March 1, 1902. J 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRIOULTUEIST. 
593 
TOBACCO-GROWING IN CEYLON AND 
ITS CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. 
We are interested to learn of the visit 
to Ceylon of a tobacco curing expert from 
Borneo and the neighbouring tobacco 
countries, in the person of Mr. A. Macdonald 
Gibson who has been spending three months 
in .Jaffna town and district, investigating the 
industry and samples of the different to- 
baccos grown on the Peninsula, the Wanni, 
Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Kandy Districts 
and testing the "burn," "taste" and 
" aroma " of each kind. Mr. Gibson was 
invited to come from Boi-neo to Ceylon in 
1887 to manage a Company then formed to 
grow tobacco in Ceylon. This Compiiny failed, 
probably because the Europeans attempted 
to grow a tobacco to compete with that 
of Sumatra and Borneo as a cover leaf. 
Mr. Gibson is of opinion that the aim here 
should be to improve the tobacco which 
already grows on the island, and make it 
into a valuable leaf suitable for Euro- 
pean markets, by proper treatment after 
the tobacco is gathered from the field. 
This treatment comprises a proper system 
of "drying" and "curing" of the tobacco, 
which should be cut only when quite ripe 
and not— as the native does now— while it is 
green, so that he may be saved farther 
trouble and expense of watering and other 
attention to it in the Held. The full 
natural flavour of the Ceylon tobacco ought 
to be retained, the colour of the leaf 
improved and the tobacco generally 
cured so that it will keep for any 
length of time. The native system tends 
ratiier to destroy the leaf, while it 
renders it as black as possible and liable 
to rot; hence the anxiety of cigar-makers 
to sell their cigars ;is soon as possible. 
At present native dealers and planters 
are very loatii to take up improved 
methods of curing their crop, possibly not 
wishing to inciu' the initial expense that 
such improvement would involve ; and they 
would, no doubt, prefer that Government, 
or some large cajjitalist, or a Company, 
should show them the way. In the present 
semi-primitive practices of dealing with the 
crop, it appears to be almost overk^oked 
that, in one crop even, there are many 
different kinds of leaf — requiring different 
treatment— and it is obvious that to get 
the full market va,Iue of the growth, some 
changes in working are required. There 
can be little doubt that cultivated tobacco 
land will largely increase v/hesi the Rail- 
way runs through the Wanni, and the limited 
market for local tobacco, as it is at present 
produced in Ceylon, will be flooded. Prices 
will drop till the industry will become un- 
profitable, unless the Ceylon toliacco is 
rendered acceptable to other markets than 
would at present receive it. 
We trust that this important tact 
will be carefully noted in anticipation 
and, whatever the result of the pre- 
sent visit of Mr. Gibson, that at least 
local iiroducers will lo6k to their methods 
of treatment and not let the trade in 
Oeylon-grown-tobacco run the risk of going 
75 
to the wall. This is a fate that is by no means 
uncertain, if the industry is not handled 
in a fashion more suited to modern re- 
quirements and the rapidly changing condi- 
tions of the country in which it i."« now 
turned out. In conclusion we may mention 
that Mr Gibson h;is had over twenty years' 
experience of the tobacco industry in 
Sumatra, North Borneo and Sarawak, and 
that he was working a three years' experi- 
ment for tiie Rajah of Sarawak when 
he visited Ceylon in 1887— so that a better 
or more experienced adviser could scarcely 
be found in regard to one of the tew 
important existing industries of the North 
of the island. 
MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA.* 
On this subject an important and interest- 
ing circular was issued last month from the 
Koyal Botanic Gardens, compiled by Mr. E. 
Ernest Green, our Government Entomologist. 
Mr. Green tells us that a careful study of 
recent investigations on the mosquito- 
malaria theory affords convincing evidence 
of a real connection between mosquitoes and 
malarial fever. The only point in dispute 
now is : are mosquitoes the sole medium of 
infection ? 
(Jur local medical reports do not specify the 
number of deaths actually due to malarial fever. 
Specific, febrile, and xymotic diseases are quoted 
under one heading. Over 50,000 deaths from 
these diseases vere registered in 1899. lb is 
probable that more than half that number 
was the result of malarial fever, and a still 
greater number of persons suffering from this 
form of fever must iiave been treated in the Gov- 
ernment ho.spitals of the Island at an immense 
cost to the country. Besides the actual cost of 
treatment, there must be reckoned the loss to the 
Colony of a vast amount of labour, which may 
seriously delay the progress of important works, 
such as railway construction, irrigation, &c. In 
support of this statement, I have been permitted 
to mention the following facts. At the beginning 
of December lust there were working on the second 
section of the Northern Railway, som« 15 miles 
from Kurune^iala, nearly 600 coohes. Before the 
end of that same month more than half of them 
had contracted malarial fever and given up work. 
Nor is malarial fever the only disease traceable 
to the action of mo.squitoes. Filariasis, in its 
various foims, is known to be transmitted 
through their bites ; and in this case both AnO' 
pheles and Ciilex have been proved to be pcsaible 
agents. Elephantia.sis is one of the forms assumed 
by filariasis. Excessive anaemia is another. Dr. 
M ii'son, in his work on " Tropical Diseases," re- 
marks that " the subjects of filariasis should be 
regarded as dangers to themselves and to the com- 
munity, and should be compelled to sleep under 
mosquito nets." The same remarks apply, with 
equal force, to subjects of malaria. 
In treating of the Life History of the 
Parasite, Mr. Green gives the main facta 
as follows : — 
When a patient is suffering from malarial fever, 
his blood is found to contain numerous examples 
* Circular, — Koyal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon. 
Series I.— No, 25, December, 1901. Mosquitoea nncl 
Malaria, 
