October i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



281 



range of prices, which almost sets competi- i 

 tion at defiauce. Both articles have also risen to 

 their existing state of prosperity during the present } 

 century, and they seem destined to outlive it, the ; 

 one a condiment, the other used in the process of ] 

 manufacture, its influence spreading over the globe, 1 

 and here the comparison ends. 



Of course the staple productions of Brazil are coffee 

 and sugar, the former taking the lead, and the soil | 

 and climate suitable for each differ, the latitude of 

 Brazil from north to south admitting of both at 

 the same time, without disa .vantage to either. 

 This is of iteelf a great physical advantage, which, 

 as we have observed on former occasions, might I 

 be availed of, to cultivate other articles of con- 

 sumption, now imported into Brazil at considerable 

 cost ; first and foremost, corn, towards the cultiv- 

 ation of which little effort has yet been made, 

 although there are the examples of India and the River 

 Plate to encourage them, besides other article of daily 

 consumption, to which allusion has been made. Wblist 

 the southern States of America defy competition with 

 their cotton, the northern States are equally potent with 

 their corn and provisions, so the great elements of pros- 

 perity are united, while Brazil trusts almost entirely 

 to one, or at most to two articles, eugar and coffee. 

 It is true that the populations differ widely, and the 

 astoDishing rapidity with which the latter has 

 developed itself in the States, sets all calculation at 

 defiance. In a recent number of the "Times" this 

 picture is forcibly drawn as follows : — 



American statisticians are the most industrious of 

 their industrious class. Tiiey have recently, accord- 

 ing to tiie account we give this morning from our 

 Philadelphia Correspondent, been engaged in summing 

 up the tigures of the migration of the last half-cen- 

 tury into the United States. No investigation can be 

 more interesting to their countrymen. Immigration 

 on a large scale imports wealth in the shape of grown 

 and trained human beings. Every adult immigrant 

 represents to his new country the cost of maintenance 

 and education down to the date of his arrival. In 

 addition, there is the substance, little or much, which 

 he brings with him. Very few come without some- 

 thing. After all the uproar excited by rumours of 

 pauper immigration into the United States, the most 

 jealous inquiry has detected only fifty who could 

 fairly be described as paupers. A land profits mater- 

 ially by immigration. In innumerable other ways 

 immigration essentially affects it. Every immigrant 

 is an emigrant also. He is in process of constructing 

 a froih home ; and his old home contributes a large 

 part of the moral and intelleclual framework. Extra- 

 ordinary as has been the American power of assimilat- 

 ing European elements, they exert an influence in turn. 

 Whatever the fabric of American society and character 

 is, it would have been something very dissimilar except 

 for tlie European immigration of the past fifty years. 

 Within the fifty years from IS.W to 1S80 nearly ten 

 millions of Europeans have swelled the population of 

 United States. Iminigrants multiply faster than native 

 Americans. Much more than their apparent proportion 

 of tiie increase of the American population from the 

 seventeen millions to which it has risen in 1840 to 

 the fifty millions of 18S0 may be set down to them. To 

 this tremendous inflni is to be traced tbe ditficulty of 

 fixing the qualities of American nationality. The cha- 

 racter would be still less stable if particular ingredients 

 did not regularly predominate in the human imports. 

 Germany and the United Kiugdom furnish the bulk ; 

 and the rest are quietly absorbed. By the United States 

 Btaiistics England is deprived of its priority in favour of 

 Germany. But when, in conformity with ordinary 

 rules, British immigr.ints are reckoned together, they 

 are seen to outnumber those from any other State. 

 They naturally amalgauiato more readily with the 



native population of the same extraction, and help to 

 keep the general current of national life in its existing 

 channel. 



Of course Brazil possesses no such advantages, and 

 her slave population has operated against emigration 

 almost confined to Portugal, but latterly Germans and 

 other nationalities have been added to the Brazilian 

 population. 



Whilst, therefore, Brazilian coffee challenges the 

 production of the vorld, it is clearly her interest to 

 study other cultivation in such articles as will at all 

 events meet tbe requirements of her own people, which 

 would be a positive saving of revenue, and help to 

 mitigate the evil of low-priced coffee, which may be 

 looked for for .some time under the competition that 

 exists. The extension of railways from the interior of 

 the provinces to the seaboard will soon show what can 

 be done towards supplemeuiing the requirements of the 

 Empire in a physical sense, and we must wait this event 

 to determine what other internal appliances will be 

 needed. 



CrxcHONA IN Java. — According to the official report 

 on the Government Cinchona culture in Java for 

 the 2nd quarter of 1SS3, the weather, owing 

 to continuous drought prevailing, proved during 

 that period very favourable for crop operations, tha 

 bark collected amounting to 172,29.3 Amsterdam 

 pounds, the increasing yield of that product neces- 

 sitating the building of an additional artificial dry- 

 ing house. The report also notices the circumstance 

 that cinchona cultivation in Java is extending, as 

 shown by the increased demand for seeds for the 

 Government plantations, this extension being ascribed 

 to the unsatisfactory result of coffee growing there 

 of late. On almost all estates in West Java 

 and on many in Mid and E;ist Java, cinchona is 

 gradually being cultivated on laud formerly set 

 apart for coffee culture. — Slraits Times, September \Zih. 



Watering. — When to apply water to growing plants 

 and when to withhold it is a very important lesson to 

 be learnt by any one who has plants, few or many, under 

 his cbarge. Tlie soil should never be allowed to 

 become too dry, or there is danger of the water when 

 applied passing clean through without wetting 

 it. When this happens plants will parish for want 

 of water, even when it is regularly given. On the otiier 

 hand, water should not be poured promiscuously irto 

 pots until it is ascertained whether they require 

 it or not, or through excessive application of it the 

 plants will suffer. The subject is a difficult one to the 

 inexperienced, but careful observation will surmount; 

 it ; and wlien it is understood that safety and satis- 

 faction can only be realized bv sttilung the happy 

 medium .in effort will then be made to become ac- 

 quainted with the indicatioDS which should control 

 the operation. In warm weather, and when plants 

 are making vigorous growth, absorption by the roots 

 and evaporation otherwise speedily exhaust moisture 

 from the soil, and as a matter of course n-ateringa 

 need to be made more frequently at such times. It 

 is an operation requiring to be done carefully and in- 

 telligently. Careful wa.ering does not mean that it 

 should be given in driblets, but enough should be 

 given at a time to thoroughly moisten the whole of 

 the soil. It should then be withheld until the soil has 

 become dry again, never, however, allowing it to be so 

 much so as to cause the plants to flag — conditions 

 which can only be arrived at by caieful attention 

 and experience. Water should always be given before 

 the soil bas lost its moisture, and before the occupants 

 of the soil show any signs of a failing supply. As 

 a rule, except in winter, water is best administerted 

 early or late in the &.3,y ,—Queimlander, 



