TBlE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [April  i,  1896. 
nothing  to  lead  him  to  suppose  that  they  ai’e  not 
progressing  equally  well.  He  is,  therefore,  convinced 
that  there  is  a very  bright  future  iu  Ceylon  for 
this  new  planting  industry,  aud  he  has  decided  to 
remain  in  Ceylon  for  some  time;  seek  a grant  of 
land  from  Government  on  favourable  terms  ; form  a 
syndicate  to  work  it ; and  start  the  new  venture  on 
a commercial  basis. 
HIS  PLANS 
“ I propose  to  ask  the  Government,  ” he  said,  “to 
let  me  have  300  acres  of  land,  .50  of  which  would 
be  planted  up  at  first,  and  the  remainder  afterwards 
when  we  saw  our  first  returns.  In  my  opinion  the 
best  site  would  be  some  where  in  Uva,  though  Mr. 
J.  L.  Bhand  (of  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Shand  and 
Haldane)  suggested  Teldeniya.  I,  however,  think 
IJva  would  be  better,  because  we  can  be  sure  of 
dry  weather  there  in  the  ripening  season,  aud  fruit 
which  is  ripened  when  the  weather  is  dry  has  a 
better  fla\  our  aud  is  firmer  than  fruit  ripened  in 
wet  weather.  The  ripening  season  iu  Dikoya  is  when 
tlie  monsoon  is  on,  and  ti;o  fruit  consequently  is 
watery  and  will  not  keep  or  carry  so  well  as  fruit 
grown  in  dry  weather. 
“What  kinds  of  fruits  do  I intend  growing  ? 
Oranges  and  lemons  entirely  at  present,  though 
lines  would  not  be  a bad  tuing,  tor,  when  I was 
at  home  this  tin.e  I found  them  selling  for  toupence 
a dozen  iu  Edinbiugh  I should,  of  course,  culti- 
vate the  Lisbon  lemon,  while  the  classes  of  Oranges 
I should  introduce  would  be  three  in  number, 
namely,  the  Washington  Navel,  the  Medite;anean 
Sweet,  and  the  Homosassa  oranges.  They  are  all  very 
fine  fruit.  The  Washington  Navel  was  inlrodu  ed  to 
Australia  from  California,  and  it  grows  exceedingly 
well  at  Mildura.  It  is  the  best  orange  in  existence 
in  my  opinion.  It  is  seedless — only  a very  few  of 
the  or.anges  have  a seed,  aud  never  more  than 
one  (in  the  centre)  ; it  has  a very  tough — but  thin 
— skin ; aud  it  is  double  the  size  of  the  orange 
ordinarily  seen  here.  That,  of  course,  is  the  deai- 
deratimi  iu  orange-growing — lo  get  the  maximum  of 
the  edible  with  the  minimum  of  the  waste  quantity 
in  the  fruit.  The  kind  of  orange  I refer  to  sells 
at  two-pence  each  in  Melbourne ; while  the  Earl  of 
llanf  ally,  one  of  the  largest  holders  of  land  in  Mildura, 
had  an  offer  from  Melbourne  this  season  of  £1  per 
case  for  10,000  cases  if  he  could  supply  them.  At 
present  all  the  oranges  that  are  grown  in  Australia 
are  sold  there,  and  1 anticipate  that  all  we  grow 
in  Ceylon  will  be  sold  locally  for  a long  time  to 
come.  Iu  some  ways,  it  seems  to  me,  Ceylon  is 
better  suited  for  this  cultivation  than  is  Australia. 
The  cost  of  labour  is  one  very  important  matter, 
and  labour  is  a great  deal  cheaper  here,  and  there 
are  other  advantages.  For  the  first  few  years  we 
should  not  require  a great  amount  of  labour,  but 
of  course  in  the  plucking  season  a lot  of  hands  are 
necessary.  The  principal  labour  is  wanted  for  pick- 
ing and  pruning,  and  that  would  be  at  one  season 
in  the  year,  though  the  season  is  protracted — es- 
pecially for  lemons. 
THE  TIME  KEQUIRED. 
“ I have  heard  the  objection  raised.’’  said  the  in- 
terviewer, “ that  you  would  have  to  wait  a long  time 
for  your  first  results.  Is  the  orang.:-trce  long  in 
perfecting  ? ” 
“ It  depends  whether  you  grow  from  seedlings  or 
from  grafted  trees.  If  you  grow  from  seedlings  you 
have  to  wait  a matter  of  seven  years  for  a return, 
but  with  grafted  trdes  you  begin  to  get  a return  in 
three  y<  ars.  I should  adopt  the  latter  plan,  aud 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  quick  returns.  If  you 
grow  from  a seedling  you  seldom  get  so  good  a 
class  of  fruit  as  you  got  on  the  parent  tree,  where- 
as from  a grafted’  tree  you  get  a pivcisely  similar 
fruit  as  the  parent  tree  yielded.  That  is  why  orange- 
growing in  Ceylon  has  deteriorated,  the  little  there  has 
been  of  it.  Seeds  have  dropped  off  the  trees  and  struck 
into  the  soil  and  grown,  and  then  the  young  tree 
has  been  transplanted.  1 should,  on  the  other  hand 
thing  up  grafted  trees  from  Australia,  plant  them 
here,  and  also  form  nurseries  for  propagating  varieties 
by  grafting  them  later  on." 
THE  CURING  OF  THE  FRUIT. 
“Do  you  think  you  could  produce  a really  fine,  fla- 
voured fruit  ? ’’ 
“ I feel  sure  of  it;  and,  as  for  sending  the 
oranges  over  long  distances  in  good  condition,  the 
great  thing  lies  in  the  curing.  The  orauges  that 
are  now  sold  here  are  as  a rule  simply  picked  and 
sold— not  cured  at  all.  What  I mean  by  curing 
is  this:  the  oranges  are  sweated  in  heaps  and  dried 
off,  and  the  effect  of  this  is  to  make  the  rind  a 
sortof  impervious  shell,  which  prevents  the  fruit  inside 
getting  injured.  When  they  are  packed  with  the 
skins  soft,  they  often  rot,  but  curing  prevents  that, 
aud,  as  shewing  what  can  be  done  by  curing,  I 
may  say  that,  when  I came  here  in  August,  there 
was  a Mr.  Smith  with  me — a man  who  had  been 
all  his  life  orange-growing— and  he  brought  up 
some  cases  of  lemons  from  Mildura.  They  had 
been  packed  a mouth  before  they  were  shipped ; 
they  were,  of  course,  three  weeks  in  coming  here 
but  they  arrived  in  peifeci  condition,  and  some  cases 
that  he  intended  to  take  on  through  India  lay  at 
the  wharf  for  a fortnight  and  were  examined  at 
the  end  of  that  time  and  found  to  be  still  as  good 
as  when  they  were  shipped.  That  I attribute  entirely 
to  the  curing  process.’’ 
“IIow  many  trees  should  I plant  to  the  acre? 
I think  that  here  the  trees  might  be  planted  closer 
together  than  in  Australia.  Dowm  there,  as  horse 
labour  is  employed,  we  plant  80  trees  to  the  acre, 
but  in  Ceylon,  where  we  should  only  have  hand  laLour, 
I think  we  might  put  100  trees  to  the  acre.  And 
as  to  the  soil  ? The  Ceylon  soil  is  poor  compared 
with  Australia,  but  the  orange  tree  is  a.  surface- 
feeder,  and  orange  cultivation  is  largely  dependent  on 
manuring,  and  some  chemical  fertiliser  would  have  to 
be  used.” 
A FEW  FIGURES  : £50  TO  THE  ACRE  1 
'‘And  now  for  a few  figures.” 
“ Well,”  said  Mr.  Pearson,  “ it  may  be  interest- 
ing to  you  to  know  that  in  .Jamaica  last  year  the 
output  was  over  half  a million  sterling,  aud  the 
output  of  Florida  is  a million  and  a half  sterling; 
but  there  is  still  plenty  of  demand,  for  when  I went 
home  I interviewed  a lot  of  men  in  Covent 
Garden  and  they  said  that  if  we  in  Ceylon  could 
send  home  oranges  from  the  beginning  of  August 
till  the  end  of  October  almost  fancy  prices  could 
be  realised,  for  at  present  oranges  cannot  be  had 
till  the  beginning  of  November,  and  then  they  are 
Jamaica  oranges  selling  at  two-pence  a piece  aud  very 
poor  at  that.  As  to  the  profit  to  bs  derived  from 
orange-growing,  I consider  that  £'50  nett  profit  per 
acre  is  a very  moderate  estimate, — in  fact,  under 
the  mark — and  that  return,  of  course,  is  far  better 
than  can  be  got  from  tea,  seeing  that  £10  an  acre 
of  pi'ofit  is  considered  very  good  indeed. 
In  conclusion  Mr.  Pearson  mentioned  that  he  had 
been  out  to  the  Agricultural  School  in  Colombo  and 
inspected  Sig.  Zanetti’s  vines,  and  the  appearance 
of  these  had  given  him  still  greater  encouragement. 
He  himself  had  undertaken  viticulture  in  Australia, 
and  ten  acres  of  his  land  at  Mildura  were  planted 
with  vines,  but  he  does  not  contemplate  gi’ape  grow- 
ing here.  He  says  that  he  should  have  thought 
Colombo  jiarticularly  unsuitable;  but  he  found  the 
vines  as  hcalthy-looking  as  the  best  ho  had  seen  in 
Australia,  and  he  does  not  know  how  Big.  Z:inctti 
has  got  over  the  difficulty  of  perpetual  summer  un- 
less ho  has  bared  the  roots  of  his  vines  and  &o  in- 
troduced artificial  dormants.  After  what  he  has 
seen  in  Colombo,  he  thinks  that  grapes  mi.{ht  bo 
successfully  grown  up  on  the  hills. — Local  Times. 
Coi'i'KK  IX  Java.— In  1895  the  total  crop  of 
eodbo  liarveste<l  from  the  itrivate  estates  in  .lava 
wa.s  .‘lIS.oTt  piculs  .lava,  and  30,987  piculs  Liberian 
coflee,  whereas  the  estiin.ate  for  189(1  is  371, .8.58 
piculs  Java,  and  53,057  piculs  Liberian  ccdl'ee. 
— London  and  China,  Express^  Marcli  6, 
