THE TROPICAL AQRlOULTURIST. 
[October i, i 8 q 6 , 
S 92 
phate. The Soekanegara p'antations produced in 1888 
104,000 kilos, bark, equal to 4,680 kilos, quinine ; in 
1889 132,000 kilos, bark, equal to 6,610 kilos, quinine; 
and their estimated crop or 1890 is 100,000 kilos, bark, 
expected to yield 4,500 kilos, qumine. They rank 
among the three or four largest private plantations 
in Java . — Chemist an I Druggist, Aug. 16th. 
GOLD IN MADAGASCAR. 
The discovery of gold in large quantities in the 
great African island of Madagascar just at the 
moment when Europe is turning for fresh fields 
of enterprise to tha dark continent, is an event of 
more than local importance. Silver has long been 
known to be a pretty whispered mineral in the 
island. But hitherto the Hovas Government has 
discountenanced any attempt on the part of ad- 
venturers from Europe to exploit the island inquest 
of precious metals. With the establishment of the 
French protectorate a few years ago the country 
has been to some extent opened up to foreigners. 
Already a “ gold rush” on a small scale has com- 
menced to the island, the adventurers hailing from 
the French West Indian Colonies and the Hovas 
are beginning to see that it is impossible to keep 
white men out of the country, once the existence 
of the fatal metal becomes known. Pessibly the 
Malagasies will share the fate of the Australian 
aborigines and the Maoris within our time and the 
output of gold from the once most exclusive island 
will begin to txeicise an appreciable tffort upon 
the world’s store of the precious metals. But the 
climate of Madagascar, which is not favourable to 
Europeans may save it for a time. The country 
is one eminently adapted for mining industries, 
labour is cheap, and the gold-bearing reefs are 
not far from the coast. Inde< d tbe metal appears 
to be pretty generally distributed all over the island 
though it is found in greater quantities along the 
west coast. Already a good many speculators are 
buying up likely land in the island and an influx 
of miners from America, Australia and South 
Africa is expected to commence.— Indian Agri- 
culturist, Aug. 23rd. 
Tea in Japan. — The Japan Weekly Mail of Aug. 
16th says : — '‘Nothing new^ in tea ; sales and prices 
about the same as for the' last few weeks, though 
fully five and a halt million pounds more have been 
shipped this season than last year at same date.” 
The Mail in its issue of Aug. 22nd says : — “The tea 
trade is steady, and values are unaltered. The 
receipts of leaf here are already 6,000 piculs more 
than the total last season, and there is doubtless 
a good deal more to come in if present rates are 
maintained.” 
Odessa is doing a large and increasing trade in 
China tea. In the month ending the 16th July, seven 
tea-freighted steamers were timed to arrive at the 
Russian port, five of which belong to the Volunteer 
Fleet, the other two being specially chartered English 
vessels. The t< a freight is chiefly destined for 
Moscow and St. Petersburg houses, the consignors 
in those citirs having engaged three hundred wag- 
gons on tha Souih-Western Railway for transport. 
A coi ii'‘’pondeMt thinks, however, that the prospect 
of the Chinefii, tea trade is on the whole anything 
but uocouragiiig for the Chinese themselves. “ For 
Borne lime to come Russia will probably continue to 
hi- a ohiet 1 uyer of Chinese teas, but the amount of 
hti irurohases wJl gradually diminish with the rapid 
pr - psgation and development of the new tea plaiiia- 
tions in Russian Central Asia.” The writer adds 
that undoubted preference is now being manifested 
alike in England, the British colonies, and the 
United Stalls for Indian and Ceylon teas. Indian 
Agriculturist, Aug, 23rd, 
The Word .8 foe Spgar in Different Lan- 
guages are quoted by the Sugar Oane, in a review 
of an elaborate work on sugar by a Dr. Lippmann, 
We quote the curious paragraph : — 
In the next section, that entitled “ Sugar at the time 
of the Crusades,” is an interesting dissertation, founded 
on the studies of Littr4, Diez, Grimm and others, on 
the word sugar in various European tongues. 
From the original Indian form qarkara, which in 
Prakrit became sukkara (the habit being to drop the 
letter r before a consonant, and replace t by redupli- 
o-ition of tbe following consonant) was formed the 
Arabic sukkar. This word naturally became the parent 
of all the different forms such as — azucar (Spanish, 
from alsukkar, pronounced assukkar), assukar (Portu- 
guese), zucchero (Italian), chuchre (Provencal), chucre 
(old French), sucre (French), zukura fold German) 
zucker (German), zocker (Flemish), suyker (Dutch) sok- 
kar(Swedish), syker (old Norse), sukker (Danish) sachar 
(Russian), eukier (Polish), cukorus (Lithuanian), cukra 
(Bohemian), czukor (Hungarian), shicker (Mongol), 
sbakara (Tibetan), sbakar (Persian), shachara and sliu- 
kar (Armenian) sheker (Turkish). The middle Latin 
contained as many as 28 forms, van ing rom cbuchra to 
Fachara, zockra, zaccarum, and zukurum, tbe lastagr. e- 
ing most nearly with the usual Latin lorm saccliarun'.. 
Elephant.s and Ivory in Africa, — F rom 
reminiscences of Equatorial Africa, wliijh are 
appearing in the Pioneer, we quote a sad passage : — 
'Wo also came across traces of the wild elephant 
during this march, the spoor being quite fioeh. nnd the 
broad trackthey bad made for themselves proved the 
herd to have b. en a very large one. There was a freshly 
beaten path through the jungle, with the Faplings bent 
and twisted down, branches of trees torn off and denuded 
of their fo'iage, and an occasional uprooted bnsh lying 
about the track, looking as though a Lattery of heavy 
guns had been forcibly dragged through the place, 
cutting up the soil into deep ruts and damaging the 
trees by its transit. That the herd could only have 
passed but a very short time before was evident ; but 
we followed up the path for some distance we failed 
to get a glimpse of them. The natives have a very 
barbarous method of killing these huge animals which 
they described to us with great gusto, evidently con- 
sidering it to be very ingenious and not seeing any- 
thing cruel in it. They did not dare to face them in 
the open, but used to carefully mark out the spots near 
the river where the elephants were accustomed to come 
to drink. Selecting some tall tree overhanging the 
path, they would conceal themselves among its thick 
foliage for days together in the hope of seeir g the 
huge beasts pass underneath their hiding place. The 
weaponsthey employed were very heavy barbed spears, 
having long pliant shafts attached to them, and these 
they hurled with great force upon tbe elephant below. 
The animal immediately dashed off at a tremendous 
pace through the jungle assoonas he felt the wound of 
the spear. The long handle kept striking against 
boughs or catching in thickets, tnakiog the terrified 
animal still more mad with pain and fright, and causing 
the iron barb to inflict a wider gash. The cruelty of 
this plan was not merely in the self-inflicted agony of 
the moving barb, but in the length of time that generally 
elapsed before the poor beast would slowly sink from 
exhaustion and loss of blood. They told us that they 
had followed up the track for as many ae tour days 
before coming up with the wounded elephant ; and the 
horrors of its death seem (as they vividly described it 
to us), with a circle of tormentors hurling their spears 
from a respectful distance until its carcase resembled a 
I'uge pincushion, were enough to make one look on 
ivorv with mingled feelings ever afterwards. Yet one 
could not blame those savage hunters, for, as they 
themselves said: “We have no big guns such as you 
possess, and one would much rather kill them quickly 
than slowly.” It is to be hoped for the poor elephants’ 
sake that they may soon possess the needed rifles, for 
as tbe competition among the East African Companies 
will increase the demand for tusks, and for every other 
saleable commodity tloie fore sts can produce, tbe pro- 
babilities are that the native hunters will have a busier 
f inio of it than ever. How long the ivory will hold out 
la another question, 
