"ARY 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



H4 



yards, and is generally cured in four days, but if raiu sets in, 

 at times it takes nearly three weeks. 



The principal enemy in the insect line is a large black 

 ant, which is very destructive. There are various classes 

 of tbe quina tree, calysaya, green and purple. The 

 greater part of tbe quina passes through this city baled 

 and sent to Tacue and Molleudo. Cinchona is the com- 

 mon name for all quina. 



The market price is now 40 cents, per lb., Bolivian cur- 

 rency. It has sold as high as 200 bolivianos per quintal. 

 It formerly paid a tax of 6-40 bolivianos per quintal; now 

 one-half, 3"20 bolivianos, one-half to the Government, and 

 one-half municipal. 



As the greater part of the quina forests were destroyed, 

 and until very lately, the cultivation of quinia has not been 

 carried out in a proper manner, it is only now that itmav 

 be said to be a regular business. The highest ex|.ortation 

 of late years has been 20,000 quintals : but it has dwindled 

 down for various causes, so that this year it will not be 

 more than 5,000 quintals, and at present prices leaves no 

 profit, the expenses of getting it to the cost being heavy.— 

 Independent Journal. 



all their sugar-produce by the lines of this company 

 yet it is highly to be commended, and it is to be 

 hoped that the Neth. Iud. Government will follow 

 this good example and also reduce the very heavy 

 freights on the Government lines. 



PLANTING IN JAVA. 

 The land is saved for the present, and it has been 

 satisfactorily proved that all confidence in Indian cul- 

 tures, even sugar and coffee, is not lost at home. 

 The Neth, Ind. Handlesbank, with a fully paid up 

 capital of 12 millions guilders, had been giving out 

 more than double its capital in loans on plantations, 

 produce, mercantile stock, &e. As long as their drafts 

 ■were fully trusted, everything went well, but when 

 rumour Baid that this bank lost a good deal by the 

 failure of Dummler & Co., drafts were presented for 

 payment too sharp, and the Bank vacillating on its 

 natural supports, had to throw out a hint for an extra 

 branch leg, the Neth. Ind. Landboun Co., with a capital 

 of millions ; and the beauty is that within twice 

 24 hours the capital was more than fully subscribed. 

 The Colonial Bank, with a fully paid up capital 

 of live million guilders, was very much in the same 

 fix, and asked for the loan of another 5 millions. The 

 confidence in this Bank was, it seems, not so unlimited 

 as in its sister bank ; at least some trouble was taken 

 to get the required capital together, as people said 

 that it had noi been so careful in laying out its 

 capital ; but the money did appear. Now you would 

 tay Rome is saved, and all Batavia was perfectly 

 astounded, when Jthe Manager and the whole staff 

 of tbe chief branch of the bank at Batavia got, as a 

 New Year's gift, their leave of absenco unlimited. 

 Ra...Ra, Why is that? Messrs. Dorrepaal & Co., 

 of Samarang, who were as deeply involved in produce 

 as Eny bank in Java, coul * not stand any longer the 

 sad conditions under which plautlng is at present ; 

 tried to change their firm into the Dorrepaal Bank 

 of the Verstenlandeu with a greatly enlarged capiial 

 and succeeded at once j so you see, that the quiet 

 Amsterdam people have still some cash intheirsafes 

 aud what is more worthy of mention is that they are 

 not unwilling to come forward and assist, whnro assist- 

 is deserved and oan be given with any safety. 

 The King sub oribed 100 thousand guilders, and Mr. 

 Cremer and Mr. Janssen each half a million. The 

 most wonderful part of the whole is, that new shares 

 wi re sold the same week at 86 per cent. , so, it can 

 otily be supposed, that many people have bought 

 Shares and sold th< m again at a loss, just to save 

 themaelv s from larger losses by the fall of the 

 old bank. 



The Netbei lands India Railway Co. has also shown its 

 symiahyfcj the Bufferings of theaugar-planters by reduc- 

 1 their lines by more b in 

 .. and although this measure is only temp- 

 orary, aud on condition that the sugar. ulautera send 



PLANTING IN MALACCA. 

 There is very little prospect of a return to pro- 

 sperity for this place. The price of tapioca has 

 advanced, but not sufficient to induce planters 

 to increase the output of their factories. The plant- 

 ations that remain open, only worked the roots 

 which would spoil if left on the ground, and stocks 

 of the manufactured article are held here in the hope 

 of a rise in price. Liberian Coffee is being cautiously 

 tried, but very few people care to expend much of 

 their capital on planting of any description, owing 

 to the low price of nearly all kinds of produce. — Cor,, 

 Singapore Free Press. 



■- 



WAGES OF LABOUR IN DARJILING, N. INDIA. 



There has been a good deal of discussion recently, 

 provoked by the action of a Company in raising the 

 wages paid to Nepaulese coolies from the average 

 of R5-8 per mensem (what we should call K5'50) to 

 R6-8. The rise, which means on many estates an 

 addition of R300 a month to expenditure in labour 

 alone, is denounced as unnecessary, the coolies being 

 quite contented, as well they may be, for in most 

 cases the money wages are supplemented by the 

 produce of pieces of land bearing two crops annually, 

 of grain we suppose. Here is the picture drawn in 

 the Indian Planters' Gazette : — 



It is a fact well-known by all who have had any reasonably 

 long experience of Napaulese coolies working on tea gardens 

 that as long as they can get enough to eat and drink, they 

 will do no extra work — more especially, if they can borrow 

 from the sirder — and that extra pay to them means so many 

 day's more idleness in the month: or, to put it in.other words, 

 a cooly who at the present rate of wage can earn R5-8 a 

 month by 25 to 26 days' work would on'y do 21 to 23 

 days if the rate were R6-8. Again that the present rate 

 of wage is amply sufficient for the work done is proved 

 by the fact that on most gardens in the Darjeeliug dis- 

 trict the labour force available is quite sufficient for pre- 

 sent requirements, and that in most cases the old coolies 

 have remained steadily on the gardens whereon they 

 had settled down, in spite of the counter attractions, 

 offered them elsewhere in the shape of increased pay. It 

 must also be remembered that within the last few years 

 rice aud some of the other food grains have (allien very 

 considerably in price, and that altogether tea coolies are 

 much better off, generally speaking, than they wen tea 

 years ago at the same rate of wages in money. Tt must be 

 remembored that in addition to the actual wages earned 

 by a male cooly, he has a general rule, hia wife and two 

 or three children who between them earn on an average 

 another R6 to R8 a month, so that altogether the incomings 

 of an average Nepaulese household on a tea garden aro 

 not lens than from R12 to R14 a month, and this in ad- 

 dition to a good comfortable house, a patch of land from 

 which at least two crops in the year aro raised, firewood 

 and other little odds and ends which put together fully 

 represent almost as much as the amount actually earned 

 in coin by the family. It is no wonder therefore that the. 

 tea coolie on an average garden is perfectly con- 

 tented with the present rate of actual money wages, and 

 it is consequently nothing more or less than a waste of 

 capital to increase the wago beyond what the coolies are 

 contented to work for. That this scramble for labor is 

 a mistake has been already proved in the Darjeeling 

 district by the fact that just before the crush in lS(i. r i-6 

 three adjoinii ■ ■ '■ ns con peted steadily tgain il eay fa 

 oil' r For labor 1 it one raised the rate of wages, the 



other two carv 1 ^ that rate and so the game of bro? 



