1572 DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES 



Animal Products. — It would probably be possible to develop an 

 export trade from Cambodge and Southern Annam. Exports of raw hides 

 had already reached 3000 tons in 1913. 



Food Stuffs. — After Burmah, Indo-China is the most important rice 

 exporting country in the world and judging from the results obtained at 

 the Experimental Station of Buitenzorg (Java), the production could be 

 raised 50 per cent by the use of improved varieties. Maize is now being 

 grown for export and an experimental ground has been set aside in Ton- 

 kin to investigate problems in connection with this crop. ,Sniall quanti- 

 ties of manioc and arrowroot are put on the market and could well be in- 

 creased. Various kinds of pulse crops have been tried with success in 

 Tonkin, the most popular at present being gram [Cicer arietinum). 



Tropical fruits give promise of great future developments. With 

 cold storage facilities, mangoes, mangostans and pineapples could easily 

 be put on the European markets, while a profitable commerce could no 

 doubt be established in preserved papaya fruit (valuable for its peptic 

 ferment papain) and dried" letchis " [Nephelium Lit-Chi). Coffee and 

 tea have been successfully planted and may become important in the 

 more or less remote future, but cocoa is at present almost unknown in 

 the colony, though suitable localities for its growth exist in Cambodge 

 around the Gulf of Siam. Pepper is already being exported in considera- 

 ble quantities, and so is cane sugar, though the latter industry is not in a 

 very flourishing condition, its only experimental station (in central Annam) 

 having been recently shut down. 



Fibres. — Cambodge cotton is of a good fine quality though not up 

 to Eouisiana varieties in length of fibre and tensile strength. It is all 

 exported to Japan. Good progress has been achieved in the silk- worm 

 industry and Tonkin silk now competes with Canton products on the 

 European markets. The Experimental Station at Phiilangthoung distributes 

 selected graine from which yields of i lb. of silk per 13.5 lbs of cocoons 

 have been obtained or about twice as much as the native varieties pro- 

 duce. 



Jute has been given a long but unsuccessful trial in the colony, ramie 

 {Boehmeria nivea and B. ienacissima) is found sporadical^, and Hibiscus 

 cannabinus is indigenous to the country but its cultivation does not offer 

 commercial openings at the moment. Kapok is obtained from Eriodendron 

 anjractuosum and Bonibax malabaricum and is exported together with coir. 



A certain amount of material is sent to Europe for the rush and cane 

 industries, i. e. various rushes, rattan canes and the leaf fibres of palms, 

 Livistona sinensis, Chamcerops etc. Bamboo pulp for papermaking is 

 now being manufactured at Vetri, a place situated at the junction of the 

 Red and Claire Rivers. 



Oils and Fats. — Copra is produced in Cocliin-Cliina, ground-nut in 

 central Annam and castor oil seed in Tonkin. The colony also exports 

 sesame seed and hevea seed which contains about 42 per cent of a drying 

 oil somewhat similar to linseed oil. There are districts in Upper Tonkin 

 where hemp and colza could no doubt be grown with success. 



