ium i, i^Bfii f HE TROPICAL AMiCt^iftJm^r, 



nsi 



for years to come, antil the increase of the world's 

 population provides a class of imported labour for 

 Brazil as good and as cheap as that employed in 

 the East Indies. With this probably somewhat dis- 

 tant period it is unnecessary to deal. 



The 1887-88 crop is estimated as a very short one, 

 and consequently, the price of coffee is likely to 

 remain high until some idea, however vague, caa 

 be formed of the prospects of the 1888-89 crop. This, 

 with a short yield the season previous, should be 

 large, and, if a bumper one, the last Indian quot- 

 ation would doubtless come down with a run, pro- 

 bably below 80s a cwt. But to forecast with any 

 chance of success it is necessary to look to the 

 causes of the expected shortfall of the 1887-88 crop. 

 Various reasons are given. " Prolonged droughts, fol- 

 lowed by severe frosts" would naturally have a bad effect, 

 but we are also told that, in parts at least, " only the new 

 coffee gives any hope, the old, though very green and 

 fine, has not blossomed." This, taken in couuection 

 with the accounts of serious disease, not, apparently 

 akin to our "leaf disease," but attacking the roots 

 of the coffee tree, which shortly afterwards dies, 

 seems to point to exhaustion of the soil, whether 

 from want of cultivation of whatever cause, and if 

 this is the true reason of Brazilian short crops then 

 indeed the American Grocer is correct in saying that 

 the maximum production has been reached, and the 

 price of coffee is more likely to be doubled than to 

 drop. In any case, as the time approaches for the 

 1888-89 blossom the reports of the sanguine ones are 

 sure to cause a fall in the quotations, which will be con- 

 firmed in the event of their anticipations turning out 

 correct. If there is another short crop East Indian 

 planters may reasonably conclude that the presen 

 Brazil plantations are past their prime, and that bum 

 per crops from them and correspondingly low prices, 

 are things of the past. — Madras Mail, May 16th. 



PLANTING AND MINING IN SELANGOE 

 (STRAITS SETTLEMENTS) IN 1886. 



Cas-PBE — Gambier — Pepfbe — Tobacco— Native culti- 

 vation — Mining — Kailway — Labour. 

 It is satisfactory to find that the agricultural re- 

 sourc;8 ol the Stite are being put thoroughly to the 

 test. Ooffee-growing presents such a promising out- 

 look that the cultivation of the Liberian variety has 

 ben taken in hand successfully by Javanese and 

 Tamils in two districts. At Weld's Hill, fifty-seven 

 acres uuder Liberian Coffee, yielded seven hundred 

 piculs last year. Gambier and pepper are the articles 

 that have been most productive in agriculture- Con- 

 siderable areas have been taken up for growing them. 

 At Klang Mr. Stephenson has already brought a con- 

 Biderable extent of land under pepper cultivation, 

 with the result that the vines have come into full 

 bearing, His example has been followed by Messrs. 

 Hill and Kathboue at Weld's Hill ; and by Captain 

 CbrifltiiDsen and Mr. Barugh at Batu Tiga. At Tata- 

 ling, Mr. I^ailey hai^ taken up a wide stretch of land 

 for the same purpose. Syed Zin has set to work 

 growing gambier, and pepper at Klang. Several 

 Chinese from the Straits settlements, have started 

 pepper and gambier plantations at Sepang in the lUu 

 Laugat district. They have already cleared 2,00(i acres 

 and have 200 coolies in their employ. They have al- 

 together secured 5,000 acres of land. Their success 

 80 far is said to augur well for the thorough realis- 

 ation of their aims at no distant date. In these hard 

 times, it is an encouraging sij^n to find Europeans 

 taking up a line of plantation enterprise, so likely 

 to yield remunerative returns as pepper growing. The 

 field has too long been left to Chinese to profit by 

 the steady and increasing demand for spice in Europe, 

 and America. With European skill and business know- 

 ledge scientifically brought to bear upon pepper grow- 

 ing, the pioneer planters in Selangor may count upon 

 lb return bancleoiue euougb to is^tisfy reaeouable es« 



pectations. Tobacco growers in Deli already alarmed 

 and kept on the alert by competition looming in Siak 

 and North Borneo, will have to keep an eye also 

 to Selangor. Competition in their line of business in 

 that quarter, has every prospect of becoming for- 

 midable erelong. With seeds from that Netherlands 

 colony, tobacco plantations have been started by 

 Messrs Hill and Kathbone at Batu under the sup- 

 ervision of Mr. Toynbee, a planter from Sumatra, 

 In spite of planting operations having been set 

 agoing late in the year the crop yielded proved highly 

 satisfactory. The quantity and quality so answered 

 expectations, that several European planters have 

 applied for grants of land to be put under to- 

 bacco in the Klang district. It all depends upon the 

 result of the first shipment of Selangor tobacco to 

 Europe. Should the outcome prove satisfactory, 

 tobacco cultivation in that Protected State will be- 

 come an important branch of plantation enterprise. 



The public interest has also been seen to by the 

 passing of regulations checking the reckless felling of 

 primeval forest. Measures have also been taken for 

 putting a stop to the destructive native system of 

 shifting the cultivation of hill paddy from place to 

 place, as the soil becomes e.\hausted. Bringing the soil 

 imder cultivation permanently, has on the other hand, 

 met with official encouragement by holding out hopes 

 of Government aid in the opening out of land for 

 growing swamp paddy, coconuts, and productive trees 

 generally. Native cultivators in some cases have not 

 been backward in taking action accordingly, tu 

 most of the districts, they have taken pains to im- 

 prove their land, and to bring an increased acreage 

 under tillage, with the gratitying result that swamp 

 paddy has been more extensively cultivated. As must 

 however be expected from the sparsentss of the popu- 

 lation, wide stretches of land available for tue pur- 

 pose far inland remain uncultivated. Malay indolence 

 and stubborn attachment to old customs, will bar for a 

 long while yet the march of improvement in the agri- 

 cultural line. Soil and climate favour laziness among 

 them. Paddy growing for their own immediate needs, 

 just suits them. Plantains aid a few other food 

 articles enable them to eke out a subsistence till the 

 following year. This easy-going system however 

 readily it may meet the wants of the moment, runs 

 so counter to the interests of the country, that we 

 are glad to find the Sultan of Selangor setting a 

 good example to hs subjects by increasing the acre- 

 age he has under coffee and fruit. Thf path he has 

 so far successfully trodden has been followed by his 

 son, Kajah Kah'wl, and many other planters. The 

 son of the late Rajah Muda of Selangor bears the 

 palm for intelligently taking planting operations in 

 hand. He has now about one thousand acres under 

 sugar cane, coconuts, areca nuts, swamp paddy, kc, 

 A high meed of praise is certainly due to him for 

 showing his countrymen what businesslike enterprise 

 can do. Another headman, Datu Dugang, has opened 

 out in Klang, a plantation for growing areca nuts and 

 swamp paiidy on 600 acres of land, by means of Javanese 

 labour with encouraging resultshitherto. 'J'he fruit sea- 

 son did not turnout well, but the paddy crop proved 

 satisfactory throughout the State. It was Batisfactory 

 doubtless as to yield, The trade returns show heavy 

 importations of rice, the quantity required to meet 

 local consumption aggregating upwards of 186,000 

 piculs, about two-fifths more than in 18S.5. The 

 population in the interval barely increased by oue» 

 seventh. Evidently there is every ground for encour- 

 aging local agricultural enterprise in this direction, 

 Enterprise in mining affairs has made con- 

 siderable head-way in 1886, judging from the tin ex- 

 ported totalling 9'.t,07o piculs, an increase of about 

 16,000 compared with the quantity shipped in 1865, 

 In the Kwala Lumpor district, Chinese management 

 has agam scored a success, where European methodg 

 broke down in the case of the Sunghy Puteh tin 

 mines. These workings started by the Selangor Tin 

 Mining Company of Shanghai, passed by purchase 

 into the hands of Chinese in 1885. The latter have 

 worked the mines so remuneratively ever since, by 

 gettii^ I't^UD mea at >Y&zk, that ^,12,^ piculs ^i tit) 



