^HE TROPICAL AQPdCUVWRmf, 



fiViAY 2, insp 



>BB< 



senii-translacent crjstalline pieces over a quarter of 

 an inch thick, and of a pale claret colour. Its solution 

 ill w;i;er possessed a faint vinous odour. The sample 

 yi^Med 93-5 per cent of acid tartrate of potash, 

 '.io per cent of tartrate of lime, the rest being colour- 

 ing matter, .glucose, and vegetable refuse. The 

 sample, therefore, compares well with other commer- 

 cial arg'ils, which rarely contain more than 90 per 

 cent of acid tartrate of potash. — Chemist and Drugykt. 



CHINA GBASS OR RHEA FIBRE. 



At a meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry, 

 bekl in Manchester, Eng., on the 2nd inst., Mr. A. 

 Sansone, Director of the School of Dyeing in the 

 Manchester Technical School, read a paper on China 

 grass or rhea fibre. He said that after giving the 

 matter considerable attention, and after e.'^periment- 

 ing tor several months both on green and dry stems, 

 he thought that if the fibre were used at all it must 

 be produced at a price as low, if not lower, than that 

 of cotton ; therefore the methods of treatment must 

 not be expensive. Division of labor would have to 

 be resorted to in order to accomplish that end suc- 

 cessfully. In large plantations it would be difBcult to 

 obtain the number of persons necessary for peeling 

 off the bark by hand when they were needed, while 

 if machines were employed a large number would 

 be riquirpd which would mean a large outlay. He had, 

 therefore, devised methods for doing the work all 

 the year round. One method he proposes is a very 

 simple one. The stems, either green or half drj-, or 

 even dry, are simply boiled with a solution of car- 

 bonate or caustic soda ; the bark can then be peeled 

 otf with the greatest ease. With green stems five to 

 ten minutes' boiling would, he said, be found neces- 

 sary, while the drier they were the longer they required 

 to be boiled. He stated that he had on many occa- 

 sion* peeled many of the stems in his laboratory with- 

 out the least difficulty. Even dry stems of several 

 months' standing had been peeled off in the laboratory 

 at the School of D^'eing after being boiled in the 

 model boiling kier possessed by the school. Speci- 

 mens were shown in the different stages, finishing 

 with the bleached fibre which Mr. Sansone hail ex- 

 tracted, with the help of some of his pupils, by a 

 chemical process. With regard to countries like 

 India, where the drying of the stems is irjpossible 

 in the rainy seasons, he proposed that the steas when 

 freshly cut should be placed in pits or cisterns with 

 a solution of sulphurous acid or bisulphite of soda or 

 lime, which could be readily and cheaply produced 

 on the spot. This would prevent fermentation, and 

 would keep the stems fresh until they could be treated 

 by any suitable process of decortication, rrreeii stem..! 

 obtained by him from Kew Gardens last summer 

 were kept for several weeks in his laboratory, and 

 were at the end found perfectly sweet. They were 

 afterwards treated without difficulty for the extrac- 

 tioa of the fibre. He had noticed also that the fibre 

 was even bleached to a certain extent by that treat- 

 ment. He suggesttd a method of ungummiug anil 

 partial bleaching of the fibre at the same time by 

 successive boiling with alkalies, atid afterward iramer.s- 

 iug the material in a cold sulphurous acid or 

 bisulphite solution, this treatment to be repeated once 

 or twice according to the state of fibre required. Tae 

 bleach of China gras?* was, he. .-^aid very similar to 

 that of linen and cotton, and the same precautions 

 should be taken in employing hypjehloritesj bleach- 

 ing, however, of China grass was very easily 

 effected, iu fact more easily than in the case of 

 flax. In all case? the hypochlorite of lime should 

 be avoided, and soda or magnesia salts used 

 instead. For scouring the fibre or uagumming the 

 bark such agents as lim >, resin, Ponp and miueral 

 acids could be used just as well as for other vege- 

 table libers. Th** dyeingaud printing processes offered 

 uo great difficulties, but by dyeing the fibre before 

 spinning brighter colors were proluced and the fibre 

 was more lustrous. Some colors, however, deprived 

 the fibre of its luster. In conclusion, he recommended 

 Jhe utillT-atioB of the wood residues of the stems for 



industrial purposes. He had made a great many ex- 

 periments, and considered the material very suitable 

 for manufacture into a kind of wood-pulp suitable for 

 paper-making and for other purposes. By that 

 means two products would be obtained at the same 

 time from the same plant. — Bradatreet's. 



SOMETHING ABOUT JAVA AND THE 



JAVANESE LABOURERS. 

 A solution of the plantation labour question seems to 

 have been found iu the introduction of a number of 

 Javanese labourers for the northern plantations. Java 

 — or niore probably Java and Madura— including the 

 small islands administratively connected, had a total 

 population in December, 1878, of 19,067,829, and of 

 these 18,824,574 were natives, the rest being Europ- 

 eans, Chinese, and Arabs. The population is fast 

 increasing. In 18G3, it was 15,265,931 and the annual 

 growth tiad bsen up to that time large and regular. 

 We have no figures since 1878, but we believe that tho 

 increase has continued and is continuing. The area 

 of Java is limited. Many years ago the deusity of 

 population iu the purely Javanese districts w:is greater 

 even than in Belgium, and although a tropical country 

 in a high state of cultivation can produce more food 

 and thus support more people than one situated in a 

 temperate climate, it is probable that the Dutch are 

 becoming a little alarmed at the increase of their native 

 subjects. No doubt Java could spare, without percept- 

 ibly ati'ecting the local labour market, from 50,000 to 

 70,000 men anuually. 



Javanese have the reputation of being strong, good 

 laborers. They are Mala3's, but of quite different typo 

 front the same race in other islands of the Indian Ocean 

 and the native states in the vicinity of Singapore. The 

 Javanese is above all things, docile and obedient. The 

 Dutch rule is a " paternal " despotism of the most ela- 

 borate kind. A writer on Java says : — 



The Javanese knows no freedom. His whole existence 

 is '• regulationed. " If he is bound to render " culture " 

 service, the administration shows him to what depart- 

 ment to applj' himself, when and how he must plant. 

 If he is not bound to render culture service, but has 

 the position of a so-called free agriculturist, the ad- 

 ministration prescribes the time and method uf sowing 

 and planting his land. If he wishes to fix his habita- 

 tion outside his village, the village chief , may prevent 

 him. If he has a dwelling of his own, the administra- 

 tion decides for him what sort of materials he must 

 use for the roof. If he has a hanging night lamp in 

 his bamboo hut, he must not hang it against the wall. 

 This elaborate system of regulation designs to make 

 Java profitable to its Earopeau owner.s, is carried out 

 through the native chiefs, who are highly paid but 

 carefully watched servants of the Datch. But the 

 docile and gentle Javanese do not seem to resent their 

 subjection. They certainly thrive uu ler it. When the 

 islands first fell into the hands of the Dutch they were 

 thinly peopled. Even in 1815 the whole native popu- 

 lation only numbered about 4,500,000, so it has more 

 than quidruplel daring the present century. The fact 

 is that the D it^h system, which while keeping every- 

 one at work, secures food and the necessities of life 

 to the whole population, is conlucive to the nuterial 

 welfare of such a people, though it would gall and 

 embitter a more independent race. 



It may be said that the Whole popuiatioa of Java is 

 agricultural. The populations of the three principal 

 towns— 'Sourabaya, 118,884 ; Batavia, 97,585 ; and Sama- 

 rang, /*(>,44o — are exceedingly small for a state of nearly 

 twenty million inhabitints. Coffee, sugar, and spices, are 

 the chief agricultural exports, and it is not improbable 

 that the increasing demands for food crops, due to the 

 gro.vth of population on the arei under tillage, ma^ 

 have something to do with the willingness of the Dutch 

 authorities to allov the emigration of laborers. 

 However that may be, a sufficient .5U[)ply of Java- 

 nese labor would entirely remove the labor difiiculties 

 of our Northern planters. They are, we believe, as 

 good workmen as the best Indian coolies, and ar« 

 even more docile and amenable to control. But it 

 would be a singular outcome of our anti-coolig 



