Oct. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISTS 
285 
COFFEE IN QUEENSLAND. 
At 6 feet by 6 feet apart an acre will contain 
1,201 trees. 'Allowing 3 lb (if clean marketable 
coffee to each tree, we get .3,(i0.'> lb per acre. At 
the above calculation of about 5 lb of berry to 
1 lb of clean cofi'ee, this would mean that 
18,015 rb of berry would have to be jacked. The 
cost of the labour for picking at id per lb, would 
reach £37 10.s lid, and the \alue of the cuxn- 
mercial bean produced £135 2^ 3d ; from which 
we deduct picking expense, leaving £97 lis 7iii, 
from whicli all the above-mentioned items have 
to he detlucted. A«, however, paper calculations 
rarely are borne out by practical results, a cun- 
fiiderable reduction may doubtless be made on the 
figures denoting returns. — Mr. E. Cowley, Manager 
of Kamerunga State Nursery, Cairn.s, in Q. A. 
J ournal. 
CACAO IN TRINIDAD. 
Cacao Blight. — Correspondence published in the 
Grenada Government Gazette respecting a blight belong- 
ing to the genus Thrips affecting Cacao pods, forwarded 
by the Acting Governor for the information of The 
Society was read. Mr. Hart said that Thrips are best 
treated with plenty of cold water or soau suds. They 
generally occur and do damage in very dry seasons, 
but not otherwise. Documents ordered to lie on the 
table. 
Cacao- Analysis ov Soil. — A letter was read from 
Dr. W. H. Ince, dated 28th May, expressing - his wil- 
lingness to undertake further analyses of cacao soils or 
to otherwise assist the Agricultural Society. — Mr. Hart 
exhibited two pods of aligator cacao. 
JAVA QUININE. 
Trouble looms ahead for the maker of it. Vv'e 
hear that a meeting of the shareholders of the 
Bandoeng quinine-factory is to be held in Samarang 
on December 14, 1898, to consider the following pro- 
positions of the directors : — (1) To dismiss iMr. H.J. 
Van Prehn, technical director ; (2) to determine the 
conditions of his dismissal ; (3) to alter the articles 
of association so that in future the manageme 
will consist of one managing director and three — 
or, at most, four — ordinary directors. Hie immediate 
cause of the friction between Mr. Van Prehn and 
his co-directors seem to be the failure of the 
former's scheme of co-operation between the quinine- 
works and the planters. Full details of the agree- 
ment, on the basis of which co-opei-atioa was deisred, 
were published in our issue of May 21. In practice 
the scheme is foiand to be unworkable, a good many 
planters objecting to the condition that the quinme 
Bhould be consigned to a firm appointed solely by 
the works, without consulting the planters. The 
almost general opinion is that the bark should be 
purchased for cash by the works, instead ofpa>iug 
a fixed manufacturing charge and a percentage of 
the net proceeds of the qiuniue. It has also been 
found more profitable to sell the bark at the Ams- 
terdam auctions than to forward it to the liaudoeng 
works. The result is that not one single planter 
lias accepted the terms of the agreement Under 
these conditions, and threatened by the erection of 
competing quinine-works in Java, Sir. Van Prehn 
devised other means for successful co-oparation be- 
tween the planters and the Bandoeng works, and 
formalated the proposals that three-fourths of the 
usual annual production of Java bark should be ex- 
ported to Europe, and the remaining fourth be 
manufactured in Java for consumption in Asia and 
Australia. This would necessitate the extension of 
the Bandoeng works, as one-fourth of the ordinary 
yearly production represents double the quantity of 
^ainiu« that can b« manufactured at present ak 
3(i 
Bandoeng. Unfortunately Mr. Van Prehn did not 
succeed; had he done so, he would have established a 
monopoly which, on the basis of co-operation, would 
have been pi-ofitable both to the Bandoanc; factory 
and the planters. The object of European manu- 
factures is cousidered to be the extiucti^n of .Java 
comcetition.and they may succeed iu this by temporarily 
innreasiing the pvice of the bark, so that the planters 
will find it more profitable to export their produce, 
V. hen naturally the Bandceng works would stand idle 
and soon come to grief. Mr. Van Prehn, who is at 
present in Europe, is fighting af^ainst this, and for 
what he believes to be the mutual interest of planter 
and manufacturer in Java ; and that, in his absence, 
his colleagues should have made arrangements for the 
iTieetiDg indicates as well as anything how happy a 
family they are out in Java, and how effectually they 
wdl kill the gojse if they do not take care.—C^eniut 
and DruQijist. 
PLANTING IN MEXICO. 
COFFEE, CACAO, RUBBER, SUGAR, FIBRE, 
TOBACCO, VANILLA, &c. 
{By an ex-Ceylon Planter.) 
Mexico, 30th July 1898. 
Dear Sir, — I have seeu your paper of May 
22nd and read with much interest your remarks 
on Mexico. I thank you for your kind wishes 
and will endeavour to give you the information 
asked for. I have not t'ot your paper by me and 
my quotations are from memory, so subject to 
correction. 
Messrs. Clarke and Fort, whom you quote a« 
saying 
coffp:e 
did not pay in Mexico, on account of present low 
prices, can hardly have looked very closely into 
the matter — in fact I heard that they were never 
off the rail road and only saw the poorest part 
of Mexico, and the one coffee district of Cardoba, 
the oldest certainly, but having the thinnest soil 
and smallest crops, though the dearest land because 
being easy of access to Mexico city and Vera 
Cruz. On the Isthmus of Tekuantepee, in Oaxa 
and in Chiapas, as fertile land as any in the 
world, suitable for every tropical product, can be 
bought in small blocks of 2uO to 1,0C0 acres, with 
good transport facilities, for from $15 to ^25 
silver per acre, large tracts at a much cheaper 
price, and I will guarantee to plant coffee and 
bring to bearing for S120 (one hundred and 
twenty dollars) per acre. Coffee can be pro- 
duced for from §5 to $8 per 100 lb,, the former 
dried in cherry and peeled, the latter pulped, 
washed, peeled and classified ready for market. 
The former is quoted today at $20 per 100 lb., 
and the latter in New York at ."j30 and §32 ; and 
as coffee beais here some crop at two years old 
and one lb. per tree at three years old and at least 
two lb. per tree at five years old, with 1,000 trees 
per acre, there is still a very handsome profit 
even at the present low prices. Mexican coffee 
when properly cured will always bring a good price 
in New York for mixing with the inferior South 
American, so much used in the U nited Stales, to 
give it a flavor. Since Messrs. Clarke aiul Fort 
were in Mexico, eight American Coniiianies have 
bought 
250,000 ACRES OF COFFEE LAND 
on the Isthmus alone, which does not look as 
if the Americans- feared for the future of Mexican 
coffee. The soil -here is so rich that crops have to 
be seen to be believed and cofTee if grown under 
hiqh moderate ahode. only neeils pruning once and 
weeding four limes a year ; if ;;iowu without shada 
