79° 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[June  i,  1893. 
Island  who  are  always  pictured  to  us  as  In  a state  o 
semi-starvation  use  as  many  per  head  (including 
children)— as  73  (nuts  per  annum  is  more  than  we 
can  bring  ourselves  to  do.  Large  numbers  of  the 
inhabitants  hardly  use  rice  as  a diet  at  all,  and  we 
should  be  inclined  to  think  70  millions  a liberal 
estimate  of  the  quantity  locally  consumed  in  house- 
holds. We  cannot  understand  how  our  contemporary 
passed  such  an  excessive  estimate,  except  that  be 
loves  excessive  estimates. 
Now  this  criticism  reads  very  plausibly,  especially 
when  one  is  inolined  to  agree  that  the  consump- 
tion of  oooonuts  in  the  Uva  and  North-Central 
Provinces  and  in  other  large  districts  of  the  interior 
must  be  very  limited.  A few  coconut  palms  do  grow 
about  Badulla  town  and  the  cultivation  we  are 
glad  to  know  is  increasing  between  Ealawewa  and 
Anuradhapura ; but  still  it  is  the  day  of  small 
things  there,  and  the  oooonuts  consumed  in  the 
interior  of  Ceylon  have  to  be  transported  from 
the  Wt  stern  districts  or  seaborde.  We  do  not 
know  if  there  is  muoh  trade  as  yet  in  oooonuts 
between  Batticaloa  and  Uva,  or  between  the  Jaffna 
ut-growing  regions  and  the  North-Central 
....  Central  Provinces.  There  are  a good  many 
•conuts  grown  and  consumed  in  the  Matale  dis- 
tnu,  however.  But  of  course  the  large  supply  for 
our  hill-country  is  carried  by  the  railway — a goodly 
portion  besides  going  by  cart,  especially  up  the 
Batnapura-Haputale  road.  Now  last  year,  the 
railway  oarried  about  5,106  tons  of  oooonuts  and 
we  suppose  all  but  a very  small  proportion  were 
“ busked."  The  tonnage  then  would  mean  about 
8 millions  of  separate  nuts.  This  result  and 
the  indication  we  have  given  of  the  trade  other- 
wise with  the  interior  may  be  supposed  to  tell 
against  our  argument;  but  we  have  merely 
referrtd  to  the  matter  so  far,  to  clear  the 
way.  For  we  do  not  mind  giving  up  Uva  and 
the  interior  altogether  to  the  “Times”  critio  and 
yet  showing  that  our  correspondent’s  calculation 
may  not  be  so  far  out.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  it  is  in  the  heart  of  our  oooonut 
crowing  regions  that  our  population  is  densest  m 
Ceylon.  From  Puttalam  all  round  to  Matara 
with  a great  portion  of  the  interior  of  the 
Western  Provinoe  is  a oooonut  growing  region, 
and  it  may  surprise  our  eritio  to  learn  that  in 
the  large  majority  of  native  households  from 
Puttalam,  or  at  any  rate  Ohilaw,  right  along  the 
sea-coast  road  down  to  Matara— a distance  of 
about  150  miles— which  has  been  desoribed  as  one 
long  village— the  daily  consumption  of  coconuts 
is  nearer  two  or  three  nuts  than  one  per  household. 
So  far  as  our  information  goes,  we  are  inolined  to 
think  that  we  should  be  safe  in  taking  two  as 
an  average.  In  the  long  road  referred  to,  it  may 
be  safely  said  the  traveller  is  never  out  of  sight 
of  a hut  or  a coconut  palm.  If  then  we  take  the 
native B of  the  Western,  North-Western  and  Southern 
Provinoes  with  the  Batticaloa  and  Jaffna  districts, 
leaving  out  the  rest  of  the  island,  we  have  two- 
thirds  of  the  population  of  the  island  or  on  the 
very  fair  reckoning  adopted  by  our  correspondent, 
400,000  households  and  if  we  oredit  these  not  with 
the'  consumption  of  two  nuts  as  above,  but  on  an 
average  of  H nut,  we  fully  justify  the  estimate  of  a 
consumption  of  219  millions  nuts  a year.  It  looks, 
of  oourse,  very  startling  to  Bay  that  on  an  average 
paoh  man,  woman  and  ohild  in  Ceylon  consumes 
73  oooonuts  per  annum  ; but  when  we  put  it  the 
other  way  and  mention  that  there  are  probably 
not  fewer  than  400,000  households  in  the  cooonut- 
orowing  districts  of  the  island  and  that  it  is  the 
habit  in  suoh  households  to  use  never  less  than 
one  oooonut  per  diem,  in  a large  number  of  them  pro- 
bably two  nuts,  and  in  a certain  number  not  fewer 
than  three  nuts  per  diem,  the  ease,  we  submit 
looks  different,  At  any  rate  our  estimate  of  an 
average  of  li  nut  per  household  per  diem  when 
oonfined  lo  400,000  households  must  work  out  a 
safe  total  for  the  island,  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  con- 
sumption in  the  Central,  Sabsragamuwa  Uva  and 
North-Central  provinces,  and  the  Trinoomalee  and 
Wenni  districts  of  whioh  no  account  is  taken. 
♦ — 
PLANTING  EXPERIMENTS  AND 
EXPERIENCE  IN  NORTH  BORNEO. 
High  Price  or  C concis — Experiments  with  Rice, 
Gambier,  Pepper,  Coffee — Timber—  8aoo. 
We  are  indebted  to  a friend  who  sends  us  a 
letter  of  Mr,  Henry  Walker,  so  well  known  as 
Planter  and  Surveyor  in  Ceylon,  from  whioh  we  are 
permitted  to  quote  the  passages  respecting  his  rice, 
gatubier  and  pepper  growing  experiments  in  Borneo  ; 
as  well  as  an  account  of  what  is  being  done  in 
ci  fide— all  of  muoh  interest  to  Ceylon  planters.  We 
quote  as  follows  : — 
Sandakan,  Xlth  Aptil  1893. 
I see  the  Ceylon  people  have  lately  been  very  much 
taken  up  with  the  price  paid  for  coconuts  and  coconut- 
plantations.  Rupees  forty-seven  per  1,000  nuts  seems 
high  when  I remember  the  time  when  twenty-rupees 
was  a good  price.  What  would  you  say  to  twenty 
(rupee)  cents  per  nut  which  is  the  price  we  often  have 
to  pay  for  household  purposes.  In  the  town  here 
the  Government  owns  eleven  coconut-trees  which  are 
leased  out  nnually  by  auction.  In  1892  they  realized 
nineteen  dollars,  and  for  1893  have  realized  twenty-four 
and  half  dollars  cash  down.  They  always  have  a uumber 
of  fruits  on  them  and  doubtless  bear  heavily,  but  even 
then  two  dollars  a year  rent  (four  and  half  rupees) 
per  tree  paid  in  advance  is  a high  price  compared 
with  your  Ceylon  figures.  Owing  to  the  want  of 
population  in  Borneo  wild  pigs  are  usually  very 
numerous  and  coconut  planting  is  always  difficult. 
About  two  years  ago  we  had  pleuro-pneumonia 
which  carried  off  a lot  of  cattle  and  then  the  pigs 
suddenly  disappeared  ; the  natives  say  they  died  in 
the  jungle,  hut  why  is  a mystery  as  the  deer  and 
wild  cattle  are  just  as  numerous  as  before.  Any 
way  there  are  no  pigs  now  and  so  a few  people  ere 
planting  coconuts.  We  have  to  import  all  our  nuts 
so  that  the  food  plantation  should  be  able  to  obtain 
a good  price. 
1 can  tell  you  something  about  Gambir  which  is 
rather  new  ground  for  Ceylon  men.  When  I returned 
in  September  1891  the  Government  had  opened  a 
small  garden  near  Sandakan  which  was  handed  over 
to  me.  About  200  gambir  plants  and  100  pepper  plants 
had  just  been  put  in,  and  by  8th  December  I raised 
the  numbers  to  3,253  and  587.  I had  to  import  my 
pepper  cuttings  from  Singapore  and  the  West  Coast: 
they  usually  arrived  dead;  I did  not  grow  5 per  cent, 
out  of  them.  The  Gambir  was  more  difficult;  it  is  a 
liner  and  more  delicate  seed  than  cinchona.  I think 
the  watering  kills  it  and  that  only  the  finest  spray 
sk.uld  bo  thrown  on  the  seed  and  the  water  should 
not  be  chilling.  The  sheds  used  for  cinchona  will  do, 
but  the  Chinese  do  not  make  the  roof  so  high.  One 
bed  I saw  last  night,  which  seems  a success,  had  the 
seed  bulbs  thrown  on  the  bed  with  the  seed,  after 
being  crushed  in  the  hand.  Your  planters  will  have 
to  worry  out  the  seed  beds  for  themselves.  The 
Chinese  say  the  seed  dies  twenty-four  hours  after  it 
is  ripe,  but  that  is  nonsense;  it  is  however  very 
susceptible  and  delicate.  In  Singapore,  gambir  is  said 
to  be  ready  to  cut  when  it  is  eighteen  months  old. 
My  first  plants  weie  si  well  grown  at  twelve 
months  that  I was  able  to  cut  them  in  October 
1892.  The  matured  leaves  yield  the  drug  which 
runs  freely  out  of  the  green  leaf  when  it 
is  rubbed  between  the  finger  and  thumb.  1 he 
leaves  are  taken  off  the  branches  (which  are  thrown 
away)  and  boiled  in  water  in  a pan ; and  when  the 
liquid  has  been  concentrated  and  the  leaves  taken 
out,  it  is  allowed  to  cool  in  a tub.  While  cooling  it  is 
rubbed  with  a stick,  not  very  unlike  the  way  that 
hot  sugar  is  teased  for  it  crystallises  which  is  said 
