696 
THE TROPICAL AtHTlCtJLTURIST. 
[April i, 1891* 
quite evident that Lord Salisbury does not mean 
to give up one inch of the territory recently 
exploited by the South A.frican Expedition. Five 
hundred carefully selected men of this Expedi- 
tion since disbanded, have now taken up allot- 
ments chiefly for mining purposes and nothing 
can ever alter the British character of the grand 
territorial area so occupied and settled. The 
exports of gold from this quarter will soon show 
how rich is the country in auriferous wealth and 
the usual rush of population from Australia and 
the mother-country may be expected to follow. 
♦ 
PREPARATION OP CACAO IN CEYLON. 
[From the “ Trinidad Agricultural Record ” for 
Jan, 1891.'] 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, 
24th October 1890. 
The Hon’ble the Colonial Secretary, Colombo. 
Sir, — In returning to you His Excellency Sir W. 
Robinson’s letters forwarded to me with your letter 
No. 33 of 20th October, I have the honour to express 
my pleasure that the information I was able to afford 
proved bo much to the point as regards the inquiry 
upon which he was engaged. I beg that you will con- 
vey my thanks to His Excellency for the copy of his 
article, and in accordance with his request that I would 
make a few additional remarks, I beg leave to offer the 
following observations suggested by its perusal: — 
1. Though we have now pretty well settled the point 
(long in doubt) that the “ old red Cacao so long culti- 
vated in Ceylon is that known in the West Indies as 
Criollo or Caracas,” it should be borne in mind 
that . it is now by no means the case that all 
the Cacao sent from Ceylon to tha London 
Market is of that variety. Of late years a good deal of 
Forastero (and that of numerous sorts) has been grown : 
and the opinion of planters is by no means universally 
in favour of the Caracas variety. For in the market 
the two sorts are often very evenly priced. Thus, lots 
of the two kinds grown on the same estate and 
kept carefully separate and sold on the same day in 
March last in London, fetched respectively par owt : — 
Caracas, average lOS/lJ ; Forastero, average 107/. 
I am not aware on what evidence Mr. Morris’s state- 
ment that Ceylon is indebted for Criollo Cacao to the 
Dutch is based. It may be correct, but the earliest 
record I have met with of the plauf. in the Colony is 
1819, and I believe it t ; have been then quite recently 
introduced. This would be some twenty years after 
the British occupation. But there is no record of 
whence it was obtained, nor is there any certainty that 
it was of the Criollo variety, though this is probable. 
What is certain is that the great bulk of the Caracas 
Cacao in Ceylon is descended from a consignment of 
seedlings obtained in 1831-5 by Governor Sir W. 
Horton from Trinidad. 
The general difference of the two sorts as grown now 
in Ceylon con'd not bo better described than in the 
words quoted in Sir W. Robinson’s paper (p p. 3, 4) 
from tho Af/riculturo Vener.olano, 
3. Ilis Excellency rightly dwells on the importance, 
of careful artificial drying in wet and sunless weather, 
hut there is anotlier p 'iutin which Ceylon practice 
dilfers from that followed in the West ludies to which 
he has scarcely alluded. That is the washing of the 
Bfecds. None of the imioilage or pulp is ever allowed 
to dry on the hean; all is carefully washed away by 
copious r.nj repeated ablutions.* It is this especially 
that gives the Ceylon product tho clean “bright” 
h,uk that is appreciated in the market. I should, 
Lowcv( r, reinarlc tint tho attou'ion of the Trinidad 
cmrivators has been already strongly called to this in 
an arlielo by Mr. i’rcstoj iii the Tr'inidad Chronicle so 
long back as 1883. JliiNiiy Tuimkn. 
* The Eiitar of the Triaidud A//riciiUurtd Record 
holds that there is eon.sequenUy a loss of 20 per cent 
ill weight and that therelore 01/ per ewt. for Trinidad 
tjcviij tqual to 81/ for Coylou.— En, T, A. 
It is very important for onr readers to bear in mind, 
that Criollo and Forestero do not respectively stand 
for the types of Ceylon and Trinidad Cacao. Ceylon 
has both the varieties no doubt pure and they may be 
of equal value — with us both types have degenerated 
and are characterised by a large proportion of very 
flat beans. That is our difficulty. — Ed. 
NATIVE AGRICULTURE IN INDIA. 
You may train up a child in accordance with 
the most beautiful theories in the world, and the 
result will be disappointing if you do not feed him 
at the same time. Here in India we have an 
immense number of people living on the verge of 
starvation. We cannot feed them, and those who 
are grown up must continue to find their way to 
Nirvana with a stomach seldom or never full and 
very often empty ; but if we can bring ourselves 
to abjure the words of antiquated masters, we may 
be able to do something for the children of the 
rising generation by teaching them lo find more 
food for themselves. The discovery of a new art, 
the adoption of an improved process, the invention 
of a new implement, each and all are equivalent 
in an agricultural community to the finding of 
a great granary, the existence of which was 
hitherto unexpected, and there is no good reason 
to suppose that the arts, processes and inven- 
tions suitable for the tillage of Indian soil have 
already been perfected. The native cultivator is no 
doubt, when the hopelessness of the struggle to 
better his position does not drive him to despair, 
wonderfully skilful up to a point; but it is the 
point where science only begins, and to say that the 
discoveries of physical and mechanical science have 
nothing to teach us in agriculture is to shut our 
eyes to the experience of Europe during the last 
hundred years. No doubt the native cultivator 
thinks he has got as far as he can : Squire Western 
also would have laughed at the notion of a steam 
plough : but this is no reason why those who know 
better should agree to think so, or despair of per- 
suading the native to change his mind. 
Past experience, however, with its record of 
abortive experimental farms stored with model 
implements never leading to copies, shows that to 
attempt this from the top is to attempt an almost 
impossible task. We must begin at the bottom ; we 
must take the child, while yet years of routine on 
the paternal homestead have not induced the 
conviction that his father knew as much as 
it was possible to know ; we must teach him 
first of all to look on agriculture as an occupa- 
tion in which improvement is always possible ; and 
we must impart just such a rudimentary instruc- 
tion as will give him a glimpse of the direction 
in which this improvement may lie, and inspire 
him to take that road. When we have done this 
our experimental farms, our agricultural exhibitions, 
our Echolarshipa to send one or two in a hundred 
and fifty millions to a technical English school, 
will catch on, if we may use an Americanism, in 
a way they have never done before. Sir Edward 
Buck stated that proposals for carrying the recom- 
mendations of Dr. Voelcker into effect would shortly 
be made ; but whatever the precise nature of these 
recommendations and proposals, the foundation of 
all must be laid in the ordinary school. It this 
is done, the boy who can afford to wait at school 
and go on to college, will carry with him from the 
outset the knowledge that success in agriculture is 
a worthy aim, which demands education as well as 
clerking, or sohoolmastering, or soribbling, or 
pettifogging : the boy who cannot, will at least 
carry back to the fields tho spirit of inquiry, the 
parent of progress in agriculture as in every other 
sphere of human activity and effort,— Rioneef, 
