86 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aug.  I,  1896. 
THE  TROPICAL 
hard  at  work  opening  up  a plantation,  gives  an 
encouraging  report  ot  his  prospects  in  labour  supply, 
crop,  &c. 
It  will  be  a long  time,  however,  before  such 
enterprise,  or  any  other  enterprise  at  present 
within  British  territory,  can  seriously  affect  the 
coffee  market  ; and  I see  no  early  prospect, 
in  any  other  quarter,  of  an  over-production  of  coffee. 
The  case  is  rather  different  v.ith  tea,  in  view  of  the 
large  areas  planted  and  still  being  opened  in  India 
and  Ceylon,  The  export  of  tea  from  India  has  steadily 
risen,  year  by  year,  from  2J  million  pounds  in  1861-(>2, 
until  the  estimate  for  lS%-97  is  1-If  million  pounds. 
In  the  case  of  Ceylon  we  began  with  231b.  export 
(23  years  ago)  in  i873,  and  for  1893  the  official  esti- 
mate of  total  export  is  102  million  pottnds. — I am, 
sir,  yours  truly, 
J.  Fkkguson,  of  the  C'e/y/uH  Observer  and 
Tropical  Afiricidlurist. 
Iloyal  Colonial  Institute,  Northumberland  avenue, 
London,  W.  C.,  May. 
UN FOKTUN ATE  FLORI DA. 
It  is  only  after  a visit  to  Florida  that  one 
appreeiate.s  the  disastrous  ellorts  of  tlie  freeze  of 
last  year.  It  is  tlic  constantly-recurring  topic 
among  residents.  It  left  heliind  it  ruin,  misery, 
and  blasted  hopes.  Many  persons  had  invested 
the  savings  of  a lifetime,  all  the  money  they 
could  borrow  or  scrape  together  in  groves  and 
plantations  of  one  kind  or  another.  Some  had 
even  mortgaged  the  growing  crop  to  tide  them 
over,  expecting  to  lind  themselves  on  the  road 
to  fortune  when  it  was  harvested.  Tlien  the 
labor,  expenditures  and  ellorts  of  years  were  liter- 
ally wipetl  out  in  a night  by  the  cohl  wave  winch 
killed  oil  the  growing  things  and  left  the  land  as 
unproductive  as  it  was  before  cultivation  began. 
It  was  a l)low  from  which  many  settlers  cannot 
recover,  to  say  nothing  of  the  ]mcuniary  lo.ss  to 
the  State  at  large.  The  extent  of  it  has  not  re- 
ally been  measured  yet,  for  it  is  possible  that  time 
may  show  that  the  injured  orange  and  coconut 
groves  and  other  plantations  must  all  be  planted 
over  again,  and  the  process  of  cultivation  begun 
again  from  the  start,  a matter  involving  years 
of  toil  and  expenditure.  People  in  FTorida  talk 
hopefully  of  the  prosjjects,  but  there  are  many 
estates  for  sale  and  many  settlers  are  eager  to 
sell  at  any  price  that  would  enable  them  to  set 
North  again.  A shrewd,  hard  headed  Vermont 
farmer  came,  through  a complicatetl  real  estate 
trade,  into  possession  of  a plantation  in  the 
orange  belt  upon  which  the  owner  had  spent 
ij6,0UU.  He  offers  the  property  at  $1,000,  and 
says  privately  that  he  would  gladly  accept  $500 
cash  for  it.  He  even  regrets  the  cost  of  the  coat 
of  paint  which  he  put  upon  the  house  to  make 
it  more  attractive  to  possible  purchasers.  Pro- 
perty, of  course,  will  rise  in  value  in  time  ; but 
this  farmer’s  experience  is  said  to  be  a fair  illustra- 
tion of  the  condition  of  real  estate  in  Florida.— 
JVeit-  York  Sun. 
THE  LONDON  CINNAMON  SALE.S. 
The  last  mail  fiom  London  has  brought  fairly 
cheering  accounts  of  thequai  Levlys.de  of  cinnamon, 
which  slumld  have  been  held  on  the  la-it  .Monday 
in  May,  but  which  came  oil'  on  the  1st  .lune  as 
the  25th  May  was  included  among  the  MTiit- 
suntide  holidays.  The  sale  was  in  most  respects 
a satisfactory  one.  The  ([uanlity  oli'eied  was  not 
unusually  large,  but,  like  the  offerings  at  the 
previous  sale  in  h’ebruary,  was  a fair  average 
quantity.  In  all,  1, 743  bales  were  put  iq)  for 
competition,  being  a little  less  than  the  quantity 
offered  in  Febru.ary,  tvhen  1,792  bales  were 
catalogued,  and  the  better  j)art  found  imrchasers. 
The  quantity,  however,  w.as  in  exce.ss  of  that 
(dlered  at  the  corresponding  .sale  last  year,  when 
only  l,UG5  bales  were  down  in  the  catalogues  and 
the  whole  found  purchasers.  But  from  the  table 
of  exports  one  might  have  expected  even  a larger 
quantity  yet,  as  the  current  year  shows  far 
heavier  exports  than  the  four  proceeding  ones  — 
perhaps  than  any  ])revious  year.  Of  tlie  ],743 
bales  offered,  more  than  two-thirds,  viz.  1.292, 
were  disposed  of  under  the  hammer.  The  com- 
petition left  little  to  be  desired ; for  althongli 
the  line  qualities  sold  at  a ilecline  of  half  a penny 
to  one  penny,  the  bulk  which  consisted  of  ordi- 
nary cinnamon,  commanded  fair  competition  and 
even  advanced  to  a slight  extent.  Thus,  whereas, 
at  the  F'ebruary  sales,  A S O J’  (Golua  Poktina) 
fetched  uj)  to  Is  5d  per  lb.,  at  the  .sales  on  the 
1st  inst.,  this  well-known  mark  did  not  command  a 
higher  price  for  its  iirsts  than  Is  4d.  Tlie  next  high- 
est in'ices  realized  were  for  sjnee  from  WS.  and  K. 
from  the  wellknown  F.  S.  Kadirane  group;  and 
these  fetclied  iqi  to  13d  ; but  the  ordinary  cinna- 
mon advanced  a jienny. 
In  commenting  on  the  F'ebruary  sales,  we  dreyv 
attention  to  the  fair  competition  which  “un- 
worked” cinnamon  commanded.  Even  a cou)de  of 
years  ago  such  cinnamon  would  scarcely  be  looked 
at,  because  it  had  failed  to  pay  the  exorbitant 
charges  imposed  by  the  dock  companies  for  the 
wholly  needless  oi»eration — at  least  as  regards 
the  well-known  marks— of  having  every  single 
bale  cut  open  and  restoring  after  the  removal 
of  broken  quills.  As  in  the  F'ebruary  sales,  so  at 
tlie  last,  a very  considerable  quantity  of  “un- 
worked ” found  buyers.  Among  the  most  prominent 
were  the  C.  H.  (le  8.  (de  hioysa)  marks,  wliich 
sold  according  to  the  grades,  from  8^d  to  10-od. 
It  is  not  a small  advantage  that  unworked  cin- 
namon is  now  fairly  competed  for  ; but  there 
is  special  ground  for  satisfaction  in  the  keener 
competition  which  ordinary  cinnamon  commands. 
We  interpret  this  as  evidence  that  new  uses  have 
been  found  for  our  spice  through  which  the  dis- 
advantages under  which  cinnamon  so  long  la- 
boured, of  overproduction,  are  being  overcome. 
Anotber  hojieful  future  is  that  broken  quills 
and  clippings  fetched  as  high  as  9Jd  a lb.* — an 
advance  of  about  59  jier  cent,  over  usual  prices. 
Altogether  therefore  the  sales  must  be  regarded 
as  satisfactory,  and  iiromising  well  for  Estate 
Froprietors.  The  following  is  the  Report  on  the 
last  sale  from  one  of  the  leading  linns  in  the 
sjnee  trade  : — 
Loudon,  2nd  June,  1893. 
Cinnamon. — At  the  quarterly  sales  held  yesterday, 
1,713  bales  Ceylon  were  offered,  against  1,792  b.iies 
in  the  February  auctions,  and  l,t)33  bales  at  this 
period  last  year.  There  was  a steady  demand,  and 
1,292  bales  were  cleared  under  the  hammer  ; ordinary 
and  medium  quill  realising  full  to  occasionally 
dearer  rate,  while  line  quality  sold  rather  irregularly, 
but  mostly  at  ^d  ’to  Id  per  lb.  decline  on  the.  prices 
ruling  in  F'ebruary.  About  400  bales  worked  sold ; 
firsts  sold,  good  to  line  from  lid  to  laid;  seconds, 
good  to  fine  lOdto  Is  21;  thirds,  10 J to  Is  Id,  and 
fourths,  8id  to  lod  per  lb.  The  unworked  quill — about 
900  bales — brought,  firsts,  lOd  to  lid;  seconds,  9 d to 
lO.id ; thirds,  9d  to  9Id,  and  fourths,  8d  to  8','d 
per  lb.  Chips  sold  at  3d  and  clippings  up  to  91d 
per  lb. 
The  Ijondon  Warohonso  Stock  is  3, 173  bales  against 
in  189.')  189-1  18'.I3 
l.lalos.  Bales.  Bales. 
3, .303  3,218  and  3,399 
The  next  auctions  arc  fixed  for  the  31st  August. 
