July 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



In practice, however, the planter takes upon him- 

 self the extra cost of the rations in the country, and 

 the Coolie gets ISs a month in cash besides his rations, 

 while the Kanakas only get 10s a month here, and 5s a 

 month in Fiji. 



With importatiou, exportation, and medical attend- 

 ance, the total cost of each coolie fo the planter is 

 fully £'2G per annum, or 10s. per week, the same as 

 the Kanakas, while no one will deny the great superi- 

 ority of the Kanakas in docility as well as in physical 

 strength. 



It is the most absurd thing in the world to treat 

 these Asiatics (who are a servile race) as deserving of 

 sympathy ; they have ample rations and nearly 

 double tbe piiy they get in their own country, but 

 they are encouraged by misguided men to leave their 

 work, loaf about the towns, subsist on charity, and 

 do nothing ; this suits their characters down to the 

 ground, as to have plenty to eat and nothing to do 

 would suit many men who still have to earn their 

 living by the sweat of their brow ; but where the 

 Government funds are prostituted by tur-ning the 

 immigration quarters into a deptit to harbour these 

 idle loafers, and they are encouraged in their illegal 

 desertion by Government officials, some protest should 

 be made. 



The acts of the Immigration agent are a regular 

 laughing stock for them, and as a Ciughalese said to 

 me the other day — " Me gentleman now, me sit down 

 along table witli knife and fork, white man wait on 

 me, Governmtut ^ive me rations, by and by money, 

 send me back along Ceylon." With such absurd 

 treatment as this to men who are many of them well 

 known gaol birds, is it a wonder that they should 

 prefer leaving their employer and being supported in 

 idleness to earning their livini; by honest work. 



A point in the Asiatic character, with which we are 

 as yet unfamiliar is, their utter disregard of truth, 

 or the obligations of an oath, and their consequent 

 unreliability as witnesses ; it is notorious that a 

 native advocate has only got to go into the bazaars at 

 Colombo, and for a rupi'e each he can get as many 

 witnesses as he wants. There is also the well known 

 story of the Calcutta judge summing up in an im- 

 portant case : " 54 witnesses have sworn to certain 

 facts, while .54 have sworn diametrically opposite. 

 I am therefore forced to discard the evidence entirely, 

 and decide the matter upon my own judgment." 



Finally, unless these Cingludese are to become a 

 perfect nuisauce hanging about thf town, begging or 

 stealing, they should be promptly banished, and sent 

 back to their employers, where ISs. a month and ra- 

 tions, double the pay th^-y have been accustomed to, 

 awaits them. 



Any sympathy with such men as these only en- 

 courages them to absent themselves from work and 

 live upon the earnings of those who are really working 

 men, does an infinity of harm, and unsettli-s those 

 Tamils and Cinghalese who are disposed to work. 



A Mackay Planter. 



SAND-BINDING PLANTS 



have been reported on by Dr. Bidie to the Madras 

 Government as follows ; — 



The utilisation of indogenous plants to bind the sands 

 of this coast was apparently first attempted in 1849 on 

 the suggestion of Colonel Worster, R. A,, to protect the 

 beach road from sand. Subsequently Dr. Cleghoru de- 

 voted attention to the suliject, the immediate object then 

 in view being to consolidati^ ttie shifting sands thrown up 

 by the sea near Sir A. (totton's groynes, which .still exist 

 aloi:^' the beach oppo.site the city of Madras. The chief 

 plants employed on both these occasions were the Goats' 

 foot creeper(y)M/(i«a pes-caprtr) and the Spiny pink-like gra,s3 

 {Spinifex sijHaiYu,-iu.-i). 



In Kurope and America the importance of conservative 



measures of this nature has long been recognized. On the 

 shores of the Baltic, where numerous dunes exist, attempts 

 to reclaim them date back several centuries, and in America 

 the planting of sand-binding plants was enforced by law on 

 the beaches of Long Islands as early as 1758. In France 

 where operations to control dunes have been most ex- 

 tensive and successful, the first important experiments were 

 apparently made in 1870 by Mons. Bremontier, who subse- 

 quently published au account of his method. " Jlemoire 

 sur les Dunes," in 1796. 



In dealing with aggressive sands, such as those of the 

 south-west of France, the first step towards arresting their 

 progress is to create a barrier to the drift. This is usually 

 done by erecting a paling of boards about 4 feet high 

 and with the sharpened ends driven into the sand. Each 

 board is from 5 to 6 inches wide by IJ inches thick, and 

 a space an inch wide is left between the boards. The 

 sand ghding along the smrface is piled up in front of 

 the jJaling, and a portion passing, through is de- 

 posited behind. This goes on till the boards are 

 bmied, when they are raised by a mechanical contrivance 

 without disturbing the consolidated sand' When the pal- 

 ing is first erected a space on the windward side, eight times 

 wider than its height is planted with saud-biuding plants, 

 those used in France being ehielly Arundo arenaria, a 

 Triticum, an ArUinisia^ Cakile marttlnia unda. yal:>uia. The 

 Dune thus secured rises higher and higher, and the plants, 

 as they are buried, struggle upwards and bind the drifted 

 heap with a network of roots. The best angles for secur- 

 ity in a dune are one of 7 ° in front and 22 ° in the rear. 

 The increase by drift to the height of a dune in France 

 is about 1 2 inches per annum, and the top may be crowned 

 with Tamarisk. These particulars are mentioned here be- 

 cause it seems probable that some such measures will be 

 required to control the sands of some of the tracts re- 

 ferred to in the correspondence forwarded by the Govern- 

 ment of Inilia. 



At various parts along our coast the phenomenon of natru- 

 al drifted heaps of sand may be seen, and these to a large 

 extent owe their existence to the jiresence of saud-biuding 

 plants. The moving sand on a beach is not lifted up like 

 dust by the wind, hut is driven along near the surface, and 

 thus plants in the coiuse of the drift catch less or more of 

 it, and in course of time a sloping bank or dune is formed. 

 The chief local plants instrumental in thus arresting and 

 consoliilating sand are those mentiimed by Dr. Cleghorn, 

 viz., Spinifcv stjttfin-osHs^ Iponufa pe. < cap rte ^ aiid Lfti/ntpa pin- 

 natifda (formerly MicrorhyncMs sarinentosns), and to these 

 may be added Ci/ents aranaria and other Ci/peritceir, and 

 Tcidax procumheiis. The locality which these plants frequent 

 on our shores is that of the loose shifting sands, and the 

 names of the whole of the more common species growing 

 there will be found in List A of appendix. 



Immediately behind the dunes the iiora is somewhat more 

 extensive, the chief plants found in that zone being those 

 enumerated in Li.st B. Here also shrubs and trees begin to 

 appear, amongst which may be noted CarUsa Carachlas^ 

 Eh-eiia artnaria^ Fandanus odoi'athc^iiiius^ Fluenia; fariniferaf 

 Jjora^sii-^ JInl'eUi/ormi'i, a Ca/amus, Anacardium occidentti/e, 

 Solanvjnjacqiiinu Fsidium ^?yr?yeri^/>i, Jasitiiuum anyusti' 

 folium, Memect/toti tinctonum, Calatropis yigaiitea, Hoya vi- 

 ridifloru, Tylophora asthmatica and Hemidrsmus indicus. 

 FaiidxTuus odoratissimns is particularly useful when it is de- 

 sirable to raise the sand drift in large heaps, and at thi 

 same time to afford shelter from the sea-breeze. The Alex- 

 andrian laurel {f'idophyUum hwphyllvjn) also thrives well 

 when planted in such situations, and so does Phunii' syl\:- 

 Ktri.i. If there is a back-water or canal 4v;c</)H/n (owe/rfoja 

 will be found most useful for consolidating the bank and 

 catching drift, as a dense minature thicket of shoots spring 

 up wherever the roots extend, and catch debris of all kinds 

 as well as sand. If the water is fre^h the tall grass Sacchat- 

 um i^pontaneinn also becomes a most valuable protecting" 

 agent from the moring sand. 



Other trees which thrive well ue:ir the coast, and might 

 he used for planting up reclaimed tr;'cts of sand, are Eiujeniit 

 jnmhotciiui, Aflilz-ia lehbck, tSapindvs tmayyiiiiiti's, Tlu'spe.sUt 

 pnpuliiea, I'aritii'm t'd i'lcemn, Ourdni niydru Fcnytimia ylah'tt. 

 Odina icodit_'i\ Jfaiif/lfcra iifdica, Ftfi'utua tUphautnm^ Jfimu:>ojj!i 

 hexandra, Valhevyia jianicidata, Aciicia planifium, Acacio 

 latronum, Fitherolohimu didce, Ficus iiidica, Ficus tsila and 

 CasiULi'um muyicaia. 



