34° 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov.  r,  1892. 
There  is  in  this  reckoning  a margin  left  for  a fair 
proportion  of  South  American  bark;  but  if  prices 
should  improve,  it  is  quite  certain  that  Eastern  lands 
could  increase  their  exports,  although  if  prices  keep 
ow  for  some  years  to  come,  and  less  and  less  atten- 
tion be  given  to  the  trees,  it  is  possible  we  may 
see  a much  smaller  supply  and  a reaction  in  prices. 
Meantime,  no  one  can  be  encouraged  to  plant  cin- 
chona in  new  lands,  any  more  than  cinnamon  or 
cardamoms,  at  any  rate  until  the  demand  and  prices 
improve  very  considerably. 
Bather  different  is  the  case  of  the  next  product  I 
will  venture  to  mention,  namely  Indiarubber,  for 
which  I understand  there  is  a large  and  growing 
demand  at  remunerative  prices,  while  there  is  the 
prospect  of  the  supply  from  South  America,  Africa, 
and  the  East — nearly  all  from  forest  trees — gradually 
falling  off,  or  at  any  rate  below  the  requirements  of 
manufacturers.  If  it  be  true,  as  I learn,  that  the 
one  province  of  Para  in  Brazil  has  developed  an 
export  equal  to  17,000  tons  per  annum  in  a favourable 
year,  and  worth  3007.  a ton  or  five  millions  sterling, 
all  the  rubber  being  got  from  systematic  tapping  of 
forest  trees,  there  ought  certainly  to  be  room  for 
extensive  planting  experiments,  with  a view  to  the 
supply  of  the  future.  In  Ceylon,  considerable  at- 
tention was  given  to  the  cultivation  of  Caoutchouc 
or  Indiarubber  yielding  trees  over  a dozen  years  ago, 
when  we  were  hard  pressed  for  products  to  take  the 
place  of  coffee,  and  for  some  years  great  hopes  wrere 
expressed  that  the  industry  would  become  a profitable 
and  permanent  one.  Sample  parcels  of  Ceylon  Ceara- 
rubber  harvested  from  trees  eight  to  ten  years  old 
sold  as  high  as  4 s.  per  lb.  It  was  stated  that  ten 
years’  old  trees  yielded  J lb.  of  rubber  daily:  this 
would  pay  fairly  well  if  there  were  a sufficient  area 
and  number  of  trees  to  work  over.  But  the  rush 
into  tea  and  the  greater  ease  with  which  returns 
could  be  got  from  this  product,  together  with  the 
long  time  required  by  rubber  trees  to  mature,  and 
the  greater  expense  in  tapping  and  harvesting,  dis- 
couraged further  planting,  and  I cannot  speak  of 
more  than  450  acres  in  all  Ceylon  as  now  being 
cultivated  with  rubber  plants.  However,  of  late  years 
Dr.  Trimen  has  been  able  to  report  very  favourably 
of  experiments  under  his  direction  in  the  Botanical 
Gardens,  and  attempts  are  now  being  made  by  the 
Ceylon  Forest  Department  to  grow  the  tree  in  jungle 
clearings.  The  Gardens  have  also  sent  plants  and 
seed  to  North  Borneo  and  East  Africa.  In  Colombo 
we  have  endeavoured  to  bring  together  all  the  in- 
formation about  rubber  into  an  “ Indiarubber 
Planters'  Manual,"  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  if 
the  Ceylon  garden  and  forest  experiments  go  on  well 
during  the  next  few  years,  that  planters  will  once 
more  take  up  the  industry,  and  there  should  be  a 
large  extent  of  land  fit  for  such  cultivation,  although 
Unsuited  perhaps  for  more  popular  but  delicate  pro- 
ducts. Meantime,  there  is  in  the  European  and 
American  demand,  and  market  prices,  great  encour- 
agement to  cultivate  generally  in  the  tropics,  the 
plants  which  yield  the  rubber  and  guttapercha  of 
commerce. 
I might  here  refer  to  several  minor  products  such 
as  Gambier,  Kola-nut  and  Erythroxylon  Coca,  in 
which  interesting  experiments  are  being  made  in 
Ceylon  under  the  auspices  of  Dr.  Trimen  and  the 
Botanical  Gardens  (backed  up  by  Kew,  whence  aid 
is  always  readily  procourable),  and  of  a few  of  our 
planters;  but  these  have  not  yet  advanced  to  the 
importance  of  planting  industries,  and  I must  pass 
on  to  consider  the  Coconut*  Palm  industry  and 
the  different  commercial  products  derived  therefrom. 
There  are  said  to  be  over  a thousand  known  species 
of  palms,  but  not  more  than  25  are  found  in 
Ceylon,  though  these  include  the  best  known  and 
most  useful,  more  particularly  the  coconut,  pal- 
myra, areca,  kitul,  or  jaggery,  and  talipot  palms. 
These  are  of  vast  importance  for  food  and  other 
domestic  and  general  purposes  to  many  millions  of 
the  people  of  India  and  Ceylon  as  of  other  tropical 
* To  distinguish  this  palm  and  its  products  from 
“ Cocoa  ” the  product  of  Cacao  (the  chocolate  tree)  we 
jjj  Ceylon  spell  the  palpi’s  name  flow  as  “ coconut  " 
lands ; but  commercially,  so  far  as  the  markets  of 
Europe  and  America  are  concerned,  we  need  notice 
only  the  Coconut  Palm,  with  the  kernel  of  the  nut 
used  in  many  forms,  the  oil  prepared  from  it  and 
the  fibre  from  the  husk.  This  palm  constitutes  a very 
important  garden  and  plantation  industry  in  Ceylon, 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  natives — Sinhalese  and  Tamils 
— who  extended  the  cultivation  of  palms  very  greatly 
with  the  money  which  the  coffee  industry  and  the  trade 
created  by  it  put  in  their  way.  Altogether  we  reckon 
there  are  over  500,000  acres  in  Ceylon  covered  with 
from  40  to  45  millions  of  coconut  palms,  yielding  an- 
nual crops  worth  perhaps  about  two  millions  sterling, 
the  greater  part  of  which  is  consumed  in  the  island  ; 
but  of  which,  in  a favourable  season,  perhaps  nearly 
one  million  sterling  worth  is  sent  away,  chiefly  in 
Coconut  Oil,  Coir  Fibre  and  Yarn,  Nuts,  Copra 
(the  dried  kernel),  Dessicated  Coconut  (a  new  pre- 
paration for  confectionery),  Arrack  and  other  minor 
products.  Some  of  the  largest  oil-expressing  mills  in 
the  world  are  to  be  found  in  Colombo,  and  over 
400,000  cwt.  of  coconut  oil  was  last  year  exported, 
apart  from  100,000  cwt.  of  coir  fibre,  yarn  and  rope; 
some  millions  of  nuts  and  large  quantities,  perhaps 
.300,000  cwt.  more  of  Copra,  Poonac  and  Dessicated 
Coconut.  In  all,  in  a favourable  year  we  make  up 
about  80,000  “shipping"  tons  of  freight  with  the 
exported  produce  of  our  coconut  palms  ; but  the  trade, 
especially  in  oil,  is  far  from  leaving  the  margin  of 
profit  that  it  once  did.  African  palm  oil  and  other 
competitors  have  gradually  brought  down  the  price 
of  Ceylon  coconut  oil  from  507.  per  ton,  which 
I remember  it  to  have  been  thirty  years  ago, 
to  not  much  more  than  half,  or  well  under  307.  at  present. 
Save  where  there  is  a good  local  market  for  the  nut 
and  its  contents,  or  proximity  to  the  American  market, 
as  in  the  West  Indies,  there  is  not  much  encourage- 
ment therefore  to  Europeans  to  plant  with  coconuts. 
But  still,  in  suitable  parts  of  Ceylon,  where  the  tree 
comes  into  bearing  in  less  than  the  average  period 
(which  is  about  fifteen  years),  a coconut  plantation 
is  not  without  its  attractions  to  the  capitalist,  for 
it  is  assuredly  the  most  stable  and  long-lived  of 
cultivated  tropical  products.  Altogether,  I estimate 
there  are  over  three  millions  of  acres  under  the 
coconut  palm  alone  in  the  world.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  give  the  distribution  of  the  exports  of 
coconut  palm  products  from  Ceylon  for  last  year 
and  the  total  exports  ior  five  years;  and  these  will 
be  found  in  an  Appendix. 
I now  turn  to  Cocoa,  the  product  of  the  Cacao 
or  Chocolate  tree.  (There  is  great  danger  of 
this  product  being  confounded  in  name  with  the  palm, 
and  indeed  many  English  consumers  believe  that 
their  cocoa  drink  has  to  do  with  the  coconut  palm. 
Since  Mincing  Lane  has  stereotyped  “Cocoa"  in 
place  of  “ Cacao,"  the  distinction  we  have  tried  to 
make  in  Ceylon  is  to  leave  out  the  “a”  in  the  name 
of  the  palm  and  its  products,  this  spelling  being 
also  more  in  harmony  with  the  botanical  name  of 
the  latter.)  Cacao  is  supposed  to  have  first  been 
introduced  into  Ceylon  in  the  time  of  the  Dutch,  and 
it  was  certainly  grown  in  the  Botanical  Gardens 
75  years  ago,  but  not  until  1872  was  its  systematic 
planting  commenced  by  the  late  Mr.  K.  B.  Tytler, 
and  now  we  have  about  13,000  acres  cultivated  with 
this  product,  the  total  export  for  last  year  being 
over  20,000  cwt. 
This,  although  to  a certain  extent  satisfactory,  in- 
dicates but  slow  work  in  the  development  of  a tropical 
industry,  at  least  in  Ceylon — which  in  less  than  a 
dozen  years  saw  such  wonderful  development  in 
respect  of  coffee,  cinchona,  tea,  &c. — slow  especially 
when  the  encouragement  of  a good  demand  and 
remunerative  prices  is  considered.  But  our  ex- 
perience of  cacao  in  Ceylon  fully  accords  with  that 
of  the  Dutch  authority  on  the  culture  in  British 
Guiana,  when  he  wrote  eight  years  ago  that  “ there 
is  no  agricultural  production  thafrequires  more  care, 
trouble,  patience,  perseverance,  and  outlay,  than 
cacao  ; ” but  against  this  adverse  experience,  which 
he  said  generally  lasts  over  the  first  ten  years  of 
the  plant,  there  followed,  perhaps,  a century  of 
euceessj  during  which  time  the  cacao  t*ee,  if  property 
