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Tlie Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



scientific purposes, it may be accepted that the 

 thermometers were exposed under exactly simi- 

 lar conditions. So that 121 to 123 degrees may 

 be taken as the average maximum heat experi- 

 enced in India ; and 95 8 to 1037 degrees for 

 the lowcountry of Ceylon and for the "hill- 

 country" we have 96 2 d egrees Kandy, 84'5 

 degrees Badulla ; 79 degrees Hakgalla and 8T8 

 degrees Nuwara Eliya as recorded maximum 

 temperatures. But the great difference between 

 Colombo 95 - 8 degrees and Jacobabad in the 

 Punjab 123-5 degrees is that the latter has a 

 bracing winter season with corresponding tem- 

 perature, while our city, 7 degrees from the 

 equator, is always hot, and its recorded minimum 

 is only 65 degrees ; and again when we regard 

 a sudden wave of heat, and one afternoon's spurt 

 of 97 degrees for an bodr or two (?) in London, 

 the experience is a very brief one contrasted 

 with a tropical hot season. But, on the other 

 side, the mode of life, the clothing and the 

 dwellings in the United Kingdom are, as a rule, 

 quite unsuited for conditions recorded for Lon- 

 don by Dr. Mills for this month of August, 1911. 

 What this heat wave meant, however, is shown 

 by the infantile death rate running up to 

 about 65 per cent. The heaviest infant morta- 

 lity in Colombo, in the worst Pettah quarter, 

 is about 50 per cent. 



BRITISH NEW GUINEA. 



Cheap Coconut Planting. 



Mr W H M Davies favours us with an interest- 

 ing article which appears in " The British Ex- 

 porter " for August under title of " A Tropical 

 Land of Promise." Some of the opportunities, 

 and advantages offered by British New Guinea. 

 The reference to coconut cultivation is certain 

 to interest local planters, more especially the 

 figures relating to the cost of planting and up- 

 keep, &c, which appear to be ridiculously low. 



" A recent return showed that the planta- 

 tions, in the order of their importance, were 

 devoted to 



COCONUTS, RUBBER, SISAL, HEMP AND 

 COFFEE. 



Coconuts, indeed, seem to grow in profusion 

 and tho trees bear all the year round. In order 

 to encourage the natives and to prevent them 

 degenerating into mere hangors-on of the settle- 

 ments and ports, they are compelled to plant 

 coconuts for their own use, and it has been 

 estimated that as many as 350,000 acres are 

 devoted to this purpose. The average is stated 

 to be 100 trees to the acre. The cultivation of 

 coconuts should prove exceedingly profitable 

 by increasing the supply of and, therefore, the 

 demand for, the nuts themselves, and also for 

 the dried nuts or copra. One advantage of the 

 coconut industry is that it does not require any- 

 thing like as much personal attontion as the 

 growth of rubber plants. The copra is pro- 

 ducod by the natives with very little trouble. 



The Yield of Coconuts 

 from New Guinea should steadily increase, and 

 should also be relied on. The trees yield when 

 five years old, and in three or four years more 

 are bearing heavily. When full grown each 

 should produce about sixty nuts a year, and 



with even as low as fifty trees to the acre, all 

 giving this average yield, the result should be 

 about half a ton of copra. 



The copra market has one great advantage 

 from the producer's point of view and as the 

 demand is greater than the supply and there are 

 consequently no serious fluctuations in the 

 price. The producer, therefore, has the advan- 

 tage of knowing what he will get for his yield. 



Coconut trees give the best results when 

 planted in good alluvial soil along the banks 

 near a river mouth or near the sea. 



The Total Expenditube 

 on a plantation of 500 acres, beginning with 

 clearing the land of the virgin forest and until 

 the trees are yielding at the end of their sixth 

 year, is officially estimated at £6,450, inclusive 

 of labour, plants, maintenance, houses and a 

 liberal allowance for contingencies. The seventh 

 year should see a yield of forty nuts to the tree, 

 which in the ninth year should be increased to 

 sixty nuts. This would produce about 300 tons 

 of copra. The trees, if healthy, will live for over 

 sixty years, and as they bear continuously, the 

 profits on the original outlay should be very 

 considerable. It is not necessary, however, 

 that the would-be planter should start with bo 

 large an area as 500 acres. He can make a 

 beginning with less than 100 if he wishes, and 

 he has the satisfaction of knowing that the pro- 

 portion of expense and yield per acre is about 

 the same. 



Another Industry 

 which is expected to develop considerably in 

 Papua is the growing of the cacao or cocoa tree. 

 But this is somewhat more expensive, and much 

 more labour is required. Comparatively little 

 has been done in this direction as yet." 



SCARCITY OF CINNAMON IN CEYLON. 



With the extension of rubber and coconut culti- 

 vation in Ceylon, owners ot cinnamon plantations- 

 iri suitable localities have found it to their advan- 

 tage to root out cinnamon, and plant either 

 rubber or coconuts. It hardly pays the cinna- 

 mon planter to continue cultivation of the pro- 

 duct at existing prices, and a good many of 

 them have substituted the more remunerative 

 products. This is especially noticeable in the 

 Southern Province, where rubber is replacing 

 cinuamon, and in the Negombo district, where 

 coconut cultivation is being extended. As a 

 result of all this, there is a scarcity of cinnamon 

 in the market just now. To make good the de- 

 ficiency in the European market, cassia bark, 

 imported from China, is being used as a substi- 

 tute. Cassia bark is said to have a stronger and 

 somewhat coarser flavour than cinnamon, and 

 is coming to be much appreciated. According 

 to the American Consul at Colombo, it is not 

 improbable that it will swamp the cinnamon 

 trade completely, if the cultivation of the latter 

 is not encouraged. A rough estimate places the 

 acreage of cinnamon cultivation in the island of 

 Ceylon at 45,000 acres.— -Society of Arts Journal, 

 July 28. [That is the "Directory" estimate 

 made some years ago : it may have to be revised 

 a little if Bubber and Coconuts have encroached, 

 —A, M. & J. JT.] 



