the Shire 
Highlands : — in the former no practical man has 
dreamed of investing capital in plantations until the 
railway, to be some hundreds ot miles in length, is 
at least begun. Ibea or British East Africa is most 
of it, a flue country with great poss i b i li ties . But 
for the present, it is British Central Africa, and 
especially Blantyre and the Shire Hills that invite 
ooffee planters with money and offer them good 
prospects. Labour is reported cheap and plentiful, 
and transport by no meana too heavy in the latter.— 
Ed. 2\-i.J 
