32 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1890. 
employers to break down the ring, which they ultim' 
ately did. A revival of the cotton industry is contem- 
plated in Queensland, where the previous failures were 
similar to those of Fiji, not the actual reduction in 
price of cotton, but the charges of the middleman was 
the cause of failure in both instances. The wool trade 
of Australia is undergoing a similar metamorphosis. 
The continental manufacturers are getting a particu- 
lar kind of wool direct from South America to escape 
the London brokers &c. and instead of buying so 
largely in London now of Australian wools, they send 
their buyers to Australia. Care, however, should be 
exercised in the selection of the variety of cotton to 
be grown, to suit soil and climate. 
Export 1889 £787 19s 7d: 
Tea. — This article of production still maintains its 
character of excellence. There has, however, been no 
addition made to the area under crop. Upon suitable 
labour supply depends the extension of the area or 
being able to compete with more favored countries in 
this respect. 
Export 1889 £1,459 Is. 
Coffee. — It is a matter of regret that this article 
has all but ceased to be produced. 
Export nil. 
Rice. — Your committee are proud to say that, quite 
unexpectedly, it has been brought to their notice that 
about 20 acres of land is now planted with rice at Rewa, 
and, when visited by the President, looked vigorous and 
strong and promising a heavy crop. 
Fibre Plants. — It will be interesting to you to known 
that at last a machine has been invented to decorticate 
and prepare Ramie fibre for the chemical operation, 
which appears to be a necessity before the fibre of this 
plant can be used as a textile fabric. Ramie in the 
ribbon state is worth about £18 per ton. The author of 
a paper read before the Franklin Institute says of it 
“I will call it by no scientific name ; I will simply name 
it as the richest of all plants, for it possesses wealth of 
growth, wealth of development and wealth of fibre ; in 
ordinary light ground with a little watering now and 
then by rain or irrigation, no plant will grow so rapidly, 
no root will multiply more quickly and produce more 
stalks, no vegetable fibre is handsomer, richer, or more 
silky than Ramie.” It is a perennial and when once put 
in the ground it grows for over twenty years without 
replanting and according to climate gives from two to 
four crops a year. There are from 10,000 to 16,000 
plants in one a.cre giving in crude fibre dry 1,6000 lb. or 
700 lb. bleached fibre per crop, and as there would be 
three crops at least in Fiji the return per acre would be 
from £36 to £40. 
Your committee regret the matter of paper making 
fibre, which was taken up by a committee specially 
appointed, has so far eventuated in nothing, not even 
in ascertaining the value of the fibres sent home as 
samples, and they believe that there is a profitable 
investment for the necessary capital to establish a 
paper mill in Fiji. 
Exports fibre, 1889, £98 13s. 6d. 
Tobacco. — During the past year, tobacco, like maize, 
had to be imported to supply the demand. There is 
no country in the world better adapted for the growth 
of tobacco than this colony and the Associatson should 
be in a position to introduce an expert to cure the 
leaf fit for any market in the world, on getting a 
legal guarantee for a certain area and under condi- 
tions of mutual arrangement. 
OocoA.— This valuable product has not as yet asserted 
for itself that position which it deserves, but it is 
pleasing to note that one or two have planted out a 
few trees and in a short time it is hoped that, though 
in small quantities, it may figure among the exports 
of the colony. 
Labour. — This most important question is at the 
present moment in a more satisfactory condition than 
for some years past . — Fiji Times, April 16th. 
Rubber. — A New York contemporary states that 
there are more than 120 rubber manufacturers in 
the United States, employing 16,000 hands, and 
producing annually 280,000 tons of goods, valued 
at ^200,000,000.— Ruhher Journal. 
The Failure of the attempt made by the Indian 
Tea Supply Co,, Ld., to popularise tea among tha 
natives of India, was probably a foregone conclu- 
sion. There is nothing more difficult, says the 
Statesman, than to induce people to consume as 
food what they have previously been accustomed 
to regard as medicine ; and this is the light in 
which the people of India, in common with the 
French and the Italians, have always looked upon 
tea. Cheap, again, as the lower qualities of tea are, 
the cost of the beverage, as an article of ordinary 
diet, would be quite disproportionate to the scale of 
native expenditure among any but the wealthy. — 
M. Mail. 
Coolies for Fiji. — Early in April, 1,100 Indian 
coolie labourers were expected to arrive at Fiji for 
the service of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, 
and eighty-nine Polynesian labourers have been 
allotted to them. This certainly loofes as though 
they intended extending their operations in this 
colony. There is some talk about forming an 
agricultural department in the local administration, 
and its advocates declare that it is the only panacea 
for the present depressed state of affairs. Con- 
sidering that the Government are now really trying 
to encourage the introduction of fresh capital and 
enterprise by offering unoccupied lands for lease, 
and publishing pamphlets on suitable agricultural 
products, it can hardly be expected to form in 
addition an agricultural bureau, at the expense of 
an additional 2g per cent ad valorem on drapery. 
— Indian Agriculturist, May 10th. 
Green Teas in the Coloiibo Market. — We omitted 
to call attention to the fine average price realized by 
Mr. Drmmond Deane for his Kintyre Green teas at the 
last public sale held in Colombo. The teas were sold 
by Messrs. E. Benham & Co. and realized the following 
prices : — 
Kintyre — 66 boxes 
660 lb. 
Ic. 
54 boxes 
1,080 lb. 
S6c. 
14 i chs. 
741b. 
59q, 
25 boxes 
5321b. 
49c. 
3.0561b. 
64c. average.- 
Considering that this parcel includes the whole of the 
bulk, except 2 per cent of dust and 1 per cent of 
Congou, the average obtained, viz. 64 cents, is very 
satisfactory, and we take it is higher a good deal 
than would have been obtained for the same teas 
manufactured in the ordinary way. 
Horticulture in Cobsipore. — Babu Hem Chunder 
Hitter’s Practical Institution of Horticulture, Flori- 
culture, and Agriculture at Oossipore is a standing 
testimony to the enthusiastic pursuit of botany and 
gardening by a Bengali, and a gratifying instance 
of natives being trained in a profitable and pleasur- 
able calling through the efforts of one of their own 
countrymen. The magnificent show of fruits and 
flowers at Seven Tanks, last February, demon- 
strated the success of Mr. Hitter’s Institution as 
a nursery where scientific principles are both tested 
and practised. We now learn from the Annual 
Report how much quiet work of the most endur- 
able kind is being accomplished at the same 
institution. Eight native students, undergraduates 
of the University, were admitted during the year, 
to be supported and educated free till they know 
enough to hold responsible positions in public or 
private gardens, or in connection with zemindari 
lands. Further, among a number of interesting 
experiments which were conducted with genuine 
enterprise, not the least hopeful were those with 
indigenous fibres. The result of these was to 
prove the groat superiority, in strength and dura- 
bility, of the fibre of the “ Abel Moschus,” a 
hibiscus scientifically known as Malachra Capitata, 
which is common in India in the rainy season, — 
Englishman. 
