THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i 1887. 
There are two classes of coolies, the bad and the good. 
The good coolie works hard, is attentive to the directions 
given him, plants fairly well, cleans his plants well, 
cuts ripe, and> in the majority of cases, makes a fair 
amount of profit. Such men are given more latitude 
ae to working, as this kind of man requires but little 
looking after. He has come to make money and 
will make it, and any one who knows the Chinese 
character is well aware how plodding and persever- 
ing such a man will be. The other class will work 
only when the assistant or tandU is by, is generally 
dirty in his habits, slovenly in his work, and invariably 
comes out at the end of the crop on the wrong 
side of the balance. Such men as these (happy in 
the minority) require regular driving from their houses 
instead of going cheerfully to work as the others always 
do, and often this is not done without a liberal supply 
of stick and it is this class of men which is held up as 
the examples of the ill-treatment coolies receive. What 
is to be done with a man who owes money, is every day 
making a large debt, and sets himself deliberately to do 
no work? It is true that a coolie who refuses to work 
will be punished by the authorities if brought before 
them, but there are two reasons against sending men to 
prison ; the first is, it never does them any good, as they 
get less work to do in prison than on the estate ; secondly, 
the man has taken a field to cultivate, and every 
day he is absent from his work entails a serious loss 
to the estate ; there is no cure for such men ; he 
takes no notice of talking, and you can only appeal 
to their feelings by aid of a rattan, a few strokes 
of which, by the bye, is not to be compared to what 
was legally for years dealt out to soldiers and sailors. 
In Her Majesty's service this used to be called 
punishment, in the planter's case it is called ill-treat- 
ment. These men are such rascals that even if they 
make a good orop they sell it to some good coolies 
for a small sum, of course without the knowledge 
of the European, the reason for this is that they 
reckon, if they deliver the tobacco the money it is 
taxed it will never come to their hands, as it will 
be written off their debt ; they are also in the habit 
of taking as many implements as they can get upon 
credit and sell them for cash to well-to-do coolies. 
Such men are the bane of the estate, ready for any 
row and invariably discontented ; and yet if these 
men are sick they are as well treated as the best 
coolie, and the estate sees that they get a sufficiency 
of good food. "Weak or sickly coolies are never put 
to field work, but are used for labour only fit for 
women. 
THE WOBK. 
The portion of forest to be planted having been 
selected, a road is made straight through it, in the 
first place, the timber is felied, and a rough road 
made by the natives of the country, the Chinese coolies, 
being put on the road to make a ditch on each side 
and the earth thrown out of these ditches makes the 
foundation of the road, all the stumps of trees being 
rooted up, and a road ultimately made fit for our 
wheeled vehicles to travel over. The land to be 
planted is given out in sections to the natives, who 
fell the timber, and the monarchs of the forest lie 
piled up one on the other in all directions, just as 
they fall, a dense impenetrable mass of timber ; and 
seen for the first time, it is almost incredible to 
the uninitiated that this colossal wood pile in three 
or four months will be a waving sea of green plants. 
Now the fields are given out to the planters, each 
coolie's field generally measuring 900 feet by 60 feet 
English measure. The coolies draw lots for the 
divisions, as scarcely two fields are alike, some having 
heavier timber to be disposed of than others ; and 
some better ground than others. John Chiuaman then 
sets to work not at all disheartened with the 
Herculean task before him, first he cuts away the 
underwood which has grown up 6ince the felling of 
the trees, then he cuts away the branches, piling the 
smaller wood around the great trunks, and day after 
day, in a scorching heat, he keeps steadily chop, 
chop, chop, and on the whole length of the road 
the ring of the axe is heard. It is a pleasure to see 
is good coolie at work, how eleverly he picks out 
the right place to cut the wood, that may fall in a 
position most suitable for piling up, and to watch 
how doggedly he perseveres in a work that to most 
men the bare sight of would dishearten. Later on, 
when the wood is considered dry enough, it is fired, 
and dense columns of smoke and flame are seen the 
whole length of the division. 
At night this scene is wild and grand, the thick, 
dark bush, brought out in strong relief, forming a black 
back-ground to a thousand blazing piles; and now 
and then, some dead trees catching fire, the tongues 
of flame leap high up as if attempting to reach 
the star-lit sky; the same large log, rolling into a 
blazing furnace of smaller branches, sends a glittering 
fountain of brilliant sparks to sport in the breeze. 
My pen could never describe so grand a pyrotechnical 
display, cascades of flame, fountains of sparks, palaces 
of fire, all are here. Truly the fire king holds high 
revels in Deli on the burning off the land for cultiv- 
ation. — Shakesptart. 
Day after day burning goes on ; as the wood gets 
consumed and the fire dies out, the remnants are 
gathered and are repiled, until none is left but the 
incombustible trunks of a red wood that no ordinary fire 
will consume. Now the planter hoes the land, no more 
scrape, but each stroke cutting down half a foot to nine 
inches in the ground, and when the hoeing is half finished 
the seed beds or nurseries for the tobacco plant are 
made. A good piece of land is chosen for this, and the 
ground hoed deep and afterwards well thrown up, about 
20 feet long by two feet broad, but the dimensions are 
a matter of taste. These beds are well raked and cleaned 
and made beautifully fine, and then beateu smooth 
with pieces of wood. The seed is then mixed with wood 
ashes and sown, and a covering is made over the bed to 
keep rain and sun out, for the young seedling is as 
delicate as a new-born babe, and in about six or 
seven days the young plants appear, and trouble at 
once begins. Morning and evening the seedlings are 
watered, and in another week the great enemy to the 
tobacco plant appears, and each coolie armed with a 
small straw has all he can do to pick off the worms 
which infest the beds in myriads: in some cases so 
great is this plague that the beds have to be cleaned 
twice a day. In thirty days from the sowing of the 
seed, the plant is ready for transplanting, and all this 
time the coolie has been burning his wood, hoeing 
his ground, and collecting the incombustible roots and 
unburnt debris. The portion he intends planting first 
is now prepared, and after being inspected and found 
in order, the next morning he takes out a number 
of plants required, and towards sun-down the plant- 
ing begins. Taking a line with the distances marked 
on it, he measures where the holes are to be made, 
first digging up the soil in spots two feet from each 
other, until he has completed a line; he then moves 
three feet further and makes another line of boles, 
and so on, and this operation is the meaning of the 
clause in his agreement referring to his undertaking 
to plant " three feet by two. " His friend, a good 
coolie, generally has a friend to help him plant, now 
pours water into each hole and when all the necess- 
ary holes are made, with his hand he works the 
ground fine and then carefully beds the young plant. 
I may state, to be more clearly understood, that the 
hole-making consists of a deep stroke of the hoe and 
then shaking the earth back into the cut of the hoe. 
This is very important, as should the coolie simply make 
a hole, the root of the young plant soon comes on 
hard ground and often perishes. The next morning 
all the plants are carefully protected from the sun by 
small planks about half a foot long and a few inches 
broad, but on some estates they use a cover made 
of long grass twisted in a triangle, the centre of 
which is crossed by bars of grass. In a few days 
the plant begins to spring up, and if the weather is 
favourable is soon strong enough to admit of the 
covers being removed. Every evening, for some days, 
these transplanted seedlings must be watered. Upo» 
the removal of the protecting planks the seedling 
must be assisted by heaping up with the hand the 
loose earth around, and as the plant now grows the 
earth must be banked up until each row is 
