494 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1889. 
tons, in 1,748 bales and 142 cases, of which about 3G 
tons are Government cinchona. The quantity of ma- 
nufacturers' bark amounts .to about 122 tons, with an 
average of 4-3 per cent sulphate of quinine, or about 
188,000 oz. 97 tons contain 1 to 2 per cent of sulphate 
of quinine ; 20 3 tons, 2 to 3 per cent ; 27-0 tons, 3 
to 4 per cent ; 29>5 tons, 4 to 5 per cent ; 13-3 tons, 
5 to 6 per cent; 14-9 tons, 6 to 7 per cent; 7-3 tons, 
7 to 8 per cent ; total 122 tons. The druggists' bark 
(about 31 tons) consists of :— Succirubra : quills 120 
cases, 8 bales ; broken quills and chips 145 bales ; root 
55 bales. Calisaya : Schuhkraft quills 17 bales ; broken 
quills and chips 24 bales; Anglica, broken quills and 
chips 73 bales ; root 15 bales ; Javanica, broken quills 
and chips 16 bales; root 4 bales; and the manufacturers' 
bark of :— Ledgeriana quills 22 cases ; broken quills and 
chips 993 bales; root 241 bales, Officinalis, broken 
quills and chips 22 bales ; Hybrids, broken quills and 
chips 131 bales ; mixed bark 4 bales ; total 122 cases, 
1,748 la\vs.—Ohemistand Druggist. 
DELI NEWS. 
Coolie Troubles.— On the 30th November, a detach- 
ment of troops, 45 strong, left tbe chief town for the 
Bekalla estate, to restore order among the Chinese 
coolies on tbe plantation. They had assumed a 
threatening appearance against the manager. By noon 
the same day, the ringleaders were in jail. The troops 
returned soon after. 
The Planters' Committee. — At the end of last 
month, the Planters' Association at Medan unani- 
mously passed a resolution empowering the managing 
committee to take any further steps that may be neces- 
sary to foster Chinese immigration into Deli. It is 
only by union among the planters that success can be 
achieved in the recruiting line. The establishment 
of direct coolie immigration for Chiua requires a tough 
fight on ground that must be gained inch by inch, 
ifis only unanimity among the planters than can bring 
them to the desired goal. 
Sugar Growing. —On the East coast of Sumatra, 
esprcially in Deli, tobacco cultivation has been the 
exclusive pursuit of the plauters, who care nothing 
for the danger of putting all their eggs in one basket. 
Latterly, now that the soil continually cropped for to- 
bacco begins to show signs of exhaustion, some 
of them have cast about for other means to gain a living 
by cultivation. Sugar growing has come into favour 
as a possible standby, but the depression of 
trade in this article does not hold out encouraging 
hopes to parties desirous of embarking in the venture. 
An experimental plantation would settle doubtful points 
once for all, and prove whether or not the soil of 
Deli lends itself readily to a new departure of the 
kind suggested, but the difficulty lies in finding any 
planter willing to risk capital in such a novel under- 
taking. 
The Railway.— The Deli railway works continue 
to make headway. A heavy consignment of materials 
for it recently arrived at Belawan from Singapore in 
tbe steamer "Hydra." The " Hebe " also has brought 
a further supply of materials. At Singapore, so heavy, 
of late has been the arrivals of articles for the Deli 
railway that shipping facilities for conveying them to 
their destination fall short. 
BoKNiio.— Deli finds not only British North Borneo 
hut also the Netherlands portion of that island com- 
ii g Into prominence for tobacco growing purposes. 
Jn Holland enterprise has distinctly set in that direc- 
tion.' The otiier day a company was started to carry 
on plf'tRtioii operations for growing tobacco and 
other products in the residency o£ S. E. Borneo. The 
capital has been fixed at one million of guilders. 
Tobacco Auctions. — A trade journal at Bremen 
Assures its readers that there is every prospect of 
20000 bales of Sumatra tobacco being offered at 
the periodical auctions there next year. Negocia- 
tious were in progress for securing larger quantities. 
At that city, a company has been formed under the 
Btyle of the Bremen Sumatra Association, to start 
tobacco plantations in Sumatra, and carry on trade 
i, the. prOdUOfl of tho same. The capital will not go 
beyond 200,000 marks.— Struiti Times. 
NOTES ON PBODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The London "Wholesale Tea DealerR, Association ob- 
ject to the average net weight system of weighing 
Indian tea, and a letter has been addressed to the 
Secretary of the Indian Tea District Association, giving 
notice of the determination of the present system at 
the end of the current season. It is notified that all 
teas imported after June 1st next will be taken with 
the ordinary gross and tare. 
There is much grumbling in the spice trade. It is 
said that pepper is mixed with dirt, and that there 
is much loss of weight in spices between the time 
when they are landed and delivered. This was brought 
prominently under the notice of the trade by Mr. 
D. ft. Harvest at the public sales recently, when he 
said that " he considered the matter to be of 
a pressing nature, for the losses on the re-weights 
of spices had for some time been continually 
increasing and the evil had now become a very 
serious one for most of the buyers in that room. It 
was not necessary for him to point out the extent of 
the loss or how it had arisen, but those questions 
would doubtless be gone into if his resolution should 
be adopted, and he moved " that a committee of 
four dealers and four brokers be appointed for the 
purpose of taking iuto consideration the serious losses 
now sustained by buyers on the reweights of imported 
goods." 
The deliveries of cinnamon in London for the past 
eleven months have been at a materially diminished 
rate as compared with those in 1887 having been only 
0,420 bales, against 8,750 bales : and while the landings 
have been quite on an equality with the imports in 1887, 
the present stock exhibits a decrease of about 400 bales, 
all Ceylon. The periodical sales last week were of 
usual extent for this time of the year, having com- 
prised 2,030 bales Ceylon, of which above 1,000 
bales consited of second sorts, and meeting a steady 
demand, nearly the whole of the supply was taken off ; 
prices, though ruling somewhat unevenly, being, if 
anything, rather in favour of the sellers, especially 
for the medium and commer grades, and for the parcels 
sold under the hammer ranged from 5d to 8d for fourths, 
with superior at lid ; also at from Od to Is for thirds; 
7i-d to lljd for seconds, with extra fine at Is 2d ; and 
at 8d to Is Id for firsts and superior, besides finest 
plantation growth at Is 3d to Is 5d ; and broken (in 
twenty-seven boxes) at 6d to 7d per lb. — H. C. Mail, 
Dec. 7th. 
« 
The Petroleum Situation.— Capt. J. J. Vander- 
grift, President of the United Oil and Ga9 Trust, 
in an interview with a Pittsburg Commercial Gazette 
reporter furnished some highly interesting information 
about the condition of the oil trade in Western 
Pennsylvania and also the future of the Ohio petroleum 
trade. He claims that by next year there will not 
be enough oil produced in this State or left in stock 
to supply the demand of consumers, and for that reason 
the world will have to go elsewhere to get its full 
supply. The Captain also positively asserts that the 
Standard Company is not operating its refinery at 
Lima, and that the oil found in Ohio cannot be refined 
so as to compare with the Pennsylvania product. — 
Qhemical Trade Journal. 
Plantains. — There are few descriptions of wood 
which yield a large return for any labour bestowed 
than plantains. A single tree h is been known to 
produce fruit weighing 70 to 80 lb, whilst half this 
amount, is said to be the average yield. According 
to Humbolt whilst 1,000 square feet of land will 
yield only 462 lb. of potatoes or 361b. of wheat, 
<i,00IJlb. of plantations can be produced in a shorter 
period of time. When ripe almost three-fourths of 
the fruit consists of water, the remaining parts con- 
sists of sugar, and two parts only of gluten or flesh- 
formihg substances. Like rice, then, the plantain is 
not by itself a perfect food, requiring the addition 
of Rome nitrogenous material, as pulse, fish, or meat. 
— Indian Agriculturist. 
