November i, 1890.] 
TME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
345 
WVNAAD COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS. 
At the mae iii'i of the South Wyiaarl Estates Oona- 
piuiv on th ' 29ili u'timo, at he OMc' s of the 0 im- 
paii ' in Lon Ion, M''. A R. Elincle spohe as tol o,vs : — 
Wh,-!! first aske I by Mr. Spain to as'Et in ths re- 
suscitation of this comp iiiy, I did it '.vilh a view to 
pKntiiig tea, but my views were overridd 'n by the 
advisors of the company in In l a, who p' eferred to 
go iti extensively for plauiiug ledgers, which, I thinlr, 
was a nii'take. At tlie same time, it i.s but just to 
them to s y rhat at that 'ime there was sca'cely a 
man in the Wyuaad who would have endorsed the 
views I hfld \vith regar 1 to ’hs cidtivaiion of tea. 
But now you find that one of the principal shareh.ddars 
in one of the IVynaa 1 m ties has bei-n out to India 
and has come back stro' glv urging that_ his company 
should plant the whole of its estates in this way. 
On the Onchterlony estate, aim st ndj >cent to your 
prop rty, they have gone to the ex’ens of ji'antmg 
1 200 acres with tea, an I the manager of tne two 
comp’itias that have already writt-n wi h regard to 
having joi ,t works, Air P t^erson, is .so sati-tied as 
to the residV of tea cuhivati'n that I believe, oral 
least 1 thi, k, he has wri'teii hoiu) to his companies 
urging them to cultivate their spare lands with tei. 
Mr. Hamlin, who is no w the manager or the Oiie ital 
Bank Estates in Ceylon, ami who has had, therefor , 
exceptional advantages of knowing whit tea will do, 
and who has ha:l a still longer experience of the 
Wynaad, tells me he calc dates toere is nothing In 
Oeylon that can boat Wyoaad as a tei-pro .uoing 
country, und tint tiio one fear Oeylon li.ns Is tint 
Wynaad will e in ark ext.nsivo'y in tea cul i Aon 
I may saf.-ly say ihaS ih re is o dy one es ute in 
Ceylon frit yields ,uything like t i • r uUs obttiii d 
in the IVynaad. On tiie Ouchterl .ny Eshite the e wa . 
produced 600 lb. unde tea p' r acre, and on an estate 
abandoned for coffee they are getting an avenge of 
8001b., and upon the Pei lash ila Mr. Minchin ha- 
of an acre of this tea, and tells me that ha got 500 lb. 
of made tea from even thatqiiantit of Imd. It is 
upon Die yield of tea that ov rything de, en 1«, and f 
caicu ate, an! think! have allowela liieal margin 
for everything, that you csn put yonr tea on 'he 
market here and sell it at 6d, per lb, and if oarefjilv 
prepared, it should rea iso fully Is. per lb., which will 
give yon on the 150 acres it is proposed to plant, an 
income of 111,000 a year. 
The Pr.iNTixo of Pepper. — I a'sj advocated. It 
has been adopted im a good m my estates, where it 
is plan ed in conjunction with c (fee. There is a 
drawback, beciusc ynu have t > coppice your standards 
once a year, and that is injurious to the coffee, hut 
I have seen vines gr.jwiug noon Mr. IValker’s e t.ate 
at P. r -ngodda, the yields of which was roinetunes 
extraordi ary. The (luestion that arose was wiie'her 
our pepper wouhl be erju d t’) Malahnr pepper crown 
be'ow the Ghauts. The first pepper brou ;ht a higlier 
price than any on the mirkct, an I tlie nativ s are 
turning their attend .u io its clmiv ition in the Wynaad. 
If you grow the peppsr amongst the tei, y.i i have 
to cop lice the tea, ant ther fire you do not i jnro 
the tea one atom. Y u wou'd g t the vvh de of the 
proits of the vine a no c.sas g b'ciuse the cost of 
cul'iva i in is borne by the t a, si that all ymi hive 
ts pay is the on Uy i i harvesting. I prop se that -he 
preciiulion bo taken of plan ing through the ci' choaa 
thes ■ s andiird.s al-o, fo that if by possitde chance 
yon did get ciukor then \on would have the pepper 
vino standing, and by the time your lodger has given 
out you Would have a p mper esta'e in its place, 
which would subsequently bo planted with tea. I 
think I have given fair and reasonable grounds for 
saying that the prnsp cts of ihn companv are goad, 
hiciniie yon can calculate soinoitniig like .£0) an acre 
pr ifi from your tei laid when it has c iiue 'o ma'ur- 
ity. You will g 'ttoi (-0 w dl 1ms it come on ) within 
nine mouths from its being plintml in the open. 
On the cin ho'ta I have placid appiire itly a hi h 
value, liiit ilie liginvs are base I upo i actual re urn.s 
o t lined, and figures as given to me by the lea ling 
phiuters in tlie Wynaah I havi' cnlculato l simply 
‘1 lb. of dry bark to the fully matured tree, and that 
II 
it will yield you only 4 per c^nt. of quinine, though 
1 have had au at a'ysis ot llp'reeut., and f have 
taken the itride value of that at ‘2f/- per lb., so that 
T do not think I have been guilty of over-valuatior, 
espnoially as 7 percent. W"Ul! be about the actual 
produc“. The 'market for cincb'ma is perhaps lower 
no V than it has • ver been, and f have the assurance 
of Mr Himihi (md fhera is nobody mote qualified 
to speak than be) that the visible stocks of cin- 
chona are .siinp'y kept up by the destrue ion of the 
pla I' at'on.s— ,i fact that the consumer does not know 
— and it is only the qne.stio i of a year or two when 
of necis itv y u muT hive a rise in the value of 
your hark, wh'ch I have not discounted in the slightest 
decree. In the Wynaad the .same process is going 
on. I sh uid think there is a material reduction in 
the iioUial ac eage under cuUivai-ion, and practically 
not a single acre has been put in to -npoly what 
has bieo dpsirnyed, beo iuse ihe low pri -es do not 
induce p'a itatioii. Mwiov.-r, the actual area from 
whi 'h h ik can bo suoces.su'ly grown i.s exceedingly 
small. In Ceylon it will not gro v except in a few 
favnn e.l districis. and when I tell you that 40 or 
50 acres of ledger embrace 'ills whole of it, jmu may 
fancy^ ho V limited is the area upon which it can 
lie produce h Tha risult will be that probably we 
shall have Ch'nchona at as many shilling’s per pound 
as it n iw is in pence. With regar I to coffee I esn 
support all that. Mr. Gramshiw has said. When 
y n took over the estate the c-ffee had been so ro- 
gd'cted that they actually had to take axes and cut 
do'.vn the t-ees to the destruction of much that was 
valu.ible. I do not know any other place io the 
Wynaad that wo d i have stood nioh f eatenieiit, 
bpcanso ,nt tlie present time, with Iho excep'iou of tie 
Ouch or’o y, that is the b st ; and that e.state 'S 
not iri u.sly good. Wbat the chairraaii has told you 
a.s to the cost and trouble cf brin_ing this estate, 
round is piei fec'ly o'.rrect. AVith regard to tea it bad 
li»fn so abandoned, an 1 was actually burnt to the 
ground. The jungle has now beenolearrd away, and 
AI’'. PuniK-tt tias written to say that as regard.s tea 
there h is .scare ly been the fnilure of a single tree. 
All the mining operations took idace above what is 
now the cultivated ground and the debris was thrown 
upon it. 1 think it is a healtliy t<-a and when we 
no longer require the plant for seed purposes it can ha 
cut down and commence toyiehl probably 800 lb. of tea 
per acre. (Rear, hear .) — bidadras Mail, Sept. 25th, 
^ 
FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO 
L.\KE TCHAD. 
The Nouvelle Revue has nn article on the Trans- 
Siharan railway scheme. The writer warmly 
.'spouses the views expressed the other day by Mr. 
^tanl ny. France must construct a railway, and 
construct it s on. Tlie moment for action has 
arrived. Tlie economic future of France is, more 
or less, entirely involved, and her political 
importance is no less concerned. Financially, 
Bcie itifloally, diplom i tic <lly, the way has been 
cleave I. The great ohj°oiioii to the scheme lies in 
its name. The Soudan causes everyone to think of 
Tonqnin, of Dahomey, of distant and fruitless 
expeditions. But there is no true parallel. The 
base ol the project must be Algeria— the goal. Lake 
Tchad. Tlio topographical conditions are shown to 
indicate this unmistakably. Lake Tchad is tha 
‘‘ enviable port ” of French African enterprise. 
"In order to enter it it is enough to reach the 
plateau of Ahir in the c> ntra of the zone of influence 
which Her BrdaTuii.i Majedy ia good enough to 
recognize as ours. Alaster- ot this point, we hold 
the African continent strategically from the Equator 
to the Mediterranean. We cover the Niger and 
Tiinhuctoo. Our Senegal will not have to wait 
long before we join hands with it.” The tide of 
Eastern and Western Islamisni, which at present 
