62 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



fJULY 2, 1883. 



forr6spandeni)i3. 



To the Edttor of the ''Ceylon Observer." 

 NEWS FKOiVl FAR FIJI. 



Fiji, 14lh March 1883. 



Dear Sirs, — I have not written to you now for 

 several mails past ; so some news from this outlandisli 

 spot may be acceptable. First and foremost I will 

 start off with 



The Weather. — We are, as you sre doubtless 

 aware, now in the hurricane months \vh:ch, are sup- 

 posed to commence about the b-ginning of January and 

 end with the present month. On the 11th, 12tti and 

 13t.h January we had very hifjh wiuds, more severe 

 in tlicir character than the sale we had about the 

 ssimu time last year : taken altogether the damage clone 

 was but slight. Cora and bananas were the chief 

 things to suffer. Cofl'ee, tea and buildings all stood 

 the blow well, and but little hurt was done to the 

 former. The crop on the trees was not advanced 

 sufficiently to receive much hurt. Taviuni is sup- 

 posed to have felt the blow worst : if so, but very 

 little harm must have been done to the other islands, 

 as I can see no damage done to speak of in Taviuni. 

 About the end of February we had a stiff blow one 

 night. This affected Levnka, the old capital, more 

 than elsewhere. Some houses (lot their roofs blown 

 off, and one hou.«e was blown completely over. 

 Luckily it lasted but a very short time, or the results 

 would have been disastrous. Other portions of the 

 group eecapeiJ pretty well. We have had more rain 

 during the last two months than I have known for 

 the same period before. In January I gauged 28'17 in. 

 and in February 28'75 ; H inches fell during 3 

 days in both the months. This month 1 have already 

 gauged 11 '.50 in. In .January 1882 tie rainfall was 

 21 -JO and in February 13 34. The total for tbe year, 

 VIZ., from 1st January 1S82 to 31st Decamber 1882, 

 was 110"o5in. This was at an elevation of 1,000ft. 

 above sea-level. The rainfall on the coast, I ebould 

 say, would be considera'dy lighter. Theie is a talk 

 of a very severe hurricaue having been prognosticated 

 about 20th inst. For my part I am quite satisfied 

 with wlut we have had, nnd hope thi- prognostic- 

 ation will prove as false an that one about the world 

 ending in 1881 — Mother Shipton's prophecy, if I 

 remember rightly. 



Hemileia Vastulrix. —Strange to say, we have not had 

 a regular attack now for upwards of a year. Traces of 

 the disease have alw.ays been and are with us, but not in 

 a severe form. I was expecting it to appear during 

 the rains we have lately e.xperieaced, but as yet we 

 have escaped. We are suffering though in some parts 

 of the estate on the flats and coffee close to the 

 iungle, principally from a disease known out here as 

 •'black leaf," which you have not in Ceylon.* It 

 oenerally comes on after several days of continuous 

 tain and lasts as long as the weather is at all rainy 

 or moist, and does a deal of damage to the foliage and 

 crop while it lasts. The disease goes up the stem 

 of the coffee .seemingly and along every branch in the 

 form of a thin cobwebby string, whicli as soon as it 

 reaches the leaves covers oil the under siaface with 

 stutf resembling tissue paper, or say a cobweb with 

 the meshes so close as to look like estrcmely tiue 

 muslin. This layer chokes the leaves and kills them 

 effectually. The ilisease, when in a bad form, after 

 killing the oldest leaves, goes ri°ht in to the top 

 pair ol the youngest leaves and even kills them, le.T.ving 

 the bough entirely denuded of all foliage. Should it 

 come across the berries, it surrounds them with the 

 cobweb and dries them up, making the bean light 

 and worthless. Should the bean happen to b e ripe , 

 » The •' black rot" of Soutliern.India]irr.l)alilv.— Ed. 



there is a difBculty in pulping it and the piilper 

 generally takes ofl' pulp and parchment together. 

 After the fine weather sets in, the disease app.irently 

 disappears and returns ogain with continuous wet. 

 Fortunately coffee planted on slopes does not suffer 

 so much as that on flats aud close to the jungle. 

 Ciffee also at lower elevations than 1,000ft. escapes 

 to a great extent. 



A'« Mr. Storek's cure for Bemileia vastntrix I have not 

 heard further than what I have read in the papers. The 

 solutions I see are recommended to be made stronger, 

 I have not seen the coffee treated by Mr. S. for a 

 long time; so cannot speak authoritatively on the sub- 

 ject. From what I have seen, I do not think the 

 proposed remedy will be a success. 



The best agent I h.ive used in all my experiments for 

 the eradication of Hemileia vaatatrix was hyposulphite 

 of snda. This certainly, when not applied too strong to 

 the leaves, seems to kill tbe fungus right out. What a 

 fpirful change leaf-diseuse has made in old Ceylon ! 

 When is the tide going to turu ? 



Cinchona. — The succirubras I planted out last August 

 are growing apace and look healthy. The blow did some 

 damage to a few, knocking them over and bringing them 

 close to ground. I am not satisfied though with the 

 growth of succirubrn, the only kind I have tried. 

 Taken altogethei, the growth seems to me to be 

 less than trees of tlie same age with you, and are, 

 I fancy, not so vigorous. 



Cojjfe Crujix,- — The strong winds we had in August 

 last and which destroyed a splendid spike we had ' 

 then on the trees took away all chances we had of 

 getting a good crop. Ours in consequence, I am 

 sorry to say, will turn out a poor one : very dis- 

 ht-arteniug when the trees were in good heart and 

 capable of giving a bumper, towards which we should 

 have gone if the August blossoms had set. Estates 

 at a lower elevation, aud which blossomed earlier 

 than we do, are doing much better. My neigh noure, 

 whose coffee I should say is fully 500 to 600 feet 

 lower than mine, expect 6 cwt. an acre. We 

 experience a great difficulty in getting rid of 

 our coffee in the colonies. A few tone seem to 

 swamp the market, and the brokers have the cffee 

 sometimes for months on their hands without being 

 able to effect a sale. The prices at present realized 

 are wretched. In tact, one wants a big crop to make 

 the ' totam' pay at all decently. 



Curing Mill. — We have had a difficulty always to 

 cure our coffee. Some pound the parchment out, 

 damaging the beans considerably, anc, in consequence, 

 getting but a poor figure when sold. Others have 

 put their coffee through a cylinder which takes off 

 the parchment, a pulper similar to those you some- 

 times see fixed on to the water-wheels to run the 

 tails, &c., of a crop through wben finished. This 

 also damages the beans. The crop then was bagged 

 and shipped to the coloni' 3 without being sized, or 

 properly picked over. All this of course told 

 against the coffee in the markets and was likely to 

 give Fiji a bad name. This will all be remedied 

 for the future, as a Mr. Wilson has erected a very 

 nice curing mill not very far, 12 miles, from here, 

 and commences to cure all coffee sent to him from 

 1st proximo. I went over the mill tbe other day 

 and was ple.ised with it. It was made by Gordon, 

 and is exactly like those in Colombo ; only it is 

 smaller. Mr. Wilson is prepared to cure for 5s a 

 cwt., packing the coffee in double bags. I hope for 

 his and onr sakes the mill will be a success. 



Liberian Cqf'-e — A neighb^iur has succetded in raising 

 several thousands of plants and has just put some of 

 them owt. Judging from the old plants from which 

 thc^ seeds were gathered, the newly planted field 

 ought to do well. Most of the old plants were bear- 

 iug heavily and were pretty free of disea.se. I am 



