264 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
tinuance for an indefinite period is taken for 
granted, by the publication of a regulation, codi- 
fying all the rules and enactments bearing upon 
the subject. Every native cultivator, save priests, 
headmen, and officials within the coffee districts 
are bound each to plant and look after fifty cof- 
fee trees. They must themselves pick the berries 
and prepare them for market. The produce must be 
delivered to the Government at a fixed price. In 
these districts the produce of coffee trees planted by 
the people of their own accord, becomes liable to 
compulsory delivery to Government. In any case, 
the cultivators get a price far below the mar- 
ket value. With short crops the money they get 
becomes utterly disproportionate to the work per- 
formed on the plantations. The Minister for the 
Colonies comforts them with the assurance that he 
will not allow them to die of hunger in case the 
crop proves short. This is somewhat encouraging 
to them. A good shepherd shears his sheep but 
does not flay them. 
The Surabaya Courant reports the arrival there of 
a heavy consignment of the Borneo cane now coming 
into prominence for enormous yields of sugar. The 
consignments come to the order of Fraser Eaton 
and Company. They were soon forwarded to the 
estates in the neighbourhood. The next season 
will show the result. Large stretches of land have 
already been planted with these canes of promise. 
In West Java, disease is prevalent among indigen- 
ous cane. 
The new enactment regularising the compulsory 
Government coffee cultivation in Java, is not ex- 
pected to improve matters much, from the difficulty 
of finding available land within easy distance of 
the villages. By law, no cultivator may be com- 
pelled to till coffee land beyond four miles from 
his home. The Government is not likely to get 
all the coffee the Javanese are forced to grow. 
The high prices now ruling prove too strong a 
temptation to pilfering. Government coffee finds its 
way into the hands of Chinese and others, who 
pay the cultivators twice the price the State gives 
them. In any case, the compulsory cultivation of 
coffee by the natives, however counter it may 
run to modern ideas is merely a labour tax which 
the State is as fully entitled to impose as a money 
one. Among people not flush of cash, taxation 
in labour proves a financial expedient admitting of 
revenue being drawn from the population without 
driving them into the clutches of money lenders, 
to whom they will infallibly have recourse under a 
ready money revenue demand. 
The Surabaya Oourant says that this year's' 
Government Java coffee crop, will hardly total 
300,000 piculs. In one distriot the yield has 
shrunk from 24,000 piculs two years ago to 2,] 00 
this year. These figures augur a further rise in 
price. 
+ 
Indian and Ceylon Tea Avebagh.— Messrs. Walker, 
Lambe and Co. in their monthly Indian and Ceylon 
tea report of September 1st, say : — " The good as- 
sortment of teas offered this month has stimulated 
the market and resulted in very satisfactory sales to 
both growers and importers. The prices realised for the 
finest parcels have been excessive but latterly a little 
irregularity in the bidding has been noticeable, and later 
invoices of favourite marks have hardly kept up their 
previous quality. Medium teas have been in good de- 
mand, and Pekoe Souchongs and Souchongs with good 
liquor have advanced steadily till within the last few 
days. Common teas are neglected and sell at low rates. 
The quality of Dooars and Terai invoices has fallen 
off, but from Assam good useful parcels are now com- 
ing forward. The Sylhet teas are still poor. During 
the present weok the sales havo beoome much heavier, 
nd with the largo supplies at hand the market is 
likely to be tested. In China tea, however, there is a 
distinct recovery from the lowest prices established, 
which may in a measure assist our market. O^ylons 
have been in full supply this month, and sold readily 
at hardening rates. The advance has been in good 
teas, tippy Broken Pekoes and Pekoe Souchongs from 
lOd to Is being much sought after. Even at today's 
quotations, however, they offer excellent value, a fact 
fully appreciated by the Trade as evidenced by the rapid 
deliveries. August Public Sales, 1887—68,506 Indian, 
26.201 Ceylon.— H. # C. Mail. 
Coffee in Java. — It will be seen from the 
Netherlands Indian news extracted in another 
column from the Straits Times that the Dutch 
Government, so far from giving up compulsory 
cultivation of coffee in Java, have published a 
new regulation which continues the system in- 
definitely. What the opinions of the Java papers 
on this subject are will be seen from the trans- 
lations given. This year's coffee crop, it is now 
estimated, will hardly reach 300,000 piculs, the 
yield in one district alone having fallen in the 
last two years from 24,000 to 2,100 piculs. 
Weatheb, Crops and Pests Upcountry. — From 
a latter from Upper Dimbula of yesterday's date, 
we quote as follows : — 
I think our weather means to change at last. The 
sun was struggling out all yesterday and there was very 
little rain, aDd this morning has begun without mist 
or rain. Last week was so awfully wet that some of 
Friday's leaf was only finished off yesterday. Our 
pruned tea is coming on very nicely up here : a few 
days' sun would make it shoot forward rapidly. We 
shall anyway have good pickings by the beginning of 
November. Still busy supplying. As I was going 
down yesterday a boy came to tell me he had killed 
a big snake near the coffee store ; so I made him bring 
it, and I took it with me round my shoulders to show 
the . It measured 7 feet 6 inches unskinned, 
so I hope soon to get the 12 feet one that is lurking 
about somewhere. Last night I skinned my specimen 
and it was not an easy or an agreeable job. I washed 
my hands well after it. The green bug is rapidly 
diminishing and it has practically done no damage. 
The berries still remain sound and firm on the trees. 
But the bandicoots are a great nuisance to the 
tea. In one night they undermined and ate all the 
large roots of eight tea bushes near our bungalow here. 
Planting Matters.— We fancy the corre- 
spondent who wrote us the other day, expressing a 
doubt if most tea planters would get 80 per cent 
of their estimates for this season, will turn out to 
be correct. For months back the weather has been 
unfavourable for flushing. For that very reason, 
no doubt, it has been favourable to the full and 
early maturing of coffee, and we hear of a large 
and early crop on a place in Lindula, where a slight 
picking has already been obtained. The long lull 
in the south-west monsoon has no doubt contributed 
to these results. On the other hand the violent 
recommencement of the monsoon wind, accompanied 
by heavy rain, is telling unfavourably on tea. A letter 
from Upper Dimbula of yesterday's date states : — 
" My calculation for this month is 8,000, but I doubt 
if we '11 get it if this dreadful weather goes on. 
We have had 4'79 inches in the last seven days 
against 4*40 for the whole of August. But Mr. is 
making the best of it, and is supplying part of the 
estate with fine tea plants. I was sorry to see the rats had 
made such ravages with the coffee primaries on the 
Wire Shoot Hill : but fortunately they nip mostly 
just beyond the fruit, so that the present crop will 
not suffer much, I think. There is a good deal 
of black bug about on the tea, but I do not fear 
that. We must try and fork the estate this year 
if we can." 
No one seems to attach importance to black bug on 
tea. Green bug on coffee is very differently regarded. 
This formidable pest is stated to be indentical with 
the coccus which does most harm to fruit trees in 
English orchards. 
