Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-28

Diary between Dutch and British Gut
ana. Practically nothing but placer
mining is done There is plenty of la
Dor for mining and bush work. Wag-
es for this are so cents a day. On the
plantations you can get labor for %
70 40 cents a day. Living is cheap. 1t
costs only l6 cents a day to feed a man
at the remotest mines.
Probably 100 plaeers are being
worked, but there are only half a dez-
en- that may be called highly produe-
tive. But to illustrate the value of
systematic work. one company, the
Compagnie des Mines dor. has been
operating for 20 years, with a monthly
production averaging 80 Dutch pounds
of gold a month, with q value of Sl5,-
600. This has been done, too. with
nothing but hand labor, and with the
crUdest gind of method. To reach this
mine with supplies at high water re-
quires a journey of three weeks over
many rapids and falls. In another
part of the country the government
has constructed a railway, which op-
crates for 100 miles and ends at point
convenient to several mining districts.
vi our DuSn tIc iiioSL I'M
portant is balata, species of rubber
or vegetable gutta percha, used prin-
cipally in the manufacture of betting.
The expectation of this has reached
large proportions. There is no trouble
i'm transportation from the interior to
the sea, as the country is network of
rivers We have all sorts of hard
wood trees there. Two American com
|panies export some. The rest goes to
Europe.
"When slavery was abolished down
there. in 1863, the government made
the freed men serve a 10-year period
of indenture. When that expired it
meant the death of the plantation
business There WAS little done in the
colony until the Dutch government
made an arrangement to import cool
les, and then, in 1890, indenture colo
nists from Java We're brought in. and
these accessions were responsible for
the awakening of the plantations.
When the home supply of labor had
stopped, the planters stopped putting
lin sugarcane and substituted cocoa,
because it required less labor. Then
came the Witchbroom disease, which
swept plantations. No systematic eff
fort has even been made to check this,
except b. one man, a Mr.. Lang, who
imported a bordeaux mixture and
sprayed his trees and achieved Won
dcrs by this simple method. The COT
fee estates have not suffered from any
disease, and our Surinam coffee, which
is the same as Mocha, brings big prize
es in the market. Rubber. which is in
|digeneous, is being very extensively
grown although the colony has not vet
become large exporter. Still l have
seen trees at -four and a half years
produce half q pound year.
1.-THE banana industry is now thriving.
When the Dutch government made IA
contract with the United fruit company
a few years ago for the growing of BAN
anas and granted several million gulders
to the planters for the purpose of help
ing them to start in the new line, mis-
take was made of planting a variety of
fruit called the 'gros Michel the origi-
nal suckers being imported from ia
maica Before The fruit had attained
much success plantations were swept
by the Panama disease, which was so
severe i'm its results that it necesstated
the abandonment of fields Meantime
however, another variety, called the
congo had been introduced by Mr.,
Williams of the United fruit company,
and a fair production from these has
lust begun. SO far as is known. this va
riety has not been attacked by the Pana-
ma disease.
II have never heard of more than one
nv a 70 dnrDe
the whole time | have been there said
Mr.. Bradley in answer to question.
I'VE had 200 men employed on placer
for "a period of three years and during
that time we never had death OF
course. there are plenty of snakes, but
we get used to them. They won't hurt
YOU and they are very easy to Kill.
Why, a boa constructor once caught n
chicken by the side of my camp, and a
man hit him on the head with little
stick, no bigger around than my thumb.
and killed him. He was Is feet long, too.
That is the biggest boa constructor |
ever saw. though ! heard tales of Others
SO feet long. ] was never quite able to
believe these tales. though | have killed
many u or IS feet long, one of them with
a young alligator in its mouth.
Yes, there are lots of tarantulas and
centipedes too. but they never bother us.
centipede will walk over your body
and never hurt YOU unless you hit at II.
Even the most dangerous snake or in
sect runs away from YOU unless YOU at
tack it or happen to step on it, The wild
hog is the most dangerous animal we
have when it is found in droves or
bands. The tapir. which is not, after all,
an ant eater, but lives on grass. and.
which we also call the bush cow is the
biggest animal we have. 1t is about