Sept. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
J 65 
PKODUCE AND PLANTING. 
A Large Ordeb. — The Cetjloii Observer modestly 
puts forward a suggestion for improving the position 
of the Ceylon tea industry. This is to be dona by 
bringing about the humiliation of the great tea dis- 
tribution houses who have failed to do justice to Cey- 
lon tea, and the establishment of a system of direct 
trading. As this savours somewhat of a large order, 
it is as well we should quote our Ceylon contemporary 
ofn the subject. (Quotations follow.) 
A Dangerous Movk. — "We do not wish to damp the 
ardour of the writer of the above. Ceylon planters we 
know are, enterprising enough for anything, and if 1 ,600 
planters were to supply their friends with samples of 
superior tea the effect might be electrical. It is well 
to point out, however, in justice to the distributing 
firms, that they, or at least some of them, have spent 
large sums in advertising and pushing tea. It is 
quite true that in the first instance they were apathe- 
tic on the subject of Indian and Ceylon tea, and so 
long as China held the field they were content to 
ignore British-grown tea, leaving planters to do the 
pioneer work, and when the public began to recog- 
nise the merits of Indian and Ceylon tea the dealers, 
wholesale and retail, took advantage of the new de- 
parture. All this true. It cannot be denied, how- 
ever, that when once the public taste for tea had 
been tickled in the right direction, the dealers 
helped things along very considerably. If the 
work of popularising these teas had been left to 
direct supply associations the work of supplanting 
China would have made but slow progress, i'^armers 
and frnit growers have tried the direct supply system, 
but the consumer is a queer customer, and it takes 
him a very long time to think out new methods. The 
large tea dealers or distributing firms may be all that 
the Observer thinks they are and more, but they too 
have the bug bear— keen competition — to contend 
with, and although large profits are made by suc- 
cessful tea-dealing, an extensive knowledge of the 
business is required. These terrible distributing houses 
may be great sinners, but they have their uses, and 
we think that were the advice of the Ceijlon Observer 
followed some regret would also follow in its wake. — B., 
and C. Mail, July 1. 
RICE GROWING IN THE TRINCOMALEE 
DISTRICT. 
Having had the opportunity of visiting the village 
grounds of Tampalagampattu, and spending a few 
days in the vast rice growing plains there, I trust 
some notes on the mode of cultivating paddy in 
that part of the 
TRINCOJIALEE DISTRICT 
will be of interest. To begin with — the measures of 
capacity in vogue as regards buying and selling 
paddy, are as follows : — 120nalies make 1 amonam ; 
1 amonam equals 10:^ bushels. Tho size of the 
" nalies " or baskets vary in different " pattus " or 
divisions. "Pinmari " is the only cultivation carried 
on under the catchment area of the " Kanthalai " 
tank, and the fields are not manured. 
The cultvation of paddy is pursued as follows : — 
The seeds are steeped in water and left covered, to 
germinate, as they do in four days' time, tlien washed 
in water and spread under shelter, and on the sixth 
day tX) the fifteenth day they are scattered in the 
different beds or pans prepared. This commences 
in the beginning of April and tho grown crop is 
reaped in four months' time. The method followed 
is in this manner :— After letting in waier for about 
two weeks, the fields are trampled by buffaloes in 
February and March, and the dams are banked and 
then, after one or two weeks, retrampled, and any 
mending or patching work is done to the embank- 
ments — the pans are afterwards trodden over by foot 
80 that whatever tufts of grass or any vegetable matter 
lying on the surface may be piressed into the earth 
and buried. The surface of the beds are then made 
even and smooth to be perfectly level. This process 
\% dcm« by foot ia aukle deep water, and afterwarda 
a small supply of water is let into each bed for a 
week or two, to imbue sourness, or tart, or taint 
the soil and keep it moist (to idioiiiatically express 
it as explained in Tamil) and then the fields are 
sown. In beds of poor soil, fresh water is let in 
two or three days after the seeds are scattered for 
growth, and in rich soil five or six days after; but 
drained cff. Thi'i process is repeated two or three 
times or days. In eight days' time the paddy will 
have sprouted and then a little water should bo 
caught in to rot or destroy the grass and herbage. 
The following descriptions of paddy are usually 
sown: — " Ottavalen," '• Sempa," " Sellakadha " and 
"Peru nellu." The first two shoots into ears in 80 
or 90 days, and can be reaped in four months' time, 
and the others in lesser time by 15 dp-ys or so. 
The following show the income of a field eight acres 
in extent, which is equal to twelve " chundns :" — 
Calculated 9 amon;4ms Land share 6 baskets equals |- 
amonams for a chundu. 
,, Seed paddy 2 amonams with in- 
terest at \ per one. 
„ Buffalo hire, 1 amonam each 
pair. 
,, Consumption paddy, with iu' 
tecest at A per one. 
(say) 
Expenses incurred, for ad- 
vances in money 
Wages of hired sower 
Wages of bird drivers 
Watcher 
Vatti Vidban . . 
Repairing fence 
25 amonams at mo per amonam amounts to R250 
equal to R750 in one year. 
It requires two cultivators and four pairs of 
buffaloes to cultivate such an area. Consumption 
paddy is estimated at two amonams for each culti- 
vator. You and your readers can just imagine what 
the income is, without failure or damage or insect 
destruction. 
Do 
Do 
Do 
Do 
Chargeable against cul- 
tivation and are repaid 
in paddy taken over 
at E8 per amonam, 
however much more in 
value the market rate 
of paddy may be. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Cacao Analy-Ses.— Mr. Cochran has now sent 
in his Report on this subject to the Planters' A.sso- 
ciation : it will be looked for with .interest iu 
due course. 
Java Ci.vciiona.— The cinchona of Java, which 
produces about two-third.s of the world's supply, 
has for years been regularly shipped to Holland, 
•where it has been sold at public auction. The 
large quinine manufactories, mostly situated in 
Germany, who supply themselves with the raw 
material in the Dutcli market, have, however, 
during the last five or six years combined to keep 
prices at such a low level as to render tlie cinchona 
cultivation unprofitable, notwithstanding the fact 
that large dividends liai-e been derived from these 
manufactories, part of which should rightly have 
found their way into planters' pockets. In order 
to counterbalance the intluence of tiiis ring of 
quinine manufacturers it was decided to e.stablisli 
a manufactory in Java. This quinine manufactory 
has since been erected at Bandoeng, in thePreangar 
Regencies, and delivered last year its first product, 
which is said to be of lirst-rate quality, and in all 
respects equal to the best European brand.s. Some 
large shipments of the Bandoeng manufactory's 
product have, towards the end of 1S97, l^eeii made 
to London, and smaller ones to various otlier part.s 
of the world, and much will depend upon the result 
of these ventures. The crop of cinclion.a for 1S07 
was 7, 001, .502 lb. from private, and 597,2-241b. from 
Government lands, against 9, -110, 855 lb. and 
631,177 1b. respectively in 1896.— //. cC' C. J/(i,7. 
[There are now three quinine factorieij in Java -wg 
balievc— Ed, 2',-!.] 
