August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



99 



different and the soil is better. Dr. Schomburgh wrote 

 years ago that cinchona should be successful there." 



Ooffee ilocs not do well in the gardens. The prime cause 

 is said to be the fact of its being i)lanted so near the sea. 

 The Ai-abica is not unhealthy-looking above grouud, but it 

 has no root. The Lilwrian looks sturdy, and Mr. Holtze is 

 confident that it will succeed on the plantations. It needs 

 gi-eat care and attention, liowever. Tea and several spices 

 have failed. They have been tried fairly, and, though they 

 make plenty of leaves, they have no root. Cocoa is moder- 

 ately successful. 



Tobacco has not been as satisfactory as it was believed it 

 would be. The plants I saw were very young, and I could 

 not judge of them, but my conductor said that he has grown 

 leaves 27 inches long by IS inches wide, and that, I should 

 think, is .satisfactory enough. But he fears otherwise — .says 

 the soil is not fit for tobacco. He suggests, however, that 

 in the more f avom-ed parts of the country 100 acres m a crop 

 of tobacco alternatmg with rice every year would pay well. 



One of the best_ tilings in the gardens is the Arrowroot, 

 wliich actually overruns the place, gromng in grand per- 

 fection weedlike. Mr. Holtze ground some of the roots with 

 a nutmeg-grater, and carried a few pounds of the powder he 

 got in this way to the storekeepers for an opinion as to its 

 quality, without letting them know whence he got it. They 

 told him it was superior to any they had in stock. He took 

 the roots from a fair average area of the crop, so that he 

 might make a calculation as to the probable yield if all were 

 ground. He is satisfied, as a result of that calculation, that 

 even the indifferently good soil in the gardens will yield at 

 least 25 cwt.. of the finest arro^vroot per acre. 



Though Cotton grows well, there is a question in my guide's 

 mind as to whether it will pay wliile labour is so dear. He 

 submits, however, a proposition wlrich he conceives to be 

 perfectly reasonable : that, though he would not advise any 

 one under present contbtions to start cotton-growing, yet, if 

 the Government want a cotton plantation, and will give 

 him the use of 10,000 acres of land, he will try for five years 

 to establish one. If he be succes.sf ul, then he ^vill pay 7s 6d an 

 acre ; if not he will yield possession again to the Govern- 

 ment. There are two sides to that proposal, however. 



Among the grand successes in the garden is the cultiv- 

 ation of Indigo, information concerning which Major Fer- 

 gusson received special instructions to obtain whilst he 

 was visiting India. The plant has run from the gardens 

 into the surrounding .scrub and jungle, and you see the 

 bright, blue flower and the pretty dappered leaves on all 

 hands. It overruns the gardens too, and indeed it seems 

 as though it never enjoyed its most congenial climatic 

 iufiuences till it got them here. In India its average height 

 if one may believe the books, is not much more than two 

 feet, here it is over five feet. " There'll be many fortunes 

 maile in Northern Territory in indigo," said my conductor, 

 aud I quite believe him. Those who have travelled 

 lately through India say that the necessities of its immense 

 aud ever-increasing population in the shape of food supply are 

 alwaj-s becoming greater and more pressing, and as a con- 

 sequerce the cultivators of kidigo have to make food pro- 

 duction their prime business. So the acreage under the 

 dye-plant is gradually decreasing, tliough, as a matter of 

 course, the demand is in an inverse ratio. Hence, and for 

 other reasons, it is safe to ':ack the prediction given below, 



I should have mentioned, when I wrote of Tobacco, that 

 Mr. Holtze gave me some cig.ars which he had made roughly 

 — for he confesses to not understanding the work — from 

 leaves groivn in the gardens. Although new, they smoked 

 as well as the best Manilla, and they were milder — or at 

 least they seemed to be — smoked as a variation af the ex- 

 ercises of sugarcane and maize and peanut aud chili chewing 

 — for I had scrupulously to samjile everything that grew, 

 and I felt like an Indian salad dish. And, by the way, 

 there appertains to these cigars a little joke. The Go- 

 vernment llesident bad a bos of them, aud he valiantly 

 championed their \irtues whilst, as usual, men who ought 

 to be the first to support "local industries" decried them. They 

 were colonial ; that was enough to damn them. He de- 

 termined to given them fair test. Shortly afterwards he 

 gave a whist party, and placed these cigars before the 

 company without renuu-k. Unasked-f ir came exclamations 

 of surprii^e at and tjomments upon their excellence. Aud 

 then the miu'der was out I I can understand the com- 

 mendations, for I have paid sixpence for a much worse cigar 



in the southern caintals. The first energetic and competent 

 tobacco-planter and curer in the Northern Territory 

 will doubtless make a fortune rapidly. 



"When I tell the reader that there are nearly a thousand 

 kinds of plants in the gardens, he will thank me not to detaU 

 all the experiments. And so I pass over a great many, 

 which meant months of careful watching and study in 

 consummation, and most of which were successful, not- 

 withstanding that there is not the slightest forcin" to 

 gain success. Not so much as a shovelfid of manure" has 

 been used in the whole garden, and not a single plant 

 has been watered except by dew or rain ; for the Director 

 contends that, it a thing will not grow without watering, 

 then it is no good for the Northern Territory; and to 

 the end that the conditions necessary to general success 

 may be tabulated as far as pos.sible, Mr. Holtze stu(Uously 

 takes every day thermometrical readings, and by a gauge 

 registers the rainfall. This latter operation in a country 

 where the downpoiu's are so very partial is of great im- 

 portance. It is more satisfactory still to know that the 

 gauges were more ijlentifully distributed, for it would give 

 the planters precise information. The new ones can, having 

 registered the rainfall whilst they were clearing, come to 

 the gardener and say^: " My register is so-and-so ; tenip- 

 eratiu'e so many degrees. Here's a sample of my soil. 

 Shall it be sugar-cane or cotton, indigo or maize ? " Easy 

 as mo.st theories, you observe. 



But, continuing my simimary, I may add that, much to 

 my astonislrment, I was introduced to the grand old Scotch 

 kale, healthy aud hale as its kin in the old country ; to 

 its warm friends pepper and cloves, and capsicums and 

 cinnamon, all either flourishing or looking like to flourish ; 

 to healthy lycheemits, mangoes aud bread-fruit, guava, jack- 

 fruit, yams, melons, beans, and sweet jjotatoes. 



Peanuts particularly thrive. Last year one-fifteenth of 

 an acre gave 4 cwt.. Eight hundred pounds to the acre is 

 considered a good crop in California. 



The Manilla Almond looks better here than on its native 

 heath, and EngUsh apples, gi-apes, and peaches grow, 

 but the first and last, I thought, seemed pining. Some 

 Spanish and navel orange-trees were in fair health, but 

 the ironstone-sirt'irdiled ground is not the fittest for their 

 tribe to live on. The mandarin oranges, however, as I 

 proved by .siglit and taste, had not depreciated one whit 

 by transplantation, nor had the hmes, lemons, citrons, 

 and pomegranat<^s, nor the many-formed hibiscus, nor 

 Cape gooseberrries ; chilis, custard apples, carob-beans, 

 figs, almonds, plantains, earthnuts, .sorghum, aesamoil, 

 cassava, castor oil, .sweet sob and sour sob, rhea or 

 Chinese pfrass plant, and otliers whose names are semi- 

 legion. The coconut was tried, but not successfully. Tha 

 nuts were planted on the beach, an 1 one can hardly afEi-m 

 Ihat the experiment was a fair one. 



To Baron von Mueller the Director expressed his olilio'- 

 atious generally, and particularly for recommending trial of the 

 Indiarubber tree. Four months before I visited the gar Jens 

 its seeds were sown, and I was introduced to a flourisliiug 

 tree eight feet in height. The expressed and congealed 

 juice of this indiarubber plant will unquestionahly be one 

 of the important minor articles of export from the Territory. 

 So will palm oil from its tree, which grows luxuriantly 



A big shade-bamboo nursery in the centre of the gardens 

 is Hll'd with many rare and choice ynungplanfs. Here, aa 

 with respect t ' some at least in the open, scores of acclim- 

 atizoil and native grasses grow The best to succeed is 

 the common Phillips's. The En:.dish lawn grass grows well 

 under shade, but does not seem to stand the heal:, and yet 

 I have seen a capital lawn in Palmerston ; wliisre exposed, 

 not artificially watered, itsgrowih is satisfactory enough. 

 The Alizana Indica thrives in the gardens; but Mr. Holtze's 

 opinion is that the native grasses are ust as gooil as the 

 imported are in their own home, and bietter than they will 

 be here. He has been experimenting with the tall rank 

 kinds I have described in my notes on the down-country 

 travel, and he discovered that by cutting them down fre- 

 quently he cot at la.st a thick, soft, fast-spreading, somewhat 

 dwarfed buffalo grass, which surpassed the best couch for 

 lawn and feeding i)urposes. 



English lucerne grows well, and the reana, a luxuriant 

 fodder-plant about fifteen feet high, springs up with sur- 

 prizing rapidity. Jute has failed this season, owing to the 

 unusually dry weather. The plants got !,ickly, and were 

 attacked by a maggot like a gentle. The ao-called broom- 



