juJTE I, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 805 
Once the garden is in full bearing, the proprietor, 
apart from an occasional visit of supervision, has 
little to do beyond selling his crop of oranges, paying 
the expenses, and pocketing the balance. 
The gardner in charge receives a fixed w.ige of 
from two to two pounds ten shillings per measure only 
as long as the trees do not bear ; once they are in 
full bearing he is no longer paid by a fixed wage, 
but receives a share of the produce, generally one- 
twelfth to one-tenth of the crop. It is also unders- 
tood that the garden r’s wife and family, who live cn 
the premises, assist in the garden-work without extra 
remuneration, hence the size of his gardener’s 
family is a matter of some consideration with the 
owner. This system of making the gardener a partner 
in the produce of the garden works very well, as he 
thereby acquires an interest in the general up-keep 
of the property. 
It is difficult to calculate the exact cost of laying 
down a garden. The price of the land varies of course 
according to position and quality; then the depth of the 
hater below the surface and consequent cost of sinking 
the well cannot be estimated to a nicety. As a general 
rule, however, a garden containing six thousand young 
trees will cost from eleven hundred to twelve hundred 
pounds to lay down complete, with livestock. To 
this sum will have to be added five years’ expenditure 
(during which period the garden is assumed to be un- 
productive) at the rate of one hundred and twenty 
pounds per annum, making six hundred pounds. We 
have therfore a total of eighteen hundred pounds, 
representing the capital outlay on the garden up to the 
time that the trees are in full bearing. From now on- 
wards the crop of oranges will have an annual value of 
from four hundred to five hundred pounds; and this 
will leave the proprietor, after deducting all expenses 
for wages, feed of live-stock, taxes, repairs, &c.; a clear 
revenue of ten to fifteen per cent, on his total capital 
outlay of eighteen hundred pounds. 
The risks which the Jaffa orange-grower runs, as 
compared with those which the grower in Florida has to 
face, are infinitesimal. The storms that visit the Syrian 
cost, although of frequent occurrence during the winter 
months, are not of such force as to damage the trees ; 
in fact it is remarkable how very small is the pro- 
portion of ripe fruit even which falls to the ground 
after a storm. This is no doubt due to the fact that 
the Jaffa orange tree is not allowed to grow larger 
than a good-sized shrub ; and as the trees are placed 
only four yards apart they afford each other very 
considerable protection from the force of the wind. 
The cactus shrubs also, forming the hedge of the 
garden, grow very thick and high, and give addi- 
tional protection from the storms. Blizzards and 
frosts, which have proved so ruinous in Florida, are 
quite unknown in Jaffa. 
Owing to the good keeping qualities of Jaffa 
oranges, which enables them to be shipped to dis- 
tant parts, there is always a brisk demand for them, 
and the grower has hitherto had very little difficulty 
in disposing of his crops at good prices. If not ex- 
orbitant in his demands, he can almost invariably 
sell his fruit for a lump sum while the fruit is 
still green, and before the winter, with its risks of 
hail, &c., has set in. The shipper who purchases 
the fruit in this way takes over the whole of the 
risk of any damage that may happen to it, and he 
cuts the oranges from the trees whenever it suits 
him to do so ; the contract only stipulating that the 
garden is to be cleared by the middle of March, as 
the proprietor likes to see his trees free of fruit 
before the new blossoms appear. 
The whole of the crop of Jaffa oranges does not 
at the present time exceed three hundred thousand 
boxes of about one hundred and sixty oranges each, 
which is a mere trifle complied with Spanish or 
American crops, and about four-fifths of this quantity 
is at present shipped to England. 
The orange-growing industry is almost entirely in 
the hands of natives ; a few of the newer gardens 
are, however, owned by Germans and Frenchmen.— 
Chambers’s Journal, 
THE FUTURE OF COCONUTS, 
{Contributed.) 
In view of the interest that has lately been shewn 
by European planters and capitalists in the coco- 
nut industry of Ceylon, it may be of interest to 
state that a new impetus has been given to extend 
the industry by finding a more extensive outlet for 
the produce to Russia. This has been suggested by 
the presence of the new Russian firms in Colombo, 
and, there having been much talk on the subject, 
there now seems every possibility of an extensive 
trade with that country being worked up before 
long. Curiously enough, so far as we know, the 
demand in this direction is only for copperah, and 
no steamer of the Russian Volunteer Fleet has left 
our Port for Odessa without a large cargo of that 
commodity. The demand is increasing, and it will 
increase with the advancement and progress of the 
country of the Czar. Besides our shipments direct 
to Odessa, the London, Hamburg, and Antwerp 
markets also provide an outlet in this line. The 
greatest demand for our produce, however, re- 
mains, with Russia, but it seems it does not piy 
her merchants to import coconut oil, owing to the 
heavy duty imposed. They receive, therefore, the 
copperah and extract the oil themselves, and also 
turn the poonac into good use. The demand for 
copperah is increasing, and it is of interest to in- 
quire whether in this respect, Ceylon can be com- 
peted with in the market by any other country. 
We apprehend no fear on this score. The nearest 
coconut-producing country to us is the Malabar 
Coast, with Cochin as its centre, and then we have, 
on the other side, the Straits. The output from 
those countries, comparatively speaking, amounts 
to very little, and we can lead the market yet, 
without any fear of competition from them, owing 
to our shipping facilities at Colombo. There are, in 
the tar distant Pacific, the South Sea Islands, which 
produce an immense quantity of coconuts, and it 
has been said that the nuts produced in those 
Islands are far supeiior to ours in size. Sydney 
and some few other Colonial Ports, however, are the 
principal consumers of the produce from those 
Islands, and with that demand it does not pay to 
find farther markets, so we have no fear of the 
South Sea Islanders coming into the market to com- 
pete, unless they wait for the Siberian Railway, and 
even then it is hardly possible that anything much 
may come out of such competition. We, therefore, 
see that we can hold our own in the coconut in- 
dustry until African produce is matured, and then it is 
doubtful whether new fields will come to any- 
thing in this line. Ceylon will always take 
the lead in the market for the industry, and 
investments in coconut lauds is therefore no 
mere speculation, but one of sure and steady profit- 
able returns. Glancing over the Administration 
Report of that most important Province of our 
Island — the North-Western — we say most important 
— because it has the finest coconut estates in the 
Island — we are pleased to note that new areas 
have been opened up during last year and planted 
with coconuts, and there yet remain thousands of 
acres of land in that Province to go under this 
cultivation. The Government Agent of that Pro- 
vince writes in his Administration Report for 1897: 
“ The increase in the receipts from land sales is 
satisfactory. There is a very large area of laud 
still available if there were surveyors to survey it. 
Meanwhile, the demand for land is very great in this 
Province.” Our Government however, it must be pointed 
out, is very short-sighted in its policy in considering 
the question of the future prospects of the coco- 
nut industry and the “sales of land by villagers.” 
The policy has decidedly a tendency to mar the 
progress of the country. There are hundreds and 
thousands of acres of land belonging to the villagers, 
which can be profitably converted into paying 
coconut estates. They are just trow a burden to 
the villagers, for he cannot iiroi>crIi/ cultivate them, 
because he has not the means, auii they are an eye* 
