376 



77ie Swppiemeni <o the Tropical Agriculturist 



DISTANCE FOH PLANTING. 



Theoretically, the trees are supposed to be 

 pUnted at 3 or 4 metres apart, but practi- 

 cally, even in the best European plantations, 

 no serious attempt is made at alignment, 

 while in the native plantations as many as five 

 or six trees may be found standing on a single 

 square metre. The reason is obvious. The soil 

 is full of boulders of all sizes and where there 

 are so large as to require explosives for their 

 removal it is cheaper to let them remain and 

 dig the pits in the nearest soft soil. Such 

 stones as can be removed by hand are taken 

 out and piled up elsewhere for use in road- 

 making or as ballast for the lines of Decau- 

 ville railway with which most plantations are 

 provider!. The Negro has even less concep- 

 tion of a straight line or a right angle than 

 the Tamil cooly, and even were it to be marked 

 out for him, the mortality among the young 

 plants and the undesirabiiity ot replanting on 

 the exact site of a dead tree would in the 

 course of two or three years destroy any sym- 

 metry given to the plantation at the outset. So 

 things are left to rule of thumb in this respect. 



WEEDING. 



The weeding ot the plantations is, how- 

 ever, too important a matter to be left 

 to Negro caprice. In the drier portions of the 

 islands (for, small as they are, climatic vari- 

 ations exist), all undergrowth is carefully 

 cleaned up twice a year, and elsevvhoro not less 

 than thrice. Apart from its value as a cultural 

 operation, it is interesting to note how the 

 Portuguese in the island of Principe have turned 

 thdse repeated weedings to account in their 

 defensive warfare against an insect pest much 

 more formidable to the planting community. 

 European and African alike, than even its con- 

 gener the pseudo-humanitarian microbe; to wit, 

 the glossina palpalis or tse-tse fly — the agency 

 by which the microbe of 



SLEEPING SICKNESS 



is transmitted to the human subject. This fly is 

 unknown in S. Thome, but has existed in 

 Principe longer than the memory of the oldest 

 inhabitant— not, however, to the appalling ex- 

 tent recorded in the African interior. Senhor 

 Maldonado, managing director of one of the 

 large properties in that island, having noticed 

 that the Negroes attacked by the fly were almost 

 invariably stung in the back and shoulders, the 

 portions of the body most exposed while stoo- 

 ping to weed under the trees, set himself to 

 study the case and puzzle out a remedy. He 

 noticed that the fly made a practice of sheltering 

 itself under the leaves of the cacao or banana, 

 also that it showed a decided preference for 

 dark-coloured objects, avoiding the white cloth- 

 ing of the European as it avoided direct sun- 

 light. Putting these facts together, Mr Mal- 

 donado issued black cotton coats to his men, and 

 made them smear them outside with the sticky 

 latex of various jungle creepers abundant in the 

 island before putting them on. He ordered 

 these garments to be worn throughout all ope- 

 rations entailing the stooping attitude. The 

 experiment was perfectly successful, large num- 

 bers of the fly being thus destroyed. When 

 reported to the Board in Lisbon, its value was 

 at once recognised, and arrangements made for 



its working on a large scale ; record being made 

 of the results. By the end of the year Mr 

 Maldonado was able to report 28.692 glossinas 

 trapped and destroyed on his estate alone, while 

 the neighbouring estates accounted for no less 

 than 133,778 in the same period. The practice 

 is now general throughout the island, and the 

 Medical Commission of three specialis's at 

 present engaged in the further study of the 

 disease are able to record substantial progress 

 in the prevention if not in the cure of this 

 terrible malady. 



This noto has, I regret to find, exceeded the 

 limits I had set it, the enemies of the planter 

 having overflowed into the space I had hoped 

 to reserve for the enemies of the plant. My 

 next must occupy itself with these, and then 

 with the processes of harvesting and preparation 

 for the market. 



(To be Concluded.) 



RUBBER LA ND IN B. N. BORNEO. 



The Chief Government Surveyor in the course 

 of a report on a visit to the West Coast in search 

 of land suitable for rubber planting writes : — 



I also examined land directly behind Jesselton 

 at a distance of say 2 miles, the greater part of 

 which distance has already a good road ; this 

 land is of a very open nature, being rough grass 

 and scrub with very little real jungle, but is ex- 

 cellent and, though somewhat cut up with swampy 

 valleys, mostly (trainable-, would I think make 

 a very excellent rubber estate of about 1,500 

 acres ; its nearnessto Jesselton should be a very 

 great inducement to any small company to at 

 once start operations.— B. N. B. Herald, Sept. 1. 



JAPANESE CAMPHOR EXPORTS. 



On Japanese Camphor Exports some interes- 

 ting details are given by Paul Martell in Chem. 

 Ind. (Berlin), from which it would appear that 

 Germany, in consequence of her large celluloid 

 industry, is the largest purchaser of this stear- 

 optene. Thus, whereas the total exports of cam- 

 phor from Formosa and Kobe in 1904 were 55,442 

 piculs, Germany took 10,134 metric centners, 

 value M.4,560,000 ; in 1905 were 45,277 piculs, 

 Germany took 8,902 metric centners, value 

 M. 5,786,000 ; in 1906 were 48,339 piculs, Germany 

 took 8,829 metric centners, value M. 7,206, 000. 

 After Germany follow, in order of importance, 

 the United States, India, England, France. 

 Japan's production of celluloid (which product 

 was formerly derived chiefly from Germany) has 

 grown in importance since the founding of the 

 Aboshi works by a syndicate of English, German 

 and Japanese capitalists, and this will naturally 

 influence the camphor market. In order to pro- 

 tect the camphor monopoly, which had suffered 

 from the fact that high prices of recent years 

 had stimulated the development in synthetic 

 processes, the Japanese Government has deter- 

 mined to increase their productive capacity to 

 the fullest extent. With this object in view they 

 have had no fewer than 6£ million camphor 

 trees planted in Formosa and Shikoku. It must 

 be remembered, however, that the trees have to 

 reach the age of about 100 years before their 

 camphor production becomes important. — Bri- 

 tish and Colonial Druggist, Sept. 3. 



