THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July f ( 1887. 
General authorising its construction by Government. 
In Sumatra so far, the only railway in operation is a 
private line in Deli. The Ombilien fields have long 
been famed for the quantity and good quality of the coals 
found there. For years, private enterprise has vainly 
sou.ht to move the Government to take some action 
for the development of that productive region. 
DELI NEWS. 
(Translated for the Straits Times, May 2oth.) 
In Deli, several planters have taken to growing 
paddy on fields too exhausted for tobacco cultivation, 
through coolies on the estates. Natives too have 
been carrying on paddy growing on similar land. 
But, for all this, the yield of rice there so falls far below 
requirements that, in 1885, no less than 240,000 piculs 
of that article had to be imported. Pepper growing is 
steadily extending, save in the district of Assahan. 
There the cultivation of that product has considerably 
decreased in consequence of the exactions and squeezes 
of the holders of the plantations. In a neighbouring 
district, many new pepper estates have been started. 
In the island of Bengkalis, experimpnts in growing 
that article have been made without satisfactory 
results worth mentioning. 
Planters in Deli have become keenly alive to the 
disadvantage of trusting to only one product. Tobacco, 
at present their mainstay, may at any time fail them. 
Other kinds of cultivation have been tried energetic- 
ally without encouraging success. On Mariendal 
estate, coffee trees have been planted by the hundred 
thousand in all. At hearing time, wet w eather interfered 
with the ripening- of the berries. Drying operations, 
too, were attended by difficulties partly overcome by 
improved driers. The outturn shipped off to Europe 
as parchment coffee, realised low prices. Toe cultiv- 
ation of Liberian coffee on this estate had to be 
abandoned from the results proving bad indeed. This 
variety seems to take more kindly to the environ- 
ment of the Tanah-Abang estate in Serdang. where 
the yi< Id, 150 piculs in 1885, was almost doubled last 
year. Coffee has also been planted on two other 
estates in Deli. Cocoa growing has so far failed to 
answer expectations. Iudiarubber and Guttapercha 
planting, do not offer a more promising outlook. 
Near Medan, rameh growing yielded a fair crop. 
Trials with newly invented machinery for preparing 
the fibre, resulted unsatisfactorily. At Sungei Agul, 
indigo cultivation with seeds from Guatemala has 
been tried with some success. The experiment fully 
came up to expectations. The quality of the article 
turned out, though prepared in a primitive way, 
proved very good. Gold piospecting in Bila only led 
to disappointment. 
COFFEE IN BEAZIL. 
The Rio News of April 6th states : — 
The recent spurt in our coffee market is but 
another proof of what we have sustained, that 
Eio must prepare to hold much larger stocks than 
has heretofore been the practice, and that con- 
suming markets will be more and more disinclined 
to pile up large quantities of coffee when their 
necessities can be so rapidly and readily supplied 
from this. The recent movement here undoubtedly 
arose because our market was the cheapest at the 
moment, and as prices here have been advanced 
sharply, the demand may become lesa urgent and 
is, we think, likely to be more moderate pending 
another accumulation of stock and a consequent 
modification in prices. While advices from abroad 
are undoubtedly stimulating, we incline to believe 
that the movement in consuming markets has been 
purely speculative. There is no absolute explan- 
ation of the small average receipts in March. 
Opinion:; vary as interests are concerned and un- 
favourable weather, or the absolute scarcity of the 
bean, arc in turn ascribed as reasons for our 
-mall supply. We incline to believe that a third 
hypothesis mi^ht be added, viz, that factors 
bete have advisod planters to restrict their ship- 
ments, pending the movement that has occurred 
in our market. Absolute scarcity as yet we do 
not credit, and either, or both, of the remaining 
reasons must be considered temporary Unfavour- 
able weather cannot always continue, and the 
advance in prices here will modify the counsels 
of factors relative to shipments from the interior. 
Therefore we look to not more than a moderate 
business, until prices again reach such a range as 
will again attract the attention of consuming markets. 
There is very little said at present about the 1886-87 
crop. A significant remark is made by a writer in our 
principal journal, in which he disclaims a belief 
in no crop, and estimates for 1886-87 one-half 
a crop, to be supplemented by the produce of 
new plantations in Minas, S. Paulo and Espirito 
Santo. Here is the very factor that leads to mis- 
calculation in coffee crop estimates, and subse- 
quent disappointment and loss. It matters very 
little to the consumer whether coffee be pro- 
duced in the Parahyba valley, or in the provinces 
above mentioned, provided it be exposed for sale 
in the Rio market, and it weuld almost seem 
that some modification of the earliest crop estim- 
ates is possible. There is one feature in the 
trade that at no distant date is likely to be of 
importance. We allude to the increasing coffee 
shipments from the port of Victoria, Espirito 
Santo, to direct consuming markets. This coffee 
was formerly a part of the Bio crop, and its 
shipment direct will ultimately tell on our export 
figures. Whether an increase in the production 
of Minas and in such parts of S. Paulo as are 
tributary to Rio will suffice to meet the reduc- 
tionin the supply of our market from Espirito Santo 
is a question that only time can solve. We may 
close our remarks by confessing that we see little 
probability of our supply for the six months, 
January-June, of this year, reaching 2,000,000 bags 
as we estimated it would in January 1st. We 
do not doubt that the coffee could be produced, 
but for this purpose so high a range of prices 
in our market would be requisite, upon which it 
seems to us injudicious to calculate, that we con- 
sider a modification in our estimate of the supply 
for the last half of the present crop necessary. 
* 1 
CHEAP QUININE. 
(Straits Times, May 30th. J 
The Planters' Association at Bandong in Java 
has appointed a permanent committee to start a 
movement which should command every support 
and aid in this part of the world. Its object is 
to cheapen the retail price of quinine, and bring 
it within the reach of almost every one. That 
remedy, so indispensable in tropical countries, has 
of late risen considerably in retail value, notwith- 
standing the circumstance that its wholesale price 
wiihin the last few years has fallen sixty per cent. 
Tne association in question has taken steps to 
remedy the evil by strenuous efforts to supply 
the article not only in Netherlands India, but 
also in ailjacent foreign colonies at rates 
which would admit of the poorest people laying 
in adequate stocks of it. This class of 
society forming the bulk of the population, 
Buffers most from the high rates ruling. Only 
well-to-do persons can freely supply themselves 
with the article. As may be expected, this unto- 
ward state of things has taken effect detrimentally 
upon the salo of quinine, and upon cinchona 
cultivation as well, especially in Java. To bring 
about a change for the better in this respect, the 
permanent committee of the abovementioned associ- 
ation took counsel with some of the leading quinine 
manufacturers in Europe. Their object in view 
