September i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
157 
give attention to every available means of economis- 
ing labour. Here is the description ; — 
Roe and Bedlington’s improved system of wire rope 
way consists of an endless rope from which the load is 
suspended and by which it is also carried along. The 
rope is driven by power at one end and is supported 
along the line of transport by trestles (of iron or wood) 
the load is carried by buckets or clip hooks : these 
are attached to the rope by a saddle which converts 
the weight of the load into the required grip. The 
sheaves on the trestles are so arranged that there is 
no danger of the saddle becoming unshipped as it 
passes over them and to take long spans and varied 
gradients there are double, treble and quadruple 
balanced sheaves, mounted tandem wise, which auto- 
matically adjust themselves to an equal share of the 
pressure. The saddles are provided with two grooved 
wheels at the outside (of the rope-gripping part) which 
run on to shunt rails at the station and thus remove 
the load from the rope. Should the required power 
be available in water (or steam) at some point in the 
required line of transport, a rope can be worked from 
either side and the load transferred from one rope 
to the other by shunt rails- Curves of large radius 
may be worked, but one of the great iidvautagea of the 
invention is that the way can be laid in a straight line 
over rough country (without high and expensive trestles) 
thereby reducing the distance to be travelled to a 
minimum, 
♦ 
CEYLON UPOUNTRY PLANTING- REPORT. 
CACAO — JAK AND PEPPER— BLACK BUG ON COFFEE 
WEATHER — A DISAPPOINTED PLANTER — ARRIVAL OF 
OOOUES. 
July ISth. 
The awful gulf between the prices paid for most 
West Indian cacao, and what the Ceylon lots get is 
awaking inquiry on the other aide of the world, 
as to how the thing is done. It is not a little 
flattering to Ceylon men and their methods of 
curing, that an olBoial communication has been 
received from the West Indies, asking for infor- 
mation on all points connected with cacao curing. 
It does look like teaching your grandmother to 
suck eggs, for if experts in cacao culture were 
to be found anywhere one would naturally look for 
them in the other colonies, where the chocolate tree 
has been long a stand-by. 
One of your correspondents, referring to what I said 
in my last as to sturdy jaks being killed out with 
pepper, seems to think that the jak is coming 
in for a bad time, and that vigorous trees are 
not to be seen. All I can say is that I have not 
seen anything like weakness among jaks, and 
since I read his remarks I have been particular 
when going about to specially observe them. 
The jak of course won’t stand abandonment : 
and on estates or portions of estates which have 
gone out of cultivation, and -where jak has been 
growing, there you will see the slow strauglement 
of the tree by the vigorous undergrowth. 
But where the jak is getting anything like 
ordinary treatment, I And it as sturdy, its foliage 
as glossy, and its fruit as plentiful, as ever I 
knew it. So inimical is the jak to utter neglect, 
that its presence on a piece of land is I under- 
stand accepted by our Courts as evidence of culti- 
vation or recent cultivation. 
That a pepper vine can kill a jak, I find 
disputed by one who has a very extensive 
agricultural knowledge. When a jak dies thai. 
has been supporting pepper, he would not attri- 
bute that to the effects of the pepper, but would 
be inclined to look olsewdiere lor a reason. He 
has known jaks which have supported pepper 
vines (or a quarter of a century and more and there 
was no evil roBulting from tho association. I was 
glad to get this opinion, for although it goes 
against my own observation and what other men 
have told me, it will prevent a too hasty inference, 
and the total condemnation of a valued auxiliary. 
Black bug has within the last three or four 
weeks come very much in evidence in what little 
patches of coffee there remain. This is very 
disappointing, for it has been looking so well 
for months back, that hope induced one to 
believe that it had turned over a new leaf. 
What hecatombs of hopes have been sacrificed 
to coffee, and are still. I fancy as long as a 
few patches remain, and a few bushels are to 
be gathered, the old methods will continue. 
The weather has changed to showery, but we want 
a good twenty-four hours downpour to get a proper 
soaking. All the same we are thankful for what 
we are getting, as the longcontinued drought was 
shutting everything up. A planter calling at a 
store which was rather famed for “ Sorry, but 
just out of it at present,” asked for marmalade. 
Alas 1 there was none ; and the storekeeper when 
intimating the fact, and expressing regret, carried 
with him a stone jar in his hand, “This” be said, 
“ holding the jar up, is the nearest we have.” The 
planter glanced at it, read Day & Martin’s 
Blacking, and then fled. I wonder if it can be 
true ? 
Coolies are plentiful and healthy, and arrivals 
from the coast continue to come in in small batches. 
But for this abominable exchange we might be 
happy. It is at present most in our thoughts. A 
fine dance it is leading us. 
Peppercorn. 
THE WEALTH OF INDIA. 
From Mr. Birkmyre’s curious pamphlet* we make a 
few striking extracts 
Little has hitherto been said concerning the wealth 
of India. Prima facie a conn cry must be wealthy which 
sustains, without the aid of a poor law, two hundred 
and fifty millions of the human race. Moreover, a 
country possessing only a million and a half square 
miles of territory, and having the ability to support 
thereupon 20 per cent of the estimated population of 
the entire world, cannot be otherwise than wealthy. 
To those who hold fewness of wants, and not extent 
of possessions, constitute wealth, from such a stand- 
point India is indeed wealthy. A country which 
annually receives and pays for, from 20 to 30 per cent 
of the entire production of the precious metals, and 
which, in addition to this large absorption, f imports 
in increasing quantities articles of luxury such as 
precious stones, spices, corals, j: &c., cannot by any 
stretch of the imagination, be considered as becoming 
gradually poorer. 
Judging from the extent of her national debt, India 
may be said to be wealthy; for, although large, it is 
balanced by revenne-earning assets, equal in the opinion 
of many, to the amount of the debt. This is all the 
more extraordinary when it is considered that India 
has paid for every farthing of her conquest — that she 
continues to pay for an expensive military occupa- 
tion, 'that she has borne the expense of many fruitless 
frontier wars (notably the Afghan war, which cost 
about twenty-four millions sterling), and that she has 
assisted the United Kingdom, in some of her military 
* The Wealth of India and the Hindrances to it 
Increase; by William Bi-kmyre, of Calcutta and For® 
Clasg' vv. Glasgow: M'Nanghtan & Sinclair, 24 Wes^ 
Nile Street. ^ 
t Quanborough’s “ Primer on Commercial and Eco- 
nomic Education,” page 2G. 
J Baibour on “ Bi-metallism,” page 14. 
