420 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. 1, 1900. 
JAMAICA TO SUPPLY FRUIT TO 
ENGLAND. 
Our columns have this week borne testimony ot 
the tact that a new era is dawning in the relations 
of the United Kingdom with one of our oldest col- 
onies. From the beginning of next year a new line 
of steamers, built specially for the rapid conveyance 
of tropical fruit, will be established by the iirm of 
Elder, Dempster, and Co. to run fortnightly between 
this country and Jamaica. The steamers are to be 
of large size and adequate speed, and will run direct 
from Bristol to Jamaica in about 12 days. They will 
carry mails and passengers, and the service will 
receive a subsidy of £40,000 a year, to be paid partly 
by the Imperial ^Government and partly by the 
Government of the colony. It is a condition of the 
contract that the owners of the line should purchase 
20,000 bunches of bananas for conveyance by each ship, 
paying for them at the market price of the day. It 
will be seen at once that this is no ordinary develop- 
ment of maritime and commercial enterprise, though 
even from that point of view it is not without in- 
terest as reviving the old historic connexion between 
Bristol and the West Indies. It is really a great 
Imperial undertaking, warmly advocated by the 
late Boyal Commission on the West Indies, and now 
warmly espoused by Mr. Chamberlain as a salient 
feature of Imperial policy. The cultivation of the 
banana promotes and develops many other valu- 
able cultivations, as was shown at length by our 
Special Correspondent whose letters on the West 
Indies we printed at the close of last year. It 
is thus no extravagent estimate that the value of 
the fruit exports from Jamaica may in a few years 
exceed the present value of all the exports from 
the island and may amount in the end to at 
least £2,000,000 a year. In 180S the export of 
fruit from Jamaica amounted to over 4,000,000 bun- 
ches of bananas, to nearly 10,000,000 coconuts, and 
to nearly 100,000,000 oranges, not to mention other 
fruits, and it has since largely increased. In the 
height of the banana season it is no uncommon 
thing for eighteen steamers to leave Jamaica in a 
week for the ports of the United States, principally 
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. As 
the supply is inexhaustible the same thing may some 
day come to pass in the ports of this country. In 
the meanwhile the establishment of the new direct 
service, even on its present footing, should offer to 
those who love the sea a very inviting temptation 
to visit one of the most beautiful islands in the world. 
The climate of Jamaica affords every variety of 
tropical temperature except those which are oppres- 
sive and relaxing ; its scenery lacks no element of 
tropical majesty and tropical enchantment. Now that 
it is possible to reach the island in less than a fort- 
night, and to spend a month there without being 
absent more than eight weeks from home, surely 
many a sea-loving Englishman, with imagination 
enough to appreciate the historic associations of th« 
British Antilles and taste enough to enjoy the glories 
of tropical scenery at its best, will say with Kings- 
ley " At Last " and seek the shores of an island 
which more than any other perhaps in the whole 
world typifies and illustrates the Imperial instincts 
and triumphs of his race. Let us hope, too, that 
those who go will return convinced that Froude wag 
mistaken in thinking that the sons of the Empire 
are no longer worthy to bend the bow of Ulysses. — 
London Times, Oct, 13. 
THE FOREST DEPARTMENT. 
Western Phovince.— The plantation at the 
Model Farm at Kalutara has been weeded each 
rnonth, the expenditure on upkeep being E39.3"63, 
or R14:'58 per acre. The jak are reported to be 
doing well and beginning to seed, while the in- 
f?asainan and lunumidella are dying out. The 
Para rubber plantation at Midellena in the tas- 
(iun korale had to be abandoned. The top soil 
was washed away by heavy rain, and elephant 
deer completed the destruction of che plants. The 
expenditure on this plantation up to the time 
when it v\'as abandoned amounted to R128'47. 
There has been no expenditure on the other plan- 
tations, although I have requested the Assistant 
Conservator to remove the suppressed trees at 
Botale and Polonnaruwa. 
Hill Reserves.— In the Nanuoya strip planta- 
tions the Eucalyptuii robusta are doing fairly 
well and require some light thinnings, but the 
strips originally planted with Eucalyptus Globu- 
lus and Acacia decurrens are not a success. 
Luckily a large number of standards were left in 
these strips. At Conical Hill the strip plantations 
amounting to 38^ acres in compartment I., have 
made a considerable stride since last year. The 
very fine plantation at Haputale now requires 
thinnina- or coppicing in strips. The coppice made 
in 1896 is now almost as tall as the uncut strips 
of 1888-89. The coppice shoots are on an average 
over 12 inches in girth, whereas the uncoppiced 
poles planted in 1889 are only about 19 inclies in 
girth. An additional area of 2 acres was coppiced 
and yielded 263 cubic yaras of firewood, which 
were sold for E.526. As the cost of coppicing 
2,223 trees was Rllfl.5 and of bringing the wood 
to depot was R118-60, the net surplus on the 
transaction was R296'25, or R148 per acre, which 
for a plantation ten years old is good. Wind- 
falls in this plantation gave 142 cubic yards of 
wood and 290 small poles, which sold for R348'40, 
the cost of the work being E175'40. 
In the nursery clearings at Nuwara Eliya the 
undergrowth of brambles, &c., was cut down. 
This plantation is doing well as is also the plan- 
tation of Eucaly2}fi<s Globulus behind the Kach- 
cheri, which should be coppiced. 
BREATHING TIME. 
HOW TO CURE rULMONARY DISEASES. 
If during the coming winter the observant pedes- 
trian should notice innumerable excited people 
striding through the streets with a stick across 
their backs and between their elbows, he must 
not jump to the conclusion that London has sud- 
denly loft its senses. For this form of exercise 
is part of a treatment whi^h is now rapidly be- 
coming popular — the cure for asthma, bronchidst 
and all the other pulmonary diseases which trou- 
ble and distress the dwellers in our foggy, smoke- 
laden cities. Hitherto the asthmatic person has 
kept indoors as often as possible, carefully shut- 
ting windows and doors, and keeping a roaring 
fire blazing in the grate. No->v he is bidden to 
fling his windows open, to sleep even with his 
windows open, and, moreover, to keep in the 
open air as much as possible. But this is not 
all. He is taught that it is not so important 
what he breathes as how he breathes. Breath- 
ing-exercises, then, are part of the cure, and here 
not only the sufferer from bronchial catarrh is 
concerned, but even the woman of fashion anxious 
to maintain her good looks. For fifteen minutes 
twice a day women of fashion, asthmatic patients, 
and, indeed, all the world, are bidden to stand out 
of doors, pieferably in the sunshine, and holding 
the chest up, to inhale slowly throngh the nose, 
and then as quickly exhale the breath through 
the mouth. Of course, everyone knows tliat it 
is through the nostrils he should inhale, and it 
is quite probable lh.it many of humanity's ill 
nesses are due to improper breathing ; but, at 
the same time, it will be an almost superhuman 
feat to make mankind breathe through the no»- 
tvUs,— Globe, Oct. 19. 
