Dec.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
379 
though  the  timber  is  not  being  so  generally  used  as 
one  might  have  expected,  yet  its  excellent  qualities 
have  been  recognised,  and  every  attempt  is  being 
made  to  extend  its  sale  in  England.  Arrangements 
are  being  made  to  have  a portion  of  the  panelling  and 
some  of  the  furniture  in  the  Imperial  Institute  made 
of  padauk  wood  from  the  Andamans.  With  more 
careful  selection  the  timber,  it  is  thought,  will  pro- 
bably secure  increased  sales,  and  the  price  rise  above 
£10,  the  rate  at  which  the  most  recent  consignment 
was  sold  in  London. 
The  medicinal  ipecacuanha  plant  is  a native  of 
Brazil,  and  attempts  are  being  made,  but  with  only 
qualified  success,  to  introduce  it  into  India  and  Burma. 
The  late  Dr.  Anderson,  Superintendent  of  the  Royal 
Botanic  Gardens  near  Calcutta  was  the  first 
person  who  conceived  the  possibility  of  the 
cultivation  in  India  of  this  valuable  shrub,  and  he 
took  the  first  specimen  to  Calcutta  in  1866 ; but, 
after  many  trials,  it  was  reported  that  it  could  not 
be  made  to  thrive.  In  the  plantation  rear  Darjeel- 
ing, however,  the  plants  throve  better,  and  in  1871 
there  were  some  61,000  plants  growing  there,  in  glass 
covered  frames,  at  an  elevation  of  about  3,000  feet. 
The  rapid  success  of  propagation  was  entirely  due 
to  the  discovery  that  this  plant,  unlike  most  others, 
can  be  freely  propagated  by  root  cuttings.  This  is 
so  far  satisfactory,  but  we  are  not  in  a position  to 
say  whether  ipecacuanha  can  be  grown  profitably  as 
a crop.  The  success  obtained  in  the  cultivation  of 
this  product  on  the  Nilgiris  seems  to  justify  the 
brief  that  it  will  pay  to  grow  it  there.  A sample  of 
the  root  of  a plant  two  years  old,  grown  in  the  Wynaad, 
was  analysed  by  the  Madras  Government  Quinologist, 
who  found  it  to  contain  as  much  emetine  as  is  found 
in  the  commercial  drug.  Dr.  King  says  that 
ipecacuanha  “is  a humble  creeping  under-shrub  of 
peculiarly  slow  growth  ; that  it  apparently  requires 
a thoroughly  tropical  climate — by  which  I mean  a 
pretty  equal  day  and  night  temperature — the  absence 
of  a decided  cold  season,  and  an  atmosphere  pretty 
steadily  and  thoroughly  saturated  with  moisture.  We 
have  proved  that  it  cannot  stand  a hot  sun,  and  that 
it  is  apparently  impatient  of  stagnant  moisture  at  its 
roots.”  The  imports  of  ipecacuanha  into  England, 
chiefly  from  Brazil,  amount  annually  to  about 
65,00Uib  of  the  value  of  some  £15,000,  so  that  there 
is  only  a comparatively  small  demand.  But  if  the 
cost  of  cultivation  on  the  Nilgiris  permitted  of  the 
sale  of  the  roots  at  a lower  figure  than  those  from 
Brazil,  the  demand  might  greatly  increase  in  England 
and  on  the  Continent.  In  the  Straits  Settlements, 
when  a proper  situation  is  found,  the  plant  grows 
with  all  the  luxuriance  of  its  native  country,  so  it 
might  also  be  planted  profitably  there. 
Sida  fibre  is  a strong,  fine,  round  fibre  of 
excellent  spinning  properties,  fit  for  highrr  textile 
purposes  than  jute,  and  has  been  recommended  to 
the  consideration  of  flax  manufacturers.  The  sugges- 
tion has  been  made  that  sida  might  be  successfully 
grown  over  a wide  arra  where  jute  cultivation  is 
impossible,  and  that  Sou!  hern  India  or  Bombay  wonld 
prove  better  suited  for  the  development  of  a sida 
industry  than  tho  damper  regions  of  Bengal.  There 
appear  to  be  five  descriptions  of  this  fibie,  hut  the 
Sida  rhomhoidea  is  the  variety  tba1,  has  been  hitherto 
e'mefly  experimented  with.  Major  Hannay,  of  Assam, 
was  the  fiist  person  to  commercially  draw  attention 
to  it,  in  about  1853;  and  it  seems  rather  extra- 
ordinary that,  notwithstanding  the  highly  favourab'e 
reports  wLich  have  been  made  about  sida,  no  at- 
tempt, so  far  as  we  are  aware,  yet  been  made  to 
cultivate  it  ou  a large  scale.  Is  cultivation  is  at- 
tended with  no  difficulty,  and  its  cemmercial  value 
would  appear  to  be  favourable  to  an  extended  trial. 
One  cause  that  operated  against  its  cultivation  was 
that  the  attention  of  the  Calcutta  fibre  merchants, 
shortly  after  Major  Hannay’s  discovery,  was  forcibly 
directed  to  the  establishment  in  India  of  jute  mills 
in  opposition  to  those  in  Dundee,  and  for  forty  years 
sida  was  forgotton.  It  was  r.ot  until  18S0  that  at- 
tention was  ugiin  drawn  to  it,  by  the  Bengal  Govern- 
ment, which  forwarded  to  tie  Agri-Horticultural 
Society  of  India  samples  of  the  fibre  which  it  had 
received  from  Rajah  Krisheudto  Roy,  of  llalibar, 
in  the  District  of  Rajshahye.  Mr.  Cogswell,  an  emi- 
nent practical  authority,  twice  reported  on  this 
article,  and  favourably  on  both  occasions.  The 
fibre,  he  wrote,  has  a glossy  colour,  “ bright  in  the 
extreme  and  of  a very  high  order.  It  is  strong  fine 
round,  and  of  excellent  spinning  properties.”  A dis- 
tinguished firm  of  chemists  also  reported  highly  upon 
it  and  said  that  as  compared  with  jute,  it  possessed  a re- 
latively high  percentage  of  cellulces,  wherein  lies  the 
most  important  factor  of  its  superiority  over  jute. 
In  the  Handbook  on  jute,  Dr.  Watt,  while  not  omitting 
to  mention  the  unfavourable  report  of  the  Agri- 
Horticultural  Society  of  India,  maintains  that  the 
intrinsic  superiority  of  sida  over  jute  fibre  would 
seem  to  justify  its  experimental  and  systematic 
cultivation  until  a stock  is  produced  that  can  be 
grown  as  readily  and  admit  of  bs  rapid  decortication 
as  is  the  esse  with  jut?.  Nothing  further,  however, 
appear.?  to  have  been  done  in  tha  matter,  and 
Dr.  Watt  may  well  say  that,  considering  the 
infinitely  superior  quality  of  sida,  “ it  is  surely 
worthy  of  the  time  and  expenditure  necessary 
to  ascertain  whether  or  not  all  these  advan- 
tages are  financially  counterbalanced  by  u less 
acreage  yield.”  The  plant  grows  wild  in  tha 
Nellore  District,  where  it  springs  up  after  the 
North-Eist  Monsoon,  and  could  probably  be 
easily  cultivated  at  little  cost.  Ouc  drawback, 
however,  to  the  success  of  this  fibre  is  the  difficulty 
experienced  in  extracting  it,  for  it  does  not  separate 
easily  from  the  outer  bark  or  inner  wood.  In  Nellore 
it  is  extracted  by  b< ating  the  stems  of  the  plant  with 
a woden  mallet  and  washing  them  during  the  intervals 
cf  beitiDg. 
Ju£e,  the  staple  industry  of  Bengal,  was  known  to 
the  people  of  India  from  comparatively  remote  periods, 
and  until  the  increased  demand  for  cloth  resulted 
in  the  importation  of  cheap  European  piece-goods, 
the  industry  was  a thriving  one.  For  a time  the 
indigenous  industry  declited,  but  with  the  rapid  pro- 
gress in  every  other  branch  of  enterprise  a remunerative 
foreign  trade  was  opened  up,  which  has  gone  on 
increasing  in  a marvellous  manner.  In  coarse  of  time 
machinery  in  Eugland  naturally  superseded  manual 
labour  in  India  in  the  manufacture  of  gunny  bags, 
etc.  and  the  Bengal  ryots,  bowing  to  the  inevita- 
ble, forthwith  piocecded  10  oi-continue  the  manu- 
facture of  bags  and  devoted  their  attention  to  the 
preparation  of  an  extra  quantity  of  fibre;  and  to 
such  purpose  that  the  supply  soon  outstripped  the 
demand  for  home  manufuc;ure,  and  a la-ge  export 
trade  was  established  in  raw  jute  to  feed  the  Dundee 
Mills.  There  the  manufacture  of  jute  into  bags 
proceeded  most  successfully  until  1854,  in  which  year 
the  Isbera  Yaru  Mills  Company,  (now  the  Wellington 
Mil!.*)  was  established  near  Calcutta  by  Mr.  George 
Ackland,  a large  owner  of  coffee  plantations  in  Ooylon.* 
Otl  er  factories  were  built  in  quick  succession  ; the 
trrde  in  gunnies  developed  very  rapidly;  and  in 
1869-70  no  less  than  61  million  bags  made  in  Bengal 
were  brought  into  competition  with  the  Dundee  bags; 
in  1879  80  some  56  million  bags  were  exported  from 
India,  and  in  1889  no  less  than  109  miiliou  bags  were 
exported,  while  the  Indian  consumption  was  7Gj  million 
bags!  The  exports  of  raw  jute  are,  however,  far  greater 
than  those  of  manufactured  jute,  the  forms  r beiDg 
valued  in  3 891  92  nt  about  7 croros  of  rupees  and  the 
latter  at  about  2 crores.  In  the  opening  of  the  jute 
season  of  1890-91  the  price  of  jute  was  about  R1  per 
maund  ; cs  the  supply  greatly  exceeded  the  demand 
the  price  fell  in  December,  1890,  to  R2-4-0,  Owing 
to  these  low  prices  the  cultivators  suffered  severely, 
and  last  year  they  curtailed  the  cultivation  of  this 
article  and  sowed  rice  and  other  crops.  The  season 
was  also  unfavourable.  But  all  this,  curiously  enough, 
clots  not  appear  to  have  beefi  kuuwn  to  tho  trade, 
with  the  result  that,  whereas  at  the  beginning  of  the 
1891-92  season  the  price  was  113-8-0  per  maund,  it 
had  tisen — demand  having  soon  greatly  exceeded  the 
snpply — to  119-8  per  maund  in  May  of  this  year  ! A 
* Mr,  Ackland  had  been  owner  of  cofl'to  estates, 
as  tho  head  of  the  firm  of  Acklatd,  Boyd  & Go  , 
after  the  failure  of  which  he  we nt  to  Calcutta.— Ed.  L-L 
