116 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. |AuorsT 1, 1898. 
is being raised will enable the C'ompaiiy to purchase 
Buch other firms as may from time to time offer, 
and to provide for the exteusiouof business which is 
expected. — I5th June, 1898. 
We do not know how far planters in Ceylon 
are ready to .act on the al.ove. I'osssihly many 
may be inclined rather to wait for the Pros- 
pectus which we understand is to follow very 
speedily and to then oiler to take .shares or 
othervvise extend support by furni.shing a list 
of possible or certain customers. The experi- 
ment seen)s to us to bo well deserving of jilaut- 
ing support and we trust in the interests of all 
concerned, it will prove a success. 
COFFEE LEAF DISEASE AND MANURING. 
The Queensland Auricultural Gnzdle for April 
contain-; a long contrihuiion on coli'ce leaf disease 
by Mr. Fi)ilip MacMahon, Curator, Uotanic Chir- 
dens. The references to Ceylon aie naluially 
frequent in this unfortuate connection, and the 
diagrams are "after Ilcv. It. Ahbay." Speaking of 
the abatement of the disease in our Islaii'l, the 
writer says it is not due to ajjplications (jf f;ingi- 
ciiles, which on such a scale would be out of 
the question, but to improved cultivation and 
to the fact that the fungus in its turn does 
not now find the same growth conditions tiiat 
it formerly did Formerly it was not 
the custom to manure coffee ; it did quite well 
without it. But for years llie crop, a highly 
special one, was lieing taken off the land, and 
no equivalent returned. Wherever this practice 
is adopted the result will inevitably be failure 
of the land to produce that crop, and a condi- 
tion of the plant favourable to the reception of 
the first wandering fungus spore of a suitable 
species which floats that way. Manuring is now 
largely jiractised in Ceyion, and the custom is 
increasing." 
Mr. MacMahon shonld know that our coffee 
area has gone down in 18 years from 
280,000 to I'J.OOO acres, and that even what is 
left is not free from disease ; and let him further 
di.uest this one absolute fact that the fungus 
heinilcia ruslritrix first left its jungle habitat 
and fixed on coffee in one of our youngest 
coil'ee district^, Madulsinia, where the fields were 
on virgin soil and not long enough in existence 
to have given many crops. The tungus, in fact, 
revelled in our youngest and most vigorous 
cod'ee lieMs. Again, manuring with the highest 
possible culiivation was very general in Ceylon 
hfjore the fungus appeared, and yet manured 
coffee suft'ered equally with unmanured. Of 
course, colTee in good heart from cultivation, or 
being in its prime on good soil, was able to carry 
and mature its crop, in spite of the fungus, 
better than poor neglected coffee. But the fungus 
spared nothing in the shape of coffee. 
♦ 
THE IMPORT OF BURMAH RICE. 
MESSRS. JACKSON AND SHATTOCK'S 
REPORT ON BURMAH RICE. 
The following Report has been made by Mr. 
Jackson, the present Acting Collector of Cus- 
tom, and Mr. E. M. Shattock, of Messrs. Lee 
Hedges and Company, in reference to their recent 
visit to Kangoon. The iJeport has al.-o been sub- 
mitted to tiie Chamber of (Commerce : - 
TO THE HON. THK COLONIAL SECRETARY. 
Colombo, 18th June 1S98. 
Sir, — We have the honour to submit our Report 
on the Commission iiisned to us to make enquiry 
into the conditions of the Burma rice trade, with 
special reference to tiie supjilying of Ceylon with 
a rice suitable to the needs of her coolv ponu- 
lation. ' ^ ' 
('-'). AVe reached Rangoon on the 27th May 
and remained there a fortnight, during which 
time we interviewed all theprincipaHirms office 
exporters. 
(.3). The rice trade is in the hands of three 
clas.ses : — 
((f) The producer, the Burma villager, who 
sells his crop at the threshing floor to 
(6) The broker, a Chetiy, or other trader, and 
very freouently the owuer of the boats in which 
the padily is transported to the market at 
Rangoon. 
(<■) The miller, who buys from the biwker, to 
whom he makes advances in order, it is pre>iuuied, 
to ensure a due supply of \< d<Iy, buc. as the 
broker has no time limit and o.ntracts to de- 
liver at the market rate at time of dcliverj', the 
benefit which the miller derives from il\e advance 
is inobleiiialic, th'/ugh it is easy enough t<. see 
that the broker can utili.-e it most profitably, 
and not infrequently U) the disadvaniuge of the 
miller fioin whom he receives it. The reason 
for this somewhat extraordinaiy state of aflairs 
appears to be in the extremely acute 
rivH,lry between lea<liog milling linns. 
(4.) As to the capabilities of the Burma 
market it suffices to state that it is estimated 
that there will be this year a surplus of one 
million nine hundretl and thirty thousand tons 
of cargo rice available for export. The total 
rctjuirements ot Ceylon aveiage about eight mil- 
Hdii bushels equivalent to two hundred and thirty 
thousand tons of lice, or about twelve percent of 
Burma's estimated surplus for this year. The 
rice is shipped from ports Rangoon, Akynb, 
Basscin and Moulmcin ; Rangoon exporting more 
than half, and the other three ports dividing 
the balance in about equal proportions. 
(o.) All paddy i.s milled r.iv.- and the opinion 
is unanimous that, for '' jMrboiling" paddy and 
tlien milling, an entirely different type of n'lilling 
machinery is necessary, as well as "dryers" on 
a very large scale. 
(0). (Jf the milling firms, two alone, Messrs. 
Steel Brothers, and Me.-srs. Gillandcrs, Arbiith- 
not ic Co. gave th(! question of •' parboiling" 
anything like serious e msifieration, while a third, 
Messrs. Zaletski, Boch and Company also asked 
us for estimates of cost of the necessary machi- 
nery and spoke of .sending their engineer to 
inspect the Tanjore mills. 
The chief difiiculty in preparation of rice 
in this way on a 'large scale, is the drying 
of the 1 arboiled paddy before milling. 
No dessiccators exist in Rangoon and the rains 
at present render " sun drying " out of the ques- 
tion. Messrs. Steel Brothers are ready to make 
a sample of parboiled rice and try onr market 
with it during the next dry season (January to 
June.) 
Messrs, Gilianders, Arbuthnot & Co., are com 
paiitively a new firm inthe rice trade, they have 
space available for putting up new machinery, 
ha> e not worked into the trade grooves of other 
firms, and are by no means averse from putting 
up tlie requisite machinery, ])rovided the Chan" 
ber of Commerce, fiom whom they would like 
to hear fully and authoritstively on the subject, can 
sliewthem that it is won h their while to embark in 
this new enterprise, by giving them a guarantee 
that the rice specially niiiled for this market will 
be duly purchased. It, therefore, rests with the 
