75^ 



Tffg TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May ci, 1S87. 



PLANTERS IN DELL. 



{Translated for the Straits Times.) 

 Barring estate incendiarism by BaStaks, planters 

 in 1 Deli are getting on very well. They will, how- 

 ever, have soon to look out sharp, now that 

 North Borneo is coming into prominence as field 

 for tobacco cultivation. A new company formed 

 for growing that article there has just raised at 

 Batavia the full amount of the capital required 

 for the purpose. From Siak, too, a keen com- 

 petion in the same direction may be expected 

 erelong. It is a pity that the economic conditions 

 prfevaling in Deli, favour tobacco planting ex- 

 clusively. The Government neglects doing anything 

 to bring about a healthier state of things in this 

 respect. So long as the east cost of Sumatra 

 supplies the European market with tobacco only, 

 that country will always run the risk of 

 some day finding its most fertile land be- 

 coming almost worthless. It is evident that 

 planters there should continue to direct their 

 energies to one main point, namely the possibility 

 of introducing a sound system of rotation of crops. 

 In Java, the exclusive growth of tobacco in certain 

 districts has resulted in whole estates becoming 

 quite worthless. Deli planters would do well to 

 profit by example. 



Lime Joice.— Looking to the value of lime juice 

 in this country the Grenada Chronicle wisely ad. 

 vocates a larger cultivation of the lime. This 

 journal has aften impressed upon its agricultural 

 friends the advantages to be derived from the pro- 

 duction of limes, but hitherto with very little suc- 

 cess. There are acres upon acres of land in Grenada 

 unadapted to the production of the present staples 

 that would readily yield the lime tree. 



Coconut Plants. — Transplanted plants of one and 

 two years' old will certainly bear in three years 

 and I take it that Mr. Wright's plants were such. 

 I appeal to such veterans as Messrs. Schrader, 

 Lamont, Jardine, Poulier, Joronis Peris, Justice 

 Dias, Piachaud, Shand. Stork Arc, to endorse what 

 I have said. Mr. Wright's treatment of coco- 

 nuts with expenditure ad lihllum must certainly 

 push the plants forward, but I should be glad to 

 learn from the gentlemen I have named or any of 

 them, whether they know of any estate in the 

 country that has 75 per cent of the trees on the 

 laud in bearing in 10 years. I trow not ; twenty 

 more likely excepting perhaps those in the far 

 famed district of Madampe audCbilaw. Mr. Wright's 

 venture in the vicinity of Mirigama is being cultiv- 

 ated, I understand, in his usual liberal style. When 

 it is giving a return we shall be glad to hear from 

 him how much it has cost him per acre and what 

 percentage he reaps on the expenditure. I have 

 nearly 30 years' experience of this district and I 

 have no hesitation in saying that with all Mr. Wright's 

 " energy " he will not bring 75 per cent of his trees 

 to bear in 10 years. If we live we shall see. 



Allegkd Solution of the Ehe.^ Fibre Difficulty. 

 —If the following statement in the Indian Atjrirultnr- 

 ist should turn out to be correct, the importance of 

 the discovery can scarcely be exaggerated. Ehea 

 is one of the finest of all plant fibres, but it has 

 hitherto been one of the most intractable : — 

 " Many of our readers will be glad to learn that 

 Mr. Charles Maries, of the Durbhunga Raj, has 

 solved the Ehea fibre problem. Mr. Maries has 

 discovered a process by which he can decorticate 

 the fibre in the green state with extraordinary 

 facility, after which he works it up to the required 

 standard under his new process. We have seen 

 some of this fibre, and can state with certainty that 

 we have seldom seen Rhea fibre to equal Mr, Maries 

 Bpecimens, It retains all its strength of tension, 

 while the flosB is as soft ae silk. ^r. Maries, we 



understand, has shown his fibre to some of our 

 large Calcutta merchants who deal in fibres, and 

 their opinion is a very favourable one indeed. 

 We congratulate Mr. Maries on his discovery, which 

 ought to prove a perfect "mine of wealth" to him. 

 Any one wishing for further iDarticulars should 

 address himself to Mr. Charles Maries, Durbhunga." 

 " Eevue Ageicole." — We have received the 

 first No. of this publication edited by Mr, A. 

 Daruty de Grandpre, President of the Acclimatation 

 Society of Mauritius, and we cordially recommend 

 it to all our readers. The name of the Editor is 

 in itself a guarantee of the quality of the contents, 

 for he is an accomplished botanist and throughly 

 at home in the Agricultural History of the colony 

 in all its details, and in the various subsidiary 

 cultures which might be carried out in Mauritius 

 if only once started. Among the contents there in 

 an excellent summary of the Sugar Industry of 

 Mauritius, and a very well written article upon 

 the manufacture of perfumes which, in the case 

 of Jamaica ai^pear to be a very paying speculation, 

 also one upon the profit that might be derived 

 from the pine-apple which grows almost wild here 

 and might with a very small amount of ordinary 

 care turn out excellent wine and spirits of ex- 

 quisite quality. The Eevue is very well printed 

 and we wish it every success, for it will supply 

 a long felt want. — Mauritius " Merchants' and 

 Planters' Gazette." — [The "Revue Agricole " has 

 reached us and we shall have some of the papers 

 translated and printed in the Tropical Agriculturist, 

 which we are specially asked to exchange, — Ed.] 

 Guakanteed MoBTG.i^GES, — ^lu a recent number of 

 West Indian Quarterly Sir John Gorrie formulates 

 a scheme by which money might be safely ad- 

 vanced on guaranteed mortgages and help to 

 make estates reproductive. As what Sir John 

 Gorrie says is closely allied to the questions which 

 the sub-committees on State-aided Emigration have 

 to define, the following extract may prove useful : — 

 " As recently there was some talk of buying up 

 Ireland, " why no give the West Indian communities 

 the right to borrow upon the best terms, and to 

 offer security such as has never been offered to 

 lenders on mortgage since the world began ? . . . 

 For the want of this privilege the poor islands, 

 which might have been getting their heads above 

 water, have been unassisted in their hard struggle 

 against ruin. Although such a scheme would not 

 be workable at home, or in large representative 

 Anglo-Saxon Colonies, yet it might probably be 

 considered with great advantage in Trinidad, Bar- 

 bados Demerara, and Jamaica, as well as the 

 smaller islands. Recent events in the former have 

 shown how precarious an industry is which draws 

 its working capital from mercantile sources. These 

 are so subject to the fluctuations of the money 

 market that no dependence can be placed upon 

 their permanence. A failure here or there sufficient 

 to alarm a Bank manager in London may dry up 

 in a night the fountain which irrigated a great 

 estate with the necessary supplies. How much 

 better to depend upon capital advanced upon 

 specific terms which cannot be called up without 

 giving the borrower time to turn round to avail 

 himself of other resources. In an ordinary case 

 he might find the ear of the oracle deaf to the 

 charmer, but if he as a borrower can come to 

 say that he not only gives land as security more 

 valuable than the sum asked for, but that a Colonial 

 Board will guarantee the principal and interest by 

 means of a fund levied, collected, and invested 

 by law and that the interest will be paid in 

 London as regularly as the dividends on Govern- 

 ment stock, depend on it, the oracle will be deaf no 



looger, but open, gouerous, cooiidiag, aod Uj^er^L". 



