Aug. 2, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS F. 
97 
Coffee. — The season foi- Coffee has been a good one. 
The increase of ?.cres under cultivation on European 
Estates has not been marked, but a ne .v estate at 
Mempakad has been opened under Mr. S. Murray, 
late of Taritipan Es'.ate. Orders have been however 
received, to open 100 acres more at Taritipan and 
Mr. E. Walker of Mempakad Estate has commenced 
extending. At Taritipan, the supply of native labour, 
from Sulu, is increasing and Mr. E. Walker writes 
that he gets a fair amorrnt of Dusun or Hili native 
labor at 17 dollars cents per day. This is the result 
of carefully treating the shy aboriginal and allowing 
them to choose their own hours of rest ; looking at the 
work done at the end of the day as a guage of Jn- 
dustry. 
The following figures are supplied by the Mana- 
gers 
Super- 
Piculs 
Average 
Coco- 
Estate. 
intendent. shipped. 
coffee. 
nuts. 
Taritipan 
E. Schuck 
258 
200 
12 
Mempakad 
E, Walker 
— 
36 
3 
VictoriaEstate. . 
H. B. Van 
Groenan 
30 
12 

Kudat Gardens 
Chinese 
10 
60 
— 
Great Valley . . S. Murray — — — 
The cultivation of coffee fay the Chinese is increas- 
ing monthly. 
One Tobacco estate has given out an order for 
1.200 seedlings and the manager intends to work the 
same with convalescent coolies. 
There is a large quantity of land under dense 
jungle available for prospectors, with good soil and 
water access, in Melobang Bay, about 13 miles from 
Kudat, or up Mtlobang River, which steam launches 
pass daily. 
Coconuts, Cocoa and Pepper. — Nearly all the 
Chinese near Kudat now plant coconuts, and areca- 
palms. Pepper is not extending owing to the low 
market prices but the existing vines are well set up. 
Cocoa planting is limited to Taritipan Estate, In 
Sulu, this plant has a luxurious ground but the fruit 
is destroyed by a weevil, and I am afraid that the 
small extent of its cultivation in Murudu Bay will 
render it a prey to the same pest. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
“A Magnificki.t Coffee Crop is the term 
applied by a good judge in sucli matters to the 
crop on an estate not a hundred miles Irom Nuwara 
Eliya. We hope there is to be a general good 
crop this season on the acreage remaining to ns of 
our old staple, throughout Uva. — Since writing 
this we have seen Mr. Vicaresso who has a poor 
report of coffee on the Badnliaside, the unusitally 
wet season (23 inches of rain in April !) being fatal 
to the chances of a coffee crop. 
“ The Japan Tea 1ndu.stry.”— We direct 
attention to three short articles from a Japan 
paper on the above subject, given on pages 
93-94. Interesting information is afforded 
and respecting one of the principal districts, if not 
the cliief district, we seethatthe area of cultiva- 
tion — we give the equivalent as well as well we 
can — is 31,113 acres and the annual crop 
2,133,333 1b., a “catty” equalling]^ Ih. avoiuln- 
pois ; but this gives only 70 lb. made tea per 
acre ! 
“ Coca ” and “ Cocoa.” —Our contemporary 
of the “ Examiner,” in a leading article written 
a few days back, refers to Cocaine as the pro- 
duct of the Cocoa tree. Tliis error is surely un- 
pardonable in a cacao or “cocoa” growing coun- 
try like Ceylon ? Cocaine is from the Eryth- 
roxylon Coca — -a new product much discussed 
in Ceylon some years ago : see page.s 132-133 
of our “ Planting and Agricultural Kevievv ” in 
the latest “ Handbook and Directory.” 
Not British Tobacco. —According to oliicial 
reports, says the British Medical Journal, tobacco 
is adulterated with sugar, alum, lime, Hour or 
meal, rhubarb-leaves, saltpetre, fullers’ earth, 
starch, malt-commings, chromate of lead, peat 
mo.ss, molasses, burdock-leaves, common salt, 
endive-leaves, lampblack, gum, red dye, scraps 
of newspapeis, cinnamon-stick, cabbage-leaves, 
and straw brown paper. This is an absurd state- 
ment, and possibly refers to the tobacco of some 
other country. Somercst House claims to assure 
us that the tobacco-supply of thi.s country i.s 
amongst the purest of products consunted by the 
public. 
The Cocos-Keeling Islands.— An epidemic 
of “ beri-beri” ; the loss of Mr. Boss’s trading 
schooner, which is supposed to have been stolen 
by a number of men who had been sliipwrecked 
on the islands and were being sent back in her 
to the mainland ; and the increasing nuisance 
caused by rats, are the main topics of interest 
touched upon during the last few years. To 
subdue the rats a number of cats weie intro- 
duced, but they are so perverse as to leave the 
rats alone, and they are gradually de.stroying 
all the birds, including those wliich were taken 
to the islands to keep down the coconut 
beetles. — Local “Times,” June 5. 
Date Palm Culture.— Tliere seems to he a 
run upon the cultivation of the Date Palm in ihe 
Jaft'na Peninsula a,nd we have several requests 
made to us for information. It is said, indeed, 
that Government is snggestine' the culture; but 
we do not see why the D.ate should do so well as 
the Palmyra, or [)rove more useful, in North 
Ceylon. We quote as follows from the “Treasury 
of Botany” : — 
The Date Palm, P dactylifera, is cultivated in im- 
mense quantities all over the northern part of Afiica, 
and more sparingly in Western Asia and Southern 
Europe ; and in some of these countries its fruit, 
though only known by us as an article of luxiuq-, af- 
fords the principal food of a, large proportion of the 
inhabitants, and likewise of the various uomestic ani- 
mals, — dogs, horses, and camels being alike pariial to 
it. The tree usually grow.s about sixty or eighty feet 
high, and lives to a great age, trees of from one to 
two hundrad years old continuing to produce their 
annual crop of dates. Numerous varieties are recog. 
nised by the Arabs and distinguished by different 
names according to their shape, size, quality, and 
time of ripening. The fruit, however, is not t! e only 
valuable part of this widely dispersed tree, for, as with 
the coconut tree, nearly every part is applied to some 
useful purpose. The huts of the poorer classes are 
entirely constructed of its leaves ; the fibre J,'!) sur- 
rounding the bases of their stalks is used for making 
ropes and coarse cloth, the stalks themselves for 
crates, baskets, brooms, walking-sticks, Ac., and the 
wood for building substantial houses ; the heart of 
young leaves is eaten as a vegetable ; the sap affords 
an intoxicating beverage (lacjbi), though to obtain it 
the tree is destr.iyed ; and even the haid and appa- 
rently useless stones are ground into food for camel.s. 
Finally, we may mention that the Date was probably 
the Palm which supplied the ‘ branches of palm-trees’ 
mentioned by St. John (xii. 13) as having been carried 
by the people who went to meet Christ on his tri- 
umphal entry into Jerusalem, and from which Palm- 
Sunday takes its name. 
P. sylvestris, called the Wild Date, is supposed by 
some authors to he the parent of the cultiwued date. 
It is common all over India, and, like the last, at- 
tains a considerable height. Largo qurmitie.s of toddy 
or palm-wine are obtained from it, but il.-e Asiatics, 
more skilful than the Africans, obtain it i.y merely 
cutting off the young flower-spike, by which means 
they do not destroy the tree. Date-sugar, so extensively 
used in India, is made by simply boiling the toddy. 
