March 1, 1900.] THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
603 
To the Editor. 
PARADUA AND SJGAR IN CEYLON 
HiB^__Your correspondent iu Saturday's 
paper is surely mistaken in referring to Para- 
dua as in the Kalntara District. Is it not 
in the Matara District;' And did not good 
old J AV Home acquire the mills there and 
himself bury a lot of money there ? But as 
you say. the faiku'e of sugar in the past 
ioes not necessarily mean its unsuitabiiity 
for parts of the island in which it had never 
been tried, especially with improved methods 
of cultivation and new appliances for manu- 
facture. What a. man Home might have 
been had he not a yearnina- for great things, 
for ventures beyond his means ? • But he 
was a man of great grit. OLD HAND. 
[His career in Ceylon wa? a romance. — Ed. T.A.] 
LONDON COCOA MARKET: PRICES 
LIKELY TO RISE. 
London, E.C., Jan. 26. 
Dkar Sir,— Thanks for your Observer of Stli 
January. In the para|.'rr,ph on Cow Tail Hair, you 
prinf "in hales of 3,400 lb." Ic should he ''in bale.s 
of 300 to 400 lb." 
I read Mr. E 0 Darlcy'a letter on "Cocoa" in 
Mexico with ,t;reat iuteiest, Init I cannot make 
onfc his c-ilculai,ions. He s]ieaks of planting his 
trees 15 feet aparl=200 trees (about) to an acre. 
Hp then estimates 50 pods to the tree which gives 
(beckon) 4 lb- dried cocoa, not more. This would 
make 800 Ih. dry cocoa per acie or 2,000 lb. per 
hectare, against the 4,500 or 5,000 lb. he speaks 
of. How does he arrive at his calculation ? 
Messrs. C M and C Woodbouse in their annua] 
report on cocoa say : " The market opened with 
a generally quiet tone, but by the end of Feb. 
there was a moderate advance in value of all 
British Possessions kinds, which did not extend 
to those of foreign growth, and then, whe the 
larger arrivals began to ine^s upon the market, 
there was a steady decline for all descriptions, 
which prevailed till the middle of July. Subse- 
quently the demand for West India and Ceylon 
decidedly improved, and this contiimed with 
occasional periods of flatness, to the end of the 
year, by which time prices showed a considerable 
advance for Trinidad and fine Ceylon." 
These gentlemen give the following figures as 
the consumption in the different countries from 
which we have been able to obtain reliable in- 
formation : — 
1899. 1898. 1994. 
raths. lb. Jd. lb. 
United King- 
dom 12 34,01 3,81'2 32,087,084 22,441,000 
Germany ..11 37,2.55,300 .52,351,100 17,227,100 
Holland .. ..11 28,923,600 29,086,900 19,896,300 
Ft-anoe U .35,383,400 35,145,900 30,112,300 
Spain 11 12,467,500 9,592,300 1,166,800 
(10 mths.) 
Italy 11 778,200 690,400 471,700 
(10 mths.) 
Belgium.. ..10 3,233,900 2,602,400 
Austria .. ..10 2,636,300 2,337,400 
United States ..12 85,260,000 21,095,700 15,940,500 
189,951,712 164:989,134 107,255,700 
The Russian fignres are not given, but this 
couiitrj- which is, I believ*-, a very good customer 
01 Ceylon cocoa, is I read also greatly increasing 
its onsnniption. The increase in the American 
demand is fabulous, 06 per cent in a year. It is 
true that 1898 may have br'en a bad "year owing 
lo the w r and other reasons, although with us 
the Boer war is stimulafiiig our c<.n>ump'ion, but 
even then it is a preab jump. 1 1 is rather curious 
to note that by "the bag" (he increase only 
shows a lise of 38 per cent. The tigiues being 
for > ew York : — 
Importecl, 210,272 bags in 1699 against 151,956 bags 
iu 1898. 
Consumption, 197,200 bags in 1S99 against 140,638 
bags in 1S9S. 
This shows the average weight per bag in 1899 
was 1801b. against only 150 1b. in 1898 due to 
a timch larger pi oportion of Trinidad cocoa (packed 
in heavy bags) being imported in 1899 tlian in 
1898. From Trinidad direct 44,675 ha'^i^s were sent 
last year against 82,952 bags in 1898 and I l)elieve 
last year a good deal of Trinidads were sliipped to 
the States from the United Kingdom than there 
were in tlie previous year. 
At the public sales this week, 2,054 bags Ceylon 
cocoa were (dl'ered, and nearly all sold. At the 
sales alone 1,8( 5 bags changed, and though since 
the sales holders are asking higher rates than 
buyers as yet care to ijive, there is no doubt 
those who have to liny nuist give way to tlie 
.sellers, as there is .so N'try little unsold. Other 
growths aie still coioiriir forwaid slowly. The 
"Chenislou" has ari ived, iiowever with 3,300 bags 
of Greiiada cocoa which they are trying to^iet 
up for sale next week: Imi it v\ill be a month 
1 reckon (from the reliable infoi nialion I received 
trou) Trinidad) before any such quantities of Tri- 
nidads are likely to be received. 1 think the 
following are al)out the fair values of Ceylons 
today: — Common to fair native 68s to 72s; good 
native 73s lo 79s; fii.e (native 83s); small, fair 
to tine (estate) 63s 6d to 7rs 6d ; ordinary 67s 6d 
and 68s 6(1; nxr'dium to fair 76s to S3s 6d ; good 
to line 84s to 91s. The sales include S, L, in 
diamond 68s 6d ; MAKM 69s; MAK 71s; C in 
diamond 68s to 69-i 6d ; HMS & Co. in diamond 
]40'i)ags 70s; Kepitigalba 82s 6d and 84s; Lk- 
kuwella. Lower Haloya 83s 6d ; Hylton84s; Pa- 
tharagalla, Ingurugaila, and Maousava 84s 6d ; 
86s 6ii was bid but refused for " Pallie " ; Polwatta 
85s, sold ; Meef^ama 90s ; Yattewatte 90s 
to 91s. 
I siiould not be surprised before the year was out, 
owing to the war and the large increase in the 
general demand, to see cocoa very high ; for in all 
prol)ability tlie demand during the next three or 
four months when the crops will be coming in 
will be large enough to prevent any appreciable 
increase in the stocks, so that we shall have 
September come with depleted stocks and the 
few pickings that straptgle in as usual at that 
time of year. Trinidads now are worth 8Is to 
83s for good to fine red and Grenadas 72s to 
73-1 6d. Guayaqiiils are also higher with very 
little on hand to ofi'er. — Yours truly, 
HAROLD HAMEL SMITH. 
I enclose a cartoon I have drawn (I apologise 
for the quality) showing what I believe to 
be a very fair idea of the Mincing Lane 
opinion of last year's Liverpool cocoa market, 
-H.H.S. 
