Sept. i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
tbaD to cultivate on the spot. Thus in the yens 1890- 
92 thesi two coloniei impor'el between them 
193,115.415 lb. or an average ol 64,371,8051b. per an. 
num, Te>, agtin, thwugh it his been successfully 
grown in vari us counties, has not, I bel : eve, proved 
profitalle elsewheie ihan in Ceylon, Java, Assam, 
Chira and Jatan, 'he cu'tivaiion in tbe la>t tire 
countries being, moreover, almo t en irely extra- 
tropical. In F ji, where the cimate and soil proved 
specially favourable, the evnly diotribu'ed rainfall 
producing more frequent ' flushes ' of leaves even than 
in Ceylon, yet the w nt of sufficient local labour 
proved a faial obs'ac'e to succes?. Lastly, qu'i ine, 
though coruiDg orig nvlly from South America is now 
being cultivated almost exclueively in the Bast. The 
low waged labour is specially necessary for it is shown 
by the f»ct tha*, th-utih the cinchoua tree grows 
and yielr's n markai'ly wel in Ceylon, i s cultivation 
is ro longer profitable there (the export of quinine 
having fallen in value from 327,769£. in 1886 to 53,062^. 
in 1892), tbe cause ircbably bti' g the reduction ot ihe 
market price brought about by the btill cheeper labour 
of India and Java. 
Of articles whieh are largely or principally grown 
elsewhere than in the East, those which deserve 
notice, viz. coffee, cocoa, maize, l an nan, coconuts and 
totaceo, will sll of them protably meet with othtr 
obstacl b, teside the hibour ditfjcnlty to any large 
production in Tropic il Australia. Coffee production 
was, up to a period still recent, becoming gia ually 
monopolis d by the Eas f , when the d- struotive L-af- 
eiisease ga-. e a rem wd opporlun ty to ohor parts of 
the world. If this pest should not spread to the 
■\Yestero Heojirphire, any increas of production may 
be looked for there, or possibly in Atrica; but r-S in 
the Eint it • as reached the moredia'an' Fiji, it is not 
likely to be excluded Irom Australia, should cnltvi- 
ti r n on a lar e scale be attempted there. Aid to 
this article al-o, as to so many otlnrs, cheap ' loeal ' 
labour is almost a nect ssity, it 1 e ng the war t of this 
which, ou the downiall of slavery. p;t an end to ti e 
formerly fl urishing plantntioi s of Demerara and 
Surinam. In the ca e cf all the oih>r articles last 
enumerated, there will probably be to a greater or less 
estent a climatic dirfioultv. And this specially in the 
case of cacao which requires a combination of beat and 
m isture found only in very Ijw latitude! In the 
northeru hemisphere its cultivation has never, 1 think, 
met with ci mmercial success in a higher la! it tide I hin 
14 deg., and as the Southern hemisphere 1 a* alow r 
average temperature, it may doubted whether the 
caoBo-vite eould be a ■ ywheie profitably cultivated in 
Australia, ( xc pt perhaps in tbe ex'reme noith of the 
Yoik Peninsola. Maize, on tbe contra-y, is much 
more pr dnctive in temperate climates (unless I havf 
been misled by whit I have seen in II inois and 
Iowa ou the one hand, and in various tropical coun- 
tries on the other); and heice Ly far the larger 
q- antily consumed beyond the coun'ries of production 
does not com 1 : fr m tbe tropics. In 1892 less than' ne- 
tenth pai t i f the totil quantity proJu.ed in Queens- 
Ian 1 came from tbe tropical distric' ; and it may also 
be noted th»t between that year aid 1891 the area 
occupied by m ize in Q leei sland decrea ed by 9,426 
acref, and tbe produ-e by 744,362 In-ne'e, sbowii g 
apparenily, as I hould have expected that this cultiva- 
tion was not proving pr fit ible. Coconut-*, though 
they give a profitable return to cul;ivat ; on only in 
the immediate neighbourhood of tl e si a, m : ght j et be 
verj laue'y cultiva'e J along the immeuse ooastiii e of 
Tropical Aastr..l a, if otl er conditions were favourable. 
Tbe f ai t tl ere'ore that none of tbe various pridu't-i 
of this palm nppiariu the Queensland Kt turns would 
seem to mdirat' a eliinauc difficulty iu this case 
also. Possibly, however, tbe S"le cause may be found 
ii the fact that the great Bre a which has been brought 
lit o eu t va'ien in other countries (accor ii-g to the 
iOoloniul Office List, 649,80!) acres in Ceylon alone) hss 
sometimes riduced tbe pi ice of the j roiuco tolow the 
reuiut.orative point in coui tri s affording muoh more 
favourable conditions for cultivation than Aus'.rali'. 
littuanas, owing to ti e great productiveness ab >vo 
referted to, aie i.ever likely to occupy any large area 
ju Australia, even if all conditions aro favourable, 
They can sever be grown for export, becaus9 all 
temperate countries have nearer to theiu other 
tropical countries where the fruit can be produced 
undir more favoutable conditions, certainly as recards 
labour and pro 1 ably as reearda climate a'so. Indeed 
improvements in carriage a"d refrigeration ore much 
more likely to increa'e the competition in Australia on 
the part o I other countrei than to enable Australia to 
comp ete in ou side markets. And as regards Austra- 
lian consumption, Ihcugh it is protably larger per 
caput than iu any other count y, even a monopoly of 
its supply wcu'd requ : re no laiger area of cultivation. 
At present some 4,000 acres in Queensland and a 
somewhi t larger area in the Pacific Islands — c rtaicly 
uudi r 10,000 aires altogether — are all that are re- 
quired for this purpose ; so that with a population now 
increasing (according to the la'est Bta istics) at arate 
litt'e exceedirg 2 per cent per annum, 50.000 acres 
wo-libemore than enough for a century to come. 
If the Australian democracy should consent to a 
heavy import duty on one of its favourite luxuries, 
this area might be entirely in Australia ; if no*, the 
supply wiil probably come from other oounfries even 
in a larger proportion than now. For the production 
iu Queensland, never very large at the best, appecrs to 
be exceedingly precarious, the return per acre varyin? 
in different vear-i from 874 doz ns in 18S4, to 5 656 
dozens in 1890 and fallir g a;'ain to 2,988 dozens in 1891. 
Probably owing to this oau. e in connection with the 
acti e c mpelitiou of Fiji, the area of Queensland 
benana cultvatien diminished by 838 acres bctwe r n 
theyeais 1891-3. Here ag i i we have an indication 
of a climatic difficulty — ptob-bly the hot winds from 
the desert — whu-hras I een noticed with refer* nee to 
other products. Tobacco c< mee into civilised markets 
priocip-lly f.om temper. te climate'. The finer kit ds 
wh ch come from Cuba and a few other tropical 
count' ieg ccupy so small an aggregate area that 
the share oi production ob a'nable by Australia would 
be ius gnifi aut eve n if all conditions were favourable. 
With regard to this poi i t it may be noted that of the 
318 acres of tobacco which was the total of Q leeus- 
la- d in 1892 only 13 acres were in the tropical dis- 
trict ; ard the cultivation was moreover pr viug nil. 
profi'able, as the ar a of it was greater in 1891 by 472 
acres. 
Iu conrection with the observations preced ng if, 
the above review of the different articles of produce 
seems to indicate fbat tbere is LOthing in the circums- 
tances ot any of them vihiob p iuts to any extensive 
cultiva'ion iu Aus'talia within any near future, and 
that even as regards sugar, wh'le it is likely to retain 
its prt eent prominence, tbe development created by it 
cacnot relatively to the size of the country, l e ether- 
wise tbau very small indeed. 
G. William Des Vceux. 
GAKBELLING OF SPICES. 
Three hundred years ago spices seem to have been 
relatively more in demand than they are at the present 
time, and their preparation for sale was regarded 
by the grocers of London as an important process, 
to be regulated and controlled in its minutest details. 
The process of cleaning, sifting, and sorting into 
different qualities, it may be explained, was called 
garbling; and although this sense of the word may 
be found in auy ordinary dictionary, it is not the 
one with which most of us are familiar. Certain 
persons were appointed and licensed as garblers, but 
they often failed in the'r duties, and even resorted 
to a variety of ingenious devices to cheat the vendors 
and consumers of spices. Towards the end of the 
sixteenth century the corruption of the garblers had 
reached such a pitch, that the company of grocers 
compiled a little book on the subject, which they 
dedicated to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the 
City of London. It was entitled "A Profitable and 
Necessary Discourse for the Meeting with the Bad 
Garbelling of Spices used in these Daies, and against 
the Combination of the Workmou of that Office, 
coutrario unto common good- Composed by Diveru 
