714 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1883. 



of receiving increased orders, and the Netherlands-India 

 Oommercial Banlc in their report of 18S0-S1 state tliat " the 

 importation of coffee in the parchment increased in 

 comparison with the favourable results olrtained by better 

 management." All these facts are in contradiction of the 

 supposition that producers have given up sending coffee 

 iu parchment. However, it can be that single planters are 

 unwilling to continue the trials. In 1880-82 the Govern- 

 ment have made a new trial with 1000 bales of Gabah, 

 and have in effect not given its veto against that industry, 

 and now it must not be overlooked that only coffee prepared 

 in the West IncUa manner is suitable to be exported in 

 the parchment, but by far the greater quantity of the 

 Government coffee is prepared in the usual manner. 

 Generally, alas, there is uot that great care given in the 

 cultivation of the Government coffee as is done by private 

 planters, who pursue it as a means of living. 



The higher cost of peeling in Europe proceeds from: 

 A, the increased charge of unpeeled coffee to the shipp- 

 ing place, and the greater freight from there to Europe 

 (one can reckon this upon an average to be / 1 K 250 = 

 3'50 per picol), /', the greater number of sacks required 

 for the unpeeled coft'ee. This demand is equal to nearly 

 20 cents per picol. The total cost of preparing in Europe 

 is about / 2-60 per picol. and includes taking from the 

 steamer and until delivery is made to the buyer, provided 

 it is done within one mouth from preparing. The co.st at 

 Java varies according to the establishment but averages 

 about / 2 per picol to which must be added 20 cents ex- 

 penses in the Netherlands. The coffee peeled here is in- 

 creased three cents per half kilo to meet the extra charges 

 of a greater cargo. 



As a rule the difference in the supply of produce has 

 been greater than formerly, but, now. in our opinion 

 producers must not rely exclusively upon that cultivation. 

 After taking into account the question of labour, which 

 has been more and more a point of discussion in Java, 

 will be felt the advantage of doing away with that time- 

 robbing labour which peeling and sorting coffee demand. 

 The hands spared iu this way will probably find success- 

 ful employment at other culture labours, and the em- 

 ployers, who are not yet provided with excellent peeling 

 and sorting mills will be spared the cost of erection and 

 maintenance, and will be able to realise their produce three 

 months earlier, by which means interest on capital will 

 be spared. 



Finally, there were complaints that a percentage of the 

 peeling was not successful. Tliis, however, cannot be fixed 

 for all the different sorts of coft'ee. There must be a 

 difference in measure according as the beans are more or 

 less developed, and as the product between shipping and 

 peeling absorbs moisture. However, that is difficult to 

 attribute to the peelers in Europe. These complaints ought 

 not to be made without good grounds because there is 

 no change of making comparisons, and the peelers in Hol- 

 land cannot lose in shells, stones, etc., more than were in 

 the Gabah. 



From the present point of view, arrived at by experience 

 it may be admitted that peeling in the Netherlands is to 

 be preferred for all kinds of fine and coarse coffee pre- 

 i)ared in the West India manner. At the auction on 

 November 25, 1832, at Eotterdam, a portion of the crop 

 of Karaug-Eedjo (Kediri) peeled by Ohabot and Andres 

 realised 14 cents more than the other part which was 

 peeled in India. As compared with this an inferior product 

 of another plantation peeled in the Netherlands as well 

 as at Java received about the same price. 



So far as I know no coffee peeling establishments exist 

 out of Holland, and those here can only live because coffee 

 is free from duty. From Ceylon, until lately no coffee was 

 received in the parchment, and from Brazil only small 

 quantities were occasionally imported, but larger consign- 

 ments are in view. 



In conclusion permit me to make an observation by 

 which all producers will receive an advantage. I have 

 been assm'ed that one cannot be pioud of the results of 

 the artificially dried coffee in India. A specialist has 

 declared to liii; that until recently he preferred the coffee 

 dried in the sun as that dried urtificially at Java gave 

 him the irapres.sion of its having luidergone a roasting 

 process. 



In my work "O.I. cultures," vol. 1, page 305, I refer 

 in a note to the danger of a too-quickly drying process, 

 which is not Imaginary. Thus the above-written observations 

 iudicate the desirability of artificial drying, the manifold 

 advantage of which cannot be denied, but it must be done 

 with care and attention. 



Baarn, Dec. 1882. Van Goekom. 



[A Colombo merchant well acquainted with the European 

 coffee market, remarks on the above: — "The question 

 whether it is advisable to peel colory coffee iu the 

 colonies or in Europe seems to be easily settled iu favour 

 of the former in anybody's mind who knows the process 

 iu that state of perfection it has attained in Oeylon. 

 If Java planters, instead of curing the coffee on the estate 

 in the imperfect way so far on vogue, were to send their 

 produce in parchment to a central place, where good 

 appliances and a large supply of labor allowed of the coffee 

 being cured quickly, and if instead, of forwarding the cured 

 coffee from the estate to the shipping port and thenfie 

 to Europe iu bags, they did so in casks — there can be no 

 doubt that as good colory parcels could be placed on the 

 market in this wise as in the roundabout way of sending 

 parchment coffee to Europe and the color would be 

 durable." — Ed.] 



THE 



CINGALESE AT BUNDABERG, 



QUEENSLAND. 

 Whether or not the introduction of Asiatics imder agree- 

 ment to work for a term of years iu Queen.sland is 

 politically or socially undesirable, is of course a fairly 

 debateable question. If, in the opinion of the majority 

 of the people, the colony ought to be maintained a.s an 

 exclusive field for the labour of white men, that opinion 

 will, within the next twelve months, find emphatic expressi- 

 on through the ballot-box. At the forthcoming general 

 election the question is certain to be exliaustively dis- 

 cussed, for in all the urban constituencies at least it will 

 unpuestionably be made a test question. And as the largest 

 employer of labour has no greater voting power in any 

 electorate than the most humble of his servants, it cannot 

 be anticipated that the reasonable wishes of the working 

 men — who form by far the most numerous class, and who 

 are amply protected iu the e.xercise of the suffrage by 

 our system of secret voting — will not be fully recognised. 

 Moreover, it is plain that if the effect of Asiatic labour 

 will be to drive out the white man from the districts 

 in which they are employed, the sugar growers, by im- 

 porting Cingalese, will be putting the axe to the root of 

 their own political influence. In the redistribution of elect- 

 orates the Asiatic labourers will not count, and as they 

 will uot be employed except in the country districts, the 

 effect of their supplanting white men would be to throw 

 the paramount political influence into the hands of the 

 town constituencies, which, at the next succeeding election 

 at furthest, would secure an Assembly determined to abohsh 

 Asiatic labour once for all. But if, on the other hand, 

 the verdict of the constituencies next year should be in 

 favour of a stoppage of Polynesian immigration and the 

 introduction of a limited number of Asiatics for agricultural 

 purposes under prescribed conditions and restrictions, the 

 aggrieved white man must accept the decision and find 

 Ins account in proving as well as bombastically proclaiming 

 his superiority to the *' coloured " labourer. At any rate 

 the cry of " Queensland for the white man " will not derive 

 additional force from displays of puerility such as is re- 

 ported to have occurred last week at Bundaberg. — 

 Qneenslander. 



Wheat Rust. — In 1877 — about February or March of 

 that year — a paper, translated from the German by Mr. 

 K. T. Staiger for the Board of Inquiry, on rust and fungus, 

 was published in the Queendander. In that paper it was 

 shown, as the result of careful observation by scientists, 

 that " rust " is a purely extraneous disease, not inherent iu 

 wheat or any other plant, although more liable to attach 

 itself to some particular plants than to others, particularly 

 thh barberry, in Europe. It. however, possesses the property 

 of being easily and insidiously disseminated. [Closely 

 resembling hemilei/i. The late Mr. Joseph Mitchell believed 

 the two to be mere variations of the same fungus — Ed.] 



