■March. IOOvj.] 



Edible Products 



150 lbs. per acre, the demonstration of 

 the advantages of single-planting of 



Baddy by the brothers Dbarmaranga 

 iaju, Deputy Collector, and Chel varanga 

 Raju, of the Agricultural College, on 

 their own land at Palamcottah has 

 attracted much attention, and it is 

 estimated that 2,000 acres were planted 

 in this way last year. A similar move- 

 ment is in progress in the Tanjore and 

 South Arcot districts, where a small 

 landowner near Chidambaram, named 

 Abaranam Pillai, discovered the advan- 

 tages of the system for himself. 



The exact amount of seed necessary, 

 and the exact distance for planting has 

 to be determined separately for each 

 locality. 



The question of the proper treatment 

 of paddy lands in the dry season is also 

 being studied on all the farms where 

 there is wet land. This includes the 

 subject of green manuring and plough- 

 ing up of fallows. In some parts, e.g., 

 in Kistna and Coimbatoie the ryots 

 declare that the latter practice is in- 

 jurious. In others, as in Malabar, it is 

 regularly practised on the best lands. 

 Arrangements are being made at Coimba- 

 tore and Samalkotafor a series of experi- 

 ments on the amount of water required 

 to produce a full crop of paddy. 



CACAO CULTIVATION. 



Why Reform is Delayed in 

 San Thome. 

 At the invitation— embodied in a some- 

 what lengthy but carefully-worded 

 letter to the Press on the San Thome 

 labour question, signed by a number of 

 influential men including, among others, 

 Messrs, R. C Lehmann, M.P., Ramsay 

 Macdonald, M.P., Henry W. Nevinson 

 (who investigated the matter on the 

 spot, and published his impressions first 

 in Harper's Magazine, and later on in 

 book form), and Mr. St. Loe Strachey— 

 we, in company with 400 to 500 others, 

 gathered together at the Caxtou Hall, 

 Westminster, to attend is a public meet- 

 ing for the discussion of the subject." 

 We quote in inverted commas the actual 

 words of the invitation, as we agree 

 with our opponents that no discussion 

 was allowed until it was too late, i.e., 

 after the resolution to be laid before Sir 

 Edward Grey (Secretary of State for 

 Foreign Affairs) had been agreed to, and 

 a deputation nominated to approach him 

 on the subject. 



Being deeply anxious for a radical 

 reform in the whole question of so-called 



"indentured labour" in Portuguese 

 African territory, we were most disap- 

 pointed at the results of the meeting, 

 results which were entirely due to lack 

 of judgment on the part of the Chair- 

 man, who seemed unable to realise that 

 the converted audience in front of him, 

 anxious to get home to their dinner or 

 catch a train, was as nought compared 

 to the opposition who went away, we 

 take it, well satisfied with the results of 

 the meeting. Far better that the meet- 

 ing had never been held than to refuse — 

 politely, but none the less firmly— under 

 the plea of want of time to allow an 

 amendment to be discussed by the 

 opposition, whose arguments are prob- 

 ably so weak as to rather tend to bene- 

 fit us by being advanced, but which can 

 cause us much trouble by being sup- 

 pressed. As one opponent stated, no 

 practical man wants to waste time talk- 

 ing at the end of a meeting, as the Chair- 

 man proposed, when the resolution had 

 already been passed, and it was too late. 

 People who cannot be inconvenienced by 

 missing their trains should not pretend 

 to interfere in these complicated inter- 

 national labour questions. If they 

 imagine such matters can be settled by 

 two hours ' talking on one side of the 

 question only, they are seriously mis- 

 taken. As a result of this mistaken 

 policy of the Chairman, backed up, it is 

 true, by the majority of the meeting, 

 unsavoury truths about the state of the 

 indentured labour in our Colony of 

 Natal were brought prominently for- 

 ward. 



We can only hope that some indirect 

 good may come from attention called at 

 the meeting to the Natal scandal, a 

 matter that might probably not have 

 been dragged out so aggressively as it 

 was, in speeches more eloquent, telling, 

 and far less tedious than were some of 

 those devoted to the real object of the 

 meeting. 



We feel sure that every one present 

 had read the articles and letters pub- 

 lished on the subject, and attended with 

 their minds pretty well made up one 

 way or other, the same as ourselves. 

 We, therefore, were surprised that 

 nearly two hours were devoted to 

 converting the already converted, whilst 

 we were most anxious to hear what the 

 opposition had to say. We did not 

 want to be told two or three times over 

 what we already knew. We went hoping 

 to learn some points from our opponents 

 as to why there is any need to buy San 

 Thome cacao at all until the state of 

 slavery is eradicated to the uttermost 

 end, when our own British Gold Coast 

 Colony will be producing less "hammy" 

 and altogether a sweeter and more 



