December i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



479 



great wave of ethnic movement surging a-head, and 

 tile consequeuces are likely to be most momentous. 

 That the wave is to be t-tayed by prejudices of race 

 and colour and prohibitoiy laws, whether iu America 

 or Australia we do not believe. 



(From West Australian Inquirer, Oct. 4th.) 



Kimberley, it is generally believed, will some day 

 be a great country. The prevailing opinion is that 

 some parts of the country are admirably adapted 

 to the growth of sugar and other tropical products. 

 If so the land will rapidly increase in value, and we 

 may hope to hear of establishments being formed 

 similar to those iu Queensland and in the Northern 

 Territory. Queensland has established several facto- 

 ries, and is bringing over from the Polynesian isles 

 labor in abundance. In our case, owing to our close 

 proximity to India and China, our labor market 

 would doubtless be supplied from those countries, 

 and it would be superior to Kannka labor, which is 

 chiefly employed iu Queensland. The growth of sugar- 

 cane, coffee, cotton, and cinchona will doubtless be 

 attempted. We shall take our readers over a sugar 

 plantation in Fiji, where the labor is composed of 

 South Sea nalives. Rations for every man, consisting 

 of 10 lb, of sweet potatoes, or 7 lb. of yams, are 

 weighed out each morning. The day's work is limited 

 to nine hours. Their pay is from £3 to £5 per an- 

 num, clothes being provided. The holes iu which the 

 cane is planted are six feet apart leugthwajs, the 

 rows being four feet apart. The planting time consists 

 from September to November, and in 14 months' time 

 the crop is ready for cutting. In some cases the cane 

 is fully 22 feet in length, and the average yield is 

 40 tons to the acre. The price of the cane is 10s. a 

 ton all round. On the Eewa there aie between 1,600 

 and 2,000 acres of sugar planted. Taking the lower 

 figure at 40 tons to the acre, it gives a respectable total 

 of 60,000 tons of cane, and as it takes 15 tons of caie to 

 make one of suyar, a result of 4,U0O tons is given which, 

 at from £25 toi'35 per ton, and assuming a medium fig- 

 ure, gives a gross value of £120,000. Tlie price paid for 

 the cane is lOs per ton, or, lor GO,OlO tons £30,000, so 

 that there must be a considerable profit to the 

 mill owners, even after leaving a largemargiu for 

 expeuss. 



Coffee planting is another profitable industry. Nur- 

 sery plants are at first planted in beds, in rows six 

 inches apart, and but ene inch apart lengthwise. 

 The beds are generally 30 feet long l>y thiee feet 

 broad. After eight or nine months those that do 

 come up are transplanted, each being afibrded a space 

 of six feet by s.xieet, 1,210 plants going to the acre. 

 It sometimes takes three years* to hrmg cofiee to 

 maturity ; the average yield is 15 cwt. to the acre 

 when the trees have had 5 yeais' growth. The price 

 of coffee berries jer ton is stated at trom £100 to £110, 

 so that between £70 and £S0 is the yearly value per 

 acre of a bona tide plantation. f Sinhalese labor would 

 be well adiipted to the cultivation of coffee, and plants 

 could be imported from Ceylon. 



The high value of the cinchona tree, from which 

 the Feruvian baik is obtained, is known to almost 

 everybody. Its cultivation is being encouraged in all 

 tropical climates, and where its growth can be secured 

 the profit is enormous. It takes about two years* 

 before this precious bark can be stripped, and with 

 proper care a continuous supply is obtainable. We 

 have mentioned some of the tropical iudustiies suit- 

 able to our north-west climate ; we could add cocoa 

 the v.>nilla, and tea cultivation, besides tropical 

 fruits and other plants, but the three principal indust- 

 ries we have cjuoted show unmistakably that if the 



* Fom- rather. — Ed. f 5 cwt. per acre worth £20 would 

 be a safer calculation I — Ed. 



land is of the description it had been represented 

 to be, an immense future is in store. In all pro- 

 bability the service we have so repeatedly advocated 

 with the Straits Settlements, India and China, will 

 be carried out ; with the facilities this will afford 

 inducement will be given to settle. The Government 

 have no time to lose in carrying out their projected 

 surveys, laying out town sites, declaring agricultural 

 semi-tropical areas, and putting them in the market. 



ALOE FIBRE IN MAURITIUS. 



There are now, we believe, some half-a-dozen public 

 companies, with an aggregate capital of about £150,000, 

 carrying on the growth and preparation of aloe fibre 

 in Mauritius, and during the past twelve months 

 considerable activity has been displayed in prosecut- 

 ing the industry, which still seems however to be iu 

 its infancy. The local organ of the planting com- 

 munity gives the following figures, showing the ex- 

 port of fibre during the ten years ending ISSO, but 

 why those for lS8i should not have been included 

 by August 8th we are at 



a loss to understand ;- 



It will be observed that there was a very rapid 

 increase in the three years preceding 1880, but that 

 in that year, from some cause which the local his- 

 torian leaves unexplained, the shipments fell off ma- 

 terially . Possibly, however, the clue to this decline 

 is to be found in the fact that hitherto the com- 

 panies engaged in the industry have done very little 

 in the way of planting aloes, and even if they had, 

 sufficient time had not elapsed for the plants to reach 

 maturity. The tracts of land taken up have been 

 already overgrown with wild aloes, furnishing a ready- 

 made and gratuitous supply of the raw material, so 

 that the companies' capital and energies have been 

 devoted to the erection of mills and machinery for ex- 

 tracting the fibre, and to the construction ot roads, &c. 

 Now, it is obvious that under these circumstances the 

 industry is not at present established upon what can 

 be regarded as a thoroughly satisfactory commercial 

 basis, since we are assured by the local editor that 

 no data are available as to whether it will prove 

 profitable when the present souic.s of supply within 

 available distance of the mills have been exhausted, 

 and it is necessary to produce it by cultivation. It 

 is quite clear that, until this all important question 

 has been answered, it is impossible to form any idea 

 whether the enterprize is likely to develope suffici- 

 ently in Mauritius to take rank beside sugar. 



It will be observed that the shipments of 1880 

 amounting to 602,500 kilos, or 12,560 cwt. 2qrs. 151b., 

 valued at R117,0C0, or a little over ROi per cwt,, 

 which, at Is 8d per rupee, is equivalent to only 16s 5d 

 per cwt. We understand that this fibre is used 

 chiefly, if not exclusively, in the mai.ufacture of 

 rope and cordage, for which it is admirably adapted, 

 but that this accounts for the low value placed upon 

 it. It is almost certain, however, that if the aloe 

 leaves were treated by Ekmau's piocess, a fibre would 

 be obtained fine enough for spu.iiiug and weaving 

 purpo.-es,. the market value of which would be thiee 

 or four times as much as the coarser material now 

 realises. There is, moreover, another consideration 

 favourable to the adoption of clemical iu place of 

 mechanical treatment, since much less fuel is re- 

 quired for the former than the latter process, and if 

 the indu.stry were to -sxtend greatly, fuel would soon 

 become a serious difllculty, as surplus megasse from 

 the sugar estates is the only kin! available iu any 



