Dec. I, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3^9 
RAMIE CULTIVATION. 
We are indebted to Mr. Kosling for the letter 
and information we yniblish on anotlier page, and 
still more to Mr. MacDonald for the long and in- 
teresting interview granted to our representative. 
He is a little hard on Mr. Wray, who made 
no personal ])ietensions to experience, but 
performed the duty of compiler, as called on by 
his official superiors, conscientiously. As for 
Mr, Matthieu, his information was specially 
based on actual experiments made at Buiten- 
zorg, Java. However, these are merely side 
issues. We shall be delighted to hear ot the 
success of experiments made in the Straits, 
and still more, of course, to learn that a trial 
on a likely spot is to be made in Ceylon. 
Mr. MacDonald finds fault with the use of 
so wide a margin in crop as from 500 to 1,120 lb. 
per acre. Rut he is, we suppose, avvare that 
this is a verj corniuon experience in the tropics : 
our coffee crops in Ceylon in old days used to run 
from 3 cwt. to 8, to 10 and even 15 cwt. per acre. 
Then there is our tea industry, very much to 
the point, because tea leaves, like ramie 
fibre, contain a large percentage of water ; 
well, Mr. MacDonahl will find that our tea 
crops vary from 300 lb. of niade tea per acre 
to the maximum of 1,000 or 1,100 lb. — or putting 
the Aveight in leaf from 1,200 lb. of leaf to 
4,400 lb. and that this dries down to one-fourth, 
Tea leaf losing three-fourths Aveight in mois- 
ture while drying, makes it somewhat analogous 
to Ramie ; and yet the richest soil in Ceylon 
constantly manured cannot supply more than 
tivo tons of tea-leaf per acre per annum, the 
plucking going on for nine months out of the 
twelve. 
.We do not for a moment say that Ramie planted 
so closely as Mr. MacDonald mentions, is not going 
to give a great deal more in Aveight of crop 
than the leaves of the tea bush ; though Ave take 
leave still to doubt Avhether 20, 13 or even 10 
tons of yield of fibre per acre per annum Avill 
ever be gathered continuously for any number of 
years, over an appreciable area in Ceylon. 
For a suitable spot for trial it is no use look- 
ing to our Northern, North-Cential or Eastern 
regions Avith their long periods of drought. It 
is -evident that the South-Avest portion of the 
island is best, and Ave would advise the Southern 
Province, an alluvial section by the side of 
one of the rivers Avhere perhaps sugar cultiva- 
tion Avas tried long ago, provided the land 
has been left falloAV since— or we have no 
doubt there is virgin soil available in the 
vicinity. We are extremely sorry that there is 
no crop of Ramie available at this moment to 
give a full trial to the Decorticating Machine 
Avhich Mr. MacDonald has so considerately made 
available. Better luck next time ; and he may 
depend on our Avatching very closely all that is 
done at the Straits. 
VANILLA IN SEYCHELLES. 
Things here are very quite. The Vanilla crop this 
year is now being shipped home, the ss. “ Bancoora ” 
taking about ,£20,000 Avorth via Colombo. The pros- 
pects for 1898 in Vanilla are still very uncertain. We 
fear that the flowering Avill not be so heavy as last year. 
Prices still keep up, whole crops have changed hands 
at R16 per 5 kilo and selected parcels of long beans 
have fetched up to R18. The high prices and good 
crop of last year have had the effect of greatly stimu- 
lating imports. The Customs receipts are about 
RIO, 000 higher than last year, other taxes have also 
yielded more . — Zanzibar Gazette, Sept. 29. 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA AUCTIONS. 
Telegraphing at five on Thursday afternoon, our ■ 
Amsterdam correspondent states : The most critical ' 
cinchona auction of the year is over, and has resulted 
in an advance of f dly 45 per cent upon its imme- 
diate predecessor. The total quantity of bark offered 
was 4,287 packages, of which .9,905 Avers sold ; the 
quantity of sulphate of quinine represented by the 
bark offered Avas 21,781 kilos, of which 19,571 kilos 
found buyers. The average unit realised today by 
manufacturers’ bark was 6.27c per half kilo, equal 
to about 1 l-8th d. per lb., against 4,32o, equal to 
about ll-16th d, paid at the August auctions. 
Tlie following figures represent the quantities of 
quinine sulphate secured by the principal buyers : ’ 
American and English manufacturers 3,4,39 kilos 1 
Auerbach 3,701 kilos; Brunswick 2,752 kilos; Mann- 
heim and Amsterdam 5,391 kilos ; Frankfort-o,!- 
maine and Stuttgart 1,633 kilos ; various other buyers 
2,835 kilos. The tone throughout the sales Avas 
exceedingly animated. Manufacturing barks realised 
from I80 to 58o, equal to 3Jd to 10|d per lb., and 
druggist’s from 16Jc to 60c,' equal to l|d to 10|d 
per ib . — Chemist and Dnu/gist, Oct. 2. 
COFFEE PLANTINU IN BRITiSH 
CENTRAL AFRICA. 
It is cheering to have practical and re- 
sponsible planters reporting favourably of 
coffee prospects in NyassalanJ after the many 
adverse reports recently current. The fact is, it 
requires one who can look back to Avhat ^ pioV 
neering ” meant in Ceylon thirty to forty years 
ago, to do- justice to the present stage in Briti.sh 
Central Africa. Young planters trained in the • 
“ railway ” and “ district road ” era in Ceylon—' 
the era of district doctors, hospitals, padrhs, 
bakers, butchers, general stores, almost of district 
hotels and all the conveniences of civilisation^ 
are quite unfitted to judge of inoneerinq. Let them 
try living on rice “roties” for a number of months 
— as we found old Thomas Wood and his Assist- 
ants on Spring Valley doing in 1805, beeau.se'' 
there Avas no baker nearer than Kandy ; let them 
become Assistants even now in Monaragala dis- 
trict, or to the South-east of Gongalla, or in the 
heart of Bambarabotuwa ; and then they can 
speak of a little bit of pioneering experience and 
may exclaim by-and-bye, — 
“ If you had seen these roads before they were 
made. 
You would have held up your hands and blessed - 
General Wade I” 
In the interesting letter Avhich Mr. Israel, the ' 
responsible manager of a large group of coffee 
estates in British Central Africa, sends us — see ' 
our Correspondence column — he speaks ot the ■. 
transport of coffee to the coast c > 1 Pipr £.3 pm- 
ton. We can recall Uva coffee co.s.: ^ - £6 per 
ton to bring ib 170 miles to Colombo, or more 
than it cost for freight over 15,000 miles via 
the Cape to London ; Avhile the labour difficulties 
of the Uva pioneers and planters for many 
years Avere infinitely greater than any so far ; 
realized, judging by the e.xperience of Mr. Isr.ael 
and Mr. Henry Brown, in British Ce itral 
Africa. Under these ciicumstance.s, Ave hail Avitli 
pleasure the cheery optimi.stic utterance.? of our 
correspondent, an I we hope his lab.ours as .abso 
those of the Ceylon Ny.assalamI Coffee Company' 
■M inager and Assistants Avill be crowned wiili 
all the success they, or their proprietors and 
shareholders, can desire. 
We also call attention to an article on Coffee 
I’lauting from the British Central African Sews, . . 
on page 390, in Avhich a first list of the 
