83 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[AVGUST i, 1883. 



man to go to with £1,000; in the Eiver Plate the land 

 speeuUitoi-s are asking from £1,00U to £2,U0U per league 

 for will! frontier liinds with brackish water, and not a 

 stick nor a stone to l>e seen anywhere. Now, as 1 am not a 

 landowner or a speculator in any of the above-mentioned 

 republics, I think I can say a few words with regard to 

 my ixperience in South America during the last sixteen 

 years. 1 have travelled in the most favoured .=pots of the 

 Arg^-ntine republic, and have come to the conclusion that 

 not o.ie of its provinces can compare with Paraguay. AYe 

 have just passed through a drought of eight months, and 

 sLill the animals are in good condition ou account of the 

 j.e.-mauent pasture and springs of water. I have just for 

 amusement made a rough calculation as to what a man 

 (aged say 41'^ c;iuld do here in Paraguay with a capital of 

 £1,000. He could buy fifty acres for £5; put a house up, 

 £10; four cows. £15; two horses, £5; corral, fencing, &c., 

 another t'y. an 1 a few pigs, ducks, and fowls, £2; and I 

 will guarantee that he will be able without any exertion to 

 pass away the natural term of his life ou the balance 

 of his capital and live well. Society there is not much 

 of, but with his gun, dog, and one or two bachelor 

 friends, he will have a good time. The cana or rum of the 

 co:intry, is good and cheap, as C. K. C. probably knows, and 

 makes an excellent punch for a cold night, flavoured with 

 the lemons which grow wild. I am sitting, as I write this, 

 with an estanceiro from the camps of Santa Ft-, one of the 

 best iiroviuces in the Argentine Republic ; he has bought 

 oneleagueof laud here tor £120, and intends stocking ; it is 

 natui-ally fenced in ; he is one of a dozen who are coming 

 up to do the same thing. The other day a gentleman arrived 

 here from Germany to look out for a good place to colonise 

 on a large scale. I was much amused with his account of 

 the pi^ople he met with on bis landing in Buenos Ayies ; di- 

 rectly they heard of his intention to go and see Paraguay, 

 they at once told him horrible accounts of the cbmate, 

 snakes, mosquitoes, fevers, etc. I have lately passed two 

 summers here, the last being the hottest ; the thermometer 

 did not touch 99° Fahr. ; but by the recent accounts from 

 below they have had it up to 109° in the shade. I have seen 

 three snakes (small ones) during the last eighteen months, 

 no fevers, and I sleep without a moSf|uito net, as the nights 

 are always fresh and cool. I may mention that I am living 

 about eight leagues from the capital, very comfortably ; 

 pleuty of shooting, bathing, and enjoing pretty scenery. As 

 to C- R. C'.'saccount of the epidemia (mal de cadera) amongst 

 liorses, I may .say it is not prevalent in all parts of Paraguay, 

 and it is dying out ; I have some twenty horses, and not a 

 case yet. 0. R. C. also makes a mistake in the number of 

 anima's slaughtered in Paraguay per day. I have found out 

 since that there are from 9.r>,0n0 to 100,000 killed per year, 

 and the population is about 350.000. The Paraguayan hide 

 is heavier than that of the south ; this is a well-known fact. 

 The population is steadily increasins^ ; therefore, more 

 mout lis more beef. In my letter to Tlie Field, Dec. 30th, 

 1882, if 0. R. 0. turns back, he ivill see my account of what 

 the country will produce. In conclusion, I may remark th.at 

 it is the policy of the River Plate riovernments to stop all 

 emigration from coming up to this eouiitiy, but in spite of 

 everythiug people are turning their heads this way. 



Asuncion, Paraguay, April 10th. El .lAfiUAR. 



—Field. 



PLANTING ENTEUPKISE IN THE WEST 



INDIES. 



(From the riantfrs' Gazette.) 



(_)n .Tune 8th, last a paper was read ou Planting 

 Enterprise in the West Indies at the Royal C'olonial 

 In.stitnte by D. Morris, Esi|., M. A., F. G. S., the Duke of 

 Manchester presiding. Aftir paying a warm tribute of 

 praise to the usefulness of the Institute, Mr. Morris explained 

 that by the term *' British Possessions in the "West Indies," 

 he included the Bahamas, the whole of the British West 

 India Islands, together with British Honduras (a dependency 

 of . Jamaica), and the colony of British Guiana. 



With regard to the population nf the West Indies, it is 

 often believed to be either stationary or declining. This, 

 however, is by no means the case with the Creole, or negro 

 population, or even with the whites. The po]julation of 

 the West Indies in IS"! "-as l,49:i.0(i2 as compared with 

 1,271507 in 1871, and 1.107,607 in 1S61. This shows an 

 increase of poj ulatiou t^ual toX<l Jiercejit on the rctmps 



for 10 years ; and an increase of nearly 35 per cent on 

 those for 20 years. It would appear, therefore, that the 

 rate of increase of population in the AYest Indies is much 

 greater than that of the United Kingdom, in which the 

 rate of increase at the census of 1S81 was under 11 per 

 cent. This large increase appears to be general, and not 

 confined to any particular locality. Moreover, it is only 

 very slightly influenced by coolie immigration. The 

 total number of free and inAintured coolies in the 

 West Indies according to the latest returns, viz., 

 those for 1882, was not quite 90,0 0; of these 

 more than two-thirds, or 62,000, were in British 

 Guiana. As compared with other British colonies, the popu- 

 lation of the West Indies is greater than that of any of the 

 larger Australian colonies, and more than three times that of 

 New Zealand. 



The total export and import trade of the West Indies in 

 1881 amounted to an aggregate value of nearly 17 millions — 

 the exact figures being, exports, £8.913,014, and imports, 

 £7,746,470. This is an increase of nearly 3i millions on the 

 value of the export and import trade in l8ti6, and is nearly 

 one-half of the total value of the export and import trade of 

 British North America. 



The true development of our West India possessions was 

 to be looked for simply in the natural products and resources 

 of the soil ; and to secm-e the full development of these there 

 are wanting only capital and labour, intelligently and wisely 

 used, and proportionate and suitable to the ends in view. 

 The staple inilustry of the West Indies for more than two 

 centuries has been sugar, with its secondary products, rum 

 and molasses. In spite of the disorganisation of the labour 

 market, consequent upon the abolition of slavery, and in 

 spite of the imequal competition of beet sugai-, the sugar- 

 cane still remains the chief industrial plant of our West 

 India possessions. Not only that, but the West Indies at 

 present produce more sugar than all the other British pos- 

 sessions put together. For instance, during the year 1881 the 

 quantity of raw sugar ex-ported from all the British posses- 

 sions amounted to 7,833,504 cwts. Of this 4,697,445 cwts., 

 or more than two-thirds, was produced by our possessions in 

 the AVest Indies ; the remainder, or 3,136,059 cwts., being the 

 produce of Mauritius, India, Natal, Fiji, &c. 



Mr. Home, having given special attention for many years 

 to the selection and cultivation of sugar-canes, was commis- 

 sioned by the Chamber of Agriculture in Mam-itius to make 

 a selection of the best sugar-canes found in Australia and the 

 islands of the Pacific, and forward them for experimental 

 purposes to that is and. This Mr. Home did during the years 

 1877-78, finally closing his labours in Fiji. From the canes 

 thus obtained, Mr. Home, by permission of the Government 

 of Mauritius, forwarded 44 of the best varieties to Jamaica, 

 where all but one. No. 3, have arrived safely. In forwarding 

 these canes Jlr. Horne wrote : — " The varieties are all gooil 

 strong growers, and yield a large quantity of sugar. In this 

 latter respect I would particularly call your attention to the 

 ' Lahiua' variety. I was told, when in the Sandwich Islands 

 that this cane yielded as much as an average of 6 tons of 

 sug.ir per acre on areas as extensive as 100 acres; and 71 

 tons per acre, on an average, over areas of 20 acres or less in 

 ex'ent. However, after the first ratoons it should be up- 

 rooted, as the seconil ratoons are nearly or almost worthless. 

 The variety ' Samuii' is the favourite cane with the sugar- 

 cjiie nlauters in Fiji. It is hardy, grows rapidly, and yields 

 sugar freely." 



Turning again to the more general question of the culti- 

 vation of sugar in the West Indies, I would mention that for 

 most of the low rich lauds of our AVest India possessions, 

 where the indigenous labour is abundant and cheap, as in 

 Barbadoes, or where coolie immigration, to supplement the 

 indigenous labour, is carried on systematically and success- 

 fully as at British Guiana. Trinidad, Jamaica, &c., the cul- 

 tivation of sugar is, and I trust always will be, a leading 

 industry. A very conmion impression exists, that most of 

 the rich soil of the West Indies has been already under 

 cultivation, and that, in many respects, it is almost exhausted. 

 How far this is borne out by facts will appear from the fol- 

 lowing: — In British Guiana, for instance, cultivation, so far, 

 is wholly confined to about a dozen or 15 miles along the 

 sea coast; while the vast, rich lands of the interior are 

 wholly untouched. In Trinidad, according to an official es- 

 timate, " less than one-tenth of its area is cultivated, and 

 its resources are developed only to a small «xtent." Out of 



