540 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. 1, 1901. 
RUBBER IN BRAZIL. 
Remarking upo.i the steady increase in reoen, 
years in tiie production of india-ruboer in Brazil 
La Gazette Commercial* csvitiS. strone doubt upon 
the need for any furtlier increase for a long time 
to come. The total quantity exported in the 
year ended June 30th, 1897, was, says ia Ga2;e<<^ 
Co miner dale, 22,216 metric tons of 2,2o5 lb. each; 
in 1897-8 itwas 23,439 tons, in 1898 9 24,000 tons, 
and in the ten luontlis ended April 30th last 
23,439 tons. Probably, therefore, the exports for 
the whole of 1899-1900 will reach 26,000 tons at 
least, and they may substantially exceed this 
amouat. Any further increase of moment is, how- 
ever, very doubtful. No doubt the forests from 
which the gum is deiived are still of vast extent, 
and on the <^core of available supply it is ad nit- 
ted that there is no calculable limit to the produc- 
tion of india-rubber in Brazil. The practice of 
exhausting and destroying the trees which prevails 
iS' not, therefore, for the present likely to have 
any effect upon the supply. But it is to be hoped, 
having regard to the future, that steps will be 
taken, even in Brazil, to provide for replanting. 
The important consideration in so far as the im- 
mediately prospective production is concerned, 
lies in the limited quantity of labour available 
for gathering the gum. Trained labourers are 
very scarce owing to the unhealthiness of the 
forests and the difficulty of the work, which puts 
a limit to the number of natives willing to under- 
take it- As for European immigrants, they are 
not to be looked for, because they are even less 
capable than are the natives of sustaining the 
fatigne and the risk of malarial disease incident 
to the climate.— /»cZia-7'u6ber and Guttapercha 
Trades' Journal, Dec. 10. 
*- 
RUBBER. 
The German oonsnl in Payta Piara (Pern) reports 
the discovery of large rubber forests on the Niera 
river, a branch of the Amazon, which can be reached 
from the middle of the tobacco plantations by 
eight days' journey. Several German firms organzed 
a large expedition to start for the interior and 
to secure the right to collect the rubber. As the 
natives are very poor, it is expected that cheap 
native labour wdl facilitate the collection. A special 
road is projected, which will touch Iqnitos, byway 
of which town it is considered best to send all material, 
aa it would be difficult to find a route which is shorter 
through the Piara district. — N. Y. Journal of Commerce, 
Oct. 18. 
♦ 
COFFEE CULTURE ON THE CLARENCE, 
N. S. WALES. 
Mr. John Ball of Chatsworth Island, reports that 
hiR coffee crop this year is a great success. His 
last crop returaed 1,694 pounds, which sold at Is 
to la 3a per pound. This year the crop is expected 
to amount to something like 6,000 lb. Mr Ball has 
mastered the manufacture of coffee of the highest 
quality, and finds a good demand for it. His trouble 
18 to secure aufScient qnantities of beans. In reply 
to inquiries made of .Mr Holmes, a planter in Fiji, 
Mr Ball has been informed that, owing to unsatis- 
factory price offering in Sydney for the Fijian bean, 
the growers there were abandoning coffee-growing, 
Mr Holmes forwarded Mr Ball some seeds of the 
Liberia coffee, which is a sturdy-growing tree with 
deep tap root, and which bears a larger berry than 
the ordinary Arabian variety. In Fiji, even at the 
extremely low prices (.3d to 5d per pound) paid for 
^he beane, this variety returned 4b 7a per tree. Mr 
Ball finds that lie can pay ten pence a pound for 
good beans. His harveeticg is done by lads who are 
table to earn 15s a week at the work. — Agricultural 
Gazette of New South Wales, Dec. 1900. 
BRAZIL COFFEE NOTES. 
The Municipality of Cravinhoa is small, but it 
is very fertile and favourable for coffee production. 
It posseses eight millions of trees under production, 
and three millions of young plants, and has pro- 
duced an average of 151 arrebas (4,880'32 pounds) 
per thousand trees. This is equivalent to 4 88 pounds 
per tree, which is considerably above any average we 
have thus far seen, — Rio News, Nov. 27. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Coconut Oil Scarce and Higher— i» the 
heading of an article in the latest "New York 
Oil Reporter " : — 
The soap trade has been quite active this fall. The 
consumption of coconut oil has been steady offerines 
have been light and short interests have been called 
upon to cover. The market from these very natural 
causes has reached a most interestiug stage. It is so 
bare on spot as to cause considerable artxiety on the 
part of consumers and to those importers nnfottunate 
enough to be on the short side. A fair estimate of 
available Ceylon oil at the time of writing places the 
stock at but fifteen tons. There is considernbly more 
Cochin, probably one hundred and twenty-five tons, 
but this is barely sufficient to keep a fair parity of 
price between the two grades, 
Bolivia is a country of vast latent resources, 
possessing even at the present time a very con- 
siderable trade. Its products, exported through 
Chilian, Peruvian, Brazilian, or Argentine ports, 
are generally cre lited to one or other of those 
States; as a silver producing country it ranks 
third as a tin producer second ; its output of 
indiarnbber — a comparatively new industry — was 
valued in 1898 at £1,300.000 ; it possesses valu- 
able copper mines and borax deposits, while the 
gold mines of Tipuani are probably not inferior 
in richness to those of Klondike, As a con- 
sequence its import trade is by no means insig- 
nificant, but, under existing conditions, it has 
a tendency to drift into the hands of our Ger- 
man competitors, who are more alive to its im- 
portance, and who leave no stone unturned to ex- 
tend their influence and their mercantile operations. 
— London Times. Dec. 19' 
Inferior Seeds — A strong light has been 
thrown on the preparations now being made by 
unscrupulous merchants in Germany and America 
for supplying the simple-minded peasants of South 
Africa "with shiploads of the veriest rubbish ima- 
ginable" as soon as the war is over. A contem- 
porary says :—" Articles of such vital importance 
as grain for sowing and vegetable and othc seeds 
have been manipulated by the German adulterant 
in a shameful manner. Husks, din-sweepings, 
weed seeds, and every conceivable kind of refuse 
have been done up into packets with a sprinkling 
of the genuine seed, packed in covers printed in 
the English language, and labelled in a cruelly 
sarcastic manner, 'Specially selected for South 
African cultivation.' Fertilisers, composed prin- 
cipally of coal dust ; ready made cloches, rotten 
with dye ; liunting knives made of scrap iron ; 
gilt clocks, warranted ; German concertinas with 
paper bellows, are a lew of the other articles 
which are to flood our newly-acquired territory as 
opportunity may offer,— (7oj»?neraaZ Intdligencc, 
