THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
341 
Nov.  1,  1892.] 
cared  for,  yields  steadier  crops  and  handsomer  pro- 
fits than  almost  any  other  product.  At  any  rate, 
in  Surinam  theie  exist,  according  to  Mr.  Berthelink 
cacao  plantations  which  have  descended  from  gener- 
ation to  generation,  representing  great  wealth  in 
their  annual  crops,  and  which  after  a long  course  of 
years  have  lost  no  jot  of  their  productiveness,  but 
have  rather  increased  in  value.  In  Java  there  is, 
however,  on  the  whole,  no  doubt  a better  soil  for 
cacao  than  in  Ceylon  : with  us  the  area  can  never  be 
very  greatly  extended,  because  of  the  plant  requiring 
both  good  soil  and  an  exceptionally  sheltered  situation ; 
for  it  has  been  found  that  strong  wind  is  a great  and 
almost  fatal  enemy  to  it  in  its  early  years.  Those 
who  do  own  well-established  cacao  plantations  in 
Ceylon,  in  the  West  Indies,  Java,  or  Guiana,  may 
therefore  be  congratulated  on  having  a product  for 
which  the  demand  is  well  in  advance  of  the  supply, 
and  the  price  of  which  is  less  subject  to  fluctuations 
than  that  of  most  tropical  products.  I am  hopeful 
still  that  we  may  see  an  appreciable  addition  to  the 
cultivation  in  some  parts  of  the  low  country — by 
the  native  villagers  in  their  gardens,  as  well  as  by 
planters  ; also  in  the  rich  province  of  Uva,  when 
Sir  Arthur  Gordon’s  Railway  Extension  is  in  full 
working  order,  and  the  resources  of  the  district  can 
be  adequately  utilized.  So  far,  what  the  Ceylon 
cacao  planter  especially  prides  himself  upon,  is  the 
improved  preparation  of  his  product  for  the  London 
market.  The  industry  is  scarcely  more  than  a dozen 
years  old  in  Ceylon  (only  120  cwt.  were  exported  in 
1880),  and  yet  in  that  period  more  improvements 
have  taken  place  in  the  preparation  of  the  pod  than 
has  been  in  the  case  in  Guiana  and  the  West  Indies 
during  the  century*.  I see  in  the  room  one  of  the 
Ceylon  pioneers  in  this  planting  industry  who  recently 
visited  some  of  the  finest  West  Indian  plantations,  and 
he  was  simply  astounded  at  the  rough,  primitive  way 
in  which  the  factory  work  was  done,  while  another 
gentleman,  writing  to  me  the  other  day,  says  that 
after  seeing  the  Trinidad  system  of  claying  over 
the  pods,  he  did  not  think  their  “cocoa”  was  food 
for  men,  far  less  for  gods,  alluding  to  the  high- 
sounding  name  Theobroma.  This  is,  of  course,  going 
a little  too  far;  for  all  the  cocoa  that  comes  to  the 
London  market  is  no  doubt  equal  to  yielding  a most 
nutritious  beverage ; and  I am  aware  that  West 
Indian  proprietors  aver  that  their  system  of  prepara- 
tion is  less  expensive.  Nevertheless,  I think  there 
can  he  no  question  of  the  superiority  of  the  Ceylon 
system  and  product,  as  indeed  is  proved  by  the 
price  obtained.  There  is  little  doubt  that  if  Ceylon 
produced  50,000,  or  even  100.000  cwt.  of  cocoa  in 
place  of  20,000,  a ready  and  profitable  market  would 
be  found  for  it.  This,  then,  is  a product,  the  culti- 
vation of  which  on  suitable  fertile  soil  in  sheltered  situ- 
ations, whether  in  Ceylon  or  elsewhere  in  the  tropics, 
provided  cheap  labour  is  available,  can  be  strongly 
recommended  to  capitalists  or  pioneer  planters. f In 
* Many  inquiries  have  been  addressed  to  me  by 
persons  interested  in  the  West  Indies  as  to  the 
causes  of  the  much  higher  prices  reached  by  the 
Ceylon  product.  So  far  as  I am  able  to  judge  I 
believe  it  to  be  almost  wholly  due  to  the  greater 
care  and  skill  employed  in  the  processes  of  manu- 
facture, and  especially  to  the  copious  washing  and 
thorough  drying  of  the  beans.  I do  not  think  it 
possible  to  attribute  it  to  any  general  superiority 
in  the  cacao  here  grown,  both  as  to  the  “ Old  Red  ” 
and  “ Forastero  ” varieties,  though  no  doubt  it  is 
the  former  sort  alone  which  exhibits  the  peculiar 
light  colour  of  the  interior  so  appreciated  by  the 
chocolate  maker. — Dr.  Trimen  in  Ms  Report  on  the 
Royal  Botanic  Gardens  of  Ceylon  for  1S91, 
t Mr.  John  Hughes,  of  79,  Mark  Lane,  Consulting 
Analytical  Chemist  to  the  Ceylon  Planters’  Associ- 
ation, sends  me  figures  to  show  that  the  crop  from 
the  cacao  plant  is  not  so  exhausting  to  the  soil  as 
that  from  the  tea-bush : — 
“ One  thousand  pounds  weight  of  Trinidad  cocoa- 
seed,  as  removed  from  the  pods,  contains  as  follows 
Appendices,  will  be  found  the  figures  for  export  and 
distribution  of  Ceylon  cocoa,  and  also  an  approxi- 
mate estimate  of  the  world's  production  and  consump- 
tion. 
I have  now  to  refer  to  Coffee,  once  the  great 
staple  product  of  the  planting  industry  in  Ceylon. 
Beginning  with  an  export  of  30,000  cwt.  in  1837,  our 
crops  increased  until  in  1870  we  shipped  more  than  a 
million  cwt.,  and  we  continued  this,  more  or  less, 
on  to  1S75  and  1877,  the  greatest  area  planted  being 
275.000  acres. 
Most  of  you,  gentlemen,  are  aware  of  the  woful 
change  effected  through  the  operation  of  a minute 
fungus  on  the  coffee  leaf,  first  noticed  in  1869,  and 
which,  though  fought  against  for  twelve  years,  with 
all  that  practical  skill  and  science  and  experimental 
treatment  could  devise,  gradually  wore  out  the  coffee 
fields  in  all  the  older  districts,  and  so  affected  what 
has  been  retained  in  cultivation,  that  last  year  only 
90.000  cwt.  were  exported  from  about  40,000  acres, 
thus  carrying  us  back  in  Ceylon  to  the  position 
occupied  in  respect  of  coffee  well  nigh  fifty  years 
ago.  The  spread  of  the  disease  can  only  be  compared 
to  that  of  the  oidium  and  phylloxera  in  the  vine ; for 
the  coffee  industry  in  Southern  India,  in  Java,  and 
the  East  generally,  all  suffered  in  the  same  way ; 
and  although  the  younger  plantations  in  the  richer 
portion  of  Mysore  and  Ooorg,  and  in  some  parts  of 
Java,  as  well  as  in  the  Uva  and  parts  of  the  Dimbula 
and  Dikoya  districts  in  Ceylon,  have  resisted  its 
ravages  so  as  still  to  yield  remunerative  crops  at 
the  high  prices  recently  available ; yet  there  does 
not  seem  sufficient  encouragement  to  justify  fresh 
cultivation  within  the  area  troubled  by  the  fungus, 
at  least  of  the  same  species  of  coffee.  The  time  has 
not  yet  come  when  young  clearings  of  Arabian  coffee 
in  Ceylon  could  be  expected  to  escape  a full  dose 
of  the  fungus.  The  oase  is  rather  different  in  new 
regions,  and  planters  from  Ceylon  have  been  experi- 
menting in  the  Malayan  Peninsula,  in  North  Borneo, 
Northern  Queensland,  on  the  Blue  Mountains  of 
Jamaica,  as  well  as  in  Brazil  and  Guatemala,  and, 
last  of  all,  on  the  hill  ranges  of  Nyassaland  in 
East  Africa,  whence  very  good  accounts  have  re- 
cently been  received  of  coffee  planting  prospects. 
Attempts  made  in  virgin  soil,  in  the  midst  of  pri- 
maeval forests  in  Perak,  in  the  Malayan  Peninsula, 
are  said  to  promise  very  well.  Certainly  the  relation 
between  supply  and  demand  in  respect  of  coffee— 
the  high  prices  prevailing,  and  the  limited  supply  of 
a really  fine  product,  notwithstanding  the  wide  ex- 
tension of  cultivation  in  Brazil,  and  much  progress 
in  1 entral  American  States — would  seem  to  encourage 
capitalists  and  planters  to  do  ther  best  to  open  up 
new  coffee-growing  fields.  In  this  connection  I may 
refer  to  the  recent  mission  of  two  reliabie  and  ex- 
perienced Ceylon  planters  on  behalf  of  the  Peruvian 
Corporation  to  the  upper  valley  of  the  Amazon  in  East- 
Nitrogen 
Potash  . . 
Phosphoric  acid 
Lime 
"Whereas  1000  lb.  of 
Nitrogen 
Potash 
Phosphoric  acid 
Lime 
inade 
..  234  lbs. 
“ 10i  „ 
8J  „ 
• * ,, 
tea  leaf  contain ; — 
. . 46  lbs. 
22  „ 
8 „ 
24  „ 
Mr.  Hughes  adds: — “From  the  above  results  it 
will  be  seen  that  cocoa  as  a crop  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  exhausting  as  tea.  The  principal  mineral 
constituent  in  both  cacao  and  tea  is  potash , hence 
the  importance  of  the  soils  selected  being  as  rich 
as  possible  in  this  particular  mineral  constituent  is 
very  obvious.  I should  imagine  that  cacao  soils 
should  be  generally  a rich  loam  capable,  under  favour- 
able clpnatic  conditions,  of  producing  crops  of  good 
quality  for  a great  number  of  years  with  but  little 
manure.  I believe  it  will  bo  found  that  tea  will 
require  manuring  if  estates  are  to  keep  up  their 
yield  of  made  tea  of  good  quality;  but  that  cacao, 
if  planted  on  naturally  good  and  suitable  soil, 
will  continue  in  a flourishing  condition  and  yield 
well  for  rniny  years  without  any  manure  whatever,1 
