The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 56

The ripe fruit of this tree yields a concrete oil called cinnamon suet, which was formerly employed to make candles for the Kandian kings. An oil, called clove oil, is also distilled from the leaf, which is said to be equal in aromatic pungency to that made from the clove at the Moluccas.

The following were the quant.i.ties sold, and the average prices realised during the Dutch rule in Ceylon:--

s. d.

1690 3,750 bales sold at 4 8 all round.

1709 3,750 " 4 6 "

1710 3,500 " 4 4 "

1720 5,000 " 4 4 "

1740 4,000 " 9 3 "

1760 5,000 " 8 5 "

1780 2,500 " 12 6 "

1784 2,500 " 17 4 "

The last quotation appears to have been the highest ever obtained for cinnamon, for 17s. 8d. average would give about 22s. for the first sort. In later years we find the deliveries and prices to have been as follows:--

s. d.

1824 5,934 bales sold at 6 6 all round.

1828 3,918 " 6 0 "

1830 5,849 " 7 8 "

1842 1,018 " --- "

1845 3,245 " --- "

The comparative exports of cinnamon from Ceylon in the first six months of 1853, as compared with the same period last year, are as follows:--

1853. 1852.

lbs. lbs.

Quarter ending 5th January 99,778 93,291 " 5th April 73,815 135,248 ------- ------- Total 173,593 228,539

The diminished export was caused by the prospective abolition of the export duty, which came into operation on the 1st July last. The quant.i.ty that will be sent to the English market by the close of the year (1853) will be something prodigious compared with the average consumption. From October 10, 1852, to July 22, 1853, the s.h.i.+pments were 406,326 lbs.

RETURN OF CINNAMON EXPORTED FROM CEYLON, SHOWING THE QUANt.i.tY AND VALUE.

Quant.i.ty. Value.

Year. lbs.

1836 724,364 -- 1837 558,110 -- 1838 398,198 -- 1839 596,592 -- 1840 389,373 -- 1841 317,919 24,857 1842 121,145 15,207 1843 662,704 66,270 1844 1,057,841 105,784 1845 408,211 40,821 1846 491,656 49,165 1847 447,369 44,736 1848 491,688 49,168 1849 733,782 73,378 1850 644,857 64,485 1851 500,518 50,051 1852 427,667 42,766

The question of the export duty on cinnamon has, during the last twenty years, occupied a considerable s.p.a.ce in Ceylon correspondence and the Island journals. This duty was first imposed in 1832, on the abolition of the Grovernment monopoly, and was then fixed at the rate of 3s. per lb. on all qualities. From the 19th April, 1835, it was fixed at 3s. per lb. on the best, and 2s. on the second quality. It was reduced in January, 1837, to 2s. 6d. on the first and second sorts, and 2s. on the third; and in June, 1841, to 2s. on all qualities; in 1843, to 1s.; and in September, 1848, to 4d. per lb.

Such a rate of export duty could be maintained only on an article for which there was a considerable demand, and which could not be supplied from other places, and this was for a long time the case. The circ.u.mstances are now different, and the abolition of the duty, which has so repeatedly been brought under the notice of the Treasury, has at length been determined on. The quant.i.ty of cinnamon, &c., taken for consumption in the United Kingdom, scarcely amounts to 2,800 bales per annum. The sale and consumption is nearly stationary, and cinnamon is only in demand for those finer purposes for which ca.s.sia, its compet.i.tor, cannot be used. Whilst we imported the large amount of 700,095 lbs. in 1850, only 28,347 lbs. went into consumption. The consumption has declined in the last two years to about 21,500 lbs.

Cinnamon is now imported into the United Kingdom duty free.

The land under cultivation with cinnamon in Ceylon is about 13,000 acres, princ.i.p.ally in the western and southern provinces. The number of gardens being eleven at Kaderane, seven at Ekelli, seven at Morotto, six at Marandham, and two at Willisene. Several enterprising planters have recently commenced the cultivation of this spice at Singapore and Malacca. The plants already promise well. Indeed there can be little doubt of its thriving, as the tree has been long grown in gardens and pleasure grounds in those settlements, as an ornamental plant, and has always flourished.

The Ceylon article is being supplanted in the continental markets by a cheaper one, of China and Malabar growth. The Javanese, tempted by the fatally high prices caused by the excessive duties on our Colonial spice, smuggled a quant.i.ty of seed, and with it a cinnamon cultivator, out of the island, and have since paid considerable attention to its growth. The Dutch have at present more than five millions of plants, equal to upwards of 5,000 acres, the greater part of which are in tolerably full bearing.

The cinnamon trees in Java begin to blossom in the month of March.

They do not all flower at the same time, but in succession. The fruit begins to ripen in October in the same manner, so that the crop lasts from October to February. In Ceylon the blossom begins to appear in November. The seeds when plucked ought to be fully ripe, and after being separated from the outer pulpy covering, should be dried in the shade. They can be kept for two or three months in dry sand or ashes, but must not be exposed to the sun, as they would split, and thus be rendered useless.

The plants in nurseries must be well sheltered from the sun and heavy rains, but the plants are strengthened by the covers being removed at night when heavy rains are not expected to fall, and in the day time when only light rains prevail. The mode of planting out, cultivation, preparing the bark, &c., appears to be the same in Java as that practised in Ceylon. The only difference is, that while in Ceylon the cinnamon, when ready for market, is packed in "gunny" or canva.s.s bags, in Java it is put into boxes, made of wood free from any smell or flavor which would injure the spice. The inferior cinnamon, however, is packed in straw mats.

The following is a return of the extent of cinnamon culture in Java :--

In 1840. In 1841.

Residencies in which cinnamon is cultivated 10 10 Number of plantations 48 49 " families devoted to this culture 7,901 9,688 " paid _budjans_ 294 345 Extent of ground occupied by the cultivation, in _bahus_ of 71 decametres 1,690 1,880 --------- --------- Cinnamon trees of which the bark can be taken 1,106,566 1,407,213 Young trees in the parks 2,478,427 2,565,774 For renewing 307,000 86,800 --------- --------- Total 3,891,998 4,059,787 --------- --------- Cinnamon crop, in Dutch lbs. 57,074 38,219 " refuse 23,283 82,803

The number of trees peeled in 1842 was taken at 1,824,599, and the crop reckoned at 108,905 lbs.

In the residency of Bantam, four trees suffice to produce a pound of cinnamon, whilst in the other residencies eleven trees must generally be stripped to furnish the same quant.i.ty; in 1839 one pound could scarcely be obtained from thirteen trees.

This cultivation increases each year, and the quality of the produce improves, whilst the expenses diminish. However, the Dutch Government has judged it proper not to extend it, although the soil of Java appears favorable to this culture.

From 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. of true cinnamon, not freed from its epidermis, is exported annually from Cochin-China.

JAVA CINNAMON SOLD IN HOLLAND.

lbs.

In 1835 2,200 " 1836 1,300 " 1837 1,600 " 1838 2,100 " 1839 4,700 " 1840 7,900 " 1841 23,900 " 1842 13,000 " 1843 23,000 " 1844 101,400 " 1845 134,500 " 1848 250,550

STATISTICS OF PACKAGES IN LONDON.

1842. 1843. 1844. 1845.

Imported 2,196 4,458 9,197 8,909 Exported 3,661 3,964 6,712 6,081 Duty paid 838 738 801 1,012 Stock 2,709 2,622 4,230 5,549

Ca.s.sIA BARK.

_Cinnamonum Ca.s.sia_, or _aromatic.u.m_, the _Laurus ca.s.sia_ of Linnaeus, seems to be the chief source of the "ca.s.sia lignea" of commerce. It differs from the true cinnamon tree in many particulars. Its leaves are oblong-lanceolate; they have three ribs, which coalesce into one at the base; its young twigs are downy, and its leaves have the taste of cinnamon.

Malabar ca.s.sia appears to be the produce of another species of _Cinnamonum_, probably _C. eucalyptoides_, or _Malabatrum_.

Dr. Wight, of the Madras Medical Service, in a report to the East India Company, expresses his belief that the ca.s.sia producing plants extend to nearly every species of the genus. "A set of specimens (he observes) submitted for my examination, of the trees furnis.h.i.+ng ca.s.sia on the Malabar coast, presented no fewer than four distinct species; including among them the genuine cinnamon plant, the bark of the older trees of which, it would appear, are exported from the coast as ca.s.sia. Three or four more species are natives of Ceylon, exclusive of the cinnamon proper, all of which greatly resemble the cinnamon plant, and in the woods might easily be mistaken for it and peeled, though the produce would be inferior. Thus we have from Western India and Ceylon alone, probably not less than six plants producing ca.s.sia; add to these nearly twice as many more species of _Cinnamonum_, the produce of the more eastern states of Asia, and the Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, all remarkable for their striking family likeness; all, I believe, endowed with aromatic properties, and probably the greater part, if not the whole, contributing something towards the general result, and we at once see the impossibility of awarding to any one individual species the credit of being the source whence the _Ca.s.sia lignea_ of commerce is derived; and equally the impropriety of applying to any one of them the comprehensive specific appellation of ca.s.sia, since all sorts of cinnamon-like plants, yielding bark of a quality unfit to bear the designation of cinnamon in the market, are pa.s.sed off as ca.s.sia."

The ca.s.sia tree, according to Mr. Crawfurd, is found in the more northern portion of the Indian isles, as in the Philippines, Majindanao, Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of Celebes. It is also grown on the western coast of Africa. The princ.i.p.al seat of its culture is, however, the Malabar coast, and the provinces of Quantong and Kingse, in China.

The famous ca.s.sia of China is incomparably superior in perfume and flavor to any spice of its cla.s.s. Its native place is unknown, though supposed to be the interior provinces of China. The market price is said to be 5 per lb.

The Malabar sort brought from Bombay is thicker, darker colored, and coa.r.s.er than that from China, and is more subject to foul packing. A small quant.i.ty of ca.s.sia is brought from Mauritius and Brazil, and a large amount from the Philippine Islands.

Ca.s.sia bark fetches from 80s. to 105s. per cwt. in the London market, according to quality. The imports appear on the decline. In 1843 and 1844 we imported nearly two millions of pounds. The quant.i.ty imported and retained for home consumption in the past four years are shown in the following figures:--

Imported. Retained for consumption.

lbs. lbs.

1848 510,247 76,152 1849 472,693 83,500 1850 1,050,008 97,178 1851 267,582 82,467

The cheaper Indian barks, as well as the cinnamon of the East, seemed at one time to be fast driving out of the market the superior cla.s.s cinnamon of Ceylon.

In 1841 Java exported 400 cwts. of cinnamon; and the quant.i.ty of ca.s.sia imported into the United Kingdom from India and the Philippine Islands, in the five years ending with 1844, was--

lbs.