Dec. i, 1894.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
395 
To the Editor. 
NORTH BORNEO AS A COFFEE-GROW fNG 
COUNTRY. 
THE BESULTS OP ACTUAL EXPERIENCE IN COFFEE — 
WHILE CACAO, COTTON, MUNILLA HUMP AND COCONUTS 
FLOURISH. 
Sandakan, Sept. 27. 
Sir, — In the Overland Observer of the 30th Aug. 
there are sev. ral oommun cations with regard to 
countries suitable (or coffee planting in which but 
one snail r (erence to North Borneo is made, 
an 1 as undoubtedly this oountry affords a g >od 
many more advantages than most, if not all, 
others for this cultivation, I think it only right 
to point some of them out. 
I am aware that " comparisons are odious " 
but nevertheless propose to make a few as the 
best rn ans cf bringing out this country's strong 
poin'8. 
In Afrioa, acoording to one of your ocnespon- 
dei ts, trees three years old are 5| feet hi^h 
with a splend.d crop of cherries rapidly maturing : 
trees here usually attain the height of about 7 feet 
when two years old and are then loppad back. When 
]8 moi ths old they show a good deal of blos.-om 
every fortnight or three weeks, and at from 2G to 28 
months of age their branches are heavy with 
fruit of whic 1 some is then b" ginning to ripen. 
With regard to the heavy profi s quoted from 
Peru I take it that tin oalculaiion that it cosits 
only 1 2 j to produce 100 ib. of clean coffee refeis 
to the aotual oost of picking, pulping, hushing 
and oarriage without allowing anything (or 
planting and upkeep : if this is the oase we can 
certfiidy do better hee, rarohuient coffee being 
delivered in town at $5 per picul (133J ib.) 
where it is read ly saleable at more than five 
times as muoh, 
That there is nothing to be wondered tt in this 
is apparent when the prica of our b bout - is 
oompared with that in Peru where " Chob la- 
bourers oost about 0 70 (about Is 6d) with food." 
H> re I am paying from 27 to 30 cents for praotisid 
Ma[ay labour and 27 cants for Chinese. The 
labourers feed th< mselves, live in their own 
houses anl fiad anst oi their tools except bars 
This is I calculate, taking the dollar at 2s 2d 
about 2d 5d of the price paid in Peru. 
The coffee estates in this district are 
oil w thin a comparatively faw miles of the Sandakan 
whuf and there is goi d water communication with 
all of them, whereas both in Peru and Africa the 
estates are various distanotS upcountry. I understand. 
I mu~t take exception to the editorial dictum 
that trees should be stripped rather than allow 
them to mature fruit before they are '.line years 
oi l ; not to speak of the expense of the extra 
labour required to strip every tree every month lor 
something like a year. It is even a question whether 
they would not be more damaged than benefitted 
by ibis treatment. Although the amount of orop 
showing is usually positively alarming, the cherry 
matures so slowly that there ia in reality no 
particular st ain on the trees. 
In add'tion to Liberian Coffee whioh is now a 
settled oul'ivation, we are experimenting on a 
small Boale with 0000a whioh so far promises very 
well, slid are also gettirg on with mauila hemp, 
cotton and ooconuts.— I remain, vours very truly, 
W. 13. PAYER 
FRUIT CULTURE ON PLANTATIONS IN 
CEYLON : — HILL AND LOWCOUNTRY; 
AN INDUSTRY IN " PRESERVES." 
Uva, Oof. 17. 
Dear Sib, — I was ghd to see the subject of the 
cu tivation of tropical fruits had again leen brought 
before your readers. Your Rangala correspondent 
tells us of an enormous yiel t of marndnrin 
oranges from a couple of trees on his estate. 
I had read of 1,000 oranges having been grown 
in a season on a tree in California; but give 
me a sunny c'ime to grow fruit in — a warm 
and well-sheltered spot —with a moderate slope-, not 
liable to much wesh from heavy rains, and there 
are such lands in Uva ; in sunny Matalp, Rattota 
and Kurunegala I should think also. If you want 
sweet, well-ripened fruit, you must have eun, and 
lots of it. Doubt'ess on many tea estates fruits of 
various kinds could be advantageously grown, 
for they oould be easily o.anurtd Ih're and 
the lady of the bun ;alow might enjoy marmalades 
of cho cesfc variet'es of her own make and at a 
smiill expense. Even the Icquat that grows and 
bf-ars fruit readily on mo?t estates', gives a fruit 
that will afford to placers a d. lie .tc-flivou 'ad and 
delicious j.-.m if well made; but my fifourue fruit 
aod I call it the king of 'roptoal fruits is tha despised 
banana. Only let the onltiva'or of the banana 
gjt choioe varieties — and there a>e many of them 
— and le' them be carefully plantel in rich soil 
and he can boast of a wholesome and delio'ous 
fruit, grown without muoh trouble or expense 
all round his v getable g«rd j n. I think the variety 
with the deep pink ekin is the very best I have 
tasted in Ceylon ; bu'. then we have the " suwaudel," 
little sugar plantain, and a dozen more of various 
flavours and e'z;s. The large kind of plan- 
tains make most excellent fritters, when ripe 
and well cooked, and no Ceylon garden should be 
without a few kinds of this wholesome anl deli- 
cious lrnit. The Sinhalese will seldom al ow it to 
be rijene:: on the stilk, they cut it when green 
and it h»s then a poor flavour. Lat jour 
readers tr.ke up Stanley's "Darken Afrioa" and 
see what he writes over and over again re- 
garding the, great value of the products of the 
banana and plantain. If the natives of Cevlon 
cultivated these fruits p-operly and extensively 
around their dioellings, and in their gardens they 
woul 1 not have to ooua plain that they had to livj 
at ti <«s on one meal a day of kurukan or 
cassava , and the plantain tree will grow at almost 
any elevatioD, but of course it takes a longer 
time to ma'ureits fruit at high altitudes; its fruit 
oan be grown as the riah man's luxury and the 
poor man's food: for H. M. Stanley remarks that 
the flour of the plantain is very nourishing and 
that when he was ill from fever he could only 
digest it in thin gruel, this flour. But h iw is is 
made — that is the question, I should like to Bee 
fully answered. 
I once called upon a native lady who had amassed 
a smtll fortune by a lit.le industry whioh might 
ba profitably introduced into Colombo arid else- 
where, I allude to the manufacture of tropical 
preserves, pickles, &o,, &o. At any rate this foi tunate 
dame bad suoh a name for her pineapple and 
gu.ava jellies, and for preserved gingir and other 
condiments that she had b«en able to buy two or 
three small housi s by lur skill and industry. 
Perhaps the Happy Valley ladies may take a lesson 
I from ihia native lady. Sago we oan get cheap 
i enough at the bszaars, but can we procure reliable 
I arrowroot or genujns tapioo* ? Yet in the dn'er 
I districts oi Ceylon, they could bo easily and profit- 
