40 
THP TROPICAL AGR»CULTURIST. 
[July i, 1890. 
California — What Forty Acres Will Peodcce. — 
— J. Gardblla, writing in the Oreville Eer/ister, Cali- 
fornia, says; — I own 40 acres of laud about half a mile 
from Oreville, which is planted in fruit and vegetables. 
The following is a list of the amount and kind of fruit 
and vegetables that I grow on it during the year: — 
On a part ot the land I grow two crops potatoes, com, 
cabbage etc., and three or four crops of lettuce, radishes, 
spinach, etc. Vegetables of some kind are growing 
all the year round, and my peddling waggons run every 
day in the year with fresh vegetables taken from the 
garden. I have given under and not above the actual 
amounts grown on my place. The land is kept well 
manured, and is irrigated during the summer. Eighty 
tons peaches ; 12 tons apples ; pears, 3 tons ; apricots, 
10 tuns ; nectarines, 10 tons ; plums, 4 tons ; black- 
herries, 10 tons ; raspberries, 11 tons ; strawbarries, 2| 
tons; grapes, 20 tons; quinces, 2J tons; cherries, 2 
tons ; figs, 1 ton ; potatoes, 30 tons ; onions, 25 tons ; 
cabbages, 20 tons ; cauliflour, 1| tons ; carrots, 5 tons ; 
parsnips, 5 tons; beets, 3 tons ; sweet potatoes, 4 tons ; 
water melons, 100 tons ; musk melons, 25 tons ; cucum- 
bers, 2| tons; peas, 3 tons; beans, 4 tons; turnips, 7 tons; 
rutabagas, 2 tons; green coru, 10 tons; squash ami pump, 
kins, 4 tons ; tomatoes, 40 tons; green peppers and okra, 
ton; lettuce, spinach, radishes, celery, asparagus, and 
artichokes, 10 tons in all. I have 80 olive trees not 
yet in bearing, and 500 orange trees, of which a limited 
number are now in bearing ; will have from them this 
year 5,000 oranges, worth at least 2 cents each on the 
tree. The fruit and vegetables are sent to the moun- 
tains for sale among the people there, and my waggons 
peddle every day in Oreville. Fourteen men are em- 
ployed in summer, and seven in winter. — “ Coloniensis ” 
in Aberdeen Free Press. 
“A Guide xo the Litehatuee of Sugae” 
being a book of reference for chemists, botanistss, 
librarians, manufacturers, and planters, with a 
comprehensive subject-index, by Mr. H. Ling Both, 
the author of several works on sugar, has reached 
us from the publishers, Messrs. Kegan, Paul, Trench, 
Triibner & Oo., Ld., London. From the introduc- 
tion we quote as follows : — 
The features of the present compilation may be 
explained as follows : — 
1. The titles of important publications are suple- 
mented with brief abstract notes ; works the titles of 
which are misleading or defective (as an indication 
f their contents) are similarly supplied with notes. 
2 By a system of initialling references are given 
in order to indicate the library or locality in which 
the book referred to may be found. 
3. The Comprehensive Subject-index refers to the 
notes as well as to the titles. 
The work contains more than 1,200 titles of books, 
pamphlets, and papers relating to sugar. This num- 
ber might have been considerably augmented had I 
included handbooks of chemistry, enoyclopiedias (one. 
title only being excepted), etc. From amongst the 
numerous narratives of travellers only the more im- 
portant are given, as works ot this class ate almost 
sure to contain some short reference to sugar. With 
the exception of Burn’s Address and MacMahon’s 
Plantership, which are inseited as an example of this 
class of sugar book, all works dealing with sugar from 
the slave or anti-slave trade point of view are ex- 
cluded. There is also a large class of publications, 
chifeily anonymous pamphlets, which according to the 
title lead one to believe they refer to sugar, but 
which on the contrary are merely controversies on free 
trade and protection ; these also I have endeavoured 
to exclude, but it is not always easy to determine 
which works have no tight to appear in the list and which 
have. * * * This compilation extends to the begin- 
ning of the year 1885. X hope shortly to have ready a 
supplement bringing the work up to date, and then, if 
Hufficiont inducement offer, to bring out an Annual Guide. 
We are surprised to find that though our Hand- 
book is entered no mention is made of the Tropical 
AgriculturUti 
Pepper Cultivation has been fairly started 
we learn from the Perak Government Gazette , — 
in the Kuala Kangsa district, Straits Settlements, 
195 acres ot pepper land having been demarcated. 
In Larut, pepper cultivation has attracted a good 
deal of attention, seven lots, representing 5,733 
acres, have been alienated for this purpose during 
the year. The number of applications were very 
much larger, but a good many were weeded out 
by requiring the applicants to demarcate or deposit 
the fees for demarcating the land they applied for. 
Peogeess in Fiji : Tea And Sugae. — Mr. 
Henry Cave, of the firm of Gave & Co., merchants, 
Levuka, is now in Dunedin, eu route to London. 
He has been a resident of Hevuka for the past 18 
years, and during 13 years of that period he had 
been connected with the Levuka Chamber of Com- 
merce, while for several years he was chairman of 
it. Mr. Cave, when questioned on the point, said 
that the tea industry, which had only recently been 
started, gives every promise of increase. One 
feature of the industry that made it suitable to the 
colony was that the plant was so hardly, and in 
consequence hurricanes did it little or no harm. 
The young budding leaves were the ones that were 
picked, and when there was a storm, which would 
denude the plant of the old leaves, the sun and 
rain that followed quickly brought out the new 
sprouts. It was a plant that required plenty of 
rain, and it got that in the islands. Of the sugar 
industry Mr. Cave also speaks hopefully. He thinks 
the progress of the industry has been simply 
wonderful, and that it will rapidly extend very 
shortly. The principal producer is the Colonial 
Eugar Keflning Company, of Sydney, who also have 
a branch in Auckland. That company have large 
plantations, withirrigation works, on the Rewa and Ba 
rivers, and is about to occupy another part of Levuka 
for the same purpose. — Otapo Daily Times, Apri 121st. 
Cotton in Fiji. — There is a very old friend 
of Fiji, slighted for many years past, which it would be 
well for the new generation of planters to know some- 
thing about— Kidney Cotton. Sea Island Cotton de- 
posed the Kidney twenty years since. Up to that 
period, planters thrived in Fiji, even on the moist Rewa 
River, from the proceeds ot the growth ot this snowy 
fibre, after paying the comparatively (with what they 
should be today ) heavy charges of ginning, baling and 
shipping. In an evil hour, kidney cotton was rooted out, 
and supplanted by sea island, the demand for which is 
limited, with the result that the same planter who suc- 
cessfully grew kidney, grew poor in the production of 
sea island — even after capturing the gold medal from 
Philadelphia Exhibition — the seat of judgment in 
cotton. Nevertheless, strange to say, it is doubtful if 
a pod of sea island can be found in Fiji today. Kidney 
cotton has been grown spasmodically by an odd planter 
or two, and by the Native Department ; but it is now 
almost on the extinguisbing point. Can anyone say 
why ? The drier positions of Fiji should be eminently 
suited for the production of cotton, and the meteoro- 
logical conditions of this colony are now fairly well- 
known. As to whether it will pay to grow is another 
matter, and it is only fair to assume that the oonditions 
existing in 1870 will hardly suit the conditions of 1890. 
Will some of the earlier planters of this colony write 
to the columns of this paper and, for the beneat of 
the would-be producer, state what they know for or 
against the production of kidney cotton. That enter- 
prising colony, Oeylon, is just entering largely into the 
cotton industry; a considerable quantity of seed having 
been imported from Fiji for the purpose. A Ceylon 
paper lately stated that by the end of 1890, the produc- 
tion of cotton would be only second to that of tea and 
coconuts in that colony. The same paper also states 
that a large cotton spinning factory has been started 
at Oolombo, with a 300-horse-power engine. Not a 
bad beginning. Australia requires calicoes, and why 
should not Fiji supply them S' Anyway, why should 
no.t Fiji grow kidney cotton and make it pay, too,— 
Fiji Times. 
