September i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
167 
Value of 1,233 acres (Deo. 31, 1887) 
at £49 7s 9d £60,894 15 9 
Less differences in value of F. 8. waste lands, 
Aores. 
Jokai 5,854 Pauitolu . . . 
Less planted ... J, '231 Less planted . 
Acres. 
1,490 
5(54 
4,623 
926 
3,697 acres at £1 
Less estimated excess value of 
labour contracts in favour of 
l'anitola ... 1,250 
Less deficiency in reserve fund and 
cash balances at Panitola, as com- 
pared with Jokai (31st December, 
1887), say 
920 
. ... £3,697 
2,447 0 0 
68,447 15 9 
2,447 15 9 
Leaving as comparative value o 
Panitola £56,000 0 0 
R. Goudon Shaw. 
June 28th, 1888. Walter S. Warren. 
—11. 4 0. Mall, August 3rd. 
NEW VEGETABLE PRODUCTS IN SOUTH 
AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. Henry Poett, who has resided in the Northern 
Territory for over two years as Manager of a coffee 
and cinchona plantation, and is in Adelaide for 
a month or two, was examined on September 21. He 
believes that tho guava and lime could be cultivated 
here. Tho guava requires a free surface soil, contain- 
ing lime, and is adapted for the plains. It is first 
raised from seeds, then planted out, and boars in 
two and a half years. A fair average crop would be 
about 25 lb. of fruit per tree. They are planted at 
8 feet apart, and reach a height of 12 to 15 feet, 
being evergreen. About 700 trees would stand upon 
an acre, and in India the value of the fruit from 
each would be about eighteenpence. The fruit is 
chit 11 v used fur making preserve"!, though it is also 
a table fruit. Although it will live and bear fruit 
upon a rainfall of 15 inches it will do better with 
So inches. It likes a hot climate, and the absence 
of rainfall could be compensated by irrigation.* The 
fruit ripens about January here. Tea could be grown 
in South Australia if it were irrigated — it requires 
heat and mo'sture. The leaves are picked all the 
year round, except during cold weather. It would 
not be profitable, except with cheap labour. The 
Tamils (Indian coolies) are by far the best men — 
Chines" are no good. The Tamils arc tho finest 
class of labour he ever came across. They spend 
nearly all the money they earn in the country where 
they earned it. They do not interfere with labour 
that Europeans can do. They confine themselves to 
agriculture, and never ru>4i away to mines or anything 
of that sort. They take their wives and families with 
them. They work for 5s. per week und keep them- 
selves, whereas Chinese require 15s. per week. In 
India the Tamils work for 8d. per day; here you 
Would probably have to pay la. per day. Tho same 
class of labour is used in Mauritius. In a gang of 
100 coolies there would be forty women and fifteon 
to twenty children, and the rest able-bodied men. 
The men and children above 7 years of age work 
in the fields. They generally go back to their own 
Country every two or throe years, spend what littlo 
money tin \ have saved, and then come back again. 
The Liberian and Arabian coffoe arc both grown at 
tho Northern Territory, but the Eiberian does the 
best. It takes three yoars to realize a first crop. 
• Mr. Poolt, an old Ceylon planter, ought to 
know that tea could not possibly pay where irriga- 
tion is necessary and labour costly, in couipotitiou 
with that produced whoru rainfall and labour arc 
both abundant.— En. 
Mr. Poett was Manager for a year and a half, and 
does not know whether any crop has been taken yet, 
though it is timo there was one. The plac: das been 
abandoned by the Company. There was only 15 acres 
planted, the labour being Chinese. They lived mostly 
on rice and salt-fish. If he had been able to use 
coolie labour he would have made the plantation pay. 
It made all the difference where a Chinese was paid 
15s. per week and a Tamil only 5s. The Chinese 
would not do as much work, ran away after gold- 
fields, required to be consulted as to working overtime, 
and run to cover if a shower of rain came on. The 
Company owned 3,739 acros, but fi iled for want of 
money. The land was bought at 7s. 6d. per acre, 
and is situated at Hum Jungle, 28 miles from South- 
port. Coconuts and anything that will grow in a 
tropical climate can be produced in the Northern 
Territory. Tobacco also will grow then — -the patches 
of soil for this culture are not plentiful. Tea cannot 
be grown there, because there is not rain enough. 
It wants about 100 inches of rain per annum to grow 
tea.* — Adelaide Observer 
TOBACCO IN CUBA: 
Notes on Economic Plants in Havana. 
Some interesting notes on Tobacco culture, as well as 
on the introduction and cultivation of fibrous plants, 
in Havana, havo recently been furnished to the Foreign 
Office, from which we gather the followiug facts: — 
Kegardiug Tobacco culture, it seems that the mar- 
kets are affected by the general demmd for light- 
coloured Tobaccos. This demand is said to cause 
injury to the plant, which, unless artificial bleaching bo 
had recourse to, must be gathered before maturity, 
with loss of quality aDd aroma. There is as much 
Tobacco crown, and there are as good markets as ever, 
but the growers and manufacturers, in their race after 
quick returns, force and spoil the plant in the ground 
and the curing-house, and ship goods that not only no 
longer commuud the market, hut are undersold by 
foreign and inferior, but probably more carefully 
prepared kinds. There is, as a matter of course, u 
large amount of exquisite and carefully handled To- 
bacco exported, but the price of this has become so 
high that it is above the reach of the middle-class 
consumer, this, however, ought not to and need not 
be. Climate, soil, and acreage, are all in fovour of a 
superior and large production that could hold the field 
against all comers, but the elements to make this a 
reality — namely, capital labour, and frugal and un- 
fettered administration — arc wanting. The social aud 
political state of the island is not of a nature to attract 
these elements, and prostration and uncertainty are 
seen everywhere. Although Tobacco grows well all 
over the island, the soil and climate of the south-west 
portion produces tho finest. This is known as the 
Vuelta Abajo, aud lies aloug tho foot-hills of tho 
Sierra stretching to Capo Antonio and the northern 
sido of the great plain which reaches fiom sea to sea 
across the island. The very best land of the Vuelta 
Abajo lies near to Consolacion aud the lonias on the 
eastern side of tho Oayos which overlook the Palm- 
covered plain. 
The planter's house-made cigars, called "vegneros,'' 
or " farmers," are celebrated at Oousohicion, and poss< si - 
a delicious aroma, especially when smoki d immediate- 
ly on being made. Tho leaf is of a very rich, light, 
coffoe-brown, with slight hairy down on it, which is 
soft aud tender. To test the leaf, the vegnero always 
tries the strengh of tho material by passing it over 
his finger inthewayono tries tho skin of the glove. 
The " maduro," or the ripest, is considered the very 
best ; but as of late years fashion has ruled in favour 
of light colours, the Tobacco is driod in such a manner 
as to get tho required shade, hut in tho opinion of the 
best judges, to the detriment of the flavour. 
Tho Tobacco seed is sowii early in Octubtr, after 
tbo rains have well soaked tho light saudy suit, and 
• Hero Mr. Poett corrects bib pruiuun tviJouco.— 
Ed. 
