'i^6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885. 



a calamity. But, in all probability, this could not 

 be effected without an outlay of toil and funds which 

 would Buflice to secm-e the rivers, in their present 

 form, against serious accident. We do not profess 

 to speak with any confidence upon this point. It is 

 one that demands special knowledge acquired in loco. 

 We only say that whether rice cultivation be abandoned 

 or persevered with, the rivers cannot be left to take 

 care of themselves, in their elevated channels, and 

 that unless the trouble of cariug for them can be 

 obviated, the advautnge of the proposed _ exchange 

 of industries ceases to have any direct bearing on the 

 problem of muudatious. But with regard to the 

 general question of sericulture against rice-growing, 

 the recommendation of the Jiji Shiiiijw deserves 

 support. Kice farming has long been recognised as 

 one of the most trying forms of labour. Nothing 

 could be more injurious to the health than a business 

 which keeps people, from morniog to evening, wading 

 in deep mud with a fierce sun beating down upon 

 their heads and pestilential exhalations rising up all 

 round then). It is a cruel sight to see women and 

 young girls condemned to such toil, and one feels 

 that the intelligence of the rice-farmer must necessarily 

 remain undeveloped or his lot would become intolerable. 

 Sericulture, on the other haad, makes no large 

 demiind on the physique, and is essentially an 

 occupation consistent with reiinement and civilization. 

 It is at least as well suited to the soil and climate 

 of Japan as rice-growing, and very much better 

 suited to the nimble fingers and artistic instincts of 

 the people. It possesses also another advantage, not 

 to be Ughtly regarded in this country ; namely that 

 it provides for women an employment not only adapted 

 to their capacities but calculated to improve their 

 social status. In no parts of Japan are wives and 

 daughters so happy or so well considered as in the 

 silk districts ; whereas the wives and daughters of 

 the rice-farmers are condemned to toil that degrades 

 their mind and disfigures their bodies. There is no 

 apparent reason why rice-land which requires elevated 

 rivers for its irrigation should not be converted into 

 mulberry plantations, to the great moral benefit and 

 largely increased profit of the people. That such a 

 change would result in over-production, we do not 

 for a moment believe. It may be a long while 

 before the people of Europe and America use silk 

 as largely as the people of Japan, but the demand is 

 likely to increase steadily,! and will certainly not be 

 outstripped by the productive powers of these islands. 

 The time ought to come, too, when the Japanese 

 will export their silk not raw but manufactured. 

 Labour is cheap, and the intelligence of the working 

 classes is considerably above the average. It is a pity 

 that the abilities of that remarkable outcome of 

 Japanese civilizatiou, the artist-artisan should be 

 confined to the production of objects of vcrtu and 

 that the exquisite fancies which make the weaver 

 and dyers of Kyoto so famous in their own country, 

 should not be employed in the wider field of manufact- 

 uring silk goods for the world. 



NETHEBLANDS INDU : COFFEE, CINCHONA, 

 BREWING. 

 (Traii)lated for the " Straits Times:') 



Batavia, 8tb Aug.— The present year's Govern- 

 went coffee crop in Java was officially estimated 

 at 614,890 picula on the 30th June, the estimate 

 being 31,H40 piculs lower than on the 3lBt May, 

 and about half the average yearly yield. The estate 

 coffee exported from Java during the first and 

 second quarters of this year show a falhng-off 

 amounting to 39 per cent when compared with 

 the figures for the corresponduig period last year. 

 More sugar has been exported in the same period 

 owing to large stocks of it having been held hack 

 at the the close of last year. 



The German New Guinea company mtended, on 

 the 6th July, to despatch fi-om Berlin an exped- 

 ition charged with making the needful arrange- 

 ments for establishing stations there. It will pro- 



ceed via Marseilles and caU at Batavia to engage 

 labourers there. 



The Government cinchona crop in Java for the 

 present year is estimated at 400,000 pounds. The 

 system of shaving the bark from Ledgeriana trees 

 has proved so unsatisfactory from trees thus dealt 

 with becoming so diseased that many of them had 

 to be uprooted, the result being that experiments 

 in that line wiU only be conducted on a small 

 scale. 



Batavia, 11th August. — From what we hear 

 private plantation enterprise is going forward with 

 rapids strides in Assahan. No less than four to- 

 bacco estates have been started there of late. 



A novel branch of industry is about to be taken 

 in hand at Batavia. Often has the question been 

 put why it is that we have to import beer here 

 at heavy expense from Europe while is quite poss- 

 ible to brew the article on the spot. The 

 possibility of doing so has become greater still by 

 quicker communication with grain producing coun- 

 tries. Moreover British India and AustraUa, lying 

 as they do at shorter distances from the colony, 

 may at present furnish the gi-ain required for beer 

 brewing. Hence it does not surprise us to hear 

 that Mr. Dermont Van Schereningen intends, along 

 with his brother, to start here a brewery the 

 machinery and other appliances for which along 

 with the working staff to manage them are to 

 leave Holland for Batavia this month. When shall 

 we drink the first glass of Batavia brew ? — Batavia 

 Dagblad, 12th August. 



New Guinea Pkoduot.s. — A few days since a 

 notice appeared in the Gazette giving the boundaries 

 of the British and German possessions in New- 

 Guinea, and portion of the public were reminded 

 that such a place was marked on their maps. A 

 correspondent who has spent some time in that 

 tropical land gives us some interesting particulars 

 as to its resources. Sugarcane and coffee produce 

 good crops, ginger grows wild, pepper aud nutmeg 

 are found on the moist coastlands, the sago palm 

 flourishes nn the south-weet coaet, while tobacco 

 is cultivated in all parts; cotton grows luxuriantly 

 in the uppr valleys, where the land is also 

 suitabl? for cocoa, cinchona, maize, and arrowroot. 

 — British Trade Jonrnal 



Ceylon Tea in Minxisg Lane.— A gentleman in 

 I the "tea" business in the Lane writes under date 

 London, 14th AugVLni:--" The Tropical Agricidtiirist 

 I for June and July reached me in due course, for 

 i which accept my best thanks. I ought to have 

 i written before this, but my time has been so fully 

 occupied with the new season's China and Indian 

 teas, that I have not been able to give as much 

 attention to Ceylon teas as I should have hked to 

 have done. Our market for Ceylon teas still re- 

 mains firm, although for the commoner grades it 

 is a trifle easier. For Indian teas the market has 

 not been in as satisfactory a state as importers 

 could have wished, many of the Calcutta bought 

 teas showing a loss of 3d and 4d per lb., and in 

 some cases even more. One of the principal features 

 of the sales last week, was the high prices ob- 

 tained for some teas from the Blackstone estate, 

 the broken pekoe fetching 3s 2d, the pekoe 2s 2Ad. 

 and the pekoe souchong Is 7id. giving the splendid 

 average of 2s 2Jd. An invoice from the K. A. W. 

 estates sold yesterday brought very good rates, an 

 orange pekoe going for 2s 2Jd. and the broken 

 pekoe 2s 3Jd, which is an improvement on former 

 shipments. .\n improvement is also to be noticed 

 in the teas from the Blackwater estate, especially 

 in the firing." 



