794 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1882. 
planting in Oregon, he can scarcely fail to see the great 
advantages Jamaica oflers over that belauded portion of 
the United States — not a British possession, be it observed. 
The letters recently published in the Times, though 
rather couleur de rose in some respects, give a very 
good idea of Jamaica as it now is. 
If ever there was a time when this beautiful colony 
should attract the attention of capitalists and enterpris- 
ing young men from the mother country, it is now. 
When the Panama Canal is accomplished, the position, 
of Jamaica will be materially benefited, and opportunities 
which now offer will not be offering then of obtaining 
land cheap. 
As you were so good as to allow me to allude to the 
plans I have adopted for aiding the intending colonists 
with small capital, will you kindly let me say that ex- 
perience has proved the wisdom of altering the pre- 
viously stated terms? At first I proposed to give the 
land, and materials for a cottage, free of rent for five 
years, on the condition the land was planted in choco- 
late for my benefit, I finding the seed and paying taxes 
and rates. Now it is found mutually more satisfactory 
and agreeable that I should plant the chocolate myself ; 
and instead, receive one-third of the annual nett profits 
of the banana cultivation, after the capital is wholly 
repaid, as rent for the land and house, &c. 
One gentleman who took up 100 acres of land and 
commenced planting it in bananas in July, 1880, ex- 
pects to get back the entire capital expended before 
next April, and thereafter to hand me £500 a year, or 
£5 an acre, as my one-third of the profits. Of course, 
I do not wish to make people believe this result will 
always follow in any part of Jamaica ; but I certainly 
do believe that in this district, and especially on lands 
near any tramway or shipping place, the capital will be 
repaid in two years, and the return from bananas will 
give a nett profit for three years of 50 cent per annum 
on the outlay. I have 400 acres in cultivation on these 
terms on this estate, and have dozens of enquiries, local 
and from outside Jamaica, for lots from the 2,000 acres 
of suitable land which I am prepared to devote to this 
system. It may be said, if the thing is so good, why 
do I not keep it all in my own hands? The reply to 
this is, that my hands are full, and that I have still 
other and sufficient land for all the capital I can devote 
to this particular cultivation, having regard to the heavy 
outlay for up-keep of over seven miles of tram lines, 
a large sugar estate, and a daily increasing chocolate 
cultivation. 
I thank you very much for the space you have so 
kindly given me on this and previous occasions, and once 
more advise those who think of settling abroad to look 
at Jamaica before they decide on going elsewhere. . 
W. Bancroft Espeut. 
Spring Garden, Buff Bay, Jamaica, Nov. 10, 1881. 
OSTRICH FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA.* 
At a time when industries are languishing at home, 
and hands are idle for lack of employment, many 
might do worse than turn their attention to the new 
and thriving industry which has sprung up at the 
Cape in the domestication of ostriches, which are 
farmed for the sake of their plumage. Mr. Arthur 
Douglass is the author of a very interesting work 
which describes the rise and progress of the new 
enterprise, which dates no farther back than 1867. 
Already, in the Cape Colony a capital of not less 
than £8,000,000 is employed in this new method of 
farming, while the export of feathers during the past 
year amounted to 163,065 lb. weight, valued at 
£883,632, or £5 8s 4d per lb. ; most of this product 
~ * Ostrich Farming in South Africa. By Arthur 
Douglass. London: Cassell, Fetter, GalpiD, & Co.; and 
8. W. Silver & Co. 
having been derived from tame birds. The value of 
a really good ostrich feather bad long been known in 
the market, but not until within very recent years 
was the idea carried out of taming and rearing birds, 
whose half-yearly crop of feathers might be made to 
yield almost their weight in gold. 
Ordinary farming knowledge avails nothing in the 
rearing of the ostrich. On the Cape Coast cattle, un- 
less they are native, are subject to fatal attacks of 
liver complaint, and only a small percentage of the 
calves can be reared. Horses fall off in condition, and 
the insects of the district blister and destroy the teats 
of cows. Farther inland it is not so bad, and on the 
more congenial grassy lands some fairly extensive stocks 
of sheep are kept. Yet here also they are liable to 
diseases of divers kinds, and heavy mortality has been 
experienced in raising them. Mr. Douglass ascribes 
much of this to overstocking, and allowing old, sickly, 
and inferior sheep to breed. With the ostrich aho 
great care is required to avoid over-stocking, and so 
give the herb-seed a chance of reproduction. He favours 
for this purpose letting half the farm lie idle six months. 
The man who is able to own land should, he says, 
always have two large camps for each troop of birds, 
if he would keep an eye to the future ; whilst the needy 
man on hired land can move to another farm on the 
expiry of his lease, and thereby avoid the inevitable 
consequences of over-stocking. 
What capital is required? In the course of an in- 
teresting chapter on this head, Mr. Douglass states that 
with a few hundreds of pounds an excellent start may 
be made on the 'halves' or partnership system. But, 
above all, he advises the would-be ostrich farmer to 
obtain, as a preliminary to business, at least two years' 
experience of the colony. Otherwise the emigrant is 
almost sure to invest his money foolishly. Far better 
is it, in the opinion of the author, to obtain, if poss- 
ible, letters of introduction from the relatives of well- 
to-do people who may be living at the Cape, and pay a 
premium of £100 to cover cost of board and lodging 
during the first year, and be prepared at the same 
time to engage in any kind of work. — Australasian. 
PROPOSED CURE FOR THE PHYLLOXERA. 
Many years ago the important silk-producing in- 
dustry of the valley of the Rhone was threatened 
with ruin. A mysterious disease seized upon the silk- 
worms, and resisted all the efforts at its cure, until 
at length M. Pasteur, who was even then engaged on 
those studies upon fungi and fermentation which have 
since rendered him so famous, demonstrated that the 
pest was caused by a living parasite, and devised 
means of stamping it out effectually. Few modern 
researches have been more suggestive or more fruit- 
ful in practical results than these of Pasteur. Our 
knowledge of the vast amount of mischief to health i 
and industry caused by the lower fungi, and part-| 
icularly by bacteria, has been rapidly increasing, while, j 
happily, the power of successfully destroying theBe 
has increased in scarcely less rapid proportion ; witneas| 
the improvements in wine-making, the still greater| 
advance in the art of brewing, and, best of all, thatl 
revolution in surgery effected by the introduction of, 
antiseptic methods. Of late years the vine-growingl 
districts of France have been steadily invaded by aj 
serious pest of a widely different kind, the Phylloxerai 
vastatriXf an insect belonging to the same family aa 
the common green aphis of the rose, and endowed 
with the same power of rapid sexual multiplication.! 
In spite of all remedial measures, the insect is still 
spreading, and thus constitutes a serious danger td 
the wine supply of Europe. Soon after the establish- 
ment of the Phylloxera Commission of the Academy] 
of Sciences, M. Pasteur threw out an ingenious sugj 
gestion, clearly derived from his early experience o 
