jiTLY 1, LSOO.l THE TROPICAL AGRICULTIJRIST. 
37 
(or to be quite safe in allowing for clepre- 
ciation in Mexican money, let us say £15) 
per acre tiett ; cacao double that pi'otit in 
four years ; and if the planter only goes in 
for rubber and waits six years, still higlier 
income per acre is promised. Can Mr. 
Darley tell us if he has ever seen the coco- 
nut palms, which, in five years, bear so heavily 
as to net from 250 to -iOO dollars per acre, that 
is from 3 to 5 dollars per tree ^ We should 
much like to ste a photograph of such 
palms witli their heads of nuts. 
Meantime, will Mr. Darley kindly keep us 
and our readers apprised as to results, 
and we should much like to know what 
acreage of each product he has under 
his own care ; what number of labourers 
he has to aid him ; their cost per month, 
and the amount of work done by them ; and 
the actual crops gathered. It is quite pos- 
sible that exact information on these points 
would draw men with some capital and ex- 
perience from the East, because it is evident 
that competition is running too keenly out 
here and in India with tea. 
A FARMER'S EVERY DAY LIFE. 
No. VII. 
(Bij Cosmopolite. ) 
FARMING 
IS the only business that I know of, in 
which a man. who gets aheixd of his 
neighbours, may become a general benefactor. 
If his crop excels, the agricultural eye of the 
district is upon him. The sort of stock he 
keeps is carefully noted, and how he treats 
that stock is the theme of his neighbour's 
conversation. They watch for bun to begin 
ploughing, sowing and harvesting, and they 
follow closely in his wake. When he tries 
to hide his light under a bushel, they lift it 
up and expose him to the glare of the whole 
world, and would fain throw a calcium upon 
him and play slow music, whilst they save 
money by following his successes, But they 
neither pay him nor thank him for the good 
his example furnishes them, and no one loses 
by his success. He has hobbies, no doubt, 
has the successful farmer, principally of an 
agricultural turn ; and he is merciless when 
once he gets hold of a listener ; but his name 
is a byword for success in the district, and 
he is an authority in the pages of the agri- 
cultural press. He works hard, seldom goes 
from home, takes few pleasures and only 
rejoices in the thought that 
" One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth a world without a name." 
Even Sunday brings no rest to a farmer, for 
many works of necessity and mercy may 
happen on a farm, and the master's eye and 
hand must always be ready, if success is to 
be attained. Although he may go to church, 
wearing 
THE WHITE BELL TOPPER OF A BLAMELESS 
LIFE, 
he probably returns home, not to rest his 
Weary limbs by idly thinking over the sermon 
he has just listened to, but to fiiid some of 
liis stock ill, and which mu.st be doctored ; 
ttie bydranUc xmx may have struck work 
and his water supply be cut off ; or a hundred 
different things which he, and he only, can iit- 
tc-nd to ; and, be it ren.embered, you can never 
keep up with the work on a farm if you ever 
put oil: till tomorrow what can "be done 
today. His only consolation is that he is no 
worse olf tlian other people wbo wish to set 
aside the sacred day for rest, but who never 
get it. What rest, for instance, has the small 
tradesman who spends Simday in struggling 
with his books, and trying to strike a bab 
ance, the labour of which is the weightiest 
Irarden of all to the white man:-' What rest 
has the owner of a bicycle, who wears out 
more tissue in trying to break records, on 
Sunday, than he does in working hard during 
the other six days of the week ? What rest has 
the policeman who risks his life trying to 
catch scorchers,— or the parson who has to 
preach three sermons,— or even the common 
labourer who slaves away greasing his boots, 
oiling his hair, and dressing himself in his 
best clothes, in which attire iie is more un- 
comfortable than words can express ? So, 
after all, if the British farmer has not one 
day of rest in the week assured to him, he 
is no worse off than residents in towns, and 
he has one advantage over these, namely, a 
more healthy life. It has been said that the 
British farmer would live for ever, such is 
the healthiness of his occupation, did not a 
mysterious Providence impel him to establish 
a muck -heap opposite his backdoor: but to 
these heaps I have a very strong objection, 
and I have broken in all my men to liold the 
same extreme views on the subject, so that 
no such heaps exist on mv farm, propagating 
germs, bacilli and all the other terrible things 
that doctors and scientists try to frighten us 
to death with. 
There are many things in Nature that we 
still cannot account for, however clever we 
may fancy ourselves, and one of these is the 
coming and going of our 
SUMMER BIRDS. 
Take the swallow, for instance ; during the 
past 18 years I find, by reference to my 
diaries, that these birds arrived 1(3 times on 
the 27th of April, once on the 28th, and this 
year on the 20th. They have, during these 
yea-rs, invariably left us on the 28th of 
September, %vith the exception of last year 
when, owmg, no doubt, to the extraordi- 
nary warm autumn, they postponed their 
departure till the 2nd of October. It must 
be a surprise to any one, who takes thought 
of the matter, that they should know, to a 
very day, when they are due to migrate 
from one place to another, and one can' only 
put it down as being one of those things 
that "no fellah can understand." 
FARMERS AND THE WEATHER. 
Sailors and others, whose business compels 
them to go down to the sea in ships, are 
supposed to be more skilful in the signs of 
the weather than any others ; but why this 
is so I cannot understand, for no men are 
more dependent on the weather than are 
farmers, and yet, I am bound to confess, 
these are not as a class gifted with any- 
great knowledge in this respect, nor do they 
seem ever to attempt to read or forecast tlie 
aigiis of the vfeather, It hacl been gajtl tha^ 
