June i, 1885. j 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



879 



The expert, Mr. Stewart, is enthusiastic in his 

 praises of Borneo timbers , am! his enthusiasm lias 

 proved very catching in the great capital of Vict- 

 oria. And now we come to the main point, or " bed 

 rock " to usi! a digger's phrase, of this article, which 

 is, that the timber trade will prove the first big enter- 

 prize which will bring about botvijide results between Brit- 

 ish North Borneo and Australia to the benefit of both 

 Colonies. It is already known that the samples of the 

 same timber shipped by the steamer " Woosung " are 

 appreciated in Victoria, and if properly worked the Se- 

 rayah of this country should take the place of the Queens- 

 land cedar, a wood which is nearly unprocurable at the 

 present time. There is no hard wood in Australian colonies, 

 not even " Jarrah," which will compare in durability to 

 billian, while billian possesses two qualities which the 

 ** Jarrah " does not possess. It is ant proof, and proof 

 against the attacks of the water worm. Therefore as a 

 wood for sleepers and Australian railways, to be used in 

 the construction of Australian wharves or from which to 

 manufacture piles to be driven into the beds of Australian 

 waters, billian is unequalled. There is a gentleman at 

 present in Sandakan who has made it his business to make 

 every enquiry into the capabilities of hardwood timbers, 

 and who is empowered on behalf of powerful Victorian 

 syndicates to secure a concession to cut timber on land 

 in the colony. This gentleman has sent samples to Mel- 

 bourne of billian, camphor, krueng and compas, and has 

 also had cut and forwarded sleepers, made of billian, as 

 specimens of what this wood is. He is confident that the 

 timber once seen and tested in the colonies, the result will 

 be the inauguration of a traffic between the two countries 

 will develop into immense proportions. He is also en- 

 gaged in the developing a trade in all sorts of produce 

 and has sent samples of every item to Melbourne, but he 

 maintains that the starting of the timber trade is but the 

 thin end of the wedge towards establishing a trade, the 

 proportions of will eventually grow to an extent which it is 

 at present almost impossible to estimate. 



CEYLON UPCOUNTRV PLANTING REPORT. 



ANOTHER EVAPORATOR — THE WEATHER AND CROPS. 



20th April 1S85. 



We are soon to have another evaporator in the 

 field, built of galvanized iron. It is by an American 

 firm " The Zimmerman Manufacturing Company of 

 Cincinuati, who claim to have the exclusive right of 

 using galvanized iron for evaporators secured to them 

 by patent. This firm has been in correspondence 

 with Ceylon, relative to their machine, and are having 

 their drier modified to suit our requirements. A3 

 made at present, it has the great objection that it 

 does not raise sutficient heat. This difficulty is 

 however beiug overcome. It is something like the 

 old style Sirocco, and about the tame in cost, 

 but has four times the capacity, and cau be fitted 

 with an apparatus for shifting the trays by machinery 

 simultaneously and instantaneously. 



The Bhowery weather we are having is doing a 

 world of good. Young tea, which was planted last 

 year among the coffee, and since lately cleared, ia 

 growing in an aston'shiug manner, making up for 

 the hanging-back of the dry weather in royal 

 style. Oacao is full of blossom and looking well. 

 Coffee does not seem to have set its blossom so well 

 as it might have done : indeed I hear from some 

 parts that it is altogether a miss. There are signs 

 of the routh-west monsoon approaching, and, it it 

 be anything like a normal one, it will be a blessing 

 to many, so much young tea depends upon it. 



Pr.rPEltCORN . 



DON'T DIE IN THE HOUSE. 

 "Rough 011 Rats" clears out rats, mice, beetles, roaches, 

 bed-bugs, flies, ants, insects, moles, chipmunks, gophers. 

 W. E. SMITH k Co., Madras, Sole xYgeuts. 



THE WEST INDIES AND PANAMA : NO. 8. 

 TUOPIOAL AGRICULTURE IN JAMAICA; 

 THE PRODUCTS OF THE WEST INDIEiJ. 



M i.AU CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE — BANANAS— COFFEE 

 GROWN IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS— LIBERIAN COFFEE — 

 CACAO — TEA — GINGER — ALLSPICE — PINEAPPIES— ORANGES 

 — SARSAPARII.LA — ANNATTO SEEDS — LOGWOOD — FIBRES — 

 TIMBER — TAMARIND TREE — BREADFRUIT — MANGO — NO. 11 

 MANGO — STAR AND ROSE APPLES— GUAVA — AVOCADO LEAH 

 VEGETABLES — SKILLION — TREE — TOMATO — GOURDS — APPLE 

 TREES — FIGS— THE ENGLISH OAK TREE AT 4,000 FEET 

 ELEVATION. 



Iter Boreale Estate, Aunatto Bay, Jamaica, 

 5th November 1884. 



Sugar is still king in Jamaica, for, although sugar in 

 itself will hardly pay cost of cultivation and manufacture, 

 rum will always sell well in the country at Is 0'd per 

 gal., thereby saving freight and duty. Reduction of labour 

 and expenditure is the order of the day on the sugar 

 estates belting the sea coast round the island of Jamaica, 

 and even the rum-drinking portion of the community have 

 taken their departure to the Isthmus to assist in cutting 

 the Panama Canal. Unfortunately many sugar.estates have 

 been abandoned: we hear of seventeen in the district of Vere, 

 and many others abandoned years ago are turned into 

 banana plantations. The old ruins of the mills and " great 

 houses," barracks, &c, tell the sad tale of fallen greatness. 

 Jamaica like Ceylon must make " an effort " and cultiv- 

 ate new products in time to meet the bad times in pro- 

 spect ; otherwise tropical agriculture here will be brought 

 to a dead standstill. It is wicked to abandon a large pro- 

 perty, and turn hundreds of people dependent on it to 

 starve or break up their homes to seek /other employment. 

 It is the duty of absentee proprietors to continue the 

 working of their estates even if obliged to borrow money 

 in bad times of low prices of produce; otherwise it is " bury- 

 ing the talent in the ground." It is true a sugar estate re- 

 quires capital to work it, but, when the expensive machin- 

 ery is on the spot, and th« estate possesses stock in 

 abundance to draw the cane to the mills, only a few women 

 are required to feed the " crusher," and, with one engineer 

 and foreman of the boiling-house, a few men are required 

 to boil the sugar; and the same with the still-house, very 

 few men are required to attend to the distilling of rum, 

 though it is necessary that those so employed thoroughly 

 understand the modus operandi. On the estate from which 

 Iwrite, "Iter Boreale " uearAnnatto Bay, it is a pleasure 

 to see the works in full swing, men heading out canes, 

 "wain" men driving them into the "mill yard" stacked on end 

 in a cart called \ " wain " drawn by six stout steers, and four 

 ''wains" eraployiug twenty-four bead of cattle. The crusher 

 is a very heavy piece of machinery driven by a steam en- 

 gine. The cane is drawn in by the inward revolution of the 

 two great cylinders, the cane-liquor running through a 

 gutter into a cistern where it is pumped up into the boiling 

 pans. Rum-making is a work of art, and considerable ex- 

 perience is a necessary to learn the different stages offer- 

 mentation. A cooper is required to head up the hogsheads 

 of sugar and a carpenter or wheelwright to repair the 

 carts or " wains " continually getting out of order. Coolies 

 are useful carrying trash to the "trash-house," and bringing 

 fuel to the engine fires, iu which case "trash " is again useful. 



Banana Cultivation.— In Jamaica next to sugar, bananas 

 rauk second iu command ; in fact planters in the West 

 Indies think seriously of substituting the banana for the 

 sugarcane, unless prices of the latter go up sufficiently 

 to show a margin of profit. The fluctuations in the prices 

 of bananas hold the sugar planter in check : there is 

 danger of glutting the market with bananas. Cultivation 

 has been considerably extended of late years. Old sugar 

 estates are now paying banana plantations, alive with 

 traffic, cart and waggon loads of fruit driven down to 

 help load every steamer calling. The Creoles are fully 

 alive to the profit derived from banana cultivation in the 

 height of the season when over" eight-hand" bunchessell 

 for a dollar or four shillings! As mentioned in a previous 

 letter, No. 7 of this »e-ies, as many as forty thousand 

 bunches were shipped in four vessels from our Atlas 

 wharf at Port Antonio, and as many as one million 

 bunches sent to the American markets of New York,— 



