Jan, I, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
495 
THE CACAO FUNGUS SPECIALIST, 
Mr. Cairutliers is very busy with his in- 
vescigation and hopes to be able to throw light 
on the origin and cause of the cacao plant 
disease, by-aml-bye; but obviously the investigation 
is not one to be hurried, and will require time to 
deal with it. An upcountry correspondent (not 
a cacao planter) writes : — 
I had the pleasure of travelling with the cacao 
expert sent to Ceylon by cacao planters for the 
purpose of investigating into the cause of death 
amongst the cacao trees. 
That the canker is there, and the deaths in some 
of the fields are very numerous are facts beyond 
dispute. The cacao planters have an able and ener- 
getic Specialist amongst them in Mr. Carruthers and 
it is a fortunate circumstance, for he has a hard 
task before him, ere he can confidently say, “ Here 
gentlemen is the cause of the disease and death, 
but prevention is better than cure and this is what 
you must do.” Is the cacao enterprise of so little 
importance in Ceylon, that the Government should 
not be asked to contribute towards the cost of this 
investigation ? 1 think Mr. Editor you will agree 
that His Excellency ought to come forwai'd without 
being asked, and at least hold out some prospect of 
reward, and aSoid every facility for a thorough ex- 
amination into the cause of so many deaths amongst 
the cacao trees of Ceylon. We have the man ; let 
Government now provide the means. 
“ Hear, hear ” we emphatically acid ; or at least, 
‘ let the Government supplement the means.” 
SALT FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES. 
“In the name of the Prophet SaIjT !” 
After all, the Government wound up the some- 
what controversial if not stormy sitting of the 
Legislature, with a very acceptable concession 
to public opinion as represented by the Tamil 
Member. A. Committee to enquire into the 
denaturalising of Salt .so as to be available duty- 
free for agricultural purposes was granted to Mr. 
Coomaraswamy, and the Colonial Secretary went 
further in showing his personal interest in the sub- 
ject in a very satisfactory little speech. The area 
of “ inland estates” likely to use salt has consider- 
ably increased since 1888, and we do not see why the 
demand for denaturalised salt should be confined 
to palm cultivation. So that the question may 
arise in an urgent form as to how the 150,000 
(rising rapidly, perhaps, to 250,000) cwt. of salt 
required for local agriculture, are to be provided. 
Better mean.s of manufacture and transport will 
be indispensalde and a further reason will thus 
be adduced for the Railway to Puttalam. Mean- 
time we congratulate the Hon. P. Coomara- 
swaray for bringing this long-standing request 
so far to a practical issue and we heartily trust 
that the labours of his Committee will be crowned 
with success (we had almost written with 
salt !) and then he will certainly deserve well 
of his countrymen even if the operation of the 
“five year.s’ rule” bring his present term of service 
as Legislator to an early close. 
The report of the discussion is as follows : — 
The Hon. the Tamil Member moved • 
That a Select Committee of this Coirncil con- 
sisting of the Hon, the Auditor-General, the Hon, 
the Treasurer, the Hon. the Principal Collector 
of Customs, the Hon. A. De A. Seneviratne, 
the Hon. W. W. Mitchell, the Hon. J. N. 
Campbell, and the mover be appointed to 
consider and report upon the feasibility of 
selling salt at cheap rates for agricultural purposes. 
He said : — It is not my intention, sir, to say 
more than a few words in support of this motion 
It is admitted on all sides that salt is benelj- 
cial to agriculture and especially coconut plants. 
It is^ largely used in other parts of the world, 
but in Ceylon because it is a Government mono- 
poly and sold at prohibitive rates, the planters 
find difficulty, in using it as a manure. The Gov- 
ernment makes a very good thing out of it, sir. 
I find that the revenue from this monopoly is 
certainly a million rupees a year. According to 
the Blue Books the cost of production is 32 
cents per cwt. and it is sold at R2*40 per cwt. 
The profit therefore is R2 S per cwt. and there 
are about 400,000 cwts. produced annually. Any 
amount of salt can be produced and the more 
it is produced the less it costs. Therefore I 
think the Government should find no difficulty 
in supplying planters with salt as manure. 
There is certainly one difficulty. The Govern- 
ment will naturally argue, if we supply salt at 
cheap rates as manure, how are we to prevent 
it being used for other purposes. Now, sir, this 
is a question that was solved elsewhere 30 years 
ago while we had gone to sleep over it. In 
January, when I went to Europe, I had the oppor- 
tunity of meeting a German gentleman. One 
of the subjects we discussed was the Salt Mono- 
poly here, and he told me that the King of Prussia, 
as far back as 1867, passeil a law where- 
by the mode of denaturalising salt was 
fully laid out, and salt was sold cheaply, not 
only for manuring, but for another ]nirpo,?e — fish- 
curing— about which the Government had been 
very anxious, but which they had not been able 
to carry out before, owing 'to the difficulty to 
which I have referred. On my return I mentioned 
the circumstance to Mr. John Ferguson of the 
Ceylon Observer, whom we all know ; and he has 
published a pamphlet giving full information on 
the subject and containing a translation of the 
German law which any member can read for 
himself, and see that i't is most simple. Com- 
petent authorities in Ceylon declare that what 
has been carried out successfully for the last 
30 years in Germany can with equal success 
be carried out here. I sm sure that Your 
Excellency’s Government will be only too glad 
to help the planters and it is because I believe 
that, that I ask that a Committee be appointed to 
go into the matter fully and report on the subject. 
The Hon. the Mercantile Member seconded. 
He said This subject has been brought before 
this Council in years gone by, but the difficulty 
hitherto has been in finding some method of 
denaturalising salt. I his, as has been pointed 
out by the hon. mover, has been discovered by a 
German, and in the pamphlet to which lie Las 
referred, full details are given. I have reason to 
believe that one of the great needs for the 
cultivation of the coconut in inland districts 
is a good supply of salt, and, if Government can 
see their way to adopt tlie method sn<^^ested as 
an experiment, I think the result will be to 
afford encouragement to continue. I do not 
think the revenne will suffer in the least degree. 
I hope we shall not be told that the stocks of 
salt are so sinall that there will be difficulty 
because that is a difficulty that can be easily 
got over. ^ 
The Hon. the Tamil Member -.—I wouhl add 
to the Committee the name of the hon. the 
Government Agent, W. P. 
H.E. the LiKUT.-GoVER.voR There is no ob- 
jection whatever on the part of Government to 
the passing of this resolution, and in jiroof of 
that I may state that the .suhjccl has been under 
the consideration of the Goveniment .at different 
times during the last 40 years, and the l^t 
