JVLY 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



61 



LOWCOUNTRY PLAJSITI>JG REPORT, CEYLON. 

 LiEERiAN Coffee — Cocoa — Ri'Bber — Tea, &c. 



(Report for April and May for a Lowcovntry Estate. ) 

 It has l>een ratlier a curious season, this 1S83 in 

 this (Siyaue Kmale) section of Ceylon : from the begin- 

 ning of the year, till p-st the mirldleof April, it was 

 much drier than than the average of past years since 

 1873, which was even drier than this year ! Before 

 the little monsoon came the Liberian coffee had be- 

 gun to droop, but when the heavy thunder showers 

 came on about the 2Gcli of April everything began 

 to pick up and grow rapidly. The little inonsoou 

 culminated in that terriUe rainstorm of the 8th and 

 9th ult., after which, for IS days, there was not enough 

 rain at aiiy one time, to lay the dust. On the 27th 

 we had another wet day, and ever since we have 

 had a r.npid succession of heavy rain and bi'ight sun- 

 shine ; proper planting weather there has been none. 

 Ou some of the Liberian coffee, the wave of Hemi. 

 leia, that swept the place between Octobi'r and Janu- 

 - ary, has left a permanent mark, but the greater p,Trt 

 of the trees have entirely thrown it off, and since 

 the rains came are gro^'ing at a rate that requires 

 much handling. This species is not so amenable to 

 discipline as its -4rabi.an brother : half the secondaries 

 grow back toward the stem, and there is a fierce 

 tendency to the production of i/ormaiidiv.rs on the 

 primariis, that have borne crop. All the trees of 

 good j'il, two and a-lialf years out, have a heavy 

 crop from 1,000 to 2,000 cherries — i. e. one to two 

 pounds clean coffee, I want a time of daily rains 

 and little sun for the planting I have to do, but I 

 dread continued wet weather, for the fake of the 

 Liberian coffee. Hemileia comes to a dead pause in 

 dry weather. No fresh spores grow, but there still 

 exists spores enough to sow a world, and thirty 

 hours of wet leaves will bring the attask ou as bad 

 as e»er. 1 live henceforth in terror of two consec- 

 utive wet days, with too little sun to dry the leaves. 

 If providence would give us one hour of sunshine 

 in every twenty-four, this mighty foe would pass 

 away nut of our list of enemies. Lib rian coffee 

 in the first yeir of bearing puts its best foot for- 

 ward. I have trees that do not cover a circle of six 

 feet, with more th.an 2,000 cherrj', say two pounds of 

 clean coffee, but the larger trees, that bore a like 

 crop this season, and that look immense creatures, 

 bear very little, and wlien sre strip the irregular 

 growth iiud dispose our bearing wood to our mind, 

 we must come !o the conclusion, that though there 

 is crop on the trees all the year, it is only oucein 

 eighteen months that we will get a crop of any con- 

 sequence Whatever may be the case elsewhere, the 

 Libeiian coffee does not produce crop and young wood 

 at the same time here. It takes twelve months to 

 perfect the fruit, and six months to produce wood 

 tor the ne\t crop. It is true that some little blos- 

 som comes out on the bare wood that has already crop, 

 borxe crop, but this is many months after the first 

 It is our misfiirtune that this place is a rugged 

 and exposed piece of land, exposed to every^ 

 wind that blows, and therefore over the greater 

 part unfit for cacaos. I have fought a bard 

 battle on their behalf, and have only won 

 B few positions, while driven from most of the ground 

 I originally took up. Driven from the older fields, 

 I have taken in fresh laml, and sown some 

 fifteen acres at stake, reserving my nurseries for the 

 inevitable vacancies. My former failure's in this 

 method of planting were due to two causes, namely, 

 silt before the plants got above ground, or dry 

 weathei' coming on them before they were snfRci. 

 ently advanced to stand it. On the jjresent Dcoasion 

 I have fully provided against silt, but if a Ion" spell 

 of dry weather should set in my work will be all 



in vain. Come or go what will else, the white ants 

 will have cheir .'-hare, and I know to effectual way 

 of circumventing them, I am now planting un- 

 der partial shade, though I do not believe in it 

 as a permanent arr.angement. In all exposed situations 

 failure is a foregone conclusion, but in moderately 

 sheltered spots the much finer tree is produced, in 

 the open ground, than either under shade, or part- 

 icularly well gUiirded from wind. Tlie varieties with 

 light-coloured fruit pods are much the handsomest 

 trees: the stem opens into five equal Jjranches, whereas 

 the red branches irregularly, and as a rule the tree 

 is more or less one-sided. 



Ihe advice now tendered to planters, on all sides, 

 is to forswear all more doubtful products, and addict 

 themselves 'o tea. I put down my nursery in the 

 first days of February, and there was no rain to men- 

 tion for two and a-half mouths. 1 liad put ont 2ii,000 

 just before the great rainstorm of Sth and 9th ult. 

 which was followed by 18 days without any, and 

 though we have had heavy showers occasionally up 

 to date, there has been no planting weather ; on the 

 morning of the .oth tilings looked promising, up to 

 8 a. m. There was a succession of showers, and I 

 managed to get down a thousand before the eun 

 broke out and I had to stand by. The Sth was a 

 bright rather windy day, with tl under and rain at 

 night, and this morning the sun rose bright as ever. 

 I am sorry to say that the dry weather that suc- 

 ceeded the gre.at burst has set hard on the plants 

 previously set out. I fear the loss will not be covered 

 by twenty per cent. 



I placed the seeds of the African rubber [Taharnce- 

 montana '•.rassa) in a box in the verandah of the Ijungalow, 

 ano attended them myself, but not one seed germina- 

 ted. The seeds are evidently not of a kind that retain 

 vitality during the double voyage from Africa to 

 England, and again from England to Ceylon. If Mr. 

 Christy is anxious for the establishment of this plant 

 in Ceylon, he should send plants instead of seeds- 



I was desirous to try whether the grinding of 

 Ceari rubber seeds could be done away with, and I 

 sowed 1,000 feeds in a box in my verandah. Twelve 

 per cent of them germinated and became plants within 

 a week; a montli liaspiifsed and there is no more. The 

 seeds that fall and are left under the trees grow in 

 sufficient numbers for the cause of propngation, and 

 grinding off the shell is aslikelv to destroy .is facilitate 

 germination. Those who have Ire.s eightet-n months 

 old may trust the droppings to give any amount of 

 plants they require. 



9th .June.*— Yesterday the true monsoon weather 

 opened. I set to work at the planting, but was fairly 

 beaten out of the field before 10 o'clock, after having to 

 take .ohelter several times from the mighty rain- 

 squalU. We had a promising morning today, and 

 went to work vigorously, but at 7 we had to lie 

 by because no creature could stand out; past 8 

 the rain toued down into something endurable, and 

 and at halt nfter 10, it cease) and the sun ca ne out, 

 and shone its brightest till between 3 and i. when 

 the rain again began. 



Feost and Coffee Crops.— Of com-se, the clear, ra- 

 diatui;T, rainless weather which has occasionally frosted 

 coffee on flats and swamps in Dikoya must be favourable 

 to the ripening of fruit, but it is new to us that there 

 never has been a good coffee croP in Dikoya «-ithout 

 frost, during which the thermometer marks down to 42°. 

 In Mr. HeeHs's ten yeare observations, in Dimljula, the 

 cold recorded never went below 41^ Tliere has been 

 no frost in Dikoya smce 1878, and heuoe failure of crops ? 

 This is a new theory on wliich we should like to have 

 the opinions of planters. We never hear;! a good w.>rd 

 for frost in eonuection with coffee before ; but it is not 

 the first, but the clear sky and liot dnys, it indicates, 

 that benefit the planter. 



