140 
THE TROPIOAL AQR'OULTyRfST 
[August i, 1891. 
COST AND VALUE OF CEYLON COCONUT 
PEOPEETY. 
(Commimicated.) 
Some years ago there appeared in the Observer 
a notioe of the sale of two oooonut properiies, at 
R38 and R40 per aore, to which the rc-portor 
appended the remark, that it was a good price, ns 
they were not in full bearing. It is very possibl.s 
that the price paid for these properties may be 
their full value, as they may have bean treated on 
the old native syetem, or some slight modifioatioo 
of it, that instead of adding yearly to the value 
tends to depress it below thai of the original jungle. 
At all events, the price paid for the fields ia 
question is less than old ohena in a favourite 
district commands. 
Suppose a would-be oooonut planter secuces at 
B20 per acre a tract of land of the average quality 
of the undulating uplands of the lowcountry, and 
that he dispenses with the service of goiyas and 
thus avoids the deteriorating c-fiects of their 
operations, his first year's work will cost B20, which 
with the prise of the land will m ike up S40 at 
the end o£ the first year. RIO per acre per annum 
will provide for a conserving but not for a high 
and forcing cultivation,— such a style of cultivation 
as will produce the first appreciable crop in the 
eighth year and its full measure of yield in the 
fourteenth or fifteenth, by which time the crops 
will have run up to 2 500 nuts per acre at current 
prices wor;hR60. At ten years' purcha e on the net 
proceeds, the value of the estate in the fifteenth 
year will be B50 per aore, having cleared off the 
whole expenditure with 10 per cent of interest 
daring the previous seven years. 
The following table shows the prinopal and 
interest of expenditure, the probable crops, and the 
Annual increment of value for each year of the series. 
Cost and Value or Coconut Property. 
Remarks. 
a 
M 
<U 
Q, 
•3 
Inie 
acre 
m 
<B 
ne R. 
acre. 
a 
• M 
IS u 
a (D 
IS Oi 
22 
£3 
'3 K 
> P, 
ist 
40 
50 
and 
54 
80 
3rd 
69 
110 
4th 
85 
140 
5th 
102 
170 
eth 
120 
200 
139 
230 
eth 
)54 
5 
260 
9th 
154 
10 
290 
10 fc 
144 
20 
320 
11 th 
122 
3t 
350 
12th 
92 
40 
380 
13th 
62 
50 
410 
14th 
60 
440 
16th 
60 
470 
16th 
500 
There are lands that at the 
At a return of 10 per cent it 
lor nopporiuLiii.jf i^T..(5^' ~. 
ually make gre..t bargains of any such property 
that may come into the market. The value of 
oooonut pronerty depends mo°t on the character 
of the cultivation. Fven good soil will not .eU 
under neglect, and indiffurent soil may oe made 
to pav well, by l>heral an.' judioioua treatment. 
A dozen years ago, there v,ere hardly any means 
of comparing different mtdsares of cultivation 
now there are plenty of examploa of v„J!0U3 
modes, between the extremes of a closa cover of 
lantana, and garden culture, with heavy manur- 
ing,-the one c.ating 115 'or IIC once in three or 
lout yours, and the other taking from it20 to &2o 
per annum. Here are two fields with a ^t^'P of 
paddy field between them, the one four and the 
other nine years old ; one has merely be.n kep 
lean, und the other has lately been cleared oi 
four years' growth of lantana ; the plants on the 
younger field are the bigger and stronger of the 
two. Hfere are two adjoining pieces, the one six 
and the other three years old, the one has been 
olecred of t'oieo years' lantana, and the younger 
field is four years nearer beating than the older. 
A JAPAN CHEMIST ON THE CONSTITUENTS 
OF TEA ; 
AND THE EFFECT OF EXCLUSION OP 
LIGHT FROM THE GROWING PLANTS. 
Paragraphs have appeared in the newspapers re- 
garding some interesting experiments made by a 
Japanese scientist on tea kaves grown under 
normal conditions of full exposure to light and 
on others which were shaded long enough to 
produce the effect of bleaching on the flush. The 
result was that the shaded tea was deemed 
superior, from increased amount of theine and 7iot 
from diminished proportion? of tannin, — the con- 
clusion being thus in support of the diotam of Mr. 
Hooper, the Madras Qainologist, that by no known 
method of preparation coul ' tannin in tea leaves be 
increased or diminished, and that the superiority of 
tea seemed to rest on the larger quantity of tannin 
contained in it. Professor Y. Kozai's experiments 
are taken as justifying the inferences, not only 
that the bleached leaves yitldsd a finer infusion, 
but that this finer tea acted more strongly on the 
human frame tb.-a tea normally grown and manufac- 
tured. Such are the conclusions indicated in the full 
and interesting abatrsct of Pr( f'issor Kozai's paper 
which we copy into our Tropical Agriculturist from 
the Chemist and Druggist, and which we recommend 
to the careful attention of orthodox planters who con- 
sider shade trees amongst tea as objectionable 
as it the cultured product were coffee. When 
tea is %V6ll established, experience would seem to 
show that tress judiciously chosen, primarily for 
shelter and ultimately i..- fuel end timber, can be 
planted over the fields, without danger of 
injury to the tea accuing from the shade. In 
the Japanese experiment light was entirely 
excluded, and with results which, if they can be 
depended upon, are c.rtainly very curious and 
suggestive. A partial analysis of bleached and 
normal leaves showed nearly 1 percent more theine 
in the former, with more than 1 per cfnt excess of 
total nitrogen and an appreciable increase in 
" theine-nitrogen." Hence, no doubt, the finer 
aroma and high quality of the tea. But if the 
analysis of bleached leaves confirmed Mr. Huoper's 
conclusion respecting tannin, what are we to say 
— what will Mr. Hooper say — to the figures (if thoy 
are correct) for the analyses of leaves prepared as 
green or unfLrmented and black or fermented tea ? 
As the result of Professor Kozai's experiments, 
it is distinctly affirmed that the fermenting process 
in the manufacture of black tea is destructive of 
tannin 1 The figures are so astounding that we 
car.not help buspeoting some error. The percentage 
of tannin in the original leaves, 12-91, was reduced, so 
it is affirmed, to 10-64 when the leaves were prepared 
as green tea, and to 4 '89 when manufactured as 
black tea! What renders this low figure fi..r tannin 
in blacJi tea the more puzzling is that the pro- 
portion of tannin in medium Japan tea is subse- 
quently given at 17-65 per cent. Even recognizing 
the fact that Japan " oolongs " are more of a green 
tea than a black, the discrepancy ia astonishing. 
Mr. Hooper will, no doubt, have something to 
say on a result so directly contrary to that obtained 
by him. A black tea with only 4'S9 of tannin and 3-30 
of theine would doubtless be pronounced " delicate 
in flavour but deplorably deficient in strength." 
