88 
THE TllOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August 1, 1898. 
Indian Labour for Eastern Colonies. — We 
f?ce (says Indian, Enr/ineerini/) that tlie district of 
Tanjiirc furnishes nearly all the free emigration 
from the Soutli of Imlia to the Straits Settle- 
ments, where tlie tleniand for the " Kling " coolie 
is an ever increasing quantity. Ceylon, on the 
other hand draws its requirements from the dis- 
tricts of Madura and Tiiuievelly. It is noteworthy 
tliat the '•Caringec" coolie never looks to either 
of these Colonies as a field for employment. His 
special preserve ap|ie;).rs to be JJurm.i, hut it 
would appear from the returns that that mono- 
poly will be short-lived, as the "Tamil "from 
the South bids fair to outrun him ere long. 
Cinchona Lookino-up.— Is it not time for 
Ceylon planters wlio have patches or scattered 
trees, or even stumps with sucUers, of cinchona 
on their estates, to look them up and down, 
with a view to cuUivalion and possible harvest- 
in" of birk, root anil otherwise? There need 
not be a rush at least in shipments; lor bark 
is an article that can Ije kept any length of 
time without much damage, until the maiket 
favours shipment. A Ceylon planter who went 
over to one of the divisions of Travaneore lately, 
was astonished to lind 80 acres ot olHciiialis 
cinchona on the estate i)laced under his care. 
Lucky proprietor with ;^0U acres of ]>ossibly 
mature cinchona, at a time when the price is 
undoubtedly looking-up ! 
" The QuEENsi.ANn Aobicultorai, Joubnai.." Vol. 
II. Pait 5. The following are the contents for May 
1898; — Co-oporation Again; Azriculture— Co-operative 
Flour Mills ; Queensland ARriciiltural College : The 
Cockatoo Farmer ; Those Summer Crops ; Onion 
Growing on the North Coast ; Jerusalem Artichokes 
and Crosnes ; Old Bonos and llow to Utilise Them; 
Brussels Sprouts ; Four Year's Tarming in New 
South Wales ; Liability of Nurserymen ; The Hot- 
water Tieatment ol! Seed Wheat ; Yield of Wheat 
in Australasia; Wheat Harvest, 18'J7-!)8 ; Pumpkins; 
The Economic Feeding of Working Horses ; Dairy- 
ing; Horse-breeding — Cross-breeding; Poultry; The 
Orchard; Viticulture; Botany; Economic Botany; 
Popular Botany ; Horticulture ; Tropical Industries 
Cultivation of Tobacco ; Ruiiio Fibre (Rhea); The 
Divi divi ; The World's Cai;^ Sugar ludustry ; 
Chemistry Entomology ; Tick Fever ; Forestry — 
Some Timber Trees of Queensland. No. 2 ; Trees — 
Their Benefits to Man ; Artesian Wells, &a., etc. 
The Calcutta Tua Auction yesterday (.June 
10) — says the Pioneer correspondent — passed with 
more spirit, but there is no dc ubt that there 
would have been a better demand from home 
but for the absurdly high estimate of outturn 
which was telegraphed home by the India Tea 
Association. A revised estimate will not be pre- 
pared till August I believe and meanwhile the 
Committee of the Association for some reason or 
other appear to think it unnecessary to wire the 
true state of aifairs to the London dealers. 
Cachar and Sylhet are much behind last season 
in outturn and will not now be able to catch up 
to last year's figures. Assam and Darjeeling are 
(although to a less extent) also behind the yield 
of sea.sim 1897. There has not been a single 
transaction in tea shares and this is not to be 
wondered at. What is wanted in Calcutta is 
a Planters' Association, and I hear there is every 
probability of subscriptions to the present Asso- 
ciation being discontinued by some of the gardens. 
The Ceylon Planters' Association are to be con- 
gratulated on the energy with which they have 
taken up the currency question. The Indian Tea 
Association, on the other liand, have done prac- 
tically nothing ia the matter although I did hear 
that "one of the members, was at length preparing 
a. letter to be sent to tUe Currency Committee. 
Who is M. Cunebatnk ?— The following ap- 
pears in the Inventors' Guardian of May 251: — 
Gu!ieratiie, Ld. (57, Registered M«y 18.h, 
with capital I'l.OOlJ, in i'l ehares, to adopt an apree- 
meut with M. GuDC-ratue, and to Bell and deal in 
Guneratne's Curry Powder in the United Kingdom. 
Table A mainly applies. l{egi»tered by E. Goddard 
& Aldridge, (i Old Serjeants' Inn, B.C. 
LiBKRIAX COKFEE IN SUMATRA — We have had 
further assurances and evideiice given as to the 
success of colfee in the Serdang division of 
Suinatra. Whatever may be the case in the 
solitary instance in auother distiict, where tea 
had to be subslitutcd, (here can be no question 
that in Serdang, as Mr. Turing Mackenzie has 
consistently reported, the growth and prospecte 
are most satisfactory. 
Artificiai, Suisstitutks for IxDiA-ruunKR 
AND Gutta-pekcha form the not very comfortable 
theme discussed in an articlein our Trojiicnl Agricul- 
turist honx the Sricntifr Aiurrictuu Foitunately, 
there is n :thing beyond the ex|>erimcnt-al stage 
as yet ami we know how long " .artilicial qui- 
nine" has been incubating wiOi the probability 
that the artilicial, if ever attained, would be 
dealer than the natui^ produ'-t. 
Poor Cokkke !— says the American ffroc/r, May 
1 ltli:--"Tlie total supply of colFee for tlie year end- 
ing June 30th, 18»8, is estiniated as follows :— 
fia^fs. 
Visible supply, July 1, 1897 .. 3.975,380 
Brazil crop .. .. . . 1 1 .200,0li0 
Other crops .. .. .. 4,800,fKK) 
Total supply . . . . 19,975.380 
Estimated requirements . . . . U,.300,000 
Visible supply, July 1, 1898 
(estimated).. 6,675,3«.l 
Visible supply. May 1 (actual). 6,«93.758 
The above shows that there is no chance for a 
"bull ' campaign in coffee to succee<l, and that if 
the law of supply and demand asserlx itwelf, there 
must be a reaction from pre.'^eit prices." 
The Bugged Lantana and sending Spkci- 
MESS BY Post.— We have received a well-merited 
"censure" and warning from Mr. E. E. Green 
which we must make public for the benefit of 
all and sundry. It will be remembered that we 
received a lantana bngged branch from Mr. Sliel- 
ton Agar which we sent on to Mr. oreen in 
paper cover as it came to hand. Mr. Green 
rightly declares that this is just one ea-xy way 
of spreading the bug, and that it got into his 
tea through specimens sent in the same way by 
some one when he was in England. The warn- 
ing for all and sundry is that specimen* of this 
pest and of all similar pests shouM only be sent 
hi/ post or transmitted from one district to anotlier 
in tin, or otln rwisc hermetically closed. We ou^ht 
to have remembered tins fact; because in 1884 
when by special reciuest from the Academy of 
Sciences of California we carried thither speci- 
ally choice specimens of the coffee fUngus fhcmv- 
leia vastatrix) kindly provided for ua by Mr. 
Gordon Pyper of Hantane, we had them enclosed 
in one tin inside the other and Professor Karkness 
was equally careful in opening and liandlin^, 
not to give the chance of the spores escaping 
abroad I Let our readers then be on their guard 
how they send specimens of anj^insect or fungus 
pest by post save in tightly fitting tin cases. 
We are glad to learn that the Planters' Associa- 
tion is likely to call the attention of Government 
at once to the pest, and to ask for a Report 
(no doubt from Messrs. Willis and Green) as to 
the best mode of getting rid of it, 
