96 



The Stipplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



fruits upon the English markets in quantity. 

 Tne mango is a tender fruit after once it begins 

 to ripen. By shipping Bombay Alfoos or 

 Alphonso mangoes from Florida this difficulty 

 will be overcome, as there will be no trouble 

 or risk in exporting them with such a shortened 

 voyage. The variety named is admittedly the 

 finest fruit of its class grown. It is popular 

 in the Bombay markets, where it sells freely 

 and commends high prices. These latter often 

 range from 4d to (id each fruit. During recent 

 years the Florida fruit-raisers have been de- 

 voting close attention to the commercial culture 

 of the Bombay Alfoos mango, finding it the 

 highest quality variety obtainable for sale. It 

 is even said that the flavour and quality of 

 the Alphonso are improved through the culture 

 of the tree in American soil. Already a great 

 demand has sprung up for Bombay mangoes 

 in Eastern American cities especially. It is 

 expected that the first supplies of these man- 

 goes in London will realise at least 9d each and 

 in quantity wholesale, too. — London Times, 

 June 12. 



AMERICAN REPORT ON RUBBER IN 

 THE F.M.S. 



An interesting report on the agriculture and 

 industries of the Federated Malay States has 

 just been issued by Mr. Haynes, the American 

 Consul-General at Singapore. We quote the 

 following from the report : — " Rubber isthechief 

 agricultural product. At the beginning of the 

 past year there were 240 estates, with 10,745,000 

 trees, an increase of 4,000,000 over the preced- 

 ing year, and a total acreage of 80,000, an in- 

 crease of 45,000. The output of dry rubber was 

 130 tons in 1905 and 390 tons in 1906. At pre- 

 sent there are employed regularly in estate work 

 70,000 coolies, of whom 31,000 are Tamils, 4,000 

 Javanese, 1,500 Malays and 3.400 Chinese. The 

 cultivation of the coconut ranks next in import- 

 ance. The area under cultivation at present is 

 over 105,000 acres, an increase of 5 per cent 

 over that of a year ago. More than one-half 

 this area is bearing, and the whole is said by 

 the Director of Agriculture of the Malay States 

 to be worth about £2,240,000. At an average 

 of forty nuts per tree, the yield, if converted 

 into copra, would amount to over 50,000 tons, 

 with a large and valuable stock of fibre for the 

 manufacturing of coir matting and rope. — Malay 

 Mail, June 17. 



COCOA AND COPRA FROM SAMOA. 



Apia, May 7. — Quite a large shipment of cocoa 

 will be going forward by the steamer "Atua" this 

 trip, the Upolu Cocoa Company alone shipping 

 20 tons this month. Mr F Harman, the mana- 

 ger now, has his new drier in working order, 

 which from all accounts is working splendidly; 

 ho is now able to dry six tons of cocoa at one 

 drying. — There is good prospect of a good copra 

 season this year, nuts are lying about in all 

 directions. The natives so far have not at- 

 tempted to make copra on account of the low 

 prevailing prices. — Fiji Times, May 27. 



STRAITS RUBBER GROWERS AND 

 INCREASED FREIGHT. 



With reference to the cable in our issue of the 

 13th inst., on the subject of the recent increase 

 in freight on rubber from F.M.S. and S.S. 

 ports to Europe — we understand this matter 

 has already engaged the attention of the Com- 

 mittee of the Selangor Chamber of Commerce, 

 who, whilst being in full agreement with the 

 protest stated to have been made by the Rubber 

 Growers' Association in London, have taken in- 

 dependent action locally. — Malay Mail, June 15. 



Our Ipoh contemporary of Saturday says : — 

 The message which reaches us today is better 

 reading than the recent proposals of the Rubber 

 Growers' Association with regard to Malayan 

 estates. ... If the Rubber Growers 1 Association 

 will confine itself to such questions as this — the 

 Imperial Politics of Rubber —it will earn and 

 retain the gratitude of all who in any way de- 

 pend upon the industry for their daily bread 

 All, whether shareholders of companies or super- 

 intendents or assistants on estates, must 

 heartily endorse this action of the Association. 

 — Pinang Gazette, June 19. 



COTTON-GROWING IN SIAM. 



A Bangkok correspondent, writing on May 7th 

 to the Manchester Guardian, says : — "Some time 

 ago I briefly mentioned the fact that the Agri- 

 cultural Department of the Siamese Government 

 was trying experiments in the growing of cotton, 

 with some prospects of success. The Govern- 

 ment, I find, has two plantations now and a 

 Siamese nobleman another, in each of which 

 cotton plants from different parts of the world, 

 as well as the indigenous varieties, are being 

 cultivated. An expert cotton planter of 20 

 years' experience, who is in charge of one of the 

 plantations, reports that so far the experiments 

 have proved a wonderful success, and predicts 

 that before many years have elapsed a very large 

 area in Lower Siam will be under cotton. He 

 says that both Egyptian and Indian varieties 

 thrive well, although the plants from American 

 seed have not proved a great success. The native 

 cotton of Siam, which grows wild everywhere, 

 is at present almost worthless owing to the 

 shortness of its staple ; but this is a matter 

 which it is hoped may be remedied in the future. 

 Samples of cotton, I understand, are being sent 

 to European experts for their opinions on the 

 Siamese product."— L. & C. Express, June 12. 



A FORTUNE IN FLAX IN BENGAL. 



Mr J Mollison, Inspector-General of Agri- 

 culture in India, in the course of a review on 

 the report of Mr Em. Vandekerkhove, Flax 

 Expert, for the Quarterly Journal of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Bengal, says that the 

 results of the experiments carried out at 

 Dhooria indicate so far that flax is likely to 

 become a paying crop on a commercial scale in 

 Behar. The net profit from an acre of flax is 

 estimated at rather over R74, the outturn being 

 worth R140-6-9 and the expenses being put at 

 R66.— M. Mail, June 29. 



