THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aug.  1,  1S95. 
years.  Beside  the  Legamiuoste,  the  seeds  of  species 
of  the  fo  lowing  orders  retained  their  vitality  after 
a period  of  twenty  years.  Tiliaceie  llhamnaceuj, 
and  Myrtaceec.  Returning  for  a mo  i.eiiL  to  the 
statements  mentioned  above,  as  to  ihe  powers  of 
different  seeds  of  resisting  external  inflneii'es,  «e 
find  that  cereal  grains  have  been  pro d by  Edwards 
and  Colin  to  hear  a short  expomr.*  of  F.  in 
water,  as  well  as  a dry  cold  of  70*^  below  the  freezing 
point;  while  Heminuv. ay,  in  a pape'  published  in 
the  Ain.  of  Xut.  Hist.,  1st  series,  viii,  hl7,  states 
that  seeds  of  Elder  germinated  after  being  twice 
boiled  in  ntaking  wine,  beiirg  present  ^ during  the 
virrous  ferrrre station,  and  remaining  for  t zeir  y 
irrorrths  in  the  dregs  of  the  cask.  Jl.  C.  1'. — 
Gardeniers'  ( 'Inonide. 
— ^ 
TltOl'ICAL  .\<:UlCUl/nTlE  IN  NORTH 
ROllSKO. 
(.•OKI’KK— COCOA — COCON  UI'S—l’I'.ITKl!  - 
(iAMIJIlil:  Ac. 
It  is  always  interesting  to  know  what  other 
people  think  about  you,  and  especially  so  when  the 
critic  is  a shtewcd  observer  anl  a man  of  practical 
experience,  arrd  for  tho.se  roasoirs  what  Mr.  Strutt 
has  to  say  about  us  is  read  with  particular  atterr- 
tion.  It  is  very  satisfactory  to  find  him  referring 
favourably  to  the  growth,  of  coffee,  Manila  hemp, 
cocoa,  coconuts,  sugar  cane,  cotton,  popper,  ganr- 
bier  sago  and  arrowroot ; the  growth  ol  tlie.se  plants 
that  is  : as  to  whether  their  cultivation  is  likely  to 
pay  Mr.  Btrutt  savs  there  are  two  ways  of  judging 
(1) hy  the  full  knowledge  of  the  future  supply  of 
other  tropical  couirtries  and  of  the  probable  demand 
(2)  by  coinnaring  the  cost  of  production  with  other 
places  whci'O  the  pa.rlicular  plant  is  grown,  hut  it 
may  be  better  to  divide  these  points  under  three 
heads  1 Possible  competition,  2 Probable  demand, 
3 Cost  of  production  as  compared  with  other  coun- 
tries.  _ . . 
Wo  w'ill  in  the  first  place  consider  gambler,  lliis 
product  grows  in  Malaya  only  and  as  it  is  imperative 
that  ganibier  gardens  should  be  in  large  forests  and 
with  facilities  for  cheap  transport,  there  are  not 
many  places  left,  even  in  Malaya  where  a conjunc- 
tion of  these  two  advantages  exists.  As  to  the  pro- 
bable dsmand,  a reduction  of  tlie  present  London 
sale  price  would  cause  a large  increase  of  consump- 
tion while  as  to  coinparativo  cost  of  production, 
wo  have  tens  of  thousands  of  acre.s  of  the  best  forest 
covered  ganibier  land  pornieated  by  rivers  ibat  faci- 
litate its  being  put  on  board  the  export  f-hip  at  a 
minimun  of  expence  ; one  of  the  main  items  ot  its 
cost  in  the  Straits  is  that  the  forests  now  havi 
been  felled  so  far  inland  that  the  g.ambiei:  h.a.s  to 
be  carted  over  miles  of  roads,  whereas  h re  the 
carriage  would  all  be  by  water  which  is  oi  course 
much  cheaper  than  the  cheapest  form  of 
riage.  The  price  ot  ganibier  was  l|?5.30in  1S85 
in  'l892  and  S9  now. 
Next,  as  to  sago,  the  prices  of  the  last  three 
years  liave  caused  practicable  sago  swamps  Ft®’'" 
erally  to  be  drawn  upon  to  about  their  limits  of 
production.  The  price  of  pearl  sago  no-v  is  S3. (10 
per  pikul  as  against  in  1831  and  new  uses  for 
sago  are  constantly  being  discovered,  no  falling  off 
iii”dcinatid  therelore  need  bo  appreh.  iiJcd,  rather 
the  reverse,  while  the  production  is  limited  to 
iMalaya  and  its  islands  solely. 
Manila  hemp  has  been  pro.lr.ccd  in  those  parts 
of  the  L’liilippines  only  that  have  a suitable  climate, 
and  nowhere  else  at  all,  and  owing  to  the  heavy 
taxes  and  other  causes  at  work  iu  those  islands, 
the  Philippines  have  very  mucli  to  fear  from  our 
cojiipctition  than  wo  from  theirs. 
With  n'g.ird  to  these  three  products  therefore  we 
may  claim  a portion  of  a monbply  of  supply,  wbilo 
tlu!  demand  i.-i  capable  of  enormous  expansion  at  a 
reduced  sterling  prie-j  such  as  the  fall  in  silver, 
plus  the  unusual  facilitiea  North  Jlornco  has  to 
'offer,  entails. 
Tapioca  though  not  referred  to  by  Mr.  Strutt  is  th  e 
next  product  we  will  mention.  It  can  be  grown  i n 
most  tropical  countries  in  the  world  and  it  is  therefore 
under  the  third  head,  comparative  cost  of  production, 
that  North  Borneo  would  be  in  a better  position  than 
elsewiiere ; in  the  West  Indies  where  tapioca  used 
to  be  largely  made  the  cost  of  labour  is  much  higher 
titan  with  us  while  in  the  Straits  from  whence  much 
tapioca  was  exported  some  few  years  ago,  increase 
of  population  has  taken  for  other  purposes  a lot  of 
the  land  then  used  thereby  causing,  as  iu  the  case 
of  ganibier  the  cost  of  laud  transport  to  be  so  heavy 
that  it  would  necessitate  a considerable  rise  in  price 
to  make  it  pay,  while  in  North  Borneo  the  factory 
could  he  erected  at  the  mouth  of  a river  and  the 
roots  carried  there  by  boat,  and  subsequently  taken 
by  lighter  to  the  e.xport  ships  side. 
’ Much  the  same  has  to  be  said  about  sugar  ; the 
advantages  that  North  Borneo  has  to  offer  for  the 
cheap  production  of  this  product  are  so  numerous 
and  so  great  that  it  becomes  a question  whether 
even  at  " the  present  pheuominally  low  price,  sugar 
could  not  be  produced  at  a profit ; our  cane  flourishes 
v.ith  a vigor  rarely  equalled  in  any  other  country, 
its  juice  yields  saccharine  matter  of  a density  in 
excess  of  that  elsewhere,  the  labourers’  wages  are 
cheaper  than  iu  almost  any  other  sugar  country, 
much  cheaper  than  in  moat  of  them,  we  cannot  be 
beaten  in  cur  transport  and  shipping  facilities,  and 
there  is  an  enormous  market  iu  Hongkong  where 
one  rdinery  alone  puts  through  two  hundred  thou- 
sand tons  of  rough  sugar  annually.  In  Queensland 
last  season  the  simple  cutting  of  the  cane  and  car- 
riage to  the  mill  cost  as  high  as  5,6  a ton  which 
is  more  than  half  the  entire  cost  of  cultivation, 
uokeep,  cutting  and  transport  to  a well  situated 
mill  in  the  Saudakan  district,  would  be. 
As  to  cooonuts  though  they  can  be  grown  in 
most  tropical  countries  yet  the  actual  land  most 
s.iitable  for  them  is  circumscribed  aud  the  demand 
for  them  grows  with  the  increase  of  population  in 
the  tropics  aud  with  tlie  discovery  of  new  uses  for 
their  products  iu  Europe  faster  than  fresh  trees 
can  be  planted  up.  Singapore  exported  to  Europe 
la.st  year  over  Pels.  800,000  of  copra.  Coconuts 
are  one  of  the  best  paying,  steady  and  reliable 
p'ants  to  cultivate. 
As  to  cotton,  the  demand  for  it  in  this  part  of  the 
world  may  be  said  to  be  only  beginning  now,  and 
yet  .Jap.an  imported  153,000,000  lb.  iu  the  year  1893. 
It  will  therefore  be  seen  that  with  regard  to  Mr. 
Strutt’s  ihreo  points  we  have  little  to  fear  from 
the  competition  of  other  countries,  that  the  demand 
for  most  of  our  possible  products  is  steadily  iucreas- 
iiig,  and  that  we  are  singularly  well  situated  with 
regard  to  advantages  for  cheap  production.  It  is 
rataer  other  countries  that  have  to  fear  us  than 
wc  them. 
As  for  the  “sample”  Mr.  Strutt  speaks  of,  the 
saaiple  of  sago  North  Borneo  sent  forward  in  1893 
was  valued  at  over  §1(50, 000  aud  this  is  only  an 
earnest  of  what  we  could  do  with  all  the  product# 
we  have  icentioued  if  only  their  cultivation  was 
once  properly  started. 
Mr.  S rutt  speaks  of  crops  that  take  two  or  three 
years  to  produce  results,  but  cotton  begins  to  bear 
at  nine  months  of  age,  cane  also  takes  the  same 
length  of  lime  to  mature,  tapioca  is  an  eleven  or 
twelve  month  crop  and  ganibier  a fifteen  or  sixteen 
mouths  one. 
Mr.  Strutt  speaks  reassuringly  as  (0  the  health 
of  the  country,  this  is  a much  'ruisunderstood  ques- 
tion. North  Borneo  is  freely  acknowledged  by  those 
who  should  kuovv  best,  its  European  inhabitants 
most  of  whom  have  had  plenty  of  experience  iu 
other  tropical  countries,  to  bo  particularly  healthy. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  class  tliat  has 
almost  exclusively  come  under  the  cognizance  of 
Europeans  at  a distance  has  boen  almost  entirely 
c'.nployo  1 on  tobicco  estates,  and  tobacco  planting 
at  the  be  t is  not  a healthy  occupation  wuile  un- 
der the  lotidiiioiis  that  prevailed  011  most  of  the 
estates  when  lirst  started,  it  was  simply  deplorable  ; 
hut  all  others  iu  North  Romeo,  employers,  natives 
and  cooaes  alike  are  healthy  onongli,  as  wituesi 
the  staff  of  Ctovenuneul  Officials. 
