May 1, 1903, J TH£ TROPICAL AOKICULTURIST. 
Finally if the rubber planters are alive bo their 
opportunity tliey will produce an article superior 
to many rubber <i;racles now marketed, and obtain 
better prices. Then, it the market should become 
overstocked the last sorts to feel the depression 
will be thp carefully prepared plantation producls, 
wh'ch will be! preferred by manufacturers at ^ood 
pricestobadly cured dirt-hlledand foul-smelling rub- 
ber collected by natives in their primitive way, and 
now used in the factory tlirougli necessity. It 
niiplit be suggested that people have been cnlti- 
V tting rice and wheat and other orops, anil making 
iirn and cloth and lea; her, for some thousands 
of ycai.-, aiul that in none of the^e linsi li;is 
overproduction ever resulted to such an exieiit 
us to render the work unprofitable, taken ax a 
whole, or unprofitable anywhere for a loni; con- 
tinued petio.].— India Rubber World, March 1. 
DEVELOPME^^T OF COTTON-GROWING 
IN BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 
The Committee of the British cotton-grow- 
ing Association held a meeting yesterday ac 
the offices of the Manchester Chamber of 
Commerce, Mosley street. Letters were read 
from tlie experts already sent out. Mr. 
Severs (the Gambia), Mr. Prince (South Nige- 
ria), and Mr. Neely (Sierra Leone) all ex- 
pressed the opinion that the various places 
they had visited were suitable for cotton- 
growing, and that the prospects were en- 
cour.iging. Nr. Neely sent a sample of cotton 
just picked, grown from American seed, whityh 
was pronounced very good and the kind of 
cotton required. Letters from Mr, E Nathan 
and Count Gleichen were read relating to 
cotton-growing in the Soudan, Mr. Nathan 
is sanguine as to the prospect. The con- 
sideration of the ni itcer was deferred till 
Mr. Nathan's return. The secretary reported 
that four bales of cotton sent by the Zam- 
besi Industrial Mission had been sold at 5Ad 
p<^r pound. Had it not been mixe J the value 
of the cc. tton would have been much higher, 
A letter was read from Mr. T Morris, of 
Barl)ados, and it was decided to send out at 
once three gins a-nd three presses to the 
West Indies. A large tuimber of persons are 
now growing cotton there, and the prospects 
are good.— Mnnchester Giuirdian, March 10. 
PINEAPPLE CULTIVATION IN MADUFA 
The cultivation of these and other pines is quite 
easy, and I think well repays the trouble taken. 
In August I re-port all my pines, I make up 
a compost of 2 ba^ke s red earth, 1 basket 
sand, 1 basket each well rotted cattle and horse 
manure. The pots are well drained, as I lind the 
plants like a lot ot water and like it to run away 
quickly. When re-pottiiig I take away all shoots, 
but the one wliieb I am goiiig to grow for fruit, 
(it fruits tiie second year). As soon a^ the young 
slioots are well established plfnts, I cut away 
the portion that has carried fruit this year. In 
January of each y<'ar, I give each pine that has 
fruit, a good supp'y .if liquid inanure once every 
week, I find this is a gieat help to them nd the 
fruit is much larger and heavier. I do not tliink 
the country pines are worth growing when you can 
get the Kew or Ceylon pine, but I have 
grown them up to (i lb (including the 
bead) and the Ceylon pine I have growti to Hi lb 
(including the head). I am told they should glow 
to 18 lb.— W. H. Oakes, Esq. 
4 
COTTON CULTIVATION IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
In view of the increasingly important part 
svhich the production of cotion in Cen'^ral Asia 
seems to play in connection with the textile 
industry of European llussia, the following 
remarks translati d from the "Journal" of the 
Ministry of Finance by the " Journal de St. 
Petersbourg," concerning the cotton crop and 
the state of the jdantations in 1902 may be 
of interest. Last year was not favourable to 
the cultivation of cotton in Central Asia and 
Turkestan ; the yield was 13 T per cent below 
that of UiOl, which • was itself not abundant. 
The dimiinitiou in the yield of cotton from Am- 
erican see<l was a=i much as 32'2 fcrcent, while 
on the other hand indigenous cotton showed an 
n crease of 32'.5 per cent. It was not so much 
a question of tliminisljed pio;'uction as of a 
resi,iicled area. Another facto; has indirectly 
contributed to the lemporaiy decline in the 
cultivation of cotton in Central Asia. Owing to 
the system of protection in vognc, the cultivation 
of cotton had become so prohtable in Turkestan 
that the natives had abandoned all other bi anches 
of agriculture. Moreover in the absence of 
agricultural banks, they have recourse to a system 
of advances which weighs very heavily upon tbeni. 
Under this system the buyer readily makes 
advances toevery grouer who gnaiantees tosnpply 
him with a certain (juantity of cotton. Being better 
informed than the producer, the merchant gei erally 
knows how to keep for himself the best chances 
of pioli*;, and if the price of cotton is high at 
the time when the product is delivered, 
the grower hnds himself deprived, of a part 
ot the profit which he expected to obtain. 
Another cause for the present decline in the 
cultivation of cotiion is the lack of manure. In 
the absence of irrigation works, the natives find 
themselves obliged to cultivate cotton year 
after year on the same land ; hence the need 
for manuie and the abnoinial loss of the 
seed. In Khiva and Bokhara the cultivation 
of cotton has reidaced that of "heat. The 
average yield of the cotton plantation in 
Central Asia was greater in 1902 ili.Tn in the 
previous year except in the district of Tasciikent, 
Compared with 1901, the total yiei'i of cotton 
in 1902 :~howed a decrease of aboat 1,6^3 400 I'ouds, 
the estimated figtnes for last year being 
4,900,000 ponds, of which 2,700,000 were American 
cotton.— SoarcZ of Trade of Jmtrnal, Feb 26. 
SELANGOR KUBBER. 
From Bukit Rajah Estate, Klang, a small 
quantity of gutta rambong from trees 4i yivus 
old was sold in S iiga|"ire at $190 per picul [oi £19 
ISs per 136 lb — i.e. or 2s 9i pi^r lb.] tlie cost 
of collpction b.'ing §720 per picul [aliove 14^ 6il 
per 136 lb.| This ruober was scrap. Suhspqne c 
t,a|)pings, while no more expensive to collect, show 
great improved en! in quality, and should fetch 
considerably higher prices,— iS/»'(?i7s Times, 
March 25. 
