trouble. Ceylon cacao planters have already improved the method of preparing the bean for the London market, and further improvements are under consideration. It is possible that ultimately an area exceeding 20,000 acres under this plant will enable Ceylon to send 50,000 to 60,000 cwt. of its product into European markets.* There is every encouragement in prices and demand to extend cacao cultivation. Cardamoms spice is another product, the cultivation of which has benefited a good many Ceylon planters, the export rising from 14,000 lb. in 1878 to 422,109 lb. in 1891, and a larger quantity in 1892; the greater portion to India, where there is a large demand in the Presidency towns, while the quantity sent to the United Kingdom is sufficient to seriously affect the price in the London market. It is, indeed, a significant fact that in respect of several products, practically receiving no attention from our planters fifteen years ago, Ceylon has assumed a prominent if not a leading position in the markets of the world. We refer to tea, cocoa, cinchona bark, and cardamoms, for the supply of which, as of cinnamon, coconut oil, and plumbago, this colony is pre-eminent.f The Caoutchouc, or indiarubber trees of commerce, from South America and Eastern Africa, are of recent introduction, but their cultivation and growth in the planting districts of Ceylon have so far not given very satisfactory results. The growth of some of the trees has been excellent, indeed wonderful, equalling in certain cases forty-eight feet in height, and forty-five inches in circumference in five years, and when more is known * See pamphlets on "Cacao Cultivation," published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. Also in Appendix No. II. Mr. J. Ferguson's Paper before the London Chamber of Commerce, 25th June, 1892. † See Mr. J. Ferguson's Paper before London Chamber of Commerce, June 25th, 1892; Pamphlet on "Cardamoms Cultivation, etc.," has been published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. about the mode of harvesting the rubber the industry may prove profitable.* There is a great demand for rubber in arts and manufactures in the United States as in Europe, and encouragement therefore to give attention to the product; but Dr. Trimen does not think well of rubber A specimen of rapid growth in Cey'on (Sembawattie Estate); 17 ft. high, 10 in. in circumference, and on'y nite months old. or guttapercha for private cultivation in Ceylon. The Government have been planting rubber through their Forest Department. * See Mr. J. Ferguson's Paper before London Chamber of Commerce, June 25th, 1892; and All About Rubber," second edition, published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. Among minor new products Liberian coffee was introduced from the West African Republic of that name (in 1875-79 chiefly), in the hope that its large size and strong habit would enable it at the low elevation in which it grows to resist the leaf-fungus; but this hope has not been realised, and although the acreage planted (1800 acres in 1893) is giving fair crops, there is no special attempt to extend this area for the present.* Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that there is good reason to encourage the further planting of Liberian coffee in Ceylon, and Dr. Trimen is strongly of this opinion. It is now felt that a good many were hasty in discarding Liberian coffee after too brief a trial in 1884-5. It is hoped that now it is felt a sufficient area has been covered with tea by European planters, many of them will turn their attention once again to Liberian coffee in suitable parts of the low-country; while the Director of the Botanic Gardens and Revenue officers are doing much to get the natives to grow both Liberian coffee and cacao around their villages. Coffee trees in bearing were not long ago reported in the Vanni of the Northern province, and an experiment is likely to be made by the European planters on a grant of land eastward of Mineri Lake. Cotton, tobacco, pepper, African palm-oil nut, nutmegs, croton oil seeds, and annotta dye plant are among the other products to which, by reason of the reverse in coffee, planters in the hill and low-country of Ceylon have been turning their attention in isolated cases, with results more or less satisfactory. In the variety of all the industries detailed in the foregoing pages it is felt there is sufficient guarantee to warrant the belief that the coffee leaf-fungus will prove eventually, if it has not already * See Mr. J. Ferguson's Paper before London Chamber of Commerce, June 25th, 1892; and "Liberian Coffee," illustrated, published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. proved, a blessing in disguise to the island, its colonists, and native people. The latter suffered with their European brethren, not only through the disease affecting their coffee gardens, but much more through the absence of employment in so many branches which the prosperous coffee enterprise opened out to them. Tea plantations are now filling up the blank left by coffee, so far as field and picking work is concerned, while many of the natives, led by their chiefs and intelligent headmen and villagers, are themselves planting new products-tea, Liberian coffee, and cacao-and so following the example of the European planters. In this way the Planting enterprise in all its ramifications in Ceylon is fraught with the promise of a greater and more reliable prosperity than ever appertained to coffee alone in its palmiest days. CHAPTER VIII. . PRESENT POSITION OF AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE, LOCAL INDUSTRIES, AND FOREIGN EXPORT AND IMPORT TRADE. Export of last Decade-The Plumbago Trade-Gold and Iron-Native Industries generally flourishing-Tea and Cacao will make up for the Deficiency in Coffee. TO sum up and show at the export trade arising from our agricultural enterprise and local industry, we give in Appendix a tabular statement of the staple exports. In Appendix No. I. will be found the actual figures of the staple exports (and their distribution) in 1891, and previous three years. a glance the present position of There are a few headings in this export table that we have not touched on yet, and the principal one of these is plumbago, or graphite. This is the only mineral of commercial importance exported from Ceylon. The mining industry is entirely in the hands of the Sinhalese; mines of from 100 to 200 and even 300 feet depth are worked in a primitive fashion, and the finest plumbago in the world for crucible purposes is obtained. industry has taken a great start of recent years, the average export increasing about 50 per cent. within the decade; the value of the trade averages about £350,000 per annum, and this mining industry has sprung up entirely within the last forty-five years.* The * See Monograph on "Plumbago," by A. M. Ferguson, contributed to the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal (Ceylon), in 1885. |