626 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March 2, 190S. 
to inquire into the causes of the fall in the price 
of coffee has just issued its report, in which a 
number of measures for reducing the output so as 
to establish an even balance between production 
and consumption are proposed. In consequence 
of this report the Brazilian Government now con- 
templates placing a duty of 20 per cent on all 
exports of coffee, which is to be exacted in kind. 
The berries thus taken in taxation will be "de- 
naturised" and sold to tlie planters as manure. 
By this means exports will, it is estimated, be 
reduced by one-fiftli, and values will rise accord- 
ingly. That the theory will work out so smoothly 
in practice is another matter. But certainly as a 
fiscal expedient the proposal is ingenious. 
LONDON SALES OF CEYLON RUBBER 
London, E.G., Jan. 23. 
Dear Sib, — At our auctions today the 
following lots of Ceylon-grown Para rubber 
were offered and sold : — 
Mark. per lb. 
Eadengola ... 3 cases Fine thin biscuits at. ..4/2^ 
Hatherley ... 1 case Very pale yellow do. at... 4/2J 
CuUoden ... 6 cases Fine thin biscuits at. ..4/3 
Do. ... 5 cases Negroheads at 3/3 & 3/4i 
Clyde Estate 2 small lots Fine biscuits at...4/2| 
Do. ... 2 small lots l><egrolieads at . 3/2 
Nikakotua ... 2 cases Fine biscuits at...4/2J 
Do. ... 1 case Negroheads at...3/'2J 
As we think these particulars and prices of 
Ceylon grown rubber will be of great interest 
to many Ceylon planters, we suggest your 
Srinting same in your next issue. — We are, 
ear Sir, your obedient servants, 
LEWfS & PEAT, Brokers, 
HUNTING IN THE HILL DISTRICTS. 
(To the Editor, Local "Times.") 
Sm,— You called upon me for an exhaustive 
reply to Mr. North C Davidson's letter 
published in your columns some two weeks 
ago, on the subject of Game Protection and 
the " Hill Districts." I am afraid I have no 
time for that, but as Honorary Secretary of 
this Society, I suppose, I ought to take some 
notice of his remarks upon the rule pi'ohibiting 
the shooting of sambur above 4,000 feet 
elevation, and of the blood-and thunder 
paragraph about registered packs. The his- 
tory of this rule which has been exercising 
the minds and" pens of a few people lately, 
is as follows :— 
About four years ago licenses to shoot sambur in 
the hill country around Nuwara Eliya were issued 
on such a lavish scale that any common cooly or 
Kangany who appliedfor one could have it for E3 50. 
The number of licenses then issued from the Kandy 
and Nuwara Eliya Kachcheries was very large, and 
as one license serves for at least 20 persons where 
coolies are concerned, gang hunting was carried on 
openly, two, three, and four-days a week ! On the 
Bopatalawa and the Digame Patanas— on the Elk 
Plains from Black Pool to Ambawella and from 
Ambawella to the Agra Patanas, on the Rajah 
Patanas, and in all the open patana and forest 
within a few miles of Nuwara Eliya, in the Oliiya 
forests and patana— in Gallagamuwa and all the 
intervening forest right to the Bagawantaiawa 
estates in Bollumbe and Banibarakotuwa well 
into the Peak range and the Maskeliya estates, 
sambur were killed wholesale by estate coolies. 
It was at that time no uncommon occurrence to 
see gangs of coolies, aggregating ,50 to 60 persons', 
with dogs and guns, hunting in the Bopats and 
Digames and other well-known hunting grounds. 
The results of all this was almost extermination 
in the tracts of land I have named, and two years 
ago all the old well-beaten game paths there 
were grown up and indistinguishable, and hardly 
a sambur was to be found for miles around. 
The rule, however, prohibiting shooting, which 
instructed the different Government Agents not to 
issue licenses to shoot sambur, eventually made 
itself felt, and the old haunts are gradually being re- 
occupied by game. On the Horton Plains and Aldie 
Patanas, where shooting has never been allowed at 
any rate for the last 15 or 20 years, and sambur 
are hunted only by hounds to the knife, a large 
stock of these animals has always existed and 
still exists to this present day, in spite of so» 
called slaughter, and no country has been hunted 
harder by packs of hounds. 
As to the killing of hinds, this has always 
been found necessary in Scotland's on deer forests ; 
and in England, wherever the wild stag breeds; 
and a little judicious thinning out in Ceylon is 
equally advisable. Now, if Government can be 
persuaded to issue licenses to shoot in the Hill 
Districts to Europeans only, and absolutely re- 
fuse them to all others on any pretext whatever, 
no harm will be done, and this outcry against 
the existing rule would cease at once. Fair 
stalking with the rifle on all the patanas I have 
named would be quite a legitimate form of spoit 
and would afford much healthy exercise to sports- 
men ; but it would, I fear, puzzle our game- 
watcliers to determine whether a dead sambur had 
been fairly stalked or shot over dogs like a hare. 
—Yours, &c., THOS. FAKK. 
Ceylon Game Protection Society, Feb. 7th, 1903. 
Review of the Crude Rubber Market.— 
Rubber production, says the India Rubber World, 
for January 1, not only is not showing the rate 
of increase maintained for several years up to 1901, 
but this year will show a material decline. Mean- 
while the rubber manufacture in every country in 
which it has been established has been active, 
there having been in no country such business con- 
ditions as have lessened the (lemand for rubber 
goods except, peihapf^, in Germany, where the 
manufactureis have been able througli their grow- 
ing export trade to off-set any check in the trade 
at home. There is nothing in the conditions out- 
lined above to point to the limit of rubber pro- 
duction havirfg been reached. On the otherhand, 
facilities for reaching the remoter South American 
fields are being improved all the while, even if 
slowly, and the tendency is toward the better 
conservation of native supplies there. The decreased 
output from the Congo districts has been due in 
part to a deliberate policy of the rubber trading 
companies which, for some time, have seen their 
earnings suffer through the careless handling of 
their rubber products, of devoting their energies 
to the better preparation and morecareful shipment 
of rubber, rather than to getting out the greatest 
possible quantity. It appears now as if manufac- 
turers would have to adapt themselves to a condi- 
tion of rubber practically as high priced as at any 
time of considerable duration in the past, in connec- 
tion with which no promise exists ot an early de- 
cline in the cost of the other raw materials which 
enter into their products. 
