1 Fes., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 137 
Mauritius, South Africa, and Fiji. It has not, it is stated, yet appeared in 
any part of America or the West Indies, although coffee cultivation has been 
carried on there for very many years; nor. has it appeared here during the 
twenty odd years that coffee has been growing here. 
Coffee has been grown in India for about 240 or 250 years, according to 
Tavernier, and it is stated by the Reporter on Economic Products to the 
Government of India that there are near Calcutta coffee shrubs nearly a 
century old which bear profusely, and from which coffee of good quality is still 
prepared. There were, in 1893, 127,543 acres under coffee in British India, 
and the imports are steadily increasing, the exports in 1893 being 299,337 cwt. 
The annual imports of coffee into Great Britain amount to 60,000,090 Ib. 
Coffee has passed out of the experimental stage in Queensland. It is now 
being cultivated ona somewhat large scale in the neighbourhood of Cairns and 
Mackay. An interesting leaflet on the industry was printed and circulated 
by the Cairns Chamber of Commerce at the recent Exhibition in Bowen 
Park. A very few hints to intending planters may be useful— 
1. Sow heavy seed. 2. Transplant when large enough to handle into 
deep good soil, or, if it is not intended to transplant, sow in such soil. 
Bamboo tubes are excellent to transplant the small seedlings into; split 
when planting out finally. 3. Do not let the plants become too large 
before final planting. 4. Never injure the tap root, which is long; see that it. - 
goes down perfectly straight when planting. 5. Stake out the-place of every 
plant before you begin planting. Bamboo stakes are admirable. Let all your 
lines be absolutely straight. 
Just in front of you stands a very noble palm in L. 10, on the point where 
two walks join (see illustration). It is also one of the most famous and useful 
of all the palms. It is the Gomuti Palm (Arenga sacchirifera). Seeman and 
others say that in its native countries (the islands of the Eistern Archipelago) 
it attains a height of between 30 and 40 feet. This specimen is 42 feet in 
height. Nine years ago, when the writer first saw it, its height was not over 12 
feet, so that during that time the rate of growth has averaged 3 feet 4 inches per 
annum. Around the bases of the leaves, forming a kind of sheath, is found a 
sort of horsehair-like material which is used, throughout the countries in which 
the palm is found, for every variety of cordage and rope, but it is chiefly as 
large cables, designed to resist wet, thatit is used by Europeans. It is the most 
durable of vegetable substances, and a mere catalogue of the uses to which 
it is applied would be a formidable one. It makes an imperishable thatch ; 
it is fashioned into ornaments for the person, into mats, articles of household 
conveniences innumerable; the hunter selects the long, straight, coarser 
fibres, sharpens one end, tips it with poison, wraps around it a little vegetable 
cotton to fit his blow-pipe, and is in possession of a weapon which he can use | 
with deadly effect on man or beast or bird. Is it not curious to find the use 
of the blow-pipe practised by savage people so far apart as South America and 
the Indian Archipelago? The juice of this palm is used in the manufacture of 
toddy, arrack, sugar, vinegar. When it becomes too old to yield toddy, the trunk 
gives an excellent sago which is prepared from the pith, though this is inferior 
to the produce of the true sago palm. The plant dies when it has ripened its full 
crop. Close by may be seen a large plant which has died in this way, and is 
now used asa basis for ferns which grow amongst the bases of the old leaves. 
This is seen in the illustration. But even when dead its career of usefulness is 
not finished. It is then hollow, lasts well under ground or in wet places, and 
is used for pipes, water channels for irrigation, &e., and a variety of other 
useful purposes. This palm is easily propagated from seed, will flourish well 
in Queensland, and prove most useful if any effort is made to take advantage 
of its economic qualities. 
In this country there is too great an adherence to British customs in 
dress, houses, furniture, diet, &c. Consequently, only those vegetable products 
which seem to come nearest to those to be found in the old country are in any 
