February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



647 



times goes on, we shall bid fair to command a wider 

 and more profitable market. Let us take an instance. 

 We quote from a number of the Suijar Cane: — "Tlie 

 steamer 'Malabar' some time since arrived iu New 

 York with a cargo of 2, .525 tons of sugar. This ia 

 said to jhave been the lirst steamer that has ever 

 come from the Philippine IsL-inds to the United States, 

 and she brings what is believed to be the largest 

 cargo of sugar imported to the United States. The 

 cargo was consigned to Messrs. VVillett & Hamlin 

 of New York, who have sold it for 8360,000 to 

 Messrs. Havemeyer & Elder, sugar refiners. The 

 cargo will pay duty to the Government of about 

 §125,000." We do not know and has'e not c.irtd to 

 enquire whether this particular cargo proved a profit- 

 able speculation or not, but it does not take much 

 acuteness to read between the lines and to perceive 

 that, if the sugar had been refined iu Manila, what a 

 great amount of charges for freight, for commissions 

 of all kinds, and perhaps, for duties, would have been 

 saved. 



We refer in this article to no concern in particu- 

 lar, nor have we any interest or bias in favor of any 

 particular inspection ; what we simply wish to point 

 out is that there is a great future for the sugar 

 industry in China and the Pliilippines — speaking gener- 

 ally. One point most not be omitted ; it is an unques- 

 tionable fact that the use of sugar among the Chinese 

 is rapidly increasing, it is ceasing to be a luxury and 

 is fast becoming an article of diet. With such a 

 market at our doors, capable of almost indefinite 

 expansion, there should be no room for hesitation ; 

 especiallj' as the experience of the trade shows that 

 whenever sugar has been introduced into a district 

 the demand is maintained. As for the sugar-bounties, 

 we can afford to lau^h at them ! for no beet refineries, 

 be they ever so liberally Eubsidized, can continue 

 long to compete with the exceptional combiualion 

 of resources that nature has placed at our disposal, 

 in a teeming and industrious propulation, in a fertile 

 soil, and in tropical sun. — China Alail. 



Madagascar. — Are the natural resources of 

 the country being developed ? Not to anything 

 like the extent they might be. Coffee, sugar, and 

 vanilla may be advantageously ctiltivated, while 

 there are immense quantities of indiarubber as 

 yet untapped. The mineral wealth of the island is 

 very great, and there is valuable wood of all kinds. 

 The people are willing enough that the country should 

 be opened up, but the stumbling-block has been this 

 French difiiculty, which ha:< excited the fears of the 

 Hovas. The Government are willing to revise existing 

 treaties, so as to permit foreigners 25 years' leases of 

 land in Madagascar, subject to renewal ; but they do 

 not feel in any way inclined to alienate a large portion 

 of tlieir dominions as the French liave been pressing 

 them to do. --Btitish Trade Jeurnol. 



LiBERiAN CoFPEE appears to flourish in the Her- 

 bert River district, Mr. J. Pink, of the Botanic 

 Gardens. Iiaving received a very fine sample of the 

 berries from Mr. F. Neame, of Macnade. The trees 

 from which this fruit was gathered were presented 

 by Sir .Joseph Hooker, of Kew Gardens, to Mr. H. 

 Wickbam, of the Herbert Kiver six yors ago but as 

 Mr Wicklum had no land ready for them that he 

 considered suitable be givve tlie plants to Mr. Neame, 

 under whose care they have grown and borne 

 abundantly. Conflicting opinions are held as to the 

 merits of this variety of coffee as compared with the 

 Arabica by various growers, but the trials now making 

 with it in India, iu this colony, and elsewhere, will 

 soon set the matter at rest, and we shall be pleasd 

 to see it settled in favour of this hardy and vigorous 

 variety.— Queenslatidfr. 



Silk Manufactory in My.sore. — It is saidthatMr. 

 C. V. Runga Charlu, C. I. E., the Dewan, intends 

 establishing a silk manufactory at Mysore, and, with 

 this object in view, is collecting information as to how 

 silk is at present manufactured in Assam and other pio- 

 vinoes of India. — Pioneer. 



Inoiarubeer. — The " Estrella de Tolima " states 

 that nevv India rubber districts are being onened up 

 in the forests in the vicinity of the village of La 

 Plata, andhopes that merchants will engage in the work 

 of getting it out. Rubber trees are also said to abound 

 iu the vicinity of Chapparal, but the in salubrity of 

 the clmiate, it is feared, will prevent work on an exten- 

 sive scale being undertaken. — South American Journal. 

 Cacao in Trinidad. — Rain has been the burthen of 

 the plaint iu connection with the weather for some 

 time back. There is a retardation and likely as well 

 to be a diminution iu the cacao yield fi'om the great 

 crop promised by the trees some weeks ago ; notwith- 

 standing which however, some planters believe the 

 crop will be the largest known here. There is plenty 

 of room yet, ere we can hope to overtake the usually 

 great crop of Ecuador (24 to 30 million lbs., we raher 

 think), which under happier political and better labor 

 conditions than it, we ought to do before very many 

 years pass by. — Chronicle, Nov. 6th. 



Cacao. — Ecuador news which sometimes affects con- 

 siderably the ruling value of c:icao in Europe, always 

 reaches us late and spasmodically. In turning over the 

 Aintrican Mail of 1st September received by the re- 

 cent steamer from New York we find news from 

 Guayaquil to July 24th. So far the cacao crop prorai.?ed 

 well, but the revolution then in progress might inter- 

 fere with the gathering and bringing down what was 

 got in and cured, to the port. The receipts to July 

 loth were 132,988 quintals, against 130,497 in 1882. 

 The internal troubles had latterly hampered the re- 

 ceipts at Guayaquil, and caused a rise in prices The 

 country was flooded with all sorts of low standard 

 silver coins, and theexch. on New Y^ork, 60 days, stood 

 at 47J p. m. Under these conditions and the extension 

 of cacao cultivation in other countries, it is easy to 

 foresee Ecuador will drop, in a few years hence, from 

 its present leading rank as cacao producer to a second 

 or even third place. —Trinidad Chronicle, Nov. 3i d. 



TuE Assam Tea Gardens. — The Tea Gazette, speaking 

 of the new rules promulgated under Act I of 1882, for 

 the protection of coolies iu the tea districts, says:-- 

 " The forms which employers are to keep up are No. 

 16, and of necessity must lead to an increase of the 

 secretariat staff on tea gardens, and to a constant 

 tearing of hair, and general despair, on the part of the 

 manager. We pity not only the planter who has to 

 prepare, or see to the preparation of all the above, but 

 also the unfortunate official who has to receive and 

 record them all. If he does his duty strictlj-, the 

 Deputy Commissioner must inevitably find himself iu 

 a constant war of correspondence with every manager 

 of a garden ; for in the case of Government forms and 

 returns it is notorious that no one ever half understands 

 them, and omissions and errors innumerable thus 

 invariably take place, — not from intention, but from 

 the impossibility, in many cases, of following or under- 

 stauiiing the instructions laid down. It is far from 

 our intention to deprecate the taking all necessary 

 precautious for the health and well-being of the coolie 

 on tea estates ; but we say that the Government have 

 gone too far iu troublesome and unnecessary interference. 

 No case has been made out for such. Planters, what- 

 ever they may have been in the past, are known now 

 to care lor their labourers as most precious projjerty, 

 and to neglect nothing that will keep them in health ; 

 and iu some cases, even the coolies are already unneces- 

 sarily pampered, and very considerably under-worked, 

 while, as a general rule, there is little to improve or 

 amend. " — Pioneer. 



