42 
THR  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[JULV  I,  1895. 
would  prevent  them  from  playinp!  tricks  of  this  nature; 
but  s'  all  we  ever  get  rid  of  the  kangani  system  ? 
If  the  ■coolies  who  are  going  to  the  CoaU  could  be 
paid  off  in  Jauuaiy,  tliose  who  remain  behind  would 
get  more  reg'ilar  work  iu  the  slack  months  than  tliey 
do  now,  which  would  be  an  advantage,  as  in  my 
opinion  there  is  nothing  so  demoralising  for  the  cooly 
as  working  short  thUe  ? Where  we  are  so  severely 
handicapped  in  the  matter  of  labor  now-a-days,  is, 
that  in  ihe  first  place  we  require  our  labor  most  at 
the  very  time  when  the  coolies  are  on  the  move 
towards  their  h mes  in  India,  whereas  in  the  coffee 
days  we  could  well  dispense  with  labor  after  crop 
was  in  and  pruning  finished,  in  the  western  districts 
at  any  rate  ; and,  secondly,  because  tea  estates  in 
full  bearing  cannot  possibly  employ  the  labour,  which 
they  require  to  secure  the  Spring  rushes  of  leaf, 
steadily  ihrougliQut  the  rest  of  the  y ar,  and  this 
difticully  will  be  intensified  when  all  our  tea  is  in 
full  bearing  and  is  far  more  ferious  than  it  was 
in  the  days  of  coffee,  when  pruning  and  handling 
meant  an  annud  expenditure  of  from  1115—20  per 
acre  ngaiutt  say  from  IM — 5 iu  the  case  of  tea, 
allowing  for  an  average  of  two  pruuiugsin  three  years. 
The  Ijabour  Questio  i is  not  Oy  any  means  an  easy 
one  to  solve,  and  it  certainly  rcspiires  a pull  all 
together  to  place  it  on  a better  footing  than  it  is  at 
present.  We  shall  probably  g > to  sleep  over  it  now 
until  next  Spring,  when  we  shall  wake  again,  let 
us  h'-pe,  to  tackle  it,  not  like  ilark  Twain's  ants 
as  we  appear  to  bo  doing  at  present,  but  on  the 
beat  of  the  many  systems  which  may  have  been 
propounded  in  the  merntime,  and  at  any  rate  miud- 
ful  of  the  motto 
« UMTAS  SALU.S  NO.STKA. 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
f'OKFKK  IN  BKAZIL  : RoOM  FOR  EXTENSION.— 
As  an  inducement  for  the  construction  of  a 
branch  of  the  Sorocabana  railway  to  Lenybes,  S. 
P.aalo,  we  read  that  the  municipal  council  of  tli.at 
place  rejairts  that  tlie  Municipality  now  posse.sses 
8, 52U,()0U  coffee  trees,  of  which  4,24.5,000  are  from 
three  to  six  years  old,  iuid  the  balaium  under 
three  years.  The  area  suitable  for  coffee  still 
uncultivated  amounts  to  sixty-million  aliineires 
of  land. 
India’s  Trade  with  the  Ear  Ea.st.  ~Iii  eon- 
cluding  an  article  on  this  subject  the  Madras  'limes 
says 
It  is  in  China,  therefore,  that  we  may  expect  to 
find  our  keenest  trade  rival  in  the  Far  East,  at  least 
in  regard  to  cotton  spinning.  Especially  will  this  be 
the  case  if  .Japanese  energy  influences  the  develop- 
ment of  cotton-spinning  in  China.  India’s  greatest 
hope  lies,  first,  in  tlie  possibility  that  .Japan  wdil  try 
to  make  berself  the  medium  of  supplies  to  China;  and, 
second,  that  “ honest  money”  may  yet  become  cur- 
rent in  India  once  more,  in  place  of  the  inflated,  though 
still  undersized,  Knpoe  of  the  present  day. 
Sli.K  Industry  in  End  [.and. -In  view  of  tlie 
depresision  in  agriculture  and  in  the  textile  in- 
dustries, ^Ir.  A.  R.  .Sennett's  suggestion  in  tlie 
London  Times  that  silk  culture  should  he  re- 
siiscitato<l  in  Eiiglaml  is  worth  consideration. 
In  l()l>4  the  Jliiguenots  had  in  (,'anterbnry  alone 
a thousand  looms,  giving  eniploymeiib  to  some 
.S,DiKl  people.  By  the  skill  ami  iiersever.ance  of 
Pasteur,  silkwonu  ianiiing  has  now  been  jdaced 
upon  a sound  scientific  footing.  It  might  be  re- 
introduced witlioiil  a gri'at  cajiital  expenditure, 
and  would  gi\e  remmiorati\ e employment  to  a 
large  immber  of  mon,  women,  and  children. 
The  .scheme  is  one  .says  tlie  C.  U'orld—iUnt 
could  he  materially  a.s.si.sted  hy  l.arge  lamleil 
jiroprietors  planting  mnlberry  trees  upon  their 
esfiues  and  farms.  es|»ecially  in  counties  posscss- 
iig  s.i'li  tciiipcirUe.  iuid  (*1111, ibb'  climates  as 
Devonshire,  Somerset,  Hants,  Sussex,  and  Kent, 
PbANTIND  IN  Tiiavancore.— Tlie  RejiOlt  of 
the  I’lanters’  Association  shows  the  statistics  of 
the  tlircL 
; divisions 
fur  the  vear 
eiidiii 
g ;iotii 
.1  title 
18!  14  as 
follows  ; — 
7: 
d 
0 
0 
0 
H 
0 
id 
ij 
H 
H 
c3 
0 
s 
0 
> 2 
•43  0 
Ss 
0 *i3 
g 
H 
0 
0 
0 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acies 
acres 
acres 
Southern 
tut 
5:{‘,)(; 
•iOls 
7171 
l(i.507 
2H'.IH1 
t!eiitral 
..  110 
;j57'.i 
l-iss 
4‘.t77 
1H25 
t).so2 
Nortlieiii 
. . 17f.S 
:(57 
1075 
H-2U  1 
asinto 
871 ‘.15 
urns 
l.JSt 
151)51 
55527 
70‘)78 
We  .shall  liave  later  returns  in  our  Directory. 
“ CtiEAi’ Tuansi'ort  and  How  jo  Get  it.”— 
We  call  attention  to  the  tliird  of  Mr.  Davis- 
.Allen’s  practical  and  iiiforniing  jiapers.  It  will 
be  obserxed  from  his  sumniiiig-uii  that  be  is 
by  no  means  dogmatic,  lliongli  willi  a strong 
leaning  to  tlie  narrow  gauge”  for  economie 
imrposes.  NVe  have  no  doubt  tliat  .Mr.  Davis. 
Allen  could  say  mucli  about  the  evils  of  a 
“break  of  gauge"  where  a continuous  line  is 
concerned  ; and  that  is  the  I'eason  why  we 
advocate  a beginning  at  (’oioiiilto,  and  indepen- 
dently of  the  existing  broad  gauge  system,  of 
tlie  proposed  iiietre-gange  Nortliern  line,  and 
also  that  a Kotte-Kelaiii  Valley  line  that 
start  from  the  capital  instead  of  ,as  a 
braiieli  from  tlic  Kandy  line.  1-ord  Dalbonsie, 
when  A'iceroy  in  1S.55,  fixed  tlie  5i  feet  gauge 
for  Inilia,  and  Sir  Henry  Ward  in  Ceylon 
naturally  followed  bis  lead  in  1S58.  In  our  first 
Memorial  for  Itailway  Extension  from  Nawala- 
pitiya  to  Haputale,  we  expressly  urged  that  the 
line'  sboiildbe  on  tliedA  feet  gauge,  and  were  backed 
by  Messrs.  Tottenham  and  Criiwell.  How  it 
came  about  that  Governor,  Engineers  and  all 
concerned,  became  convinced  in  bS77  that  there 
slionld  be  no  break  at  Navalajiitiya,  and  after- 
wards in  bS,S5  at  Nanuoya,  is  too  long  a 
story  to  tell  now.  We  know  it  is  a sore 
subject  with  some  in  Uva;  but  it  siiiiidy 
came  to  this  in  Sir  Artlmr  Gordon’s  time, 
that  unless  we  followed  the  lead  <»f  tliat  very 
able  as  well  as  autocratic  Governor — who  would 
have  iiotbing  to  do  with  a new  Survey  or  break 
of  gauge  at  Nanuoya — we  sliuuld  not  have  got 
a locomotive  line  sanctioned  into  Uva  in  liis  day, 
nor  for  many  years  after.  Governor  Gordon  as 
good  as  “rebelled”  against  the  Colonial  Office, 
in  order  to  force  tlie  sanction  of  the  long-delayed 
Haimtale  section. — -Mr.  Davis-Alien  speak.s  of 
“ quarter  loails”  over  our  railway  in  bS!)3.  We 
should  like  to  know  if  this  a|)|»lies  to  the  upeonntry 
line?  We  scarcely  think  so.  (ioods  tralfic  he- 
tween  Colombo  and  Kandy  at  any  lale  used 
to  be  specially  heavy  and  eoneeiitrated,  and  we 
fanej'^  it  must  be  glowingly  so  on  the  Dimluila- 
Uva  line. MTtli  reference  to  Mr.  Davis- 
.Allen’s  second  paper  in  a recent  Ob.srrrer,  with 
its  striking  deliverance  as  to  to  the  special  ('ll'cet 
of  sharp  curves  on  AVorkiiig  Expenses— a fact  al- 
most ignored  by  Engineers  up  to  ten  years  ago 
or  so  vvlien  the  late  1‘iofessor  Floeming-Ieiikiii,  I’m- 
fessorot  Engineering  in  the  University  of  Eilinbiirgli 
(of  whom  .Mr.  Davis-.Allei  was  a I'upil)  first 
lironglit  it  uiit  prominently — it  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration vvlietlier  there  slionld  not  bean  exami- 
nation of  our  older  Ceylon  linos  in  order  to  si'o 
if  any  curves  c(mld  lie  profitably  ('ased  or 
si riiigiitmied  if  that  be  possible  ; - and  this  niigla 
be  a m;itter  in  vvbieb  an  inspection  and  rei>ort  from 
.Mr,  Waring  would  be  of  practical  value# 
