July 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



ports like other foreigners, that they will be pro- 1 

 hil^itcd from living in the towns, the intention being ' 

 to emplo}' them in coffee planting j and that they 

 will be compelled to make their purchases in the 

 truck shops, which are almost invariably owned by ' 

 the planters. It is further stated that the ultimate I 

 importation into Brazil of from 400,000 to 500,000 

 t;hinese is anticipated. — Planters' Gazette. j 



CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN JAVA. 

 Not very long ago a handbook was published on Cin- 

 chona Cultivation, by Herr van Gorkom, in which the 

 most ample particulars were given of the history of the 

 plant and the progress the culture has made in .Java. 

 Amongst the facts noted was one of great importance to 

 the Netherlauds-Iudia Government, und that was the 

 difference between the cultivation in British India and 

 Java. In the former the species ledgeriania is hardly 

 propagated, whereas in the Dutch East Indies it occupies 

 a prominent place possessing as it does great yielding 

 properties. The attention drawn to the subject by this 

 work has no doubt been the cause of the articles 

 which have appeared with reference to the proposed 

 scheme for selling by auction the seeds of this variety. 

 It is argued with a good deal of force tliat if the sales 

 are conducted in the unchecked manner which has 

 been in vogue that the future losses resulting will 

 not be compensated for by the present gain of a few 

 handsful of coin. Looking, therefore, on the trans- 

 actions from this point of view, it U not surprising to tiud 

 that the Dutch desire to go to the other extreme and 

 stop thesale altogether. It is proposed even to go to the 

 extent of making the recipients of cinchona seeds from the 

 Government account for the same by a certain percentage 

 of seedlings in the nurseries. Some one evidently means 

 business when this exacting device is suggested, and it 

 wouhl not beat all astoiushing to read a further sugges- 

 tion that the seeds which cannot be used ought tobe de- 

 stroyed, so as to prevent their reaching liritish India. 

 Probably long ere this tire Indian Government on the 

 alert now have acquired a good supply of ledgeriania, and 

 will proceed at once to jjropagate wherever the existing 

 trees are large enough to be operated on. Indeed, the 

 great anxiety shown in Java will result in producing in- 

 creased activity in this respect in India, especially as such 

 wholesale doctrines of stoppage are enunciated. No one 

 would for a moment object to the careful preservation of 

 the species of whicli the Dutch are to such an extent the 

 happy possessors, and if the Goverment will only foster 

 the cultivation there need he no necessity, we imagine, 

 for the sales by auction. But on the other hand, there 

 ought not to be such aspirit existing as is shown in the 

 desire to absolutely prevent the export altogether. Tliere 

 can be no reason wliy the surplus stock should not bo sold. 

 Javn, far aliead as the island is in the cultivation of 

 ciuclioua, can hardly fear competition as yet, whereas no 

 amount of stopping the supply of any particular kind 

 will preveut it in the future. Our Dutch friends do 

 not seem tobe able to appreciate ihis, aud in theirex- 

 citeuicnt are quite willing to undergo a system of oflicial 

 supervision, to which the enforced laljour, said to he abol- 

 isheit, was child's-play. Noamountof checking by seed- 

 lings in the nursery or high charges for the missing per- 

 centage would check the export it the demand were 

 great. It mit;ht, however, have the effect of reducing 

 the local enterprize, for people woulel not care to run 

 risks of fine if natural causes produced less than the 

 required quantity. Let the Netherlands- India by all 

 means preserve their fo/jreriania, but let them go about 

 the right way to do it. — L. and G, Express. 



parture from the old method of recruiting has been 

 made. Hitherto the labour vessels have chiefly con- 

 fined themselves to the New Hebrides and the [Solo- 

 mon groups of islands as fields whereon to raise the 

 labourers for the Queensland plantations, occasionally 

 the Santa Cruz, Ellis, and otiier outlying groups 

 were visited. A firm of merchants here who only 

 lately embarked in the trade have, however, sent their 

 schooner to quite a new district, one from which 

 till now, as tar as can be ascertained, no islanders as 

 labourers have yet been obtained. Planters as a rule, 

 have have an antipathy to recruits from new and 

 hitherto untried islands. This is but natural. Among 

 certain islanders the mortality is always greater than 

 with others ; some islanders are naturally good 

 workers, others again can never be induced to work, aud 

 it frequently happens that some again are too quar- 

 relsome to get on with their fellow labourers from 

 a to them foreign island. With the natives of New 

 Guinea, however, an objection will certainly arise 

 which up to date has not been taken into sufficient 

 consideration. The coastal climate of Queensland, even 

 as far north as Cooktown, bordering, even that of a 

 lai'ge continent, is subject to extreme ranges of moisture 

 and temperature — a hot close day is commonly followed 

 by a cold night, aud viee versa, and in general the 

 features of the climate are very different to those of 

 an island in the tropics. Men coming from the humid 

 and uniformly warm temperature of the Line islands 

 sicken sooner or later of pulmouary complaints when 

 brought to a country whose climate ia characterised 

 by this great range of temperature and moisture. 

 Coolies from India would naturally not suffer. But 

 planters are so pushed for a low class labour of any 

 description that they cannot afford to go into questions 

 of this sort, they are obligeil to take what they can 

 get, and «hat one planter may refuse there are always 

 20 planters willing to accept. During last session large 

 sums of money were voted both to increase existing and 

 to initiate new lines of railway on our coast. Mackay 

 is to have railway on the south side of the Pioneer 

 tapping the sugar plantations for a distance of 25 

 miles ; the surveys for this line are almost completed. 

 The planters on the north side of the Pioneer con- 

 sider themselves equally entitled to a railway, and 

 are now agitating accordingly. As the production of 

 sugar is about equally divided by the plantations on 

 the north and south side, the prob.ibilities are that 

 the Government will consider the matter favourably. 

 These small coast railways will in time form the nuclei 

 of a grand coast line from Brisbane to Cooktown.— 

 Auslratasiaii. 



THE SUGAR DISTRICT OF QUEENSLAND. 



Mackay, March 26th.— The scarcity of labour for 

 cultivation purposes is making itself more keenly felt 

 from day to day. Since my last letter a further de- 



THE CEARA ItUBBER TREE. 



(From tho Indigo Planters' Oaztlte.) 

 lu the year ISbl, the Government of India, on the 

 recommendation of the Chief Commissioner of the 

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands, sanctioned the em- 

 ployment of M.ijor VVimberley, the then Officiating 

 Deputy Superintendent, of Porb Blair, on special 

 duty m Ceylon, for the purpo.se of enquiring into 

 the cultivation of Liherian coffee ana other pro- 

 ducts, in view to determining which were the most 

 suitable for introduction into these islands. Tho 

 result of Major Wimberley's visit to Ceylon is a 

 highly interesting report on the principal products 

 of the island, and among these we find that he 

 gives by no means an insiguilicant place to the 

 Ceara rubber tree, the cultivation of which was at- 

 tracting very great attention. 



The peculiarity of the tree is that it grows 

 equally well from seed or from cuttings, and, though 

 a native of a tropical sea-level, it is said to thrive 

 well in Ceylon up to at least 3,000 feet and on 

 most barren soil. The seed-coat is of remarkable 

 thickness, and the natural process of germiuatiou 



