178 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



SUGGESTED COIR ROPE MANUFAC- 

 TORY FOR SINGAPORE. 



Importing coir into the co'ony, writes a cor- 

 respondent, is r> ally tantamount to taking coals 

 to Mewcastle ; anrl yet Oeylon and other coconut 

 growing centres outside of iVlalaya, send large 

 and regular shipments of the article for con- 

 sumption in the Straits. Hundreds of thousands 

 of tons of coconut fibre in the Straits and in the 

 Malay States are every year allowed to run to 

 waste, and uo effort, on a largo scale, has ever 

 been made to utilise the material, A modicum of 

 it is no doubt used by the natives here in the 

 manufacture of rope arid sinnot in a crude 

 form, but the outturn is ridiculously small 

 owing to the want of proper appliances. That 

 there is ample scope for doing business on a 

 large scale, goes without saying, and it 

 would amply pay any one who is enterprising 

 enough and provided with the wherewithal to 

 start a rope manufactory on modern lines. There 

 is in fact a modest fortune awaiting the man 

 who knows the business sufficiently well to em- 

 bark in it. That there is a large and growing 

 demand for coir locally, is well-known and it is 

 owing to the difficulty of obtaining good clean 

 coir on the spot that has fostered foreign im- 

 portation, whereas a good local and export trade 

 might be done with advantage. Judging by the 

 development of trade in coconut and copra in 

 Lower Perak alone, whero the duty is estimated 

 to bring in a revenue of about $ If, 700 next year, 

 there must bo an enormous quantity of fibre that 

 serves no useful purpose beyond being con- 

 signed to the rubbish heap which, in the face of 

 external competition, seems a great pity. — 

 Straits Timed, Oct. 27. 



A QUEENSLAND ARROWROOT FARM. 



On the Maroochy River, Queensland, are situ- 

 ated an arrowroot milt and plantation, which 

 have been in full work since 1887. The cultiva- 

 tion of arrowroot is an established industry in 

 Queensland, and during the last few years about 

 3,300 lb have been produced, valued at £20,000. 

 Not only is the article used for food, but it is 

 employed as a substitute for ordinary starch for 

 laundry work. 



There are, perhaps, fewer finer sights in agri- 

 culture than a field of nrrowroot. In appearance 

 it resembles the common garden canna, but 

 it is much stronger and sturdier. It grows from 

 7 to 10 feet in height, and flowers like the canna. 

 Each root produces from 6 to a dozen bulbs, 

 which are of a purple colour, and grow close to 

 the surface. The plant is a shallow rooter. It is 

 grown in rows set square, so as to allow of cul- 

 tivation up and down the rows or across. 

 Only the purple variety is grown in Queensland, 

 which is considered produces the whitest and 

 most nutritious starch. It is a hardy plant more- 

 over and will grow in almost any kind of soil, 

 but the best results are attained from planting 

 in a loose, loamy soil, wherein the bulbs have 

 little trouble expanding and developing. It is a 

 plant, also, that will stand any amount of dry 

 weathor, or any amount of wet weather 



The bulbs at the root of the plants are used 

 for making the arrowroot. The smaller unde- 

 veloped bulbs are used for planting the next 

 crop. The ground is prepared ready for plant- 

 ing at the end of the year, and the crop is ready 

 to harvest in Juno or July. The Queensland 

 farmer believes in planting "square," so that the 

 scarifier can run down the field or across, and 

 thus scope with weeds much easier. About half 

 the crop is grown on uew scrub land, upon 

 which the stumps are still standing. 



Arrowroot Manufacture in Queensland. 

 When the harvesting comes the bulbs are 

 grubbed out of the ground with mattocks, and 

 after being cut from the plants, are carted to 

 the mill and placed in a washing trough. A 

 set of wooden .spindles agitates the bulbs in the 

 trough, and gradually works them towards one 

 end, whero a flier catches them and flings them 

 into an elevator. They are then automatically 

 conveyed to the graters and grated into a very 

 line pulp, and thence passed on to a sieve with 

 minute meshes— a stream of water being made 

 to play on the pulp meantime. 



In this way the starch of the bulbs is taken up 

 and held in solution. The water containing the 

 solution passes on to a set of large wooden 

 trough arranged around the factory. The water 

 is then drained off and the deposited arrowroot 

 is taken out and dried, and then packed in sacks 

 lined with oalico for the market. It is essential 

 that the water should be clear and pure, and as 

 coldas possible. If the water is at all warm, the 

 arrowroot is inclined to turn to starch at once, 

 and thus become spoiled. 



After the arrowroot is extracted the residue 

 forms a dark mass of starchy substance soft to the 

 touch, and is found to make an excellent food 

 for pigs or fowls. It requires nine tons of bulbs 

 to make one ton of arrowroot, and there is no 

 doubt but that a large quantity of possible 

 starch must be lost in manufacture under exis- 

 ting conditions. An acre of good Queensland 

 land produces from 30 cwt. to 2 tons of arrow- 

 root. The present price of the manufactured 

 article is a little over £4(. per ton, so that an acre 

 of the arrowroot when manufactured is worth, 

 roughly, £9. 



[This is Canna edulis locally cultivated to 

 some extent for its edible tubers]. 



MILK PRESERVING MACHINE. 



The Journal of Lhc Board of Agriculture for 

 August 1910, p, 412, gives an account of a new 

 type of milk-preserving machine that was exhi- 

 bited at the Bordeaux Agricultural Show in May 

 1910. The principle employed in the machine is 

 the exposure of the milk to a very high pressure, 

 with subsequent pasteurisation, so that the fat 

 globules are crushed and mixed so completely 

 with the water in the milk that they cannot be 

 separated, and it is consequently impossible to 

 obtain cream from such milk. Its great advant- 

 age, however, is that it will keep in bottles for 

 an indefinite length of time, — Agricultural News, 

 September 17. 



