THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1890. 
Bhort crops as the coffee in our top fields has 
made no blossom to speak of ; whereas a 
very dry spring is the thing needful to produce 
good blossoms, and secure good crops. Some few 
estates may do better than others, notably those 
that did not do much last year, but I am of opinion 
that taken as a whole the produce of " bona fide" 
Blue Mountain coffee this coming season will be 
under the average. This very wet season which 
was at first thought to be most beneficial to the 
Bettlers has in some measure disappointed them, 
as the excessive wet has caused a good deal of 
the coffee to "go light " and die off at the ends of the 
branches, but the quality is good, and they must 
be realizing good prices for their " cherry " with 
ordinary Jamaica coffee, in bags, still spiling from 
82s to 85s per cwt. in the London market. 
If it be true, as I read not long ago, that a 
disease does exist in some districts of Brazil with 
effects not unlike that of the leaf disease in Ceylon 
and the East Indies, prices are pretty sure to be 
maintained, and as I have more than once observed, 
it will not be so bad for the Brazil coffee planters 
themselves if nature puts a check upon excessive 
production, so that they may themselves realize 
paying prices rather than drive coffee so low by 
glutting the market, as to cause them to be losers, 
even with their large yield per acre. 
Our heaviest "seasons" (or monsoon) are, as in 
Uva, Ceylon due in October ; we were hoping that 
as we have already had much rain for the last 
seven months, we might have less than usual this 
month, but at the time of writing it is pouring, 
and looks as if it would go on for some days 
longer. It was just at this time ten years ago in 
1879, that the last heavy floods took place, which 
did so much damage, and caused loss of life. God 
grant we may now escape a like catastrophe. 
As to matters political, our Legislative Council 
is now in session, and is to pass some useful 
laws, one for a cadastral survey of the island ; for 
up to the present time such a thing does not exist ; 
a law for the establishment of industrial schools : 
the first to be started at the Hope Gardens, under 
the auspices of Mr. Fawcett, the Director of Public 
Gardens and Plantations ; the institution with 
the help of the money collected as a Jubilee Fund 
at the suggestion of Sir Henry Norman of a 
Training Hospital for Midwives : a law relative to 
Pilotage, the pilots having protested against the 
custom of allowing captains of ships, after passing 
an examination to be their own pilots ; and last 
though not least let us hope the question of 
Immigration may be revived. Mr. Espeut is not 
likely to let it lie dormant, especially as two 
petitions have been sent in to the Governor pray- 
ing that the introduction of coolies into the island 
may be re-established. It is very apparent to me 
and many others that unless labour can be pro- 
cured, many more sugar estates will have to be 
abandoned, and that even capitalists wishing to 
turn fruit growers will be unable to get the labour 
they need. It is an undeniable fact that the 
Jamaica Creole settlers, the offspring of the old 
slaves, are very much better off than they were 
twenty years ago, especially in the districts where 
bananas grow freely ; consequently they have no 
necessity to work on the sugar estates, in fact many 
have themselves become employers of labor, so the 
European planter and the penkeeper find it difficult 
to supply their wants. I believe Government is 
willing to reintroduce coolies on the understanding 
the planter or indentor bears the whole of the 
expense and responsibility. Now this sf ems hardly 
fair, for by present arrangements the cooly is only 
bound to work five (5) years on the property for 
which ho is indented, and may afterwards remove 
elsewhere and set up on " his own hook ;" but as 
each cooly would probably cost the planter £20 
or more to import, besides paying him wages at 
the rate of one shilling a day, and keeping him 
in hospital when sick, five years appears to be 
too short an apprenticeship, at such a heavy cost, 
and it should be lengthened to ten years. Govern- 
ment should moreover advance the necessary 
funds to the planter at a reasonable rate of 
interest, the planter re-paying by yearly instalments: 
this aid should readily De rendered by Govern- 
ment, as indirectly the whole community must 
benefit by the introduction of the ooolies ; and the 
maintenance of the sugar industry which has till 
lately always been the staple industry of Jamaica; 
this, were it abandoned, would be truly most disas- 
terous to the wellfare of the island. The example 
of Demerara and Trinidad should be sufficient for 
our Government. What would those Colonies be like 
had not ooolies been largely introduced, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that Jamaica should follow suit 
unless Government wishes the whole island to 
pass into the hands of small Creole Proprietors, and 
the European planter and local capitalist driven 
out of the island. It may bo said, if there is so 
much work to be had in Jamaica, why do so many 
leave the island for such places as Colon, Port 
Limon and Nicaragua ? Because human nature will 
be the same to the end of the chapter. The induce- 
ment of fabulously described high wages ; the desire 
to make money, buy a plot of land, and become a 
settler, is too great ; and though many ; as has been 
fully proved, only go away to die, or return debili- 
tated and impoverished, as so many lately did from 
Co on, they will still listen to the voice of the 
charmer, the agent who bamboozles them into 
leaving " a certainty for an uncertainty." The 
American Syndicate have not yet taken over 
the Railway, or paid the £100,000 cash, but I 
hear surveyors are busy on the proposed routes, and 
that Mr. Wesson, the original promoter, is daily 
expected. I was glad to see our new Governor, Sir 
Henry Blake, is of the same opinion as myself, that 
it would have been better for the Government to 
have retained the railway, and extend it gradually, 
as has been done in Ceylon under Government 
auspices : and very many who were so ready to 
hand over everything to " Uncle Sam," now see the 
folly of our handing over l-35th part of Jamaica 
to the Company, and that of the best remaining 
virgin land in the island. 
Your readers will be surprised to hear that 
Jamaica is about to take a rise out of her fair 
sister Ceylon, for we are to have an Exhibition in 
December 1890 : our Governor is very anxiou3 to see 
it carried out, as he believes it will bring Jamaica 
and the other islands more before the world at 
large and prove that " there is money yet " in the 
islands if people will only believe it ; and that 
it does not follow of necessity that a man who 
settles in the West Indies is sure to die of yellow 
fever, any more than a man who lives in England 
is bound to be carried off by smallpox, or scarlet fever. 
We are at length to have the boon of penny 
postage vouchsafed to us from 1st January next : 
it has been a long time coming, just 50 years after 
its adoption in England. W. S. 
The Violet Harvest. — The violet harvest in 
Southern France am) Italy is extremely good. Three 
trains daily bring huge cargoes of violets to Paris, 
packed in light fruit baskets. The contents of 
the evening train are kept for Paris consumption, 
while the violets that arrive in the morning are sent 
chiefly to England. What are our own farmers about 
that they do not also grow violets in winter ? — 
Court Journal. 
