THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE 



Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine of the C. A. S. 



No. 1.] 



JULY, 1908. 



[Vol. III. 



ARECA PALM CULTIVATION EN NEW 

 GUINEA: AND PLANTING PROSPECTS 

 GENERALLY. 



Papua, March 14th. 

 , Sir, — Having had the pleasure of reading 

 your pamphlet on " All about the Areca Palm,'' 

 I have (as a resident here, and the owner of 640 

 acres which I hope to put under Para Rubber 

 and other plants about December next) taken a 

 great interest in it. In this country there is a 

 very large amount of areca- nut grown by the 

 natives in their gardens, and used as a masti- 

 catory with lime, and a leaf that I do not know, 

 but it is not a pepper*. There is also a very 

 inferior indigenous areca-nut that grows wild in 

 the bush : this grows on the tree in clumps on a 

 central stalk completely covering the latter oa 

 all sides. The clumps are from 6 in. to 12 in. 

 long, the nut very small. 



Your pamphlet has made me believe that the 

 village nut might be profitably grown on my 

 estate : with this in view, I am taking the 

 liberty of sending you a bag of the best local 

 nut, and would ask you to be good enough to 

 inform me if it differs in any way from the 

 Ceylon variety, or the Mysore and Shriwardun 

 nuts. [This bag has not yet come to hand. — 

 Ed., CO.] 



If you could manage to send me a sample of 

 Mysore and Shriwardun nuts, with price and 

 freight charges, I should be extremely obliged. 



Unfortunately, this country is so poorly sup- 

 plied with shipping facilities that freights are 

 very heavy and shipping opportunities few and 

 far between. Were it otherwise, this country 

 (the climate of which is much maligned) offers 

 a splendid opening for a planter. Coffee, rub- 

 ber and sisal hemp plantations are already in 

 existence and promising well. The native 

 labour is cheap and good, though the naturally 



* The Betel-nut vine is Pepper Belal : the leaves to be Sent 

 by our correspondent may lead to idyutiSoation.— Ed. 



lazy inhabitants do not care to work for too 

 long at a time. Some people are taking up 

 blocks of 5,0U0, 10,000 and even 20,000 acres 

 with, I fancy, small hope of immediately de- 

 veloping such large areas : principally (I am 

 afraid) with a view of floating a Company, get- 

 ting a few hundred pounds for themselves by 

 so doing, and then turning to something else. 



The Federal tariff in Australia is another 

 blow to any industry here : although we are 

 now part of the Commonwealth, nothing has 

 yet been hoard of a rebate of duty for the 

 produce of this country. This is due to the 

 fact that we employ coloured labour ; a deadly 

 sin in the eyes of the Australian, who imagines 

 thereby that we are competing against him 1 1 

 will try and get a few of the different kinds of 

 leave? eaten with arecanut, and send them to you. 



Has any machine yet been brought out for 

 utilising the areca-nut husk as a fibre producer ? 

 There would seem to be a great opening ahead 

 for such a machine. — Yours faithfully, 



PLANTER. 



PS. — Which is the best way to pick the crop ? 

 By nuts individually, or to pull off the fibrous 

 attachment to which the nuts are attached, and 

 then remove the individual nuts ? 



I should be extremely obliged if you would 

 answer the following questions for me. I am 

 afraid it is rather a long list : — 



(i) Is there yet any machinefor husking nuts? 

 [No — so far as wo know : coconut fibre is so 



abundant in Ceylon as to supply fibre require- 

 ments.— Ed., CO.] 



(ii) I cannot reconcile the different prices aa 

 given on page 4 of pamphlet— R18 for 2h cwt. 

 dried nuts = R7 1-5 per cwt. 



[So quoted by the Agent, Kegalla district, in 

 1893.— Ed., CO.] 



Page 11 of pamphlet— 60a per 1,000 or R6 per 

 cwt— this is presumably in husk as they are sold 

 at the station store (?) 



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