298 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1888. 
ceedingly rare. The others are accumulations of rills, 
tn which trout can find room for themselves only after 
very heavy runs. If those rills could be gathered into 
one brook, two or three hundred yards long, most 
brnariientril waters would be provided with ample 
spawning-beds. Now, do you not think that that end 
cbuld be attained by means of a syphon drawing 
from the pond water enough to make a goodly sized 
rivulet into it ? If that notion wore found practica- 
ble, we should havo to consider another difficulty. 
You may put trout into an artificial pond, and even 
get them to thrive there ; but you will not make 
them rise freely to the angler's fly. They will afford 
good sport for a few seasons ; but after eight or ten 
years they will not " take " at all, even although 
they have multiplied enormously. Still, your fasci- 
nating proposal is essentially good. The fish would 
help to keep public waters pure, and as they could 
be netted, they would add to our supply of food. — 
I am, Sir, &c, Angler. 
♦ 
NOETH BORNEO PLANTING NOTES. 
(From the British North Borneo Herald, Sept. 1st.) 
Messrs. V. W. van Gogh and Aug. Koch left for 
Singapore in the S. S. " Paknam " on the 23rd August. 
These gentlemen have selected 5,000 acres each on the 
River Labuk. Mr. van Gogh proposes to be hack in 
North Borneo in about five months time together with 
Mr. Koch who is a Deli tobacco planter and who will 
undertake the first planting for the proposed Company. 
Mr. van Gogh is a Java planter of long experience and 
it is pleasant to hear him talk with admiration of the 
soils he has seen on the Kinabatangan and Labuk rivers. 
He says, " I believe in the future of North Borneo." 
Mr. J. Lennards -lias applied for land oh the 
Benkoka River for Liberian coffee planting. The 
success attending Mr. P. Christians' clearing at Kudat 
is sufficient evidence of the suitability of our 
climate for coffee, and we fully expect ' to see 
a large export of coffee from British North Borneo\ 
in years to come. The crucial question is, price of 
labour, and this is a matter that can, we believe, be 
settled by introducing Tamils, as is now done in the 
Straits. In this respect we would bear evidence of 
the good work done by the Muruts lately deported 
from Padas to Sandakan who are good woodsmen 
and who have, to our personal knowledge, lately 
been placed side by side with Sulus when felling jungle 
with the result that the Sulu Contract was begun before 
and was not finished while the Muruts faithfully per- 
formed their contract. These Muruts are willing to 
work for, men 25 cents, women 15 cents, a day. On 
the West Coast these people work for (men) some 15 
cents a day and should estates be opened near their 
villages it seems probable that cheap labour supply 
could be obtained. 
THE CHARACTER OF THE PLANTERS 
OF BRAZIL 
is thus unfavourably depicted by the Rio News : — 
Some days since a report appeared in the daily 
papers to the effect that the government had en- 
tered into an arrangement with the Banco do Brazil 
for the advance of pecuniary assistance to planters, 
the bank undertaking to loan 12,000,000ft at a 
maximum of 0 per cent on lands, growing crops, 
etc., one half of which was to be furnished the 
bank by the treasury without interest. A member 
of the cabinet has since stated that no agreement 
has yet been signed, but leaves the conditions of 
this extraordinary expedient unexplained. It is to 
be hoped that the government will not make so 
serious a mistake aw that of advancing money to 
planterH to meet the ordinary requirements of their 
industry. There is no more excuse for making 
such an advance to this class, than to merchants, 
manufacturers, rubber-gatherers, or fishermen. The 
only just and safe policy is to let each industry 
take care of itself. The planters for whom this 
assistance is intended are among the largest laud 
owners of the country, and the producers of an 
article which en joy a a remarkably secure and pro- 
fitable market. Almost without exception the prices 
obtained for this product have left to them a 
balance of profit, generally a large one. If, then, 
they have been unable to keep out of debt, then 
there is absolutely no hope for them. The assist- 
ance already given so many times has been of no 
avail, nor will the assistance proposed today pre- 
vent their returning next year for more. The 
truth is — and it should debar them from all 
sympathy — they have been so reckless in the use 
of their money, spending it in the cities in 
gambling and on wine and women, that they have 
never been able to improve their estates nor to pro- 
vide against bad years. To their vices, and not 
to abolition, is to be charged these troubles of 
today ; and from their creditors, not the needs 
of labor, come these urgent appeals for money. 
They are known to be spendthrifts and profligates 
— those clamoring for assistance — and for this 
reason, if for no other, they are undeserving of 
aid. Now, this much ought to be understood, 
whether in relation to this reported measure, or 
that of credit foncitr banks : the enterprising, in- 
dustrious planter needs no other source of credit 
than his land and products. If he is a good man- 
ager and produces a marketable crop, there will 
be abundant sources of private credit for all his 
necessities. This is the experience of other countries, 
and must be so here. All that is required to secure 
this is to reform the, bankrupt laws and the various 
provisions of judicial procedure which now prevent 
a creditor from compelling a debtor to comply with 
his obligations. The difficulties and expenses of 
collecting a debt or foreclosing a mortgage, are 
greater obstructions to credit facilities than any and 
all causes of which the planters and their sympa- 
thisers have thus far complained. 
■* . 
Teen daurea Company, Limited. — DuriDg the early 
part ot the season the garden suffered rather from both 
drought anil blight, but latterly rain has been plentiful, 
and prospects have considerably improved. Work was 
also seriously impeded by scarcity of labour,' the Com- 
missariat Department having offered coolies 8 annas 
per diem for carrying stores to Sikkim. Labour, how- 
ever, is coming in more plentifully now, and the Mana- 
ger anticipates no further trouble this season. — Indian 
Planters' Gazette, Sept. 4th. 
Mosquitoes and Mischief. -Dr. Finlay, of Havanna, 
is of opinion that mosquitoes are tlie principal dis- 
seminators of the much-dreaded yellow fever. He 
holds that the sting of this insect, after penetrating 
the skin of a yellow fever patient, retains on its ex- 
terior surface tho germs of the disease, with which 
the mosquito will inoculate the blood of the next 
person it stings. Hence Dr. Finlay is of strong 
opinion that yellow fever is spread chiefly by means 
of iusect-iuoculation. — Australasian. 
Trinidad, — The last Bulletin of the Botanical 
Department of Trinidad is occupied with a treatise 
on the cultivation of Coffee, based on a similar work 
by Mr. Sabonadiore, formerly ef Ceylon, but now 
of Jamaica, and adapted to the requirements of 
Trinidad, by Mr. Hart. A very important alter- 
ation in the procedure has of late taken place, 
whereby, after the pulp of the berry (cherry of 
commerce) has been removed, the seeds (beans) 
may be transmitted to England to have the 
parchment (endocarp) removed — a process that 
can be done_ with much less trouble and expense 
here than in the colonies, while, provided the 
"parchment" bo kept perfectly dry, the Coffee 
travels belter, and retains the desired colour 
better, than when the skin is removed on the 
plantations. — Gardeners' Chronicle, Sept. 15th 
