jtfttf f, 1887.3 IrfiE TROPICAL AGR2GULTUBI8tt 6j 
general meeting will be disbursed to the share- 
holders 6 per cent of the amount of their shares, 
and 29 per cent to the reserve fund. The remainder 
will be distributed as follows:— 10 per cent to 
the managers and clerks ; 5 per cent to the directors ; 
10 per oent to the commissioners ; and 75 per cent 
to the shareholders. Mr. H. G. Th. Crone has 
been appointed director, and Messrs. G. L. Bosch, 
of Arnhens, C. P. Lohr, the late chief manager 
of the factory of the Netherland Trade Company, 
and F. C. A. Hauschild, partner in the firm of 
Firsch and Hauschild, of this city, are engaged 
as commissioners. — L. & C. Epresa. 
■» 
PEPPER AND PADDY IN NETHERLANDS 
INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits rimes, 15th June.) 
The Batavia Jsieuwsblad states that the pepper 
plantation in the Lampong districts in the Sum- 
atra, have suffered so much from disease that 
experts, consulted as to the best course to follow 
under the circumstances, have advised the root- 
ing out of all the diseased plants. The result is 
the more regrettable, from the officials in that 
quarter having made strenuous exertions to push 
on this branch of cultivation in the interest of 
the people. 
Black coloured paddy is becoming extensively 
grown in the province of Malang in Java. It is 
said to differ widely in taste and smell from the 
ordinary kind. 
Some important experiments have been set on 
foot by a gentleman in Java with a view to test- 
ing the capabilities of native silkworms. He has 
got permission from the Government to continue 
experimenting with them in a practical fashion in 
the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg. To facilitate 
matters, a Government grant-in-aid has been placed 
at his disposal. In his opinion the silkworm in- 
dustry will never pay Europeans to take in hand. 
It will prove only remunerative among those natives 
who can utilise the services of women and children 
for the purpose. Inquiries made in France have 
shown that the silk produced by the Javanese 
worm which, by the bye, is suffered to run wild, 
answers manufacturing requirements. This branch 
of industry, even if it yields only one guilder 
profit yearly for each family carrying on silk- 
worm rearing, would diffuse prosperity and well- 
being far and wide in Java. The Javanese only 
require judicious leading to benefit by these ex- 
periments. 
TROPICAL PRODUCTS IN THE SOUDAN. 
The task of opening up the Soudan to trade 
should be undertaken by a company, and that a 
sufficient number of ports or factories should be 
established on the coast of the Red Sea, both north 
and south of Suakin, to allow the inhabitants of 
different regions to resort each to the one which 
may be most convenient to them, and, at the same 
time, to avoid the collisions between tribes at feud 
with one another which would be almost inevitable 
if the transactions were confined to any single 
centre of operations. The power of the Soudanese 
to avail themselves of the opportunities offered 
by the projected company would depend, of course, 
Upon the poDsiblo productiveness of the country; 
and on thiB point the statements of Mr. Fox are 
exceedingly encouraging, Prior to the late rebellion, 
the united export and import trade of the Soudan 
amounted to a total of two and a half millions 
sterling; and it is probable that this was pract- 
ically limited to the most accessible fringe of the 
population. The larger proportion of the land is 
described as being " most fertile, offering great 
capabilities of development, abounding in agricult- 
ural resources, and, it is believed, in mineral 
wealth." Even the desert portions yield an ab- 
undance of gum, ostrich feathers, and raw hides; 
and the quantities of these would no doubt be 
much increased by a proper organization of tho 
industry supplying them. Emin Bey asserts that 
in the equatorial provinces he has cultivated cotton, 
indigo, sugar cane, and rice, and that ostrich farms 
have been started ; while the Sennaar is described 
as being of almost unlimited corn-growing capacity, 
and fit also for the production of coffee and to- 
bacco. With these natural advantages there is 
every reason to believe that the inhabitants, when 
in constant contact with the products and re- 
sources of civilization, would speedily develop a 
taste for things which at present are unknown to 
them, or ar6 known only as almost inaccessible 
luxuries ; and so the old sequence of events would 
once more be set on foot. Wants would create 
industry, before which tribal feuds and foreign wars 
would of necessity die out, and industry would soon 
produce a demand for education. The dismal trade 
of slave-hunting, with the precarious profits and 
heavy risks attending its prosecution, would be 
replaced by pursuits calculated to offer a shorter 
and more easy road to wealth ; and thus man's 
natural love of comfort and luxury would once 
more become a powerful agency in the elevation 
alike of his material and of his moral condition. 
— The Times. 
♦ 
British North Borneo. — I have good news : 
a Tobacco Company has been started in Darvel 
Bay and a Trading and Planting Company in 
Sandakan — both of which promise well. Province 
Dent doing well and is becoming an important 
exporter of pepper by its own people. Governor 
Weld is now there, engaged in a special Commission 
to examine into and settle matters connected with 
Brunei, Sarawak and British North Borneo. — Cor. 
The effects of what wb doubt not are 
symplpcos stumps is thus stated : — 
"A destructive kind of blight, or fungus, has 
been attacking the tea plant in the Dooars with 
fatal results. Messrs. Jardine, Skinner & Co. have 
forwarded to the local Agri-Horticultural Society 
some roots of tea bushes thus attacked, with the 
accompanying letter : — 1 We send herewith roots of 
tea bushes that have died of on forest land in the 
Dooars. The bushes thrive well for a time, then 
suddenly wither, and it is noticeable that in every, 
or nearly every instance, the bushes that die are 
adjacent to decaying stumps of trees, felled when 
the land was cleared of forest. The bushes are 
from '2 to 3 years old, and as a rule, do well in 
the soil of the garden. Perhaps Dr. King, or Mr. 
Wood-Mason, would kindly favour us with their 
views as to the probable cause of the bushes dying. 
Can it be fungus from the decaying stumps and 
roots of the forest trees?' The roots were sent to 
Dr. King who reports upon them as follows; — 'I 
have carefully examined the diseased toa bushes 
sent to me, and I have submitted them to Dr. D. D. 
Cunningham, who makes vegetable blights a special 
study. The result of Dr. Cunningham's examin- 
ation of the specimens is, that the root bark has 
in them all been completely destroyed by a minute 
fungus. It i6 extremely likely that this fungus 
originated in the dead and decaying stumps, which 
your correspondents say abound in the garden from 
where the bushes come, But whatever may have 
been the origin of the blight, it is infectious ; and 
all tea bushes affected by it should be rooted up 
and carefully burnt. Beyond this precaution I can 
suggest no remedy.' Tea planters in the Dooum 
will thus hare a new pest to contend againit." 
