( lu ) 
Cinchona. — A great drop of over 3 million lb. in our exports for 1891 — to 5,679,339 lb. — 
shows how rapidly our trees are now being used up. Our poor barks are, however, now scarcely 
worth harvesting. The history of cinchona culture in Ceylon — a most interesting and instructive 
one — is drawing to its close ; the future of the industry belongs to Java, which has followed wiser 
counsels and has known how to wait. 
Cacao.— li is gratifying to see a substantial increase in our export of this product, the amount 
for 1891 (20,532 cwt.) being considerably the largest yet recorded. Prices, too, have continued very 
high for Ceylon cacao, which now occupies a commanding position in the home market. 
Many inquiries have been addressed to me by persons interested in the West Indies as to 
the causes of the much higher prices reached by the Ceylon product. So far as I am able to judge, 
I believe it to be almost wholly due to the greater care and skill employed in the processes of 
manufacture, and especially to the co^Jious washing and thorough drying of the beans. I do not 
think it possible to attribute it to any general superiority in the cacao here grown, for, as remarked 
in my last report, it holds good both as to the " Old Red " and " Forastero " varieties, though no 
doubt it is the fact that it is the former sort alone which exhibits the peculiar light colour of the 
interior so appreciated by the chocolate maker. 
The distribution of seed to villagers has been continued, and about 1,00U pods have been sent 
from Peradeniya, and nearly the same number from Henaratgoda, to the Government Agents of Rat- 
napura, Kegalla, and Matale,for direct distribution. I followed up the remarks made on this subject 
in my last report by an inquiry into two applications received through the Government Agent of the 
Central Province, and found, as I had suspected, that the persons who were asking for seed gratis 
were not of a class who had any right to be so supplied, or indeed likely to be cultivators at all ; and 
I of course refused to entertain the applications. In Sabaragamuwa, on the contrary, the distribution 
has been carried out in a proper manner, and its results are beginning to appear. At the Agri-Horti- 
cultural ShoAv held at Kegalla in August, there were no less than eighteen exhibits of cacao. 
India-BiMer Trees. — Para Rubber. I was able to supply the Forest Department with 20,000 
seeds and 2,000 stumps for the plantations near Nambapana, in Sabaragamuwa, alluded to in my last 
report ; and it is hoped there will be at least as large a quantity of seed to spare in 1892. A case 
of 40 stumps was also sent to British North Borneo, and 500 seeds to the German East African 
Company. Our largest tree, now sixteen years old, girths 6 ft. 1 in. at a yard from the ground. 
Panama Rubber {Gastilloa elastica). The Conductor of Henaratgoda Gardensjprepared a samjjle 
of rubber from this for the Colombo Exhibition. It was obtained by making small V-shaped incisions 
in the bark (after carefully washing it) and allowing the milk to trickle doAvn on the tree and into 
cocoanut shells and to dry in situ, afterwards pulling it off and finally finishing the drying by ex- 
posure to the sun. The sample ajjpears to be of first-rate quality, very clean and solid, and is very 
dark, almost black in colour. Our best tree of this is only 3 ft. 7 in. in circumference. 
Ga)nlrier {Uncaria Gambier). — The five plants at Henaratgoda are very healthy and have 
grown rapidly. Two flowered freely in April, and produced a few seed-pods. There will 
apparently be no difficulty in propagating this plant in the Colony. 
I took the opportunity whilst at SingaiJore of witnessing the manufacture of this curious 
product, and though it has more than once been partially described,* I think the precise mode of 
procedure as I saw it is worth recording. Accompanied by Mr. Ridley, the Director of the Botanic 
Gardens, I visited on 11th March a Chinese plantation at Chung-chu-kong, a few miles out of 
Singapore, where the cultivation and manufacture is carried on. The whole industry is in the hands 
of the Chinese, who groAv the plant — it can scarcely be said to be cultivated — on the exposed slopes 
amid a tangled mass of weeds, lantana, and alang-grass ; the last is occasionally cut away, but no 
other help is given. The bushes on this plantation were five years old, and the plant lives from 
thirteen to fifteen years, flowering all the year round. The manufacture is carried on only when 
the pepper, a more valuable product, is not ready for picking. Only one sort is grown in 
Singapore, and whether the U. acida, said to afford Gambier in Penang, is really different, is very 
doubtful. U. Gamhier does not seem to be known in a wild state, but Mr. Ridley tells me that the 
wild U. uvalifolia is very close, and may possibly be the same. 
The Gambier plant forms a straggling semi-scandent shrub with long arching branches, and 
the CT'op consists of the short leafy twigs Avhich branch off from them laterally. These are rapidly 
Htri])ped off by liajid and carried in baskets to a low thatched shed. Here are fixed large circular 
iron vats filled with watej', which is kept in complete ebullition by large fires beneath ; a constant 
Hupply of bi'iishwood or other fuel is thus necessary for this industry. The leaves and twigs are 
iinmcj'scd in Ww. boiling water, and constantly stirred about and bruised for six hours by two men 
armed with lon^-haiHlied live-))roiiged forks made of the very hard "Tampines" wood (Sloetia 
* Thurc i« a good acuonnl hi Bobbie's ■• Malayan PeniiiKula. 1S3-I." 
