September z, i888,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
September. The trees are in capital heart, and 
are likely to do better next year i£ the seasons 
are favorable ; ripe, and green oolite, as well as a 
good blossom are now to be seen on the trees, 
as is often the case in " Udapussellawa " and 
" Uva " generally. That Jamaica coffee can and 
does bear heavily is exemplified by a small held 
on this property named " Top Mountain;" it must, 
from all lean learn, be fully 40 years old. Wo weed 
it as a job for 2j acres, and it has yielded !)0 
tubs of 01 quarts, which at 40 tubs to the tierce 
is good lor tierces, say 1,800 lb. marketable 
coffee, say 10 cwt. or (i$ cwt. an acre. Now as 
these two-and-a-half acres are such " patch-patch" 
ooffee as not really to be more than one and-a half 
acres of bona tide bearing trees, it raises the bear- 
ing per acre from 0£ to 10 cwt. per acre, a result 
1 should much havo liked to have realized from 
the 50 acres of Coffee laud, I weed and keep up, 
but which from crop results must, 1 am sure, be' 
very much less of coffee trees. This result 
convinces me that Jamaica old coil'ee generally 
cannot have much more than 500 trees to the 
acre, or surely the yield per acre would be more, 
as individually the trees bear heavily and remind 
me of the iinest coil'ee in Uva. 
Mr. D. Morns, of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has 
tent me a copy of his address on the " Vegetable 
Resources ol the West Indies," delivered before the 
London Chamber of Commerce. All he says of the 
capabilities of the Antilles to grow large and minor 
produots, ol the large reserves ol virgin laud 
available, and the good climate in all the larger 
island is perfectly true, but until these lands are 
made available by railways or good cart roads, 
and there is a reliable supply of labor to be 
obtained, things must reniuin in statu quo, I 
would therelore caution intending investors in 
Jamaica not to be induced to settle here as 
coffee planters until they have first come to 
look and judge for themselves. The land is 
no doubt " all there" in thousands of acres, but 
it is mostly very steep and exposed to "Northers," 
and being at present so inaccessible and far from 
labour, he would be a most venturesome man 
who would sink his capital on our northern slopes. 
That the estate in which Captain Coxhead, 11. A., 
is interested, has, up to the present, been sulliciently 
supplied with labor, does not make it by any 
means certain that if a few more estates were 
opened in that locality sutlicient labour would bo 
forthcoming. Even could this great dilliculty of 
labor bo ovorcome by cooly emigration, or Creoles 
from the other parishes, large barrack.s would 
havo to bo built, and tho trouble of transport 
would bo such that unless Government saw the 
way to open up these forest reserves it would be 
madness to open land for cofTee, consequently 
matters are likely to remain as they are, and the 
cultivation of high grown coffee in Jamaica is not 
likely to be much extended. 
1 agree with all the gallant Captain and ex- 
"A.D. O." says in regard to breeding ol horses 
and stock generally. lVn keeping, with Pimento 
to back it up, is not an unprovable occupation, 
and as to banana growing, ligures speak for them- 
selves : even old King bugar and rum will pay 
win u the Hounty system is swept away, es- 
pieially it the Byatem of " usinrs " is adopted 
as in tho t rench, and even some British colonics; 
and as to climate it is perfect on the hills, ex- 
cept uunng tho lew weeks ol the two rainy seasons, 
una \en in tlio low lauds it i» fairly healthy, 
away from mangrove swamps, and 1 believe with 
Cupt. Coxheud that even labourers of the btogliah 
cla»s could occupy lauds on thu lower aJopaa, and 
grow vurii" '.mils of products on small holding! 
of a few acres, much to their co nfort and benefit, 
provided they were temper.ito, intelligent, and hard- 
working. In the old days raw rri n and unhealthy 
barracks decimated tiie troops far more than actual 
ravages of "yellow jack' ; yellow fever is now 
but seldom heard oi, and may often be traced 
to want of common precautions on the part of 
the sufferer. After all, all countries have their 
peculiar diseases ; England its consumption, scarlet 
and typhoid fevers ; India its various fevers, cholera 
and dysentery ; surely the West Indies cannot be 
expected to go " scot free," but must have their 
share of " the ills to which flesh is heir." 
Our Governor is away on short leave ; a rumour 
has reached tho colony he' is not likely to return, 
as he has been selected for the Gove rnorship of 
Ceylon, in succession to Sir Arthur Gjrdon ; an- 
other rumour is to the effect that Walter Sendall, 
formerly in the Ceylon Service, is to be promoted 
to tho Governorship of Trinidad. These may lie 
simply "canards"; the appointments may not be 
unlikely to foliow, but surely Sir Henry Norman 
will return to complete his five years, as well as 
to preside over the Council during the forthcoming 
debate on the revised tarill, and the vexed question 
of a land-tax, which was to be tackled next session 
in October. It would doubtless be better to have 
no land tax at all, as being likely to deter settlers 
from investing, but as the Government seems to 
need and must have the money, my opinion is a 
uniform rate of one shilling an acre on all culti- 
vated lands would be less ouerous and more popular 
than a tax on the assessed value of properties, 
of course, the tax should be levied on white, brown, 
and black alike, and a very small impost placed 
on the remaining land, which is most y too rough, 
too worn out, or to steep too be of any use to 
the owner. Thus, a property 200 acres in extent of 
cultivated land would pay JC 10 per annum, and on the 
000,000 acres of land estimated to be under cultivation 
a sum of £30,000 would be secured, which, in 
addition to increased tariff charges, would yield 
the Government sufficient funds to further increase 
education, make penny postage universal, and 
yield a sum to pay interest on suais borrowed 
to extend the railway, and in general better to 
open up the country. 
Nothing has )et been done by the Kingston 
Municipal Council in regard to street reconstruc- 
tion, and the drainage of the town, or the build- 
ing of a dock, and the erection of a quay wall, 
so as to give Kingston a proper sea front, and 
do away with the present system ol private 
wharves. The Hotels Company have at last 
selected a site, and will 60on commence the erec- 
tion of a good " hotel" on the American ^system. 
W. S. 
♦ 
THE NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA IN 
INDIA. 
Sir William Hunter's recent lecture under tho 
above heading, delivered before the Royal Colo- 
nial Institute, is fraught with a significance to 
English farmers and inanulacturers which they 
can ill-allord to despise. The development of India 
as a food-exporting and manufacturing country, 
must involve changes in En-lish production, w Inch 
although bringing their compensations in the end 
must for a time bu attended with suffering and 
loss. Formerly known as a dealer in curiosities 
and a retuil trader in luxuries, India has developed 
under British rule into a wholesale producer of 
staples, doing an enormous export business in il ■ 
loods which feed and the libres which clothe dis- 
til nations. This development has becu mainly 
