JULV I, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



and convenient for obtaining provisions fresh from market. 

 Sugar growing has received a severe check from the fall in 

 prices, and Iter iJorcaleost-ite is to be abandoned as the cane 

 is removed and bananas planted iustead. It is a great pity, as 

 the sugar-house, machinery and distillery, boiling appliances, 

 kc, are all in good working order. It is an animating sight to 

 SCO the sturdy Jamaica cattle dragging the wains of sugar- 

 cane into the yard where it is conveyed to the crusher and 

 converted into barrels of sugar. All this bustle and life will be 

 soon still, the doors of the mills closed, the people marchiug 

 off *o thu Isthmus of Tanama and everything brought to a 

 dead standstill. The main cause of all this trouble is similar 

 to tlie crisis in coffee and cinchona and perhaps tea in its 

 turn, " over-production," the bounty on beetroot and the 

 increased quantity last year by 200,000 tons. 



Stock-farming and pen-keeping in Jamaica is a fairly 

 good living, especially if a large pen-keeper gets a military 

 contract to supply the troops with beef, perhaps half-a-dozen 

 beasts killed weekly. In the country parts of Jamaica the 

 breeil of horses is improved, and a great number of mules 

 are raised. 



With a good rainfall of about 120 inches this part of 

 Jamaica is well-watered and grazing grounds or pasture 

 lands very rich. There are no leeches to bother sheep and 

 cattle, and no snakes to speak of, — the writer has not seen a 

 Jamaica snake yet. Mongoose are as common as rats and 

 may be seen crossing one's path at all hours of the day and 

 pl.iy old gooseberry in fowl-houses, amongst the chickens 

 at night-time. 



The Chinese having given a lot of trouble to the 

 Government and the planters, and their striking work 

 on Iter Boreale for six weeks made me lose money, being 

 paid only for the days they turned out to work at 6s per day. 

 My mess money was paid by the estate during the strike, 

 in consideration of having the trouble of serving out their 

 daily rations. We could not stop their food supplies because 

 the Government paper were not signed, and each Chinaman 

 cost £17 a head passage money from Hongkong. They ask 

 a dollar a day, and my gang are afraid to work because 

 the Chinese on the other estates have struck work and 

 threaten to beat those inclined to go to work. 



H. ColTAM. 



SANDAKAN, NORTH BORNEO : EXTRACTS FR«M 

 KESIDKNT PRYEE'S REPORT ON THE 

 YEAR 1884. 

 (From the Jirilisk Xorth Borneo Herald, May 1st. ) 



" Gutta percha and Indian rubber show an increase of 

 SI3,00U over last year, the Dyaks are the principal col- 

 lectors of these products, they report that up the Kina 

 Bataugan and Labuk rivers there is very little more left 

 now, and they have mostly left those rivers and gone up 

 the Segama for which river durng the quarter this office 

 granted passes to 87 people. Rattans on the Kina Batan- 

 gan also have been mostly cleared otl for the present, 

 those at all events near the river's banks ; there are how- 

 ever plenty, but a few hundred yards in, our principal 

 supplies now are coming from the Sugut and Labuk. 

 Becs-wai: and camphor show an increase ; these products 

 are more particularly collected by our own villagers and 

 not by aliens, as most of our other forest produce to a 

 great extent ia, and the increase in their value is therefore 

 a very good sign. Sea produce shows a considerable in- 

 crease in the quantity of seed pearls exported, but these 

 are chiefly understood to be some that have been for a 

 considerable length of time in the country, though some 

 have been collected principally at the mouth of the Mo- 

 roap, a few have come from Labuk Bay also, but scarcely 

 any from Sandakau Bay ; both these latter localities seem 

 never to have properly recovered from the destruction of 

 seed p(!arl oysters caused by very heavy rain in 1878. 



" Tnnler this year first figures to any extent, the value 

 put down is just the bare amount spent on its collection 

 and gives but a small idea of its true value in an ordui- 

 ary market, there is every appearance of timber figuring 

 more and more largely in our export sheet in tho future 

 as It gets better known in the Australian, China and 

 Singapore markets." 



We may add now that it may almost be looked upon as 

 ft certainty that there will hn a great expansion of the 



timber trade diuing the present year. Mr. do Lissa's first 

 shipment of serayah and other woods to Melbourne per 

 S. S. " Woosung " proved a decided success and it ia re- 

 ported that the North Borneo Trading Company have 

 taken over his Sigaliud estate for a sura of over £0 000 

 principally for the sake of the valuable timbers it 'con- 

 tains. Captain Beeston, as agent for the North Borneo 

 Trading Syndicate of Melbourne, has provisionally accepted 

 terms offered by the Oovernmeut for tho right of cutting 

 timber over about 11,000 acres of land. A summary of 

 these terms will be found in our present issue. 



Kepokt on the Gebman Borneo OojipAm-'s 

 Estate, Banguey Island. 



2he Estate. — About 12 acres of land have been cleared 

 and while I was there the sound of falling trees was 

 going on all day long. The jungle is very heavy, I have 

 never seen finer timber anywhere. The coolies' sheds are 

 allupandSIr. Lindt has bought a Dusuu house, and finished 

 it for himself.. 



Soil.— I can only say the same as Mr. Parry (formerly 

 a Ceylon coffee planter) namely that I never saw such 

 soil before. In the wells for 6 feet from the surface there 

 is a rich chocolate soil, below this about 5 feet of clay 

 mixed with sand, and under this if near a water course 

 gravel, if not old mangrove swamp, which plainly shews 

 that the 11 to 12 feet above is all alluvial deposit and 

 proves Bnuguty to be far older than any of the mainland 

 near, excejit Silimpuden and Marasinsiug in Marudu Bay 

 I asked Mr. Lindt how long it was necessary to leave 

 land that had been planted with Tobacco before it would 

 grow it again, he replied—" That depends, if the land is 

 very good I could return to it in five years." "This land" 

 pointing to what he is now clearing " I can return to in 

 five years." 



General. — Mr. Lindt appears to be getting on well he 

 has certainly got through much work, and he has had a 

 good deal to contend with, owing to this having found it 

 desirable to move from Pangkalan. Having also lost his 

 " tongkong." he has had to carry all his goods and material 

 overland. Mr. Lindt means to plant filty fields this year, 

 and he talks quite confidently af the uumberof fields he' 

 he is going to clear at the end of this year for next 

 year's cror. Blr. Parry thinks he will be able to get from 

 5,000 to 7,000 acres in one block near Limabak and the 

 S. E. corner of the block will be from a mile and a half to 

 two miles from the settlement at Timbang Diaii. The 

 remaining 3,000 to 5,000 acres taken up by the Company 

 will be taken near the head of the Spuruk river which 

 runs into the harbour. Some of the Chinese coolies com- 

 plained of the clearness of the goods at the estate shop, 

 therefore the sooner the road to Timbang Dian is made 

 the better, as then the coolies will be able to come and 

 buy there. To make a cart road to where Mr. Lindt is 

 now planting would cost about §1,500, but to make a 

 road to the corner of the block only would cost about S (iOO. 

 To make a jungle road all the way would cowt about jSWOJ 

 to tho corner of the block only about ^120. I may also 

 mention that the head maudor and the Chinese coolies 

 (old tobacco planters from Deli) are quite satisfied with 

 the soil and as they are all working on contract and de- 

 pend on the goodness of the crop for their wages, X think 

 this a very good sign for Banguey. 



As I expected the centre of the island appears Hat. 

 Mr. Parry who 1 may mention is surveying the German 

 Borneo Company's Land, said he thought he could get 

 one block of iiO,000 acres in the middle of the island, 

 20,000 acres of which would he flat and the other 10,000 

 flat onoug for Tobacco. This block would bo entered from 

 the Spuruk river which runs| into tho Harbour. Prub- 

 ably Banguey contains about 40,000 acres of land suit- 

 able for tobacco but we shall be in a better jiosititm to 

 say how much there really is when Mr. Parry h:is finished 

 his survey. From tho top of the "I'eak'"' Mr. Parry 

 pointed to a valley below us and said. "If it was not for 

 leaf disease I should say, there is my idea of it site for 

 a coffee plantation." 



NORTH Bf)RNKO. 

 FoHEioN Impobts. — Into British North Borneo dming 

 the year, 188 1:— Total value, 18485,895. Exports" from 



