new to science. That which was for a time
so serious a pecuniary loss to this island proved to be of great
commercial advantage to Java and Brazil, whose production in the same
line was vastly stimulated thereby, while the coffee which they sent
to market realized more remunerative prices than when brought in
competition with that of Ceylon. Since this experience, a large number
of the planters have gradually turned their attention to raising tea,
together with the production of quinine from the cinchona-tree, and so
far as could be learned, they have met with good pecuniary success. An
intelligent resident of Colombo estimates that there are fifty
thousand acres of the last-named tree under profitable cultivation at
the present time. It is found that cinchona will thrive in the
mountain districts, considerably above the height at which coffee
ceases to be advantageously cultivated, while, unlike tea or coffee,
it requires no special care after it has been once fairly started. The
production of quinine, which has now reached mammoth proportions,
hardly keeps pace with the growing consumption of the drug by the
world at large. There was over one million dollars' worth of cinchona
bark exported in 1892 from Colombo.

The export of tea in 1890 rose to the considerable amount of
forty-seven million pounds, which aggregate we have evidence to show
has been since increased annually. The commercial importance of Ceylon
may be said to rest at the present time mainly upon the raising of
tea. The yield per acre is considerably larger than it is in India,
while the access to market is much better than it is at Assam or
Cachar. The Ceylon product is shipped in its natural condition, that
is to say, it is pure, while that of China and Japan is systematically
adulterated and artificially colored. There are about two thousand
plantations upon the island occupied for tea raising, averaging two
hundred acres each of rolling upland, and it is confidently believed
here that China and India will eventually be distanced by Ceylon in
the matter of supplying the markets of the world with tea. While
coffee cannot be cultivated successfully much higher than four
thousand feet above sea level in this island, tea thrives at almost
any height in this latitude, as it does in northern India, round about
Darjeeling. The only fear seems now to be that of over-production.
The last year's crop was estimated to slightly exceed eighty million
pounds, an