724 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1888. 
are tried, bo that they look almost hopelessly 
broken down, you get miserable pluckings, and the 
quality of your tea is about on a par with your 
plants. 
Coffee, however, has been out in fine blossom, 
the spike being strong and healthy. So favourable 
has this season been for flowering, that you can see 
in abandoned land, stray struggling trees, clothing 
themselves in bloom. All kinds of native coffee has 
also been full of promise, but how much will set 
remains to be seen. 
It is perfectly wonderful how cacao has stood out, 
and on the whole how well it looks, but the 
spring crop will be a very scant one, although 
blossom does struggle out, here and there, showing 
a commendable willingness. Most of the cacao 
shade trees have Bhed their leaves, but our local 
scientists don't fret over that. The sap of the 
cacao is all the better to be warmed up a little, 
and they prophesy that with a good fall of rain 
we will have fresh cover, and a profuse Bhow of 
the little blossom. 
Jackson s New Tea Rolleb; 
3rd April 1888. 
Jackson's new roller "The Rapid" is evidently a 
fine machine, and certainly turns out nice work 
in a short time, the twist of the tea being good, and 
hardly any broken. It spills a little when first started, 
jerking the leaf off the table on to the floor : this is 
doubtless caused by an inequality in the distance be- 
tween the table and the box. It will be a much more 
difficult machine to set than any of the others, and this 
tendency to spill will be the trouble. Still it is 
not very much after all, and as soon as the leaf 
begins to twist the spilling ceases. As to the 
amount of power required to drive it, I fancy it 
has not been fairly tested yet — in Ceylon I mean, — 
and it will be interesting to know if the saving 
claimed is really a fact. That it will take less 
power than the " Excelsior," is clear to anyone 
who studies the construction of " the Rapid," 
but how much less is the question. By and bye, 
this too will be demonstrated. The device for lifting 
and lowering the lid, and applying pressure is very 
effective and simple. Here, however, the planter 
works very much in the dark as to how much 
weight is being applied. By noticing the contrac- 
tion of the spring a rough kind of guess may 
be arrived at, but what is really wanted is an 
index to show exactly the pressure on the leaf. 
With this index the present haphazard style will 
give place to exact knowledge, and when the planter 
has learned, after experiments, what weight 
produces the best results, he can keep at that, 
and have a more regular out-turn of tea than 
ever he had before. Besides this, the index would 
be one step nearer towards scientific tea-making 
which will certainly come in time. Peppekcobn. 
4 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
The Java Bode of the 25th February states that 
the Government coffee crop there, this year, has been 
estimated at 483,400 piculs. The value of planting 
land continues steadily to fall in Java, in proportion 
to the decline of produce quotations. Recently, a 
sugar estate in the province of Bezukie whi«h had 
cost half-a-million of guilders was sold for hardly one 
hundred and fifty thousand. A coffoe and cocoa estate 
in the Prenager Regencies changed hands the other day 
for 41,000 guilders. Four hundred thousand guilders, 
had been sunk in it. The value of dwelling houses has 
also fallen. They have become almost unsaleable when 
mortgaged. lu euch cases the mortgagees has been 
obliged to become owners as well, from the impossi- 
bility of otherwise recovering the money they had 
advanced on them. 
The Netherlands India Government has placed re- 
strictions on the emigration of coolies from Java. 
Power is however reserved to the Governor-General 
to grant exemptions. This dispensing power was lately 
exercised in favour of the Oocos islands. Messrs, 
Tidman Balfour & Oo. have received permission to 
recuit thirty natives of Netherlands Iudia for service 
on the islands in question. The contracts must be 
entered into with each coolie individually, and be 
officially certified separately. Certificates will be with- 
held until it is satisfactorily established that the 
coolies are perfectly aware of the conditions of their 
agreements, and fully accept thern. The advances to 
the coolies must be paid to them in the presence of 
a Government official. The firm binds itself to send 
the coolies back free of charge to their homes on the 
expiration of their contract, unless they wish to re- 
main in the Oooos islands of which however satisfac- 
tory proof must be adduced. 
In Banda, the new year was ushered in by a fearful 
hurricane accompanied by heavy rains, which wrought 
wide spread havoc in the nutmeg plantations. The force 
of the wind uprooted numbers of nutmeg trees, large 
and small. In nine plantations alone, 280 fine and large 
trees came to the ground. One estate, on an islet, lost 
4,000 fruit-bearing trees. From the trees left stand- 
ing, all the fruit expected to ripen in February and 
March, have been blown down, thereby destroyed all 
hopes of a heavy crop. How grievous this unto- 
ward event has proved to the planters may be judged 
from the fact that they had every prospect of au 
abundant crop. The short crop in prospect during 
the first quarter of the year, has had a marked effect 
in raisins; the local price of nutmegs and mace. 
Disease among sugarcanes is spreading in East Java. 
Plant cane from Borneo has been introduced on a 
large scale from its being proof against the disease. 
The Borneo canes have moreover the advantage of 
larger size, and heavier yield than the ordinary kinds. 
They attain an enormous size, and are expected to 
prove a powerful stand-by to the sorely tried Java 
sugar-growers. 
M1NCINGLANIANISM. 
Messrs. Brookes & Green, a Mincing Lane firm of 
drug-brokers, are in the habit of periodically favour- 
ing a select number of their customers with a report 
containing their views of the cinchona market. They 
take special pains to prevent these fortnightly out- 
pourings from falling into the hands of anyone outside 
the immediate circle of their business friends, which, 
whether for good or for evil, does not include The 
Chemist and Druggist. Somehow, it is true, a copy of 
their circular regularly finds its way into the editorial 
office of this journal ; but that is a matter of minor 
importance, to which we would not allude were it not 
that in Messrs. Brookes & Green's market report of 
February 15th the greater part of a letter from our 
Amsterdam correspondent, which originally appeared 
in our issue of December 17th last, is quoted verbatim 
though without acknowledgment. In that letter our 
correspondent pointed out that large quantities of 
cinchona of a very high alkaloidal standard are likely 
to be harvested in Java two or three seasons hence, 
and he warns cinchona planters that when these sup- 
plies pour in growers of low-class barks may find it no 
longer profitable to collect their produce. In com- 
menting editorially upon our correspondent's letter, 
we pointed out that the Oeylon planters would do 
well to study the signs of the times before the, pos- 
sibly, fatal hour comes upon them, and we stated 
that though the Java exports might not reach the 
15,000,000 lb. shipments from Ceylon in bulk, they 
might surpass them in alkaloidal yield. 
Messrs. Brookes & Green, after quoting " a letter 
headed Amsterdam in a public paper to hand by last 
mail" (in other words, our correspondent's letter to 
us), repeat what they allege to be remarks made by 
