Feb. r, 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
557 
To the Editor. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE, COCOA, AND 
COCONUTS. 
Dear Sm,--It is satisfactory to see that progress 
is being made in the cultivation of these products. 
Great alarm has been felt at the continued increase of 
the cultivation of tea in the face of a steady fall in 
the price of this commodity. The present price is 
likely to continue for some time but is bound to 
fall when the supply becomes excessive. The open- 
ing of new markets is a very very slow matter, and 
when opened they will not increase the price of the 
article. The cultivation of tea is being taken up 
vigorously by the natives too. Large central fac- 
tories are being erected by them at considerable 
cost, as an additional incentive for the natives to 
cultivate. Want of labour will not affect them, and 
tracts of chenas and lands cultivated generally 
once in 7 years, will yield them in tea yearly as 
much as they get for this occasional and risky culti- 
vation of '• dry " grain, &c. From Galkissa to 
Matara and for 20 miles inwards along the sea 
board tea gardens proper are literally springing up 
like mushrooms. The product, whether from inferior 
jat or not, will realize quite enough to pay them. The 
Government prohibition of the sale of lands for tea cul- 
tivation will not check or affect them. The cultivation 
of other products must also engross the attention of the 
European planter. Small fields of Liberian coffee 
almost neglected have for nearly 14 years stood 
the attacks of leaf-disease, and though it is still 
subject to it, the yield at present prices is suffi- 
cient to give large profits, and at least for a suffi- 
cient number of years, so as to cover the cost of 
cultivation of both the Liberian coffee and coconuts 
or cocoa. I do not advocate the planting of Liberian 
coffee alone, as after a long period, like the Arabian 
variety, it inay die out, leaving abandoned and waste 
land, but with the other products either a profitable 
coconut or a cocoa estate. An American visitor, 
once in the employ of a mercantile firm there, 
expressed his opinion that if a direct trade with New 
York in Liberian is properly opened with an annual 
shipment of ten to twenty thousand cwts. and not 
less it will always last, and, calculating the lowest 
average realized for this coffee in America, there is 
a wide margin for profits. A well managed 
estate yielding four to five cwts., after the foiuth 
year will give a clear profit of R200 to R250 
per acre, and half that profit is ample for a pro- 
perty with other products growing to secure " per- 
manency " even with a small annual return in the 
future. 
Liberian coffee was introduced into the Island at a 
very unfortunate time, and has never had proper atten- 
tion ever since, especially as the price was less than half 
of what it is now. Those who experimented did so 
by planting a few acres and leaving the field to do 
what it could to die out, and many did not. Un- 
suitable soil was also selected and the trees were 
rarely, if ever, pruned or manured or aided, as was 
the Arabian variety by even the smallest owners. 
The yield of Arabian coffee last year was only 
'20,000 cut. If an equal quantity of Liberian 
coffee had been in the market every bushel would have 
realized the local average rate of KIO per bushel for 
consumption in the Island and India alone. As for 
coconuts, it w ill be a quarter of a century before the 
prices fall to oven half their present value. The use 
of poonac as a cattle food is increasing, and will be 
as steadily in demand in Europe in future as coal is, 
and will be for lubricating purposes in the East. 
Cocoa stands next to coconut for permanency, and 
what matters if the price tails to 10s in London '.' 
Deducting the trifle spent in keeping the planta- 
tion clean and in gathering land curing the market- 
able article, there will be enough to count on as a decent 
return, and certainly a better one than from sonic of 
70 
, those 250 lb. per acre tea, estates with costly first 
j outlay of machinery, expensive labour caused by 
! heavy losses on advances, &c, &c. 
J. M. De S. 
Attikakande, Cina Korle. 
ARROWROOT IN TRAVANCORE. 
Olivers Estate, Travancore, 22ud Jau. 1895. 
Deab Sib, — May I trouble you to give me some 
information, re the preparation of arrowroot flour, 
as to a machine for doing it ?— I am about to make 
a machine for the purpose, with an old cylinder 
j coffee pulper, and I desire to be quite sure that the 
contact of the arrowroot with the metal will in no 
way be injurious or affect the taste of the flour. 
Therefore, will you kindly satisfy me as to the follow- 
ing :— 
1. Will contact with metal of any sort affect the 
flour, either the taste of it or chemically ? 2. What 
metal is best for the cover for pulper ? And is the 
teeth of cover closer together than that used for 
coffee ? And what shape are teeth ? Would steel plate 
cover do with teeth or would that be too expensive ? 
3. Would not a crusher fixed between the box and 
pulper cylinder facilitate the pulping and tearing of 
the roots ? 
I shall be much obliged if you could give me the 
above information as this is a new industry for the 
South of Travancore, and if I can get a sufficient 
demand in the local markets it will necessitate 
having a machine for preparing it. 
Apologising for the trouble I'm causing you.— . 
I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, W. A. COX. 
[From the Tropical Agriculturist for Oct. 1889- 
page 238, Vol. IX., we quote as follows 
'.' The manufacture as carried on in Ceylon is an 
affair of the simplest kind. A roller of about. eight 
inches in diameter, and about two feet in length, is 
fixed against a piece of wood, which is secured by 
a couple of uprights. The roller is covered with a 
sheet of tin, pierced with holes like a nutmeg grater, 
and it is set in motion by a wheel just like that of 
the native turner which communicates with a smaller 
one on the spindle of the roller. A small space is 
left between the roller and the board, and the roots 
having first been washed and peeled with the fingers 
are chopped into it, a little water being occasion- 
ally used. As the roller revolves, the rasped root 
falls into a trough placed below it, and is carried 
to another trough where it receives a first washing. 
The xooallnj fibre which floats on the top of the 
starch is then taken off, and the letter is put into 
a trough lined with lead, where it receives succes. 
sive washings until the last water comes off color- 
less. The arrowroot is then found at the bottom in 
the shape of a solid white substance. A clean cloth 
pressed upon it absorbs the remaining surface mois- 
ture, and it can then be cut with a wooden or 
copper knife and laid in the sun to dry. When 
the water is perfectly expelled, the lumps 'break into 
small pieces, and the starch is fit for the market. 
Great care should be taken not to pack it whilst in 
a damp state, and for the long voyages it should be 
put up in tins. The local selling price is at present 
Is per lb., but 9d is the wholesale rate. The arrow- 
root exported from Ceylon is said to be equal if not 
superior to the best kinds from the West Indies. 
Six men can manufacture a hundredweight of arrow- 
root iii a day. with the aid of the very simplo 
machinery." above described, to do which they 
have to manipulate above 7 cwt. of roots, the yield 
of starch being 15 per cent. The cost of the raw 
material being t'2 2s, labour 3s 9d, and the price of 
arrowroot being 9d per lb., the manufacturer's profit 
per cwt. is £1 18a 3d, or allowing for contingencies 
say IT 15s. No bad return for the slender capital 
required in the business. " 
-Information respecting "Arrowroot Manufacture in 
Queensland ' by machinery will bo found in tlio 
Tropical Agriculturist for Nov. 18*2 page 140 Vol. II, 
—Ed. T.A.j 
