Sept. i, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGIRCULTURIST. 
VAEIOUS AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Indian Forbst Depahtment is the sub- 
jeot of a striking introduction to one of Rudyard 
Kipling's best stories (" In the Rukh ") in his 
latest book. The introduction runs as follows : — 
"01 the wheels of publio service that torn under 
the Indian Government there is none more iraportfint 
thnn the Departmeut of Woods p.nd Forests, 'j tie 
reboieement of ull India is iu its bands ; or will be 
when Government has the money to spend. Its str- 
vants wrestle with wandering sand torrents and shift- 
ing danes : wattling them at the sides, damming ihem 
in front-, and peggine; them down atop witli coarse 
grass and spindling pine after tte rules of Nanoy. 
They are responsible for all the timber in the State 
forests of the Himalayas, as well as for the denuded 
hillsides that she monsoons vtash ioto dry guDios .-.ud 
aching ravines; each cut a month crying aloud wl at 
' a-- Ifssness can do. They expt-rimeut with battsLouB 
ot foreign trees and coax the blue gum to take root, 
and, perhaps, dry np the Oaral fever. In the plains 
the chief part tf their duty i« to tee th»t the belt 
fire-lires io the forest reserves are kept clean, so that 
when drought comes and the cattle starve they may 
throw the reserve open to the villager's herds and allow 
the man himself to gather stioks. They poll and lop 
for the slacked railsfay fuel along the lines that 
burn no ocal ; they calculate the profit of their plan- 
tations to five points of decimals ; they are the doctors 
and the raidwives of the huge teak forests of Burma, 
the robber of the Eastern jungles, and the gallnuts 
of the South ; and they are always hampered by Isok 
of funds. Bnt since a Forest OfiBcer's business takes 
him far from the beaten roads and the regular stBtions 
he learns to grow wise in more tlian wood-lore alone ; 
♦0 know the people and the polity of the jungle ; 
meeting tiger, bear, leopard, wild-dog, and all the deer, 
not onoe or twice after days of beating, but again 
and again in the execation of his duty. He spends 
much time in saddle or under canva? — the friend of 
newly-planted trees, the aseooiste of nn;outh rangers 
and hair trackers — till the woods, thut show his care, 
in turn Bet their mark upon him, and he ceases to 
sing the nanghty French songs he learner! at Nancy, 
and grows silent with the rilent things of the under- 
busb. 
Coffee in Qdeensland, — Mr. ^Y. J. Thompson 
ia writing a series of papeis in the Australian 
Agriculturist, July 1, on the cultivation of coffee 
made practical for Queensland, and adapted for 
the age in which he writes : — 
Expensive, slovenly, and pemioiona as the Cey- 
lon and Indian system was, I must freely admit 
that no other course was open. Had there been one 
the class of men who have made Ce>lou what it is today 
would have found it and acted opou it. Let u3 look ec 
the advantages oSered by a new and virgin country 
like Qaeeneland. From the very verge of the ooitt to 
above and beyond the Barrier Range, we have mile 
upon mile of virgin forest and scrub land, in fact the 
richest of the rich, that no previous generation has 
«ver sown or reaped. The climate is «arm and humid, 
suitable to the growth of the tenderest fern to the 
giant hardwood ; the pcorthing htat of the Indian 
coast iebut rare with us ; iu fact, our climate is 
dentical with that nf Oeylon At from 6,000 to 8,000 
feet. It is hardly te be wondered ut that one at least 
of the products of Oeylon has made its home with us, 
almost, unknown to us. The question at once arises — 
If we are going to cultivate that product for our own 
and country's benefit, shall we blindly follow the 
aystem which we know to have propagated leaf tiisesse 
in Oeylon and ludin, or try to think out a system of 
our own, based upon the highest agricultural principles, 
while making u-e of the natural advantages we pos- 
ses*. These auvanthgei are briefly as follows: — Ist. — 
The surety by ocular demonstration that the coffee 
tree has made it* home with ns, and will even stand 
neglect that would kill it in any other country. 2nd.— 
It has made it* home on flit land on lliccoa^t whore 
the bulk of oar scrub Inud is titunt'^d. 3iil - That O ' 
flat land the plough and the cultivator will take the 
I place of cheap labour at less than half the expense, 
i while the upkeep will costless than one-fourth of the 
! old system. 4tb. — That by river or road a few miles 
! will convey the crop to the market or ocean-going 
I Fteamers, n Idle in India 150 miles by bullock carts has 
to be paid for before it reaches the oonat. With these 
advantages before ns, that which has so long appeared 
a disadvantage entirely disappears and becomes a 
blessing and a saving that will enable us to oompnte 
with any country in any market, to «ay nothing of the 
natural ircrease we may expect by bringing true agri- 
oul'urHl prinoip'es to bear on a product that has pre- 
viously been planted in pot holes, among roots, fungus, 
and half-burnt logs. 
With their advantaxes, it is curious that coffee in 
Queensland has made so little progress. 
German East Africa. — We call attention to 
the locg Ijtter from Mr. W. H. Cowley, on page 179, 
formerly of Neila Oola estate, about his new planting 
home in East Africa, and in defence against un- 
warrantable critioiem made by the only Oeylonese 
who seem to have turned out failures, as settlers 
in the Africsn plantation. What we are told 
about clima'e, food, medical attendance, &o- ia 
very interesting. 
Planting &c., in Lower Perak. — Mr. Noel 
Deniaon in bis latest monthly report on thia 
dirttrict, states : — 
I am not giving out much new land at present, 
confining myself to improving what has already been 
planted up Coconnt trees are now being planted 
between the uilams ; many thousand coconuts will be 
planted oat this year. The pigs are the great dif- 
ficulty and the curse of the place, destroying tba 
coconuts in every direction if they can find an 
opportunity, 
And agair, 
The ftofounta from S'tiawan th's month ere very 
setirtactory. At Ayer Tan ar the padi cr. p has b eu 
very good, the Ketu ;h hero getting as mach as 800 
gaotangs cf padi, and as it is said^that .300 gantau^ois 
will ruffioe a whold family for a year, ihe pec pie are 
more than sati fied II the crop .it ibis place, Surg or 
Tiram and Lumut is good this ytar, there wdl be a 
rush for padi 'a-id in th's port on of the S atj fcr 
next year's planning. During the m.inth fosut) mora 
Ktlintan and Javau(.'>e tettlors have come in, bringinj 
iu ihy same tongkt n,-, 30 head of onttl.3 for the 
settle, s hers. Tho'e are the c&ttle the Sultan BBsisted 
• he settlers wi'h. The cattle are a fine atroug lot ; 
II head have been tcained to ploughing, and we shall 
cow soon have five Ciltli plongls iind two ! uff ilo 
plongbti at wurk at S'ti&wau, and one baffalo plongh 
at Pasir Panjang. 
The Straits ofQcera are very wise in encouraging 
native agriculture. Their " land revenue " is ba- 
ooming a oonfiiderable item. 
Coolies foe Tea Plantations. — From a resolution 
of the Bengal Government upon Dr. Macleod's 
report, it appears that a very considerable increase 
took place last year in the number of oooliea sup- 
plied to the tea districts under the tree emigration 
system. The figures show nearly 26,000 free 
emigrants for 1892, Bgaiuat little over 18,000 in 
1891, A noticeable feature of the year is the 
increase which has taken place in eardar system of 
recruitment as opposed to that by oontraotors. The 
number of asrdara employed by garden managers 
in the work was double that of the preceding year, 
and the corresponding inorease in the oooliea 
amounted to nearly 4,000. On the other hand, 
contractor's coolies fell off by moro than 3,000, 
though no particular reason is assigned for the 
change. Upon the whole the statistics of the year 
are normal. A few oases of cholera are reported, 
but there does not appear to have been ai.y 
special outbreak, and the results may, therefore, 
be looked upon as satirf^ctory in this respect. 
— Pioneer. 
