March i, 1889.] THF TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
607 
mated that by planting 500 acres a profit of 25 per 
cent will be made in the first year. On an unfounded 
report that Colonel North of nitrate fame was in 
some way conaectod with the company, the shares 
were rushed to a premium of about lj before the 
application lists were closed. We are somewhat sur- 
prised at the title given the company, seeing that 
its land does not about at all on Saudakan Bay. 
The .prospectus states that the land is on the Kiuaba- 
tangan River, which dot s not flow into the bay, but 
finds its outlet to the sea farther to the south-east. 
In fact, it is separated from the bay by a range of hills 
which form the watershed for the|streams and rivers dis- 
charging into Sandakan Bay on the one side, and the 
Kinabataugnn on the other. However, this is ft detail 
which does not deter any one when a rush is on ae 
at the present moment. 
Tho prospectus of the Snanlambah Borneo Tobacco 
Company, Limited, has been issued. The capital is 
£100,000 divided into 14,000 ordinary shares of £5 
each, 5,'J'JO deferred share-s of like amount, and 10 
Founder's shares of .£5 each. The two latter descrip- 
tions are given in part payment to the vendor, but the 
deferred shares receive uo dividend unless 10 per cent 
is paid on the ordinary shares until 400 per cent 
has been paid, when thoy r;uik equally. The founders 
shares receive no benefit until cumulative divisions of 
100 per cent havo been paid, but thereafter are en- 
titled to a quarter of the profits after providing for 
a reserve fund. The company is formed to take over 
14,452 acres of land whicli are virtually freehold, on 
a portion of which tobacco has been already grown, 
and given good result", from the British Borneo Tra- 
ding and Planting Company. The price to be paid 
is £40,000, of which £10,000 is in cash and £30,000 
in shares. This is the proper method of payment. 
Qood water facilities are stated to exist. — and C. 
Express, Jan. 18th. 
♦ 
STAPLE FOOD AND JAIL DIET. 
To the Editor, Madras Mail. 
Sir, — I desire to avail myself of the opportunity 
afforded by tho death of the late Mr. Kuujou Menou 
aud suggest the desirability of a slight change in the 
food supplied to native inmates of jails. Itice, as is 
wtdl-knowu, is the staple food of the vast majority of 
Hindus, while it is only the lowest classes, aud very- 
poor Sudras, aud those especially in the Telugu and 
< 'anaroso countries, who live on ragi aud rye. To the 
latter rice is a luxury that sutisfieth not ; but to the 
former ragi is a most unsavoury food and a fruitful 
source of disease. A sudden uhange of food often tells 
seriously on oven robust constitutions. Some time ago 
I made a preaching tour iu a neighbouring Talaq, and 
with greater valour than discretion threw myself en- 
ttrelj on tho bounty of my countrymen. They treated 
me witb tho greatest kindness, but ou the third of my 
tour diarrhCM set in, and was fast developing into 
dysentery when I had to hasten back to Madras. In 
thin case it was not a change from rice to ragi food, 
but merely from one quality of rice to another. 
Now in all jails convicts of European oxtraction 
are allowed bread, which is very proper, that 
being their staple food, without any excep- 
tion. But, as shewn above, both rice ami 
ragi are staple food for distinct classes of 
the native population, and tho ends of justice 
would bo amply met by giving rice to the rice-oater, 
aud ragi to the ragi-oator. But I boliove this iauot 
douo in South Indian jails. All the uativo inmates 
from the highest to the lowost, are (except once a 
week when curry mid rid. in nerved) dailj treated 
to a ooarse preparation of ragi, called tkunti or htti, 
whirh, though agreeable to many, must yet be unsafe 
to others to whom rioe has (or a whole lifetime boon 
the chief means of subsistence. I once had tho pri- 
vilogo of vmiting tho Central Jail at Vellnre, and 
witnessed tho preparation of this formidable food, 
reeembliug bricks actually oast in wooden moulds, 
audit u simply horrible to tbiuk that a man of Kuu- 
jeu Motion'* habits and ways of life should have 
been coudouuiod to devour those * bricks ' for any 
length of time. The punitive element in jail life 
should not be carried to such an extent as a sudden 
change of staple foods involving seriona, and it may 
bo fatal injury to the health of individuals con- 
demned by the laws of the land. 
Perambore, 21th Jan. Jno. Nagam. 
[What is said about rice and ragi (kurakkan) 
is interesting with reference to the recent dis- 
cussion here, but the element of depression, and 
let us hope remorse for his misdeed-, must be 
taken into account as hastening the death of the 
ex-judicial native. It is quite characteristic, that 
even the native Christian preacher writes as if the 
late sub-judge of Telliclierry was merely " unfor- 
tunate." — Ed. T. A.] 
*> 
SHOWS AND SHOWS. 
A planter writes : — " I think you might publish the 
enclosed re flowershows re Kandy Agri-lforticultural." 
Aberdeen — The Use and Abuse of Flower Shows. — 
At the monthly meeting of the North of Scotland 
Horticultural Association, held in the Christian Insti- 
tute on Wednesday, a paper was read by Mr. William 
Ogston, Peterhead, on " The Use and Abuse of Flower 
Shows." Mr. James Cocker, president, occupied the 
chair, and introduced the lecturer. Mr. Ogston said 
his remarks were to be applicable not so much to such 
societies as the Royal Horticultural as to those paro- 
chial societies which recently, with mushroom growth, 
had spruug up in the north, aud especially in Aber- 
deenshire. He had no faith iu the principle which 
actuated people to exhibit at these shows solely for the 
greed of gain. The greatest abuse of flower shows 
seemed to be the practice of exhibiting plants and 
flowers which were not bona Jidc the property of the 
exliibitor, aud the rules at present iu force in most 
assosiations made it difficult fo detect impostors. He 
thought that Horticultural Associations should extend 
their operations and encourage more goneral attention 
to Horticulture before they embarked in undertakings 
which were foreigu to the ostensible reason for their 
existeuce. He had no particular objection to poultry, 
rabbits, and even darned stockings forming part of 
a Uowor show any more than he had to horses, cattle, 
and pigs, but a pig aud a pansy in competition for 
public approbation was a somewhat incongruous com- 
bination. Ho suggested several ways in which tho 
science of Horticulture might be popularised, one of 
them being that nurserymen should uot parade too 
much before the untutored mind those five-syllable 
botanical names, which created the impression that 
horticulture was such an occnlt science that it re- 
quired a University training to master it. He advo- 
cates more encouragement being given to scholars iu 
the collection of wild flowers, etc., aud suggested that 
Horticultural Associations should give prizes for the 
Dest kept and most attractive cottage gardens in their 
district, the inspection to bo periodically, in order 
that their beauty might bo kept up during the whole 
season. He could suggest no direct cure for the abuses 
incident to (lower shows, but was of opinion that as 
only unscrupulous persons would resort to these sin- 
ister praotices, societies should make the possibility 
of gain less easy, and in this way remove tho ration 
,r . Ire. This conld be done by substituting largely 
for prize money a system of merit tickets, and pay- 
ing tho prize-winners a sum calculated ou the basis 
of the number of prizes won rathor than on each prize. 
Sociotios which woro unable in themselves to provide 
a rospectablo show— a show whore there was some- 
thing to soe and from which something could be 
learned, as against an exhibition ot a few dozen of 
badly grown plants — should amalgamate It show 
purposes with adjoining district societies and hold 
annual shows on tho rotatory principle haviug in 
these combination shows parish competition* if need 
bo. Ho alio advocated making the subject of horti 
enltnro an all the year roiiti I pv.tr ■ • b> 
holding stated meetings through the winter for tho 
:i ■ i. mi of horticultural snbjoots. Soma discussions 
followed, tho suggestions iu tho paper bciue gouu- 
