68 [March, 1902.] 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
Vol. VIII. No. 87. 
trades. A deputation of employers waited upon the Premier at Maritzhurg 
recently, and offered a guarantee of employment to suitable men in the 
following branches: — Carpenters, at 14s. per day; bricklayers, at 15s. 
per day; stonemasons, at 17s. per day; plasterers, at 17s. per day; and 
painters, at from 10s. to 13s. per day. He gathered that this statement simply 
represented the condition of affairs in Maritzburg. There was undoubtedly 
a much larger demand in other parts of the colony. The Prime Minister 
informed him that there was a considerable and growing demand in Durban. 
Some of the telegrams spoke of 400 being wanted there alone. His own 
private advices had been, for some time, that building operations in that 
neighbourhood had been very much restricted for want of workmen. The 
cost of living had not increased in proportion to the increase in wages, and, 
with such wages as he had quoted, it was not a question as to whether a man 
could live well upon them, but merely as to how much he could save. 
Many a workman could live there comfortably, and save from 5s. to 10s. per 
day, after paying his board and lodging. Although the present demand for 
labour came mainly from the building trade, it applied also, in some measure, 
to other industries throughout the colonies, for most trades there are brisk. 
The building boom is partly explained by the necessity of re-building 
demolished buildings and railway bridges in various parts of the colony, and 
also by the revival of trade and the prospect of an increased population in 
the near future. 
Mail advices make clear several points regarding the administration of 
the Immigration Restriction Act in Australia. Power is given for the 
searching of any vessel suspected to have a prohibited immigrant on board, 
and where the officers administering the Act desire a medical examination, 
they may detain such people for 24 hours if necessary. Any person domiciled 
in the Commonwealth who wishes, on his return, to be exempted from the 
Act, may apply to the Collector of Customs at the port of departure for a 
certificate of domicile. It is understood that the Immigration Restriction 
Act is to be accepted as an addition to the Acts relating to alien immigration 
in force in the various States. Special care will, without doubt, be taken 
to exclude Chinese. A number of Italians who were debarred from landing 
at Perth have been allowed entry at Melbourne, the authorities being satisfied 
that they are eligible colonists. They are mostly vineyard labourers. It 
will be remembered that the clause regarding the educational test caused 
much discussion. It was worded as follows : — Any person who failed to 
write out and sign in the presence of the officer a passage of fifty words in 
length in the English language dictated by the officer It was 
pointed out, however, that this test would prohibit a desirable class of im- 
migrants, such as German and Danish farmers, and the words “ the English ” 
were deleted, and the words “an European” were inserted in its stead. 
The Pacific Island Labourers Bill, which has been finally assented to, pro- 
vides for the abolition of the traffic at the end of 1906, and the agitation 
against it is still being carried on, chiefly by those interested in the Queens- 
land sugar industry. Sir Horace Tozer recently remarked, regarding the 
Kanaka labourers, that, being accustomed to life in a tropical country, they 
make splendid agricultural labourers — in fact, in planting, hand-weeding, 
thrashing and cutting cane in North Queensland, they perform work which the 
white man ought never to be asked to do. It is stated as proof of the 
necessity of Kanaka labour, that not 100 tons of sugar are produced annually 
in Queensland, in the production of which a Kanaka has not taken some 
part. An Act has passed the Queensland Legislature enabling the State to 
repurchase estates suitable for dairying, with a view to cutting them up into 
small holdings for close settlement. An Act has also been assented to 
enabling the State to grant special homestead areas, adjoining each other, to 
groups of settlers. The primary object of the measure was to meet the sup- 
posed requirements of a number of Bessarabians, who, it was believed, would 
emigrate to Queensland if the facilities for settlement in the same neighbour- 
hood offered. Queensland has now followed the example of other States in 
adopting a measure to provide for advances being made to farmers. 
Foreign Countries. — Affairs in Spain have gone from bad to worse, 
and the revolutionary labour movement has spread to an alarming extent. 
Barcelona, as usual, has been the centre of the disturbances. A strike of 
metal workers, dock labourers, carters, tramway men, and printers resulted 
in the closure of all factories and workshops, the non-union labour at the 
indiarubber works being the last to quit. Food became scarce, supplies 
being hindered by the rioters, who became so violent that troops were called 
out. There were many fatalities. The French coal strike has had a fairly 
immediate result in the passing of a Bill through the Chamber, securing an 
eight hours’ day for miners. The disturbances were quelled and the strikers 
were resuming work at the end of the monrh. Considerations of health were 
urged on behalf of the measure, and the fact that long hours underground 
were exhausting. The other side put forward arguments regarding foreign 
competition and the smallness of profits, and succeeded in obtaining the 
introduction of a clause granting exemptions from the Bill’s rules “ on 
technical or economic grounds.” The Bill has still to go through the Senate 
and, if it passes, the miners’ day will in six months’ time be limited to nine 
hdurs, which will be reduced to eight-and-a-half in two years, and to eight in 
four years. Although the railway strike in Italy was arrested, the unem- 
ployed have adopted a threatening attitude, and further disturbances in 
Rome appear likely. The railway men thought better of leaving work, 
owing to the Government placing the men under military law. 
The wave of inactivity which has been influencing Germany appears 
to be moving eastward, and the United States Consul sees every indication 
that Austria-Hungary is on the eve of a period of industrial depression. 
Until recently, iron, steel, electricity, petroleum, and nearly all other great 
industries seemed to be in a flourishing condition, the only apparent excep- 
tion being the textile branch. Here, the crisis came more than a year ago, 
due to over-production. From the same cause the native petroleum refiners 
have just suffered considerably. In many of the iron and steel works in 
northern Austria, work has been reduced, and some establishments have 
notified their men that if orders are not soon received they will shut down. The 
Austrian locomotive works are short of foreign orders and prospects are 
gloomy. Car shops, furniture and tool factories, saw mills, and similar 
establishments are only partially employed, and the building trades complain 
of general inactivity. In order to bring relief, the Governments are disposed 
to enter at once upon the execution of various public works, and to let 
out at once the contracts for such army supplies and railway rolling stock as 
will be needed. Regarding the alleged inducements offered by the Hungarian 
Government for industrial undertakings, the United States Consul at 
Budapest states that the experience of most foreigners has been that Hungary 
is not a profitable country for industry. 
In Trieste, a dispute between the Austrian Lloyd Company and their 
stokers was made the occasion of a disorderly outbreak, causing serious 
dislocation of business. Practically all the workers of the city left their 
occupations. The tramway service and the goods traffic on the two railways 
were suspended : the foreign mails could not leave owing to the cessation 
of work in the harbour, and the newspapers ceased publication. There was 
evidently a section of the strikers who would not listen to the warning of 
their leaders against disorderly conduct, and these men, accompanied by the 
street loafers and doubtful characters which such occasions usually rouse to 
unwonted and misguided activity, displayed anarchical violence towards the 
military authorities who opposed their rioting. The Government had decided 
to resort to martial law, when an announcement was made that a settlement 
had been arrived at between the Austrian Lloyd Company and their stokers. 
In the United States the general industrial outlook remains satisfactory, 
and labour controversies have been few. Steel mills have been working full 
time in nearly all districts, and have orders on their books sufficient to 
guarantee a continuance of such activity for many months. In the coal trade 
a deficiency of skilled labour is reported. Wages generally have an upward 
tendency. Puddlers and finishers in all the mills controlled by the Amalga- 
mated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers have recently come in for 
a rise. A voluntary advance has also just been granted to glass workers. 

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT 
OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. 
f. 
RECENT EXPERIMENTS ON THE CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO. 
The tobacco industry has become so highly specialised that it is necessary for the 
successful planter to become thoroughly acquainted with the scientific side of the processes 
involved in the cultivation and fermentation of this material. The qualities of the tobacco 
leaf as regards the size, shape, thickness, flavour and aroma, the grain and general 
appearance, are so easily influenced, and so difficult to control, that its cultivation in new 
localities can only be attended with success after much experimental work. 
At the present time experiments are being undertaken in Ireland, on the culture of 
tobacco, by the Department of Agriculture. Some useful information on this subject is 
contained in Report No. 63 of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the 
following summary is compiled from this source. The report is a review of the experimental 
work conducted for some years past at agricultural experiment stations situated in widely 
separated localities, and is intended to throw light upon the various problems connected with 
the growth and cultivation of tobacco. 
Methods of growing plants in seed beds . — At the Alabama State station various methods 
of starting tobacco seed were compared. Seeds were started in several beds, some open and 
others covered with cheese cloth. During the first year of the experiments the greater 
number of plants in the open beds were destroyed by a spell of cold weather, and during the 
second season they were injured by the flea beetle. In the covered beds the plants came up 
well, grew rapidly and were not subject to insect attacks. From these results it is evident 
that under the climatic conditions of Alabama young tobacco plants are readily affected by 
low temperatures, and quickly killed by frosty weather. At the Colorado station, in 
pursuing this work it was found that it took no longer to produce plants suitable for setting 
out by growing seeds in cold frames than by the use of the hotbed. 
The following method of germinating the seed at the Georgia station proved very 
successful. The seeds were placed in wine glasses and soaked in water for half-an-hour, the 
water was then poured off, — the glasses placed in saucers containing water, and a tumbler 
inverted over each glass so as to confine the moistened seed in a damp atmosphere. In 
about a week, when the seed had started to germinate it was sown in a cold frame, and 
within a month from that time plants suitable for transplanting to the fields were obtained. 
In the experiments conducted at the Central Experimental Farm, Canada, the seeds 
were sown in hotbeds, and some of the plants thus obtained were transplanted to cold frames 
before being set out in the fields. A striking difference was noticed between the plants set 
out from the hotbeds and those transplanted to the cold frames prior to setting out. The 
latter were stronger and grew more rapidly than those taken direct from the hotbeds. It 
was also found that if the plants were transplanted to a second hotbed before setting them 
out in the fields, the vigour was increased and the number lost in transplanting was 
materially reduced. 
In the districts where fungoid diseases gave any serious trouble it was found quite 
possible to sterilise the soil used for the plant bed. Boiling water, hot stones, or steam 
under high pressure may be used for this purpose. 
The size, weight, and condition of ripeness of the seed, as well as the method of 
planting, has been shown to have an important bearing upon the crop. 
Varieties of Tobacco . — At Calhoun, the North Louisiana station — ten varieties of tobacco, 
namely, Conqueror, Hester, Long-leaf Gooch, Ragland Improved, Sweet Oronoko, White 
Burley, Comstock Spanish, Persian Rose, Improved Havana, and Brazilian American, were 
tested. Of these Comstock Spanish, Persian Rose, Improved Havana and Brazilian 
American, are cigar-leaf, and the rest are described as bright-leaf varieties. The last-named, 
with the exception of White Burley, produced a leaf which, when cured, was of a lemon 
yellow colour ; they were more successful than the cigar-leaf varieties which, when cured, 
produced leaves too blight and in but small quantity. 
It was also shown that Conqueror, Long-leaf Gooch, Hester, Oronoko, and Ragland 
Improved, curpd brighter than other bright-leaf varieties, and that Vuelta de Abajo, Havana, 
Seed-leaf, Imported Havana, Choice Havana, Little Dutch, and Pumpelly, produced a leaf 
of greater silkiness and finer texture than other cigar varieties tested. 
The kind of tobacco which can be grown in any district depends partly upon the climatic 
conditions and also upon the character of the soil. In testing varieties, therefore, consider- 
ation should in the first place be given to the type of tobacco adapted to the locality, to the 
soil, and the grade which the climatic conditions and soil may reasonably be expected to 
produce. 
