828 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, (June 1, 1900. 
PROGRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 
(By an ex-Ceylon Resident.) 
Manila, March 1.5. 
I am trying to get the Government to go in 
for tea, and to give me a salary to suijerintend 
operations. They wrote to ask what salary I 
want to make Botanic Gardens on Negros 
Island, and I said R800 a month, and I have 
not had a reply yet. They only give colonels 
R800 a month and may not give me so much. 
I know a rich man who has rice mills and 
sugarcane crushing mills and distillery, who 
might get desiccating machinery, and coco- 
nuts are plentiful at R30 per 1,000. AVhat is 
the price of nuts in Colombo?* A lot of desic- 
cated coconut is sent from Colombo to Austra- 
lia, and freight from this to Australia is less 
than from Colombo to Australia. No arrack 
is made here. I saw salt being made by 
natives at Dagupan and Lingayen : it is very 
impure, sandy and dirty, and it wovild pay to 
make it as the Government does at Hamban- 
tota. Sea -water is used here, after it has 
drained over miles of slimy swamps, poisoned 
by drainage ; the natives all have skin 
diseases, very probably from eating impure 
salt. Very little is being done in gold mining, 
as a party of prospectors were murdered and 
the Government stop parties from going, but 
there are abont .50 men prospecting, and I 
have seen some of them bring in good samples 
of quartz. There are still some armed bands 
in the hills in this island, and over 100 natives 
were killed in a fight last week. The railway 
is very unsafe and since I came up, natives 
have removed rails twice and trains went off 
the line, but no one was hurt, as they do not 
go fast. Soldiers are not allowed to go out 
of these towns, and when I told them I walked 
eight miles alone from Dugupan to Lingayen, 
they thought I was a hero. I go bathing in 
the sea with them, only half a mile from 
Lingayen town and they all carry revolvers. 
Any natives caught with arms, will be hung 
in future, so that will put a stop to their 
nonsense. 
■ -p- — . — 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Sugar and Science.— A good many com- 
plaints have lately appeared in the Indian 
press about disease in their sugar-cane. 
We referred one report to a correspondent 
who is among the oldest and most successful 
of sugar planters. His reply coming at this 
time rather startles us : — 
'•About the Cane disease in Madras, it is not 
a thing to be feared, unless those so-called 
'scientific experts' are allowed to go fooling 
with it. We have had both the forms of disease 
here which they mention, along with others ; 
but they have never been allowed to do any 
harm, although our scientific men prophesied dire 
results and recommended impracticable remedies." 
Now we have two things to remark on this : 
— (1) that the information we qttoted from 
the London Times yesterday, seemed to show 
that science had done a good deal for stigar 
planters in the West Indies at least ; and 
(2) that in Ceylon we had in our coffee days 
full exjjerience of scientific warnings which 
all planters at first scoffed at, but which 
nevertheless came true. »So sending away 
the Scientist (any more than the Doctor) 
dont' always succeed ! 
• B3& to 40 per J,OQO.— Ed. T.A, 
Plant Doctors. — A writer in a contemporary 
urges the need of a new class of educated piiysi- 
cians, whose business sliall be tlie car^ and cure 
of disease-threatened and disease-stricken plants. 
'• riie time will come," lie says, " n hen every 
agricultural district will have its plant d rcto)-." 
He even foresees tlie development of specialties by 
mant doctors just as by other physicians, so that 
in plaiiy difficult and obscure cases of disease 
affecting valuable plauts the f-erviees of such 
S)3ecialists will be employed. — Indian Gardening 
and Planting, 
Reported Bolivian Rubber Enteepkise.— 
Newspaper des[jatclies from New Orleans dated 
February 26ih reported that Captain Frank Moritz, 
of Pennsylvania, and Robert J Skpffinf,'ton had 
arrived in that city from Bolivia, in the interests 
of the Chicago and Bolivia Rubber Co., and had 
chartered a steamer from the United Fruit Co. to 
convey a force of negroes and supplies lor them to 
the rubber fields. The general lariiager of the 
United Fruit Co. informs The India Eubher 
World that no s:eamer has been charter rd from 
them, as re|iorted. Inquiries made in other direc- 
tions in regard to the Chicago and Bolivia Rubber 
Co. have not as yet elicited auj' intormatiou. 
Rubber.— The United States Consul at Para 
has lately called attention to (he recent exten- 
sive purchases of rubber estates in the Amazon 
Valley, which is evidence that considerable in- 
terest is being taken in the collection of the 
raw rubber, but warns India Rubber Manufac- 
turers that they are in danger of finding them- 
selves at the mercy of great syndicates. So far 
as the supply of Para rubber is concerned, I do 
not see there is much reason for fear, as it 
would be impossible for any syndicate to control 
the rubber market, this having alrea<!y been 
attempted several times, but has met with the 
failure it deserres, — India-Rubber Trad.e Journal, 
April 2. 
Green Te.\s. — Encouraged by the success they 
have made with black teas in America, the planters 
of Ceylon have been experimenting in oider to pro- 
duce a green tea — pure, uncoloured and un- 
fermented — to compete with the so-called pure 
Japan teas. Samples have been coming over for 
.several months for examination by our experts, 
says the New York Mail and Express, and in 
nearly every case the reports of the experts have 
been highly favourable, and to the effect that the 
teas are clean and free from adulteration and 
colouring matter (which Japans are not), and in 
body and strength are far superior to Japan teas. 
This greater strength (notwithstandiugit makes the 
teas more economical) is an obstacle, according to 
some of the experts, as consumers in drawing the 
tea will use as much as they do of Japans, and 
therelore find the cup much too strong. But com- 
mon sence in the end must prevail and show them 
that to obviate this objection they have only to 
put less tea in the pot. Several small lots of 
Ceylon greens, made after the manner of the most 
approved samples, have arrived and have been 
eagerly purchased, and at present the demand is 
in excess of the supply. Some distributors in New 
York raise the objection that grocers, finding these 
teas clean and uncoloured, will not take them, as 
their customers, having been accustomed to 
Japans, judge by the appearance of the leaf. A 
cup teat, however, will convince the most sceptical 
of the superiority of the cleanly, uncoloured green 
teaa of Cey^lon, 
