Jan; i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
475 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Pure Ceylon Tea in Rome.— A passenger by 
the "Khedive" sends us a cutting from a Roman 
paper with a very neat engraving of a "Ceylon 
Co-operative Tea Gardens Company " advertise- 
ment for "Pure Ceylon Tea — B. Brand." We 
trust the English and American colony in Rome 
are being won over to pure Ceylon tea. 
Nyassaland and India. — It is quite interest- 
ing to see how Commissioner H. H. Johnston, 
C.B., realizes the great dependence of "Central" 
as well as "East" Africa on Indian traders and 
capital. His approaching visit will no doubt be 
chiefly to Bombay ; but we hope he will extend 
it to Ceylon and visit our planting districts to 
get a proper idea of what tropical cultivation 
really means. 
"The Most Valuable Ceylon Gem."— A 
correspondent asks us if we can tell him ' what 
was the value of the most precious Ceylon Gem 
yet discovered?' That is a very difficult ques- 
tion to answer. In some of the old books on 
Ceylon there are wonderful accounts given, gene- 
rally on hearsay evidence, of the precious gems 
owned and worn by the King of Kandy. Dr. 
John Davy, F.K.S., (brother of Sir Humphrey Davy) 
has written a good deal on the subject in his 
folio on the Interior ; and Streeter tells us a 
great deal about the most valuable gems. Some 
of the finest stones now in the island are, we 
suppose, in the keeping of the Kandy Maligawa 
Temple trustees, and we had the privoledge along 
with two or three other press representatives of 
seeing these when unrolled before H.R.H. the 
Prince of Wales and a few of his suite, in 1875. 
— Jack Tyndall used to make out — and he was 
not far wrong — that the most valuable stone 
found in Ceylon was a lump of rich limestone picked 
us on Bogieside estate, (now Broughton) Haputale, 
He met the proprietor with this specimen at 
Belihuloya and immediately sent us word to look 
out for a gem of the first water that Mr. Slorach 
was bringing to Colombo. The whole Port in 
those old quiet days was agog for a sight of 
the gem and much was the proprietor chaffed 
about it ! And yet who daresay that limestone 
is not only very valuable, but very rare in 
Ceylon. As we write, the "dhonies" are begin- 
ning to arrive oft" our Wellawatta-Dehiwala coast 
with their annual cargoes of coral, to be burnt 
into chunam, testifying to the poverty of Ceylon 
soils nearly everywhere in lime. 
Coconut Planting in Ceylon. — We have re- 
ceived for the forthcoming new edition of our 
" Coconut Planters' Manual'' from an experienced 
practical planter, a very carefully compiled and 
elaborate (in all its details) " Estimate of Cost 
of Planting and Cultivating 200 acres of Coconuts 
up to the loth year showing also Probable Pro- 
fits for same Period" and accompanied by ex- 
planatory notes. We shall probably publish the 
whole as well in the Ironical Agriculturist, but 
meantime we may give the linal totals. At the 
end of the tenth year, the gross outlay estimated 
for is [163,990 to which it interest at 8 percent 
(1137,838) calculated year by year is added, we 
get a total debit pi R101,828. From ibis we 
have to subtract for the first crops of nuts (R2.700 
in the sth ; R6,750 in the 9th and 10,050 rupees 
in the luth year) with inteie-t, equalling 1122,128 — 
leaving the estate to stand at the end of ten 
years R79.700 to the debit. This is equal to 
i;i(Ml an acre and evidently allow-, for fir9< class 
work all through with the necessary buildings, 
and of course it is from the 10th year onwards 
that the handsome profits would accrue— Never- 
theless we suspect the estimate before us will be 
considered a high one by most coconut plan- 
ters. We are likely to ask for criticism in several 
quarters, so as to get the fullest information in 
the Manual. We have already received figures 
from Mr. W. H. Wright respecting his first- 
class Mirigama plantation ; and he bears out the 
importance of spending money in order to ensure 
the utmost care in the planting and cultivation 
and then at the end of ten years if the place 
stands R400 per acre, it ought to be worth in the 
open market a great deal more in view of the 
magnificent crops which big healthy trees in good 
soil should bear, year by year, for the better part 
of a century if continuously cared for. 
Coconuts in North Borneo.— In the' British 
North Borneo Herald for 1st November, the editor 
after dealing at length with our reyiew and prices 
of coffee, turns to coconuts and writes : — 
" The table of value of coconuts in Ceylon is in- 
teresting inasmuch as it exhibits a steady rise in 
value over a period of 54 years. Beginning at 15 to 
20 rupees per thousand in 1840 the price has risen 
some three or four rupees each ten years and today 
it stands about 35 to 45 rupees per thousand. We 
should much like to know the number of Ceylon 
coconuts required to make a pikul of copra to com- 
pare with our own yield. Speaking to a merchant 
who lately passed through Sandakan, we were in- 
formed, that 200 to 300 Molucca nuts woul yield a 
pikul of copra. The Chinese in Sandakan who buy 
from the Cagayan Sulu boats state that 200 to 220 
nuts yield a pikul, and we ourselves have noticed 
that the Cagayan nuts are of a good round shape 
and large, and if picked, should be valuable as seed. 
A little time ago these nuts were sold at twelve 
dollars per thousand but, owing to the competition 
among the Sandakan traders, the price has gone 
up to seventeen dollars, and we believe the quantity 
coming in from Cagayan Sulu is unusually large. 
Sandakan may well be the centre of a large copra 
trade and with the certainty of direct communication 
with Europe being established hefore long and the 
proof afforded in the above figures of the rising value 
of coconuts, we think the attention of our population 
should be directed to that industry." 
We may tell our contemporary that 40 »oconuts 
yield 1 gallon of oil and 12i gallons go to a 
cwt. or 500 nuts give 1 cwt. Then as to copra, 
1,000 good nuts give 525 lb. copra dried, or very 
nearly 4 piculs (if the Borneo picul is 133J lb.) 
so making 250 nuts to the picul. 
Mica in Travancore : — Mica writes : — In the course 
of Mr. Wills' very interesting Lecture, delivered by 
him lately, the learned lecturer had occasion 
to refer to the Mica Mining Industry, lately 
carried on at Neyoor ; and made the remark, that, 
he did not know why the works had been discon- 
tinued. Hereupon, one of the audience — an official 
of high standing, I believe, and one who should have 
known better — volunteered the following very brilliant 
remark : " Because they did not know what to do 
with it." (By "they," I presume, he referred to the 
company carrying out the work). This is a most 
sapient observation indeed, illustrative of the gentle- 
man's profound knowledge of the subject. The real 
reasons why the work was discontinued was, that 
it was merely Prospecting work, carried on with the 
view of testing the quantity, and quality of the 
mineral to be obtained. After an expenditure of 
several thousands of Rupees, and after something 
like nearly a ton of the ore had been placed in the 
market, it was found that the Mica — or Talc as it 
is termed in the London market — like many other 
things in the State of Travancore, was rotten 
"perished," I think, is the technical term — and that 
the percentage of really sound Talc was so small, 
that it did not pay for the cost of workim.' : in other 
words, the "game was not worth th» candle." This 
was thi> sole reason why the mining operations were 
discontinued. — Western Star. 
