7i8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULtt/SlSf, [April i, 1886, 



larye areas of rice lields were overflowed far and 

 wide. The paddy which at the time had just begun 

 to flower is looked upon as lost beyond recovery. 

 The maize crop and other produce under cultiv- 

 ation shared the same fate. Besides loss of crops, 

 damage to roads, bridges, *. , many persons per- 

 iehed in the flooded districts. The Sourabaya 

 Couraiit calls attention to the circumstance that 

 while too much rain fell in Mid .Java there was too 

 scanty a rainfall in East Java thereby bringing on 

 heavy losses on native cultivators and European 

 planters alike. Any change for the better will 

 come too late to prevent t)ie drought from taking 

 disastrous effect on this year's sugar crop there 

 being every prospect of a short yield. Many of 

 the sugar planters have prepared themselves for 

 the worst and the inevitable disappointment 

 and, in other respects, are looking out gloomily 

 upon the approaching future from the steadily 

 lessening chances of remunerative prices for their 

 produce, owing to the great fall in quotations of 

 late. It is quite certain that 8 to 9 guilders per 

 picul for No. It, the price likely to rule next 

 season, cannot but bring on heavy loss. A few 

 estates, says that .Journal, may drag out a linger- 

 ing existence notwithstandnig, but the great 

 majority are doomed to ruin beyond recovery should 

 these flgures be the rule. Planters meanwhile, are 

 doing tlieir best to keep down the cost of pro- 

 duction. There is no likelihood of the Government 

 coming to their relief by doing away with the ex- 

 port duty on that article amounting as it does to 

 nine per cent on the value, but the Netherlands 

 India railway company has allowed a reduction 

 of fieight charges on sug;ar carried on its lines 

 during tlie approaching crop season. There is yet 

 no such lowering of freight on State Eailways. 

 Not only have planters to cope besides with diffic- 

 ulties in raising capital, but they are also now 

 threatened with a disease among canes which withers 

 them and dries up the juice. This disease has been 

 making such rapid progress in West and mid Java that 

 it will take the utmost exertion to make head. 

 The Sourabaya Planters' Associations on hearing 

 these ill bodnig tidings at once urged the branch 

 associations elsewhere in the island to take combined 

 action to check its spread by trying a change of 

 plant cane as the only feasible remedy, likely to be 

 of any avail. 



The Director of State Railways has notifled to 

 the Sourabaya Sugar Planter Association that the 

 (iovcrnment will not hear of any reduction of the 

 freight charges on sugar carried upon its railroad- 

 ines. The sugar planters have answered by intim- 

 ating that they will not make use of the State 

 line. The high rates of carriage on the latter are 

 one cause of the difficulty in working estate in 

 Java at a profit now that quotations ary steadily 

 falling. 



The Surabaya Courant reports business prosi)ects 

 there as gloomy in the extreme from continual 

 failures among Chinese traders. Both retail and 

 wholcsaJc onoa become daily insolvent, without there 

 being any sign of improvement in the near future. 

 Planting prospects are by no moans encouraging. 

 The rainfall has become heavier, but the wet season 

 has set in too late to admit of recovery from 

 the damage already done by the drought, the crop 

 looked forward to being likely to be a scanty one. 

 Not only the sugar field but also the rice outturn 

 will in all likelihood prove short. Coffee prospects 

 are more hopeful since the change in the weather 

 though danger of its ]iroving otherwise is by no 

 means altogether warded off. A scheme has been 

 set on toot to start coftec husking works at Pasa- 

 ruan where there is every thing available to make 

 the business a pajing one Unless leaf diiiease cbeokd 



operations, success is looked forward to on the 

 ground that it cannot fail to be advantageous to 

 planters and capitalists alike to be relieved of the 

 costly and slow cleaning of coffee on estates by 

 having the operation conducted in central establish- 

 ments at suitable places. 



NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE . 



Uv Dr. J. E. Taylor, P. L. S., F. G. S. cVc, 



Editor of " Science Gossip." 



1 am pleased to notice that New Zealand flax 

 {I'liorminin Icnuxj is coming to the front here as 

 a therapeutic agent. A strong decoction, made 

 from the root and butts 'of the leaves, and 

 boiled for twelve hours, is employed in cases of 

 severe lacerations and even amputations. It is said 

 to produce a healthy granulation immediately. I 

 believe the merit of first making the curative effects 

 known is due to the Australian Mcdital Gazette. 



The Americans have carried oyster culture to 

 the degree of a tine art, thanks to the zeal and 

 industry of Mr. J. A. Ryder, the distinguished zoo- 

 logist. That gentleman has recently published .a 

 paper entitled '• A New System of Oyster Culture," 

 the principles of which ai'e based on the knowledge 

 that oyster embryos diffuse themselves throughout 

 the three dimensions of a body of water, and will 

 attach themselves to collecting surfaces similarly dis- 

 tributed therein, particularly if the latter are clean and 

 fresh from organic growths. Mr. Ryder has discovered 

 that artificial fertilisation of the eggs of oysters is not 

 only feasible, but is an important adjunct to successful 

 spat culture. Hitherto oyster cultivators have been 

 content with obtaining spat from one dimension 

 of the water only,. viz., the vertical. V bushel of 

 oysters yields one billion fry. Mr. Ryder rears his 

 oysters in ponds 40ft. .square, and the culch, or 

 collecting material to which the spat attach them- 

 selves, is suspended in the water from horizontal 

 cross pieces of wood. — Aiistralashni. 



Ckylon TfA. — A correspondent wiitts : — Mr. Oow, 

 of the well-kuowu tirui of MessrH. Guw, '^ViIt^oll & Ci'., 

 WHS good enough to say that he thought there w.is litflc 

 chance of Ceylou Tea, falling below a sliilliiig for umny 

 years ti> come. It would, he remarked, alwajs be 

 a diiuUiug tea, and go straight to the consumer in-ttad 

 of being used, as a large portion of Indian tea is, for 

 mixing purposes. — Local " Times." 



Mattakuliva Farm. — This well known property Baid 

 to belong to Me.ssrs. Anthony Gibbs & Sons has been 

 in the market for some time. It consists of 47 acres full 

 planted with Mauritius and Guinea grass and cocouut.s, 

 there being 12 acres of grass and 'o5 of coconuts. It 

 is said that a well-known Sinhalese millionaire made 

 an offer of K47,UOO which was refused, and yet 1 learu 

 that two out ot the tlirec blocks, A and C have been 

 sold for Klo,000, and Kl(i,(jOU each leaving only block 

 B ccusisting of 15 acres lor 8i>le. This i I is said is the 

 least valuaLilc of the three bU cks n) tb,it the total 

 realized by the 3 blocks (after 3rd i» fold) will be less 

 than what was offered for the whole as a lot souietimo 

 back.— Cue. 



CoFFiiii. — The annual report of W. Sclioffcr 

 Jc Vo., Rotterdam, estimates the coffee production of 

 18S.'>B(i at ll,801,0tlj ctr; the consimiption at l'<,.'i4f>,0(>0 

 ctr, thus sbiiwiiig a deficiency in the sillily of l,744,nt>0 

 ctr, or neiuly 1.5 per cent, more than tUe total crop.i. 

 There must be some mistake in tho esiimate of con- 

 sumption. Tlmt coffee should rule' low and tend downward 

 luiiler such conditious seems rcmaik.ible. — Antc-ican 

 Grocer. [So remarkable that we should certainly distrust 

 the forecast and woiub-r whether it had an ohjectin vieiv. 

 To show the great importance ot the trade in Brazil 

 coffee in the United Stales, we need merely quote the 

 figures of 2,lit0,O0U bags imported at New York alone 

 in IseS.— Ed.J 



