JVLY I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



5^ 



harvested, in the fourth month after sowing, the 

 cassava gets its innings, and keeps the ground for 

 about a year. The sweet-potatoes come in at the end 

 and continue to be gathered for twelve months 

 or more. Of all those crops, the land share is one- 

 third, and the value may aiDount to anything 

 between five and thirty rupees, according to the 

 soil and seasons, but, taking the mid term of Rio, 

 we have nearly R'20 per acre, to the good, at the 

 end of the third year. As soon as the crops are 

 finished, any germs of jungle, that survive in the 

 land, rush up at once, lantana shoots up in all 

 directions, and the seeds of kinds of weeds, common 

 in the vicinity, find their way to the land. All these 

 are easily and cheaply dealt with at first, but if 

 allowed to spread, they soon close in and overtop 

 the plants, and those that are not fairly smothered 

 out, have to maintain a severe struggle for exist- 

 ence, being in no case the fittest to survive. At a 

 cost not averaging more than R5 per acre per 

 annum, a fine field of natural pasture grass may 

 be established, and kept up till the trees come 

 into bearing. 



Of 200 plants I put down in May 1879, ten 

 per cent are now in flower, and I have already 

 • gathered nuts from the most forward tree. 



It appears then, that, though coconuts are not 

 suited to the views of those who think to make 

 rapid fortunes, there is no undertaking in the colony, 

 where so much can be got, for so little outlay, by 

 those who have the patience to wait, and there is 

 nothing so suitable for such of the people of the 

 country as have a little capital to invest if they 

 will only ilo it justice during its early years. 



CEYLON HIDES AND HOW TO CURE THEM. 



Referring to your editorial on the subject of 

 Ceylon Hides (page 65), and the poor price which 

 they fetch in the London market, I think you are 

 wrong in supposing that the effect of pasturing on the 

 salt grou'ids the island would of have an evil effect or 

 otherwise on them. Perhaps the best hides in 

 Australia come from the salt bush country, where 

 water even is brackish — but, at the same time, if 

 any dry salt was put on these hides when drying, 

 it would, to a certain extent, spoil them. In 

 curing hides of all kinds, bullock, sheep, horse, 

 kangaroo, &c., I have been specially successful, and 

 in^variably topped the market with any batch that 

 I had sent forward, and my plan of curing was 

 always the same, which, in the case of bullock 

 hides, was as follows : — The hide, as soon as poss- 

 ible after it has been taken off, was spread on 

 a smooth piece of ground and pegged round the 

 edge, driving the peg through the edge of the 

 hide into the ground. The greater the number of 

 pegs, and the tighter the hide was stretched, so 

 much the better. Also the hotter the sun which 

 shone upon it, and the sooner it dried, the better. 

 No salt was required, but no wet or damp had 

 to be allowed to get to it afterwards. I have no 

 doubt, from what I have seen of bullocks in Gey- 

 Ion, India and Italy, that the secret of the low 

 price for Ceylon hides in London is the curing. 



Before King Coffee becomes a thing of the 

 past, I wish some planter would try the following 

 remedy, just to satisfy one that no loophole has 

 been left' untried to save the annihilation of the 

 old staple. I tried every conceivable method to 

 overcome leaf-disease, in my planting days, but 

 this one I did not try, and, although it may seem 

 a tedious process, still, if it proved successful, no 

 rl. aljt a simpler process might be discovered of 

 applying the remedy. I allude to the " infallible 

 remedy " against the ravages of phylloxera on the 



vine, discovered by the able Rotland, of the de- 

 partment of Lyons, France. Strange to say, our 

 old friend the blue gum plays an important part 

 in the remedy, and the process consists of inocul- 

 ating the vine with the pure essence of eucalyptus 

 globulus. A broad incision is made through the 

 bark at the neck of the vine, in which a few 

 drops of the essence are deposited by means of a 

 camel's hair brush. The result is that, in about 

 three days, the phylloxera entirely disappears, while 

 the vine is not in the least injured by the oper- 

 ation. The incision may be made through any 

 other part of the bark, with equal success, but the 

 result is more speedily attained the nearer it is 

 made to the roots. If the remedy is so success- 

 ful with phylloxera, why should it not be equally 

 so in extirpating Hemeleia vastatrix. 



Cosmopolite. 

 [The phylloxera is an insect pest, our leaf enemy 

 a fungus like the vine oidium : still an experiment 

 is worth making. — Ed.] 



^ 



NORTH BORNEO AND INDIA AT THE 



COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION. 



The Exposition made by the youngest of the 

 Britsh colonies — that of North Borneo — though of 

 comparatively limited extent, as might be safely 

 predicted of a colony not yet (five years of age, is a 

 very striking example of the utility of the exhibition 

 in making generally known the nature of the pro- 

 ductions of the lands under the protection of the 

 British Crown. North Borneo is not altogether un- 

 known to the readers of The Field. In the issue 

 for May 3rd and December 20th, 1884, Mr. H. Pryer, 

 the brother of the Resident at Sandakan, described 

 the extensive caves in the limestone rocks at Gor- 

 manton forty miles from the coast, which are in- 

 habited by myriads of bats and swallows, whose 

 droppings have produced beds of guauo so deep 

 that they are regarded as bottomless. Specimens of 

 this guano have been exhibited by Mr. Dc Lissa and 

 Mr. Dobson, who estimate its value as being from 

 Jib to £10 per ton, it being excessively rich in 

 phosphates. The caves also furnish a peremiial sup- 

 ply of the edible birds' nests so dear to the epi- 

 cures of the Chinese empire. Among the more 

 striking zoological products of the infant colony is 

 a mounted specimen of the orang-outang, the anthro- 

 poid ape of the Eastern Archipelago. This is one 

 of the finest ever seen, and fully bears out the 

 drawings of its prowess in combat with the natives 

 which are given in Wallace's "Malay Archipelago." 

 There is also the skull of a mature specijuen that 

 is of unusual size. Among the mineral products of 

 a commercial character that are forwarded from 

 the settlement may be enumerated the trepang, sea 

 slug, or beche-de-mer, so largely used for food by 

 by the Chinese; tortoise-shell, produced by a turtle 

 not unlike the "hawk's-bill " species; and splendid 

 Bpecimens of the mother-of-pearl univalves, mounted 

 as ornaments. The vegetable products are numer- 

 ous ; they comprise very good tobacco, both in leaf 

 and manufactured ; and cotton and hemp of ex- 

 cellent quality, the latter exceedingly long in fibre. 

 The coal of North Borneo is abundant, and i3 

 found in several places cropping out on the surface; 

 it is exceedingly hard, and resembles anthracite in 

 its fracture, the small pieces that are subjected to 

 the action of the waves on the sea shore being 

 rolled into black pebbles that have a singular ap- 

 pearance. 



Amongst the singular chjeets exhibited iu the 

 court is the model of the last piratical proa. This 

 is excessively long and narrow, having an outrigger 

 on each side. It carries an enormous square sail, 

 supported not on a mast, but 011 a narrow tripod, con- 

 sisting of three slender spars, two rising from the 

 sides of the proa near the stern, Jaud the other 

 from the bow. With a reaching wind, these craft 

 cuuld make rapid progress through the water, and 

 were admirably adapted to the piratical purpose^ 



