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'ir'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
PLANTING IN NETHLRLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
In Palembang the tracing of absconding coolies 
is greatly facilitated by setting a price on their 
head. Recently, the police there met with so 
many difficulties in catching sundry Chinese coolies 
who had deserted from a tobacco estate there, 
that a reward of five guilders was promised for 
the delivery of each absconder to the estate 
manager or to the controller. This offer of re- 
ward worked so well that out of 21 coolies who 
had absconded on a certain night, no less than 
8 were delivered to the authorities within 3 days 
by the country people. The Batavia Niemvsblad 
hopes that the system of offering rewards in such 
cases will be continued, and that the rewards 
themselves will be increased as the only way to 
prevent Chinese robber bands from infesting the 
jungles of Palembang. Runaway coolies are for 
the most part conspirators, bandits, and murderers 
who had fled from China, and will readily take to 
crime when driven to the uttermost by want and 
misery. 
The Java Government looks with disfavour 
upon Javanese emigrating to Deli. Headmen 
in Java have been instructed to tell intending 
emigrants to demand at least ten guilders a month 
as minimum rate of pay on arrival in Sumatra. 
The steady enhancement of wages as has been the 
case with Chinese coolies there, will prove detri- 
mental to plantation enterprise in that quarter. 
Villagers from the overpeopled portions of Java 
should be encouraged by the authorities to seek 
their fortune in Deli, where they have every pro- 
spect of earning 40 guilder cents a day as min- 
imum wage, with free house, and good treatment, 
without anything to fear from land tax collectors 
and exactions from headmen. Now that the Gov- 
ernment has set its face against emigration to Deli, 
the local authorities will assuredly do their best to 
discourage the movement. 
The sugar crop in Java, now that the dry 
season has set in, promises to be abundant. 
The Sultan of Sambas in Vest Borneo has 
become desirous of Europeans settling in his dom- 
inions. He is willing to grant waste land there 
to intending settlers on 75 years leases at a quit 
rent of one guilder per bouw of If acre. 
The new variety of sugar cane from Borneo 
now under cultivation in Java, where it yields 
some 140 piculs of sugar per acre, bears among 
the natives the name of tebu keong. So far as. it 
has been tried the cane has yielded splendid re- 
sults. The hard times now befalling sugar growers 
have spurred them on to seek new and better 
canes, to replace the degenerate ones now cult- 
ivated in Java. The newly introduced cane surpasses 
a 1 others for the present. Should it take kindly 
to new surroundings and be proof against 
degeneration, this kind of cane has a glori- 
ous future before it, and will save sugar cultiv- 
ation in Java from otherwise certain ruin. As 
might beexpected a heavy demand has set in for 
it. The firm of Eraser Eaton & Co. of Surabaya, so 
says the local Couraitt is so deeply interested in 
the sugar trade that it can run great risks in 
experimbnts and trial ventures. The encouraging 
results attending the cultivation of the novel cane, 
has led it to despatch an agricultural expert in 
its service to Borneo, to trace out the native land 
of that productive plant, and bring down a large 
supply of specimens should circumstances allow. 
Should this mission prove successful of which 
there is no doubt, Java, within a year will become 
possessed of a kind of cane highly superior to all 
other varieties. The question however rises whether 
his cane drawing so much sugar out of the soil, 
will flourish on more than a few select spots, and 
will not lose its good qualities by transplantation. 
Advices from Hamburg recently received at 
Surabaya, show that the price of coffee has every 
prospect of rising higher still in consequence of the 
labour crisis in Brazil. There, the emancipation 
of the slaves, which is said to be going on apace, 
has exercised a very detrimental effect on the 
coffee crop. In this respect, matters will go from 
bad to worse in the near future. The present 
crop suffers terribly from lack of labour. The 
emancipated slaves leave the plantations as soon 
as they can. There are thousands of hands short 
for picking and preparing the berries for market. 
Endeavours to prevail upon the slaves to stay 
five years longer for wages on the estates, have 
proved fruitless. The Brazilian Governmeut seldom 
interferes with the matter. These tidings had the 
effect of making thg coffee market firmer. 
WYNAAD PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION. 
August 3rd, 1887. 
Present :— Messrs. Abbott, Achard, Atzenwiler, 
Gooding, Lamb, D. Mackenzie, Mackinlay, Malcolm, 
Puenzieux, Trollope, Walker, Winterbotham, VanRees- 
ma and Hockin, Hon. Secy. 
Cinchona. — The Honorary Secretary laid on the 
table G. O. Revenue No. 034 dated 4th July 1887 on 
manuring Cinchonas forwarded by Messrs. Arbuthnot 
& Co. and correspondence about the same, and was 
instructed to write and thank that firm for their ex- 
ertions to obtain an early issue of reports on experi- 
ments carried out on Government Plantations and to 
assure them of the hearty support of the Association 
in their endeavours. 
Cinchona.— The Honorary Secretary stated he had 
received from the Secretary the report of the Ceylon 
Planters' Association for the year ending February 1887 
containing the following interesting figures on the 
cultivation of cinchona in Java compiled by the Plan- 
ters' Association of Sakabami and the British Consul 
at Batavia. 
a The following are the only kinds recommended 
for cultivation. 
1. — 0. Ledgeriana. — Of extremely slow growth 
ripe barks giving 6 to 12 per cent quinine and cultiv- 
ated at 3,500 to 4,000 Rhynland feet above sea level. 
2. — O. Sccihubba. — Stripping is said to be injurious 
and bark is left till 15 or 20 years of age to be sold as 
Chemist's bark by the look. 
3. — Hybrid of O. Ledgeriana and C. Succirubra. — 
Some give 10 per cent of quinine with a growth nearly 
equal to Succirubra. 
b The cultivation is not likely to be extended but 
existing plantations will be cultivated to the utmost 
and by high culture may double their present yield. 
Government Plantations covered in 1883, 1778 Acres 
and will yield 544,000 lb. for 1887. 
1,249,000 Ledger. 
They con- C Plants in Nursery. — 560,000 Succirubra 
tainedini Sin?"',- 
) . . 234,000 Officinalis. 
Sept. 1886. (.Plants in the field — 74,000 Calisaya & 
Haskarliana. 8,000 Lancifolia, 
556,000 Succirubra & Oalapta. 
Private Plantations in 1886 covered 21,000 Acres and 
contained Succirubra 14,000,000 trees. 
Other (Ledger.?) 16,000,000 „ 
30,000,000 
The Crop for 1887 is estimated at 1,433,520 lb. 
C. Mode op Cultivation. — Stripping is condemned 
and all plantations are worked as plantations- of fir 
in Europe by planting closely (4x4 Rhynland feet) 
and thinning and lopping ytarly to promote robust 
growth. The yield is 180 lb. per Acre for Ledger 
for the 3rd year increasing yearly till it reaches 600 
lb. per Acre in the 10th year or 3,000 lb. in all in 
the 8 years. After the 10th year none but fully 
developed trees will be left wheu uprooting must be 
