May I, 1883*], 



THE TROPICAL AGR ICULTURIST 



899 



Coffee Cultdre in Mexico. — The cultivators ot 

 coffee are threatened with still further oompetitioD. 

 A company hns been formed in Mexico for growing 

 and exporting coffee from Colima, which a Mexican 

 paper before us speaks of as " one of the richest 

 coffee districts in the world." Sixteen thousand acres 

 have been purchased near Manzanillo, on which there 

 are already GO.OOO trees in bearing and 600,000 coffee 

 plants from one to three years old. The plants pro- 

 duce each two pounds annually at a low estimate. 

 The state legislature of Colima, with a view to en- 

 couraging the industry, has passed enactments ex- 

 empting from duty all machinery, implements, etc., 

 used iu the enterprize. It has, moreover, offered a 

 large premium for the first fifteen thousand pounds 

 of best quality of coffee raised, — Rio News. [Each 

 plant 2 lb. ! They must either be planted very wide 

 apart or lb. of cherry must be meant. The question 

 is one of labour. — En. 1 



How TO Recognise Good Wood. — Rankiue says that 

 there are certain appearances characteristic of good 

 wood, to what class soever it belongs. In the same 

 species of wood that specimen will in general be the 

 strongest and most durable which has grown the 

 •lowest, as shown by the narrowness of the annular 

 rings. The cellular tissue, as seen in the medullary 

 rays (when visible), should be hard and compact. The 

 vascular or fibrous tissue should adhere firmly together, 

 and should show no wooliness at a freshly-cut surface ; 

 nor should it clog the teeth of the saw with loose 

 fibres. If the wood is coloured, darkness of colour is 

 in general a sign of strength and durability. The 

 freshly-cut surface of the wood should be firm and 

 shining, and should have somewhat of a translncent 

 appearance, In wood of a given species the heavy 

 specimens are in general the stronger and the more 

 lastiug. Among resinous woods those having the le.iat 

 resin in their pores, and among non-resinous woods 

 those whicli have least sap or gum in them, are in 

 general the strongest and most lasting. Timber should 

 be free from such blemishes as "clefts," or craclis 

 radiating from the centre; "cup shakes," or cracks 

 which partially separate one layer from another ; 

 " upsets," where the fibres have been crippled by 

 compression; "wind galls," or wounds in a layer of 

 wood, which have been covered and concealed by the 

 growth of the subsequent layers over them ; and hollow 

 or spongy places in the centre or elsewhere, indicating 

 the commencement of decay. — Lumberman's Gazette, 



Quicksands. — A correspondent wriles:— "Can you 

 or some of your scientific readers be able to enlighten 

 me on the general characteristics of a quicksand, 

 its natural formation, causes and general phenomena? 

 I find, in a book I was reading, an account of one 

 somewhere on the north coast of Yorkshire. It ap- 

 pears, during the time of the tide, the whole face 

 of llie quicksaud eits trembling and quivering 

 in a manner remarkable to see, and gives one the 

 idea of liundreds of suffocating people struggling to 

 get to the surface and sinking lower and lower 

 in the dreadful deeps. In shore parts it goes by the 

 name of the '.shivering sand.' Can this be true and 

 are thi re really such things as qnicksands in existence?" 

 Our correspondent should consult at the nearest lib- 

 rary, Lyell's or any other handbook of Geology, 

 as to the causes of phenomena such as are indicated, 

 which certainly exiet and are sources of danger. We 

 append an extract from Knowledge referring to a moving 

 hill of Band : — The Reno, Nevada, Gazette dtscrihes a re- 

 markable hill of moving Band in the eastern partof Chundi- 

 ill Country, Nevada, about sixty miles frum Laud Springs 

 Station. It is about four miles long and about a 

 mile wide. In the whole dune, which is from 100 

 to 400 feet iu height, and contains millions of tons 

 of sand, it is impossible to find a particle larger than 

 a, pin head. It ii so Ime that il au ordinary barley 



sack be filled and placed in a moving waggon the 

 jolting of the vehicle would empty the sack,' and 

 yet it has no form of the dust in it, and is ae' clean 

 as any sea-beach sand. The mountain is so solid as 

 to give it a musical sound when trod upon and 

 oftentimes a bird lighting on it, or a large 'lizard 

 running across the bottom, will start a large quantity 

 of Ihe sand lo sliding, which makes a noise resembf. 

 ing the vibration of telegraph wires with a hard 

 wind blowing, but 30 much louder that it is often 

 heard at a distance of six or seven miles, and it is 

 deafening to a person standing within a 'short dis- 

 tance of the sliding sand. A peculiar feature of the 

 dune is that it is not stationary, but rolls slowly 

 eastward, the wind gathering it up on the west end 

 acd carrying it along the ridge until it is again de- 

 posited at the eastern end. Mr. Monroe, the well- 

 known surveyor, having heard of the rambling habiti 

 of this mammoth sand-head, quite a number of years 

 ago, took a careful bearing of it while sectioning 

 Government lands in that vicinity. Several years later 

 he visited the place, and found that the dune had 

 moved something over a mile." 



Indian Coolies in Mauritius.— Some doubts pre- 

 vent us being content to believe that the rose- 

 coloured picture drawn by Mr. Trotter, the Protector 

 of Immigrants in Mauritius, 13 the representation of a 

 true state oflhmgs. The Lieutenant-Governor of that 

 island is however satisfied ; and upon these grounds. 

 That first, the Protector writes, — we quote his re- 

 port for 1881-82— " the relations existing between the 

 Indians and their employers are most satisfactory 

 No single case of ill-usage came under my notice 

 during the past year (1881), and I was surprised to 

 find that on many estates in the island no complaint 

 has been made against any of the servants for several 

 months ; and that on some no complaint had been 

 preferred for 2, 3, 4, and 5 years As a gen- 

 eral rule the planters are kind to their labourers 

 and do all iu their power to make them comfortable 

 and contended :" that, secondly, there is a steady 

 decline in the number of Indian immigrants who re- 

 turn home; that the numerical equalization of female 

 to males in the colony has reached the satisfactory 

 point in its process which had been obtained in Bom- 

 bay and Calcutta ; that also a decrease of written 

 engagements, of vagrauoj, of desertion, of conviction! 

 before stipendiaries, is to be noticed. All these de- 

 creases are matters for congratulation, but one or two 

 considerations should not be lost sight of. Besides 

 the fact of an abnormal suicide rate (42 in 1881 

 against 33 in 1880), it is a singular coincidence that 

 during 1881 not one Government immigrant should 

 have gone to Mauritius or to Jamaica, as we 

 pointed out yesterday. As regards Mauritius, such 

 an occurrence has been unknown for forty years past 

 though, it is fair to add, it has not taken place 

 during 1882-83. Again, Mr. Tiotter does not say 

 whether any complaints have been made against the 

 planters by their coolie labourers nor does he say 

 whether any planters have been convicted before 

 stipendiaries of any harshness, cruelty, or fraud. Mr. 

 Trotter, however, does confess, and the Lieutenant- 

 Governor agrees with him, that the entire medical 

 system and the system of coolie-children's education 

 demand a recast of the Labour Law of 1878. The 

 anomaly of medically sepaiating sugar plantation's from 

 the rest of the area in a sanitary scheme is admitted ; 

 and the Lieutenant-Governor sweepingly declares 

 "that the whole medical system of Government is con- 

 fessedly confused, expensive, and incomplete." — Pioneer. 

 What we gather from the tone of Mauritius pi ess is 

 that the planters complain of the wages which the 

 coolies are able to command and that Government 

 should permit them to reside iu the island without 

 I euteriug into labour eugagemeuts. 



