Oct. 1, 1903.J THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
281 
ast are not grown so collectively as in Ceylon. In 
Mysore the plantations of aloe for fibre, started 
recently by a Company, were visited. 
During his cour Herr von Dratlien has collected 
a vast amount of information which will take 
weeks, of careful work to properly arrange and 
compile before being in a proper state for publica- 
tion ; a large number of useful and interesting 
photographs have also been procured. But Herr 
von Drathen is not yet half-way through his tour 1 
He left Colombo on the l8Dh Sapt, and proceeded 
by the N. D. L. ss. " Roon " to Java. From Java 
he goes to Sumatra, and after paying a short visit 
to the Straits he will journey to Yokohama. After 
a more or less prolonged stay in Japan the two 
travellers will probably cross to Port Arthur and 
journey home to Saxony by the trans-Siberian 
Railway, as the Director wishes to inspect the 
horses and horse-breeding systems in Western 
Siberia and South Russia- 
We wish both Herr Von Drathen and Herr Hun- 
zinger a very pleasant and successful journey, 
and shall hope to hear from them sometimes on 
their journey as to their impressions of the lands 
they visit and the state of agriculture and stock- 
raising there. 
"THE HANDBOOK OF HORTICULTURE 
AND VITICULTURE." 
The second edition of this book, re- 
vised and brought up to date, has been 
published by the Department of Agricul- 
ture of Western Australia. In this volume 
Mr. A Despeisses, m.r.a.c, gives a vast 
amount of information, carefully arranged 
and fully illustrated with photographic 
reproductions, sketches and diagrams, deal- 
ing with fruit culture and vine-growing in 
the different districts of Western Australia. 
It deals with the whole subject of fruit- 
growing from the choice of locality, and 
the clearing of the land to the gathering 
and marketing of the fruit, and the pack- 
ing and shipping of it for the over- 
sea fruit trade. There are excellent and 
clearly written chapters on every subject 
connected with fruit cultivation, such as 
planting, grafting, budding, pruning, irriga- 
tion and root management, etc. The culti- 
vation of the different fruits that can be 
profitably grown in Western Australia is 
described, with lists of the best varieties 
and illustrations of these comparing their 
respective shapes and sizes. 
Another section of the work deals with 
fruit preserving and conserving such as 
fruit drying, canning and pulping, fruit 
candying, and also wine-making, Insect 
and fungoid pests, diseases and plant fumi- 
gation, with excellent illustrations of the 
pests and fungi are all included. In fact, 
we have in this volume of over 600 pages 
a wealth of useful and practical information 
for the fruit grower or would-be horticul- 
turist in Western Australia. 
As regards the future of the state Mr R 
Helms, of the Bureau of Agriculture, has 
said : " The greatest prosperity of the 
country will begin when the cultivation of 
specially tropical products is taken up in 
earnest. It will be then that the country 
becomes populated, for a couple of hundred 
iwjL-es well tilled and planted with suitable 
crops, enables a man to acquire an in- 
dependency. The country possesses not only 
the rare advantage of being perfectly 
healthy, but the land best suited to the 
growth of tropical products is free from 
timber. It, therefore, requires no coloured 
labour to produce cotton, sugar, cacao, to- 
bacco, rubber, or fibre. Europeans can do 
the work, and no great capital is required 
to prepare the land, the grubbing of trees 
in a tropical forest being always a great 
expense. Moreover, irrigation can be carried 
out at a minimum of expense." 
A CENTRAL COTTON FACTORY FOR THE 
WEST INDIES. 
The following is the summary of an address 
delivered by the Imperial Commissioner of Agri- 
culture, at a meeting of lantlowners and others 
at the Court House, St. Vincent, on Friday, 
Aug. 7 last : — 
After a brief reference to the result of the 
conference held with the landowners and planters 
in June last. Sir Daniel Morris expressed his 
satisfaction with the thoroughly earnest manner 
in which cotton cultivation had been taken up 
in the colony. On one property more than 120 
acres were likely to be established this season. 
On others, active efforts vvere being made to 
prepare and plant the land, He was glad to state 
that the promises made in June would be more 
than realised. At Bequia, the area proposed to be 
planted, in the first instance, was 5 acres only. It is 
probable now that at least 20 acres will be planted 
in that island. Altogether, including the Experi- 
mental Plots, the total area to be planted in cotton 
at St. Vincent by the end of September next 
would, probably, not fall far short of 500 acres. 
Considering the very short time available, this 
was a gratifying response on the part of the plan- 
ters to the offer made to them by the Imperial 
Department of Agriculture. It was impressed on 
those engaged in the planting of cotton that the 
land should be thoroughly broken up and kept in 
a good state of cultivation, that the plants should 
be ' moulded up ' when 6 to 10 inches high, and 
where exposed to strong winds, rows of pigeon 
peas should be planted to afford shelter. The 
Central Cotton Factory to deal with this season's 
crop would be erected in Kingstown. It was pro- 
posed that the Factory, containing a set of ginning 
machines aud a baling press, worked by steam 
power, should be ready in December next. — Agri- 
cultural News. 
COCONUT OIL INDUSTRY, 
METHODS EMPLOYED IN TRINIDAD. 
Some extracts from an article on the 
coconut oil industry, which appeared in 
Industrial Trinidad,— the oflicial organ of the 
"Victoria Institute "—may be of (interest to 
coconut planters in Ceylon. The various 
particulars given as to cost and prices, etc., 
which we trust are correct, will enable a com- 
parison to be made with the Ceylon industry. 
The modern machinery used is a vast im- 
provement on the old boiling and skimming 
method used to extract the oil : — 
Fifteen years ago coco-nut oil was imported 
into Trinidad but since then this has ceaseij 
altogether, and we now export coco-nut oil to 
