Nov. 2, 1903.] 
THE TKOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
321 
A NEW TANNIN PLANT. 
CULTIVATION OF CANAIGBE IN MEXICO. 
The cultivation of caiiaigre, a plant which Ih indigen- 
ous to t--oine p. irtp of the United States and MeX'co, is 
the basis of h new iridu.^try. The amount of ninnm that 
is u-ied in the woild is constantly inci eaHiiig and has 
to be loolied fot in other plants than those aheaciy 
known. The orinuipal subaiances that are used for 
tanning now are oak bark, hemlock bark, and auraiieh. 
Last year the United Kingdom alone used 136, "284 
tons of tanning substances, and in the United States 
the conanmption amounted to 1,500,000 tons. The 
growiue; demand for leather also increases the demand 
for tan bark, and the visible supply is said to be 
deficient. The tanners and scientifio men are, 
according to Consul Jerome, of Mexioo City, 
looking in the chemical as well as in the vegeta- 
ble kingdom for a new method to produce tannic- 
acid, and this has been discovered in the root of 
the canaigre, the Latin name of which is Rtimex 
hijmenosepalas. The name canaigre is a corruption 
of oana aigre, moaning sour cane, a name given to the 
plant by the Mexicans, This plant is of bushy habit, 
growing to the height of from 1.5 incliea to 3 feet, but 
paving large tuberous roots, like sweet potatoes and 
oi vety much the same colour. It is handsome in 
appearance, and grows wild in the arid regions of New 
Mexico, Arizona, California and Mexico, but nowhere 
does it attain such size as about; 100 miles south of El 
Paso, where it grows in great profusion. It is a plant 
of slow growth, taking about 5 years Co mature. The 
trouble heretofore has been that, after gatlicrint; the 
crop that grew wild, there was none to fall back upon, 
but before long this will be remedied, as several years 
ago the farmers around Deming planted many acres 
of canaigre. In 1898 the Department of Agriculture 
analysed the canaigre and found that the roots con- 
tained 35 jjer cent of tannic acid. The result of this 
discovery was that a large shipment was sent to Ger- 
many, which arrived in bad condition as it fermented 
en route, but after many experiments the growers in 
Mexico have learned better how to handle it and 
thoroughly dry it before shipping.— *Socjeii/ of Arts 
Journal. 
NOTES FEOM BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA- 
Mlanje, Aug. 24, 
I see Mr Storey, like all our Ceylon folk wiio 
pay' a flyiug visit to Briti.^h Central Africa, has 
taken to running down the country, its prospects, 
labour, &c., in your columns. 
THK LABOUR QUE.STION 
1fe not SO unreliable as Mr Storey pictures it. We 
have plenty of labour in the country and to spare, 
but it is more abundant during the dry season 
than tlie wee, and if planters built lines and pro- 
vided food for tlieir iaboureis this evil would be 
remedied. How would your Tamil cooly like 
to put up under a covet of a few sticks thrown 
together and a few bundles of Mana grass 
during the heavy nn>nsoon rains ? This is the sort 
of treatment onr British Central Africa labourers 
get from 'nopt of (he Planters and Companies 
when they emigrate to the Townships and Estates 
during the rainy season as well as the dry. Very 
few employers of labour take the trouble to build 
houses for their men, but those who do so 
and provide food, I know, have ample labour the 
whole year round. Beside imported labour we 
l)av§ villagers who go and come to work daily, 
many of them from 6 to 8 miles, appearing at 
6 a.m. muster an<l going hotne to their villages 
after roll call. Labour is so plentiful this year that 
• 41 
hundreds, yes, thousands are turned away monthly 
(from the doors ot the Transport Company and 
pbinters) who come in search of einployinent, Tliia 
is due to the settlement of the eou/itiy, and i'.s 
freedom fr' in tiihal wprs, and the security the 
n;i,tives cow fee' fvoni kidiiaiipiiig on ilieii vy to 
one district fumi .arjoiher. 
It is estimated that we have about 100,000 
people in this protectorate and out of that there 
would be about 
70,000 AVAILABLE FOR LABOUR 
and from what I can gather, only about 25,000 are 
employed at transport and on estates per annum. 
Much labour is now saved by the development 
of vehicular traffic and when our Railway is made 
the saving in labour will be enormous. 
THE MARKET FOR OUR PRODUCE. 
British Central Africa tobacco is selling in London 
at Is per lb. South Africa, Mr M Storey says, is a 
precarious one; let metellhim and your readers that 
this is not so, for the bigge.'t market in South 
Africa (the Transvaal) is aow open to us free of 
duty, this concession being made to us in exchange 
for labour .sent down to the mines. 
What more pioof is wanted, than British Central 
Africa being thrown open to recruit labour for 
the mines that we have more than enough of 
labourers, 
OUR RAILWAY 
is making rapid progress notwithstanding the 
unusually low stat6 of the rivers and the conse- 
quent dilHuulty in get;ting up plant &c. Some 20 
niil 'S ot an extra line had to be >r.ade from Port 
Herald to Cliiromo along the Shire bank owing 
to the abnorm lily low state of the river, and 
this of course c tused some delay in the starting 
of the line from Chiromo, but it is now also begun 
and work is making rapid progress over a distance of 
some 6 to 8 miles from the township where some 
thousands of labourers are busy at earth work. 
Over most of this distance the line has to be made 
up some 6 feet — to be above Hood level and allow 
for sinking, like your main line out of Colombo 
a bit. 
Strong opposition has been raised by the Mis- 
sions and other factions in Blantyre to labour 
being recruited for the mines in this new Colony, 
principally on the pretext that the British Central 
Africa native (who is practically an unsophis- 
ticated savage) will be corrupted in morals and that 
he is physically unlit for work in the mines. 
Both those pleas are, I think, unreasonable and 
show a dog-ia-;he manger policy which is not fair 
to our natives. Although we cannot employ them 
ourselves, still we protest against their being 
allowed to go and earn good wages to return with 
their savings to enable them to pay their taxes ; 
leaving out of the question the other benefits 
which will be derived through the civilising in- 
fluence brought to bear on the savage during a 
year's honest work at the mines in South Africa, 
A thousand na:ives have been recruited duiiug 
the past aix months and 
SENT TO .J0HANNI5SBURG 
with the sanction of the Home and local Govern- 
ments ;i3 an exrerimenc from districts in the 
Protectorate far away from European settlements 
and among a people who weie never known to 
emigrate in search of work in the planting dis- 
tricts — not that we cannot spare a few thou.sands 
from our midst, but ovving to the indigii;'tion 
meetings held. Government have put the.<e le srio- 
tions on recruiting Agents, 45/ per month » <the 
