May 2, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
759 
PLANTING IN SUMATRA. 
I have just had a visit from a friend return- 
ing from a meeting of tlie Serdang Coffee Planters’ 
Association. “ A line meeting,” lie said : — 
“ TWENTY E.STATE.S REPRESENTED.” 
And so it was, considering that three years ago 
tliere were only four coffee estates representing 
less than 1,000 acres under cultivation : and to- 
day there 24 estates, the smallest of which is 
over 120 acres, and the largest over 1,500 acres, 
and extension is tlie order of the day notwith- 
standing the slump in tlie market. I put into 
my friend’s hands the,Geylon Observer \y\t\\ account 
of the Planters’ Association meeting in Kandy 
on 17th Feb. and told him that the Ceylon 
Planters’ Association mustered close on 1,000 
strong. “What! all present at the meeting?” 
“ Certainly.” I said : for I quite agree with 
Harry Warrington ; that one must lie now and 
again “for the honor of tlie old country !”■“ Oh, 
but all assistants and so forth go to swell the 
number.” “Nay,” I replied: “only estates, 
firms or companies are represented.” “ But do you 
mean to tell me that there are 1,000 estates in 
Ceylon ? ” 
FERGUSON’S DIRECTORY WAS HANDY 
and I was able to show him on page 22, of the 
Directory of 1896-97 — 1,529 estates : 1470 managers. 
“ By Jove ! fellows here don’t know that !” This 
I was aware of before. You good folks in Ceylon 
think a deuce of a lot of yourselves. And quite 
right too. It pleases you and it hurts nobody 
else. But outsiders have the most fractional 
idea of the limits of your tight little island. 
IDEAS OF CEYLON. 
Sometime ago we had a visitor here from 
Nuwara Eliya, who, during his short stay among 
made himself very popular, A gentleman on 
his way home said to me “ I must go and look 
up in Nuwara Eliya ; how do I get there ? ” 
Upon my giving him directions he threw up his 
hands and said “ Why, I thought you could take 
a gharry and drive round the whole of Ceylon in 
two hours ! ” 
From a Singapore paper it appears that the 
Selangor planters have gone into public mourning 
over the 
FALL IN THE PRICE OF COFFEE 
and their own ignorance of curing ! This is a 
pity : and it does not look as if the Selangor 
men had the grit of their forbears in Ceylon who 
tackled and struggled through a much more 
serious crisis than Liberian coffee has yet had to 
face. 
As regards Liberian coffee there are two ques- 
tions. The curing question has been fully recog- 
nised: but few have satisfactorily overcome it. 
Mark this — well cured Liberian coffee will always 
fetch its price. One estate that I know fetched 
a fancy price in Europe two years ago : and has 
always been able to dispose of its produce at 
A FAIR MARKF.T PRICE. 
Another estate shipped a large parcel just be- 
fore the recent collapse ofthemarket, sold in Europe 
at public auction it netted— the market 
was at smash — $29 per picul. Singapore quota 
tion at same date being $19— and the shippers 
were told that they could always get an equal 
price for such a sample, 
So much for Curing. 
The other question is prejudice. 1 
All in Ceylon except the podians remember the 
PREJUDICE AGAINST CEYLON TEA. 
Fir.st they said in London that Brokers and 
Merchants would not waste their time on “ Sam- 
ples.” When the samples increased in siZ3, the 
gaality was found fault with. It was trash : it was 
rank; it w.as sour; nothing was bad enough for 
it. And simply because they didn’t know what 
was given them and treated Indian and Ceylon 
Tea just as they had treated Chinese chopped 
st'-aw for tlie previous half-century. As a youngster 
I remember presents of Assam Tea being sent 
home from Inilia. “ Awfully good of dear old 
Charlie, you know : but ahem, ahem, Str.” 
“ Beastly, ” was whispered : and the tea was re- 
legated to the kitchen. 
And so it is wiih 
LIBERIAN COFFEE. 
It is called nasty, rank, oily stuff. And so it is* 
if it is not treated properly. In the first placcj 
as a rule, it is not sufficiently dried. It needs 
far more drying than Coffee Arabica^ . This 
fers especially to coffee for the breakfast tabl^ 
as distinct from coffee for the market. Then it 
is frequently drunk too new. It Wants a lot of 
keeping. And finally the roasting must be done 
slowly and very thoroughly. If the.se points 
are well borne in mind, Liberian coffee will give 
as fragrant a cup as any other : and the quantity 
will go further. In short, point for point, and 
step for step, it has to fight the same battle that 
British-grown teas had to fight a quarter of a 
century aco. 
NO MENTION OF COFFEE ! 
The forty-fourth Annual Report of the Ceylon 
Planters’ Association should rank as an eighth 
wonder of the world. There is no mention of eoffet 
in it. OLD HAND., 
« 
PIONEERS OF CEYLON: IHE 
MESSRS. HADDEN. 
We stand correctedinsomeof the particulars given 
in our notice, respecting the younger generation. 
We stated that Messrs. Frederick and Frank 
Hadden, soon after their father’s death became 
sole proprietors of the Hunasgeria estates. As 
a matter of fact they inherited their father’s 
half-share in Kotiyagalla and the Hunasgeria 
estates, and it was not till some years later, 
that they sold their half-share in Kotiyagalla to 
Mr. Chas. S. Hadden and bought his share in 
the Hunasgeria estates, in which properties Mr. 
Frederick , Hadden was interested till January 
1st 1898, when he sold his share in Weygalla, as 
also did his brother, to Mr. Beilby. On the same 
date, Mr. Fredrick Hadden sold his share of 
Hunagalla, Horagalla and Halgalla to his brother. 
We were wrong in describing Mr. Frederick 
Hadden as Mr. Charles S. Hadden’s nephew ; 
he is his cousin or cousin one remove. 
BLACK ANTS. 
A lady residing in a dry, lowcouutry district, 
writes : — 
“ Could any of the readers of the Observer kindly 
inform me how to destroy or prevent the inroads 
of big black ants ? Nothing seems to escape 
them here: — piano, bookcases, table, drawers, flower 
pots, &c., and I Would be thankful to know of 
some good remedy.” 
We trust some one or other of the following 
hints will be useful to our Correspondent : — 
How TO Prevent Ants from Attacking Suoar. — 
Some pf your lady readers will no doubt be glad of 
this hint, the utility of which I can testify to, aud 
