July i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



»r 



improving the agriculture of India. There is risk, as 

 in all experiments, of failure at first, but only in the 

 more technical details of converting syrup into sugar. 

 These unquestionably can be overcome, and the many 

 points in which sorghum can be more profitably and 

 more easily grown than cane recommend it at least for 

 a thorough and exhaustive trial. — Pioneer. ISorrjhuvi 

 is most valuable as a specially nutritions food for cattle, 

 but, when the Americans have succeeded in obtaining 

 a profitable return of crystallized sugar from the stalks, 

 it will be time enough to try any of the sorghmus as 

 substitutes for the true sugar-cane, which yields twice 

 the amount of saccharine matter, weight for weight. — 

 Ed.] 



POETT AND MACKINNON'S COFFEE PLANT- 

 ATION. 



A MAGNIFICENT ESTATE— AN EXTRAORDINARY SPRINO — 

 CINCHONA PIANTING— CHEAP LABOUR WITH A VENGE- 

 ANCE— THE OLD CRY, " CONCESSIONS." 



Such are the headings to the following report by 

 the special correspondent of the S. A. Register on the 

 land in the Northern Territory thus described : — 



" There was a thunderstorm with a heavy fall of rain 

 in the afternoon, but we pushed through it to the 

 Kum Jungle, about midway branching otf to the west 

 to see Poett, Maokinnon & Co.'s coffee plantation. 

 They have altogetlier 3,500 acres, and from the time 

 we entered its western boundary till we left its 

 northern we were riding through a grandly fertile 

 plain of redand-chocolate soil, generally only damp, 

 despite a rainfall, and not boggy. There was but 

 one exception to this rule. That bog resembled an 

 agglomeration of wet blacking, and our horses sunk 

 in it as though it had been a quicksand. In every 

 part the land is covered with long grass ; it has 

 thick patches of jungle ; and altogether has more of 

 a tropical appearance about it than any other piece 

 of scenery we have passed here yet. 



" At tlie clearing, which has been made at a most 

 picturesque spot, we met Mr. Mackinnon, who has had 

 a good <ieal of experience as a planter in Ceylon, and 

 who is acting as manager in the absence of Poett. 

 Work was begun on the 11th of last December, and 

 already a patch of about four acres of jungle has been 

 cleared. On it the framework for a capital bungalow 

 has been erected, several huts and offices have been 

 built, and two acres have been trenched and closely 

 fenced for use as a nursery. In this one bed has been 

 planted with cinchona, which was just peeping above 

 ground. The seed was not good. Mr. M?ckiunon says 

 that he expects only 4,(J00 or 5,000 plants instead of 

 twiee as many. The beds have all been prepared 

 for the reception of Liberian coffee — they fear the 

 Arabian will not succeed. The seeds will probably 

 arrive by the next Hongkong steamer, for Mr. Poett is in 

 Ceylon sending it out. He is also arranging for a 

 supply of Tamd labourers, who get 8d a day there, 

 and who Wuuld, he believes, go to the Northern Ter- 

 ritory for 2s a week more ! ! Mr. Mackinnon assured 

 me that he would have no difficulty in getting 500 

 or 1,000 men at that rate ; and he speaks in the 

 highest terms of the Tamils as workmen. At present 

 six Chinese, at £1 a week and the privilege of free 

 cartage of rations, are employed on the plantation, 

 and the manager characterizes them as lazy and im- 

 pertinent. The Chinese carpenter gets £3 10s a week. 

 The intention is to put 500 acres under coffee next 

 year if possible ; and also to plant cocoa, the india- 

 rubber tree, and maize, amongst other things. Three 

 years hence (Mr. Mackinnon thinks) there will be 500 

 men employed on the plantation. 



"After partaking of Mr. Mackinnon's hospitality, and 

 drinking succets to his company's venture, we went 



o 



over the clearing, and saw one of the prettiest sights 

 the Territory has to show. Near the office, in the 

 middle of the creek, is a dense jungle, made up of 

 trees unusu.illy tall and stout, with intertwining laces 

 of wiry creepers making an impassable network be- 

 tween their trunks. At one pomt a matted roof is 

 formed in this way, leaving a clear space of a dozen 

 feet from the ground. Below there lies a cool and 

 limpid spring like a sheet of glass— so beautifully 

 transparent. Looking some feet to its bed you see 

 a slight displacement of ils white sand crust in about 

 a dozen places. Through these the water bubbles 

 brightly up, and the spring is never less or more 

 thanit was when we saw it. It is a truly beautiful 

 place, and the estate is a magnificent one. But yet 

 the company, though getting their land under the 

 most liberal of the Northern Territory laws, are ask- 

 ing the Government to give them concessions in re- 

 spect to fencing and other matters. If these con- 

 cessions be refused, and, if the land be dropped, I 

 know of men who would take it up at a price half 

 as high again as that the present owners jiaid." 



The correspondent adds on the territory genera'ly : — 

 "Personally I have had exceptional facilities for collect- 

 ing information ; and, that it may be perfectly trust- 

 worthy, I have been at some pains to check from 

 different quarters any relation of reported facts re- 

 specting which there was any possibility of doubt. I 

 have indeed erred by intent rather on the side of 

 under-tinting than over-colouring ; and, iu closingthis 

 part of the narrative of the trip I can only repeat 

 generally that the country abounds in minerals tie 

 extent of which has to be proved by trial, which 

 has never yet been applied, or where slightly used 

 with results perfectly satisfactory ; that a comparatively 

 small proportion only is fit for cultivation ; and tliat 

 almost all of it is good for grazing. There are mauy 

 suggestions which will be made when this record sh.'iil 

 have concluded. In the meantime, I may give, as tl.e 

 result of ver? careful enquiries, the opii ion tha^, m 

 the whole of the mining districts, includiug store- 

 keepers and Government officers, there are scarcely 

 250 Europeans. The Chinese I estimate at 2,-00. 

 There- is great difficulty in arriving at an absolutely 

 exact computation of their numerical strength, because 

 they are scattered over so large an area, but I in- 

 terviewed the leading Chinese merehauts aud gold- 

 buyers in every place X came to, and tjeygaveme 

 as approximately accurate the total I have given — 

 a total verified by my own observation. I cannot 

 too strongly impress upon the reader that there has, 

 as a matter of fact, been positively no sustained sys- 

 tematic attempt to develop any part of the mineral 

 country. There are all over the Territory only nine 

 batteries, and all more or less defective. I have seen 

 all of them, and at the time of my \nsit only three 

 were working, or had been for some lime. It is not 

 too much to say that eight-ninths of these crushers 

 lose at least one-third of the gold, aud that fact should 

 be remembered in the computation of the yield the 

 stone they treat returns. 



"The main drawbacks to the prosperity of the min- 

 ing industry will have a reference hereafter. At pre- 

 sent I will only incidentally refer to the operation 

 of the swindles — that is their name up here — of some 

 years ago. To them primarily is traceable the ill-savour 

 of mining enterprize here ever since. In several cases 

 companies were formed with fluctuating share-lists 

 which did no work at all. Land was pegged out any- 

 where, leases were applied for, and the venture sold 

 when not. a single prospect had been taken. A well- 

 known and ' straight ' mining manager in one of the 

 principal centres here assures me that j ears ago he 

 received no fewer than four telegrams in one day 

 from brokers in Adelaide to this eS'ett : — 'Peg out 

 claim anywhere. We'll float it.' What but a crosh 



