December r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
per acre will only be considered a fuir crop on average 
land, and no planter will hesitate to spend 1110 per 
annum in manuring each aero oi bis land — net his trees. 
There are few among cultivated plants that yield so 
good a return for manure as the cononut, and one 
cannot begin to manure two early, except on those rare 
spots of rich land that bear large crops perennially, 
without trouble or expence. 
It is not out of wautou destructiveness that we cut 
any of the main roots of the coconut, but our system 
requires a depth of nino inches for the operations of 
cultivation, and if any mains intrude on that space, 
we must of necessity dispose of them. Happily, the 
trees never appear to miss them, and certainly benefit 
more from breaking up tho soil than any loss they 
sustain from the deprivation of a few of their worst 
situated roots. After all, the injury is slight, compared 
with digging a circular trench two feet deep at three 
or four feet from tho stem, a practice much in vogue, 
among the choice spirits our native .planters. In our 
system the nine inches ol brokeu soil is the proper rauge 
of the branohlets, and for them we have no tenderness 
what' vcr,assured that, the more they are cut up,theoften 
er the soil is stirred, the faster they are reproduced, and 
the more they ramify. Those who havo any doubt about 
this tact had l e'ter try the experiment for themselves. 
Rank grass round young coconuts is very nearly as 
in jurious as jungle, and tho planter will greatly facili- 
tate their growth by weediug a circle of four or live 
feet iu diameter round each as often as may be re- 
quired. A cooly can go over an acre daily, unless tho 
work bo all the heavier. If this work is done twice a 
year for the first three or four years, the grain iu 
growth amply compensates the cost of the operation. 
This is over and above digging for the breaking up of 
the sod makes the grass grow only the quicker, and 
the ranker, in rainy weather. When the plants carry 
nine or ten leaves they are strong enough to hold 
their own with auv merely herbaceous growth. 
+ 
PLANTING IN LIE LI. 
Plautu'ion enterprise goe* ahead along the fvokan 
river in northern Sink. Of late, several concessions of 
land have been taken out there. The banks of this 
river lie so high that danger from floods is out of the 
question. The Rukan river is shallower than the Siak 
river ; and hence do?s not suit steam-boats of large 
draught, but it is deep euough for transport by boats 
and steam-launch -s, and thus admt' of a brisk trade 
ih jungle produce. Concessions for cultivation havo 
Ihou secured by Messrs. Harrison and Muller and 
others. Sink has only lately come to the front as a field 
for plantation enterprise, but prospects look so cheering 
that land has been eagerlv t ■ken up th.-re. — Straits Tinus 
— ♦ 
PLANTING I.N MANILA. 
The Minister for tho Colonies has directed tho 
Governor-General to do every thing in his power iu 
furtherance of the material and rooml interests of the 
Oolouy. Ho has been specially instructed to foster 
the cultivation of cotton. Specimens of Philippine cot- 
011 that had found their way to Barcelona have proved 
o be of excellent quality. Hopes have been in con- 
sequence aroused of rendering .Spaiu independent of 
the United States in the cotton supply by eucoura- 
ging cotton cultivation in those islands. The (iover- 
nor-General has also been direct* d to push on the 
growing of other produce articles, such as sugar cane, 
hemp, ooffee, and tobacco. The Governor-General has 
tb.4 interests of the islands at heart, aud will no doubt 
carry the minister's wishes out so far as circumstances 
ih.ot. — Straits Times. 
« 
Wbstbkn Ni w GcrNKA. — A very interesting 
report of Mr Milman, Ucputy Commi dinner in 
Western Now Guinea, is published in the Australian 
papers. Ho speaks of the natives as on tho whole 
peaceable and friendly. Ho addB: — " I was accom- 
panied on my last visit to Mowntta by Profess r 
Haddoii, who lias come nut from England to re- 
port on the iimrine zoology of our coral reefs. Ho 
was much interested by what he saw, and I am 
pleased to know that ho thought highly aud hope- 
fully of the first Papuanu ho has ioud.'* 
47 
TEA AT CANTON. 
(Canton Consular Ilport for 1887.) 
In tea the export is above that of last year, and it 
may bo noticed that, although over-supply in the glutted 
London markets eventually brought prices down and 
led to heavy losses, for a time the. results were very 
satisfactory to the exporters. 
The competition of Indian, and more especially of 
Oeylon, tea, is felt to some extent; indeed, in Con- 
gous it is folt most seriously, but the art of preparing 
the finer-scented teas, for which Canton is noted, has 
not been acquired by the Indian planters, and so long 
as the quantity thrown on the Londou and the Ameri- 
can markets is not excessive there is always a good de- 
mand there for it. 
It is worthy of note, also, that it seemed the general 
opinion of experts, at a meeting held to discuss the 
question, that the quality and flavour of Canton teas 
has not. deteriorated during the past 10 years at least, 
as is said to be the case at other ports ; and although 
there lias been fome slight increase on the likin, the 
power exercised by tin- Tea Guild has been able to pre- 
vent its being crushed like other articles of commerce by 
too overwhelming taxes. 
The merchants say that the extinction of the trade is 
merely a matter of timo, and that unless the export 
duties aud likin are very materially reduced, or abolished 
altogether, it canunt continue to compete with Indian 
and Ceylon teas ; but iu this I cannot agree with them. 
So long as the quality is maintained the taste for good 
teas will continue, and although the commoner sorts 
used only for mixing will cease to be supplied from 
this, there should be a good demand for the higher 
for many years to come. — Hongkong Daily Press. 
NEW USES OE PETROLEUM. 
Says Dr. Taylor of Science Gossip in the 
Australasian : — 
A good deal of interest has been excited by the intro- 
duction of a new system of propulsion for launches, &C», 
introduced by Messrs. .farrow, ofPo|dar. They have built 
a boat called the " Zephyr," which has been successfully 
tried on the Thames, in which volatile vapour is used 
instead of steam. Hitherto the application of hydro- 
carbon has been confined to substituting the liquid 
for the solid combustible material iu the furnace for 
raising steam from water. Messrs. Jarrow's plan is 
to substitute spirit for water in the generator — for 
there is no actual boiler — using the vapour arising 
from it to obtain their motive power. The subject was 
brought before engineers last March, but it is only 
recently that the plan was successfully demonstrated. 
The material or spirit used for burning is the ordi- 
nary kerosene. The propelling machinery consists of an 
ordiuary engine of any well-known compact type. 
The generator producing the vapour is placed close to 
the engine, and is simply a coil of copper piping into 
which spirit is pumped continuously by the engine'. 
The spirit is converted into vapour on its passage 
through this coil, which is heated, and drives the 
pistons after the manner of steam. Below the va- 
pouriser is a smaller coil, one end of which terminates 
in a burner, the other end being connected with au 
air-tight tank containing kerosene. When starting the 
engine, a hand air pump is used, by means of which 
a pressure is set up in the air-space above the mineral 
oil iu the tank. About five pounds t> the square inch 
is found sufficient for ihepnrpose. In this way the 
liquid fuel is injected into the first box of the vapour 
generator. When this is ignited, ami tbo fnrnaco 
started, the heat of the Maine acts on the liquid fuel 
before it emerges into the fire-box, and the oil is 
thus viiemri '-(I. Tin vapour is sj mixed with com- 
mon air that it is non-luminous, after the matiner of 
a Bunsen burner. After doing its work, the vapou- 
risod kerosene passes away by the exhaust pipo to 
a e oide' s. r. Them e it is pumped in a liquid lorni 
to the tank, so that [l can be iinod over mid over 
agaiu. The launches on which theno experiments 
havo heuu made are 30 ft. long by Oft, brain, made 
of steel. They are started within live miuu'vo of the 
