8io 



THB TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Mav i, 1885. 



Increase in Consumption per Head. 



It will be observed that as a consequence of the 

 addition of 3d per lb. to the duty, the annual con- 

 sumption is at once expected to be affected to the 

 extent of nearly 8 million lb. Thus for 1SS4, the 

 total consumption of the United Kingdom ia put at 

 over 175 million lb., while if the duty were raised 

 to 9d per lb. in 1885-8G, it is calculated that only 

 107,760,000 would pass into home consumption. This 

 is not eucournging to tea planters, more especially 

 as trouble with Russia cannot fail to interfere with 

 the tea trade with that country and with the Con- 

 tinent of Europe generally, comparatively unimportant 

 as it may be. The only consolation for Ceylon and 

 Indian planters is that apart from the China export 

 trade being crippled, the commoner kinds of tea will 

 be the iiist to suffer, and tho advantages of this 

 colony for tho production of high-class teas at a 

 moderate cost will become more than ever apparent. 



PLANTING PROSPECTS IN THE WEST INDIES: 

 Me. D. Morris and Mr. George Huthies. 

 We are glad to find that a more buoyant feeling is 

 beginning to prevail thr oughout the West Indies regard- 

 ing the sugar industry, gand that many of our colonial 

 contemporaries are takin a more sensible, and withal a 

 more hopeful, view of the question. " Don't give up 

 cane culture." This is excellent advice for the Gleaner 

 to give the Jamaica planters, and we trust that every 

 effort will be made by all who are interested in the in- 

 dustry to prevent the estates from goin g out of cultiv- 

 atiun. It is well-known that owing to the long-con- 

 tinued depression of the sugar markets of the world many 

 of the plantions, not only in the West Indies but else- 

 where, arc heavily involved. In face of the more favourable 

 reports, however, continually coming to hand — reports of 

 the growing dislike of the bounty system by the contin- 

 ental people, of failures and difficulties amongst those 

 engaged in the beet industry, and of the likelihood this 

 season of a smaller crop ot beet— there ought to be little 

 difficulty experienced in procuring the necessary advances 

 to proceed. There is an abundance of money here now 

 in the banks returning not more than 1 per cent. Surely 

 there are amongst those who are lamenting the present 

 state of things in England many who would be very glad 

 to hold mortgages on sugar estates at a fair and reason- 

 able rate of interest. 



Mr. Robert Galloway, in a letter to the Morning Post, 

 contends that, " for the success of cane sugar manufacture 

 111 the future, the plauter must cease to be also the manu- 

 facturer ; there must be one or more central factories in 

 each of our sugar colonics, to which all canes from the 

 different estates would be sent. Then, not only could all 

 suitable machinery required be obtained, but the best 

 skill and intelligence necessary for the proper purification 

 Of the juice and other manufacturing operations." Wo 

 ar e aware that Mr. Galloway is a bit of an enthusiast 

 on this question of '' purifying the juice," _ but 

 we have before us a pamphlet on the " Relative Positions 

 of Beet and Cane Sugar," by Mr. William Russell, of Elgin, 

 and it is interesting to note that he also contends that 

 " those of the planters who are in a position to avail 

 themselves of the v.iy best appliances in manufacture 

 might, under improved conditions of labour, look forward 

 to Times when they would hold their own against their 

 formidable rival." liven in the present disorganized con- 



dition of the trade cane sugar has been fetchiug 11. pe 

 ton more f. o. b. at Demerara than beet sugar f . 0. b. a* 

 Hamburg, and as it has been proved that a larger weight of 

 cane can be grown on a given area of land, and at a cheaper 

 rate, than beet roots, and that the sugar contained in 

 the sugar cano is of greater purity than is found in the 

 beet, it is felt that the future of the sugar trade is in the 

 hands of the planters, and that they will triumph over every 

 difficulty if they will but give a little more attention to 

 the industry than they have done for some time past. 



Next to improved machinery and a more rational and 

 scientific treatment of the soil, nothing can be more con- 

 ductive to the success of "West Indian sugar estates, as 

 Mr. D. Morris pointed out in his lecture on " Plant- 

 ing Enterprise in the West Indies," delivered before the 

 Royal Colonial Institute two years ago, than the intro- 

 duction of new varieties of canes to replace or supplement 

 those which have been so long and so persistently cultiv- 

 ated within tho same areas. With the sugar cane as with 

 all other plants, the continuous cultivation of the same 

 kinds on the same lands, it is held must result in reduc- 

 ing their health and vigour, and consequently the quantity 

 and value of the produce. Where estates have no nurs- 

 eries, and tops for planting are taken from weak and 

 partically abandoned canes, the general character of the 

 cultivation, the Director of the Jamaica Public Gardens 

 maintains, must be gradually lowered, even on the best 

 soils, and as he rightly said, no plan can be recommended 

 so likely to overcome this as the introduction from time 

 to time of new kinds of sugar canes, which are tho re- 

 sult of careful selection and cultivation in more favoured 

 countries. 



The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, just issued, 

 contains some remarks on West Indian phosphates, by 

 Mr. George Hughes, which were communicated at a recent 

 meeting of the society by Mr. W. T. Blauford. From 

 specimens of phosphates which have been brought under 

 his notice, Mr. Hughes has found that under certain con- 

 ditions it is possible for coral stone to be converted into 

 phosphate of lime. Mr. Hughes' attention was first 

 directed to this fact in the island of Barbuda, where he 

 found a small vein, rich in phosphate of lime, starting 

 from the bottom of a cave in the face of a coral cliff ; 

 but it is to the deposit found in the island of Aruba that 

 he draws special attention, because, there the process of 

 phosphatizing the coral has been in operation on a most 

 extensive scale. The deposit is estimated to contain not 

 less than 500,000 tons. It occurs at the extreme point or 

 cape of a peninsula of coral ; the headland is called Sierra 

 Colorado (or red hill), and rises about 300 feet above the 

 level of the 6ea and about 200 feet above the 

 level of the coral that connects it with the island of 

 Aruba. His opinion is, that when this hill existed as a 

 small island, or "cay," and the coral reef between it and 

 the then main island of Aruba was submerged, it was the 

 resort of sea-fowl, and their excrement, like the bat-guano, 

 containing soluble phosphates, caused the change in the 

 rock upon which it was deposited. There is no trace left 

 of the phosphatic guano upon the surface ; but the solid 

 rock is now rich phosphate. This phosphatized coral 

 yielded from 78 to 80 per cent of phosphate of lime, 

 and, so far as the deposit has been shipped as yet, the 

 cargoes have tested over 76 per cent of phosphate. Other 

 deposits of phosphate found in the West Indies (Mr. 

 Hughes believes) owe their origin to direct marine de- 

 posit of bone, as, for instance, that of Curacao. In the 

 next island to Curasao (Bonaire) he has seen the coral 

 over an area of two miles to contain fossil bones and 

 teeth scattered in all directions. The specimens exhibited 

 at the meeting showed how these bones occur ; and, had 

 they been deposited in one spot, as in Curasao, Mr. 

 H.ighes says "we should have been able to have worked 

 a good deposit." Mr. Hughes, who is now in London, 

 returns to the West Indies by the mail of April 17th. — 

 Colonies and India, Feb. 20th. 



I LIES AND BUGS. 

 Beetles, insects, roachc , mils, bed-bugs, rats, mice, gophers 

 chipmunks, cleared out by " Rough on Hats, 



W. E Smith & Co , Madras, Sole Agents 



