Nov.  I,  1895.] 
THR  TROPIC  AI 
AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
.SULPHIIK  AS  A CURE  FOR  RED 
SPIDER  IN  TEA. 
To  tliG  Editor  of  tho  /lome.and  Colonial  Mail. 
Sir, — I regret  not  having  had  an  earlier  opportunity 
of  examining,  in  your  issue  of  the  30th  ult.,  my 
two  letters  on  “ Sulphur  as  a Cure  for  Red  Spider,” 
which  you  were  good  enough  to  publish.  In  the  one 
of  April,  1893,  which  you  reprint,  several  slight 
abridgments  have  been  made,  to  which  I take  no 
objection,  but,  on  the  contrary,  feel  obliged  that  you 
devoted  so  much  of  your  valuable  space  to  the 
subject.  But  there  is  one  serious  omission  of  half-a- 
dozen  words  from  the  seventh  paragi'aph  from  the 
beginning  of  that  letter,  on  the  “process”  of  apply- 
ing the  sulphur,  that  I trust  you  will  kindly  permit 
me  to  call  attention  to. 
Tiiat  pai'agraph  should  commence  as  follows  : “Our 
process  of  application  is  simple  and  inexpensive.  We 
put  tho  sulphur  in  gauze  bags  or  cloth  of  open 
texture,  and  after  wetting  the  bushes  thoroughly 
over  and  under  the  leaves,  and  the  branches  and 
stems,  hij  means  of  large  hand  garden  syringes,  the 
sulphur  is  dusted  over  the  whole  bush,”  &c. 
The  words  omitted— whether  from  a defect  in  the 
copy  you  had  or  through  an  oversight  of  the  printer 
I know  not — are  in  italics. 
Apologising  for  again  troubling  you,  and  thanking 
you  in  anticipation  for  making  this  most  necessary 
correction.— 1 am,  Am.,  Geo,  W.  Christison. 
WHAT  WILL  NORTH  BORNEO’S  CHIEF 
EXPORT  BE  ? 
Tapioca. — Here  is  a cheap  article  of  general  re- 
quest that  can  be  grown  to  any  extent  on  the  banks 
of  the  rivers  and  waterways  round  the  Bay  and  from 
thence  floated  to  a central  manufactoi’y,  while  as  to  the 
demand,  tapioca  stands  on  much  the  same  footing  as 
sago  ; produced  now’  in  large  quantities  any  material 
rise  in  the  price  of  wheat  would  entail  a sufficient 
rise  in  the  price  of  tapioca  to  cause  a vast  in- 
crease in  its  production  in  countries  best  adapted  to  its 
cheap  growth,  manufacture  and  transport  ; and  what 
country  is  better  adapted  to  these  ends  than  North 
Borneo  ? 
Last  year’s  expoi’t  from  Singapore  alone  of  the 
various  products  I have  spoken  of,  (sugar,  Manila 
hemp  and  cotton  omitted  as  they  are  not  grown  in 
the  districts  for  which  Singapore  is  the  port  of  ship- 
ment) are  as  follows  : 
Gambie.r.  Sago.  Copra. 
682.000  pels.  695,000  pels.  841,000  pels. 
Rattans.  Tapioca.  Coffee. 
271.000  pels.  372,000  pels.  61,000  pels, 
making  a total  of  2,922,000  pels,  or  say  172,000  tons. 
All  these  things  we  can  grow  just  as  well,  as  cheaply, 
and  as  profitably  in  the  Sandakan  district  as  in  the 
places  from  whence  these  large  supplies  come ; while 
the  area  of  land  centreing  upon  Sandakan  is  large 
enough  to  grow  every  picul  as  well  as  sugar  enough 
for  the  Hongkong  refineries  and  cotton  enough  for 
the  .Japan  mills ; no  one  I presume  queries  this ; 
but  when  are  we  going  to  begin  ? 
Which  ever  products  offer  most  inducements  to  the 
capitalist  are  likely  to  be  the  things  that  will  be 
most  largely  cultivated  at  first  and  a combination  of 
quick  returns  and  good  profits  are  the  points  likely 
to  have  large  influence  on  the  question  ; the  follow- 
ing list  gives  the  length  of  time  within  which  the 
various  plants  mature  : — 
Cotton  commences  to  give  crop  in  8 months 
Sugar  Cane  „ „ „ 9 or  10  ,, 
Tapioca  ,,  „ ,,  12  „ 
Gambier  ,,  ,,  „ ^ 15  ,, 
Manila  Hemp  ,,  „ ,,  20  „ 
Coffee  „ ,.  ,,  30  ,, 
Rattans  ,,  ,,  „ 48  ,, 
Coconuts  ,,  ,,  ,,  60  ,, 
Ssgo  ,,  ,,  ,,  x40  ,, 
But  various  other  considerations  have  to  be  taken 
into  account;  a great  deal  depends  upon  which 
of  these  prodrc-s  recci-.cs  attention  first;  for  trial 
s synonymous  with  success  and  profit,  and  success 
42 
and  profit  will  mean  the  follow’ing  up  of  that  parti- 
cular cultivation.  Now  the  plant.s  that  are  receiv- 
ing most  attention  at  the  moment  are  in  the 
order  named  coffee,  sago,  coconuts,  gambier,  Manila 
hemp,  cotton  and  sugar.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
coffee  successful  as  it  is  will  be  followed  up,  but  to 
do  so  on  a large  scale  requii-es  a good  deal  of 
capital  and  elaboration.  Sago-palras  will  be  planted  in 
increasing  numbers,  but  new  plantations  takes  too  long 
to  crop  to  figure  in  an  export  sheet  for  years  to  come. 
Coconuts  are  planted  in  the  Sandakan  district  at 
the  rate  of  some  20,000  per  annum,  a rare  likely 
to  be  accelei’ated  in  the  future  rather  than  re- 
duced, but  they  also  are  a long  crop : gambier  is 
well  in  hand,  the  gardens  are  being  increased  in 
size,  the  leaves  take  but  a short  time  ti  mature 
and  at  present  prices  tlie  manufacture  gives  large 
profits  where  the  transport  bill  is  not  too  high, 
and  gambier  is  the  product  that  I expect  to  see 
exports  of  increase  more  quickly  during  the  next 
few  years  than  anything  else,  always  remembering 
that  it  is  in  the  power  of  sugar  to  go  ahead 
and  take  a commanding  lead  at  any  time  and 
at  short  notice.  Manila  hemp  owing  to 
the  want  of  skilled  labourers  on  tho  one 
hand  and  to  the  small  returns  it  offers  to  the 
capitalist  on  the  other  will  make  its  way  but  slowly, 
but  it  will  give  good  and  certain  rents  to  the  large 
land  owner  on  the  one  hand,  and  a Manila  hemp 
patch  is  a sort  of  bank  that  can  always  be  drawn 
upon  when  the  small  occupierwants  money  on  the  other, 
so  that  although  its  increase  will  be  slow  it  will 
be  sure ; cotton  also  does  not  promise  large  profits 
to  the  capitalists  although  it  offers  several  attractions 
to  the  small  occupier,  but  it  maybe  that  millowners 
in  China  and  Japan  may  demand  it  and  put  their 
money  in  for  other  reasons  than  the  profit  the  crop 
itself  would  pay  and  then  it  would  rush  ahead  in  a 
way  second  only  to  sugar.  Sugar  is  barely  started 
yet,  but  when  once  a start  is  made  it  will  go  ahead 
by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Demand  is  another  factor  in  the  matter  ; for  sugar 
and  cotton,  the  demand  is  practically  unlimited,  as  also 
it  is  but  on  a smaller  scale  for  coconut  products,  for 
coffee  it  is  very  big  but  there  is  a limit,  for  gambier  the 
demand  is  smaller,  but  the  area  of  production  also  is 
small  and  is  always  decreasing,  for  Manila  hemp  the 
demand  is  bounded  by.  very  well  defined  limits,  while 
for  rattans  tliere  is  no  probability  of  ever  our  producing 
them  in  such  quantity  as  would  affect  prices ; while 
tapioca  and  sago  stand  on  a somewhat  different  foot- 
ing, when  wheat  rises  as  rise  it  must  some  day  the 
demand  for  these  two  products  is  capable  of  inde- 
finite expansion,  that  the  price  of  wheat  will  be  over 
40s  per  quarter  twenty-five  years  hence  is  pretty 
certain  but  how  much  sooner  ? 
Considering  all  these  points  therefore  I am  in- 
clined to  think  that  gambier  will  be  the  first  pro- 
duct to  go  ahead  largely  and  to  hold  the  lead  in 
our  export  list  for  a few  years,  but  then  I think 
sugar  will  pick  it  up  and  pass  it  by  with  coffee  and 
coconuts  third  or  fourth. 
If  I made  a bet  now  as  to  the  values  of  exports  20 
years  hence  I should  back  (but  should  want  long 
odds)  sugar  to  be  first,  gambier  second  copra  third, 
coffee  fourth,  cotton  fifth,  tapioca  sixth,  Manila 
hemp  seventh,  rattans  eighth  and  sago  ninth,  and 
for  a long  shot  at  the  future  I should  expect  to  see 
sugar  always  an  easy  first,  sago  second,  tapioca  third, 
cotton  fourth,  coffee  fifth,  copra  sixth,  Manila-hemp 
seventh,  gambier  eighth,  (owing  to  the  land  for  it 
being  mostly  worked  out  and  then  probably  planted 
with  tapioca)  and  rattans  last. 
Cocoa,  India-rubber,  tobacco,  oranges  and  pumeloes 
pepper,  nutmegs,  ai’rowroot,  betelnuts  and  various  other 
agricultural  products  are  likely  to  be  exported  in  more 
or  less  quantities  from  ihe  country  ; but  never  I think 
tea,  cinchona  or  cinnamon,  (always  avoid  anything 
Ceylon  can  really  produce).  If  the  cultivation  of  rice 
or  of  Indian-corn  is  taken  in  hand  in  the  course  of 
years,  these  things  will  very  likely  become  large  ex- 
ports, and  there  is  no  knowing  what  else  may  turn 
up  but  as  far  as  I can  judge  my  remarks  bound 
present  probabilities.  Mynah. 
£.  Herald. 
