5 86 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[January 2, 1882. 
COFFEE PROPAGANDA. 
In our last review we pointed out the fitness of a 
competent representation of our province at the Rio 
coffee exposition where the representatives shoald vent- 
ilate not only the restricted coffee question but also 
all those referring to the prosperity of this culture, 
such as the question of railway tariffs, of export duties 
of the substitution of agricultural labor and the meas- 
ures necessary f o • the practical amplification of the rural 
credit system. 
Let us now, in a few rough sketches and as far as 
is in our power, examine some points of these questions. 
The question of railway tariffs has been much dis- 
cussed lately in the press, and though at times parti- 
ality has been transparent yet the proofs furnished 
demonstrate the necessity of reform. A railway tariff 
which is to satisfy all legitimate exigencies, must be not 
only clear and convenient for the public but aloo mode- 
rate and, principally, well proportioned or equitable. 
To accomplish a work of this kind it is, therefore, 
necessaiy that all the interested elements asist in its 
organization. If, as has been done until now, it is 
left to some fiscal employees, conjointly with the ad- 
ministration of the railways, to manufacture the tariffs, 
it will infallibly happen that the former, disinter- 
ested and badly versed in the matter, will leave its 
organization to the latter who will always make it ac- 
cording to their liking and convenience ; the result 
will be certain excentricities like those pointed out 
some clays ago by one of the principal papers of our 
province, when for the transport on 272 kilometers of 
railway, from Santos to Piracicaba, 729$920 was paid 
on 1627 kilos of nitric acid, whose prime cost and 
transport by land and water from Germany to this 
port amounted to only 484$040. The same dispro- 
portion exists with reference to a great number of 
other articles, chiefly salt, an article of prime necessity. 
It must also be considered that a tariff should not 
remain permanent ; the rates on the various articles 
should be periodically revised so that it may not 
happen, as it has done until now, that coffee and 
cotton pay always the same freight although the 
intrinsic value varies from 6ijj>000 to 14$000 per arroba 
for the former and from 5$000 to 30$000 for the latter. 
To establish a rational tariff it seems to us necessary 
that all the interested parties, which are the fiscal, 
the administration of the railways, and the public, 
should co-operate, represented by delegates from com- 
merce, industry and agriculture. 
The fiscal, conjointly with the respective administra- 
tions, must state approximately the amount necessary for 
the dividend to the shareholders and for the expenses. 
The delegate, conjointly with the administrators, basing 
their calculation on the statistics of the previous 
traffic, must organize the tariff in which each category 
of merchandise is taxed according to its intrinsic 
value and the conveniences or necessities of consump- 
tion. In the adjustment of the sums necessary for 
the dividends the Government must take into con- 
sideration that when the railways had not yet a safe 
future the shareholder had a right to a high dividend ; 
to-day when the capital of the same is perfectly 
guaranteed, the interest must be more moderate ; and 
we are certain that in the face of these considera- 
tions in favor of our agriculture, I he S. Paulo share- 
holders will not shrink from the necessary sacrifices. 
From the capital required for expenses there must 
be eliminated what is not called for by necessity. 
In the adjustment of the tariff, for the transport 
of merchandise as well as passengers, the administra- 
tions of the railways should avail of their observa- 
tions with reference to the expenses of locomotion 
and transfer this combined with the indications, 
from the delegates of the public, respecting the 
transport of passengers as well as the position of 
passengers as well ae the position of each class of 
merchandise of import and export in the goods tariff' 
will unite in itself all the elements for the produc- 
tion of a work which will be practical and satisfact- 
ory to all. In the list of the competition which will 
be established during the next ten years between the 
various coffee -producicg countries, our position will 
be definitely strengthened under the condition of all 
the elements with the fate of which |the prosperity 
of coffee-culture is interwoven, if every one in his 
sphere would help to diminish the cost of produc'ion. 
The tariffs, the origin of which dates from the epoch 
when the general prosperity admitted of certain liberty, 
are susceptible of reform, in essence as well as in ap- 
plication, reductions having to be made which areture. — 
absolutely necessary for the upholding of agricul 
Bio News. 
MANILA NEWS. 
(Straits I'imes.) 
" Agricultural Bank— We have been informed that in 
one of the shortly expected steamers of the Marquis de 
Campo's line, there is to arrive at Manila, the agents of 
an Agricultural Bank about to be established in these 
island for which an influential company has been formed 
at Madrid, provided the necessary capital for such an 
important undertaking." — Comercio 21st Oct. 
TOBACCO IN DELI. 
(Straits Times, Nov. 12th.) 
The Java Courant of the 14th October reports that 
the prospects of this year's tobacco crop in Deli are good 
as to quantity, and unusually favourable as to quality. 
Matters are otherwise in the tobacco growing districts 
in Java, the situation there being thus described in the 
Xonmliaya Caurant of the 14th October: — 
" Most saddening is the impression made when travell- 
ing from Kedirie to Blitar, on viewing the present con- 
dition of the tobacco establishments, formerly so flourish- 
ing, most of which are now no longer the seats of busy 
industrial activity, but on the contrary are uninhabited 
and forsaken. From Nujang to Bendo no signs of former 
prosperity are perceptible other than overseers' dwellings 
falling to ruins, and drying sheds partially fallen in. 
Tobacco cultivation, which heretofore put hundreds of 
thousands of guilders into circulation among the popula- 
tion, is now expiring. Over competing may have con- 
tributed greatly to ruin it, but no less is its decadence 
attributable to the means by which Javanese tobacco 
growers turned to account, as much as possible, the foolish 
rivalry among European buyers. They began by failing 
to plant the tobacco at the requisite distances from each 
other to enable the plants to develope properly, their 
object being to obtain greater produce. Quantity was 
aimed at, not quality. Often the whole crop was cut 
without leaving a single plant for bearing seed. Hence 
a frightful deterioration in Blitar tobacco formerly so 
much in demand in the European market. In short the 
thoughtless native tobacco growers have killed the " goose 
that laid the golden eggs." 
A great many tobacco estates in Biitar are now for 
sale, only a few energetic European planters still per- 
severing in tobacco cultivation, but, however, most of 
them have betaken themselves to coffee growing instead. 
A Cure foe Phylt.oxera. — Messrs. VV. & A. Gilbey, 
writing to the London Tines on the subject of the 
French vintage, say with regard to Phylloxera : — 
" We may add here, in conclusion, that the latest rem- 
edy suggested is sulpho-carbonate, which is applied 
to the roots of the vines, with a considerable quantity 
of water, and which it is stated has not only the 
effect of killing the insect, but as a manure serves 
to fertilize and strengthen the vine. Suffice it to say 
that, during a visit this morning to a very beautiful 
and well-managed estate at St. Estephe, we were shown 
vines which, only 12 months ago, had all the appear- 
ance of being shortly dead now fresh and verdant, 
and apparently in a fair way to recover all their vig- 
our and fertility." 
