296 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1884. 



was well-moistened by previous showers. On the other hand 

 a low-lying piece of ground sheltered from the monsoon 

 quarter by a ridge and belt of trees, flourished must lux- 

 uriantly — no hardening of leaf or stoppage of flushes — how- 

 ever the wind might roar or the rain prevail. 



Oan Mr. Armstrong please explain how it is that cinchona 

 nurseries require more close ami continued protection from 

 the sun at high elevations than at lower ? This is a well- 

 known fact on these hills. At the elevation of about li.OOO 

 feet I had always been accustomed (in common with my 

 brother planters) to gradually remove the shade from my 

 cinchona nurseries towards the end of May or early in 

 June, just after the first showers, in order to harden the 

 ulauts. 1 trie I the same tiling at the elevation of 6\000 

 feet with the result that all the plants so exposed were 

 burnt up by the sun in a few days ! In view of this diffic- 

 ulty, a planter on these hills at a similar elevation has 

 found it worth his while to rent a piece of land in the 

 lowcountry at 3,000 feet solely for the purpose of propag- 

 ating Ins cinchona nurseries. 



Is it that, owing to the rarified atmosphere, evaporation 

 goes on with greater rapidity at high elevations? 



How is this Chinese-Franco war likely to affect the tea 

 market?— Yours faithfully, N( 1VICE. 



Therecan be little doubt that the tendency in Britain 

 is to the supercession of aleholic stimulants in favour 

 of such beverages as cheer but do not inebriate ; but 

 tea seems the favourite with our countrymen and 

 countrywomen. But, as our correspondent points out, 

 tea is often as badly brewed in England as is coffee. 

 Tea, howevr, is generally pure. 



Strong wind and heavy rain generally come together 

 and both or either must check flushing. 



As regards the cinchona nurseries, we should rather 

 suspect mischief fromcold the consequence of radiation of 

 heat into space than the scorching heat of the sun. We 

 had experience of a tea nursery at (i. 000 feet in which 

 all tue plants blackened and seemed dead, but they 

 grew up again all right. But tea-seedlings are much 

 more robust than those of cinchona. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE NOKTHEKN TERRITORY 

 OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 

 The present condition of agriculture in the Northern 

 territory* is very disappointing, and much to lie deplored. 

 ft is difficult, iudeed to convey to those who are unac- 

 quainted with the facts connected with this industry during 

 the past four or live years any intelligible reasons which 

 account for the barreness of results. But to those who 

 are on the spot, and who have visited the sites of the 

 reckless or inadequate experiments which have been made, 

 it is clear enough that avoidable blunders explains the 

 disappointments and failures. In the om- instance in which 

 a genuine attempt has been made to establish a sugar 

 plantation, where it is stated £20,000 have been spent in 

 machinery, buildings, clearing, and the cultivation and 

 planting of 182 acres, the result of the crushing of the 

 cane of last year's growth amounted to only seven tons 

 of sugar. The quantity of sugar which results from the 

 crushing of the crop this year is about five tons. I refer, 

 of course, to the Delissaville estate, and I give the naked 

 farts, because the costly and absurd disaster there has 

 doue more to retard tropical agriculture in the Northern 

 territory than all other causes combined ; and because, 

 unless a clear and authoritative explanation is made public, 

 the collapse of Delissaville will scare capital and enter 

 prize away from the Northern Territory as a possible 

 sugar-producing country altogether. It is a source of 

 deep regret to me iu an official communication to write 

 anything that may injure the financial prospects of a 

 private Company, the shareholders of which have liber- 

 ally furnished the capital asked for, have pluckily stuck 

 to their venture, and certainly deserve to have succeded. 

 I feel, however, that this is a case in which public duty 

 rises paramount to all private considerations; and I fear 

 the result of this year's crushing, when made known, will 

 have precipitated any damaging results that might otherwise 



* ( if South Australia.— Ed. 



arise from the publication of my report. The cardinal— 

 the one all-sufficient— fact which accounts for the ridicul- 

 ous result of five tons of sugar this year from an estate 

 of 10,l)UO acres and the expenditure of £'.'0,000 is that 

 the land, except a patch here and there, is entirely tin- 

 suited for the growth of sugarcane. When I, in 'com- 

 pany with the Parliamentary party visited the place in 

 March, 18S2, it was the wet season. All the uncultivated 

 portion was covered with the tall luxuriant grasses which 

 grew everywhere from six to twice six feet in height; and 

 the cultivated portion, though omiuously showing large 

 quantities of ironstone gravel, appeared to have a rich, 

 dark soil. Since then I have seen the sugar lands iu the 

 Maekay District of Queensland, and a few days ago 1 visited 

 Delissaville again. Now. althongh I have no practical know- 

 ledge of sugar cultivation. I am not surprized that Delissa- 

 ville is a failure. The Markay sugar lands, whether plain, 

 forest, or scrub (?>., jungle) are rich deep loam. At 

 Dehssayille the ironstone rocks crop out to the surface, 

 and the stunted cane is fully accounted for by the poor] 

 ironstone, and gravelly ground in which it grows. At the 

 time of my visit last week I was accompanied by a gentle- 

 man largely interested in a sugar plantation iu Fiji. He 

 remarked that there was no necessity to talk about white 

 ants, because the soil, or rather the absence of soil, suffici- 

 ently revealed why there was such a miserable crop. To 

 conclude, therefore, that the Northern Territory is unsuited 

 for the growth of sugarcane because of the failure at Delis- 

 saville is as illogical as if because a farmer tried to grow 

 wlie.it m the Ninety-mile Desert and failed therefore the 

 whole of South Australia was to be declared unfit for wheat. 

 It is because the Delissaville Estate and surrounding land 

 has been described ',' as a vast and rich sugar country" by 

 Mr. Thompson, of Antigua, that it is necessary to show that 

 it is the unsuitableuess of the land itself which accounts for 

 the failure. Two other attempts have been made— one 

 on the Daly River by Mr. Owston, the other on the Adel- ' 

 aide 1 liver by Mr. Sergison. In both instances the land was 

 judiciously selected, and is undoubtedly capable of producing 

 fine crops of cine. Eut after the preliminary expenditure 

 on a nursery, in each case the places were abandoned. 

 I shall refer presently to both these places, and need only 

 say now that the few thousands spent on them were 

 wasted ; but if planting had been continued and machinery 

 erected, in the opinion of those well fitted to express it, 

 there would now be prosperous plantations on each river! 

 Sugarcane is a fairly successful crop *his year again iu 1 he 

 Experimental Garden at Fannie Bay. where the soil is plenti- 

 fully mixed with ironstone. I saw also last week, at Messrs. 

 Oloppeuburg and Ericksou's selection at West Point, a fine 

 patch of rattoons. A fire swept across the plants last 

 year, and they have been allowed to take their chance since, 

 with, nit weeding or care; and in the opiuion of the gentle- 

 man who accompanied me to Delissaville. they are suffici- 

 ent evidence that in suitable soil sugarcane will do well, 

 even iu a season like the present one, in which the rains 

 cased at the end of March. At Mr. Brandt's plantation, at 

 I Shoal Bay, about twenty acres of very fine cane have been 

 | grown. The cultivation there was only commenced last year, 

 j and I have now, outside my office, a bundle of cane of three 

 varieties, some of which measure six inches in circum- 

 ference, and are nine feet in height. This cane was only 

 planted at the end of last November. Mr. Brandt is so 

 satisfied with his selection that he will plant about one 

 hundred acres this year, and intends erecting a small 

 mill to crush next year. This gentleman is returning to 

 Adelaide by the Laju, and will take a fample of his crop 

 with him. Messrs. Harris and Head, of West Toiut. have 

 also decided to make arrangements for the erection of a 

 small mill. These familiar names represent all the attempts 

 that are being made to cultivate cane for the manufact- 

 ure of sugar. It must be confessed that the results furn- 

 ish but a sorry record after the glowing reports, promises 

 and anticipations. It is easily explained, however. The 

 small cultivators at West Point, wdio have grown good 

 cane have not had sufficient capital to erect milling mach- 

 inery; and at Delissaville, where machinery lias been 

 provided, the land is too poor to grow good cane. Nor is 

 it difficult to explain whv large sugar-growers in other 

 places have not embarked in the enterprise in the North- 

 ern Territory: I. They have waited for the results of 

 Delissaville, •_'. They have been frightened by stories of 



