Sept,  a,  1895. J THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
181 
PLANTING  IN  THE  STRAITS. 
{/•'rOM  Mr.  Martin  Lister's  Administration  Iteport  on 
the  States  of  Sunrjei  ffov<i  and  Jclehu,  for  the 
near  lSO-1.) 
Coffee. — Three  leases  were  issued  to  coffee  planters 
in  the  Serembau  District,  the  area  leased  being  about 
2,500  acres.  In  the  Coast  District  there  were  seven 
applications  by  natives  for  small  areas  amounting  to 
(it)  acres.  The  Collector  of  Land  Revenue,  Scremban, 
reports  that  the  proprietoi-s  of  the  various  coffee 
estates  have  largely  extended  their  operations  ; that 
a new  field  has  been  ojjened  cn  the  Liusnm  Estate 
and  that  the  Ribu  Estate  has  been  greatly  improved. 
The  Syndicate  owning  the  Sinawang  Estate  has 
opened  up  about  300  acres  of  coffee,  and  Mr.  Dumnan 
has  shewn  great  energy  in  the  opening  up  of  a con- 
siderable area  at  Terentang,  adjoining  Sinawang.  A 
fair  area  of  land  also  has  been  opened  on  the  Gu- 
•nong  Angsi  Estate. 
Pe:i>pf.b. — There  is  a considerable  cultivation  of  this 
creeper  in  the  Coast  District,  and,  as  pepper  requires 
mulching,  gambicr  is  grown  in  connection  with  it, 
and  tlie  refuse  after  cooking  the  gambier  and  extract- 
ing the  juice  is  used  to  cover  the  land  on  which  the 
popper  is  planted. 
{From  Mr.  Cecil  Wray's  Jfonthly  lieport  on  Lower 
Perak,  April  1895.) 
The  few  cacoa  trees  at  the  penghulu’s  house  have 
grown  a great  deal  and  look  very  healthy  and  are 
full  of  fruit,  but  the  nutmegs  do  not  look  very  flourish- 
ing. Some  vanilla  bi'ought  from  Mauritius  looks  well 
and  flowers  freely,  but  does  not  set  any  fruit,  which 
is  only  to  be  expected,  as  the  owner  does  not  un- 
derstand the  cultivation  of  the  plant.  A great  deal 
of  new  land  has  been  applied,  for  along  the  old  road 
running  through  the  Mukim  from  Kampong  Padang 
to  Kota  Lumut,  and  the  people  are  anxious  to  have 
the  road  cleared  and  put  in  order. 
The  penghulu  has  three  splendid  orange  trees  grown 
from  seed  given  to  him  by  the  late  Mr.  F.  W.  Brewster 
some  years  ago.  They  are  certainly  the  finest  I have 
seen  in  the  Straits.  One  of  them,  the  largest,  bore 
over  1,(XK)  ripe  oranges  last  year,  and  is  now  breaking 
down  with  the  crop  on  it. 
{From  Annunt  P,,eport  on  Krian  District.) 
SuGAH. — About  31,000  acres  have  been  alienated  for 
sugar  planting  in  Krian,  of  which  13,(XH)  acres  are 
under  cultivation,  and  employ  permanently  7,500 
Chinese  and  2,000  Tamil  labourers,  besides  Javanese 
and  Malays.  ' The  price  of  brown  sugar,  which  is  the 
chief  product  of  these  estates,  averaged  between 
j^4'35  and  $4’85  from  January  to  September,  and  fell 
in  October  to  ^4T0,  in  November  to  $3'40  and  in 
December  to  ^3T0,  since  which  it  has  gone  as  low  as 
$2’(j0  a pikul,  a price  that  will  barely  cover  the  cost 
of  production.  The  price  of  white  sugar  also  fell 
steadily,  till  at  the  end  of  the  year  it  had  reached 
a figure  the  sterling  value  of  which  is  lower  than 
has  been  known  before.  The  Gula  Estate,  which  is 
the  largest  in  Krian,  is  the  only  one  under  European 
management.  I am  indebted  to  the  manager  for 
furnishing  me  with  a review  of  the  year’s  progress. 
At  the  close  of  the  year  considerably  over  2,tX)0  acres 
were  under  cultivation  ; tlie  area  actually  yielding 
a crop  being  over  1,600  acres.  Owing  to  the  difficulty 
of  obtaining  a supply  of  Tamil  labour,  part  of  the 
estate  has  been  sub-leased  to  Chinese  on  what  is 
known  as  the  rumah  hchil  system. 
The  whole  labour  force  at  the  end  of  the  year 
was ; — 
Tamils,  indentured  ...  ..  030 
Do.  free  . . . . 570 
Chinese  Sinkths  ..  ..  54 
Do.  Lankehs  . . . . 150 
Malays  and  Javanese  ..  ..  175 
Total  ..  1,879 
excluding  women  and  chiklren  who  arc  not  l.ibourers 
but  who  reside  on  the  estate  and  number  between 
four  and  five  hundred.  A new  hospital  was  built  on 
the  estate  ; a steam  still  for  manufacturing  rum 
was  erected,  and  sugar  store,  office  and  laboratory 
added  to  the  plant,  at  a total  cost  of  ft-IS.OOO. 
23 
A concession  of  5,000  acres  adjoining  the  Gula 
Estate  has  been  talcen  over  by  tlie  same  Company 
from  the  concessionaries,  Messrs.  Kennedy  A Btewart 
The  concession  is  now  being  demarcated  ; no  work 
except  a little  jungle  felling  having  been  done  up  to 
date. 
Mr.  Koch,  a private  surveyor,  surveyed  7,455  acres 
of  sugar  land  during  the  ti.st  four  months  of  the 
year,  in  addition  to  the  work  done  by  Government. 
INDIAN  PATENTS. 
Calcutta,  July  18th. 
Applications  in  respect  of  the  undermentioued  in- 
ventions have  been  filed,  during  the  week  ending 
13th  -July  1805,  under  the  provisions  of  Act  of 
of  1888 
For  a cleaning  Apparatus  for  the  “Acme”  Tea  Sorting 
Machine  or  other  machines  of  the  Reciprocating  Class — 
‘223  of  1895. — George  Murray  Collom,  Engineer  and 
Tea  Planter,  care  of  W.  G.  Forbes,  Esq.,  H.  M.  Mint, 
Calcutta,  for  a clearing  apparatus  for  the  “ Acme  ” 
Tea  Sorting  Machine  or  other  machines  of  the  reci- 
procating class. — Indian  Engineer. 
...-♦ 
TAPIOCA  IN  MALACCA. 
A Syndicate  has  just  purchased  a tapioca  estate  ef 
5,0(X)  acres  belonging  to  Cho  Bun  Pu,  ahd  situated  In 
the  Negri  Sembilan  about  38  miles  from  Malacca.  It 
is  said  that  one  third  of  the  purchase  money  of  $28,000 
will  be  furnished  by  the  Hylam  domestic  servants  of 
Singapore. — 5.  F,  Press. 
MAURITIUS. 
Port-Louis,  July  5. 
The  WEATHEm  and  the  Crop.— The  plantations 
have  been  well  watered  during  the  past  month  and 
the  rain  continued  falling  till  the  beginning  of  the 
month  of  July.  The  ripening  of  the  canes  has  been 
retarded  by  the  heavy  rains  with  a rather  high 
temperature.  It  will  not  be  possible  to  begin  cutting 
the  canes  before  the  15  of  next  month  or  the  end 
of  August. 
Vanilla. — The  market  is  quiet.  We  have  no  sales 
to  record.  As  we  mentioned  in  our  last,  the  outturn 
of  the  coming’  crop  will  not  exceed  3,500  kilos. 
We  quote  nominally  : — 
R33  to  34  per  kilo 
26  to  28  „ 
20  to  21  „ 
14  to  15 
1st  quality 
2nd  do 
Good  to  middling 
Vaniloes 
Aloe  Fibres. — The  market  is  quiet.  We  have  no 
sales  to  record.  We  quote  nominally  : — 
1st  quality  - - R240  per  ton. 
2nd  do  - - ■-  200  ,, 
— Merchants  and  Planters'  Gazette, 
MYSORE  PLANTING  NOTES. 
South  Mysore,  July  26. — We  have  had  seasonable 
monsoon  weather  for  the  past  six  weeks,  but  little 
rain  has  fallen  for  the  last  few  days,  although  it 
can  hardly  be  said  that  we  have  had  a single  break 
since  the  monsoon  burst  on  the  4th  of  June,  as 
rain  has  fallen  every  day  and  the  sky  has  always 
been  overcast. 
The  very  long  drought  experienced  has  acted  de- 
trimentally on  the  coming  crop.  There  was  a big 
promise  on  most  estates  and  an  extraordinary  show 
of  bud  on  many  places.  On  some  trees  I counted  54 
spike  in  a bunch  and  the-  average  would  have  been 
about  40.  It  is  well-known  that  big  bunches  generally 
constitute  a good  crop.  The  extreme  and  prolonged 
hot  weather  dried  uii  a lot  of  the  bud.  A lot  of 
fine  wood  has  totally  failed  to  set  its  blossom. 
Luckily  on  account  of  the  fine  condition  of  the  coffee 
after  a small  crop  last  season  and  the  abnormal  show 
of  bud,  even  after  the  failure  very  good  crops  will, 
as  a rule,  be  picked. 
