May  i,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
677 
PRESERVATION  FOR  LOCALLY  GROWN 
TIMBER. 
A correspondent,  who  tellB  ua  he  has  read  recent 
remarks  we  offered  as  to  the  very  free  u;e  of 
teak  by  our  Railway  Department,  aska  whether 
it  ia  known  if  the  Ceylon  Government  haa  made 
any  attempts  to  experimental^;)  upon  native-grown 
woods  with  some  of  the  many  methods  in  use 
elsewhere  for  the  preservation  of  timber,  It  is 
pointed  out  to  us  that  all  sleepers  imported  for 
our  railways  have  b6en  submitted  to  one  or  other 
of  the  processts  indicated,  and  that  but  for 
the  result  to  this,  the  wood  of  the  fir  tree  would 
perish  with  a rapidity  to  which  our  own  native- 
grown  timbers  would  not  be  exposed.  We  are  quite 
aware  that  the  hard  and  close-grained  woods 
of  looal  growfh  do  not  lend  themselves  so 
readily  to  certain  preservative  operations  as  do 
the  woods  of  which  our  imported  sleepers 
mainly  consist ; but  it  seems  very  likely  that 
by  careful  experimentalizing  some  means  could 
be  found  to  redress  tms  disability.  It  app  ars 
to  us  extraordinary  that  the  very  hardness  end 
density  <f  our  woods,  in  itself  so  valuable  a 
quality,  should  be  al  owed  to  remain  the  chief 
obstacle  to  their  free  use  in  railway  wotk  in  this 
island.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  preservative 
fluids  used  oannot  be  forced  throughout  the 
structures  of  hard  woods  ; but  we  are  somewhat 
inolined  to  think  that  this  assertion  is  of  com- 
paratively distant  date,  and  was  of  a time  when 
boilers  were  not  constructed  to  resist  the  pressures 
now  in  such  oommon  use.  Prior  to  the  1b st  ten 
years  or  so,  the  highest  pressure  used  for  locomotive 
engine  boilers  was  about  120  ib.  to  the  square  inch. 
Now,  sinoe  locomotives  have  been  compounded, 
we  hear  of  cases  where  2401b.  to  the  square 
inoh  have  been  safely  employed.  If,  therefore, 
it  has  been  simply  a question  of  pressure  that 
can  be  safely  used  to  foroe  the  preservative 
fluids  throughout  the  structure  of  timber,  it 
would  seem  to  be  possible  that  by  specially  ar- 
ranged methods,  force  might  now  be  safely 
be  employed  which  would  be  adequate  to 
the  effective  treatment  of  the  hardest 
and  most  dense  of  the  timbers  to  be  found  in 
Ceylon  forests.  Such  is  the  view  taken  by  the  corres- 
pondent referred  to,  and  we  have  only  recently  alluded 
to  the  effeot  the  enormously  increased  price  of  teak 
is  likely  to  have  upon  its  future  use,  as  also  to 
the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  souroes  from  which 
at  the  present  time  we  draw  our  main  supplies 
of  railway  sleepers.  It  oan  only  be  rational,  there- 
fore, to  oonsider  how  it  may  be  possible  to  utilize 
in  the  future  the  vast  supplies  of  timber  whioh 
this  island  affords.  We  have,  above,  suggested 
a oourse  of  experiment.  This  no  doubt  may  prove 
costly  ; but  it  would  be  economical  in  the  end 
if  it  afforded  the  means  of  utilizing  native 
woods  for  purposes  for  which  we  now  have  to 
import  foreign  timber.  We  do  not  think  the  Ceylon 
Government  should  refuse  to  incur  the  expense 
of  doing  this,  and  probably  the  presence  of  an 
expert  in  suoh  work  would  be  necessary.  But 
firBt  of  all  let  inquiry  be  made  through  the 
Crown  Agents  as  to  the  progress  making  in 
liuiope  with  the  different  pres  ivative  processes, 
and  upon  the  result  might  oe  determined  the 
QOturae  to  be  adopted  here. 
COFFEE  CONSUMPTION  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  IN  1892. 
This  was  the  largest  for  any  year  on  record,  reach- 
ing a total  of  691,691  tons  for  Kurope  and  the  United 
States,  a gain  over  1891  of  31,835  tons  and  over  1890 
of  81,477  tous.  This  is  a remarkable  showing,  in 
view  of  the  high  cost  of  the  article.  Almost  the  entire 
increase  is  credited  to  the  United  States,  the  gain 
in  Europe  being  only  2,695  tons.  Europe  used  422,801 
tons  of  coffee  in  1892  ; the  United  States,  268,891  tous. 
Tae  future  Brazil  supply  is  variously  estimated, 
and  is  thought  cau-ot  exceed  5,500,000  bags  from  Rio 
and  Santi  s. 
The  Java  crop  ot  1893-94  will  show  a heavy  de- 
crease; some  estimate  a falling  off  of  two-thirds. 
Nicaragua  is  expected  to  furnish  the  largest  orop 
ever  grown.  The  reports  from  the  United  States  of 
Columbia  indicate  a reduced  yield;  similar  accounts 
come  from  the  Malabar  coast  and  Manila. 
There  nre  no  indications  that  the  world’s  production 
is  likely  to  overlap  its  requirements  to  an  extent 
large  enough  to  inaugurate  an  era  of  low  prices. — 
American  Grocer,  Feb.  8. 
- - — 
MAURITIUS. 
GENERAL  SUMMARY,  PORT  LOUIS,  MARCH  11. 
The  Weather  and  the  Crop. — Tile  quantity  of 
rain  that  has  iallen  since  last  month  has  been  in- 
sufficient in  certain  districts.  Those  to  windward  of 
th«  island  have  principally  felt  the  want  ot  water. 
The  crop  is  entirely  finished  and  only  a few  unim- 
portant 1 t«  of  syrups  of  inferior  quality  now  arrive 
on  the  market.  Up  to  the  4th  insfc.  we  have  re- 
ceived in  the  warehouses  in  town  557,057  bags  les« 
than  at  the  same  period  last  year. 
Vanilla. — The  market  is  firm.  We  have  to  quote 
the  sale  of  a lew  small  lots  of  fine  quality  at  R23 
to  24  per  kilo  above  6 inches.  We  entirely  coi  firm 
our  last  valuation  as  regards  the  outturn  of  the  crop 
which  will  not  exceed  8,000  kiles. 
Aloe  Fibre. — The  market  has  resumed  a firmer 
tone.  We  have  to  quote  the  sale  of  50  bales  fine 
quality  at  R270.  Good  to  middling  K260  per  ton 
we  quote. 
Coffee. — Prices  for  good  quality  have  consider- 
ably advanced  owiDg  to  a reduced  stock  and  having 
no  importation  to  report  since  our  last  it  is  worth 
now  from  R90  to  100  per  50  kilos,  mixed  triage  qua- 
lities are  nominal  at  R40  to  54  per  50  ki'os  according 
to  quality.  R6uui<  n and  Madagascar  are  very  scarce. 
— Merchants'  and  Planters’  Gazette. 
BRAZIL  COFFEE  NOTES. 
If  the  people  who  are  trying  to  make  money  out 
of  Chinese  immigration  could  be  sent  into  the  coffee 
fields  and  obliged  to  work,  the  outlook  for  the  next 
coffee  crop  would  be  better  than  it  is  at  present. 
— Au  association  has  been  organised  here  nnder  the 
title  “Sociedade  Mutualidade  Agricola”  for  the  in- 
troduction of  Chinese  laborers.  It  promises  to  send 
them  home  at  the  end  of  five  years,  but  we  are 
willing  to  guarantee  that  the  promise  will  never  be 
kept.  The  society  has  induced  the  octogenarian 
Councillor  Sinimbu  to  acoept  it  presidency,  solely, 
of  course,  for  the  influence  of  bis  name. — According 
to  the  Pltarol,  of  Juiz  de  Fora,  the  president  of  the 
meeting  of  planters  held  there  to  dircuss  Chinese 
labor,  announced  that  he  had  received  a letter  from 
the  United  States  minister  recommending  Mr.  Johu 
Lawson,  who  had  undertaken  to  introduce  (Jhmeoe 
laborors  for  the  impoverished  asricullure  of  the  oountry. 
Mr.  Lawson’s  contract  is  for  the  introduction  ot 
50,000  laborers  at  the  rate  of  10,000  a year,  and  the 
maximum  cost  will  be  <£20  per  capita.  The  wages 
are  not  specified,  but  Mr.  Lawson  suggests  that  §7 
would  probably  be  the  rate, —Rio  News,  Jan.  31, 
