140 
THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST 
[August i, 1891. 
COST AND VAIiUK OF CEYLON COCONUT 
rilOFEKTY. 
{Comvmnicated} 
Some yeatH ego there appeirod in the Olxerver 
a notiee ol the sale of two ooconul properliee, at 
E38 and lUO per aoto, to which the rrpoitor 
appended the remark, that it was a good price, as 
they were not in full bearing. It la very possible 
that the price paid for these properties may bo 
their full value, as they may have beert Ireatod on 
the old native system, or some slight modifieation 
of it, that instead of adding yearly to the value 
tends to depress it below that of the original jungle. 
At all events, the price paid for the fields in 
question is less than old chena in a favourite 
district commands. 
Suppose a would-be coconut planter secures nt 
B80 per acre a tract ol land ol the average quality 
ol the undulating uplands of the lowcountry, and 
that ha dispensea with the servioe of goiyas and 
thus avoida the deteriorating efleots of their 
operations, hie first year’s work will coat B20, which 
with the price of the land will make up lUO at 
the end of the first year. lUO per acre pet annum 
will provide for a conserving but not for a high 
and forcing cultivation, — such a style of oultivatiun 
as will produce the first appreciable orop in the 
eighth year and its full measure of yield in the 
fourteenth or fifteenth, by which time the crops 
will have run up to 2 600 nuts per acre at current 
prices worth B60. At ten years’ puroha^ e on the net 
proceeds, the value of the estate in the fifteenth 
year will be R60 per acre, having cleared off the 
whole expenditure with 10 per cent of interest 
dating the previous seven yeais. 
The following table shows the prinopal and 
interest of expenditure, the probable crops, and the 
annual increment of value for each year of ttie series. 
Cost and Vai-uk of Ccconut Pbopebty. 
£ S PS 
5 V 
XS V 
- =5 8 
I 
V *♦ E ^ 
1*4 
40 
Skid 
54 
3rd 
G9 
4th 
85 
etb 
102 
6th 
120 
7 th 
139 
6th 
164 
9tb 
164 
lot 
14-1 
llth 
122 
12th 
02 
13th 
62 
14th 
16th 
... 
16th 
... 
s. 
CO 
8 2 
(L N 
6 
10 
20 
a. 
so 
60 
tiO 
60 
P N 
.00 
80 
110 
140 
170 
200 
230 
260 
290 
820 
860 
38t> 
410 
440 
Remarks. 
There are lands that at the 
same cost will give much better 
results, snd others that will give 
worse, but this it a fair average 
result, and one that cm no- 
where bo attained at less cost. 
At a return of 10 per ceut it 
it better to keep than to sell a 
coconut estate, in view ol ihe 
average returns of other agricul- 
tural investinmits; acjordiugly 
DO one sells oooonut property 
except under linancml prestaro, 
•d-dVl MASUSea t -I 
470 orinrompatibilityot'jo'nt owner- 
weA.a -1.:.. .iffeaw.la t.h>4 
600 
eorr ship, which affords tha waitcl 
for hoppotluuily to the larger capitalists, who us- 
nallv make great bargains of any such property 
that may come into the market, lou value oi 
oooonut property depends most on the eharaoter 
ol the cultivation. Even good soil will not leU 
under neglect, and indifferent soil may be made 
tb niv well, by liberal and ludic.ous trinlment. 
to p»y weu, J hardlv any meaua 
r rWpn vears OKO, there were hardly any meaua 
modes, between the extremes of a manur- 
lantana, and garden culture, with . a nr 
nr. nr nti onoo in throe or 
i&ntana, aim caraen uuiuuiw, 
ing,— the one costing Bo or Bh onoo m ro 
four years, and the other taking from [ , 
per annum. Here are two fields with a tt q 
paddy field between them, the one four and t 
other nine years old j one has merely been kept 
lean, and the other has lately been cleared ot 
four years’ growth of lantana ; the plants on the 
younger field are the bigger and stronger of tha 
two. Here are two adjoining piecee, the one six 
and the other three years old, the one has been 
eletred of three years’ lantuua, and the younger 
field is lour years nearer bearing than the older. 
A JAPAN CHEMIST ON THE CONSTITUENTS 
OF TEA ; 
AND THE EFFECT OF E.KOLDSION OP 
LIGHT FROM THE GROWING FLAM’S. 
Faragraphe have appeared in the newspapers re- 
garding some interesting experiments made by a 
Japanese soioutist on tea leaves grown under 
normal conditions of full exposure to light and 
on others which were shaded long enough to 
produce the effect ol bloaohibg on the flush. Tha 
result was that the shaded tea was deemed 
superior, from increased amount of theino aud not 
from dimintsbod proportica of tannin,— the con- 
olusiou being thus m support of the dictam of Mr. 
Hooper, the Ma lr.ss Quiimlogist, that by no known 
method of preparation cool ' tannin in tea leaves bo 
increased or dir. lished, snd that the superiority of 
tea seemed to rest on the larger quantity of tannin 
contained in it. Frofiusor y. .N izai’a experiments 
are taken as ju.'tifying the ibforenoes, not only 
that tha bleaebea leaves yielded a finer infusion 
but that this finer tea ac-rd more strongly on the 
human frame than tea normally grown and manufao- 
tured. Such are the oonolusious indicated in tha full 
and interesting abstract of Professor Kozai’s p.aper 
which wo oopy into our IVopicaf AgricuUuriH from 
the Chemut and Druggist^ and which we recommend 
to the oareful attention of orthodox planters who con- 
sider shade trees amongst tea as objectionable 
as if the oultured product were coffee. When 
tea is well cBtablished, experience would seem to 
show that trees judioiously chosen, primarily for 
sli'lter and ultimately for fuel and timber, can bo 
planted over the fields, without danger of 
injury to the te.i accruing from the shade. In 
the Japanese experiment light was entirely 
exoluded, and with resulls which, if they oan be 
depended upon, are o rtainly very curious and 
Btigg. stive. A partial analysis of bloaolied and 
normal leaves showed nearly I per oont more iheine 
id the foimer, with more than 1 per Of nt excess of 
total nitrogen and an appreeiablo increase in 
theme nitrogen.” Heuco, no doubt, the fiuer 
aroma and high quality of the tea. Bat if the 
analysis of bleached leaves oonfirmod Mr. Hooper’s 
oonolusion ri spcoting tannin, what are we to say 
-what wi 1 Mr. Hooper ssy-io the figures (if they 
aie correet) for the analyaus of loaves prepared as 
green or unformeoted and black or fermented tea ? 
— ' “J. l^ftiiessor Kozai’s experiments, 
•It IS distinctly affirmed that the fermenting process 
m the uianufaoture of black tea is dostruetiva of 
tanoiu I The figures are so astounding that we 
cannot help ruspeoting some error. The peroenlaga 
leaves, 12 Ul, was reduced, so 
it IS ftmrraed, to lO Gi when the leaves were prepared 
as green tea, and to 4 89 when raanufaoturad as 
black tea ! What renders this low figure for tannin 
in black tea the more puzzling is that the pro- 
portion of tannin in medium Japan tea is subao- 
quenlly givou at 17 Ci percent. Even recognizing 
the fact that Japan “■ oolongs ” are more of a green 
tea than a blaok, the disorepanoy is astonishing. 
Mr. Hooper wiil, no doubt, have something to 
say on a result so direotly contrary to tliat obtained 
by him. A black tea with only 4 Sy of tannin and 3'80 
of ili'iiiio would doubtless be pronounced “ delicate 
in llavour but deplorably deficient in strength.” 
