S22 
THE TROPICA!. AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov. 2, 1903. 
wages paid to our emigrant labourers by the mine 
owners. 
British Central Africa has experienced a 
DROUGHT THIS YEAR 
the like of which has not been known within the 
memory of the oldest white residents. Not that 
we have had a long spell without rain, but it has 
been so scanty, resulting in the drying up of the 
streams all over the country, and the cry is 
everywhere want of water except where there 
exist rivers that are fed by the highest ranges 
of mountains. Blantyre, the town containins the 
largest nunilipr of European residents in the conn- 
trv, some 200 odd, is almost: wfiterlt^ss. Ne«vly 
all tlip, wells are dry, and deeper ones are being 
.sunk totiy and secure a bet'er supply of water. 
Sickness amongst the Europeans and natives this 
year is more, in consequence ot the greater scarcity 
cf water, than usual, and there have been pevral 
cases of enteric fever in the townships. Zomba 
and Mlanje are well. supplied with good rivers 
and small streams from their mountains which 
never dry up. 
COTTON CROPS 
have not turned out so well as expected, owing 
to the want of rain. Many of the pods have 
dried upon the trees without coming to maturit:y 
I myself have not much faith in cotton as a 
paying product in British Central Africa. We 
in Mlanje have too many enemies — bug, and other 
insect pests that destroy the fibre and the pods, 
even before they come to maturity, have their 
life's blood.sucked out of them by a species of bug 
so that they shrivel up and do no good. Trying 
to save about a quarter of an acre from being 
destroy by insects. I employed two boys fer 
two hours every morning for three months. So 
what the trouble would be wii;h an extensive 
breeding field can only be imagined. Cotton here 
is as bad as coffee for attracting business. 
Locusts even devour it ravenously H. B. 
EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATION IN THE 
NOa rn-CENTRAL J PROVINCE, 
Application having been made by Mr. R M 
Eckert of Snnnycroft Estate, Veyangoda, to the 
GovHrnment Agent of tlie North-Central Province, 
for the lease of land lot No. 7456 in preliminary 
plan No. 2398, containing in extent 661 acres ant 
3 roods, bouiiiled on the north by Fannakkawala- 
kele, south by Thonygalakele, west by Pu.siyan- 
kulamawewa Ismabtekele, and east by Galkada- 
wala village, Hinnetnukalana and Kaiambewa 
village, situated in the village Pussiyankulama of 
Nuwaragam kcrale in the Nuwaragampalata of the 
Nuwarakalawiya District, for the purpose of ex- 
perimental cultivation which, if found to be 
successful, may lead to the opening up for culti- 
vation of a large area of unirrigable juni;le land 
hitherto lying waste, it is hereby notified under 
regulation No. 52 of land sale regulations published 
in Gazette dated 20th February, 1903, that the 
said land will be leased to the said applicant for 
five years under the following conditions, unless 
within six weeks from the date of this notice 
valid reasons to the contrary are adduced : — 
1. The land to be taken over by the lessee in blocka 
of at least 100 acres each every year, such blocks 
being defined by the Government Agent by arrange- 
ment with the lessee. 
2. The lease of the entire land to be completed 
within five years and to be terminated in the fifth 
year. 
3. The rent for the blocks taken over to be Riper 
acre per annnm, payable each year in advance. 
4. At the 'expiry of the lease, right of pre-emption 
at ElO per acre to be allowed to the lessee. 
5. No timber above 2 feet in circumference to be 
felled, and any valuable timber under that size felled 
to be paid for at Government rates. 
6. Aloes only to be cultivated on the land leased. 
7. The land to be forfeited to, and vest in, the Crown 
if at any time snoh land on any building thpreon be 
applied, withont the written consent of the G-wernor, 
to other purposes than those spt- ifi^'d i.j the grant 
or lease, or if within a reasonable time the neces- 
sary steps have not been Ukea to apply the land 
to the purposes for which it was granted. 
8. No permanent buildings to be erected on the 
land withont the written consenf "f the Government 
Agent. — By His ExccHenpy's command, 
EvEEiBD iM Thdrn, Colonial Secretary. 
Colonial Secretary's Office, Colombo, Sept. 20, 1908, 
AMERICAN BOTANICAL LABORATORY IN 
JAMAICA. 
The Director of Kew presents his complimen*^ 
to the Editor of Nature and requests the favour 
of his publishing the enclosed letter. 
Kew, August 23rd. 
Sir William Thiselton Dyer, Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew, Surrey, England. 
My dear Sir, 
The Government of Jamaica has decided to 
relinquish its use of the buildings at Cinchona. 
The experimental and botanical plantations are, 
however, to be maintained as before. The 
Surveyor-General of Jamaica ofiered under public 
advertisement on June 15th the group of buildings 
known as Bellevue and some land for rental. I 
have personally accepted this rental for the purpose 
of saving the station for scientific purposes, and 
with the plan of establishing there, if possible, the 
long desired botanical laboratory in the American 
tropics. At my request, Dr MacDougal has 
recently visited Jamaica to arrange details of the 
lease, and reports that the buiMinas and their 
furnishings are already contfortab'e and well 
adapted for the use of i'ivestigators. Dr MacDougal 
and I decided to take these steps after 
consultation and correspondence with Prof. Under- 
wood, who spent the early part of the year in 
Jamaica in the study of ferns, and who is now in 
Europe ; with Dr. Duncan S Johnson, who has 
recently returned from Jamaica, where he has 
been collecting material for embryological studies ; 
with Mr Wm. K Maxon, who was with Prof. 
Underwood there during the spring ; and with 
Prof. Earle, who spent last November in Jamaica 
in mycological investigations. Dr. MacDougal 
was already familiar with the localify from his 
visit there with Prof. Campbell in 1897, and we 
had discussed the topic with the Hon Wm Faweett, 
director of the public gardens and plantations 
of Jamaica, while he was in New York last autumn 
during the meeting of the Plant Breeding Con- 
ference. The aid and cooperation of all who 
regard the securing of Cinchona as a proper and 
desirable act will be needed to maintain such a 
laboratory, and to this end I ask that you 'Srrite 
me your opinions on this subject, and to indicate 
what aid you can render, and whether either you 
or your students would wish to make use of the 
