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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



|JUNE I, 1885, 



with rheea the most valuable, to the exclusion of many 

 of those now imported. The first m the field in new 

 industries usually proves the most successful, and in 

 Southern India the lead has been taken by the Gleurock 

 Company, which, although originally a mining company, 

 has now turned its attention from gold prospecting to a 

 more certain method of earning dividends for its share- 

 holders. On this Company's property a considerable 

 acreage of rheea has already been placed under cultiv- 

 ation, and latest advices from the district state that the 

 growth is simply astonishing everybody. Taking into con- 

 sideration that the forcing Wynaad climate is admirably 

 adapted to the growth of rheea, this report is not sur- 

 prising ; and, now that a machine worthy of the name 

 has been invented and passed the necessary tests satisfactorily, 

 there remains no reason why rheea culture should 

 not prove the success that has been anticipated 111 the 

 past I must here reiterate the caution urged m my 

 former paper, namely, that planting it at a low elevation 

 will, unless under peculiar circumstances, such as shade 

 and irrigation, be found a mistake. An elevation of from 

 3 000 ft. to 5,000 ft. above sea level will be the most 

 suitable Various estimates have from time to time been sub- 

 mitted bv experts interested in rheea culture, who, more 

 or less, have been considered competent to judge results 

 from experimental cultivation, and I find their estimates 

 have ranged from 8cwt. to lOcwt. per acre per annum 

 up to as high as 4 tons. It will be seen from this that 

 some have either been over sanguine or have miscalculated 

 in a most peculiar manner. My opinion always has been, 

 and I see no reason to alter it, that 17 cwt. per acre 

 per annum should be the outturn for the first year follow- 

 ing that in which it was planted— i.e., provided the land 

 has been thoroughly well cleared and the sod well losen- 

 ed before planting. Nothing is likely to retard the growth 

 and proper development of quick-growing, soft-wooden 

 plants, to which class the rheea plant belongs, than an 

 unbroken virgin soil; and if the plants are merely dibbled 

 out in small pits or holes, not more than S cwt. per acre 

 per annum can possibly be expected ; 111 all probability 

 even a lesser return would be the result. But under 

 fiberal cultivation, such as planting strong crowns in well- 

 trenched rows and a fair supply of manure, the outturn 

 per acre which I have mentioned should to at least 

 obtained, increasing annually as the plants, which are of a 

 perennial nature, mature. The value of manure in rheea 

 culture cannot be over estimated, its use being as necessary 

 as in the culture of the hemp or flax, it being fully 

 recognised by cultivators of these products that fibre- 

 yielding plants exhaust the soil in winch they arc cul- 

 tivated much sooner than any other class of crop. 



With regard to the districts I have brought under 

 notice since penning my former article I understand that 

 the Indian Government has sanctioned the extension of a 

 railway from the Mysore country to the market town ot 

 Goodaloor, which maybe regarded as being almost 

 centrally situated in the Wynaa,l district. This con- 

 venience, when carried out, together with the Mctapo leim 

 terminus on the Coimbatore side of the Nilgins should be 

 the source by which to obtain abundance of manurial 

 composts, including fish, bones, poonac, &c, at strictly 

 moderate prices. To capitalists and others m search of 

 new fields in which to place both their money and their 

 labour, the districts and industry I have referred to afford 

 ample scope for the development of their energy, and to 

 those possessing sporting proclivities a more favourable 

 part it would te difficult to select. Since the local game 

 laws came into force all kinds of game have been on 

 the increase, and I trust I am not «^ergi% too far 

 from the subject when I mention that the following are 

 of common occurrence, and on the higher ranges of the 

 Nilgiris may be obtained: Snipe, woodcock, spur fowl, 

 quail, jungle fowl, hares, Muutjac deer sambur, ibex 

 wildboar, fee, whilst in the Wynaad or along theforesta 

 on the Mysore road, can be found in addition spo ted deer, 

 bison, bear, leopard, locally termed « cheetah, and oc- 

 casionally tiger ; the smaller game including partridge, 

 peafowl, wild duck, fee. Land is purchasable as reason- 

 ably as it is possible to obtain good land anywhere, and 

 often a good tract, containing an area under cultivation, 

 with the usual estate buildings, can be secured at a very 

 reasonable cost. — W. G. Kemp. 



Squirrels amd Limb Tress. — On the morning of the 

 22nd inst. my brother and I watched a squirrel busily 

 employed in stripping the bark off some long shoots of 

 a lime tree close to our windows. He filled his mouth 

 with a large quantity (of course for his nest) and made 

 off. Seeing that the boughs were completely peeled in 

 places, we jumped to the conclusion that he was doing 

 immense damage. On closer inspection, however, of the 

 boughs with a ladder we found that all the boughs peeled 

 were already quite dead. I should like to kuow if any 

 of your readers have ever found living boughs peeled. In 

 the one case he would be doing no harm, but in the other 

 despite his beauty, he would have to be sentenced to death. 

 — Gilbert G. Planp. — Field. 



The Imports op Caoutchouc— Messrs. Hocht, Levis & 

 Kahn, in their caoutchouc report for 18S4, state that the 

 year was "one of, if not the most remarkable in the 

 annals of the indiarubber trade." The price of the leading 

 sort, fine Para, furnished by Hevea brasiliensis, gradually 

 declined, with few temporary reactions, from 4s. on January 

 5 to 2s. in July, thus showing a fall of 50 per cent in 

 a little over six months. The reason of the decliue is 

 said to be due to accumulated large stocks, at times pressing 

 on the market ; to a decrease of consumption in the United 

 States of America, one of the largest consumers of rubber; 

 and to the "inevitable reaction from the artificially high 

 and unwarranted rates at which a reckless and desperate 

 speculation had succeeded in keeping them for some years." 

 The total exports from Para to all ports are estimated 

 at 10,600 tons, against 10,1X0 tons in 1883. The exports 

 into London and Liverpool during the year were 4,610 tons 

 against 4,637 tons in 1883, showing a decrease of 27 tons. 

 Of the total exports from Pari! the United States have 

 taken about 5,900 tons direct from Para, besides which 

 they have also taken moderate quantities from Europe. 

 The imports into Liverpool of Ceara scrap rubber from 

 Manihot Glaziovii amounted to 80 tons— a slight increase 

 on the imports of the previous year. Of Central American 

 rubber (Castilloa elastica) the imports were 35 tons, and 

 of the African kinds, from species of Landolphia, the 

 imports were 1,650 tons. The imports into Loudon were 

 as follows:— Assam and Rangoon, 250 tons; Borneo, 390 

 tons- Penang and Java, 90 tons; Mozambique, SCO tons; 

 Madagascar, 135 tons; and of Central American, West 

 Indian, Columbian, Carthagena and Guayaquil, 235 tons 

 collectively.— Gardeners 7 Chronicle. 



As other Instances of how little Europeans iit the 

 East know beyond their daily routine, I may mention 

 that it is only quite recently that the ocellated argus 

 pheasant has been known to exist in Tonquin, yet Europeans 

 have resided there for over two hundred years. Not six 

 Europeans in Calcutta know that rhinoceroses ami tigers 

 are shot occasionally within fifteen to twenty miles of 

 the town leopards within five miles; in fact, anyone would 

 look upon it as a "fine joke" indeed if told that these 

 animals were to be found within one hundred miles even. 

 I could mention twenty trau.es or more in the East of 

 which European "residents" know absolutely nothing. 

 Take the musk trade between Bootan and Calcutta, ditto 

 Nepal ditto Cashmere; how many Europeans come in 

 contact with the Cabul merchants that march the scores 

 of big elephants from Siam through Burmah to India i 

 How many "residents" (with one exception) know of the 

 enormous trade that these poachers carry on in the north- 

 west of India? Notwithstanding the severe restrictions 

 that were placed upon snaring monals, hill argus, &c, 

 notwithstanding the actual prohibition of trapping or 

 destroying for five years, yet these birds arrive ill Stan 

 by thousands-aye, tens of thousands -as Mmemg-lane and 

 the Paris houses can testify. Where is the " resident who 

 can tell me from whence come the thousands of blue king- 

 fisher skins that leave Calcutta monthly for China? or 

 rive auv information of the quantities of baskets of rhinoceros 

 horns that are brought down from Upper Burmah and pass 

 through Rangoon to go to China? How many officials 

 know of the enormous quantities of live guinea fowls that 

 go to Singapore and China monthly from India ? I could 

 go on in this manner indefinitely; I am, however, at raid 

 to occupy too much of your valuable space. The average 

 number of dwarf elephants procurable being only, about 

 eisht or ten per annum, goes far to prove that they are 

 not by any means plentiful in the island.-CmNGAREE.-^«W. 



