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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov, 2, 1885. 



Chocolate from Palm-teees. — The good people 

 Bt home seem to be uncommonly bothered by the 

 two products cacao and coconut. Messrs. Fry * 

 Sons, who have made a speciality of " Ceylon 

 chocolate," illustrate their advertisements of it 

 with the picture of a man cUmbing a coconut 

 pahn and throwing cacao beans down to the 

 gatherers below ! 



EoTTiNG Timber. — The Bnihler, referring to the 

 rotting of timber, makes the following remark, which 

 should be noted : — " The MeniJius hii-ri/iiniiin is flic 

 connuon wood fungus that destroys nine-lenths of the 

 wood witli which we are acquainted. The reason 

 of it being common to new buildings and not to 

 old, is that moisture, one of the constituents, 

 of its existence, is more present in new green 

 buildings than in old dry seasoned ones. The two 

 prime conditions of its existence are moisture and 

 heat ; it moisture is present without heat it will not 

 grow, and hence its depredations in the winter 

 time are unknown. If heat is present without 

 moisture, it will not grow, and hence ventilation 

 for the passage of a current of dry air will prove 

 fatal to its existence. — Indian Agricultnriftl. 



The Depressed Position of Fiji is thus indicated 

 in an article in the Fiji Times : — Production 

 has ceased and labourers are in excess of 

 demand because proprietors are no longer cultiv- 

 ators. In many cases the tardy Indian relief was 

 too long in arriving. Before the small planters 

 could avail themselves of it, cash and credit was 

 exhausted. In others, even the advantage so offered, 

 cannot tempt to a doubtful venture under con- 

 ditions as to the return in labour which reduce the 

 chances of success to a minimum. Therefore those 

 who aforetime actively devoted their energies to 

 agriculture now vegetate as coconut collectors. In- 

 stead of cultivating, they watch palm trees grow. 

 To gather^ tlie nuts and to raise tlie little produce 

 necessary for household consumption a few local 

 labourers are employed, where the once prosperous 

 settlers can afford it ; or if he cannot, he, his wife, 

 and children, make the copra and grow the yams. 

 As a simple naked fact, there is no class of small 

 producers. Those who once composed it have suc- 

 cumbed to the force of officially created circum- 

 stances. Hence the prevailing stagnation ; and 

 hence the triumphant success of the Government 

 policy evidenced by Fijians seeking in vain for work; 

 by Polynesians and Indians in excess of demand, 

 because demand has ceased; and bj' small proprietors 

 who, from the tact that they are no longer small 

 producers, are neither in want of labour now, 

 " nor likely to be in any want for some time to 

 come." If Fiji is to recover from its present state 

 of depression it must be by again making these 

 small i^roprietors actual producers. First, the Fijian 

 labour supply must be rendered practically avail- 

 able, so that the men now searcliing lor work may 

 find it on tlie abandoned plantations, to tlie mutual 

 benefit of tliemselves and their employer. When 

 these are profitably engaged, arrangements must be 

 made to renew the introduction under deferred jiay- 

 ments — a matter which will then present no diffic- 

 ulty. Witli the small planter, the small trader 

 must also be recalled to lite, by a considerable 

 modification, if not an entire abandonment of the 

 native tax-scheme, and with these two classes acti\'ely 

 and profitaldy engaged the prosperity of the country 

 will rapidly return. If this course is not adopted, 

 there is before Fiji a future as the areua for the 

 operation of a few large sugar Companies, but as 

 a field for settlement its career will close in the 

 irretrievable ruin of all lliose who have been so 

 long associated with its attempted development. 



A Small Dose of Sulphub given to pigs once in 

 two or three weeks, will keep them free from disease .ind 

 ^;-eatly increase their general thr.ft.— Gui-A iirs' Mufdlih/. 

 Coconut Balls. — One pound coconut finely grated; 

 one pound sugar ; two whites of egg. Put them all 

 into a saucepan, and stir, over a brisk fire, for 

 twelve to fifteen minutes, then turn out on a marble 

 slab and let it cool. Mould them, with your fingers, 

 into small, round balls, the size of an English 

 walnut, place them on a buttered tin sheet, and bake 

 to a light brown tint, in a moderate oven. They 

 are also called cones, or drops, when they are moulded 

 into those foi-ms, respectively. — American Grocer. 



SnoAB in Fiji. — If only labour can be plenti- 

 fully and cheaply obtained and sugar can be sold 

 at remunerative prices there seems a great future 

 for Fiji as a sugar-producing colony,— that is to 

 say if the average yield is anything like what is 

 recorded in the Fiji Times :— It is satisfactory to 

 learn that the Eewa cane yield is even surpassing the 

 expectations founded upon the magnificent appear- 

 ance of the crops. From a very considerable area the 

 big mill has obtained a return of three tons of sugar 

 to the acre, and in one case this has been doubled. 

 On the Vunicibicibi Estate, Messrs. J. C. Smith & 

 Co.'s, a portion has yielded at the rate of over GO 

 tons of cane, and six tons of sugar per acre. What 

 this means may be guessed from the fact that in 

 other sugar growing countries 25 cwt. is an average 

 yield. 



Coffee in Brazil.— The result of the 1884-85 

 coffee crop becomes a subject for remark and 

 offers a further proof of ]io_w necessary has it 

 become that some system be organized, through 

 which a fairly correct estimate of the probable 

 out-turn of a crop may be arrived at. We have 

 had no syndicate in Rio during the past year, 

 and the stock held by tlie banks for account 

 of the defenders of Brazilian interests has been 

 shipped, whether for realization, or as legitimate 

 purchases, we are not prepared to state. We 

 were persuaded so far back as October last that 

 the estimate of 3J million bags as the probable 

 out-turn of the 1884-85 crop was. erroneous, but 

 our information was against our persuasion and 

 we could only repeat what was reported to us. 

 The croji year shows receipts of over i millions of 

 bags and furnishes yet another factor for discredit- 

 ing estimates based upon information furnished 

 by interested parties, such as planters and their 

 immediate representatives, the factors. The ex- 

 planations given for the large receipts, when the 

 crop was considered a small one, were that the 

 planters were pressed by their fac tors and 

 obliged to market Iheir crops as rapidly as possible ; 

 very favorable weather had assisted to prepare the 

 crop for market ; every excuse was offered, except 

 the principal one, that the painters and their 

 representatives were in league to endeavour by un- 

 reliable information to influence consming mark- 

 ets and thus rc-conp a part at least of losses 

 made in their patriotic attempt to prop up prices. 

 We defy any disinterested person to dispute our 

 assertion, that there is a systematic attempt, 

 year by year, to blind exporters as to the coffee 

 crops. The factors, who are in direct communic- 

 ation with the planters, are directly interested iu 

 maintaing prices, and amusing results, at times, 

 occur. It is not new that a croji has been repre- 

 s(mted at 200 per cent, less* than a preceding one, 

 nor that a planter declaring his own crop to be 

 above an average one, asserts that his neighbors are 

 suffering from all the ills to which coffee planters 

 arc liable. — Rio News. 



* 200 per cent »i ore is possible : but 200 per cent less ? 

 Surely 100 per cent less meaus nothin;/ ? — Ed. 



