the  tropical  agriculturist. 
[Fku  I,  1896. 
550 
YAUIOUS  I'LANTINc;  NOTES. 
following  from  the  “ Jall'ii.a  Catholic  Gufirtlian  ” 
“ A line  specie.s  of  tobacco  niucli  i»iizecl  by.Jairnr 
trailers  for  its  strength  and  aroma  is  giown  al 
Nilavelly  in  the  Trinconialec  district,  where  i1 
ror.ACCO  \T  Tkincomalkk.— We  take  tlie 
following  from  the  “ Jall'na  Catholic  Gufirilian  ” : — • 
adha 
at 
.........  it 
is  now  reported  that  tlie  plants  in  gardens  and 
nnrsnries  have  been  destroyed  by  excessive  rains.''’ 
Pn.\NTiNG  IN  jM.vTALE. — The  Matale  correspondent 
of  a contemporary  writes : — Heavy  cocoa  crops  are 
now  being  gathered  throughout  the  district  ; tlie 
estates  north  of  Matale  are  doing  especially  well. 
Liberian  Coffee  planting  also  making  considerable 
s'rides.  IMessrs.  Storey  and  Brockman  are  putting  in 
100  acres  of  Liberian  alone  on  their  new  West  Matale 
estate,  and  interplanting  with  cocoa  is  much  in  favour. 
Thu  Fibre  Industry.' — A corres])ondont  of  the 
“Jaffna  Catholic  Guardian”  writes: — “The  trade 
in  Palmirah  libre  wbicb  was  reported  by  a con- 
temporary as  ‘gone,’  lias  again  revived.  The 
fact  is,  there  was  for  sometime  a rapid  decline, 
not  a total  extension  of  it.  owing  to  the  fall 
in  the  London  Market,  which  made  it  an  un- 
remnnerative  business  to  all  concerned.  M ith 
the  rise  in  the  jirice  in  London,  the  industry 
has  begun  to  revive  ; but  fibre  cannot  now  be 
got  as"  largely  as  formerly  for  love  or  money, 
owing  to  the  very  great  havoc  already  m.ade  on 
palnurah  plantations  in  every  part  of  the  province.  ’ 
Native  Coffee  Planters  in  India  and  in  Jamaica. 
— It  is,  says  a contemporary,  the  intelligence  and 
imitative  faculty  of  the  Indian  paasmtry  that  make 
them  so  valuable  a factor  in  the  labour  market 
abroad.  The  want  of  these  qualities  are  a draw- 
back to  industrial  development.  The  most  noticeable 
instance  of  this  latter  remark  comes  from  Jamaica, 
where  the  cultivation  of  special  products  like  coffee, 
cacao,  kola,  Ac.,  have  been  carried  on  for  a period 
sufficiently  long  to  have  been  taken  up  by  the  in- 
digenous population,  if  that  population  possessed 
these  qualities  to  any  appreciable  extent.  But  we 
find  a committee  of  horticulturists  and  planters, 
only  now,  proposing  to  improve  indigenous  industry 
in  these  directions,  by  lectures  and  the  dis- 
semination of  leaflets  containing  instructions  on  new 
and  improved  methods.  The  native  .Jamaican  coffee 
planter  understands  neither  how  10  plant  coffee,  how  to 
cultivate  it,  nor  how  to  harvest  it.  Each  of  the 
processes  is  thoroughly  understood  by  every  coffee 
planting  native  of  India,  and  some  of  the  estates 
owned  by  them  are  models  of  up-to-date  methods 
that  will  compare  favourably  with  the  properties  of 
Europeans,  whose  pr.rcticos  they  have  imitated  only, 
too  closely.  No  Indian  coffee  planter  ever  thinks 
of  putting  down  a three-year-old  coffee  plant  with 
berries  upon  it  haphazard  which  the  .Janiaica  native 
will  not  abandon,  with  the  result  that,  at  maturity, 
the  tree  is  sickly,  stunted  and  unprofitable.  Nor 
will  he  allow  his  coffee  to  be  over-shadowed  or  to 
remain  unpruned  and  unweeded.  He  sees  the  bene- 
fits of  these  operations  upon  the  estates  of  his 
Pluropean  neighbours  or  of  his  erstwhile  employers, 
and  follows  them  so  closely  as  oftentimes  to  make 
him  a not  contemptible  competitor.  In  ihe 
matter  of  curing  too,  where  self-interest,  we 
should  imagine,  would  dictate  more  rational  inelnocis, 
the  Jamaican  tries  to  dry  his  crop  on  the 
bare  earth,  in  the  wet  season,  actually  resorting  to 
the  use  of  iron  posts,  as  driers.  Thus  his  coffee 
goes  into  the  market  defectively  prepared,  mildewed 
and  in  a condition  that  causes  it  to  roalizo.  low  prices. 
In  this  respect  the  Indian  native  coffee  plaiuer  is 
immeasurably  his  superior,  and  although  the  latter  a 
crop  is  not  so  presentable  as  that  of  the  TiUropean, 
it  turns  it  close.  The  comniitteo  to  which  allusion 
has  been  made  above,  talk  of  central  factories  in  .Ja- 
maica for  the  purchase  of  coffee  in  the  cherry,  in 
order  that  it  may  be  cured  liy  a proper  set  of  machin- 
ery.  Something  of  the  sort  will  liave  to  be  done  if 
coffee  planting  is  to  bo  continued  111  the  island.  J|y 
latest  statistics  the  exports  are  shown  to  have  greatly 
decreased  and  to  be  gradually  falling  oH.—Luluai  and 
f^astern  Engineer,  Dec.  7. 
Tka  in  India. — Kemaikiiig  oil  tea  eiiltivatioii 
ill  Noi'tlieni  India,  the  Madraa  Mail  says  that 
the  niiU'giii  of  profit  has  for  the  hist  four  yeans 
been  generally  on  the  increase.  The  .Jorehaut 
Goinuaipy  of  A.ssani,  for  instance,  has  [laid  a 
steadily  increasing  dividend — in  181)2,  It)  per  cent; 
in  ISy.j,  I2i  per  cent ; in  1894,  15  per  cent;  and 
in  1895,  20  ]ier  cent  with  the  result  that  its 
shares  which  in  1892  only  reached  a niaxinmin 
value  of  T.'H,  have  this  year  touched  £52  and  have 
never  fallen  below  £44.  The  prices  by  the  way 
for  1895  are  taken  from  the  November  Inccstur’s 
Monthl]j  Manual  so  they  are  not  quite  complete 
for  the  year  ; but  they  show'  what  we  have  already 
drawn  attention  to,  viz.  the  greater  demand 
that  there  has  been  for  tea  shares  during  the  year. 
Referring  to  Southern  India,  our  contemporary 
remarks  that  Travancore  has  gradually  raised 
over  the  ruins  of  her  coffee  industry  a splendid 
tea  enterjirise,  giving  once  more  an  examjile  of 
what  optimism,  backed  by  brains,  can  do  in  the 
face  of  actual  disaster.  Only  last  year  Messrs, 
b'inlay,  Muir  v'e  Go.  made  a large  purchase  of 
land  in  this  State  for  expres.sed  purpose  of  tea 
cultivation,  and  not  only  are  they  opening  out 
tliis  tract  of  laud  as  quickly  as  po.ssible,  but  they 
are  develoiiing  the  whole  country  side  ; con- 
structing roads  and  performing  work  which  in 
any  other  country  the  Government  would  have 
gladly  undertaken.  On  the  Nilgiris  tea  has  been 
cultivated  for  many  years  past,  but  so  far  as  we 
are  aware  there  has  been  no  great  extension  within 
recent  years.  Reference  is  then  maile  to  the 
attention  which  is  now  being  paid  to  the  Wynaad. 
SUDAR  CUDTIVATION  IN  Ckylon.— A former 
Geylon  iilanter,  Mr.  .James  4).  Dixon,  writes 
from  Fiji  (his  letter  is  given  on  page  543)  ex- 
pressing the  utmost  confidence  that— past  failures 
notwithstanding — the  cultivation  of  the  sugarcane 
in  Cejdon  for  the  production  of  sugar  can  be 
made  to  [lay,  and  pav'  handsomely.  It  will  be 
seen  that  Mr.  Dixon  states  his  disbelief  in  our 
climate’s  having  anything  to  do  with  the  failures 
of  former  years;  but  on  this  point  we  have  the 
siuqiort  of  ex|ierienced  planters  when  we  say 
that  we  fear  it  has  everything  to  do  with  it.  It 
has  been  proved  by  sad  experience  that  locally- 
grown  sugarcane  contains  too  much  water  for 
its  sugar  to  crystallize  |irojierlj'.  However,  if 
any  capitalist  is  willing  to  risk  his  money  in  an 
attempt  to  ]iroduce  cane  sugar  iirulitably  in 
Geylon,  '.ve  ha\e  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Dixon  will 
lie  willing  to  undertake  the  managemeHt  of  the 
enterprise.  In  the  Planting  Review  iirelixcd  to 
our  llandbook  we  give  a succinct  account  of 
past  attempts  at  sugar  cultivation  in  Geylon, — 
Mr.  AVi liter,  the  lirst  editor  of  the  Colombo 
observer,  being  the  pioneer  of  the  industry  in 
British  times,  h’rom  that  Kiwiiwv  we  quote  as 
follows : — 
iMr.  Ij.  AA'ray  of  Perak  writing  to  the  Tropical 
A'lriadturisf  (on  page  4ffi!  vol.  J.'-Sl-o)  c.xp  leases  con - 
lidonce  that  Ceylon  might  become  a great  sugar-pro- 
ducing country  if  land  were  judiciously  selected  and 
all  modern  improvements  in  cultivation  and  pre- 
paration, utilized ; and  wo  had  about  seven  years  ago 
(.July  ISHS)  an  enquiry  from  a Kuropean  at  Nagpore 
who  wished  to  trj'  new  inarhiiii'ry  in  manufacturing 
sugar  in  Geylon;  while  one  of' the  first  questions 
asked  by  II. E.  Sir  A.  E.  Havelock  after  assuming 
the  Government  (Alay  ISDO)  was,  why  sugar  was  not 
grown  in  Geylon  with  its  choaii  labour  supply. 
It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  Mr.  Dixon 
is  not  singular  in  his  belicl  regarding  sug.ir  cul- 
tivation in  Geylon  being  made  to  pay.  It  must 
not  be.  forgotten,  that  among  Ihe  natives  sugar- 
cane would  h.i\e  to  conqielo  with  the  i»alm  siigar 
(jaggery)  so  largely  u.sed. 
