as 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
circumstances 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 quantity 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 cassia, its
competitor, 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, principally 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 quantity 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 p