THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



309 



entered upon a speculation, with a view to establish a factory 

 upon a very extensive scale, on one of the Cocoa Isles, for the 

 exclusive manufacture of the iHar and the cocoa-nut oil. 



He engaged a coasting vessel to convey him thither, stocked 

 with rice, pigs, and other edible stores, equipped at the same 

 time with mills, engines, and other manufacturing organs and 

 implements necessary for the enterprise. He also took over 

 with him fifty coolies, with whom he intended to colonize this 

 new insular settlement. He sailed in February, after the 

 cessation of the monsoons, and arrived safe and well on the island. 

 For five months things went on prosperously ; the men had 

 contrived to work out a large quantity of superior kiar bemp^ 

 and had manufactured a corresponding weight and quantity of 

 oil. One morning, however, as Bell visited his factory at an 

 early hour, he, to his utter disappointment, found that the 

 whole of the colony had clandestinely taken their departure 

 from the spot, leaving him alone on the island. The men had 

 contrived to construct two long canoes in the jungles, un- 

 known to him, and by this means had effected their escape. 

 Bell was shortly afterwards picked up by a paddee-mar sail- 

 ing near the island, and was conveyed to Madras. Since that 

 period no one has ever attempted to derive any essential bene- 

 fit from the natural productions of the Cocoa Isles. Were 

 these marine insular clusters to be thoroughly worked, the 

 profits attendant upon the undertaking would prove incalcu- 

 lable. 



The second, and perhaps the strongest hemp in use through- 

 out India, is one little used and less kuosvn. It is a coarse, 

 tough, black crinose-looking fibrous material, produced from 

 the sago — a species of palm, which is to be met with principally 

 in the islands of the East Indian Archipelago. It is very 

 seldom this product is to be met with to the westward of the 

 Bay of Bengal ; but the Malays use it generally for maritime 

 purposes. Like the Mar, it floats in the water, and is ex- 

 tremely buoyant on that element. The piratical hordes, who 

 infest the Eastern gut of the Archipelago, rig their prahus 

 with this material, and find it extremely firm, strong, and 

 durable. It is seldom converted into " contracted strands," 

 but is principally worked into thick ropes, cables, and ships' 

 hawsers, for which purposes it is admirably adapted. 



Whilst treating of this particular hemp, it may not be, per- 

 haps, deemed irrelevant on my part, in this place, to revert to 

 a practical anecdote related to me by the late Mr. James Kyd, 

 the eminent shipwright of Calcutta, whose name will be 

 handed down to posterity with every mark of respect and 

 eateem. He observed to the writer that be had upon one 

 occasion a very ponderous anchor to raise from the alluvial 

 soil of the river Hoogly, to which was attached a large floating 

 buoy, to define and mark out the channel of that impetuous 

 estuary. This anchorage had been laid down with the espe- 

 cial object of resisting the almost irresistible rush of the hore^ 

 which at every spring tide rushes up the Hoogly river for 

 some miles, with a frightful velocity, bearing down small ships, 

 boats, and all objects that it comes in contact with. It rushes at 

 railway speed, the /ate being 25 miles per hour. This fitful 

 visitation is produced by the spring-tides of the bay of Benga' 

 coming up from the laud heads, meeting in their course the 

 mighty torrents of the great Gauges, descending into the sea 

 at the above point. 



Mr. Kyd made, in his endeavours to weigh the ftoow-anchor 

 three several vain attempts with three separate well-cured 

 new ship's cables, and was about to give up the task till he 

 could adjust a chain to the shaft of the anchor, when he re- 

 membered having an old ejoo hawser, which had been lying 

 about in the yard for more than three years, exposed alter- 

 nately to rain and sun. This despised and neglected old 



cable was applied to the anchor, and by means of a windlass 

 and a small complement of Lascars, was weighed and brought 

 on the deck ef the pinnace without the ejoo hawser sustaining 

 the rupture of a single strand. This solitary fact must be 

 allowed to speak in highly favourable terms of the palm hemp 

 of Malacca and its circumjicent isles. 



The next hemp that is used in India is the sxm, which 

 closely resembles that of England and Russia, but presents 

 when dry a whiter surface, and is of a more dry and less 

 oleaginous nature than the two former. It is confined to the 

 manufacture of cordage and strings, but is seldom or never 

 used for shipping purposes. The natives, however, construct 

 their fishing-nets of this material ; and the same, when sub- 

 jected to a process of tanning, by means of a strong solution 

 of the bark of the bubbool tree, a species of mimosa, are found 

 to wear well, and become less subject to decay. Mr. Kyd 

 spoke very highly of the sun hemp as a native production of the 

 East Indies, but he pronounces it much inferior in tenacity to 

 the products of Russia and Britain. 



I come now to the jute or pote. This is the most common 

 textile material we acknowledge throughout Bengal. It ia 

 used for twines, strings, door-mats, goounee (rice or meal) 

 bags, and has, within the list ten years, been brought into 

 the operation of weaving in this country, being interwoven 

 with cottons, threads, and silks. Being of a glossy com- 

 plexion, and possessing a fioe filament, although not of a very 

 strong texture, it is likely to retain its character in this coun- 

 try for some length of time to come. In the obscure villages 

 in Bengal, where iron nails are scarcely obtainable, the native 

 huts, are as to the bamboo frame work, fastened together by 

 means oijule string. 



The stems when cut are suffered to steep in water, and after 

 a few days a quantity of fine chesnut bass is decorcitated 

 from the rods ; which when pickled and dressed, constitutes a 

 light, bright, shining flax ca'led_;r«<e or pole,'<fih\ch. is used 

 very generally throughout India, and when packed into bales, 

 is exported into different countries as a staple article of com- 

 merce. Jute is the cheapest flax obtained in India. 



I now pass to the Manilla hemp, the natural production of 

 the wild plantain {Musacea textilis). This plant grows plen- 

 tifully in all the districts of the Phillipine Islands, and the 

 hemp it produces is long, clear, fine, and strong ; it is also 

 soft and pliant, and is a favourite flax among the people by 

 whom it is manufactured. It is highly prolific, and if properly 

 attended to might be vastly increased in the quantities above 

 those already made. The same ia admirably well adapted for 

 tiller-ropes, and other descriptions of running rigging ; but for 

 upright and standing purposes, subjected to tar and other 

 piceons modes of dressings, it has not been found to answer. 



The garden plantain {Musacea horlensis) yields a long fine 

 white fibre, fully capable of being converted into textile pur 

 poses; but it is more esteemed for the fruit it produces than 

 for any other inherent quality it possesses. It is highly escu- 

 lent, and when cut into large slices constitutes a grateful 

 course of food for milch cattle. 



The aloe {agathe) {Aloe spicata): This luxurant plant grows 

 abundantly in all the tropical parts of India. It produces a 

 long, coarse, white fibre, comparatively strong, but is disposed 

 to snap when pulled out at full tension. This must be termed 

 a grass. The way by which the fibres are separated from the 

 leaves, is by suffering the latter to pass through a press, com- 

 posed of two grooved cylinders, similar to such as are used in 

 the sugar-cane press ; the leaves will be crushed uniformly in 

 going through the cylinders, and the whole of the juices will 

 be abstracted by this process. The leaves must be soaked in 

 water pits, for two days, exposed to the sun, when the fleshy 



