February i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
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Significant. — The Rio News states: — "The general 
election in the 2nd Sao Paulo district resulted in the 
election of Sr. Moreira dc Barros to the next General 
Assembly. Sr. Barros was one of I ho leading opponents 
of emancipation in the last parliament." Siio Paulo 
is the great coffee district of which Santos is the port. 
Toisao'k Faums (The Pi'xj.mj ) — Wu sec it stated 
that Messrs. Begg, Uuulop & Co. have renewed their 
lease, and for a long period, of the tobacco farms at 
Ghaziporo, and Poosah. Tobacco maunfacture at 
these farms begah only two or three years ago dur- 
ing which interval the monthly sales have risen from 
2,1841b. to nearly fJ.OOOlbs. About four hundred 
acres are under cultivation. Most of the produce is 
sold in India. The tobacco industry is so very pro- 
mising, and its progress has been so very difficult 
hitherto, that we are glad to take the present op- 
portunity of directing public attention to this partic- 
ular instance of eucooss. — Civil and Military Gazette. 
The North Borneo Company. — There can be no 
doubt of the great importance and responsibility of 
the step taken by the Secretary of State in grant- 
ing this charter, and it just tdiews how, in practice, 
Liberal and Conservative, act pretty much aliko when 
it comes to be a question of taking up new territory 
or allowing some other European nation to be before 
us. That was really the position in Borneo. If a 
British Protectorate were not extended over Mr. 
Dint's Company, there can bo no doubt that the 
Dutch and Spanish would speedily extend tlnir sway 
over North ISorno. Possibly they nu^lit I) • forestalled 
by a settlement of an even more warlike European 
nation ; and it only requires a glaucu at the map, 
to bco how little wo could afford to have our trade 
in Chinese and Japanese waters threatened from a 
vantage point like Borneo. It is bad enough to h ue 
Russia threatening British commerce from Visdivostook 
on the North, but it would never do to have to run tho 
gauntlet of another great station in North Borneo, 
Wo think therefore that Lord Kimberley took tho 
only wise course in granting the Charter and TtOOgnil. 
jug the need for a British Settlement in th il region- 
Thk Experiment of Coolie Immigration ha« 
been tried in Fiji on a small scale, but the result 
appears to be rather disappointing. Sir A. H. Gordon 
believed that the Indian would be a cheaper labourer 
than the Polynesian, but, according to the Fiji Times, 
the coolie cosis the planter £18 10s. per annum, while 
the Kanaka costs only £13. It would, however, be idle 
for the planter in the Northern Territory to look to 
Western Polynesia for a supply of labour. If the 
Indian coolies are not available, it may be necessary to 
resort to the Chinese after all. These industrious 
people, however, very soon acquire a just appreciation 
of their own value, and will not labour in the cane 
brakes for £3 or £4 a year, like a Fiji native, or for a 
Spider rifle and a supply of cartridges, like an unsophist- 
icated Kanaka. — A uslralaskm. 
Terracing in Tea Gardens. — The Darjeeling News 
writes -.—Even in tea planting f.ixhion exists, and 
tho fashion, like all other .fashions, varies from 
time to time. A few years ago there was almost a 
mania in these hills for terracing tea gardens, and 
it would be impossible even to hazard a guess at 
the amount of money wasted in constructing miles 
of nice looking terraces on land where such terraces 
were not only noc required, but were positively 
injurious. It was the fashion to coustruct terraces, 
and, rather than be out of the fashion, men used 
to build terraces on land nearly as Hat as a billiard 
table. After a time a ruthless iconoclast appeared 
on the scene and preached a ruthless jehad against 
terraces. The fashion changed almost at once under 
the influence of the new prophet; all, or nearly all, 
the terraces in the hill portion of the district were 
levelled. Since then terracing has only been resorted 
to on ground really so steep as actually to require 
it; but the position seems about to change again, 
as on several new extensions in the distiict, terraces 
have been made on laud which, if not absolutely 
level, slopes very gradually iudeed, and on such land 
as nobody would have thought of wasting money on 
in making terraces where they were by no means 
required. The fashion is evidently beginning to change 
again, and probably before very long the old, costly, 
troublesome, useless system of indiscriin'nate terrac- 
ing will again become the almost universal fashion 
Watering Young Trees : A Good Idea.— A method 
of watering young trees, until they have over- 
come the evils attendant on their infancy, appears to 
have been successfully adopted in the North- West Pro- 
vinces. This is effected by burying an ordinary ghara 
of porous earthenware close to the roots of the young 
tree, with its neck on a level with the surface of the 
ground. " The ghara is kept full of water, which 
reaches the roots of the tree by percolation through 
the pores of the earthenware, so that no surface irri- 
gation is required at all. By this means no water is 
ever poured over the soil round the roofs, and, in 
consequence, the hard crust which is so prejudicial to 
the hedth of young growing plants is not formed. " 
j Whore water is procurable tolerably closo in tho 
neighbourhood, the system is far cheaper than that 
| ordinarily pursued of watering the surface by bhistis ; 
I and it is calculated that 550 trees may be watered 
by one bhUti at a cost of Id. Sp. per tree per ann- 
um, inch. ding the price of the ghar $. 1 he plan has 
been tried in most districts of the N.-W. P., and has 
nut with unaniofOUS approval. To supply water for 
tho ghara.* along lines of road, an ingenious water 
c*rt, consisting of a beer barrel placed on r U i wheels, 
has be. ii invented, which enables two common oooljes 
to do the work oi six bhistis. 1 he only drawback 
to tho system is that tho cowherd boys are fond of 
touting the bottoms of tho ghara* with their Sticks, 
just to sec if they arc still sound, and how strong 
they aro.— Madias Tinut. 
