quality. The peanuts shown were not so good as those coming from Senegal. Gum copal, archil, and tinctorial woods are also extensively grown there.

OTHER FRENCH POSSESSIONS IN AFRICA.

Other French possessions in Africa are the Rivières du Sud, a dependence of Senegal, Porto Novo and the establishment of the Gold Coast, and the French Soudan. In the Rivières, rice is the principal product, but it is all used in the country itself and none is exported. Sesame is exported to the extent of about 450,000 kilos annually, being bought there for 200 francs the ton of 1,000 kilos and resold in Europe for from 300 to 315 francs. Peanuts were cultivated there up to 1881, previous to which year their export annually amounted to 7,500,000 kilos, but in that year their cultivation was entirely abandoned; an effort has been made this year to restore this, and a harvest of about 3,000,000 kilos is expected for 1890. The Kola nut is also much grown there, but coffee, caoutchouc, and gum copal, thought native to the country, are either badly cared for or allowed to grow wild. Caoutchouc is sent to the coast at the rate of 750,000 kilos a year, and this product might be doubled by careful cultivation. The castor-oil plant and indigo are also indigenous to the soil, but are completely neglected by the natives. In the territory of Porto Novo, which is unhealthy for Europeans but which might be well adapted to agriculture, the cultivation of the oil palm is the principal if not the only one of the country; about 3,500,000 kilos of palm oil and 6,500,000 of palm nuts are exported annually, representing a value of 3,600,000 francs. The Gold Coast Establishments also export about 5,000 tons of palm oil each year. The Soudan exports peanuts, millet, caoutchouc, and other gums.

MADAGASCAR.

Madagascar made but a small agricultural show, and seems to hold textile fibers of rather more importance than other products. Some fine, large-grained rice was shown, and also fine beans, coffee, sugar, vanilla, and cloves, but all these together did not make an extensive exhibit for a country which contains 7,000,000 hectares more territory than France. Agriculture is in an extremely backward condition in the island, which is only just recovering from three years of hostilities. The cultivation of cotton was attempted several years ago by an English company, but without satisfactory results, and was finally abandoned, though it was thought that this culture might succeed upon the western coast. Ramie was introduced in 1882, abandoned during hostilities, and finally revived again, but good decorticating machines are wanting. A peculiar and useful fiber native to the country is laphia, derived from a

species of palm; of late years large quantities of it are used in France, Belgium, and Germany for tying vines and plants. Rice was formerly much more cultivated in Madagascar than it now is and was at one time an important article of export, but the burning of the forests has so modified the climate that its culture has become almost impossible in many places where it once grew abundantly, so that now rice is imported from India. Manioc and arrowroot grow well on the island, the former being much used by the natives. Neither of these articles is as yet exported, though it is to be hoped. that they will be, if direct and constant communication be established with Europe. Coffee was first planted in the island in 1872, and in 1875 the annual exportation reached 200,000 kilos, but from several causes its culture failed, though it has since been resumed with better prospects. The coffee is of good quality and several fine samples were exhibited; the price at Tananarivoo is very low, being from 72 to 85 centimes (14 to 17 cents) per kilo. The sugar cane thrives well, but at Tamatave the manufacture of sugar is hampered by economic considerations; some samples of sugar shown in the exhibit were of excellent quality. Caoutchouc is native to the island, and was formerly much cultivated, but the forest fires and bad processes of manipulation have seriously affected this industry. Indigo grows wild, and might be made profitable with good care and cultivation. The island also produces gum copal, wax, vanilla, cloves, etc., considerable commerce being done in these articles.

Dependencies of Madagascar are the islands of Mayotte and the Comores, Nossi Bé, Diego Suarez and Ste. Marie de Madagascar, all in the Mozambique Channel. These colonies show similar cultivation to that of Madagascar itself. The principal culture upon Mayotte is that of sugar cane, which for many years was in the most flourishing condition, but which has of late begun to decline on account of exhaustion of the soil. In 1882 there were 1,780 hectares upon the island planted with the cane, while in 1887 there were 1,714. The colony possesses twelve sugar factories and four distilleries, and the annual production is about 3,000,000 kilos of sugar and 80,000 liters of rum. The coffee plantation occupied 48 hectares in 1877 and only 12 hectares in 1887, this reduction being in consequence of a disease which attacked the coffee plants. The cultivation of fruit trees, cotton, vanilla, maize, manioc, etc., is extending upon this island, and the exportation of vanilla amounts to about 65,000 francs yearly, coming next after sugar (1,140,000 francs) in importance.

The Comores island have an extremely fertile soil with great rainfall, and palms, coffee, sugar cane, cloves and vanilla all flourish. there; sorrel is also very abundant.

Nossi Bé, also of exceeding fertility, produces vanilla, indigo, sesame, manioc, cocoanuts, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and various vegetables, in addition to its principal cultures, which are sugar, rice,

VEGETABLES, FORAGE PLANTS, AND CEREALS.

101 and coffee. Sugar cultivation is there mainly carried on by Europeans, and in 1884 there were 900 hectares of cane belonging to thirtyone plantations, thirteen of which were provided with steam engines to work their cane into sugar or to distill rum. In 1883 the production was 906,000 kilos of sugar, 136,059 liters of rum, 931,000 kilos rice, 1,050,000 cocoanuts, and the whole production of the island was valued at 750,000 francs.

At Diego Suarez some of the European colonists have successfully cultivated European market-garden vegetables, and the soil of Ste. Marie is favorable to them. Works of irrigation are in progress at Diego, which when completed will greatly further the cultivation of maize. Caoutchouc is the principal object of exportation.

Obock, an island in the Gulf of Aden, is a new colony since 1883, and is increasing in commercial importance, notwithstanding its extremely hot climate. The principal exportation is of coffee.

FRENCH INDIA.

French India made a full and handsome exhibit, consisting of rice, arrowroot, peanuts, sweet potatoes, etc., but no cereals or vegetables. Rice, as is well known, is the principal food of the native in India, and a fine show was made of it. In the establishment of Pondicherry there were, in 1888, 15,938 hectares cultivated with rice, the harvest amounting to 650,914 kilos. The peanuts were also fine, but not so fine as those from Senegal; of late years the exportation of peanuts has considerably increased, and since 1877 whole steamerloads have been sent to Europe, the principal exports before that time consisting only of indigo and cocoanut oil. These two last articles of commerce are now much less dealt in, the former having been slowly supplanted by the aniline dyes, while the competition of the English upon the Malabar coast and in Ceylon has been fatal to exportation of the latter from Pondicherry; thus the cultivation of the peanut has replaced other crops in French India, and in six years the export of peanuts increased from 94,700 quintals in 1878 to 525,000 in 1884, representing a value of from 13,000,000 to 14,000,000 francs; most of this, however, is transported by English steamers to Marseilles, Dunkirk, and Antwerp. An agronomic station was established at Pondicherry in 1885.

The Indo-Chinese Union, which comprises French Cochin China, Cambodia, Annam, and Tonkin, was especially well represented at the Exposition, and created a great deal of interest, all of these countries having agricultural exhibits of more or less importance. Cochin China showed rice, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, white pepper, tumeric, etc.; also peanuts, maize, turnips, sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, and fruits. Rice is the principal product of the country, but this grain is susceptible of great improvement there; several kinds

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UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1889 AT PARIS.

of rice are grown, the whole quantity exported in 1888 being 522,500 tons.

Cambodia is a country well adapted to agriculture, but undeveloped. Rice, maize, cotton, indigo, the mulberry, tobacco, and coffee grow well there; also cacao, vanilla, mangoes, oranges, guanas, etc.; maize grows everywhere, and the sugar palm, native to the country, might be made a rich source of revenue; the cardamon is also an important plant there; extensive commerce might also be done in

pepper.

Annam is not so agricultural a country as either Cambodia or Tonkin, its resources being much more in the way of mineral products, which, with good means of communication, might be extensively developed. Its territory is for the most part mountainous, while the valleys, though very fertile, are of small extent and do not produce sufficient for the nourishment of the total population. Rice is mostly imported, principally coming from Hongkong and Saïgon. Cinnamon is one of the principal products of Annam, the wild product being more esteemed than that which is cultivated. Cotton grows abundantly and might be made a great source of revenue; the sugar cane also grows well, but its cultivation greatly suffered during the recent war. The tea raised is of inferior quality and is not exported. Attempts at raising coffee have also been made by the missionaries and have met with success, and when developed the cultivation of coffee will be an immense source of riches to the country. Tonkin is more agricultural than Annam, and produces sugar cane, cotton, indigo, tobacco, tea, peanuts, maize, spices, etc. The great culture is rice, of which a good show was made; the vanilla was also good, but the maize was poor; some wheat, also castoroil beans, of small size, white pepper, ramie, and betel nut were shown. There was also a collection of agricultural instruments of the country.

NEW CALEDONIA.

New Caledonia and its dependencies made one of the best of colonial exhibits in class 71 Some splendid maize was shown, of long, flat, yellow grain, transparent and fully equal to the best American or Roumanian varieties; some of the ears of maize were of large size. Maize is the principal crop of the island, and replaces the barley and oats of temperate regions; two crops of it may be grown in a year, and the yield is from 2,000 to 3,000 kilos per hectare. It is only used in the colony, however, for animals, both oxen and swine, also for poultry, but the idea of grinding it to a meal for household use seems never to have been entertained. A few colonists make a sort of beer from it, but no samples of this were exhibited. It is to be regretted that the culture and management of maize is not better conducted; there are no storehouses for it, so that when

the harvest is abundant cultivators will sell it at any price to get it off their hands, while after a poor harvest they are obliged to supply their wants by importation from the New Hebrides or even from Australia. The cultivation is also badly done, maize being planted over and over again in the same soil, which is thus exhausted, and the same seed is always used; manure is not of good quality, and rotation is unknown. Much improvement might be made with good methods of agriculture and change of seed; for example, the maize grown in Réunion, which is of the kind called quatre-mois, small, but prolific, might be introduced.

Next in importance to maize is the crop of beans, which were shown in many varieties, all of good quality; peas, pois-chiches, and lentils were also shown, and all seem to be well acclimated. The beans cultivated and exhibited were principally the ordinary white Soissons, the small white bean, the Algerian black, the ordinary flageolet, the rice bean, and a fine native variety called Paita, also the Cape bean, a large white variety, striped rose color. Peas also grow well in the colony, and might be more frequently preserved than they are. The yield of lentils per hectare is not much inferior to that in France, and some fine samples of them were shown.

The third culture in importance is that of coffee, which is tending toward great development, and is in quality not inferior to that of the Île de la Réunion; the samples exhibited were of excellent quality. A peculiar use is made of the coffee plant in New Caledonia, namely, the distilling of a kind of brandy from the pulp of its ripe fruit. Manioc grows excellently in this colony, and fine samples of the tapioca made from it were exhibited. The manioc or cassava is of the "sweet" variety and contains no poisonous principle; there is, however, no commerce carried on with it, as there might be with advantage. A particularly fine exhibit of tobacco was made from New Caledonia; this plant is much cultivated there, and different varieties have been introduced, including those from Virginia and Kentucky.

Sugar cane is cultivated by the natives in a small way, and also on a larger scale for sugar-making by the Europeans, but with indifferent success; more rum than sugar is made from it.

Among the other products of the island may be mentioned rice, cotton, indigo, vanilla, peanuts, cocoanuts, castor-oil beans, and many European vegetables; also lucern, clover, sainfoin, potatoes, etc. Lucern grows well there, and may give three or even four crops a year. Wheat, oats, and Chevalier barley have also been grown with fair success. Wheat was introduced into the colony in 1844, but did not succeed, and its culture was abandoned; tried again with better success, New Caledonia wheat received a prize at the London Exposition of 1858. In 1886 still further experiments were tried with wheat brought from Australia, and so in a measure ac