September i, i 8 go.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
19? 
Mr. Richards then comes lo figures (which I_do not 
like) with regard to the production of silver in Aus- 
tralia. He says: “ This year I estimate that about three 
and a half million sterling worth of silver and lead 
will be exported”:— what a '* blend” to be sure ! * 
Proceeding, Mr. Richards goes on to say : “ Aus- 
tralia being the only silver-producing country of any 
importance in the British Empire and, barring the 
United States and Mexico, producing more silver than 
any other country in the world ” &c. 
I will not make any more extracts from Mr. Richards’ 
figures, who states that (through him) “ Australia has 
a perfect right to make her voice heard in the great 
bi-metallic controversy that is now agitating Eng- 
land,” but I will accept his figures for “ silver and lead ” 
as referring to silver only—'nz. 3J millions sterling 
for 1889 ! all I want to know is where the balance of 
the silver now being produced in the world, estimated 
by the Chairman of the New 0. B. C. at 32J millions 
sterling, is to come from? 
At £900,000 sterling per month the United States is 
now bound to coin annually actually more silver than 
she is said to produce, viz. £10,800,000 sterling ! It is 
clear that other countries have got to produce (out of 
32| millions)22 millions, and yet Mr. Richard declares 
that “ barring the United States and Mexico,” Australia 
comes the next in the list as a silver-producing country. 
I give him full credit for lead as well as silver, and 
yet the value amounts to only 3| millions sterling. 
Having 18 millions still to trace I would fain know 
what Mexico, Spain and other countries can offer to 
fill up this tremendous gap. With, it is said (in a recent 
telegram), China about to enter the silver market to 
the tune of 30 milliofl taels (=45 million dollars) the 
rupee is evidently destined, ere very long, to give 
Ceylon tea planter a twinge— any way they should be 
prepared for it. — Yours, N. D. 
[Gold is used by 264,000,000 people as their 
monetary standard; silver by 749,000,000. In 
some ancient States — ancient Arabia and ancient 
Germany for instance, — the value of silver was 
superior to that of gold : and so late as the 17th 
century silver and gold were valued equally in 
Japan. From the Encyclopedia Britannica we quote 
as follows : — 
Production . — In the principal producing countries— 
the United States, Mexico, Chili, and Peru — mining is 
free, and there are no official returns of the production, 
which is therefore mere matter of conjecture. In the 
United States it is the custom to value silver bullion 
a oue-sixteenlh that of gold. This unduly swells the 
value of the conjectural product of that country more 
than one-fourth (see Report of the United States 
Monetary Commission of 1876, Appendix, pp. 1-66). 
From a careful consideration of the bullion movement 
the total annual product of silver throughout the 
world at the present time is estimated at between 50 
and 60 million ounces, at which figure it has remained 
steady upwards of ten years. 
Consumption in the Arts. — Direct inquiries as to the 
quantity of silver used in the arts have met with little 
success, and the statistics so obtained are defective. 
But the total production of silver in the Western World 
from the discovery of America to the present time, 
has been, in value, about 1,400 million pounds sterling 
of which abont 300 million pounds remain in coins. 
Consequently 1,100 millions, or nearly four-flfths, have 
been consumed in the arts, lost, &c., or exported to 
Asia. There are estimated to be about 50 or 60 million 
pounds sterling worth of silver coins in India, and 
some trifling amounts each in China, Japan, Persia, 
&o. On the whole it appears quite safe to ertimate 
tho average annual consumption of silver in the arts 
and through wear, tear, and loss as fully equal to 
three-fourths of the production. Lowe in 1822 estima- 
ted it at two-thirds. Sdver is principally used for 
*■ The explanation is that the ore as it is mined is, in 
large proportion, sent to Europe to have the silver 
separated from the lead, that course being found more 
eoonomic.al than refining locally. — Ei). T. A. 
plate and jewellery ; it is also consumed in photo- 
graphy, and in numerous chemical preparations, such 
as lunar caustic, indelible ink, hair dyes, fulminating 
powder &c. 
This was written in 1886-7, we may say. — E d. T.4.] 
CACAO CULTIVATION. 
T, n IT 31st. 
Deae Sir, — Yonr correspondent “ Eldorado ” 
opens up a very wide question. For several years 
past there have been very serious diserepanoies 
between the crops seen on the trees and the crops 
said to have been gathered. At various times I 
have heard certain Dumbara estates credited with 
such splendid returns that the Customs export 
returns looked quite silly in comparison. I hope 
some of the planters whose estates have lately 
yielded 3, _4 or 6 cwt. per acre will come forward 
and explain why their crops have not been des- 
patched to the London or to Continental markets : 
the local demand, we all know, is trifling. 
Eldorado dates the disease in his cacao from 
1885, but he omits to mention in what year he 
commenced to plant shade. There is no doubt 
that the most experienced men, when they began 
to take an interest in cacao, made very serious 
mistakes : some adopting plantains as the only 
possible (and profitable) shade, while some thought 
the cacao trees, it planted close enough, would shade 
one another !— and others fancied jak trees were 
the great desideratum. The apostle of the Trini- 
dad system, to whom you refer as having in- 
troduced the “ best erythrinas,” in his pamphlet 
published in 1879, says;— “ In Trinidad, of course^ 
the Bois Immortelle is their favorite shade tree, on 
account of its rapid growth ; but I cannot say that 
the ideas of the school in which I have been 
brought up quite reconcile me to its use, as it 
seems to me that it is a surface feeder, for it its 
large surface roots be cut, a great quantity of water 
will ooze out of the ground.” The writer was 
quite right in condemning this tree as shade for 
cacao ; and the Pithecolobium Saman, even if 
planted very wide apart, is no better. But the 
dadap referred to by your correspondent is un- 
doubtedly good : it grows faster than either 
Hundreds of acres of cacao that a few years ago 
were nearly dead have been saved by it ; its lower 
branches, as they drop off, can be used as fuel 
and the stems furnish good charcoal. As shade 
for cardamoms, too, this tree has no equal : I 
believe it will be found of great use in cinchona 
clearings also.* 
“Eldorado” gives facts and figures which seem 
very stronglylto support another recent correspondent 
as to the general sterility of all vegetation of late 
years. If the falling-off, not only in crops but 
in growth even, has been common everywhere and 
to all lowcountry products alike, then it must be 
conceded that there is something radically wrong 
—Yours faithfully, UT PROSIM. 
PATENT TEA LEAD-AND-PAPER FOR PACK- 
ING: MR. T. C. ANDERSON'S EXPERIENCES 
^ Colombo, August 1st. 
Dear Sir,- n view of your remarks in your 
footnote to your correspondent “C. S.” ’s letter 
But the DADAP is simply an erythriha, used in 
Java as a shade tree* Those we saw in Java we 
described correctly as shabby-looking, and perhaps 
tlieir non-luxnriant habit is in their favour. The 
Trinidad erythrinas. on tho other hand, which, a few 
years ago, we saw growing amidst the ca.ao at 
Warriapolla, were masses ofrich vegetation It would 
be interesting to learn what Mr. Robert Fraser’s 
I opmiou of the madre de cacao now is, after full trial. 
*■ —Ed. 1\ a 
