774 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1 884. 



THE CULTURE OF FIBRE PLANTS IN S. INDIA. 



TO THE EDITOB OF THE " FIELD." 



Sin,_I notice a letter with the above title, signed W. J. 

 Kemp, in your issue of the 16th iust., from which it appears 

 tliat the writer is uot quite clear as to where Johore is, and 

 couples it with S. India. 



Johore is the southern part of the Malay Penmsula, between 

 Malacca and Singapore. 



Though I agree with the remarks regarding the unitness 

 of the plains of S. India, I must take exception to the state- 

 ment that the climate of Johore is " too hot, and otherwise 

 unsuitable," for the cultivation of rhea. 



Ramie being indigenous there. I think sufficiently answers 

 this .statement— iu fact, the French term for the fibre, 

 "ramie," is simply a GalUcised form of the Malay word 

 " rami," the rhea plant. ^ ■ , . „ . 



The only other point in the letter that I wish to call atten- 

 tion to is regarding the '• ryot," or " apathetic Hindoo agri- 

 culturist." With him, I am glad to say, we shall have nothing 

 to do, as we rely almost enturely on Chinamen— the most 

 skilful of agriculturists, who eagerly flock to the Malay 

 Peninsula. , ^ . , 



Now that the process for utih.smg the plant has been 

 discovered, we are face to face with the scarcity of rhea ; 

 and I can imagine no better source to turn to for a sup- 

 ply than its very cradle, Johore. 



The figures given by Mr, Kemp, favourable as they seem, 

 are quite in accord with other calculations that have been 



made. , . , • *, 



I i-laim, as it were, a right to address you on this subject, 

 as I have spent some years in Johore, and, m fact, was the 

 pioneer European planter there.— E. A. Watson, 19, Cullum- 

 street, E. C, Feb. 21. 



OLIYE OIL. 

 The quality of the oil depends greatly upon harvesting the 

 oUves at the proper time. If this is done either too early or 

 too late, the product has a fatty favour or odoi'. 



Italiaii OiV.— The oils of Lucca, Calci, and Buti, are the 

 best in the world, and those of Umbria and Liguria are but 

 little inferior. The best article is produced m moderately 

 warm re-^ions Thus the oils of Italy are more esteemed than 

 those of the Orient, and of the former the oils of Pisa, Lucca, 

 Arrezzo Perugia, and San Remo, are better than those of 

 Sicilv and the Neapohtan provinces. While soil, climate, 

 and the variety of the plant affect more or less the quahty 

 of the oil much more depends upon harvesting and press- 

 ing the oli'ves properly. That is done much better m Central 

 Italy than further south. . . ^ . - ,. 



Smni^h Oi/.— Next to Italv comes Spain in extent ot o lye 

 cultivation According to Mueller, the production of oil in 

 that country is about 1,135,750 hectoliters per year. It is 

 chiefly cultivated in the basins Guadalquivir, Lbro, and 

 Guadiana, and the product constitutes an important branch 

 of commerce for Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, Murcia, 

 Navarra and the Balearic Islands. Spanish oils are very 

 fittle esteemed, and their exportation is rather diminishing. 

 French and AUjerian Oils.— In France the cidtivation is 

 confined to the southern districts, and covers 94,000 hectares 

 The production is about 250,000 hectoliters. In Algeria about 

 150 cloo hectoliters are produced, of a quality inferior to that 

 ot italy, but better than that ot Levant, Spam, or I ortugal. 

 Au':tViun Oil —In Austria the olive is a little cultivated m 

 the southern Tyrol, and in the territory Gorixia,Grad.8a 

 and Trieste, more extensively lu Istna and Dalmatia. Ihe 

 yearly production is about 2(54,000 quintals. Ot the pro- 

 duction in Greece accurate statistics are wanting, though it 

 is known that the cultivation is extensive. 



Ottoman Oil.-ln the Ottoman Empire it is cultivated m 

 Syria, Brussa, Roumelia,and in the islands of Oandia, Cyprus 

 Metilino, Samos, and Rhodes. 



Greek Oi7.— Grecian and Turkish oils are, however, only 

 used in Europe for the manufacture of aonp—Consi'lar Me- 

 VO-rts. ^ 



THE GROUND NUT TRADE. 

 A few days ago we extracted a paragraph from a Bangal- 

 orf paper in rispect to the progress made m the growth 

 of ground nuts in that part of Southern Ii.d,.-, mid the export 



trade carried on between Madras and Europe in the pro- 

 duce. Ground nuts do uot need much, if any, care in cultiv- 

 ation. They grow on dry, sandy soil, and need no water 

 nor particular care as to the time when supplies of seed are 

 put down and when they are reaped. The dry season is 

 best adapted for the growth of the nuts, because when 

 rain falls anil water is available, expensive crops are grown 

 and better retiu^ns obtained. With the close of the grain 

 reaping season, extensive plots of land, especially in the 

 Ohingieput, South Arcot, parts ot the Tanjore and Trichiuo- 

 poly districts are sown broad cast with ground nuts. The 

 Pondicherry merchants deal extensively in this article, and 

 their representatives go about from district to district making 

 advances to ryots for supplies ot the nut. At certain seasons 

 the price of ground nuts varies from R 15 to 19 per candy, 

 but, last year, when the season was at its height and every 

 available bag was bought and shipped to France, the quot- 

 ation advanced to R24. Of late years the Pondicherry 

 merchants have dealt chiefly iu ground nuts, as-it has been 

 found that the French markets are not so well suited to the 

 indigo trade as they once were. Ground nuts shipped at 

 Pondicherry find their way to Barcelona, Marseilles and 

 Genoa. These are the chief emporiums of the trade on the 

 continent. Formerly it was considered necessary, with sail- 

 ing vessels to take the suppUes to market, to send the nuts 

 in kernels. The bulk ot the nuts was great, but a good deal 

 ot what was rejected as refuse was sent, so that the trade 

 suffered somewhat. Every sailing vessel occupied at least 

 four months on the voyage from Pondicherry to France, so 

 that it did not pay to send ground nuts kernels only — as sup- 

 plies were rendered almost useless when they were landed 

 at the Mediterranean ports. With, however, the introduc- 

 tion of steamers which now monopolise the carrying trade, 

 it has l)een found advantageous to ship ground nut kernels : 

 the voyage does not, by the Suez Canal, occupy more than 

 forty days, and the nuts arrive in very good condition. With 

 cheap freights large supplies are now sent, and ground nuts 

 not only attract the attention of the French merchants, but 

 small Hindu capitalists readily enter the market and make 

 advances to the growers so as to secure supplies as they are 

 gathered by the ryots. Large supplies of ground nuts find 

 their way to the Mediterranean ports from Senegal, which, 

 being only fifteen or twenty days' sail by steamer to Genoa 

 and Barcelona,'. is able to laud the nuts in far better con- 

 dition than they can from the ports in Southern India. Thus 

 there is healthy rivalry between the ground nuts grown in 

 the southern districts and those available on the west coast 

 ot Africa, and an importance is attached to an article of 

 produce which ten years ago was almost unnoticed by mer- 

 chants deaUng with Europe. The nuts shipped at Pondicherry 

 are usfd chiefly in the manufacture of oil which, it need 

 hardly be said, is used extensively all over the European cuji- 

 tinent and especially in the south of France, Italy, Germany 

 and in the Mediterranean ports. The first supply of oil ex- 

 tracted from the Southern Indian ground nuts is ot very 

 superior quality, and after undergoing certain processes iu 

 distillation is retained tor local consumption. After a time, 

 additional heat and pressure produce a second class oil which 

 is shipped to India and other parts under the name of Lucca 

 oil and salad oil. It appears that a third quality of oil is 

 also extracted and retained, while the remnants of the nuts, 

 the cake, is given to cattle for fodder. Thus the uses to 

 which the ground nut of Southern India is put in the 

 commercial parts ot southern and central Europe are such 

 that the trade in it keeps many agency firms in the French 

 Settlements in India agoing, while Hindu dealers make fairly 

 lar-'e profits bv advancing sums of money to the growers 

 and securing the bulk ot the crop when it is gathered. The 

 entire trade in ground nuts has now been diverted to the 

 southern districts, and Pondicheriy has become the head 

 centre of it. Some years ago, the nuts grown in South 

 Arcot, Tanjore and other places were converted into oil 

 and .sent to France. But it has since been found that 

 the system under which the oil is extracted in Genoa and 

 Barcelona is far superior to that adopted here, th.it the two 

 or three different qualities ot oil obtained materially in- 

 fluence prices and trade, and conser|uently with the existence 

 of the Suez (^anal and steamers ready to taki- cargo on the 

 most advant.-igeous terms, it is felt that the .shipment of 

 the seeii is of greater importance than the oil itself.— -l/ff(/rn.« 

 Staiuhiiil. 



