April t, 1898 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTCRIST. 
711 
In 1883 the Kew authorities made enquires as 
to its preparation at the request of Sir Joseph 
Hooker, witli the result tliat a report on tlie 
subject was forwarded by the Indian Government. 
Piuri (as it is also speiled) is sometimes got from 
mineral sources, but it is inferior stuff. The real 
article is prepared chielly in Mongliyr from the 
urine of cows kept on a diet of mango leaves 
and water, which increases the bile pigments and 
imparts to the urine a brilliant yellow colour. 
Cows thus fed are believed to die within two years, 
though the cattle-keepers will not admit this is so, 
and will show cows from which they say that the 
dye has been got for four years. 
The cows, it is admitted, have a very unhealthy 
appearance, and to prevent the animals break- 
ing down altogether an allowance of ordinary 
fodder has at times to be resorted to, though 
it reduces the amount of piuri obtainable. 
Owing to the injurious effects on the cows, the 
manufacture is confined to a small number of 
people who are looked down on by their fellows. 
The cows are made to pass urine three or four times 
a day by a process of massage of the urinary 
organs, and indeed the animals after a time can- 
not urinate unless this is done. The urine is 
collected in earthen pots which in the evening 
are placed over the lire. The heat causes the 
yellow dye to precipitate. It is then strained, the 
sediment made into a ball and dried. The mer- 
chants who export the stuff give the manufac- 
turer on the spot K 1 per lb. (mineral piuri only 
fetches 4d per lb.). The cost of maugo leaves 
also no doubt restricts the manufacture, the 
produce of a moderate-sized tree, say 30 feet 
high, fetching K2. An average cow produces 
about 3 qts. of urine per diem which yields 
about 2 oz. of piuri. D. 
MR. HARCOURT SKRINE ON 
“ EXCHANGE.” 
Osborne, Hatton, 5th March 1898. 
Sir, — I send you copy of a letter I addressed 
by last mail to a London Newspaper on the 
subject of Exchange. 
It represents the views of an individual Ceylon 
Proprietor, who, having been through the Coffee 
ruin, prefers to anticipate the sowing of a like 
calamity for Tea. 
I have purposely omitted any reference to a 
old coinage because, if this is to be accorded 
ndia, it can only be by an act of grace on the 
part of the Home Government and we should 
not ask ourselves for what we may not be pre- 
pared to pay. 
What we have a right to insist on as capitalists 
working in this country is an honest and suffi- 
cient currency whether in gold or silver. Those 
who sympathise with these views should remem- 
ber that the situation is only intensified by delay 
and that the Spring in London is the time for 
action. — Yours truly, HARCOURT SKRINE. 
(To the Editor of the Economist.') 
Sir, — I n December, 1893, I with several others 
pointed out to the Press in Ceylon and to my 
then agents in Ijondon the Premium that was 
being put on China Tea by the closing of the 
Indian mints. 
Tiie reply, in Ceylon, was that our influence 
as Producers would not be weighted in the balance 
^vith tlie necessities of the Indian Government, 
and in London— I was told that “China was a 
dead dog, that he were doing very well as it 
was and that it would be time enough to 
make a fuss when the shoe really began to pinch.” 
For four years the experiment of drying up ihe 
currency has been going on and we have been 
content to abide our souls in patience, waiting 
the proofs of our convictions — convictions which 
have been ever disputed as the Exchange ebbed 
and flowed. The experiment is now coniiilete 
and the one and four-penny rupee is left high 
and dry for all to inspect. Let us take stock 
of it as “selfish” producers first of all, and 
then as capitalists to whom the adjective selfish 
is inapplicable. 
We_ will begin by admitting that the theory 
of China Tea being a dead dog as so far held 
good. No medicine can cure a man afflicted 
with a mortal disease. But does this affect the 
power of the Bounty in raising other and new 
competition? The Chinese on the strength of it 
are starting a new machine-manufactured Tea 
Industry ; the Japanese are pressing on with their 
cultivation ; and there lies in the Far East, only 
just developing, Ceylon’s future great rival 
“Formosa.” VVehave seen how the Wes, Indies 
have been ruined by the Sugar bounties. 
This was the doii-g of foreign Goverments 
and perhaps could mt be met by free-trade 
England, but here tve have our own Govern- 
ment putting a premium of 40 per cent, on the 
opening up of Japan and Formosa. Is Ceylon to 
go the way of Barbadoes ? is a question that may 
well be asked long before the next general 
election. 
Now as regards the capitalist, who not being 
a producer, seeks to invest in India or Ceylon. 
How does the currency appear to him ? He 
sees the Indian Government so hard up for its 
own rupees that it has passed a bill authorising 
the issue of notes by the currency department 
sgainst_ deposit! of gold in London. He sees the 
banks in the East chaiging fronr 12 to 15 per 
cent on overdrafts ; the Rupee Tea (fompany 
shares fallen 40 per cent in a few month-s, 
though the price of Tea has only fallen 5 per 
cent ; all pecuniary enterpri.se par'aly.sed ; and the 
lately prosperous Ceylon reduced to the condition 
of a fraudulent South American Republic. 
The capitalist classes are thus thrown back, 
out of civilrsation, into the middle age.s to corn- 
pete— without a Currency machine their own — 
with the ntodern barbarian provided with a 
Currency and a Bounty put upon his products 
by an English Government. The experiment has 
proved that the first duty of a Government is 
to provide an honest Currency, and to supply 
its revenue in ways apart from this. The 
Government of India could always have done 
this ; for the fall in silver was no injrrry to the 
courrtr'y and v hat the Governmerrt lost itr Revenire 
the Tax-])ayer gained. It should therefore have 
re-adjusted its taxation and not tempered with 
its Currency. The only course to avert the 
financial ruin of India and Ceylon is for the 
Government to re-trace its .steps, appoint statis- 
ticians to a,ssertain the supplies of silver needed 
to re-habilita‘c the Currency and jjurchase these 
by advertised instalments. Who would this 
injure? The Manchester shipper has had his 
unfair innings ahoady and can well afford to 
discount the pr spective falls in Exchange or 
send his goods to African markets. — Yours', 
HARCOURT 
