January 2, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
585 
port? 
carry it to the various stations on the " East- 
whence it is shipped to agents in Calcutta, 
nerally dispose of it at public auction, although 
itly 
a trade .secret, and their bra 
price their purity and strengtl: 
the clay 
tea shall no longer be 
ids shall command tho 
deserve. 
MANITOBA : A FERTILE FARM FOR FOUR 
SHILLINGS AN ACRE. 
Tho following description of a farm in Manitoba, 
located in that part of ilie province lying from 100 to 
ISO miles west of Winnipeg, where the land alternates 
curiously hetween sand and loam, bog and wood, and 
which a fow years ago was described as hopelessly barren, 
is given by the correspondent of the London Times: — 
" Mr. Brackott pointed out a tract of land on either 
side of the road, extending over about 1,000 acres, 
and covered with splendid crops. It is owned by four 
brothers, who find it so good that they have actually 
deserted that ' Hour-garden of Manitoba,' Portage la 
Prairie, leasing the land they own there. They prefer 
/y than that at Portage la Pi 
returns for their labour. In May 
, and by tho middle of August 
ted. We drove through a very 
' for the sickle. It is said to 
3 tho acre ; and one man, a keen 
ptionally good piece of land, has 
ed 35 bushels. Of this land, be 
homesteaded'— that 
Another 100 would 
this soil, as le 
and bringing qu 
they put in the 
have the wheat 
fino field quite 
average 30 busl 
farmer, with an 
for ten yeavs a 
it remembered, 100 acres were 
is, got gratis, except a foe of §10. 
be 'pre-empted' by tho same man for a fie of §10, 
which secures him his previous right of purchase 
against any other would-be purchaser, and then bought 
for $1 the acre, the payment being extended over ten 
year*, with interest at 6 per cent. Thus the four 
brothers would get between Mum 1,2S0 acrej of splendid 
land for a little over $1,2S0, or, say, from 26 /. to 
270/. They probably would not take §10 an acre for 
it now. I may mention that the soil is also well suited 
for oats, barley, and such vegetables as potatoes and 
turnips." 
Such laud is even now to be had in the virgin districts 
of the North- West, but, as was to be expected, the 
approach of the Canada Pacific Railway is driving up 
the price of land in tho near neighbourhood of the route 
to bo taken by it. Near Portage la Prairie, for 
instance, land is now valued at $30 per acre. Whether 
Oi not it is worth that price may be judged from tho 
foregoing description and from the following figure*, 
which apply to the land in the neighbourhood of Portage 
la Pndrie. There wheat averages 30 bushels per acre ; 
barley, 35 bushels ; and oats, 60 bushels per acre. As 
to vegetables, it is difficult to find any soil that can 
produce hotter and heavier crops. 
As to the future of this town and district, tho past 
affords a pretty good indication. Four years ago the 
whole town consisted of a little log-house, calling itself 
in prophetic spirit an hotel, a smithy, and a few 
■fiantios ; now the population numbers 1,500, with a 
floating population ol some -100 or 500 more. Some 
notion of the rapidity of iuorcasn may he got from tho 
fact that it has actually doubled since l ist January. 
But then Portage la Prairie is just now, like Winnipeg, 
enjoying an exceptional "boom," due to tho Pacific 
line, though, as the worth of the soil all about it is 
genuine beyond all question, there is no reason wby 
tho influences of the " boom" should not last. Good 
settlers are welcomed, especially if they are "good" 
in the commercial sense of the term. Sound morals 
form a welcome addition, but the essential point, is that 
a man should bring out 200/. if possible, but certainly 
not less than from 80/. to 100/. As for labourers, they 
need bring out only their thews and sinews, with the 
will to use them, and in summer they would get readily 
$2 a day. Labour is sorely needed about Portage la 
Prairie, the farmers for want of it haviug to use more 
oxpensive machinery than they can well afford, to say 
nothing of the capital sent out of the country into 
the States, whence most of the machines have to 
bo brought. — Colonies and India. 
BRAZIL : IMMIGRANT LABORERS. 
The "Club da Lavoura" of Taubatd, province of 
Sao Paulo, has been studying the question of em- 
ploying immigrants in the placi of clave laborers, 
and ha9 arrived at the sage conclusion that the effort 
has thus far resulted in failure, that it is a grievous 
burden upon tho public treasury, and that it does 
not meet the exigencies of the present phase of the 
labor question. A committee appointed by the club 
to study the question concludes that " The substitution 
of slave labor by foreign immigrants is thrown com- 
pletely into confusion, and that 20 years of painful ex- 
perience has made us recognize that foreign emigration to 
Brazil has been an abyss for public moneys, because 
the heaviest and perhaps the most unfruitful item in 
our budgets has been " immigration and colonization." 
And for this there have been imposed the heaviest 
imposts upon agriculture aud commerce, whose only 
results have been tho scandalous waste of the public 
moneys and the most bare faced patronage for dis- 
playing abroad a vitality which we do not possess, 
although nature has bestowed upon us riches of un- 
qualified value." 
With so just a cause for complaint it is a matter 
for deep regret that tho planters of Taubate have 
gone so far as! ray both in their determination of the 
perfectly 
iations of 
ouiza- 
incing 
loney 
cause, and in their conclusions. Tin 
right in condemning the oxcessivo i 
public money in behalf of "immigrati 
tion," and they are equally right 
tho many questionable uses to whi 
has been put. But does that warrant the conclu- 
sion that thcro is something inherently wrong in im- 
migration, and that the substitution of the slave by 
the free immigrant is a mistaken quest? Can any 
logical conclusion against foreigu immigration be drawn 
from any one colonization enterprise which has thus 
far been attempted in Brazil, outside of tho three 
southern provinces ? On the contrary, may we not 
conclude from tho misuso of appropriations, and the 
vicious policy pursued both iu the acquirement of 
colonists and in their after treatment, that all the 
evils and burdens nro owing rather to the system em- 
ployed than to the legitimate enterprise itself ? 
Our TaubattS friends should rot deceive themselves 
in this matter ; for it is only through a ju»t appre- 
ciation of, this question that the evils which afflict 
it can be eradicated. They Bhould understand that 
new legislation without a radical roform iu the old 
will not afford a remedy ; and they should then under- 
stand that all these imosiires must bo supplemented 
by still another change in tho unwritten la^s of 
Society itself. Thcro must be no degradation attached 
to manual labor, and no restrictions upon tho laborer. 
There must be perfect equality before tho law, and a 
just oatiinato of overy man's worth iudopoudeut of bis 
avooation. —Rio News. 
