24 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



country — its prolific soil, its teeming forests, where year 

 by year, for lack of a gathering haud, the richest pro- 

 ducts of the earth lie rotting ; its minerals, and in 

 many parts its numerous navigable waterways — the Mala- 

 gasy does not as yet possess the means wherewith to 

 purchase the goods of other nations. And although, on 

 the coast particularly, tlie people show mere desire to 

 work and to better their condition, the Hova Government 

 has stood in the way of commercial and agricultural 

 development. This cannot last long, however ; even the 

 Hova officials begin to realise that the change is close 

 at hand, and that Madagascar is about to enter on a new 

 era of her history — an era in which her advancement in 

 the arts of civilisation promises to be as rapid and, per- 

 haps, as astounding as has been the progress during the 

 last thirty years of her people in the profession of 

 Christianity. 



At present live buUocks from the most valuable item 

 in the list of Madagascar exports ; but as as the only 

 markets are Mauritius and Reunion, and occasionally 

 Natal, the utmost limits of the trade have apparently 

 been reached : yet there is no country in the world where 

 live stock is .so cheap as in Madagascar, and other markets 

 ought to be found. Fine fat bullocks can be purchased 

 in many districts for two or three dollars each, and 

 bullocks, too, of the best breeds. All of them carry those 

 humps whose dainty flesh is prized so much by the 

 epicures of other countries ; and when it is known that 

 such cattle can be dehvered on board ship at about forty- 

 tour shillings a head, it surely becomes a question whether 

 the grazing grounds of Madagascar may not be rendered 

 available for the supply of Great Britain. Mutton is now 

 shipped to England from Australia, and Australia is dis- 

 tant from England some si.x weeks steaming against four 

 weeks from Madagascar ; so that the length of the voyage 

 ought to prove no obstacle. Madaga.scar cattle weigh on 

 an average about seven hundred aud fifty pounds, yielding 

 five hundred pounds of mi-at. That is to say, beef can be 

 delivered free on board in the roads of Tamatave at a 

 shade more than a penny per pound. These are actual 

 figures, not estimates, and I submit them for the study 

 of those interested in the new refrigerating processes for 

 preserving meat diu-ing voyages by sea. It is startling 

 to think tliat from Madagascar, perhaps, good fresh beef 

 might be laid down in England under foiu* pence per 

 pound. Indeed, there is no good reason why the cattle 

 themselves might not be profitably transported. A con- 

 veniently-built steamer, properly fitted out and able to 

 steam the distance in thu-ty days, ought to succeed. On 

 her outward voyage she would take cargo for Zanzibar 

 and Mauritius, as well as for Madagascar; and for her 

 trip home, while carrying cargo in her lower hold, .she 

 would depend upon bullocks. Cattle are cheap in Mada- 

 gascar because there are no droughts, and because the 

 grazing grounds are practically inexhaustible. In the 

 interior, over vast tracks herds roam wild, and a market 

 is alone required to induce the people to drive the herds 

 to the coast. The trade in indiarubber has only recently 

 sprung up ; but it is rapidly increasing, and from this 

 port alone already amo\mts in value to over fifty thou- 

 sand pounds. Of course, the sources of supply have as 

 yet been barely tapped. The existing method of Govern- 

 ment, which resembles far too closely in some respects 

 that of China, especially as regards the reprehensible 

 practice of "squeezing" men supposed to possess means, 

 affords no inducement to the accumulation of riches. But, 

 doubtless, at no very distant date a larger proportion of 

 the population than are at present engaged in the industry 

 will set themselves to drawing more freely from the rich 

 stores which the mountain slopes aft'ord. Coffee, too, could 

 be , grown in Madagascar to any extent. The vast and 

 elevated plateaux of the interior are pecuUarly suited to 

 the growth of this plant; and already considerable quant- 

 ities of wild cotfee are shipped to Mauritius. The qual- 

 ity is good, anil, although grown wild, many parcels 

 which I have seen would, in richness of colour and in 

 size and shape of beau, compare not unfavourably with 

 the better sorts of Ceylon produce. 



Rut it is upon sugar that those who beUeve in a great 

 commercial future for Madagascar pin their faith. In 

 Reunion people talk constantly of the rich mines which 

 are supposed to lie hidden in the interior of the great 



African island, and they anathematise copiously and in 

 vigorous French, as they bang their dominoes on the cafe 

 tables and drink their absinthe, the Con.servative Hova 

 MethotUsts, who have ordained that to dig or search for 

 gold is a crime punishable by death. But two English 

 and two Creole firms of Mauritius have, meanwhile, dis- 

 covered in sugar a source of wealth which, if properly 

 tapped, will draw from the soil of JIadagascar a stream of 

 gold that in value may rival the richest mines of the 

 earth. Bullocks and coffee are articles the export of 

 which to Europe may be calculated upon to grow in 

 due time. AVith them, however, a begmnmg has as yet 

 to be made, and pioneers willing to undertake the risk 

 of experiment have to be found. But as regards the pro- 

 fitable production of sugar, the experimental stage has 

 already been passed. That there is "money in it," and 

 lots of money, has been conclusively proved, and only 

 a few obsolete and impracticable Hova laws have to be 

 removed, and Ma<lagascar may be expected to develope 

 rapidly into the chief sugar-producing country of the 

 world. Four years ago the first real attempt at estab- 

 lishing a sugar plantation in the neighbourhood of Tama- 

 tave was made; aud already dividends of fifteen to 

 twenty per cent on the capital invested are being reahsed. 

 Next year one estate, which is becoming the property of 

 a joint-stock company, promises to pay thirty per cent, 

 aud the hmit of remuneration has by no means been 

 reached. Last year these four pioneer estates, aggregat- 

 ing one thousand acres, exported five hunilred tons of 

 sugar. The season just closing wiU yield a total of one 

 thousand tons, and next season is expected to produce 

 double that quantity. These figures and these results 

 merit the attention of British capitalists, who in Mada- 

 gascar may find a new, a safe, and a profitable field for 

 their enterprise. A few notes made during a visit paid 

 yesterday to one of these estates may prove interesting. 

 Starting from Tamatave m the early morning, we \yere 

 rapidly carried on the shoulders of our porters over eight 

 miles of the beautiful green sward which all along the 

 eastern coast of Madagascar reaches close down to the sea. 

 Here we reached the mouth of one of the numerous rivers 

 that, emerging from the uplands, meander placidly through 

 the belt of lowlying coast counti-y, and emarked on board 

 a canoe. The estate lay ten miles up the river, and 

 over that distance we were paddled and poled in an hour 

 and a half. Soon after leaving the \'icinity of the sea 

 we found ourselves in that rich country of which I had 

 heard so much in Mauritius. The banks on either hand 

 were edged by long lines of the most gorgeous vegetation. 

 To detaU the different trees and pLants would be to run 

 over half the list of the tropical vegetable world. Pahns 

 of all the different species, magnificent groves of mango 

 trees, wild cardamoms, and the coffee, indigo, and bread- 

 fruit plants were to be seen, while the long slender and 

 graceful bamboo toned dowu with its shade of delicate 

 green the more flaunting coloiurs of the robuster growths. 

 On approaching tlie factory this \vild and profuse 

 jungle gave place to fields of tall sugar cane, towering 

 high above the river banks, then- tops rusthng in the 

 breeze as if in one long continuous sigh. We were met 

 at the landing-stage by the estate manager, one of those 

 energetic, pure-blooded Creoles who have done so much 

 for the development of Mauritius, and who now looks to 

 Madagascar for a new and larger field in which to put 

 their special knowledge to account. A crowd of canoes 

 were also at the laudmg-place discharging cargoes of 

 freshly-cut cane brought from fields further up the river, 

 and the mill close by was in full work. The making of 

 sugar in such a factory is an interesting process to watch. 

 Standing in the centre of the mill, every stage of the 

 manufacture is visible. At one cud, the canes— long, 

 thick, and jointed — are carried in a contused mass, a 

 yard and a half broad, on an endless revolving plankway, 

 to the ponderous rollers, where. cru.shed into pulp, they 

 yield a little brook of frothy juice, which, boiled and 

 cooled, and thrashed into tliick molasses, is eventually 

 dried and manii)ulated into white crystalli.sed sugar fit 

 for the table. And throughout the whole place that heavy 

 saccharine odour per\'ades which in Mauritius is encount- 

 ei-ed faintly at every turning in the streets and at every 

 station on the railway. Close to the factory Ls the little 

 town where dwell the tlu-ee hundred Malagasy labourers 



