July 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTUBIST. 
1? 
POINTS FOR PRACTICAL PATRIOTS 
[IN JAMAICA: HOW MANY 
APPLY TO CEYLON?] 
If yon want to help on the finances of the island 
in a practical manner, adopt the following hints ; 
and if everybody did so a few years would see the 
circulation of perhaps doablo the amount of cash 
among the people, for there would be a half leas 
sent out of the country for things we can and do 
produce easily ourselves. 
Use country corn, when available, even if it is a 
6d, a bushel dearer than imported corn ; it wonld 
soon get cheaper. 
Use Jamaica " red peas " and black-eye peas even 
though they are Gd. a quart, and the American 
can be got at 4^.; onr own are fresher and 
sweeter. 
Use Coconut Oil in all cases where yo» use 
Cotton Seed or any other salad oils at present. 
Use Cassava Starch and stop buying imported 
corn or potato starch. 
When you go to buy Arrowroot, be sure to ask 
il it is Jamaica-grown,— you will soon get the home 
product if you want it. 
Make your own Preserves and use less sugar, as 
they usually are too cloying : or buy the Jamaica 
Preserves when you can. If they are often asked 
for they will get cheaper. 
Use Jamaica-made Soaps which are again avail- 
able; the factories employ local labour, pay taxes, 
and buy coconuts and other local products to make 
the soap of. 
Patronise the local dairy when you want milk — 
it is better than condensed milk and the more that 
is asked for the cheaper it will ultimately be got 
for, — quick returns encourage small profits. 
Fresh pork and beef are in all ways better than 
the barrelled salt-junk which may be horse or dog 
for all you know. 
Use more honey, it is the most healthful of all 
Bweet stuffs, and can be employed in the house- 
hold in a score of ways moi'e than at present. 
50 ACRES OF LAND AT Is, PER ANNUM, 
IN THK NEW HEBRIDES. 
The 100,000 acres at the New Hebrides which 
Messrs. Burns, Philp, and Co. have- placed 
at the disposal of the Commonwealth 
Government for the purpose of encouraging 
British settlement is to be leased to intending 
settlers at Is, per annum for each 50 acres 
or part thereof, with a provision for sale 
to the occupants under conditions prescribed 
by the Commonwealth Department of Ex- 
ternal Affairs. Between .50 and 60 men, 
representing with their families between 200 
and 300 souls, are expected to go down by 
the " Miimbare " from Sydney on June 1. — 
— Sydney Mail, April 12. 
COLOMBIAN CASSAVA, 
A FAMINE PLANT. 
Under the above heading we saveral months >go 
offered some observations on an interesting series of 
letters that had pp.ssed between the India OfiiGe and 
Mr Robert Tnomaon cn a subject of great importinca 
to Jamaica and her sister West India colonies. Ths 
primary i bject of the corresponcience, however, on the 
part of Mr Thomson, wiis to suggest to the Government 
of India the introduction into that country of some of 
the more important varieties or cassava under cultiva- 
tion in Colombia and other South American countriea 
wiih a view to mitigating the calamitous effects of the 
ever-recurring famines that inflict such severe enffer- 
iiig and distress on extensive proviuoea of onr Ipdian 
3 
Empire. One of the distinguishing and— sO far a« 
their introduction into India is concerned— most valu- 
able properties of the Colombian varieties of cassava is 
what may be termed their constitutional flexibility — 
their independence of climatic and other vicissitudes. 
Rice, tl e principal article of food in India, requirf-a for 
its cultivation a rainfall of at least fe inches, nnd an 
Indian province requires an average fall of at least 50 
or 60 inches to grow rice as a staple crop. 
We are glad to know that Mr Thomson's correspon- 
dence has borne fruit and that the Director of Land 
Records and Agriculture, Bombay, has decided to com- 
mence the cultivation of Colombian cassava on the 
Government farms. Mr Thomson has just received a 
letter from the Director acknowledging, with many 
thanks, the receipt of a case containing some twenty- 
three varieties of cassava from Colombia, and men- 
tioning that the stems or cuttings had arrived in good 
condition. This information furnishes pleasing 
verification of what we said months ago to the effect 
that the stems, if carefully handled, would retain their 
remarkable vitality for several months after being cut. 
The cuttings, we may mention, were brought from 
Columbia— having been obtained from sec'ioos of the 
country a thousand miles apart— by Mr Thomson's 
son— Mr Kay Thomson— who in conscQuence of the 
insurrection then in progress took several -vveeks to 
reach the coast from the mountainous interior. 
Notwithstanding this delay and the time taken in 
conveying the cuttings from Jamaica to Bombay, 
the Colombian varieties reached their destination in 
good condition and Ihe Director of Land Records and 
Agriculture promises to let Mr Thompson know the 
result of their propagation indue course. 
Uur readers will be pleased to learn that the 
nursery, formed in August last with the cuttings 
brought from Colombia by his son, has proved a 
signal success, and that thousands upon thousands of 
cuttings are now available. In addition to the several 
acres of the ordinary varieties of cassava which have 
been planted at May Field on the Hope Road in the 
neighbourhood of King's House, Mr Thomson purposes 
planting the new varieties on an experimental 
scale with a view to determine the relative 
merit of the several varieties. From Mr 
Thomson's interesting report on his visit to 
Florida we gather that Co^ssava cultivation promises 
to be the staple industry of that enterprising peninsula. 
It is a noteworthy circumstance that Florida is in- 
debted to Jamaica for this important industry. About 
three years ago an American tourist in Jamaica, Mr 
Perkins, was struck with the value of cassava aa a 
starch-yielding pl.^nt. On his return to Florida he 
organised a company and erected a great factory 
which Ml- Thomson visited at the end of June, We 
leiirn from his report that a thousand acres of cassava 
are planted in the vicinity, hundreds of acres being 
cultivated by gentlemen connecteil with the factory. 
Within sixty miles of the factory the managers pur- 
chase the tubers delivered at railway stations at five 
dollars per ton, and the culture is ex'tending rapidly. 
Not only is cassava the cheapest known source of 
starch, but it is said to be the cheapest and best 
ration for feeding and fattening farm stock. From 
the report of the Professor at the Florida Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Mr Thomson makes the following 
extract : — 
" With all the facts procurable, and with the experi- 
ence not only of myself, but many practical farmers 
to support the opinion, I have reached the conclusion 
that, all things considered, cassava comes nearer 
furnishing the Florida farmer with a more universally 
profitable crop than any other which he can grow on 
equally large areas. It can be utilized in more ways, 
can be sold in more different forms, can be mora 
cheaply converted into staple and finished prodnota 
and can be produced for a smaller part of its selling 
price, than any other crop." 
In a future issue we shall show how practicable aa 
well as desirable it is to establish a great cassava in- 
