March i, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
59 » 
,by the sale of timber and firewood from the land 
cleared. This should suffice to erect the Assistant s 
bungalow and leave a small margin for contin- 
gencies. 
To this estimate private planters must add the 
cost of land and of seed (about R20 per 1,000). 
These items will probably bring up the total cost 
for the first year to at least K125 per acre. 
As a matter of fact, 300 acres is more than 
can be opened in one vear, as the number of seeds 
required will be at least 160,000, which amounts 
to nearly two years’ crop of the trees in the 
Botanic Gardens. 
For the second, third, and fourth years Mr. 
Lewis estimates the expenditure on weeding and 
supplying at Rl'2, R8, and R5, respectively. 
Assuming that the e.xpenditure in the years 
following is at the rate ot Rs.5 per acre, the 
cost ot the plantation up to and including the 
tenth year, might work out as follows : — 
R. 
Co.sL of land, 300 acres at R75 
22,500 
Co.st of seed, .say ... 
.. 
3,600 
Fiist year’s cost, as 
above... 
11,927 
Weeding and supplying, second year .. 
3,600 
Do. 
third year . . . 
2,400 
Do. 
fourth year ... 
1,500 
Do. 
fifth to tenth 
years, inclusive 
9,000 
Salary of assistant. 
second to tenth 
years, inclusive . . 
.. 
9,000 
Tappal cooly ami tools, second to tenth 
years, inclusive . 

1,250 
Total .. 75,777 
Allowing interest at the rate of 7 per cent, 
on all money expended up to to the end of the 
tenth year, the outlay upon the plantation will 
amount to at least Rs. 110,000, or Rs. 366 '66 per 
acre. 
Return.— The value of Para rubber in the 
London market varies between two and four 
shillings per lb. according to the quality of the 
rubber and the state of the market. Of the 
rubber which has been collected in the Botanic 
Gardens and sent home for valuation, a large 
proportion has been valued at almost the highest 
market price then ruling, but a considerable 
proportion of the rubber is always of inferior 
quality, being mixed with particles of dirt. If 
we estimate the average value of the crop at 
2s. per lb., and the yield in the tenth year at 
100 lb. only per acre, the return in that year 
will be £10, or say R150 per acre. The cost 
of harvesting should not be more than R50 
per acre, including carriage to London. This 
leaves a margin of RlOO per acre, representing 
a return of 27 per cent, upon the original outlay ; 
if 12 per cent, be allowed for contingencies and 
the nsual vicissitudes of a tropical cultivation, 
there remains still a prospect ot a good return 
on the capital expended. 
JOHN C. WILLIS, 
jpivector, Royal li .tnnic Gardens. 
CEYLON PLANTING AND PLANTERS IN 
HAWAII. 
Mr. Hawke, of Orion, who is constantly making 
trips abroad from Ceylon, returned yesterday, after 
visiting a part of the world that Ceylon men do 
not often reach. Leaving Ceylon his intention was 
to travel via China and .Japan to America, and so 
to Europe. China he did not like ; but he thought 
Japan pleasant, and he stayed there two months, 
going on to San Francisco, via Honolulu. On 
his way to ’Frisco a fellow-passenger on the steamer 
revealed himself to him as Mr. Caine, formerly of 
Ceylon, and told him how well he was doing as 
a coffee-planter in Hawaii. Mr. Hawke was so in- 
terested that when he reached 'Frisco he went hack 
to Hawaii, and he now returns from there per- 
fectly enamoured of the place. He says the island 
is most suitable for Coffee planting, and a good 
acreage is already under cultivation, growing in 
rich volcanic soil — a soil that could not be found 
in Ceylon anywhere. Labor was plentiful, shipping 
facilities excellent, and Hawaiian Coffee was fetching 
80s. a cwt. He secured 400 acres of land at an ele- 
vation of 2,000 ft. from the Provisional Government, 
and he returned at once to Ceylon to make arrange- 
ments to sell Orion estate and settle down in the 
Sandwich Isles to plant up his new property. Almost 
all the Coffee there is Arabian. — “Local Times,” 
Feb, 19. 
♦ 
LIBERIAN COFFEE. 
Its Prospects In The Malay Peninsula. 
\_Bij a Former Ceylon Planter.'} 
Selangor is undoubtedly the leading State as far as 
coffee is concerned. Two years ago, when the price of 
Liberian coffee was between $45 and $47, 
the prospects of Liberian coffee certainly looked 
bright, and the Selangor Government gave out 
thousands of small blocks of land to Javanese, who 
looked after their coffee tolerably well during the 
high prices ; but a look-out of a railway carriage 
window between Klang and Kwala Lumpur now 
will show what a terrible change has come about with 
low prices. The land is fast becoming jungle again, 
and disease is being spread over the country by this 
uncared-for coffee; and this is not the only evil 
caused by giving out this land to the Javanese, for 
the lands given out were small, narrow blocks, all 
along the best roads and railways in the country, so 
spoiling the frontage of a vast extent of land behind, 
for no planter cares to take up land behind these 
seedbeds ot disease and nurseries of weeds. 
Another evil is that the Javanese, who were about 
the best labour force in the country, have become a 
lazy lot of good-for-notbing impudent men, and it is 
the” geneal opinion amongst the planters that this 
labour force is lost to the country. 
BAD TIMES AHEAD. 
It is my opinion that we are about to face some 
years of very bad times, not only in short prices, but 
in short labour forces, and it will only be some of 
the best estates that will pull through the crisis : what 
chance will estates have that are not able to give 
three piculs per acre without manuring; and again 
what chance will others have that average 30 per| 
cent, on the sick list ? An answ'er to this will be to 
go in for new products ; but, with bad times, where 
is the money to come from ? besides, few of the old 
places are fit for new products. 
HOURS OF WORK ON AN ESTATE. 
In the face of this, it behoves planters to go in for 
every economy that is practicable, and the most 
practicable economy that I know of is the changing 
of the working hours from 6 a. m. to 2 p. m. to from 
6 a. m. to 10-30 a. m., and again in the evening from 
1-30 p. in. to 5-30 p. m. giving the coolies, conductors, 
and superintendents three hours’ rest in the heat 
of the day. It is a well-known fact that, when the 
superintendent goes home for breakfast, the coolies 
