Deckmber r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
on (he outlay. The prices of coffee estates vary 
according to the quality oi the land ami its viciuity 
to the capital or provincial town. For an estate in 
hairing from £22 to £07 an acre m iy bo paid. The 
crops are irregular, a goo I or large cr ,p being generally 
followed by a small one, then a fair one, and then a 
good one again. There are two branches of the coffee 
industry — the lirst that of the simple grower, who 
sells I he fruit straight nil' the trees to the cleaner unci 
export, r. The two are often combined, but then it 
demands a very much larger capital to be invested 
in stone ami brick tanks tor washing, large open 
cemented places for drying, and machinery for re- 
moving the hu^k and classifying the coffee. It requires 
about tour years before a newly-planted estate b -^ins 
to bear, and as soon as the berry commences to f, rm, 
plenty of rain is necessary, with moderate sunshine. 
Should tho rains not begin soon after the blossoming 
of the flowe - , the sun scorches the youn^ berry and 
kills it. Oosta l!iea coffee is alwajs much appreci- 
ated in the Eurupesu markets for its quality and 
flavour, and generally commands a hi^h piice com- 
pared with Brazilian cotfee. The country, however, 
rarely exports more than from 10,000 to 15,000 tons 
per am. urn. ' 
Tho intelligence referr d to in my last letter, 
that th-re is a d.vgence of opinion among the 
members of your Planters' Association with res- 
poot to the Ojds itution of that formed in Lon- 
don, has proved to be very d.sagreeable to several 
mombtrs of the latter body, who have talked over 
the subject with mo during the last few days. 
I have not yet been able to see Mr. Lovke, 
to apcertain what the points may be whioh it 
has been thought desirable in tho oolony to 
refer to London, and no one has as yet been 
able to inform me as to them. We had all so 
thoroughly ma le up our minda that all things 
woro in couise of thorough settlement, that to he 
told tho contrary lias not been pleasing. The 
conjecture hus been started that a few of the 
members of your local body are jealous that tlmir 
interests are not to be alone considered, not to 
receive quite undivided attention here. But the 
fact was, I believe, that the Planters' Association, 
when making its first suggestion on the subject to 
Mr. Leake, expressed some desire that the London 
Association should also be representative of tho 
Chamber of Commerce and your Agricultural So- 
cioty. If this was tho case, it seems somewhat 
unreasonable that the fact that tho representa- 
tiveness of the London Committee has been given 
an oven wider scope to, should be cavilled at. 
No fear need be entertained, lest other matters 
should have precedence of those in which your 
planters are immediately interested. The dealing 
with these last is tho rationale of the formation 
of a body in London ; and, as, without this as a 
basis, it is quite unlikely any success would have 
attended Mr. Leake's efforts, you may feel entire 
confidence that nothing would be allowed to in- 
terfere with it. Uowover, we must leave the 
issue to Mr. Hamilton's able and friendly negotia- 
tion. — London Cor. 
♦ 
BLBOTRICITY AND TI1K MOKE YALl'AP.LE 
MKT.YLS. 
In an addro s at the meeting of tho iirituh Associa- 
tion Mr. \V II. 1'ieeeii unl ; -Both at Swansea and 
w nines immense quantities of copper, in spite of the 
restrictive operations of the copper syndicate, are being 
produce,! by eli ctro deposition. Copper steam pipes for 
boilers are now being built up of groat firmness, fine 
texture, aud considerable strength by Mr. Elmoro, at 
('01 kuruumth, by eh ctro-depositiou on a rotating 111 111- 
dril in 1 tank ot sulphate ol cupper. By this process 
■ >in> ton of opp.T requires only « htllo more than 0110 
ton of cod to raise th« (MQwita steam to complete 
the operation. It fins been shown that tho electrolytic 
separation of silver from gold by similar methods is 
perfectly practicable. The value of the material to be 
dealt with may be gathered from the fact, communi- 
cated to the " Gold and Silver Commission " now sitting, 
that nearly 00,000,000 ounces of silver are annually 
produced, and the greater portion of this amount con 
tains sufficient gold to render refining remunerative. 
Although the old acid process of " parting " gold anil 
silver remains practically undisturbed, there seems no 
reason to doubt that in the future electricity will 
lender us good service in this direction as it has al- 
ready in the purification of copper. There is not much 
actual progress to report in the 1 x traction of gold from 
its ores by electric al agency. The conversion of gold 
into chloride of gold by the direct, or indirect, action of 
chlorin'- is employed on a very large scale in (Grass 
Valley) California and elsewhere. This fact has led to 
well-directed efforts to obtain by electrolytic action, 
chiorine which should attack fin -ly divided gold sus- 
pended (with the crushed orej in the solution from 
which the chlorine was generated, the gold, so con- 
verted into solub e elder de, then being deposited on 
a cathode. The process would seem to be hopeful, but is 
not as yet a serious rival to the ordinary chlorination 
m tno'l. In the amalgamation of gold ores much is ex- 
pected Iroin the possibih y of keeping clean, by the 
aid of hydrogen set free by the electric current, the 
surfaces of ama'gamated plates. It is well known that, 
the late Sir W. Siemens considere 1 that the electric 
arc might r n ler good service in the fu-ion of metals 
with high mi Itlug points, and he actuilly succeeded in 
melting 96 ounces of platinum in 10 minutes with his 
electrical furnace. The experiments were interrupted 
by his untimely death, but in the hands of Messrs. 
Cowles 'he elec ric arc, produced by 5,000 amperes 
and 500 hor-i -power, is being employed 011 a very large 
scale for the isolation of aluminium (from corundum), 
which is imuied ately alloyed (in titit > with copper ( r 
iron, in the presence of which it is separated. — Juurnal- 
of the Sonet// of Aits. 
RIOE INDUSTRY OF SIAM. 
Consul Child, of Bangkok, says that rice is now the 
great staple commodity of Si am. It ha* b en an article 
of export since 1856, when the treaty with Siam, then 
ratified, opened up the kingdom to foreign trade. 
I'rior to that the laws ot Siain required that a 
three years' supply of rice should remain in the country 
before anv was allowed to be shipped abroad. 'When 
this law was abolished a demand for l ice sprang up, 
and the natives, learning that it was a cash commodity, 
commeuced planting for export, and the acreage has 
yearly iucreased, thousands of Chinese engaging in the 
business. The demaud for land has caused canals to 
be opened through sections which have lain fallow for 
centuries, and thousands of acres which were useless 
now stretch out for miles with fields of grain. The 
natives u-e the most primitive appliances in the cul- 
tivation of the fields, breaking up the ground with buf- 
faloes and oxen attached to a wooden plough; but the 
soil is so prolific that the grain grows almost spon- 
taneously. At times the fields require irrigation, the 
water being easily obtained from the rivr rs and canals 
which cross the country in every direction. As the land 
is level, the water rises and falls with the tide ; hence 
tho canals require no locks and are navigable for boats, 
which do all the carrying, since there aro but few 
waggon roads which aro traversed by buffalo cartsi 
The rice fields are laid out in lots of about out -third of 
an ncroeuoh, surrounded by an enbaukment of earth, 
from eighteen inches to two feet in height, for the 
purpose of holding water when the laud is being pre- 
pared for planting or irrigation — for which the cul- 
tivator pays a tax to the Government of a sum equi- 
valent to about fourteen pence per field. To encourage 
the natives to open up new field* no tax is levied on 
the land tho first five years. When matured, the grain 
is cut with sickles and stacked like wheat, and when 
needed is tre.-ln d by hi ing trampled upon by buffaloes 
and oxen, six or eight animals being attached to i\jio«t, 
around which the straw is stre wn, and over which tho 
rattle walk round mid round until the grniu is sopsr- 
