JULV 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
21 
propagate beneficial insect"- lias met with nifirked 
snocess. While artificial methods of fightiog pests 
have still to be resorted to for some varieties an i 
in some sections, these have been and are still beins; 
lessened, much to the benefit of the frnit-t<rower, 
by taking aavantage of Nature's methods of keeping 
them in check. 
CEYLON PLANTERS IN MEXICO: 
AND THEIR WORK ALL ROUND THE 
TROPICAL WORLD. 
"What about your coffee venture in Mexico?" 
we asked a recent visitoi to tiie island who was 
one of the prominent supporters of t!ie Syndicate 
that seat Agents to inspect and report on Mexican 
colfee properties. "Abandoned— collapsed," was 
the reply: "the tall in the price of coffee put 
an effectual stop to any idea of buying land or 
estates at high rates in Mexico. ' Very fortu- 
nate indeed, it was, that the gieat fall in price 
occurred just in time to prevent the in- 
ve.stnient. With Brazil coffee, suitable for 
the American market, pnrchaseable at from 
18s to 22s per cwt. ; with the Duuiont Company's 
£10 .sh;Uts, :^o highly thought of wlien brought 
out by Messrs. Buchanan, Rutherfoi'd, Talbot 
and others down to £2| ; with "good coft'ee" 
selling retail in the United States at 4d per lb., 
we cannot see where the margin of profit can 
exisS for Mexican coffee planters who look chiefly 
to the great Republic for a market for their 
staple. This being so, we cannot attach niucli 
practical importance under present circumstances 
to the information sent us by Mr. W. Laing 
Malcolmam. As regards coffee this is chiefly 
given in an extract from the Me.cican Herald 
where a planter relates how it only cost him 
18,000 Mexican dollars (not much more than 
£2,000 sterling with silver depreciated) to bring 
his 500 acres of coffee into full bearing at 5 
years old. Five years' expenditure not exceed- 
ing £4 or even £5 per acre is a little beyond 
belief, even if the cost of land and buildings is 
excluded ; unless, indeed, it means that weeds 
and coffee were pretty well allowed to grow up 
together, with a cuttinn- down of the former 
once-a-year or so. Further the clear income speci- 
fied of 21,000 dollars a year— on a total investment 
of 20,000— must be considerahlj^ affected by 
tiie drop ill coffee and altogether we should like 
to have tliis experience of a resident Ceylon man 
— Mr. Darley or Mr. Forsyth for choice— above 
his own name for this year 1898, before paying 
much attention to news about " Coffte iii 
Mexico." We should like to know too from 
Mr. Forsyth how long he allows for the 
fungus disease —which, not long ago, he described 
to us ])retty well as hemilcia vastatrix and as 
rampant in Guatemala, — to cross over into 
Mexico, and indeed to penetrate to the great 
South American coffee-growing region? 
It would have been more interesting to 
Us at this tinje to learn from Mr. iVIal- 
colnison as to tlie working and results of other pro- 
ducts—cacao, (ibre, tobacco. Mexico is the home 
of cacao, the seeds ot which were used as current 
coin in the days of the Emperor Monte- 
zuma who also drank chocolate flavoured with 
vanilla from a goldeu cup when first visited by 
Cortez. Information regarding Mexican cacao 
groves or ' walks " from ex-Ceylon plancers, 
as to growth varieties, njode of culture and 
cropping and especially as to the prevalence 
of any pest, fungus or otherwise, on pod or 
tree, would have been of special interest. Let 
Mr. Laing Malcolmson try his j^en in this 
direction if he wants to interest a consider- 
able number of readers in Ceylon. Meantime 
bis present chatty letter will receive attention 
chiefly for its interesting references to " per- 
sonalities." We all like to hear of old 
friends in distant lands. " Where is Mj-. Pineo 
now?'" we asked the American Tea Commissioner 
the other day ; but he could not tell ; and here he 
turns up unexpectedly in Mexico, while the 
list altogether of ex-Ceylon planters visiting 
that land is a consitlerable one. Tiie missions ol 
Messrs. Naftel, Clark, Fort, Stopfoid-Sackville 
and perhaps P. F. Hadovv we had heard of ■ 
while our old correspondent Mr. W. J. Foi.gy(-ij 
has wandered so freely between California and 
Brazil, that he must know as much of Mexico 
and Central America as any trained practical 
planter in existence. Then there are Mr. Mal- 
colmson and his partners Messrs. Darley and 
Evans as permanent settlers in Mexico. May 
they be prosperous ! It is very pleasant to 
note in the photographs sent us (which can oe 
seen at our office) that Mr. Darley especially 
is looking so stalwart and well. He does credit 
to the old Colony (and to the Knuckles districcfas 
a Ceylon planter, although he does not do much 
more than overtop the wonderful two-and-a-half 
year old (from seed) coffee bush alongside of 
which he is standing. The other little ° picture 
ot Messr.-!. Hadow and Darley on foot and Mr 
Naftel and the Comprador on mule-back upcountry 
taken for a casual meeting at one of our mi<'ht be 
bazaars. Boih photographs are very interestni"- and 
we are obliged to our correspondent for his fetter 
and enclosures and hope to hear from him 
again ; but until pi-ices imjjrove, it is little use 
anticipating the arrival of " planter-capitalist.s" 
from Ceylon to go into " coffee." 
Altogether what an illustration does this little 
chapter afford us of the wonderful way in which 
Ceylon planters have spread themselves round the 
whole tropical world ! Not simply are they to 
be found in every British tropical dependency 
that can be named, but also in nearly every 
foreign tropical State, and everywhere we find 
their judgment and experience as "practical plan- 
ters deferred to. The old proverb about the 
ubiquitous Scot, may well be altered so far as 
the tropics are concerned, into " the Ceylon 
planter "; for, go where you may, he is sure to 
crop up. At this moment he is sliewin"- the 
Brazilians how to " pulp " and prepare coffee 
after the pro|)er plantation fashion ; he is 
teaching die Dutch tobacco ulanters of' Sumatra 
how to grow tea ; and he is developin<r East Java 
With the old staple. What he has done in 
North Borneo and the Straits needs no exposi 
tion; while he will shortly be taking in hand 
New Guinea, to which we are about to despatch 
one or two intelligent Sinhalese to supervise 
the planting ot coconuts. Time would fail us to 
relate how the Ceylon planter has pioneered 
" coffee " in several divisions of Northern 
Queensland; shewn the Guatemalan President how 
a cinchona nursery ami plantation may be formed • 
or to indicate what he has done am' is doiii" in' 
Nyassaland, Kast Africa, and even in growin" 
Vanilla on the lonely Scych 'lies ; while a^Ceylon 
planter first .shewed Mr. Shepliard in South 
Carolina how to cultivate and prepare his tea • 
and his fellows are now troiiig the same service 
for the tea pioneers in Natal. Costa Rica 
