Nov r, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
335 
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO NOTES : — 
GENERAL. 
Sept. 1. 
The Japanese who oame by the " Memmon " have 
been obtained for the estates by Mr. S. A. Eorczki. 
They pay their own passages and require no 
advances. 
A delightful innovation in our rides in Sandakan 
was introduced lately by a lady who invited her 
friends to " a Moonlight ride and return to supper." 
The night was beautifully flue and the riding party 
pulled up under the ooconut trees at Tata's Compong 
and, sitting on a log on the beaoh, sang songe, 
and the natives declared they were " hamus " 
(ghosts) ; a swift ride brought them back to supper 
— and so home ! 
Byte. — Coffee coming on well, bushes looking very 
strong and healthy, little picking in progress almost 
daily. Manila hemp also doing well. Advantage 
is being taken of the rains to plant padi, hemp, 
cotton acd ooconuts. 
Loong Piasoiv. — A slight flush of bloesom on the 
older ooffee (14 moatha of age.) Ground being 
cleared for fresh planting. Ooconuts also being 
put ia.—B. 2V. B. Herald. 
NEWS FROM THE CENTRAL PROVINCE : 
PLANTING AND OTHERWISE. 
(Notes by " Wanderer.") 
Oot. 8. 
Ccoja.— Last advioes from London, Sept. loth, 
are to following effect :— ' Prices for Ceyon 
dropped 2s at last Tuesday's sales. The quality 
of Ceylon 0000a from recent arrivals is not 
up to the old standard, but the low price 
and depressed market arc due to the absence of 
the American demand and a. in petition of Java. 
Coffee is firm for all good coloury sorts. The 
stocks in Europe are small ; but the receipts in Rio 
and SantoB are about one-third larger than last year. 
The forward quotations for fair Channel Bio are 
68s for September and 63s for December. 
Government Enxymolcqist. — We oan afford to 
have new Steam Barges for our Gcvernor and 
Electric Light in his Colombo Palace ; but a subsidy 
canDOt be thought of when insect pests are threat- 
ening our staple commodities, tea and oacao. Ask a 
cacao planter what keeps his crops down ? Insect 
peats. Ask the tea planter what is his bogie ? 
Insect pests. Ask the native cultivator what takes the 
gilt off his gingerbread. Inseot pests ? Insect pests. 
So the Northern association is bjsy trying to 
Couvince a man against his will 
He's of the came opinion still. 
The Governor has made up his mind that there 
is to be no special legislation to protect the oacao 
planter be he European or native. A cacao plan- 
ter in Kuruuegala toid me he paid more for watch- 
ing than he did to secure his crop. Nice state of 
matters in civilized Ceylon. 
Rdhal Police I Bcbal Nonsense I — The native 
headman must be paid what he has lost in com- 
mission for oollcotiug paddy tax at the expense of 
the oaoao growers, 
* 
THE CINCHONA-PLANTER'S DIRGE. 
What would be the felh'g of Mincing Laue if a 
London cinchona-hroki r were to rife gravely iroru liis 
rostrum after a disappoii tii g ilay's aa'e, «ud recite 
aloud au "OK to the Hani Times " before closing 
tho proceedings with tbo conventional " Gen'lemen, 
wo ate muoh obliged " ? The eoene may bomiagi.e", 
it oannOt be described. Yet au incident on aii-fours 
with guch a shocking d>splay of unseemly levity oc- 
curred at a recant meeting of Dutoh busiuess meu, 
of all people in the w rid ! The scene was in Java, 
the date July 14 last, and 'he oecatiOH the annual 
gene.al wetting of 'he Java C nchopa-planter*' As- 
sociation. The chief subjects ou the a^ei.da, were the 
prospects ol the cinchona-trade, th-> tea-business, 
*nd the soul-stirring question, bimetallism. The 
President, Mr. G. Mundt, read a paper on the cin- 
chona outlook, taking for bis text an eJitorial article 
iu the Chemist and Druggist of Maroh 31, and then 
observing that this concluded the agenda, drew from 
his pocket an " Ode " to which be regaled the 
assembly. The " Ode," or dir^e, turned out to be 
a par dy on the famous old German stuieut's aong, 
" 0, olte Burschenherrlichkeii, wonin bint du versoh- 
wunden," and appears to have been received in a 
silence broken only by the suppressed sobs of those 
who f»iled to control their emotions. The verses 
were written m German, hut, business being slaok in 
the drug-trade, the C. D. man has found time to 
turn " Occ. poet " for once, and to render into 
English the presidential effort, keeping as closely as 
possible to the German original and preserving the dog- 
Latin chorus characteristic of the German " Commers- 
buoh." More than onoe the translator was on the 
point of throwing up the sponge, but the thought of 
the still unappropriated Laureate's butt of sherry 
inspired bim with strength to hold out until the 
end. If anyone feels inclined to make light of his 
difficulties, let him attempt to retranslate the effunon in- 
to Dutch, not even nece.-sarily of the double variety: — 
THE CINCHONA-PLANTERS' WAIL. 
0 glorious bark-trade days of yore, 
Say, whither are ye banished ? 
Will ye return with gold galore '? 
Ar ye for ever vanished ? . . . 
'Twere vain to try that problem's knot ; 
The shilling unit's gone to pot. 
O jerum, jerum, jerum ! 
0 quae mutatio rerum! 
The quiniue-ma ers roll in oof. 
Stone-broke are alt we gr jwera ! 
From us Dame Fortune holds aloo , 
On them her wealth she showers. 
Happy the man who 'scaped our fate, 
On some secluded coffee-estate ! 
O jerum, &c. 
Ihe Planters' Club is in a fright, 
No remedy they wot of ; 
Full many empty words they write, 
Statistics they've a lot of ! 
But action never comes to pass. 
There's no esprit de corps, alas 1 
O jerum, &c. 
The Government's plantations grow 
In spite of dwindling prices ; 
They reap, they strip, they plant, they sow . 
The planters' dander rises, 
In vulgar Dutch their wrath they vent: 
" Portz-Himmel-tauseud-Sacrament " I 
0 jerum, &o. 
As Dante said, there is no greater pain than the 
recollection of happy times in days ot misery. The 
" Ode," as pointed in ti,e official proceedings, with 
never a word of comment, looks bald enough, but 
who shall tell what a. onias the unhappy President 
bad borne before be thus burst forth into rhyme? 
And it it be true that 
. Most wretched men 
Were cradled in 0 poetry by wrong, 
They learue l in s fferin,* what they taught in song, 
what a terrible load of responsibility rests upon the 
Qiiniue-makeii)' combination which prevents the 
Plontars from earning an bousst crust 1 The Ode, 
we may add, may be sung to the tune of L'Jtbtr'i 
well-known hymn, — Madras Mail. 
INDIA TEA* PLANTING. 
General. — Upper and Lower Assam have ex- 
perienced unfavourable weather. Iu spite of this, 
leaf is reported as plentiful, but not ot good quality, 
Oaohar, Svlhet arc! South Sylhet gardens have bad 
good weather for growth. Darjiling, Terai and 
Duars had no better weather than last reported, but 
idlest reports from the Terai announoe a change for 
the better. Mosquito blight is exoeptioually bad in 
the Duars and Terai, and still inoreaaes. — The 
Planter, Sept, 28. 
