September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



165 



•emark about the lower branches of the Liberian coffee, 

 trees being cut off is all mistake. The fact is, as a 

 rule, the Liberian coffee over here does not throw out 

 branches \vithiu one-aud a-half feet or two feet of 

 the ground, aud often does not branch till five or six feet 

 high, in which case it is best to pull such plants out 

 and plant others in their place, as they will never make 

 good trees. I have had the pleasm-e of going all over 

 the Chasseriau estate with the courteous manager, Mr. 

 Ohasseriau. aud I will now try and give you an idea of 

 the system which I saw being carried out. The land 

 now being opened up is old tapioca laud overgrown with 

 lalaug and other grass. It is more or less undulating, 

 and there are good, wide roads, on which you can drive, 

 at conveuient distances all '>vcr the estate. The first thing 

 done is to put on a gang of Javanese or Chinese coolies 

 to hoe all the lalang and other grass up and this is 

 then heaped up, mixed with earth iu mounds about four 

 feet high and eight feet wide every 40 feet. These 

 mounds are allowed to remain till the whole is thorough- 

 ly decomposed, and then, as by that time grass has 

 grown up all over land again, coolies are put on to 

 give it another hoeing. AVheu this is finished, the grass 

 dug up the second time is allowed to dry on the 

 ground for a day or so according to the weather, and 

 is then heaped up in small mounds mixed with earth 

 and liitrjicd. The large heaps are then broken up and 

 the burnt earth from the small heaps thoroughly mixed 

 up with them. Holes are then cut 9 feet apart 3 ft. 

 deep, 3 ft. wide at the top and Ih ft. wide at the bot- 

 tom. These are filled with the above compost, and, after 

 being allowed to settle down for a week or so, are 

 ready for the plants. The planting is carried out in 

 a most elaborate manner, as follows : — Every plant is, 

 brought from the rursery to the field in a transplanter 

 and before planting a hole is made in the compost-filled 

 holes, and on this being filled with a mixture of good, 

 bulky maaure, the plant is carefully put in. After this, 

 coolies shade each plant with ferns, and should there 

 be no rain at time of planting, as was the case at the 

 time of my visit, every plant is watered with a watering- 

 can. Mi I have here described I saw being carried out, 

 and at the time of my risit from four to five acres 

 were being planted daily. The field of Liberian coffee, 

 now about two years old, and which was planted same 

 as above, was covered with blossom and crop when I 

 saw it. and is really a fine field of coffee. In fact, all the 

 coffee I saw on the place is very good indeed, Mr. 

 I'hasseriau has every facihty for manuring, and says he 

 has no fear of the trees suffering when older, as he 

 can give them periodical applications of burnt earth and 

 other manures, which of course he can easily do, being 

 only about four miles from the town of Singapore, and 

 he can cart m.auure all over the estate. 



I also saw some fine fields of tapioca, from which 

 Mr. Chasseriau hopes to get a good profit, iu spite of 

 the present low prices for this product. After this crop 

 he does not intend to plant any more tapioca, but only 

 coffee, and probably tea, of which there is a small field 

 which promises well. There are large, commodious 

 buildings on the estate which can be made suitable for 

 coffee curing at very little expense. Oeyion planters, I 

 d.aresay, may jump to the conclusion that the cost of 

 work such as I have de^'.jgjHp^i is very high, and I 

 confess I thought the sameaSTirst, but I am now assured 

 the cost is very little, if any more than the system 

 carried out in Ceylon. Of course, the estate in cpiestion 

 is exceptionally favoured in many ways, n >t the least of 

 which is having a scientific agriculturist like Mr. Chasseriau 

 to carry out tha work. It is indeed a great pleasure to 

 go over the estates with him, as he is always ready to 

 give you information about the plantation, and sliows in 

 everything how thoroughly his heart is in the work. 



To revert to the subject of arecanut cultivation: I 

 may mention that I have been making enquiries amongst 

 the natives here, and I fiml that, as a rule,, arecanuts 

 are planteil about .WD to the acre iu good soil, and in 

 the fourth year from planting j-ou will get upwards of 

 -■JOO nuts per tree. If I am not mistaken, arecanuts 

 don't bear in Caylon before the Gth year from planting, 

 and then I notice a corresponlent of yours gives the 

 average yield aa 200 nuts per tree ; but he also advocfttes 



plantuig 1,500 trees to the acre. No one here would 

 attempt such a thing, and all the natives I have meu- 

 tmned this to, expressed tlu-ir wonder that the trees 

 bear at all, aud say such a plantation can never last 

 — Local '■ Times." 



RHEA FIBilE. 



The Manchester mauufaeturer.s are now giving increased 

 attention to the use of this fibre, and as it is our 

 provmce to give all the reliable information obtainible 

 upon every subject likely to benefit tropical planters 

 we place below some extracts from a paper recently 

 published by 8ir Joseph 0. Lee, the well-known Jlaii- 

 chestcr millowner. .Speaking of the difficulty of cheanlv 

 extracting Rhea fibre, he says :— 



_ The problem that many inventors have tried to solve 

 IS to make a machine or discover a process by which the 

 work can be done effectually .and cheaply, so that the 

 fibre can be sold iu London at £40 to £50 per ton in 

 the nngummed state. Various mechanical apphances and 

 methods have been invented, but only two of them 

 seem to fulfil the conditions necessary for successfullv 

 treating the fibres. The first of these is a machine in 

 vented by Mr. H. Smith and improved by Messrs. Death 

 and Lllwood, of Leicester. It is claimed by the inven- 

 tor th.at this machine will clean any vegetable fibre, and 

 particularly Rhea or China grass. To this machine was 

 awarded the prize of 2,000 rupees in accordance with 

 the recommendation of the '•Committee appointed by 

 the Government of Bengal to conduct a trial of machines 

 and processes for the extraction of Indian fibres '• 

 on the 24th November last ye.ir. The report states that 

 the cost of a single machine is £55, th.at of a double one 

 complete, £100. A semi-portable engine to work two' 

 machines will cost £«2 10s. The quantity of water re- 

 quired appears to be about 400 gallons per hour tor one 

 machine, but the water can be used twice over The 

 I work turned out in ten hours by one machine is 2 200 lb 

 of green stalks. This quantity might be expected to 

 give 3 per cent, an out-turn of CG lb. of good clean 

 fibre The %'alue of this out-turn at £50 per ton would 

 be about 30s. 



The machine is the property of the General Fibre Com- 

 pany, Feiichurch-street, London, aud is doubtless a valu- 

 able patent, and will be useful in cleaning some kinds 

 of fibrous plants. No Rhea fibre has yet been imported 

 that has been treated by this machine ; we can only 

 judge of the practical value from the evidence contained 

 in the official report. In this it is stated that 3 per 

 cent of fibre can be obtained under favourable circum- 

 stances from every 100 lb. of green stems. This percent- 

 age will contain at least 15 per cent. of resinous 

 matter, which, must be discharged before the fibre is 

 ready for the spinner. This will give 2-55 per cent of 

 pure filasse— a small percentage, which cannot be profit- 

 .'ible if the hbre is to be sold at £50 per ton. Another 

 ilrawback to the value of the machine is the quantity of 

 water required to clean the fibre. In a cliiu.ate "like 

 India it IS not always possible to obtain water in sutfici- 

 ent ijuantity. Therefore, if only 30s. worth of fibre can 

 be ohtaiue.l per day from one of these machines (as 

 stated 111 the report; it can hardly be said to be a commerci- 

 al success so far as the treatment of Rhea is concerned 

 The second plan of treating the Ramia or Rhea is one 

 patented by M. A. Favicr, and is a simple method of 

 of decorticating the stems of the plant on ficMs where 

 they are grown. It is as follows:— 



1 visited the works at Louviers belonging to the So- 

 cieti5 de CrOdit , accompanied by a director of the Com- 

 pany, Mr. Vian, Professor Urbaiii, Mr. Paterson, and 

 Mr. Casper, of the firm of Messrs. G. Vi\ H, Krogden 

 & Co., the English owners of the patent, and by .Mr 

 1'. Niirsey, the editor of the fron, ami others. W'c were 

 siiowu samples of Haiuia grown in France, Algiers, Egypt 

 India; all decorticated, some of them by the Favier 

 process, others by methods unknown. Seven different 

 growths of Ramia were selected and placed in a large 

 boili:r or high pressure kier. rrobal.l* half a ton of rib- 

 bons were thus under treatment, and when they had been 

 thoroughly saturated by a solution of which one of the 



