Aug. 1, 1993.] THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
115 
MALAEIA AND MOSQUITOES. 
A missionary's views. 
The Rev. A Haegert writes as follows to the 
Statesman : — 
In one of the issues of the Statesman it is 
stated that the Committee of the Liverpool School 
of Tropical Medicines says :— " That malarial 
fever is contracted only from the bites of a mos- 
quito." Perniii} me to say, that this is nonsense. 
Malarial fever inay be caused by mosquitoes that 
have been feasting on a malarial patient. lb is 
also caused by inhalina; malaria ; malaria may 
also settle on clothes ; put them in a box, and 
send it thousands of miles ; then open the box, 
inhale the air and you get malarial fever- 
Digging up of new ground causes the malaria 
to arise, and gives malarial fever to the diggers 
and all in the neighbourhood. You do not dig 
up mosquitoes but malaria. In the cold season 
we were in camp near Bethesda. At night it 
blew a fearful gale. The howling of the wind, 
and the roar of swaying trees were grand. Some 
Magistrate, also in camp, thought that the 
judgment day had come— got up at midnight and 
bolted for life. He felt sure that the devil had 
no dogcart and horse, and so he hoped to get 
away. Poor duffer ! — But it was so awfully cold, 
that I pulled the blanket over my nose, ana 
prayed that no harm might come to us, and 
slept in peace. Before the gale, all were well ; 
the next day 5,000 people were laid np with 
malarial fever. No mosquito could live in that 
fearful cold blast. There were none. My col- 
league, living in my tent, got four months' fever 
through it. So I sent him to Bethel. Then I 
got a letter from Bethany saying: "lam half 
dead with fever" So I rode 20 miles to frighten 
the fever from our Missionary. Returning to 
Bethel, I got a letter from Bethlehem. " My 
wife is half dead, come and see her." I was 
rushing in perfect health all over the country, 
while 5,000 people were ill, round about me. If 
you send one of your reporters to Howrah, and 
see the filthy, stinking tanks ; and via Garden 
Keach to Phatapore and Sontoshpore, and see 
there hundreds of green, black stinking tanks, you 
will have there the cause of disease and death. 
I usually sleep here without a mosquito curtain. 
Some mosquitoes come almost every night to get 
their supper from me, for they have no cook, and 
I have not had fever for years. The above-named 
School admits that the mo.?quitoes do not generate 
the malaria, bub only transfer it, in carrying the 
malaria from one to the other marshy soil. Mew 
soil, and rich vegetation and stinking, filthy 
tanks cause malaria. Best help to fill up the tanks 
round about Calcutta. 
RUBBER IN ANTWERP FROM THE CONGO. 
There is little doubt that in the future, however 
remote this eventuality may be, the iBcrea.^ing 
demand for rubber will have to be met from cul- 
tivated sources. With regard to the business 
couiiucied in raw rubber at Antwerp, it may be 
interesting to say that while in 1890 it amount fjd 
to only 30 tons, this figure rose in 1895 to 531 
ton.*, while successive years showed rapid increases 
to the neighbourhood of 6,000 tons in 1900. Last 
year, however, a decline set in, and the phenomenal 
growth of this new rival to Liverpool bas been 
15 
arrested. Antwerp rubber imports, it may be 
advisable to point out, are not limited bo the 
Congo Free State, but also embrace the produce 
of other rubber-bearing lands to an incieasing 
extent. Hoivever, ihe market may te said to 
have been created by the lidlgiau conce^sionaiies 
of the Congo State, and to have risen to its im- 
posing dimensions mainly throu;<h their agency. 
How far its position will be inaint dneil in the 
future is a niatter of political import which cannot, 
we imagine, fail to become of prominence, after 
what has recently transpired in the House, — India' 
Eubber Journal, June 8. 
« 
INDIAN TEA AVERAGES : PESSIMISTIC 
VIEW. 
The hope that we shall raise our total average 
price this season is futile. Our averages for the 
past seven seasons have been as follows : — 
Season. 
Average. 
Decrease. 
d. 
d. 
1896-1897 
9-00 
1897-1898 
8 64 
0 36 
1898-1899 
8-78 
0'22 
1899 1900 
8-23 
0-77 
1900 1901 
7-24 
176 
1901-1902 
7-65 
135 
1902-1903 
7 '48 
017 
The very heavy decreases of seasons 1900-1901 
and 1901-1902 have been checked it is true, the 
decrease last season having been only 0'17d com- 
pared with season 1901-1902, but we shall now 
probably never again see a higher total average 
than 7"50d, black and green both included.— 
Indian Planters' Gazette, June 27. 
Cacao CuiiTiVATioN, Disease and Legis- 
lation.— The occasion for Mr. Holloway's 
interesting letter elsewhere is that cir- 
culars have been issued quite recently 
asking Matale planters for their opinions 
as to remedial steps which should be taken 
against the spread of disease, and also that 
the subject is to be discussed at the 
next Kandy Districts P. A. meeting. 
Mr. Holloway's view is that legislation is 
unnecessary and that the crux of the 
matter lies in careless cultivation which 
fosters disease and reduces crop. It is 
always invidious to take figures from pri- 
vate estates, but after a private estate has 
been turned into a public one such an ex- 
ample may be used. 'Che comparison afforded 
between Uangaroowa, now the Experimental 
garden, and Mr. Holloway's own estate is 
one that will open the eyes of those whose 
crops are nearer 1 cwt. per acre than the 
writer's 5 cwt. Mr. HoUoway answers Mr, 
Talbot in showing that green manuring ia 
by no means in its infancy, and the hints 
he gives in this matter ;is well .as in culti- 
vation generally will be of the utmost 
value to cocoa planters— of which Mr. Hollo- 
way is himselL' the dot/en. It should be noted 
that this veteran planter's estat.^ is as open to 
thefts and disease as any and yet, owing 
to his precautions, he appears to suffer 
very little. 
