?28 



THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTtJRIST. 



[November i, 1883. 



juilye waH anything but yelding. In this respect again 

 they aro in mariceil cuutrast to the Samoans. Their re- 

 putation in this particular quite agrees with my opinion. 

 I have had numei'ous instances i-elated to me of the reck- 

 less disregard of their own lives when their feelings were 

 outraged or jealousy aroused. An instance came under my 

 own notice. The first mate was ashore on one occasion 

 on tiie island of Manouti and showed his admiration for 

 a pretty native woman in a way to excite the jealousy of 

 her husbanil. He, regardle.ss of consequences, charged down 

 among tlie ijoat's crew, knife in hand, and would certainly 

 have done mischief, had not the mate thought discretion 

 the better part of valom" and sidpped nimbly into the boat 

 just in the nick of time to save his bacon. Noble civilized 

 man ! The native was ultimately appeased, but with 

 great difficulty. 



I have already mentioned the marked likeness between 

 the Central American Indians and these people. There 

 was one industry I saw them very busy with, wliich struck 

 me as very remarkable, and was the only work I noticed 

 them doing outside their immediate requirements, and 

 that was the making of hats. The hat was very little 

 different to the well-known Panama, and equally well done. 

 Tlie fibres were somewhat coarser, but extremely well 

 woven. I have seen the same hats in course of being made 

 in Central America, and the process was exactly the same. 

 This is very remarkable, and cannot be other tlian in- 

 teresting to that section of the scientific world who 

 make the human famUy their special study.* Every native 

 wore one of the hats I describe. There is one thing patent, 

 these islanders were never instructed in the art of how 

 to make these hats, for the simple reason there has 

 never anyone visited them to show them how, except a few 

 labor-sehooners and petty traders, the captains of which were 

 as ignorant how to weave tliese very ingeniously contrived 

 hats as I am. It must also be remembered that it 

 is only quite recently that they have been visited even by 

 traders. Accordingly, the only solution of the problem is 

 that the natives brought a knowledge of their mdustry with 

 them. And what conclusion is more natural than tosuppo.se 

 they are an ott'-shoot from the people th'y most resemble 

 in character and physique, and whose very industry is the 

 only ojic they have any knowledge of ? How they were ever 

 transported from the continent of America to these out- 

 of-the-way islands is a question which will naturally occur to 

 any one. In this, I am pleased to say, I have also very im- 

 portant evidence. I shall only refer to the trade winds 

 and ocean-currents which set directly from the continent. 

 Any one can assure himself of this fact who cares to glance 

 at the charts. There are authentic instances of sawn logs 

 of timber being drifted away from Puget Sound, with the 

 firm's name stamped on tlie log, and washed ashore here. 

 Now, what is more natural than to suppose that, if a log will 

 drift 3,000 miles across an ocean, a canoe or boat will 

 drift or sail much quicker. I could illustrate much further, 

 but I must now conclude. In my next I shall tell you 

 of further adventures across the North Pacific to San 

 Francisco, at which place wc arrived a few days before 

 Christmas. W. J, FOKSYTH. 



PL.IlNTING in SARAWAK: CINCHONA, 

 COCOA, COFFEE, CAKDAMOMS. 



Mataiiff ^liii/t. Kt/i, 1883. 

 My dear Rajah. — Thinking you may like to hear how 

 things are doing up here, I send an account of what I 

 havo done since I first arrived in Sarawak as regards 

 planting. I commenced f elhng a 30 acre clearing in August 

 1.SS3 intending to plant Cinchona Succirubra, of which 

 variety I bad brtu.;ht 31bs. of seed fi'om Ceylon ; this 

 seed I sowed in Kuching, but it came to nothing almost, 

 as I was only able to get about 300 plants, of which I 

 have now only about 40 left but these ones are doing 

 60 well tliat I have every reason to believe that tins cin- 

 chona will be a great success in country. Not having suffici- 

 ent I'luuts, I allowed this 30 acre clearing to gi'ow uji 

 again and am now busy clearing it up. I have ab'eady 

 finished about 10 acres and have got the same lined and 



* Professor Bickmore of the Academy of Sciences has 

 written a good deal about the races of Polynesia, but 

 1 tliiuk differs from mo about nlierc tlifso people ini- 

 inigrated from, — W. F. 



holed, and by the end of this month I hope to have the 

 whole acreage ready for planting, that is lined, holed and 

 the holes filled in with surface soil. I shall plant feet 

 by 6 feet at first, which will take about 10,000 plants 

 and when finished, if I can afford it, I shall double the 

 number by making it 6 feet by 3 feet. I have, I fancy, 

 about a quarter of a milHon of Succii'ubra plants, of which 

 about 80,000 are thoroughly well hardened and ready 

 for putting out. I shall shade each plant with 

 bark ; it is an expensive process, but it pays. I 

 have already in this clearing 40 original plants, 

 the higliest of which ;ue about 6 feet high and 

 very strong and heaithy. Also about 200 other plants 

 about a year old and now some 3 feet high ; these are also 

 very healthy and vigorous. I have also in this clearing ab- 

 out 200 ceara rubber trees, about 20 feet high and stin 

 growing very fast, and some cocoa plants, but the latter are 

 growing very slowly owing to the continual attacks of 

 grasshoppers. 



10 acre dearinij. — This clearing is at an elevation of 2,500 

 feet and is regularly planted 6 by 6 with the valuable led- 

 geriana species, the plants were put out last April and now 

 ai-eraye about I foot in height; now that the roots have 

 taken a hold of the ground the plants are growing grandly 

 and have a beautifully healthy look. There are 12,000 plants 

 in this clearing, but wlien the rain sets in I am going to 

 double the number by planting 6 by 3. The soil here is the 

 finest I have seen and the natural drainage perfect owing to 

 the quantity of decayed granite in the soil. Adjoining 

 this 10 acres I have feUed another 10 acres, but have not 

 yet burnt it off as it is not sufficiently ch-y. I hope to 

 get a burn this month. I shall plant this 6 by 3 

 with ledger plants, of which I have about 60,000, very 

 healthy and well hardened and about 8 inches high. 

 I shall have, when this is planted, 20 acres of cinchona 

 leageriana planted 6 by 3, equal to about 50,000 trees, 

 each tree at 3 years of age being worth at lea^t 50 cents. 



Cocoa clc((rin(f. — This is at an elevation of 400 feet and 

 contains about 1,000 trees. The highest being about 4 

 feet high, but the majority of plants are much smaller and 

 do not look as if they would come to much. I am afraid 

 the tap roots were bent in planting. 



Cleariiiff fui- Cojcc. — This is just below the 30 acre clear- 

 ing and has not yet been burnt cff. I have about 5,000 

 very fine Liberian coffee plants in the nursery to put in. 

 This clearing is about 5 acres, and I hope to burn off this 

 month. 



Cardamom clcarin;/. — About 1 acre in extent, planted 7 

 feet by 7 feet under natural shade, the small trees only 

 having been felled. The plants are growing very well and 

 are looking very healthy. Mr. Awdry has a half share in 

 this, as he gave me the seed. 



Nurseries. — In the lower nursery I have about 100,000 

 succirubra plants, and 30,000 cinchona hybrid plants. 



In the middle nursery 50,000 succirubra 5,000 liberian 

 coffee, 2,000 cardamom and about 20,000 ledgeriana seed 

 lings, about 200 or 300 of which I raised from the Java seed 

 kindly proou-ed for me b) Mi'. Hardie. In the nursery 

 near my house I have 100,000 succirubra jjlants, some divi 

 divi seedling, 1 lb. of cardamom seed, some croton oil seed 

 some sai>an dyewood seed, 200 cocoa plants of a valuable 

 kind (to judge from the cost of the seed), some vanilla 

 cutting and 20 screw pines. The cocoa, vanilla and pines 

 came by last mail in a wardiau case. I know nothing 

 whatever about vanilla, but have written for directions. 



In the top nursery I have about 60,000 veiy fine ledge- 

 liuna plants. This is all I have to tell you. Rajah, as re- 

 gards work done. I have stiU a lot to do, but hope to get 

 it finished in another month or two. 



I should like to put out 20 or 30 thousand ceara rubber 

 seed. I can plant them in the present clearings and along 

 the roads and boundaries ; they require no care and may 

 turn out of great value, as the demand for rubber at home 

 is exceetUng the supply. 



The following is the total expenditure io eu 1 of July 1883 

 In 1881 S340,7o 



In 1882 074.73 



In 1SS3 7 months 1,120.75 

 a great deal of tiiis has been spent on seed. 



I have been promised 5 lb ol Ijdgerijni seed ii tha 

 Autumn by Mr. G.xmmie of Darjeeling. L. P KAK;k, 



— Struit) Times, 



