Sept. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICUhrURIST. 
187 
AN ENGLISH RUBBER PLANTATION IN 
MSXICO. 
P' While most of the interest in rubber planting in 
Mexico has been developed with capital from the 
United States, and principally under the control of 
large companies, there are some plantations privately 
owned by citizens of other countries. One, for 
instance, is that above mentioned, the property of 
George Cullen Pearson of England. In a statement 
from the manager of this plantation to The India 
liMcr World, under date of May 20, it appears 
that there are now growing on this property fifty 
thousand rubber trees (Oastilloa elastica) which 
were four years old in Juue ; one hundred tliousand 
trees three years old ; and two hundred thousand 
trees two years old ; besides a large number of 
plants in nurseries. This plantation, by the way, ia 
ouo which has been referred to in certain quarters 
— but not on the autliority of the owner — as em- 
bracing a large number of rubber trees old enough 
to be tapped this year. Ml" Pearson's plantation 
is located two miles from the " Hacienda de Yale," 
owaed by Alfred Bishop Mason, of Chicago, and 
president of the Vera Cruz and Pacific Railway Co. 
Mr Mason's two nephews, James Trowbridge and 
R Willis, are resident managers of this hacienda, 
on which a considerable amount of rubber planting 
has beea done. — India Rubber Jl'orld, 
A CHINESE CAMPHOK MONOPOLY. 
Oa the authority of the Japanese Foreign Office, 
it i» now stated that the Chinese Government 
has decided to establish a Camphor Monopoly 
Office in Fohkien, placing the manufacture and 
sale of camphor under the control of the Japanese. 
It is not cerrecfe, however, to aay that the mono- 
poly right ofothe camphor tiade is to be con- 
ceded to the Japanese Government. In future 
the Japanese may be a party to the camphor 
b«8ines8 by contributing a part of the expenses 
of monopoly, but no dehnite arrangements have 
yet been made. — Honqkong Press, July 19th. 
THE RUBBER FAiMINE ! 
One of the subjects which might well occupy 
the attention of the much talked-of colonial con- 
ference, which is to take place in Coronation 
week, is the rubber famine in West Africa. I hear 
from sources w hich are absolutely indisputable 
that rubber is becoming scarcer every day. The 
reason foi- this is nob far to seek, In the lirsk 
days of 1 4 e rubber boom eager speculators rushed 
to West Africa, caring little wliat they did as 
long as they got rubber. As a consequence, the 
rubber trees were destroyed in a manner enough 
to make tiie heart of the most amateurish wood- 
man sick with anguish. On the principle that 
you cannot eat your cake and have it, rubber— at 
least, the West African species — will soon become 
as rare as the Great Auk — Today. 
« 
THE TROUBLES OF COCONUT PLAN- 
TERS IN THE SrRAITS. 
We arc sorry to learn that anotlier enemy to 
coconut planters has turned up in the tikus bcsar, 
that is so destructive aiso to padi crops. The 
" Mongoose " is their beat destroyer, the intro- 
duction of whicii may prove bentlicial. These 
creatures also keep a place remarkably free from 
saaKes.— PeraA pioneer, July 29, 
" HEMILEIA VASTATKIX " IN THE 
FRENCH COLONIES. 
Tlie French Minister for the Colonies ha« taken 
precautions against the hemileia vastatiix, a 
fungus which fastens on the leaves of coffee plants 
and destroys them. It is for the coffee planter 
what the phylloxera is for the vine-grower, and has 
played havoc in Ceylon. The French Colonies of 
i\iartinique, New Caledonia, Reunion, Madagascar, 
Guiana, ami tiie t'ongo as well as Cochin China 
and Tongking raise much coilce, and it is now 
forbidden there to import coffee plants, Even 
colf'ee beans must be immersed for iialf an hour 
in a 1 per cent, solution of sulphate of copper to 
kill the enemy. Globe, July 18. 
JAPAN TEA IN 1901. 
YOKOHAMA CONSULAR REPORT. 
District of Yokohama, 1901, by Mr Consul H A 
Bonar. — The raw tea season opened at the ond of 
April with but little animation, and although the 
demand increaspil as prices steadied, the competi- 
tion for early teas, which in former years was 
always a maiked feature of the trade, was any- 
thing bub brisk, and the inquiry continued slack 
until the end of July. The fact cannot be denied 
that the Japan tea trade is gradually contracting 
in volume, the annual export of the United States 
and Canada having fallen off by some 10,000,000 lb. 
during the last 10 years. The competition from 
India and Ceylon teas has not proved as dan- 
gerous as was expected last year. The efforts 
made by these growers have not met with mucli 
success in the United States, and it is now doubt- 
ful if they will ever make any serious inroads into 
the trade. In Canada, however, the Japan tea 
trade is certainly sulfi^ring from the competition of 
these teas and it is provable that, except in the 
lower grades of Japanese, used chiefly for mixing 
purposes, the Ceylon product will eventually sup- 
plant the Japanese growths. The total export 
from Yokohama in 1901 was 24,577,524 lb. — L. and 
C. Express, July 18. 
^ , 
TAMIL EMIGRANTS AND THEIR FOOD. 
{2'o the Editor, ''Madras 31 ail,") 
SOME USEFUL NOTES. 
Sir,— Dr. Haviland, of Perak, attributes the 
prevalence of dysentery among Tamil coolies 
from India to the full meals they get on the 
estate. It has been observed in the hospitals 
in the planting Districts in Ceylon that a meat 
diet does not suit the cooly patients. They do 
not recover health or strength by it. This 
proves the rule that one man's meat is another 
man s poison. What is good and wholesome 
for the liardier Chinese cooly may not be so for 
the Tamil cooly who is "transplanted" to a 
strange country where he has to lace a difl^erent 
set «f circumstances. A sudden change from the 
arid plains of the Carnatic to ths wet regions 
of the Malay Peninsula might in itself causa 
diarrlicsx and dysentery. Overloading the stomach 
with food stuffs to which one's system is not 
used may be another. But to say that dysentery 
follows good food is a startling statement. A 
full meal of rice and milk ami vegetable 
curries will not lead to diarrhcua. But when the 
Tanail Qooly imitatea the Chinese cooly in eating 
