347 



done for a time, is to be hoped that a Plant-Pathologist will be 

 allowed by Parliament for this District. 



Everyone who knows the Tropics will understand the enormous 

 importanc-e of the proposed Botanical Garden and Laboratory in 

 Amani, Usambare, for the economical development of German East 

 Africa. 



The future of the Cotton cultivation in Togo depends almost 

 entirely upon the yet unsettled question of transport for at present 

 almost all cattle perish on the way from the coast to Tove. The 

 only way out of this difficulty is through building a railway and if 

 anywhere in a German Colony a railway is to have, economically, 

 a future, it must be the one from Lome to the Agu and Mixsahohe 

 Districts as by it a densely populated and productive district will 

 be opened. 



The development of German Southwest Africa will be much aided 

 by the railway to Windhoek now under construction, and this 

 country will have to look towards the breeding of cattle and mining 

 as its chief industries. For the former the boring of wells is of para- 

 mount importance and a good deal in this direction has been done 

 by the Colonial Economical Committee. 



Thanks are due to the Government for the creation of a Forest 

 Department at Windhoek. 



In New Guinea, we hear, the cultivation of Tobacco is to be 

 abandoned totally as not paying. The cultivation of Castilloa, 

 Ficus elastica and Hevea seem to progress favourably. The New 

 Guinea Co. is about to take up the cultivation of Gutta Percha and 

 there is no doubt that the expedition organised by our Society and 

 the cuttings brought by it to our Colonies has had much to do with 

 the introduction there of this important cultivation. 



The coconut is bound to remain the main article of the Southern 

 Seas and the European Companies cultivating it are continually 

 extending their acreage 



In Samoa a fair start has been made with Cocoa; the excellent 

 Cotton however which grows there has been totally abandoned on 

 account of the uncertainty of the crops and the difficulty of getting 

 labour in Samoa as well as in New Guinea and the Bismarck Achi- 

 pelago. The New Guinea Co. propose to pay more attention to 

 Liberian Coffee and Cocoa; the samples of Liberian Coffee from 

 there have brought good prices. The experiments with Ramie 

 were a failure owing to a beetle which consumed the leaves of the 

 plants. 



During the coming years a good deal of attention, on the pari; of 

 the Government as well as of Companies will have to be devoted 

 to cultivations by Natives. As the Natives, of their own impulse, 

 will .always grow only as much as they require themselves, we must 

 lead them to cultivate more with a view of exporting their goods. 

 Such an extention of the cultivation can be accomplished in two 

 ways, through compulsion and through augmenting the needs of 

 the Natives. 



All these question which are of fundamental interest for our Colo- 

 nies afford a large held for work to this Periodical as well as to 



