Nov.  2,  1896.] 
THE  TROPIC 
AGRICULTUPIST. 
303 
THE  LAST  CINNAMON  SALES. 
Weave  glad  to  find  from  tlie particulars  which 
have  come  to  hand  by  the  last  mail  of 
the  quarterly  sale  held  in  London  on  the  31st 
ultimo,  tliat  the  prices  of  our  famous 
spices  were  fully  maintained.  It  is  more  than 
a year  now  since  there  was  a great  rebound 
upward,  mainly  caused  by  speculation,  when 
the  lower  sorts  of  cinnamon  fetched  unprece- 
dented prices — at  any  rate,  prices  which  were 
unheard  of  for  20  year's  at  least — and  even  sliot 
ahead  of  the  linest  growths,  which  had  always 
commanded  top  prices  in  the  London  market. 
It  was  this  last  circumstance  which  placed  be- 
yond doubt  that  the  rise  in  prices,  of  the  in- 
ferior sorts  certainly,  was  artificial,  and  sug- 
gested fears  that  the  sales  would  be  repudiated 
on  prompt  day.  Whether  arry  sales  proved  to 
be  bogus  orr  settling  day  or  irot,  we  have  irot 
been  able  to  ascertain  ; but  it  was  satisfactory 
to  note  that  the  apprehensions  regarding  the 
demoralizatiorr  of  the  market  and  the  violent 
oscillation  of  the  pendrrlunr  backward,  were  rrot 
realized.  If  the  artificial  prices  were  irot  luairr- 
tained  at  the  following  sale,  the  prices  did  not 
slip  below  normal  ; there  was  no  throwing 
back  on  the  market  of  lots  which  had  .secured 
fancy  bids,  with  the  result  of  disorganization 
and  loss  of  confidence  in  the  tr.ade.  On  the 
contrary,  inferior  sorts  made  a distinct  advance 
on  the  prices  which  had  ruled  for  years,  and 
this  advance  has  been  maintained  since,  at 
everv  subsequent  sale  ; while  the  finer  sorts 
have“held  their  ground,  if  they  have  not  shown  an 
appreciable  advance.  Indeed,  the  present  relation 
in  prices  paid  for  fine  cinnamon  and  ordinary, 
strikes  us  as  more  natural  and  reasonable  than 
tliat  which  had  obtained  for  years,  <and  which 
secured  for  carefully-prepared  line  quills  about 
double  the  price  which  the  identical  bark,  not 
so  skilfully  manipulated,  fetched.  The  conclu- 
sion we  draw  from  the  establishment  of  this  re- 
lative position,  and  from  the  maintenance  of 
fair  prices  for  the  commoner  kinds  of  cinnamon, 
is  that  there  is  now  a healthy  and  growing  de- 
mand which  keeps  pace  with  the  supply,  and 
that  long-suffering  cinnamon  proprietors  have  at 
last  tui'ned  the  corner,  from  which  a better  out- 
look is  visible. 
The  quantity  of  spice  offered  for  sale  last 
month  was  not  heavy — oidy  779  bales  ; but  then 
the  August  sales  are  always  light ; and,  though 
the  figures  compare  badly  with  those  for  May, 
when  the  offerings  were  as  high  as  1,743  bales, 
they  were  better  than  those  for  August  last 
year,  when  the  quantity  brought  to  the  hammer 
was  only  677  bales.  Almost  the  whole  qiiantity 
offered  found  buyers  in  tlie  room, 
bales  that  remained,  we  have  little  doubt,  were, 
as  usual,  disposed  of  privately  at  current  figures. 
These  prices  were  satisfactory  all  r-ound— no 
sort  or  quality  showing  a decline,  whrle  most 
qualities  showed  an  advance.  The  Goluapokrrna 
mark  asserted  its  prescriptive  right  to  head  the 
list,  with  Is  4d  for  its  firsts.  This  rs  the  same 
figure  as  its  firsts  fetched  at  the  prevrous  quar- 
terly sale ; but  last  month  its  fourths  realrzed 
better  prices  than  at  the  May  sales  held^  on  1st 
June.  The  liighest  qiralities  of  Wester  Beaton, 
Kinrbulpitiya,  and  Mudaliyar  Rajepakse  s rrrarks 
secured  an  advance  of  a penny,  and  the  ad- 
vance was  maintained  in  the  lower  qualrtres  ; so 
that  there  must  have  been  good  competrtron  for 
the  finest  growths.  That  is  not  umisual  ; but 
the  maintenance  of  high  prices,  and  even  an 
advance,  for  the  ordinary  sorts  is  a pro. 
38 
niising  feature,  and  the  more  so  as  these  have 
been  offered  “unworked.”  The  tyranny  of 
London  Agents  and  Dock  Companies,  in  in.sist- 
ing  on  undoing  every  bale  and  tying  it  up  again, 
and  cliarging  exorbitantly  for  the  damage  done 
in  the  name  of  “working” — has  at  last  been 
fairly  overcome.  For  not  only  have  common 
and  ordinary  sorts  been  offered  and  sohl  unworked, 
but  also  some  fine  spice  wliicli  fetched  a shilling 
and  upwards  for  its  firsts.  It  remains  that  the 
leading  marks  should  now  insist  on  their  spice 
too  being  offered,  without  needless  and  expensive 
manipulation,  on  samples  drawn  from  a bale  of 
each  quality.  The  saving  should  mean  again  of 
^d  to  Id  a lb.  ; for,  apart  from  the  charge  for 
working  these,  is  the  loss  in  broken  cinnamon 
which  is  boxerl  and  sold  at  less  than  the  lowest 
qualitie.s.  We  append  a report  on  the  sale  from 
a leading  firm  in  the  trade,  from  which  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  stocks  are  very  low : — 
London,  Sept.  2,  1896. 
Cinnamon — The  quarterly  auctions  were  held  on 
Monday  last  when  the  very  small  total  of  779  bales 
Ceylon  was  presented,  against  1,743  bales  at  the 
sales  of  1st  June  and  667  bales  at  this  period 
last  year. 
There  was  a full  attendance  of  the  trade  and  with 
good  competition  about  720  bales  were  hammered, 
oi'dinary  and  medium  qualities  realizing  full  last  sale’s 
prices  to  Jd  per  lb.  advance,  whilst  fine  descriptions 
— of  which  about  300  bales  were  catalogued — sold 
well,  chiefly  at  an  average  rise  of  Id  per  lb.  good 
to  fine  “Firsts”  at  Is  to  Is  4d,  “Seconds”  lOd  to 
Is  2d,  “Thirds”  lOd  to  Is  Id,  and  “Fourths”  9d  to 
lid  per  lb.  The  “unw*rked”  cinnamon,  fair  to  fine 
first  sort  brought  lOd  to  Is  Id,  second  .sort  9d  to 
Is,  Third  sort  9d  to  lO^d,  Fourth  sort  9d  to  9Jd, 
and  Fifth  sort  8id  to  9d  per  lb.  Only  35  bags  chips 
in  sale  and  sold  at  3d  with  fair  clippings  at  8Jd 
per  lb. 
The  stock  of  Ceylon  is  2,031  bales  against  2,333 
bales  in  1895,  2,066  bales  in  1894  and  3,707  bales 
in  1893. 
The  next  auctions  will  be  held  on  30th  November, 
ORIGINAL  RESEARCH  AMONGST 
PLANTERS. 
Almost  all  great  inventions  and  discoveries 
have  been  made  by  members  of  those  industries 
which  have  been  tlius  benefited  by  them.  Our 
planting  industry  promises  to  be  no  exception 
to  this  rule,  and  we  have  already  had  the  sin- 
gular pleasure  of  drawing  prominent  notice  to 
the  results  of  original  research  in  more  than  one 
direction.  We  now  are  glad  to  draw  attention 
to  what  promises  to  be  some  extremely  valuable 
investigations  into  tlie  intimate  relation  that  ex- 
ists between  the  condition  of  coffee  soils  and 
leaf-diseased  trees.  It  is  not  our  present  ob- 
ject to  dwell  at  length  on  the  details  of  the 
subject,  but  a short  summary,  sketching  out  the 
lines  on  which,  these  researches  have  been  carried, 
will  sure  to  be  of  much  interest  to  both  coffee 
and  tea-planters,  as  the  causes  that  induce  di- 
sease in  coffee  will  also  be  found  powerful  fac- 
tors in  the  health  of  tea-plants. 
Naturally  enough  any  explanation  of  the 
causes  of-  a disease  tliat  has  hitherto  baffled  all 
attempts,  practical  and  scientific,  at  either  pre- 
vention or  cure,  will  be  first  received  with 
much  doubt.  And  this  is  a very  proper  and 
scientific  attitude  to  adopt  towards  all  theories 
of  a novel  nature  and  far-reaching  in  their  effects. 
Our  investigator,  a practical  planter  of  some  little 
experience,  has  throughout  his  career  taken  a great 
and  absorbing  interest  in  tlie  scientific  side  of  plan- 
ting, Before  long  this  gentleman,  whose  name 
