April i, 1898. 1 
THE TRUPICAL AGRICULTURiST. 
THE FALL IN PRICE OF COCONUTS. 
Ill cousi'lciing’ tiie (iisastious efTects on our 
iiKluitries of tlia rise in Exc.-hauge, and of the 
falling-otf in iuconic wiii‘.li is involved in tlie 
dislurbaiice in trade wincli lias followed, one is 
apt to think only of Te;i. And, perhaps, that 
is only natural, considering that it stands 
first among our staple exports, both in 
value and in the importance as well as 
suddenness of its development ; but in dis- 
cussing “ the situ ition ” we musi not lose sight 
of the effect of the “dishonest” rupee on our 
other exjiorts. The extent and gravity of this 
effect have been brought home to us by a recon- 
sideration of the Report of the Horrekelly Estate 
Company Diiectors, which was adopteil at a meet- 
in" of shareholders held on Monday last at 
Ciffombo. The proceedings at the meeting 
have beau already published and we briefly re- 
ferred to them at the time, congratulating 
the shareholders (in these “hard times’) oa 
their five per cent dividend. But a friend who 
has sent us a copy of the Directors’ Report for 
the previous year— when ten per cent was earned 
iias enlightened us and shown that there is 
room for critici.s'u, or at any rate for seeing 
how the inll ited rupee and high exchange may 
affect other produce than tea. We are not wrong, 
we believe, in taking tlie case of Horre- 
kclly as a typical one. Of c mrse, there are 
Coconut estates in Ceylon lietter than that on 
which the resolute and enterindsing veteran, 
David Wilson, spent so much of his capital and 
energjg just as there are many worse. Maravila, 
liowever, is counted among the host of our 
Coconut districts, and Horrekelly is well .situ- 
ated with respect to tlie sea in that 
division, while there are those who believe 
that this most ii^eful palm flourishes best 
on and near the Coast, wliere it receives a libeial 
allowance of salt from the soil as well as from tlie 
salt-laden winds ; it has exceptional facilities of 
transport in the canal which runs through it, 
and in tlie old and new road.s which almost form 
its boundaries ; and it lias been liberally culti- 
vated, perhaps f-om the beguiniiig, but certainly 
since it pas.sed into the hands of the Com- 
pany say about twenty years ago, if not 
more. Yet what do we lind ? Tiio dividend 
declared for last year (which we thought 
satisfactory before we were reminded of tlie 
rate for tlie pres ions year) is only just one- 
half of that for 18% ! It would be a mistake 
to refer the whole of this difference to the 
course of exchange ; for there are otlur circuni- 
scances, co which we shall iiresently adverb ; but 
there can be no doubt that the liciitious value 
of the rupee has told on the operations of those 
who Ueal in coconut products— whether oil, de- 
siccated kernel, copra, or eoir--and resulted in 
lower prices for nuts. 
Among the other causes, which told on the income 
of the Company last year, was undoubtedly a 
shorter crop. Thus, we lind, in the compara- 
tive stiiteuieiit embodied in the Report that 
wliereas the estate yielded 1,548, 81 iiius in 
1896, last year the yield was only 1,400,835. Here 
is a shortage of neatly 148,000 nuts- due, we 
suppose, to a less favourable season and not to any 
falling-off in cultivation ; for the crop for 1895 
is returned as 1,332,965 and tor 1894 (in the Report 
for tliat year which we have just looked up) as 
1,1 02,237. The heavy rainfall, of the latter half 
of 1895 and of 1896 as a whole, had evidently 
benefited the property, and hence what looks like 
701 
the exceptionally large crop of over a million and 
a half of nuts. W'cll, a difference of nearly 159A00 
nuts ill the crop sbtiteuient, mu.sb tell on the 
income ; hut it is not there that the chief trouble, 
wa.s found, so far as we cm see. Working out-tlie, 
average from the total income from nuts and copra 
and the number of nuts picked, wo make out 
that 1898 showed R40 per 1,000 nuts, whereas 
last year gave only R34 per 1,000. Here we liave 
a difference of R6 per thousand, or nearly 15 per 
cent— a fall that may be compared with that 
in tea shares for the period — and that 
works out into a big sum on a million and a 
half of nuts. We had too that the experi- 
ence of most coconut proprietors is similar ; 
for inquiries have made us acquainted 
with differences of from R4 to 6, and even more, 
in the average prices of the six crops generally 
calculated for the year. We look u[>on the aver- 
age whicli Horrekelly obtained for 1896 as un- 
commonly good, and fancy it must have 
made an advantageous contract before prices 
began to recede. But not only had tiie Company 
to contend with a shorter crop and much lower 
prices ; but its expenditure was larger I The ex- 
planation given at the meeting to an inquiring 
shareholder was that the croj) of 1898 was sold on 
tlie spot in nuts purchased for Colombo Desicca- 
ting Mills ; whereas the crop of 1897, in the 
absence of an advantageous offer for nuts, had 
to be converted into copra ; and the cost of mnntt- 
iaemre, of course, swelled the expenditure. 
Still, economy seems to have been practised ; 
for we liiul tlie exi)eiidilure was lower in 1897 
than ill 1895 -in which year the crop of 
nuts was smaller and the outturn of coir fibre 
was less. The Company, so far as we can 
judge, seems to us to be in a sound position 
and to be carefully administered ; but it has 
suffered from exchange like most of our Ishand in- 
dustries; and, we fear, unless the demand for coco- 
nut oil should advance, there is small chance of the 
price of nuts wliioli ruled two and three years 
ago being ever again realised, with so much land 
coming into bearing. Horrekelly has, however, 
this advantage — tliat it will soon have two Desic- 
cating Mills at its doors— which .should help to 
raise the price of nuts locally. 
. 
PLANTERS AND PLANTING IN THE 
MALAY PENINSULA. 
A recent mail brought us some interesting papere 
from the Straits in the Annual Report and I’ro- 
cendings at a (general Mooting of the United 
Planter.s’ A.ssociation of the J’cderated Malay 
States and sojiarately of the Selangor Planters’ 
Association. But the fanny thing is that we 
lind so many of the same idantcrs taking part 
ill both Associations— IMessrs. I'. H, Hill and 
E. Y. Carey being most prominent in both — 
while Mr. Tom Gibson is Secretary for the two 
bodies. We fancied ‘Selangor’ might bo as a Dis- 
trict, subsidiary to the “ United”; hut if so it is 
far better off linaucially, closing the year with 
a credit of 799 dollars; while the United Asso- 
ciation lies a debit balance of 344 dollars. More- 
over we think Mr, Carey’s remarks at the Se- 
langor meeting are about the most interest- 
ing 
There was no denying the. fact that the last year bod 
been a disastrous one for them all. Tho local market 
price of coffee was at the comtnencenieut of the year 
and at lha close of the year it had fallen to'#19. 
The position was both sorious and critical, but 
