42 
THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTUmST. 
[July 1, 1900, 
tiveness to peach trees in Australia. The 
species is very possibly an importation in 
Ceylon ; but its introduction must have 
been somewhat remote, as it has already 
acquired a lai'ge number of natural enemies 
(chieiJy hymenopterous parasites) which sei ve 
to keep it in partial check."— Ed. T.A.] 
PLANTING IN MEXICO-liUBBER, COFFEE"; 
CACAO-THG DRAWBACKS AND ADVAN- 
TAGES. 
fBj/ an ex-Ceylon Planter.) 
Mexico, April 10. 
Dear Sir,— 1 have received your paper of .5th 
January, anil note your remarks 7'e my letter you 
publislieil in it. You ask wliat are tlie draw- 
backs here. Mucli tlie same, I imagine, that the 
pioneer planter of Ceylon had to contend witii 
60 years a^o, the principal ones being lack of 
roads and scarcity of labor. The Mexican i>eon 
in the tropics will not work, unless in debt and 
obliged to do so and then does not compare with 
the East Indian cooly, except for clearing new 
land at which work lie is pretty good. Any one 
having sufficient capital wouhf impori Ciiinese 
coolies, which are in the end much cheaper than the 
native peon. Taxes are low enough. This Company 
owns 100,000 acres and the tax is only some $400 
£40) a year. The per-sonal tax on each man is 
$1'50 (one doller iifty cents) and school tax 
•80c (eighty cents) per annum. Bank cheques 
require a stamp of .5c (five sents) each and l)iMs 
of sale and receipts 10c (ten cents) per $100. 
New colonies ot agriculturalists and new manu- 
factures generally can get exemiited from nil 
taxes for ten years. There is a Federal tax on 
the manufacture of rum and tobacco, whicliis not 
very high, but I have not the exact figures by 
me. 
Mexico is well policed and any plantation can 
have a resident policeman by applying to the 
Tefe Politico of his district and paying wages 
of same, some ?20 per month. You ask wliy do 
not British and American capitalists take up land? 
The latter are doing so in enormous quantities 
every year. The whole of the Isthmus land suit- 
able for coffee, rubber and cacao is now practically 
owned by Americans who are rapidly colonising 
to and the Vera Cruz and Alouiado Kail-road ; 
iand the Tehuantepee Kail-road has passed into 
the hands of 8ir Weetnian Pearson and he has 
built a new railroad trom Tirilo to San Juan 
Evangelista, and put a laige fleet of new pass- 
enger steamers on the rivers connecting with Ids 
railroads, — all since your hard-heaied friends 
from Ceylon visited Mexico, — two of whom did 
me the honour to visit niy camp in* that part 
of Mexico. The railroad from Cordoba to Sxnta 
Lucretia is also now being bu,ilt on past my old 
camp Several of the American Companies have also 
put steamers on the rivers so that, so ar as that 
narfc of Mexico is concerned, transport facilities 
have been pretty well revolutionised since the 
aforesaid hard-hearded Ceylon planters visited 
there. 
You doubt cacao bearing 16 cwt. per acre, 
or selling for 90 shillings. I do not claim 
that all cacao does so ; but that well- 
cultivated cacao plantations on this rich 
soil in Tabasco will do so and do do so, is 
beyond doubt. I was asked to value the crop 
on 6,000 six-year old cacao .trees bearing their 
first crop last month, [ counted on many trees 
135 pods and could only find a few having 53 to 
55 pods, the averaee was over 70 pods. There 
were 40J trees per acre, whicli, at 20 pods per lb., 
is easily producing 12 cwt.peraere. The owner told 
me he estimated he spent (3c) three cents per 
tree per year on eutiv.ition which consisted only 
in cutting down i he weeds every three or four 
months. Cacao is quoted today'in Mexico city 
at .Sl-15c per kilo as \ on will see by sale listen- 
closed : in New Yo: k, 35c silver per lb. I have 
not be n long enough in this country to plant 
and take in n cop of either rubl)er or cacao, but 
I have gathered three lbs. of coffee per tree from 
three-year old trees of my own planting. No one 
not having seen the crops produced on this fertile 
soil can imagine the crop coilee gives here: it 
is, however, ot low class at this elevation. High 
grown Colima and Cardoba bring good prices ; 
but the crops are smaller, ?, to lib per tree. In 
Mexico all crop^ — coffee, rubber, cacao— are es- 
timated by the tree, not the acre : at this eleva- 
tion 500 feet cotl'ee is planted ]2 ft. by 12 and* 
covers the ground; at 8,000 feet, it is planted 5 by 
5 f b. 
Life on a plantation here, .so far as .society 
and comfoits are concerned, does not begin to 
compare with Ceylon life of the 1870's — no races, 
no elk hunts, no gymkhanas. It is a new country 
and unless a man is willing to give up all that 
he had better not come. Anyone having a know- 
ledge of planting and some capital, can make 
money here ; if he has neither of tiiese he is better 
away. — Yours truly, E. DARLEY. 
LIGHTNING— NARROW ESCAPES FROM, 
IN CEYLON.— No. IL 
Sir, — Youa.^k for narrow escapes from lightning 
Mr. Stewart Taylor had one, two or three years 
ago at Passara. Lightning burnt the toe of his 
slippers and played havoc with the contents of 
his bungalow. Mr. Harvey, of Cattarem, in Dolos- 
bage, had two very narrow e.scapes. There are 
certain parts of Ceylon that one wishes not to 
be in when there a'-e thunderstorms :— El Teb 
or its neighbourhood in Passara, Cattarem in 
Dolosb.age, and Mr. Duncan's bungalow site in 
Rangala. — Yours truly, 
PLANTER. 
No. III. 
Sir,— The letter of "Planter" reminds me of 
the Cattarem Bungalow being wrecked by a flash 
ot lightning, ■vhile the late Mr. Cottell and I were 
sitting at table, taking early breakfast one morn- 
ing in 1864. It gave us a bit of start, for it came 
with a report like a cannon and sent the chimney 
through the roof about our lugs, smashing a lar^e 
clock and pictures, etc. The whole bungalow was 
injured and the lightning tore a hole in the wall 
of one of the bedro 3ms, large enough for me to go 
through. A_ 
SINHALESE CATTLE IN TRINIDAD. 
Government Farm Trinidad, B.W.I., 20th April 
1900. ' 
Dear Sir, — Will you kindly accept my annual 
report for the past year and also my best thanks 
for your notice of that of the previous year. 
Enclosed are photos of crossbred cattle — Zebu 
and Redpoll cross : the cro-s has been successful, 
a useful animal being the result. The bull at 
two years weighed 900 lb. and cost some £3. lU 
