THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March 189B. 
630 
cieut to prevent an advance in the bark-price, owing 
to ihe increased consumption oi quinine, yet their 
strength is by no means broken. The existing 
supply of cinchona is not excessive, but if the Java 
planters harvest and ship recklessly this year the 
advantage in price gained in 1897 will be lost soonj 
The results of the quinine manufacture in Java 
have been but slight up to the present. He con- 
siders that the Java planters alone have it in their 
power to regulate the price of quinine in the future, 
provided ibey can make a working-arrangement among 
themselves. 
PRODUCE AND PLANING. 
Ramie Cultivation in Australia. — It is suggested 
that the rhea, or ramie, plant should be grown in 
Australia, where there is reason to believe that it will 
flourish, as it grows well in the Botanical Gardens at 
Melbourne and in nurseries elsewhere. Until recently 
the labour involved in separating the libre from its 
gummy covering was so great that the crop could 
be grown commercially only where labour »as very 
cheap, in Eastern countries. But the invention of a 
labour-saving process in 1895 brought the production 
and manufacture of rhea vAtbiu the reach of other 
parts of the world suitable to its cultivating and 
bark-stripping, after a plantation has once been made, 
at T4 an acre, and the vulue of the bark at TIO; but, 
of course, both expenses and returns must vary in 
different parts of the world. 
Training for Botanical Curators.— The gardeners 
of Kew have a journal of their own, or, rather, of the 
guild they formed some years ago. A list of the 
names and addresses of members shows that no less 
than filty-three old Kewites hold positions in India 
and the Colonies, whilst all the curators of Botanic 
Gardens in the United Kingdom were trained in the 
Royal Gardens. The limit of service for journeymen, 
gardeners is two years, but those who aie promoted 
to sub-foremen stay on until they obtain appointments 
either in colonies and dependencies, or at home. 
Courses of lectures are provided after working hours 
on systematic, economic, and geographical botany, 
chemislry and physios, and certificates are granted. 
—E. & 0. Mail, Ian. 28. 
THE EEEECT OF EXCHANGE RATES ON 
INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA PRODUC- 
TION— WHAT INDIA HAS BEEN 
SAVED FROM. 
[To the Editor of The Home and Colonial Mad.] 
Sin, — Sir James Westland is credited with stating 
that he has saved India from a fall in the rupee to 
an exchange value of 9d. Where is the saving ? 
Is there a saving ? Who makes the saving ? 
Had not the Indian Government taken to tinkering 
with the currency and maintaining the exchange 
value of the rupee at a fictitious level, as compared 
with its intrinsic worth it is probable ttiat the pio- 
prietors of tea estates in India aud Ceylon during the 
year 1897 would have reaped iu profit some £2,000,000 
more than they are likely to do. 
The total imports of Indian and Ceylon teas into 
the United Kingdom during the calendar year of 
1897 were 228,tiUO,OwOib, and the average price rea- 
lised for Siiriie in London public auctions was louglily 
8id pc-r pound. It is improbabie that, taken over all, 
the profit on production exceeded 2d per lb, and, 
allowing another penny per pound for freight and 
chaiges not subject to e.\chiiuge, we get 54d per lb 
as the average local cost of production at the ports 
of shipment — Calcutta andCohmbo. This cost hes 
to be remilt' d in some m n e. or oilier to India 
or Ceylon, and, on a yield of 228,0UO,OOOlb, we get 
£.1,22.5,000 MB llin ciop outlay for. the year. 
T,.kmg the average rate of exchange for 1897 as 
Is 34U, and ueductiiig from same the 9d admitted by 
Sir James Westland to be the present real value of the 
rupee, we have (54d per rupee loss, or an aggregate loss 
during the year, of £2,190,000 to the tea industiy from 
exchange alone. Roughly speaking, therefore, every 
penny up or down in exchange quotations means 
£340,000 less or more in net revenue from British- 
grown tea. The calculations have not been worked 
out to a nicety because the complete date of working 
them do not exist, but the result shown cannot be far 
from an actual oue. Anyone, it affords grounds for 
“ pointing a moral” against the maintenance on mere- 
ly sentimental grounds of a fictitious level of value 
for the rupee, aud the statement of such serious 
considerations may awaken the large body of pro- 
prietor.s and shareholders in Eastern tea estates to a 
realisation of the grave injustice that is being done 
to their inter'ests. They have hitherto accepted the 
position in the belief that the upward movement in 
exchange was merely a spasm, and that we shordd 
probably soon see rates lower than ever ; but the 
position must now be becoming serious for many 
proprietor.s, owing to the constantly falling prices on 
the one hand and the rising exchange on the other. 
The full force of both considerations has not yet been 
felt, but, as the accounts and reports for 1897 begin to 
be issued in a mouth or two, the effect is certain to be 
clearly shown in the rates of dividend, unless in the 
case of properties worked under exceptional cir- 
cumstances. 
There is no question but that the tea-producing 
industry, greatly benefitted by the more or less 
continuous fall iu the exchange value of the rupee 
from its per level, and that consequently much new 
capital (in the way both of reorganisation of old 
concerns with a new proprietary at enhanced values, 
and in direct opening up of new properties) has been 
put into the business in the last few years. Many 
of such investments were made on calculations which 
had for their basis the understanding that a rupee 
did, as the China dollar does, represent its silver 
value ; but the financial advisers of the Government 
of India have given a rude shock to those who have 
placed their trust in that idea. 
The amount of capital invested in tea estates in 
India and Ce'lon is somewhere near £40,000,000, and 
it will be app.vi'ent that those who hold the invest- 
ments are being taxed to maintain a high rate of 
exchange to the extent of something like 5 per cent, 
per annum on the capital value of their holdings. 
— I am, sir, yours, &c., John McEwan. 
—H. & C. Mail, Jan, 28. 
— ^ 
NEW MINOR PRODUCT FOR CEYLON : 
THE CAMPHOR TREE. 
“ It is reported that three well-known citizens 
of Orlando, Florida are going to plant about 60 
acres with camphor trees.” So runs a paragraph 
in an English journal ; but wliy should it not 
be one, two or three ]>lanters in t eyion ? If the 
camphor tree is e.xpected to flourish in Florid.a, 
much more should it succeed in Ceylon and we 
know something of the conditions on both 
countries. Undoubtedly there has been a stir in 
the camplior trade lately ; and between the 25th 
December and 15th .lanuary there was a ri.se in 
the price of crude camphor in the English market 
of fiom 4s to 8s 6d per cwt. Rut this may be 
a temporary movement due tc interference on the 
part of the Japanese with the Formosan camphor 
trade. This is likely to be rectified, since we 
read that, — 
The Japanese .are now showing, that while they 
are determined to get a good grip of the Formosan 
camphor-! rade. they are to gang warily about it, and 
those who know the .Japanese agree that when they 
have the Fo:ni.''S8n trade iu their own hands, they 
will conserve rather than restrict the output of 
camphor, and by introducing their own method cf 
distillingi tin y Will get more out of the wood and put 
a better quality of crude Formosan camphor on the 
market. It will be remembered that the exports of 
camphor from Foimosa have increased enormously 
duiring th* pMt t*n y*»ri, In 18S< tb* output wks 
