342 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
fNov. r, 1894 
the course of a debate on the question whether the Asso- 
ciation should join the Union for the Promotion of the 
Interests of Cinchona-Cultivation, recsntly establishel iu 
Amsterdam, a planter who had recently returue 1 from 
Europe asserted that no good could come from any re- 
duction of the exports. The coalition of the German 
quinine-makers, he observed, was too powerful to be 
overcome by the planters The stojk of bark in Europe was 
sufficient to supply the manufacturers' requirements for 
two years, and until that was cleared off the growers were 
powerles. A capital of at least £150,000 would be re- 
quired to keep a planters' syniicate going, and no such 
amount could be brought together by the planting interest. 
The German system of quinine-making was totally differ- 
ent from, and much superior to. that fillowol by the 
French and American factories. The Milan quinine- works 
also used the German system, but an agreement had beeu 
made between that factory and the German syndicate, 
by virtue of which the German makers pud an annual 
royalty to the Italian factory on condition that it should 
cease working. The President of the A-sociatlon pointed 
out that however anxious all the Java planters might be 
to improve the price of bark, it was not they, but the 
directors of the great cinchona-companies, who had their 
head-quarters in Amsterdam, who oou'd take effectiV' 
action. Some time ago the Association agreed to restrict 
the exports of cinchona, but no soonor was this decision 
taken than a few planters outside the Association com- 
menced to increase their own exports, thus nullifying the 
Association's object. Unless the whole of the Java plan'.a- 
tions, without exception, agreed upou common action 
nothing could be done. Another point of danger to Java 
planters lay in the decline of the exchange-value of the 
rupee. Java 1ms a gold standard, and cannot profit on 
exchange, but the Ceylon planters now receive about 50 
per ceut more rupees for every £1 worth of bark sold 
in Europe than they did in the first years if their cin- 
chona industry. On the other hand wages are the same 
as they were then, and the Java growers are therefore, 
at present, seriously handicapped against their Ceylon 
colleagues. 
Tea. — The Assam market has been severely tested this 
week with heavy sales, and has borne the trial well as 
regards prices. On Monday the auctions lasted from noon 
till past 5 o'clock, and showed remarkably steady rates 
for all grades, and while |here and there prices were 
not quite so stiff on Wednesday, the remit of the sales 
for the week shows that Indians are wanted, and that 
the recent advance was fully justified. A good traie has 
been done in the country, and Irish buyers are now get- 
ting an assortment of useful brokeu Penoes. Ceylon sales 
are lighter and likely to continue so for a while, and 
very full prices were realised, Tuesday's sale going off 
rapidly with plenty of comoetitiou. Ia Congou teas fine 
Kintucks and Keem ins continue to advance, showing in 
man cases a rise of from 4d to 6 1 per lb. from ori- 
ginal opening quotations. Capirs are steady at recent 
low rates. 
SIX WEEKS IN JAVA. ",j 
The island of Java has been receiving considerable 
attention in the English press of late : the Pall Mall 
Gazette had an illustrated contribution on this Dutch 
Dependency not long ago ; and in a recent Blackwood, 
Ool. Sit H. Uollett gives an interesting acoount 
of " Six Weeks in Java " from which we quote a few 
passages. First in reference to travelling: — 
The dry season in Java commences in April, and 
the most favourable time for travelling is from the 
beginning of that month to about the enl of Juae. 
July and August are hot, especially in eastern Java 
wheri the rainfill is less than in the western pro- 
vinces, and where drought is apt to prevail during 
the autumn. Ia Ootober the raiay season begins. 
In a few years Java will possess a railway extend- 
ing from Batavia on the west to Soerabiji on the 
east — that is, throughout nearly its entire length. 
At present the difficulties of construction through a 
hill country leave a gap of over one hunlred miles 
beteewn Garoet and Tjilafcjap on tho southern coast. 
The journey between these points is somewhat 
difficult, and requires arrangement beforehand; wa 
therefor?, found it most oonvenieat, when leiving the 
western for the central proviuoe-i, to return to Batavia 
and. go by sea to Siuoaraug. 
The train service in Java is very regular an 1 punc- 
tual, and even an unlockod portmanteau appears to 
bs> quit 3- safe in the luggage- van 9. The oarriages are 
built on the Amorioin pUu, w.h ; .oh ensures good ven- 
tilation ; and we found the second class sufficiently 
comfortable. The speed is slow accord >ng to Euro- 
pean iJeas,and the stoppages prolonged tnd frequent 
but in Java no < .u - is in a hurry and as the sooner j 
is always iutereatiog, small de'ays are rather 
welcome tbaa otherwise. 
Then about Gardens, cultivation and vegetation :— 
The Buitenzorg Botanical Garden may perhaps 
somewhat disappoint the expectation of Ike ciu-cirn. 
tific miud, as mora attention is paid therein to the 
requirements of botany thau to tbe pioturvtqae. 
But the garden poasexses mere named species of 
plants thau nny other similar eaUblinhment, except 
perhaps K -w ; anl its collection of palms, all growing 
in the open instead of being crowdel under a glass 
roof, is certainly unrivallei. The plant-bouses are 
p ior, and not modi mon-y is spent on them. The 
orchids also are i 1 tbe open, and there is notbiog at 
Buitenzorg to oompa'e with the orobi l-bonse is the 
Calcutta Garden*, where ferns and foliage plants 
combiue with gorgeous fl >wers to produce • soene of 
vrgetrib'e beauty that is, I think, unequalled. 
A visit should also be paid to (he Government 
experimental plantation, about two miles from tbe 
Buite.-.zorg hotel. The two varieties of coffee (C. 
arabica. ani C. Hberica) oommonly seen in cultivation, 
several species of the plants producing gutta-pereha, 
mahogany tree*, cardamoms, anl numerous other 
interesting plants possestiag economic value, may be 
seen there. 
W* left Buitenzorg by railway on tbe morning of 
the 3rd Miy, and arrived at Bandoeng, the oapital of 
tbe Preanger Regency, the same afternoon. The 
tceuery was always interesting, and sometimes fine, 
as tbe train paisel along deep ravines drapped wrth 
tropical vegetatiou and seamsJ with waterfalls. It 
was interesting to note tbe dark-zreen Nip* palms 
{N. fruticans) staodiug with erect fronds in marshy 
ho lows and to remember that in Tertiary ages the 
same pilm grew in the Thames va'ley and dropped 
its fruit into the muddy waters. The sugar palm 
(Arenga zacckarifera) one of the most useful of plants 
is always to be seeo growing near villages, with 
enormous bunches of barries pendent from its lofty 
atom. This palm produces at tbe bases of its leaves 
a black fibre, like horse-batr, which is put to a 
viriety of uso% and may be seeo covering the ridges 
of the native huts all over tbe island 
We saw much rice, coffee, and cinchona cultivation, 
often separated by hedges of eiythrina, the "Indian 
coral-tree." 
Taller tree-ferns than we had seen elsewhere, some 
attaining a height of at least sixty feet. A handsome 
fern (Dipteris Horsfeldii) grows abundantly in shad* 
nooks, and is remarkable from its large deeply-lobed 
fronds dark-green above and pale coloured below. 
There is much cultivated land round SindaDglaja, 
and it is curious to observe the mechanical scarecrows 
which the ingenious Malayan mind has evolved. The 
natives are also fond of keeping birds in cages. 
Every house has at least two or three ; bnt instead 
of hanging against a wall the cages are boisted np 
high above the roofs on bamboo poles : and thus the 
little prisoners obtain fresh air and sunshine, and are 
clear of the mosquitos and other baneful insects that 
swarm below.- 
We left Boroboedar at 7 a.m. on 25th May, and 
arrived in three hours at Djokjokarta, a large town 
on the line of railway to Soerabaja. Every yard of 
the country through which we passed was cultivated 
the principal crops being sugar-cane and manihot, 
Sngar is the staple export from eastern Java ; and 
the cane-fieldp, with their waving plumes of silvery- 
grey inflorescence, form a oharming addition to the 
landscape. In India the cultivated sugar-cane bears 
no flowers, and the plants are propagated by cuttings, 
and even in Java the seeds do not mature. Manihot. 
utilitisiima) is growo on dry 6levated land not 
suited for rice, aid its queershaped tuberous roots 
are seen in every bazw. From these the meal known 
as cassava is prepared in tropical Amarioa, and tapioca, 
