May i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
933 
In the case of Dcndrobium nobile mid many oIIuts, 
we find that when the growths are fully made up by 
August, in a house not too moist or shaded, and after- 
wards exposed to the full sun and abundance of dry 
warm air, that a very free state of flowering results. 
When the growth is made up late, and in moist shady 
quarters, the result of this drying and exposure later 
on is shrivelling, debility, a scarcity of flowers, and a 
predisposition to produce "leaf-shoots" in spring, no 
matter what conditions . they are then subjected to. 
This year our Dendrobiums are flowering less profusely 
than they did last year, and yet they had both years 
the same treatment. The seasons, however, were in this 
district very different.: 1880 was Fairly sunny, while the 
autumn was particularly bright; 1881 was cold, and dull, 
especially in autumn. The consequence of this was that 
all our indoor plants, even although helped by extra 
fire-heat, were later in making up their growths, and 
finished them under unfavourable cii-cumstanees. In 
the case of our Vines we fired on later to make up 
for deficiencies ; but our Deiidrohes (for want of sun hi 
autumn, not because of too liberal supplies now), are 
producing flowers less freely than usual, and many more 
•' leaf- shoots." Those later on, as with the Count's, 
produced more freely at the tops of the bulbs, while 
the former are, like bis, produced lower down. This, 
we consider, is owing to the tops being less fully ripened, 
and not to any special ■ determination of sap to the tops. 
Such a How of sap may help to produce larger, finer 
flowers, but I cannot think it would change flowers 
into shoots. 
In the case of many other orchids which grow freely 
but flower sparsely, or not at all, all thev want is more 
air, more light, and more heat, rather than a with- 
holding of supplies. Odontoglossum cirrosum, which, in 
a cool, moist, shaded house grows so very freely, and 
throws up long spikes which never flower, or only pro 
dupe "lie or two blossoms to tho yard of spike, change 
for the better when grown in a light, airy position in 
an intermediate house, but they will grow less freely. 
As a matter of fact, Nature strives to reproduce the 
species by seed, and when the atmospheric conditions 
for that are unsuitable, she falls back on the vegetat- 
ive niothod as a last resource. Taking advantage of 
this fact we can produce the majority of plants at will 
by whatever mode promises the best results. Taking 
advantage of this we improve the artificial climates in 
our vineries by firing — not by starving so as fo prepare 
the Vines to propagate themselves by see d to as gimt 
an extent as possible. Taking advantage of the Know 
ledge painfully and slowly acquired, we limit the Food 
Biipplies to our outdoor trees, where that is necessary, 
and secure the same result ; when the trees aro young 
and scarce we follow the opposite course to secure, not 
seeds, but " leafy shoots " to graft with. 
It is the same with all our fruiting and flowering 
plants, Orchids not excepted. II is this knowledge which 
causes us to adopt so very different practices where 
different results are wanted, and this which makes us 
adopt quite different modes, according to the subjects 
we cultivate and the latitude in which we practise, it 
is this which shows one course to be right under bright 
skies and in dry localities, and wrong when clouds lower 
and rains reign, and oice versa. — Practical, -Oardeners' 
Chronicle . 
BUGAB PLANTING IN JAMAICA. 
This article is so able and g 1 that we give the 
whole. It is an entirely new view of things in Jamaica, 
especially ill regard to eooly immigration, compelling 
the negro to work. It has also a bearing on Ceylon in 
home things. Ki>. 
Kisoston, Jamaica. 
As the Sugar Bounties question is pluying so prominent 
a part just now in regard to foreign treaties in Eng- 
land, it is important to hold correct idea concerning 
the prospects of Sugar-growing in the West Indies. Out 
here people have been much exercised at the behaviour 
of the Home authorities. For, instance, the Board of 
Trade letter to the Refiners' Working Men's Committee 
has been read with very qualified satisfaction. The 
allusions to the Sugar Colonies are neither nattering, 
nor do they exhibit a proper grasp of the facts of the 
case. We read, " It would be unfair to ask the con- 
sumers of the mother country to forego cheap Sugar," 
in order to encourage Sugar-growing ' in the colonies, 
for to do so would be " to make the possession of the 
colonies a burden, and not a gain, to this country." 
Such language not only savours of the old-world colo- 
nial policy which it was supposed England had discarded 
for ever— a policy which, contrary to true and wide 
principles of economic science, regarded colonies and 
mother countries as rivals, and not as allies— but also 
savours of a trust reposed in representations made in 
England which have, in truth little connection with the 
actual state of affairs out here. 
It is, perhaps, well that we can take Jamaica as a 
sample of West Indian Sugar-planting, for the reason 
that Jamaica is generally allowed- to be the worst off 
and the Sugar industry there is painted as in a decid- 
edly " ruinate " condition. The question remain -, ,}, Q8 
this particular industry, even though in such bad repute 
either need or fclaim any self-sacrifice on the part of 
the consumer at home to enable it to survive ? And 
the question is completely answered, and altogether in 
the negative, if we regard the price per ton at which 
Sugar can be grown here. 
But the answer has to be arrived at through an im- 
mense amount of misconception that extends even among 
people who live in Jamaica. The very planters arc" 
many of them, entirely misinformed as to their actual 
position. Some of them are indignant, for instance, if 
asked to believe the fact that year by year Jamaica is 
exporting more and more Sugar and Rum. Yet these 
are the official figures of amounts exported : — 
Total tons Total Puncheons 
Years. of Sugar. 0 f Rum. 
1850-5!) .. .. 320,000 .. 170,000 
1860-69 .. .. 330.000 .. 180 000 
1870-75 .. .. 350,000 .. 201,000 
Thus, since matters have arranged themselves after their 
upsetting in the abolition of slavery, the Sugar industry 
has shown steady growth. 
There is, indeed, one great apparent contradiction to 
these figures, and that is the constantly quoted fact of 
the abandonment of Sugar estates. This process has 
been proceeding until quite recently, but local experience 
yields the true explanation that it is a process alto- 
gether beneficial, and in truth a putting off of the old 
system, and not a failing of the new. It is tine the 
older planters themselves see but little consolation in 
the dismal fact that where once they and theirs reaped 
fortunes now all is worthless scrub." But if we remem- 
ber that in the old days Sugar was at £(!0 a ton, and 
that now £20 is the price for the same, we shall gee 
some reason for a change. The fact was that in those 
good old days vast areas of soil were cultivated at 
enormous profits, which areas at present prie s can yield 
none at all. That these areas should get out of cul- 
tivation is a gain and not a loss to the industry. In 
those days the "margin of cultivation " was lowered 
to a degree altogether unteimlile now; and it waft, more 
over, incidental to Jamaican affairs that loug after the 
real conditions el their prosperity had passed awav. 
many of these estates continued in cultivation n | jlitj 
first, in the hope of better days: in tin- end. beOMUB 
Hiieh estates had f,,,- the most part fallen into the hands 
of mortgagees or lit.] Icrs of jointures ami charges upon 
tlwui. Tims, «- a rule, two or more esti.tes came' 
under tho tunic absentee owuushjp, 1U1 ,1 wuut , U! ,i 0bl 
