Nov. i, r8 94 .J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
295 
THE AMERICAN CONSUL'S REJOINDER. 
United States Consulate at Ceylon, Colombo, 
Oct. 22. 
Dear Sir, — The " Colombo Merchant " who sent 
you the " Shipping and Commercial List of New 
York, containing my report on Ceylon tea, prc- 
sumes to tell me and the readers of your paper, 
how I ought, or ought not, to write my official 
report— .noblisse oblige. 
In the line of duty, his sapient remarks will be 
sent to the Government at Washington with my 
comments thereon ; but as the absence of the 
writer's name may detract somewhat from the 
force of those remarks, I would be glad to have 
them authenticated. 
As for the cotton drill of the local Mill being 
" much cheaper " than Pepperill drill, I deny it 
and say that for quality the price is dearer. 
For obvious reasons, I would not think of asking 
a Director of the Spinning and Weaving Company 
about the price and quality of their goods. I prefer 
to adopt a more practical method of obtaining 
that information. — I am, sir your obedient servant, 
W. MOREY, Consul. 
RESOURCES OF BRITISH HONDURAS. 
A very exhaustive report on the present condition 
of the Colony of British Honduras, prepared by the 
Governor, His Excellency Sir Alfred Moloney, 
k. c. m. g., has recently been issued by the Colonial 
Office (Colonial Office Reports; Annual, No 73, 1993). 
From this Report the following general survey of the 
resources of the Colony will prove of interest "not 
only in this country, but in many portions of Her 
Majesty's Possession. 
The commercial prosperity of colonies which depend 
on a limited number of articles of export is liable 
to disastrous fluctuations. Striking instances are to 
be found in the ruin of a once extensive trade, that 
had been confined to a single commodity, from com- 
petition and the inevitable fall in price, from the 
ravages of" rats or locusts, or from a single blight. 
So far British Honduras would seem to have stood 
exceptionally in the Colonial Empire in having for 
the past two centuries relied almost entirely upon 
its forest produce and on its rivers as means of 
transport to the sea. Some of our West African 
Possessions have stood somewhat similarly since palm 
oil succeeded the slave export trade ; that industry 
is now seriously threatened by animal fats and other 
sufheieutiy available and equally suiiable commodities. 
One of the extracts from coal tar practically killed 
the once nourishing and profitable cochineal trade, 
and also affected the indigo trade of India. Beet 
has contributed to the depression of the sugar trade. 
The substitution of iron for wood in shipbuilding, 
particularly in men-of-war, at one time almost killed 
the large timber export trade of the Gambia and 
West Africa. These are again attracting attention 
for their mahogany, cedar, rosewood, dye and other- 
woods; and the marked and progressive revival of the 
trade, and the dimensions it is assuming must natur- 
ally be a subject of direct concern and anxiety to 
all wood-cutting centres. 
Mahogany and logwood trees have been for several 
generations the principal articles of commerce in 
British Honduras, but they are said to be getting 
more and more difficult of access and consequently 
more expensive to work and get to the market. The 
value of these industries is not for one moment 
questioned. On the contrary, it is highly desirable 
to promote them and to protect the forests on which 
they depend. The Colony's motto, "Sub umbra 
flores," should have now a more ex' ended application. 
In view, nowuver, of such experiences as have been 
referred to, it has been generally accepted that even 
in commerce it is a hazardous experiment to "carry 
all your eggs in one basket." 
As guides in establishing profitable industries we 
must look to tbo source of supply, the prospects 
and disposal of growth, and the area of the field 
of demand. It has now become a generally accepted 
policy in the Colonies to encourage the production 
of varied staple articles of export of a more or less 
permanent character. Much has been done in this 
direction by the active interest and assistance of the 
authorities of the Royal Gardens at Kew to develop 
new industries and to distribute plants of commer- 
cial importance. With this object there have been 
established in all our West Indian Possessions 
Botanic Stations. A similar institution has been 
established as a tentative measure in Belize, the 
capital of this Colony, which has such exceptional 
advantages whether we look to climate, soil, or a 
market. It has with some justice been advanced that 
British Honduras can be made the tropical garden 
of North America, and it may be remembered that 
28° North is generally accepted as the frost line, 
which may be paid to mark the limit northwards within 
which the growth of economic products in demand 
can be profitably undertaken. Fertility op Soil. 
As to fertility of soil, what more convincing proof 
can be advanced than the facts that in the sugar 
areas to the north and south of the Colony cane has 
been known to "ratoon" from 20 to 30 years, and 
that in the rich and naturally fertilised valley beds, 
bananas have maintained themselves without degene- 
ration for 10 to 12 years, if not longer. 
Products. 
The products of cultural industries, still really in 
their infancy, are chiefly bananas, plantains, coco- 
nuts, coffee, henequen, Indian cum, limes, mangoes, 
sour and sweet oranges, pineapples, avocado pears' 
rubber, to which there should be added in time 
a- natto, cacao, coir, ground-nut, indigo, jute, pita, 
ramie, spices, vanilla and doubtless other promising 
marketable commodities. 
To the small extent to which the banana has been 
successful to the north of the frost line referred to 
where it will always be a precarious crop at best, it 
has proved iuferior in quality to the West Indian and 
Central American fruit. Whilst in 1S79 it did not 
appear among our records its export was repre- 
sented by 72,-136 bunches in 1891. 
The plantain is a staple of food over a large section 
of Negroland in West Africa. The descendants of 
its interesting people to the north of the Gulf of 
Mexico represent a consuming power of probably 
9,00,000. Tons of this fruit from Cuba and elsewhere 
meet with a ready sale in Florida. This Colony's 
shipments to New Orleans rose from 50,000 plantains 
in 1879 to 1,580,200 in 1891. 
Cacao.— The home of the cacao is in tropical 
America. One or more valuable species may belong 
to British Honduras and include that which is said 
to be the best in a marketable sense. Notwithstand- 
ing, it may be said to be here remarkable for its 
absence from the export cultures of the Colony which 
have grown in value, in round numbers, from §12 COO 
in 1879 to $296,66F in 1891. Yet, in the Island of 
Grenada, of the West Indies, and but 5° to 6° to 
our south, and with an area of 133 square miles and 
an estimated population in 1889 of 50,000, cacao has 
developed into it j main export, which reached in 
1890 a value of 228,319/. 
Ground-nut and Vanilla.— The clover-like ground- 
nut, so desirable as a pasture where the bread-nut 
is not available, apart from its valuable oil-yielding 
seed, and henequen would seem to be admirably suited 
for growth in the pine ridges, as would also the 
Ceara rubber. That interesting orchid, the vanilla 
whoss home is a' so in Central America, is one of 
the most valuable products and has, near at nand a 
rich and ever-growing market. Its cured pod some- 
times fetches as much as 30s. per lb. It is a plant 
easily propagated by means of cuttiugs, and has 
develoi ed into a considerable export from Vera Cruz. 
Coeeee. — Our Guatema'an neighbours seem to turn 
no small attention to the cultivation of the Arabian 
coffee. Whilst it will doubtless prove suitable to the 
high areas of the Colony, the introduction of the 
hardy and rich Liberian coffee— so well suited to 
low-lying areas, with its comparatively heavier crop 
averaging from 6 lb. to 8 lb. per troo, 100 of which 
