196 
THE. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[September i, 1888. 
lands India though the valuable kinds of timber avail- 
able would amply repay the trouble. 
The trade in Java tea has not been extending as it 
ought of late, owing to the little enterprise displayed 
by the local planters. Their Ceylon rivals leave no 
stone unturned to get customers. The consequence is 
that Oeylon tea has distanced the Java product, which 
indeed lags a long way behind. 
The Planters' Association at Padang on the west 
coast of Sumatra has, along with the Chamber of Com- 
merce there, petitioned the Netherlands India Govern- 
ment in favour of coolie immigration thither from India. 
The Government is requested to take steps to render 
the importation of lauour from India possible. 
+ 
DELI NEWS. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
The Deli Couran't of the 11th August speaks 
favourably of tobacco prosp3ct^ in Siak, where plan- 
ting industry has been going atraj of late. A planter 
there writes to that journal to s \ I hat, so far as he 
is concerned, the outlook is promising. With hina, 
tobacco growing has been a success. , £ 
In Deli, many planters begin to feel uneasy from the 
diminished inflow of coolies direct from China. Direct 
immigration has been set on foot in order to baulk 
the coolie brokers in the Straits Settlements. These 
fellows had been foolish enough to squeeze the Deli 
planters too much, in fixing the price of coolies. The 
aggrieved planters could not stand it, and took mea- 
sures to got labourers straight from the Celestial 
Empire. The Planters' Association co-operated, and 
aided in bringing matters to a satisfactory conclusion. 
That the immigration had not proved more brisk 
did not arise from any slackness on their part, but 
from causes beyond their control. It appears that, iu 
the districts around Swatow, which supplies the best 
labourers to plantations in Deli, a widespread cholera 
epidemic has broken out. Its ravages resulted in coolie 
emigration at that port being brought for a time to 
a standstill. At the end of this month, a steamer 
laden with coolies from that quarter is expected to 
arrive in Deli. There is every prospect of regular 
direct consignments of coolies arriving there regularly 
in future. 
Runaway coolies give the planters no end of trouble. 
Recently, on one estate, when search was made for 
absconders from a neighbouring plantation, the coolies 
on the spot,fell upon the searching party and the mana- 
ger of the estate with sticks and hoes. The manager 
and his party had to beat a retreat before over- 
whelming numbers. The police had eventually to 
interfere, and arrest the absconders, which they did 
without opposition. The ringleaders smarted for it 
before the Magistrate. It turns out that coolies 
abscond even from estates where they had been kindly 
treated. Absconding is greatly facilitated by some 
planters taking absconders into employment, without 
narrowly scrutinising the antecedents of applicants. 
Coolies make a regular trade of deserting after receiv- 
ing advances- By changing masters, they get successive 
advances within a short time. 
Mr. J. W. Van Muyden, agent of the German 
Borneo Company, has arrived in Deli from British North 
Borneo. His reports on that company's plantations there 
have been sent to Europe. It is expected he will re- 
ceive order to engage suitable persons in Deli for 
Borneo. 
In Ceylon, tobacco planting has been taken up with 
an enterprise which deserves success. The parties who 
have taken the venture in hand have secured the 
services of an experienced planter from Langkat. 
MANILA NEWS. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
The Government, by directing that all articles for 
supplying the Philippine army should be of local 
manufacture, has taken a step calculated to foster 
the cultivation and manufacture of cotton in the 
islands. Formerly, the army clothing used to be of 
local origin and make. The Comercio urges the Go 
vernment to embark upon direct encouragement, by 
ordering the local authorities to compel the people 
to plant cotton, whenever the environment suits the 
cultivation of the plant. That idea had been hit 
upon by a previous Governor-General in the matter 
of coffee. By his orders, the provincial authorities 
left no stone unturned to persuade the natives under 
their sway, to plant that particular produce article. 
Millions of coffee trees were planted out in conse- 
quence. But when the Governor-General had served 
his term, the plantations were left to private enterprise, 
and went to wreck and ruin. 
4, 
NORTH BORNEO. 
Amongst papers put aside for notice at a con- 
venient season, we find a copy of the North Borneo 
Herald with a letter by Mr. W. B. Pryer in which 
he stated : — 
An experienced Ceylon planter, the first one that 
visited the country, Mr. T. S. Dobree, said that in 
his opinion the climate and general conditions were 
so favourable to the successful growth of Liberian 
Coffee, that he expected to see British North Borneo 
one of the chief producing countries in the world for 
it, when once its cultivation was properly started. 
This opinion was based upon observations made on 
the Se^aliud river. Coffee has lately seen some violent 
fluctuations, but the price now has apparently settled 
down at a very much higher rate than it was formerly 
and one which leaves no doubt of its paying 
well to the planter, provided no untoward events 
happen to it : and in the case of Liberian Coffee 
in this country, nothing untoward is likely to happen 
as even leaf disease, which almost annihilated Coffee 
Arabica in Ceylon, and is slowly but surely working 
havoc in Brazil and Java, is thrown off by Liberian 
Coffee, not only here, but in the Straits, Johore and 
Sumatra also I believe. 
Several estates I have seen that would have been 
deserted in Ceylon as destroyed by Hemileia Vastatrix 
have quite recovered, in some cases the cure having 
been accelerated by the aid of a little cattle dung 
as manure ; while in others, no manure at all has 
been used. It has no other enemies, is a strong and 
handsome shrub, bears heavily, and it has been said, 
by Indian planters, who saw some thousands of plants 
of it on the Sebooga Estate about eight miles away at 
the back of the town, that it is finer with us at eighteen 
months old, than in India at three years old. 
Another plant that bids fair to have a large share 
in this country's future prosperity, is the Willoughbeia 
rubber which grows naturally all over tbe country, but 
more particularly about SandakanBay; growing under 
natural forest shade it requires no outlay at all upon 
felling, clearing, holing, and all the other operations 
which make ordinary planting so expensive ; simply put 
in at the foot of forest trees, it takes care of itself, re- 
quiring no weeding to speak of, and when maturity is 
reached, yields an abundant supply of the valuable 
" gutta susu" or india-rubber. As to what the yield is, 
opinions differ, some place the quantity as high as 50 
catties to each creeper, others limit it to 20 catties, but, 
in either case, the returns are out of all prop ortion to the 
money invested in starting a plantation of it. 
The difficulty attending its cultivation hitherto has 
been the want of seeds from which to start nurseries. 
It' may be safely predicted, that the first person who 
can get a few creepers of it into bearing, from which to 
supply seeds, will make a handsome profit, irrespective 
of the sale of the india-rubber itself. Other plants 
which seem to promise well to the planter in this 
country, include pepper, which remains at the very 
remunerative price of 8.}d per lb. and which is not 
likely to decrease in price, to any marked degree, owing 
to the still continued struggle in Acheen. When travel- 
ling out to the East this spring, I happened to come 
across a Oapitan China from that locality, who informed 
me that the pepper crops have fallen off, from 75,000 
piculs to about 15,000 per year. Gambier is also high 
in price at the present time, and is likely to still fur- 
ther advance, as it is coming into use for various new 
