574 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[February 2, 18, 
direct from this office or eubsequently can be 
obtained from our Agents in Colombo. — Yours 
faithfully, J. M. MAITLAND KlitWAN. 
P.S , — Since writing the foregoing, I have given 
instructions to de patch of a consignment of the 
paper to the Colombo Agents, where it can now 
be had. J. M. M. K, 
CACAO CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
Sir. — I n looking over the report of the Lanka Co. 
1 notice that their cacao estate gave a profit during 
the 1 et year of about 25 per cent on the amount this 
propel ty stands at. in their books. 
What does your correspondent “ Eldorado ” think 
of this ? 
I do not know what return on capital is considered 
to constitute an Eldorado, but I fancy 25 per cent 
wonld b ■ considered by most of the shareholders in 
the Company ELDORADO ENOUGH. 
Sir, — E vidently our estimable friend “ Eldorado ” 
is not interested in the Lanka Co., or he would not 
attempt to traverse my suppositions a<s to the feelings 
of shareholders. I htve nothing to add to my previous 
letter on this point and nothing to retract. But does 
• he in all seriousness expect a cacao estate not yet in 
full bearing to pay 25 per cent on its cost calculating 
this with comp'iund interest at 8 per cent? It would 
appear indeed that there was a time when some such 
fantastic dreams floated before his headed imagination. 
How I wish, dear “Eldorado,” that wo had fore- 
gathered in those happy days of your : 
” When all your geese were swans, lad. 
And every lass a queen ! ” 
We should not have been long. I 'll go bail in un- 
earthing some confidiog capitalist, and this is how 
we wonld have put it, n’est ce pas mon ami ? — “ In other 
producing countries” (there is a judicious vagu -mess 
about the phrase which lingers on my palate ; if he 
had remarked that the yield in Trinidad, sny, was 
less than we stated, we would have fixed him with 
Venezuela or the Celebes Islands). — “In other producing 
countries” the average crop is not less than 6 cwt. per 
acre with a psimitive cultivation. In Ceylon, where 
tropical agriculture has been thoroughly studied and 
developed to a point of perfection unknown elsewhere, 
we shall be well within the mark in placing our pro- 
duction at 10 cwt., which, cured as it will be with the 
latest inventions of onrXIXth century civilization, may 
be relied on to fetch 100s per cwt. all round. We have, 
then, a gross return of £50 per acre, or allowing £5 an 
acre f 'r a liberal and scientific cultivation, a net return 
of £45 per acre showing an income from the 500 acres 
prop rty we have in v^ew of £22,600 per annum. 
“To a well -inf 01 med man like you, sir, it is unnecessary 
to point out that, the variety of cacao chiefly grown in 
Ceylon is exactly the same as that in “ other producing 
countries ” and that it is entirely planted in the finest 
virgin soil, no old coffee land whatever having been 
rushed into jfiis product so that the yield of “other 
prodnoing countri< s” gives us an accurate basis of com- 
paris n in every way, and we have only increased it from 
6 to 10 cwt. on account of the well-known advantages 
which onr island possesses. 
“There are those who will tell you that a considerable 
proportion of the bind appearing in the Ceylon Directory 
as under caoao ought never to have been planted, that 
practically the whole crop comes from a much smaller 
average, aud that planters in their dislike of a “primi- 
tive” ciUivaiion made the most fa’al mistakes in the 
early days of the outerprise— do not, my dear sir, give 
any credence to these malicious statements. 
‘ In conclusion, Mr. Moneybag, a, we cannot too strongly 
urge on you the necessity of appointing two thoroughly 
experienced managers one for the Loudon office and 
one for the estate. Wo believe we aro in a position to 
name to )ou two parties who would he prepared f"r the 
nominal salary of £2,000 a yoar < ach to undertake the 
onerous duties of those posts, and we are confident that 
wluctevor your position might be at ihoeiidofafcw 
years, they at least woul ' find it 
ELDORADO ENOUGH.'’ 
/■'. .9. — .loking apart, if your correspondent started 
with some such grand ideas as the above I do not wonder 
that he has beeu disappointed, and he has my sincere 
sympathy. I believe however and shall continue to do 
to till convinced by stronger argument than he has yet 
a Ivanced or by the inex' rable logic and fact that a we ll- 
chosen, caretully cultivated cacao plantation in Ceylon 
offers as good an opportunity for remunerative invest- 
ment as any other product in the island. Because mis- 
takes have been made, which we ell know is the case, is 
no reason why mud should be thrown at the whvie 
enterprise. E. E. 
CACAO CULTIYATION. 
Dear Sir, — Some weeks ago, one of yonr corres- 
pondents, who seemed to be disappointed with the re- 
sults of the past few years, quoted figures from your 
Directory showing that the average yield of cacao 
was only cwt per acre in bearing. Another cor- 
respondent, more fortunate, gave his returns as 2 or 
3 cwt. per acre, but no higher figures have been 
quoted. 
As the total exported includes, of course, all the 
cacao stolen from estates aud sold through native 
traders, actual return to proprietors must be very 
low indeed. At a moderate computation the quantity 
stolen may be reckoned at ten percent: many indi- 
vidual estates losing very much more. — Yours faith, 
fully, POWDER AND SHOT. 
WIRE SHOOTS. 
Dec. 20th. 
Dear Sir, — “Shoot” ’s letter of lOtli inst. asking if 
“ a wire shoot can bo worked at a gradient of one foot 
in seven from point to point with a read tracer” 
has been drawn to my attention, and my opinion is 
that a shoot can be made to woik at such a gra< ient. 
If the land between the two points is of a similar 
gradient, in my opinion it would be necessary to have 
intermediate supports to carry the wire to prevent it 
Irom bagging. If the shoot is not a very long one 
and wanted to cross a ravine or galley, intermediate 
supports would ni t be required. 
On large tea estates -a here transport of leaf and 
fuel from a higher to a lower elevation is an expensive 
i'em, wire shoots v. lil hy-aud by, I have no doubt, 
become as common as spouting which was found so 
useful in the coffee days. 
These shoots canbe'made to tap the different fields 
of the estate en route by a simple arrangement of 
shunts at tho various receiving houses or turnings, so 
that bags of leaf and billets of wood will be seen 
flying through the air like miniature trains zigzag 
fashion from tho top of the estates to the factories 
at the bottom. Where estates are not very steep, and 
as managers acquire a thorough knowledge of regu- 
lating the loads, they will, later on, where the gradients 
are easy, find it perfectly safe to slip ihe small pulley 
with pocket brake and cord they carry for the purpose 
ou to the shoot, aud without any exertion descend 
from any one point to any other of the estate along 
the line of wire, at the rate of 10 or 12 miles an hour. 
With so many able engineering firms in the country, 
I have DO doubt that when the demand arises for the 
wire shoots to do as I have tried to describe, they 
will bo made and guaranteed to work satisfactorily. 
—Yours truly, OLD HAND, ' 
ON FORKING TEA LAND NO. 1. 
Dear Sir,— I see no difficulty in reconciling the deep- 
hoeing system of Assam with the danger of the same 
operation on Ceylon upeounlry estates. All organisms 
ailapt themselves to their environments so long as 
these minister more or less to their requirements. 
In proportion as these are favorable the plant (in 
tho case we are considering) flourishes, or, in their 
entire absence, dies. If the humus and otlier plant 
food be equally tUstrihuted through the soil, however 
