January i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
All 
he wrote to me on 30th November, 1879, and 
three months later I find him writing—" Back 
again, full of acquired valuable information ; damages, 
£200 ; well worth it. My next_ move will be to the 
East, to show them how to do it. It is important to 
give the new product a correct start on entering the 
market, and getting a good name from the first. Lanka 
will owe me not d little, I assure you.” Two years 
more, and my friend writes his last from Ceylon. O 
for a crack with you ! The coffee ie played out, but 
the chocolate is magnificent, 800 acres planted on Palli, 
first planted bearing 8 cwts. per acre— 113s 6d in 
London ! (Trinidad only realising at same sale 90s.) 
Clear profit, 100s per cwt.” 
Mr. Tytler’s estates continued to prosper, and are 
now among the best cocoa estates in the world; realis- 
ing probaly from £7,000 to £8,000 clear profit a year ; 
but the full tide of prosperity came, alas ! too late for 
my good old familiar friend. “ Oh for the dream-days 
back again ” he was wont to exclaim—" They were glori- 
ous realities— no-vt it is the dregs, the apples of Sodom. 
Foggy neeps ! 
j?he annual export of cocoa from Ceylon has now 
reached 2,000,000 lb., paying the producer handsomely ; 
but a new generation of planters has arisen who 
know not their benefactor. Meanwhile, it is curious to 
note that our friends in the West Indies are about to 
send a commissioner all the way to Ceylon to see 
“ how the thing is done." Still more curious and start- 
ling is the case of tea, the export of which has now 
risen to over 40,000,000 lb., and in a few yrafs more is 
estimated to reach 70,000,000; while it is positively 
painful to read the lamentations of Chinamen over 
tlieir decaying industry. Albeit, John has, as usus], 
ha d but scant justice in this tea business, handicapped 
asa he is with a heavy export duty — a duty, by the 
w y, for years collected by British officials to pay for 
our uninvited visit to Pckiu. In other words, the 
Chinese have paid their so-called indemnities in tea. 
Is it any wonder, under the circumstances, that the 
China leaf does not improve in quality or cleanliness. 
COLONIENSIS, 
— Aberdeen Free Press, Oct. 11th. 
OUR TEA CROPS AND ESTIMATES. 
It 13 well to put on record once more in an 
unmistakable way, bow the figures stand in 
reference to our Tea Crops, or rather Shipments, 
and Estimates. — For the old Commercial Year 
1889-90 (1st Oct. 1889 to 30th Sept. 1890) Messrs. 
Rutherford and Scovell estimated total shipments 
equal to .. ... ... 43,000,000 1b. 
The Ceylon Observer estimated ... 42,000,000 „ 
Actual result . . . . 42,994,000 , , 
For the current Commercial Year {1890-91 
estimates are as follows 
Ceylon Observer’s ... 51,000,000 lb. 
Mr. A. E. Scovell’s ... 52,000.000 lb. 
For the Calendar Year 1891, — 
Mr. H. K. Rutherford estimates: — 52,730,000 lb. 
This will, we believe, prove it anything below 
the mark, and our own inclination will be to 
estimate for 189V’s shipments, at a million more,— 
Ceylon Observer for 1891, — 53,760,000 
But we shall be better able to judge at the end 
of the present year. If, as we expect, the total ship- 
ments for 1890 will not be less than 45,000,000 or 
an increase of close on 11 million lb. on 1889, we 
should expect a rise of not less than 9 millions lb. 
in 1891. 
But of more interest to our home readers is it 
to mention that the total shipments of Ceyl .n 
Tea to the United Kingdom in 1890 are likely to 
be about 42.) million lb. againsi 104^ million lb. 
from Iiuii.i in season 1890-91. In 1891, Ceylon 
will proliably send close on 50 milli 'n lb. to tha 
United Kingdom, unless a big trade direct between 
Colombo and New York, Colombo and Odessa sot 
in, as well as a steady increase in the export to 
Australasia. In that case we may have less than 
50 million lb. to send to London. 
NOTES FROM CALIFORNIA. 
Our readers will find much that is interesting 
in the following letter from a former Ceylon 
planter who has now settled down to cultivate 
“bean land” in far-off California: — 
Rancho Santa Katrina, Saticoy, 
Ventura County, California, Sept. 9th. 
It is a long cry from here to Ceylon, but I have 
no doubt the Postal Union is capable of carrying 
my good wishes for yourself and family and for the 
“Old Rag,” for a perusal of which mv soul panteth 
sometimes, to read of old friends and old familiar 
doings. 
You will have doubtless heard of my moving here. 
I arrived at New York on the 18th June, and making 
Sarramento on the 25th of that montli I made a 
stay of a few days in Northern California in the 
lovely valley of Loomis of the Citrus Colony, which 
by-the-bye is largely made up of English gentlemen. 
I was greatly pre.ssed to stay, and was very much 
tempted to do so, as much for the proximity to the rail- 
way, the capital town, and fertility of .soil as the social 
attractions biV did not ; I was afraid that though hand- 
some returnb^could be expected I was hardly strong 
enough for the labour required. 
The colony being the youngest in California, hired 
labour was hard to get and very expensive. What 
do you say to strawberries paying there at the rate of 
$1,800 per acre ! A man could only cultivate a few 
acres at a time, as you may suppose, the ground 
requiring constant euitivation and irrigation. 
A truly lovely country nature-planted with immense 
live oiks and waving wi h natural g.asse.s and wild 
oats self-sown, I had of course to rough it, sleeping 
double and washing outside, sharing the basin nith 
half-a-dozen rough quarry-men, who slept in the grounds 
outside the express office (my hotel) in a tent. Having 
enough of that I took ticket for this country, and 
was staying some time with an old Ceylon friend, before 
moving in'o my own qua tors, and an old acquaintance 
of youiM of the name ot J, U. Morrison who is married 
and settled here. The address hea ing of my letter i.s 
ray own lanch of 40 acres of beiii land. This land 
lies above the mouth of the Santa Clara river 
facing the grand Pacific, with the barrier islands of 
Auacapa (see map) and Santa Cruz on the right and 
the Guadalasca range across the river to the left — 
with Red Hill mountain standing grand and bold in 
the clear soft blue of tha sky. 
My attention at present is largely engaged in the 
erection of a house and windmid,*t having just com- 
pleted the boring of a 234 feet well. All 
details of daily life have to be done by oneself, — 
cooking, grooming of the horses, washing, dusting &c. ; 
monotonous, continous work but not too hard. The 
out-door work all can be done by one not too strong 
and who like myself has never done hard manual work 
before, with perhaps the one exception of ploughing — 
the original ploughing of the land. But this neigh- 
bouring farmers will do at a day’s pay — generally from 
$1*50 to $2’00. I like the life, the country and tho 
people (now that I know something of them) greatly 
and would not exchange with anyone. It has a 
glorious climate and room for 30,000,000 of pe'ple 
where there is not bat l.j milli m. I say, come one, 
come all. There is no need of American uiituralization, 
one can stick to the old flag and yet take part in 
Brother Jonathan’s dollars — pronounced darlAers. 
There is much to interest in this, one of the oldest 
historical sp ts on American soil. It was here Padre 
Junipero first landej for tho conversion of the Indians, 
and finding a quiet sea, a fair harbo ir, and a populous, 
gentle, kindly people to welcome him, called it Buena 
Venturi — “ good venture’’ — and here ho erected the 
quaint old adobe (sun-dried brick) church which still 
Brands in the main street of tho town of Ventura (five 
miles for Santa Katrina) — tnsliriuicg (surrounded as it is 
with modern wooden buildings of every conceivable 
American bad-taste) in its somewhat gloomy interior 
^Windmill power ought surely to be largely utilized 
in Oeylon. — E d. T, A. 
