326 
[November i, 1890 . 
THE tROPlOM- AW«t3!m.TUR18T. 
years. The directors had commenced to erect som® 
additional sheds at the works to enable them to 
store the raw materials required in the manufac- 
ture of manure in such a manner as would pre- 
vent the necessity of their removal after once being 
discharged. By this and other means the board 
hoped to reduce the increase in cost of produc- 
tion caused by the higher wages conceded lo their 
workmen during the past year. — The report was 
unanimously adopted. — Globe, Aug. 29th. 
AMATIVE PEEUVIAN COTTON. 
The Uni'ed States Consular Agent at Payta says 
that, after five years of drought, the province and 
State of Payta are naturally depressed in the way of 
commerce and all kinds of industry. The valley of 
Chira forms a favourable exception. The production of 
the valley consists principally of native Peruvian cotton 
(Gossypium herbaceum peruvimmm,) an article used 
very extensively in Europe for the manufacture of 
woollen goods with which it mixes readily, on account 
of its rough, strong, aud long fibre, is produced abun- 
dantly throughout the State after the rainy seasons, 
which are periodical, and occur generally every seven 
years, and is culiivated always along the banks of 
rivers, on lowlands irrigated by the overflow of 
streams. The plant is arborescent and perennial, and 
after fully developing continues producing cotton tor 
five or six years in succession, provided there bo some 
moisture in the ground, needing, however, very little 
of it on account of its deep rooting, thus reaching 
moisture at great depths. The system of cultivation 
of this plant is quite primitive, the seeds being planted 
by making holes in the ground with spades, witheut 
tilling or manuring the soil. The plant becomes deve- 
loped and begins to bear cotton in dry and sandy soil 
about six months after planting, and about nine 
months in rich and wet land, continuing to yield at 
short intervals for five or six more years in succession. 
Tho plant may be observed in blossom; with pods, 
hues, and cotton all at the same time, and giving a 
continual yield for the time above stated. In certain 
seasons of the year, about every seven years, the rains 
are incessant for about two months, both in the in- 
terior and on the coast, and water descends in such 
abundance as almost to inundate the country. Large 
tonents stream down the mountain side, the valley of 
the Chira is deluged, flat lauds within it are turned 
into morasses, aud morasses into lakes; in fact, the 
lowland becomes submerged, and the accumulated mass 
of waters rush with great force down the central valley 
which forms their only outlet. The valley, however 
is wide, and the descent very gradual. The extent 
of the valley through which the water flows is from 
three to four miles wide, and although it is nearly 
200 miles in extent, the valley for the whole distance 
is almost level. The rains generally cease in March, 
but it requires from thirty-five to fifty days for the 
water to disappear and leave the land dry. As soon 
is that is i fleeted there springs up, from the whole 
surface of the ground which has been thus submerged 
most luxurious vegetation. The soi' is wonderfully 
rich, and has been under cultivation by the aborigines 
from time immemorial, and its fert lity is kept up 
unimpared by the slime which is abundantly deposited 
durh g inundation. The cotton is collected, when the 
pods open, by women and children, who are paid in pro- 
portion to the quantity collected, the prevailing rates 
Ijciiig about Is 8 d for every 100 pounds. It is taken 
from the field to the ginning house, where it is cleaned 
and made up into bales of about 175 pounds each. 
There are five of such establishments in the province 
of J’ayta, one in Querecolillo, on the east side of 
the rivi r, owned by an Englishman; two in Eullana, a 
city of about 1,000 inhabitants, on the west side of the 
river, owned by natives ; two at La Huaca, owned by 
an Englishman aud an Italian. A considerable qua- 
lity of cotton is annually exporteil, aud seeds are 
now also exported for oil-tnaUing, Europe is the 
market for both products,— J/rtftM/actm'f and Inventor, 
Ang. 20th. 
RUBBER COLLECTING IN THE 
AMAZON VALLEY. 
A correspondent, signing himself M. G. M., writes 
to the Daily News as follows: — 
May I be allowed to speak a word of warning’ 
through your columns, to any young men who might 
be Induced by the offer of a high salary to go out to 
the interior of South America ? Last autumn four 
young men were induced by a wealthy Spaniard, who 
was visiting Liverpool and Manchester, to go out with 
him to his estate on one of the tributaries of the 
Amazon. They found when they arrived there that 
it was a rubber plantation worked by slave labour, 
and that two of them were expected to act as overseers. 
It is not, indeed, slavery in name, for payment is 
given in the form of a nickel token, with which the 
labourer buys hie rations ; but it is compulsory labour, 
extending to mere infants, and enforced by the cruel- 
ties of the lash, and sometimes of the rifle bullet. 
The English nature of these young men revolted 
against such a system and they resolved to escape on 
the first opportunity, r wo of them succeeded in doing 
so, and are now in England, eager to tell their story 
to save others from being similarly deluded, and if 
possible to stir up an agi> alie n which may lead to the 
deliverance of the poor oppressed natives. The third 
(a near relative of my informant) was drowned by 
the upsetting of a canoe on his way down the Eiver 
Madeira. The fourth was unable to accompany his 
comrades, being ill of fever when they left. I write 
this in the hope that their fate my deter others from 
venturing into an unknown region among strangers, 
unless after searching inquiry they can obtain satis- 
factory assurance as to the kind of work required, 
and the character of those who engage them , — India 
Rubber Journal. 
SOUTH AFRICAN EXPANSION. 
About a month ago Mr, Stanley when referring in 
laudatory terms to the Anglo -German agreement 
used these words : — “ You have a glorious table- 
land, and you are in the heart of Africa. So 
I see now prospects by which British people 
could breathe in the heart of Africa, whereas 
before I was very doubtful whether colonists could 
live there and multiply there as they have multiplied 
in America ; but 1 see now a possibility, because 
you will have the whole slopes of Kenia, that mag- 
nificent tableland rising to 7,000, 8,000, or 9,000 ft. 
You have also Mfumbiro, the Mountains of ihe 
Moon, and that great escarpment of marl stretching 
right up to the neighbourhood of the fortress station 
of Baker. All that territory is fit for colonisation — 
900 miles in length and 700 miles in breadth.” Yet 
this territory is traversed by the equator. We thus 
have the great explorer’s testimony to the fact that 
British settlers can be expected to live and multiply 
under the vertical sun of the line, provided that the 
country they occupy is at such an altitude above the 
sea level that the effects of equatorial heat are 
qualified and neutralised. Heat in a rarefied at- 
mosphere is not only bearable but is compatible 
with salubrity of climate and vigour of life. This 
view is corroborated by observation in other tqutorial 
regions — in Peru, in Oeylon, and in the Eastern 
Archipelago . — Natal Mercury, July 30th. 
Exi’bkiments which have lately been made in 
the Madras Presidency in the treatment of rinder- 
pest with solid cinchona febrifuge, have been en- 
couraging. Out of twenty-two cattle experimented 
on, fifteen recovered, one was relieved, and only 
six died. The inspector of cattle diseases says 
thrtt tho drug reduces the temperature very con- 
siderably in the first stages, but that iu an ad- 
vanced siage it is of little or no xxBQ.—lndiar 
Agriculturist. 
