844 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1894. 
district of Tailevu has almost di«*ppe«red, 
and if thin is tbe c&ae it is the attention 
of tlie Levuka merchants to revive tbis iodastrj. But 
everything depeods upon the local steamship com- 
panies, as il is a question whether the steamerd can 
be iudaced to call at these places. Besides Tailevu, 
there are the dislriots of Savu Savu and Waiaunu, where 
the dif ease is is not very prevalent. 
Sugar, — As regards this industry, we lave had a 
full report Irom the Cliaiimaa of the Savu Chamber 
of Commerce, and little is left for me to say in 
this matter, except that tbe very extensive operations 
of the Colonial Sugar Company at Labasa and Ba are 
of very great importance tj Levuka. 
Tea.— This is an important industry, and although 
the exports hitherto bave been small and I believe 
not very tncoessful, it is to be hoped that the 
plautations.AlphaTea Estate and Ma'tusa Estate would 
be kept going. The Masuea Tea Eitato 1 hear is likely 
to be closed unless some satisfactorv arrangements arc 
concluded. This concerns the Levuka merotants very 
closely. An attempt vras made to form a syndicate 
to take over this estate, but it fell throagb. letill 
hope that the merchants and others of Levakn will 
be able to oome tosome arrangement wi'h the present 
energetic manager, Mr. Barrett to continue tbe 
working ot the estate. Tbe local cousamption of Tea 
il entirely derived from tbe Alpha nnd Masusu Tea 
Estates, only a very email quantity of some China 
and Indian Teas being iroporied. 
Vanilla. — Is being tried oa a email scale by several 
planters, and it has been proved that a most excellent 
article can be proiluoed here. 
CopEA. — I now come to the export of copra, which 
affects the trade of Levuka more directly than any 
other export, and I have takeu the trouble to go into 
this eubject more minutely. The total experts for 
1893 OB tar as 1 am able to collect statistics amounted 
to 6,300 toes. In this amount I may s^ate is in- 
cluded the shipment per " Augusta " 1,100 tons which 
barqae left here early in January, altboagb the whole 
of tbe cargo was virtnaliy on board by December Sis', 
1893, except a few tons. 
Ovfin"- to tbe hurricane in December 1892, I esti- 
mate that Fiji lost fully 1,000 tons of copra. If we 
therefore escape the hurricane this year there is no 
reason to doubt why the colony should not produce 8,000 
tons, as you mntt remember that tbe increase of 
copra is going on from year to year, as most of the 
plantations have not recovered from the injury 
sustained during the ga'es, 1886 and 1887. Besides 
this a great many plan'ationa aie not in prcp(»r 
bearing as yet, and if not disturbed by natural 
causes I look forward to a production of 10,000 tons 
within a few years. While on this subject I caonot 
help expressing an opinion that the produce of 
copra could ba increased, probably by one-fourth of 
the whole export, if the Government would lake the 
Bcatter in hand. There has been some attempt ma !e 
by planting trees in certain distric's, which, of 
ecurse is a atep in the right direction, but I would 
propose to cut down the turperflous trees, by which 
means 1 maintain tbe iacrease in copra could be 
augmented within probably twj or three jeara. 
This may seem at first soinewliat paradoxoial but the 
fact is that on the Windward Island, more especially 
at Lakeba, there are thousands of trees whicb never 
bear and keep others from bearing. 
The trees have grown np spontaneously for years 
as the nuts drop, and the coi sequence is that groves 
of coconut trees can be found where the trees are 
not more than five or six feet apart, and as it is a 
recognised fact that trees should be at least 30 
feet apart, it requires not much argumeut to prove 
my conttntion. In these groves I refer to, 
there are of course here and there eome treea 
which bear; these trees having managed to 
outgrow the others and thus have come to spread tbeir 
leaves. I have seen thousands of trees 30 or 40 feet 
high without a nut on them, and this on islands 
which are supposed to be peculiarly adapted to the 
growth ot the otcouute. Any one cau witness the 
lame thing even here on Ovalau on a small scale. 
{ am of oouiie aware that the FijiaoB, espeoiaUy the 
elder ones, have a superstitions averaion to cat down 
and finish treea under any cireumatancM ; therefore 
tbe thinning out of trrei can only be done by a 
certxin amcuot of Government authority, but it 
requires a practical rcan to supervise tbe cutting 
down nftree<. It ia a wt ll-knowu fact that planters, 
who planted their cocoouts in early years 18 and 
20 feet apart, fonnd it necessary to cat down a 
number of trees in order lo give tbe remaiuing trers 
a proper annount of light and room to spretd llieir 
leaves. If this is Fo how much more neoeeaary i< it 
to do tbe same in thoiie islands where tbe trnea have 
grown up nnybow without any B<ip"rvisiun of planting. 
In proposing that Government should take steps 
to thin out oooonut palms t) stand aO feet 
apart, the Merosnfile Chairman is making the same 
propoual as we have urged in Oeyloa very frequeotlj 
and we trust to see it acted on here before long. 
DRUG KKPORT. 
(From Chemist and Dniffyist.) 
London, April 19. 
CIKCU05A.— At the cinchona-auctions tn Tuesday a 
very moderate supply was ofiFered. It wa» made up as 
follows :— 
FacliageB Paclia^es 
Ceylon cinchona ... 317 of which i'H were sold 
East ludian cinchoua... 7d2 do 473 do 
Java cinchona ... 7U do 70 do 
South American cinchona 73 do 73 do 
li'Jl do t40 do 
The saUt passe 1 off v<-ry quietly, without any quot- 
able change in price on the lart auctioi s. The i^ulk ot 
the bark offered consisted of fair East Indian Officinalli), 
but a considerable poriiou was bought in. Tbe unit re- 
mains as nearly aa ptHsi'de Jd per lb. 
The following figures represent tbe quantities pur- 
chased by the principal buyers :— 
Lbe. 
Agents for the Mannheim and Amsterdam works 69,698 
Agents for the Brunswick works . . 6P,86« 
Agents for the American and Italian works. . 86,808 
Messrs. Howards .& Sous . . . . i8,270 
Agents for the Auertach factory .. 19,620 
Ageiits for the Franhfort-on-the-Main and Stutt- 
gart works . . B.tWO 
Druggists and other s .. .. 16,800 
Total quantity of bark sold.. »7,760 
Bought iu or withdrawn . . 107,336 
Total quantity offered . . 335.U8 
It should be remembered that 'he proportion of bark 
bought by a buyer ie no indication of ihe precestage 
of the total amount of quinine in the sales represen'ed 
by his purchases. 
The f llowing prices were paid for sound bark:— 
CKYLoy Cinchona.— Original : Ordinary woody to fair 
bright qullly red branch and stem chips aud shavings 
Jjd to Ifl : low ditto gl; yellow stem chips 3-|d per 
lb. Hybrid chips jfd per lb. Kenewed : Ordinary to fair 
red stem and branch chips aud shavings Id to l|d per 
lb. Hybrid stem chips 2d per lb. 
Java Cinchona.— Yellow bran'-h, rather dusty 3d to 3id 
per lb. 
South AmbkicaN Cinchona.— Sevei<ty-three bales culti- 
vated Bolivian Calisaya quill realised Irom 4d per lb. for 
dull broken to ejd per lb. for fair, partly thin quill. 
Cocaine.— After a couple of months' quietuess, the 
price of cocaiue bydrochlorate was suddenly reJnced on 
Wednesday to ifs per cz. for 100-oz. parcels, ISs 3d 
for lots of from ^5 to JOO-oz., and its ed per oz. for 
smaller quantities. The reductiou, which is at the rate of 
Is per cz., applies to all the " competing baodf." 
QuTNiNK.— The market has been very dull, ll|^d per 
oz. remaining the asking-price for second-hand German 
bulk on the spot. The last ^ business done for delivery 
was at the rate of Hfd per' oz. for July. The manu- 
facCureis' prices are now as follows: — Howards bulk Is 
ad to Is £d ; vials Is i;d to Is 4d per oz. ; Whiffen bulk 
Is Id ; vials Is 3d per oz. ; Felletier, vials Is 5d to 
Is 5id per oz. ; Pabbrica Lombarda, vials Is 3d; bulk 
Is Id per oz. All German brands in bulk Is Id per oz. 
INDIAN PATENTS. 
Specifications of the undermentioned invention 
have been filed, under the provisions of Act V of 1888:— 
ExTBACTiNG FiBBE.— No. 101 of 1893.— Albert Angelo 
Lacey, of 116, Hipon Street, Calcntti, for extracting 
fibre from the agate or aloe, pineapple, and other 
fibroui plantfi. (Filed 4th April iB9A.)— Indian £nsrineer. 
