Jaktuary I, 1883.1 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



557 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF FOLIAGE AND 

 FRUIT. 

 Like all that proceeds from the same pen, the letter 

 of " W." ou page 562, displays much ability, but it does 

 not seem conclusive ; indeed, the writer does not 

 take that position. He merely asks for investigation 

 and experiment. The received doctrine is that by 

 the process of pruning applied to fruit trees and 

 the artificial wintering given to vines, the plants re- 

 ceive a nhock which awakens into special activity 

 the instinct of reproduction. Desperate efforts are 

 made to "preserve the species." That is, the mean- 

 ing of the increased quantity of fruit which generally 

 follows severe pruning, whether of branches or roots 

 and wintering. Tiiere is the well-known case of tlie 

 orange tree In a conservatmy which failed to respond 

 to liberal manuring and copious \\atering. It was 

 then, in disgust, neglected, and, as its foliage com- 

 menced to yellow in token of approaching dissolution, 

 the tree, as if it heard the command " perpetuate 

 your kind before you die," burst into blossom and 

 ripened a rich crop of fruit. The lesson was not 

 lost. But the facts are equally recognized that this 

 system of culture by shocks is unnatural, and that 

 the existence of the plants subjected to it is, as a 

 rule, considerably shortened, however the end may 

 be delayed by the application of manures. No doubt 

 analogy ' might lead us to suppose that the operations 

 of a fungus which deprives the coffee tree of its 

 foliage, not partially but wholly and several times 

 within a year, ought, in like manner, to call into 

 active operation the reproductive instinct. But nature 

 seems to say : " Remember that, without some leaves 

 you, the coffee tree cannot produce fruit : begin, 

 therefore, with leaves." The tree does so, but a 

 fresh attack of fungus destroys the fresh crop of leaves, 

 and that functional derangement of a most serious 

 nature is produced by the repeated attacks of a 

 parasite which preys on the very life-blood of the 

 plant is obvious by the blackening and dying of 

 twigs on the affected bushes, and especially by the 

 inaliility ofj tlie trees to elaborate the normal proportion 

 of feeding rootlets. The persistent flushings of the 

 affected trees are, no doubt, proofs of their great original 

 vitality, but that vitality is gradually weakened and the 

 trees seem in complaining tones to say : " We are now 

 able to produce 'nothing but leaves.'" That at pre- 

 sent is the fact, let the cause be what we have in- 

 dicated or what it may. The greater reason is there 

 that we should encourage all discussions and experi- 

 ments in the direction of remedial measures. 



FIBRE INDUSTRY, 



The Madar Plast iOalalroph Oigantea) which 

 abounds in India and Ceylon, and which a 

 correspondent recently noticed as covering vast plains 

 in the northern portion of the island, yields fibre 

 which could, we sliould think, be cheaply prepared, 

 especially by Eknian's process, as material for paper- 

 making. In the Puujaub experiments have been 

 made, which are tlius noticed in a letter to the 

 Madras Government :-— " It will be seen that for the 

 manufacture of paper the fibre is required only in 

 tlie shape of IJulp and not in the shape of thread, 

 and that this accounts for the gi-eat difference be- 

 tween the cost in its preparation for cordage or cloth ■ 

 ing an.l for paper. Specimens of tlie paper submitted 

 by the Inspector-General of Prisons are forwarded 

 with this letter." Then comes a letter from the In- 

 spector-General of Prisons, Puujaub : — •" Experiments 

 have been tried with this fibre ; and I forward you 

 some of the paper made from it in the Uellii Jail, 

 71 



I forwarded samples to the Settlement Commissioner 

 of this paper, and lie had it tried in his Department. 

 The main fault found with it was its thinness ; this 

 might have been remedied, but this branch of manu- 

 facture cannot be prosecuted in our Jails as it would 

 be antagonistic to tlie views of the Government of 

 India concerning Jail manufactures recently enunciated. " 

 The allusion is to a late Minnte by the Government 

 of India directing that in the prisons of the empire 

 manufactures should not be conducted which clearly 

 interfered with private enterprize. Experiments should 

 be tried here, in Ceylon. We can supply a few brandies 

 from bushes which grow luxuriantly close to the sea 

 shore at Kollupitiya. It seems probable that tlie 

 plants, if worth cultivating, could be coppiced. We 

 have seen a variety of tlie plant growing as far as 

 .30° north in India, rather more stunted than ours 

 here, but most abundant and with showy blossoms 

 of a purple colour, enlivenuig the arid plain.? of the 

 North- Western Provinces. 



PROGRESS IN NORTH BORNEO. 

 (NEW CEYLON.) 

 We are glad to learn tliat the gi'and new colony 

 — which is destined very soon to overshadow in im- 

 portance the " mother country" whose name she has 

 taken, — is entering on a rapidly progressive course. 

 Two Australian capitalists have taken up between 

 tliem some 20,000 acres of land at Sandakan for 

 Sugar-planting and tliis part of the country is fast 

 going ahead as a Chinese Settlement. Steamers call 

 there en route from Hongkong to Australia and the 

 emigration set agoing by Sir Walter Medhurst — who 

 has the complete confidence of the Chinese authorities 

 and people — is already rapidly developing. The China 

 Oivrland Trade Report states: — "The prospectus has 

 been issued of the Chinese-Sab Ji Land Farming 

 Company, formed in Shanghai to take over a grant 

 of 40,0U0 acres of land in Sabah provisionally made 

 to Mr. E. .Major by the Governor of British North 

 Borneo. The Company, as its name denotes, will 

 enga^e in auricnUural and planting optratiuns, such 

 as the growth of pepper, tobacco, iudii;o, sugar, &c. 

 The capital consists oi TIs. 400,000 in 4,000 sltares of 

 Tls. 100 .each, allot which have been taken np. " The 

 Hongkong correspondent of the North China' Herald 

 writes : — " The Hainan took a large number of Chinese 

 to the elysian fields of Borneo. In spite of the Ckung 

 NrjoVs fitful plaints about export and inijjort duties, 

 emigrants flock to Kudal amd .Sandakan. Judging 

 from a recent letter of Mr. Fung Ming Shan to one 

 of our local Cliiuese papers, there must be a fine 

 opening for artizans and worknieti of all trades at 

 Santakan, and the flaming posters of the Borneo Com- 

 piiny are having a gratifying effect upon the credul- 

 ous Chinese. The live-stock marts of the Great Empire 

 are cousitlerably over-full, and wit'f the exception of a 

 tolerably brisk trade in errant mu.-,umees at SlOO-150 

 (vide Hongkong Police Reports), tliere is little doing, 

 irhe Chini'se must and will emigrate ; Borneo is grow- 

 ing less and less savage, and ' birds-nests caves' 

 and 'large plantations' have an enticing found." 

 But Borneo has also substantial advantages to p>e- 

 sent to permanent settlers and the Chinese are 

 evidently the people to develope the new settle- 

 ment. One result of the active demand for land 

 which has set in is that Mr. Collinson, head of 

 the .Survey Staff (late of Ceylon) is as busy as any 

 public servant can be with all manner of applic- 

 ations and he is now likely to bo leinforced from 

 this Colony with the help of two such competent 

 professiouals as Alessrs. Henry Walker and S. Purdon, 



