2 34 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1882. 



Slavery. — Our West ludian sugarplanters will hear 

 with intei-est that a strong effort is being made in 

 Madrid to secure the entire abolition of slavery in 

 Cubii. At a largely-attended meeting of the Abol- 

 itionist Society held during the week demand was 

 made for the abrogation of tlie law under which no 

 slaves ar« to be liberated till 1886, and which compels 

 all slaves to forced labour under their then masters 

 for two years after that date. A painful sensation 

 was produced when the speakers illustrated the 

 present cundition of tlie 200,OOU negroes in Cuba by 

 pointing to a whip, iron chain and heavy iron collar, 

 and other instruments of corporal punishment still 

 used under the so-called Emancipation Law of ISSO, 

 which really authorizes the sale and barter of human 

 beings until 1888. A member of Congress who has 

 recently visited Cuba declared that 60,000 negroes 

 were kept in slavery by their owners eluding the laws 

 concerning African-born slaves. It ie expected that the 

 abolition of slavery will be proposed in the Cortes by 

 tbe Cuban members. This fact suggests the reflection 

 that in one respect at least the Spanish Colony is more 

 advanced than our own Colonial possessions — it has 

 direct representation in the central Legislature. — 

 Colonies and India. 



FRtriT-GROWiNG IN Ja^niaica. — Just as the raveags 

 of Hemileia vastatrix have induced the planters of 

 Ceylon to turn their attention, with great advaut- 

 ags to themselves, to the culture of chinchona, tea, 

 cocoa, and other produce, instead of pinning their 

 faitli to coffee alone, so the sugnr-growers of Jam- 

 aica have learnt by adversity the impolicy of de- 

 voting their whole capital and energies to the pro- 

 duction of the single article sugar. Encouraged by 

 the success of the experiments which have been made 

 by the energetic Director of the Botanical Gardens 

 at Kingston, they have turned their attention witb 

 great success to the introduction of chinchona, while 

 oocoa, vanill.n, and other indigenous plants, which 

 have not hitherto been thought of such importance 

 as to demand serious efforts to secure an extensive 

 produce and sale are being taken in hand. In fruits 

 of various kinds, says the Colonies and /»<//«, perhaps 

 the greatest success has been attained so far, and 

 instead of merely collecting enough to supply local 

 wants, and remaining content with an occasional 

 shipment to New Orleans, of fruit, which possibly, 

 owing to bad packing, went bad before it reached its 

 destination, Jamaica planters are developing a remuner- 

 ative trade in oranges, bananas, pine-apples limes, shad- 

 docks, mangoes, and other fruits. Even grapes are 

 being grown for export. The United States are at 

 pn'sent the chief market for their produce, but Eug- 

 aud receives no small share of the yield, and still 

 larger quantities of fruit in even greater variety will 

 no doubt be shipped to Europe, as experience shows 

 that better means of packing can be employed to 

 avoid the deteriorating effects of a long voyage. The 

 export of oranges to the United States from Jamaica 

 has increased .50 per cent, in the last six years ; 

 of bananas it is expected that the export this year 

 will reach two million bunches, or twenty times as 

 many as in 1876. When it is remembered that each 

 "bunch" contains 250 pods, the extent of the tr.ide 

 may be realized. Fifteen million coconuts, or double 

 the quantity exported last year, will, it is anticipated, 

 be sent out of the island before the end of the pre- 

 sent season. Oranges are one of the principal items 

 in the fruit trade, and as the Jamaica variety has 

 a peculiar property of keeping good for a longer 

 period, even when fully ripe, than the European vari- 

 ety, the advantage which the island has in the 

 gi owth of this fruit is very great. These instances 

 will show tbe advance that is being made by Jamaica 

 in this direction, ai 1 the possibility that lie be'ore 

 planters in the future. To small capitalists of a horti 



cultural rather than agricultural taste Jamaica offers, 

 in her delicious climate, her fertile soil, and the 

 abundance and variety of her produce, exceptional 

 advantages. Small areas of laud can be had on very 

 reasonable terms, and few colonies present better op- 

 portunities to gentlemeu of small means who would 

 turn to profitable account that love of "gardeuiug" 

 which is innate in most Elnglishmen. Frnit culture 

 in Jamaica demands little of the hard labour of 

 wheat farming, while it yields results, perhaps, even 

 more profitable. — Globe. 



Coffee Mixtures. — We last month quoted a clause 

 from the Customs and Inland Revenue Bill now liefore 

 Parliament, which, it appeared, would absolutely 

 prevent tbe side of any mixture (except chicory) with 

 coffee. We thought it rather hard that if any person 

 should really desire to have a combination of coffee 

 and dandelion he should be prevented by law from 

 purchasing such, and we wrote to the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer to ask if such a mixture would be 

 allowed to be sold provided the proportions of the 

 ingredients were definitely stated. The following reply 

 indicates that dandelion, or taraxacum, coffee will 'be 

 allowed to be sold as heretofore : — Inland Revenue, 

 Somerset House, May liSth, 1882. Sir,— The Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer having forwarded to this 

 department your letter of the 2nd instant, I am 

 instructed by the Board to acquaint you, in reply, that 

 dandelion root will, it is understood, be considered as 

 analogous to chicory ; and, provided duty be paid 

 accordingly as for chicory, no objection will be raised 

 to the sale of a mixure of dandelion root and coffee. 

 — I am, &c. (Signed) Cha.s. B. Forsey, Secretary. — 

 The Editor of the Chemist and Druygist. 



"Smut" Disease in Cane,— A committee, consisting 

 of the following gentlemen, having been appointed by 

 the Victoria (Natal) Planters' Association to enquire into 

 and report upou this disease — C. T. Saner, W. R. 

 Cowley, A. Dubois, and Leonard Acutt — made the fol- 

 lowing report: — Your Committee recommends the Associ- 

 ation to take immediate steps to promote the intro- 

 duction of new varieties of cane from different countries. 

 In the meantime it recommends that the following means 

 be adopted to prevent the deterioration of the different 

 varieties of sugarcane the country already possesses : — 

 1. Better cultivation generally ; 2. Care in selection 

 of plants, planting only from our most vigorous canes; 



3. Obtain plants from other estates and districts ; 



4. Establish nurseries in which plant canes obtained 

 from a distance ; manure such nurseries with natural 

 manure only, as a forced plant is apt to be as weak as 

 neglected canes; 5. From indifferent soils, take off only 

 a plant crop and one ratoon crop, and from good soils 

 only plant crop and two ratoon crops. There will then 

 be no bad cane in the country to be used for plants, or 

 to contract and spread diseases; 6. Root the canes out 

 completely from abandoned or fallowed fields, as diseases 

 are always rife in canes which are allowed to grow up 

 among grass and weeds, and the land does not get a 

 complete rest ; 7. Adopt the Mauritius plan of planting 

 other crops in f.dlow fields : it is better for the land 

 than allowing it to revert to weeds and grass. 

 A suggestion made by a member of Committee may 

 recommend itself to some planters. To estublish 

 nurseries off the coast in places whore frost is lare, it is 

 thought that a cane grown in a more temperate climate 

 will prove hardy when propag,^ted on the coast. 

 In conclusion your Committee records its opinion that 

 the disease will cause great loss, unless vigorous general 

 action is taken for its eradication. But that, having 

 in view the satisfactory results following attempts to 

 cope with it, added to the fact that it has been known 

 and dealt M'lth i.i Mauritius for so many years, it sees 

 no cause for alarm, it planters are alive to the danger 

 and are determined to stamp it out. — Natal Mercury. 



