Review of the Planting and Agricultural Industries of Ceylon. By
J. Fergusson. (John Haddon and Co.)—Though these papers have appeared in print before, thanks are due to Mr. Fergusson for publishing them in a separate volume. The first item that any interested person will look for is undoubtedly coffee, and next, perhaps, tea. Coffee has never recovered from the blow which the leaf-disease and the removal of Protection struck. In 187477, the export of plantation and native coffee reached 988,328 cwt., the estimated crop for 1887-88 being 150,000 cwt. Chinchona, too, has seen its best days ; the Ceylon bark is not good enough. Tea, of course, is the coming industry, 23 lb. being exported in 1873, and 22,000,000 lb. in 1887-88 ; at this rate, in five years the failure of coffee will be compensated,—that is to say, the value of the tea will be as much as the coffee was. Mr. Fergusson gives plenty of details and statistics relating to all the tropical as well as the three principal products, and the short history which he attaches to the accounts of each enterprise are exceedingly in- structive and interesting.
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