September r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



217 



ority of Brazil in the great coffee trade , js regards the 

 quaatity as well as the cost price in (iroportiou toquility. 



It is thetefoie incorrect to apply the term oi com- 

 petitor simply to Brazil, whore the facts point ti> tliat 

 country as tlie centre of the coffee trade, and controlling 

 the coffee markets of the world. 



As now this state of things will for the present not 

 undergo any change, it appears to us, both reasonable 

 and practical, that other countries should act in concert 

 with the great American producer, rather than institute 

 inquiii-s that may be inllueuced by various causes. 

 For, in fact, the hope of seeing, in a problematic future, 

 the productive powers of other other countries decline, 

 leads to false conclusions ; it is not in the power of 

 the Chamber of Commerce at Batavia, to briog any 

 change in existing conditions which are controlled 

 only by tlie universal laws ot commerce. 



Thi SB informations are givt-n unasked, but with the 

 greatest readiness and sincerity, in name of the great 

 Union " Centre da Lavoura e Commercio'' that takes 

 so lively au interest in all that regards the coffee trade 

 in general. For certain these few lines are not worth a 

 hundred thousand guilders, which sum the Chamber of 

 Commerce calls a trifling sacrifice, against the expected 

 results of the inquiry they desire, but yet there is very 

 little wanting in these informations to lead us to a 

 practic'il rtsult. The C. of C. has only to complete them 

 by taking up the general catalogue of the Brazilian Sec- 

 tion, which will be shortly published at the Inter- 

 national E.xhibition through the exertions of the Centro, 

 and we are convinced they will come to deiive proht 

 from the co-operation of Brazil, and to consider tliis 

 country not as a competitor to be dreaded, but as apower- 

 ful and generous confederate in the great coffee question. 



If Netherlands will go hand in hand with Brazd in tlie 

 persevering task of gaining propaj^anda for the article 

 of coffee, especially where new markets are to be se- 

 cnred, nnd that in the first place iu the core of Russia, 

 then there is no doubt but the prospects of Java coU'ee 

 will be much better secured by consequent eventual 

 increase of the consumption, than by trusting to a poss- 

 ible, but yet highly improbable, diminution of the 

 productive powers of South America. 



(Signed) Ed. Lf.jios, 

 delegated Commissioner of the BrazUian Section of the 

 International Exhibition at Amsterdam. 



28th June 1883. 



THE FRUIT CHOP OF 18S3. 



The returns from all parts of the United Kingdom sent 

 us by trustworthy reporters, to whom wo are greatly in- 

 debted, enable our readers, as it has enabled us, to get 

 a bird's-eye view of the general condition of fruit pro- 

 duction for the present year. Oue of the mo.st remarkable 

 features of these returns is found in their singular unan- 

 imity with respect to various fj-uits, for north and south, 

 east and west alike, have to deplore ou the oue hand 

 the almost total failure of some, and the same fruits, 

 whilst they equally have to rejoice over the abundance of 

 others. It we regard the intrinsic value of the various 

 kiuds, however, to a great fruit-consuming people, we .shall 

 find that the large crops of certain fruits far more than 

 couuterbalauce those which have tailed — as for instance, 

 it Apricots are few, Peaches seem to be faii-ly abundant; 

 and while I'lums and Pears are scarce, the enormous crops 

 of Apples — imi- e.rceUencc, the fruit of the nation — and of 

 bush fruits, and wholesome Strawberries, far more than 

 outweigh the former's shortcomings. Indeed, were all other 

 fruits as thin as some are, yet would the splendid Apple 

 crop, the very best without doubt, because so universally 

 good, that we have had for ten years orjmore, suffice to 

 mark 188.3 as a red-letter year iu the diaries ot fruit 

 growers. 



It is not possible to take leave of what is not an al- 

 together unclouded resume of the fruit crops without eom- 

 nieutini; upon the great social and economical value a 

 good fruit crop is to the kingdom. By it myi-iads hve; 



by it the we.alth of the country is increased, and vast 

 sums of money are liberated for employment in other 

 Ijrofitable channels. By it also the comforts and pleasines 

 of the people are vastly increased, aud may we not hope 

 the health also. From afar come sad accounts of choleraic 

 visitations, but these are the products ot dirt and ot foul- 

 ness, not of the consumption of ripe, wholesome fruits. 

 AVe trust no foolish alarms will interpose to prevent our 

 growers from reajjing to the full the benefits to which 

 they are entitled from the plentiful Apple crop. Better 

 a thousand times to purchase good fruit then poisonous 

 liquid compounds and cheap questionable solids, the con- 

 stituents of which none can uell. If we will take of 

 the good things of God, surely none better merit such 

 .'in epithet than a luxvu-iaut crop of delicious wholesome 

 fruits. — (iai'denei-s* Cliiriuu-U'. 



THE JIANUFACTURE OF .SAGO. 

 Sago-making, both with the Pajjuan aud the Malay pop- 

 \d\tiou, is the great occupation of their life. Sago is ex- 

 tracted from the interior of the stem of several species of 

 palm, which grow in swamps or in "swampy hollows on the 

 slopes of hills."' even when exposed to the iuHueucc ot brackish 

 or salt water. The midribs ot the large leaves are used in 

 the place of the otherwise all useful bamboo pole; houses 

 are built of them, aud they form excelleut poles for roof- 

 match (ov ataj))\ split, they are used for flooring; boxes are 

 matle of them and the leaves combined, aud they supply 

 material to place between the chiuks iu the walls of log- 

 houses. The starch stored in the interior, under the name 

 ot *'sago," almost entirely supplies the food of thousands of 

 people. A tree is selected just before it has commenced to 

 tlower; it, is cut down and split open, aud with a heavy 

 mallet the soft pith-like interior in which the starch is stored 

 is broken down into the the shell formed by the .split stem. 

 This is gathered up into baskets, until the whole is extracted 

 aud only a mere skin, half an inch iu thickness, remains of 

 the original solid trunk. The starch-laden pith is now trans- 

 ferred, in baskets woven ot the mith-ibs ot the leaves, to the 

 washing-place, where, by meairs of au apparatus also made 

 of the sago-palm, the starch is washed out of the fibious mass 

 with which it is mixed into a trough where it settles down 

 as a sediment. After the trough is nearly full the mass of 

 starch which is of a reddish-brown colour, is made up into 

 cylindrical masses, each weighing about 30lb., and neatly co- 

 vei'cd with sago-leaves. These cyhnders are kno^vn iu com- 

 merce as '* raw .sago ;" we only see the refined article in shops 

 in Europe, and though then nice-looking it has lost much of 

 its characteristic tlavour. Boiled sago is eaten by the natives 

 with salt.limejuice, and chillies, or matleupiuto cakes, which 

 are very excellent, and extensively used in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. " It is," remarks Mr. \\'allacc " truly an extraordin- 

 ary sight to witness a whole tree-tnmk, perhaps 20 feet long 

 and four or five in circumference, converted into food ^vith 

 a little labour aud preparation. A good-sized tree will pro- 

 duce 30 tomans (or bimdles of 301b. each), and each toman 

 wUl make GO cakes ot three to the pound. Two ot these 

 cakes are as much as a man can eat at one meal, and five 

 are considered a full day's allowance : so that, reckoning a 

 tree to produce 1,.SOO cakes, weighing 6001b., it will supply 

 a man with food for a whole year. The labour requned to 

 produce this is very moderate. Two men will finish a tree 

 in five days, and two women will bake the whole uito cakes 

 in five days more ; but the raw sago will keep very well, 

 and can be liakedas wanted, so that we may estimate that 

 in 10 days a man may produce food for the whole year. 

 This is ou the supposition that he possesses sago-trees of his 

 owu. for they are now all private property. It he does not, 

 he has to pay about 7s. Gd. for oue; and as laboiu- here is 

 valued at iid. a day, the total cost of a years' food for a 

 man is about 12s. The etfeet ot this cheapness of food is 

 decidedly prejucUcial, tor the inhabitants ot the .sago countries 

 are never so well off as those where rice is cultivated. Many 

 of the people haveneither vegetables nor fruit, but live almost 

 entirely on sago and a little fish."' — the Peoples of the Jl'orld. 



MOTHER SWAN'S WORIM SYRUP. 

 lufalUble, tasteless, harmless, cathartic ; foi' feverishness, 

 restles.sness, worms, constipation. Is. B. S. Madou & Co., 

 Bombay, General Agents. 



