126 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[AUGUgT I, 1885. 



nifrht, and will then be put on to building drying sheds- 

 some twenty in number. Mr. Gibson is sending by today's 

 steamer for forty more Chinese coolies as a provision 

 against sickness and death, so as to ensure the entire plant- 

 ing of the 2»0 fields. Everything therefore seems in order 

 for the coining tobacco season. The abandoned fields of 

 last year Mr. Gibson has promised to plant at an early date 

 with coffee and cocoa trees, and he is at preseut sending 

 to Singapore for sufficient seed to form a nursery with 

 which to plant out the 250 fields of this year when the 

 tobacco is gathered. This he considers he can accompli.sh 

 with his present men. The Company will then, by this 

 arrangement, have a very valuable plantation of coffee 

 and cocoa— some 300 acres, if matters are carried out as 

 arranged. The small patch of sugar-cane planted by the 

 Company as a test of the power of the land for sugar 

 cultivation, and which was done at considerable cost, was, 

 I regret, but money wasted. We are as ignorant of the 

 capabilities of the soil for this cultivation as before. The 

 cane was uncared for, and I can get no report whatever 

 as to quality and yield per acre. It is now all finished. 



The Domondonq, as you are aware, has been abandoned. 



In Sandakan 'we have the office. There is also the 

 private residence for the agent. This is a nice house, and 

 can probably be let for J30 a 535 per month. 



Failure of 1884 Tobacco Crop.— The estimate of the 

 year's crop, as you will have already heard, is reduced to 

 65 piculs. The reason for this, as alleged by Mr. Gibson, 

 is that he had hoped for a continuation of fine weather 

 for a fortnight more, but the season suddenly broke up, 

 and the growing crops, then very late, came to nothing. 



Liberian Coffac. — I am of opinion that this will be one 

 of the most paying articles of production during the next 

 five or six years. I went to see this plaut gi owing on 

 Ohasarios Estate, Singapore. Trees 26 months planted 

 only were loaded with berries. The estate has been just 

 converted into a Company at a capital of 5250.000 on 

 the strength of the great promise of L. Coffee. The 

 estimate per acre of return is thus made : — 

 5 catties coffee per tree, which seemed reasonable by 



appearance, say 1 ton per acre (over 400 trees per 



acre), or pel. 10 @ $10 per acre per annum ... 5160 

 One man, including all work, can care for 2 acres, say 



expense per acre ... •■■ ■•■ ™ 



leaves SlOO 

 per acre. 

 Liberiau Coffee seems quite equal in taste to Coffee 

 Arabica. You will then see that if we can plant this 

 year 300 acres of Coffee on the Suanlamber, m 2| years 

 time we shall stand fair to get an income of 530.000 

 per annum The matter thus becomes one of consider- 

 able importance. Tobacco being only a superficiiil plant 

 will not interfere with Coffee. Mr. Gibson thinks as well 

 of cocoa, \m\ the plant is a very deUcate one, and not 

 60 reliable to mv mind as Coffee. I arranged at Singapore 

 as to sending seed at once to Sandakan of the best kind 

 to put into the nurseries immediately. The seeds take 

 C (I 8 months to produce plants large enough tor 

 transplanting.- i\^ C. Herald. 



_ ^ 



SWEET MANIOC, 

 The, attention of botli Europeans and Fijians should 

 be drawn to this uew specits of what is more popularly 

 known iu Fiji as the tapioca plant. The bitter or 

 poisonous variety of manioc f .If an! hot ntdi.sniuij and 

 which may bo distinguished by its purple steins and 

 leaves has been long ago introduced Uito '■'.lij.i'is 

 known by the natives as i/abia kai', and is cultivated 

 nnd used by Ihein in the nianufactiue of two or more 

 kinds of their madrii, or native bread. The new species, 

 the sweet or uoa-poisouous cassava (imnihot uipi) and 

 which ii).-iy be at once iccogiiised l>y its green stems 

 uiid leaves, is a native of tropical South Aimrica, and 

 has only been introduccl into Fiji witlii,, the h.st ten year 

 (prcsumrdily having been fiist imported by Mr. Elphinstone). 

 This most valuakla plant has now become well known 

 'in Savusavu I'.ay, where attention was first drawn to it 

 by the late Jfr. Towsoii, thence it has .spread to other 

 parts of Vaiiua Levu, and it has been carried by the 

 rijiauB, who have defiigoated it the ydnu ialii, to tlje 



Ra Coast, whence it is slowly spreading and has already 

 reached Ba, and doubtless it will gradually take its place 

 among the most valuable food plants that has yet been 

 introduced into the colony. Like the species already 

 well known in Fiji, the new species, oc sweet cassava, 

 is propagated from sets or cuttings of the woody 

 portions of its stems, the vitality of which is so great 

 that the cuttings can be carried long distances at sea, 

 or may be left neglected on the ground tor weeks, and 

 when planted scarce one will miss or be found to have 

 lost its vitality, and consequently after the first cost 

 of introduction the sets may be taken to cost nothing 

 but the labor involved in procuring them. Planting 

 can take place from December to May inclusive. The plant 

 will grow in any dry soil, and assuredly it will grow 

 and give a return iu soil so poor that in it nothing 

 else will grow, but the largest returns are obtained when 

 it is planted in loo.se dry sandy loam It should be planted 

 iu rows 6x0 feet, and in richer soil 7x0 feet, and in very 

 rich and suitable soil the plant will reiiuire 8x6 feet. 

 The labor required for its cultivation is comparatively 

 small and of the simplest kind, clearing and weeding 

 the soil followed by a burn off, lining the rows as for • 

 cotton, and planting with a doko, or Fijian digging 

 stick, and precisely as a Fijian plants his sugar cane ; 

 using three sets or cuttings of 18 inches in length, 

 inserting them each one foot in the soil at an angle 

 of about 46° and in the form of a triangle, the sides 

 of which are each one foot in length, this forms a 

 hill, and when planted 6x6 feet, 1,225 of such hills 

 will be found in one acre; and as a yield 10 lb. per 

 hill may be calculated upon for a certainty, in even 

 poor soil, after nine months, it will readily be perceived 

 that five tons of tubers may be obtained from an acre 

 of interior soil, whilst from" better and richer soils ten 

 tons and eveu heavier crops my be obtained. 



The tubers are edible from the 9th to the 12th 

 month after planting, they confine to increase in .size 

 until the 18th mouth, but after the 12th month the 

 tubers gradually become fibrous and fit only for the 

 manufacture of its farina, from which is made the 

 tapioca of commerce. Not only is the sweet cassava 

 thus planted at no other cost but the labour, but its 

 subsequent cultivation demands less labor than any other 

 of the food crops, for, if the ground be kept weeded 

 during the first three or four months, the shade of 

 the plants will thereafter prevent any after growth of 

 weeds. "Whilst the cultivation of the yam is so pre- 

 carious that few Europeans succeed in cultivating this 

 crop to profit, and eveu amongst the natives two good 

 yam seasons rarely follow consecutively, no such difficuity 

 attends the cultivation of the sweet cassava, and its 

 yield can be calculated upon with unfailing certainty; 

 nor is the sweet cassava liable to that total destiuction 

 which occasionally a yam crop sustains from a huiricane. 

 Hence for the districts of Ka and Ba; and the Tasawa, 

 Nadro^a, and Lau the introduction of the ^v"'''" i'"'" 

 will be an inestimable boon to the people. 



The sugar companies and planters, employers of labour, 

 will find the sweet cassava plant to furni.sh the solution 

 of the food difficulty, more especially those companies 

 situated in the dry climates of the group, such as 

 Elingtou, Peuang, and Karawai estates, and the different 

 island properties of the Mango Ishnid Coinpan.v, To 

 their managers the sweet cnssava plant will provide ft 

 large supply of wholesottie find noiirisbing food. And al- 

 though this food is not to he found on the ration li'ts of 

 the Ordinances, it l.s yet hurdly to be entertained that 

 an article which is known to be the staple fond in 

 Brazil and many other countries will be condemned in Fiji. 

 At nine niimths and until twelve mouths old the 

 tuber.s of the sweet cas-ava very much resemble the 

 yam, and perhaps more closely the tikan or wild yam, 

 ami like them can be either boiled, roasteil or baked. 

 l\I(U-cover, the sweet cassava is the only ftiod th,it a 

 Fijian admits to be upon a par with a yani. and lie 

 testifies his predeliction by frequent pecilations frnm 

 his European neighbor's cassava field. When once the 

 attention of the Europeans is fully drawn to the sweet 

 cassava, its gioat value will then Vie soon conceded, and 

 as they instruct their Folyncsini laborers iu the nmiiy 

 motUods of preparing the root for food, so the Fijiuu, 



