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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI'V 



[February 2, 1885 



The Kice Tkade.— The volume of business in rice is 

 greatly increased over previous years, due to a growing ap- 

 preciation in this country of the merits of rice as a food 

 product. "You may not know," said Mr. John Talmage, 

 of Messrs. Dan Tannage's Sons & Co., "that it is the 

 leading food of the world. In quantity, its production ex- 

 ceeds that of all other grains combined, and what is, per- 

 haps, more surprising, more than half the population of 

 the world make it the prominent part of their diet. No 

 other cereal, nor even potatoes, can compare with it. It 

 is the staff of life. The quality of the crop this year is far 

 below the usual average. The harvest, storms greatly injured 

 it in this respect. Much of the outturn has been of yellow 

 or mowburnt, which, while not injuring its value for food, 

 damages it many per cent commercially. East India rice 

 does not materially interfere with domestic. Our producers 

 do not, or at any rate ought not to, complain, when they 

 are protected from the East India by a duty on the latter 

 of 2j cents per pound, or on the bond value of from 75 

 to 1U0 per cent.* The East India in a measure, of course, 

 tends to regulate the prices of the. domestic, as the former 

 is within a week to ten days' reach. During the early 

 part of the crop, up, say, until the first of the year, 

 prices on the home product generally fall below any com- 

 peting foreign, and thus excludes them temporarily from 

 the market. The East India stands the United States in 

 good stead, and its use is steadily increasing. Our annual 

 imports now run from two to three hundred thousand bags 

 of two cwt. each." — American Grocer. 



Natal Laisour Supply and Planting.— The statements 

 made at the last meeting of the Victoria Planters' Associ- 

 ation in regard to the labour supply of the colony would, 

 at certain critical moments in our industrial history, have 

 been hailed as tidings of great joy, and as the announce- 

 ment of a new dispensation. " Any amount of labour." 

 said Mi*. Binus, one of the county's representatives, would 

 be forthcoming in a short time. True that labour is coolie 

 labour, but as coolie labour is admitted by all coast plant- 

 ers to be the one thing needful, such a declaration, on the 

 part of the Chairman of the Indian Immigration Board is 

 obviously a fact of the most cheering nature, and of the 

 most substantial importance. But this was not all. The 

 Association was told that Mr. Orton has organised a labour 

 agency with the East Coast districts north of Delagoa Bay. 

 ■which has already succeeded in bringing 2,000 hands into 

 the colony. These men have been greedily taken up by 

 the railway contractors, at rates of wages varying trom 

 40s. to 25s. per month, but as the railway works are now 

 near completion, these people will be available at so low 

 a rate of wages as 10s. per month. It was admitted that 

 the competitive intluence of the African labourers had 

 brought down the rate of wages paid to " free " — that is 

 uniudentured — coolies from 25s. to 20s. per month. There 

 is thus every prospect of an ample supply of low-priced 

 coloured labour during the immediate future. Such an ex- 

 perience is probably unknown at this moment to any other 

 British colony where tropical agriculture is going on. Un- 

 fortunately it comes to us at a time when the ruinously 

 low prices of sugar render the very existence of the sugar 

 industry a matter open to doubt. But may it not be 

 possible to utilise these large opportunities of cheap labour 

 supply in other ways ? Cannot new industries take advant- 

 age of the golden chance I An affirmative answer might 

 be forthcoming were our political condition and prospects 

 Other thau they are. But not the least depressing fea- 

 ture of the existing crisis in South African destinies— in- 

 deeu the gravest feature— is the paralysing effect produced 

 upon investment and enterprise, Both in Natal and in 

 England, the uncertainty that, prevails tends to repress the 

 energies of colonists and to discourage the confidence of 

 capitalists. What with cheap and plentiful labour, and 

 fine seasons, there might be a reasonable expectancy of large 

 development and quickened activity in the prosecution of 

 colonial industries anil the opening out of colonial resources, 

 but the confusion that prevails acts as a blight upon effort 

 and enterprise. This view of the position cannot be too 

 seriously considered by all who have a stf.ke in the pro- 

 gress of the colony. — Natal Mercury. 



• What would our \ ■ sins sayii Englandwen 



guilty of the wickedness of imposing a duty of loo per 

 tut an their wheat ; J —Ep, 



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Mr. John Hughes, the Eminent Chkmist, on Tea 

 in Ceylon. — Mr. Hughes, in a letter to us «rites : — 

 "lam glad to hear tea is progressing so favourably, 

 but I agree in thinking it most unwise to pull up 

 good coffee trees to , ..■ » a tea garden. If a change 

 is desired, why notdo so gradually, planting tea between 

 the eofl'ee, and thus protect the i.ndlrom exposure 

 to tropical heat and wash V After my analyses of the 

 Indian cinchona soils, which were so rich in nitrogen, 

 I feared your Ceylon soils would not do generally 

 for cinchona, being too poor in organic nitrogenous 

 matter. But for tea I . have every hope, aud my 

 friends in Mincing Line now speak most favourably, 

 veiy different from what I heard in 18/8 ou my 

 return from Ceylon, when planters hid but little 

 experience in preparing tra." 



Sugar Plantations in Northern Queensland. — 

 From more than one recent visitor to the L 1 wer 

 Burdekin we learn that Seaforth is the cleanest and 

 best cultivated plantation in the North, and that the 

 proprietor being alwajs able to procure fresh water 

 at a depth o£ ten feet the cane fields can be easily 

 irrigated if necessary. The crushing about closed haj 

 been most successful, and it, is a pity that such 

 sparkling sugars as those exported from Seaforth and 

 Calamia this season have been subject to such a fall 

 in price. We are also informed that the best collection 

 of agricultural implements are to be seen at Seaforth. 

 The " Pioueer " mill, made by A. & W. Smith, made 

 950 tons of sugar in 80 days ! " Hauds all round ! ' — 

 Tropical Planter. [Seaforth is the property of Mr. 

 Mackenzie, formerly a tea planter in Coorg. — Ed.] 



Sugar Prospects. — The prospects of the European beet 

 crop as a whole continue good, and there is a probability 

 of the total yield exceeding the immense one of 18S3-S4, 

 With the enormous stocks in store in Europe and 

 America, the chances favour a still further fall. There 

 are ou ev<}ry side bitter complaints that the old-fashioned 

 sorts of cane, sugir and all kinds of beet sugar at the 

 present prices yield a loss to the producer. Vacuum 

 pan cane sugar ou some estates still yields a profit, but 

 the West Indian' planters mainly still use open pans. 

 They have, however, let so many years pass by, althou"h 

 what was coming upon them was perfectly obvious to 

 the rest ot the world, that their difficulty will no doubt 

 be immense in finding the capital necessary for the im- 

 provements, which are essential if they are to continue to 

 make sugar. The position of these colonies in wbicli 

 sugar has been the staple industry is ciritical. British 

 Guiana, the most enterprising sugar-producing colony, is 

 feeling the present crisis very acutely. Planters have had 

 to cut down expenses to the lowest point, and even then 

 the profits ou sugar have been next to nothing. In the 

 Islands the same cry is heard. The depression in produce 

 affects the mercantile community and trade throughout 

 the West Indies is extremely dull while rumour is busy 

 with reports as to the position of firms who have hither- 

 to been considered financially strong. The depres-hn 

 extends far beyond the West Indian Islands. Complaints 

 hive been heard from the Queensland sugar plantations. 

 Mauritius has been a sufferer with the rest, and the state 

 of the sugar industry there has been a chief c.m-jc of 

 the failure of the Oriental Bank, AH that has happened 

 in this respeot has been foreseen for some time past; 

 Ten years ago when the duty on sugar was taken off 

 the prophecy was freely hazarded that sugar would before 

 long become a drug in the market. The event has beeu 

 not quite as disastrous as this for the sugar industry, 

 Sugar has not fallen to a price which allows of its bains 

 used for manure, as it was declared it would be. But 

 we have only too certain evidence that the cultivation 

 of sugar is no longer as remunerative as it used to be 

 and as, in a very intelligible sense of the words, itought 

 to be. The main cause is not far to seek. There are 

 too many hands employed upon it, and too much 

 money has been sunk to obtain an adequate return, In 

 such a state of things then is all the more reason that 

 the sugar producers BUuuld have fair play,— Unrnt and 

 Colonial Mail 



