July 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



67 



as to the bad seasons of late years and their effect 

 upon the coffee crops. He accuses us of having our 

 'firm ccmviotious,' meaning, uo doubt, our unsupported 

 conviotious, aloue to bring forward in support of 

 our views, while he totally misunderstands the 

 point of view from which "e consider the 'seasons.' 

 X for one have never laid much stress upon excess 

 of rainfall, whether ae regards the actual fall itself, 

 or its diatribution : although at the same time we 

 have undoiilitedly suffered from this cause also during 

 the last year or two. That from which we have 

 suffered chiefly has been the gradually increasing 

 want of direct sun-heat and a corresponding decrease 

 of temperature ; and if, as is now generally ad- 

 mitted, it is the direct rays of the sun in an un- 

 clouded sky that alone are efficacious to produce 

 crops, we have here a cause, and a very potent one, to 

 .account Largpjy forthe short crops of the few years. For we 

 haveuudoul)tedly inthis district at any rate, e.xperienced 

 lately an increasingly large number 6f d.iys on which 

 the sun h.a3 been more or Ichs veiled by a misty or 

 cloudy sky, and the maximum, i.e. the day heat 

 here, as .shewn by the thermometer, has been lower 

 correspondingly. My obaervntiims with the thermo- 

 meter extend back only to 1S72, but I have at all 

 times been a careful observer of the weather, and 

 am absolutely certain that in no pri'vioua period since 

 1SG8, wlien I first came to Dikoya, have we ex- 

 perienced such /air weathfr only instead of the fine 

 hot wealh-r of other yeurs- This may be nothing 

 more than a ' conviction ' perhaps, but against this 

 what has your correspondent and those who agree 

 with him to -set except their own 'convictions,' — con- 

 victions which, as far as appears as yet from 

 their letters are more unsupported than mine ? Let 

 it however be clearly understood that I do not com- 

 plain here so much of too much rain, .as of absence 

 of sun heat when there is no rain. Neither do I 

 lose sight of the ill-efi'ects of leaf-disease, because I 

 contentl that there are other factors to be considered 

 when we enquire why our coffee bears so badly now. 

 —I am, sir, etc., GILKS F. VVALKKR. 



COFFEE AND THE SEASONS. 

 .Sir, — In discussing the influence of seasons on our 

 coffee crops, we ought to have soiuething more definite 

 than the "firm onvictiou," even of such reliable men 

 as Messrs. Bosanquet and Walker, in proof of the as- 

 serted abnormal weather during the blossoming season. 

 No one probably « ill deny thut the blossoming months 

 for some yeara b.ick have been more unfavourable for 

 developing crop than the ciriesponding months of 

 some years early in the seventies. Instead of consec- 

 utive weeks of scorchinii heat, causing the leaves to 

 droop and roads and barbecues to crack and gape, we 

 have of late years had a suceession of showers, not 

 heavy or continuous, but sufficient to keep leaf grow- 

 ing to the exclusion of blossom. It is therefore as- 

 sumed that these recent seasmis have been abnormal, 

 and to this abnormity the I'ailure of crop is attributed. 

 Has it been conohiaively proved that continuous hot dry 

 weather during the months of BVbruary, March, and 

 April, is normal in Dimbula and Ddcoya? Is it not poss- 

 ible that thesK seasons of scorching heat were really 

 the exceptions ? These are questions to he answered by 

 the card. Tliere is probably no authenticitted record 

 of rainfall for any very remote period, but there 

 are at least estate monthly reports for the last 25 

 years. Broken reeds they may be. Too often the 

 weather is " remembered" at the end of the month, 

 and filled in according to ihe taste and fancy of 

 the report-r. Still they might throw li^bt on the 

 subject. Uis the weather in Dimbula during the 

 early montlis of 18S0-S1-82-8:} been more rainy than 

 in 1860-63? Who will giv.- us a table, the fuller 

 ' iio better, of the rainy days in February , March and 



April in one of the higher dis'ricts for the last 25 

 years ? We shall then be able to judge whether we 

 are really in a cycle of abnormal seasons, which will 

 eventually run its course, or merely having the weather 

 to which we are entitled. — Yo irs faitlifully, M. 



[Not authenticated. Surely not the redoubtable 

 "W. M.cK."?-Ed.1 



COFFEE CROPS: SEASONS, MANURING, AND 

 WEEDS. 



De.\r Sir, — Oau you tell me what sort of weather 

 we would have if everyone had a rope of his own to 

 pull the weather to his liking ? I am inclined to 

 think, we would have perpetual rain. As someone 

 would be sure to want a shower and another would 

 think a little more would do good so that it would 

 be one continual pour. We were told in the early 

 part of the year by Dr. Trimen, that this was a great 

 year for flower, and so it w.as for coffee blossom, and 

 more, the blossom Set, but when dry weather came 

 on the growth of the tree was not only checked but 

 thrown back to a certain extent, and with that dy- 

 ing back must of the tinj berries died off and dia- 

 appearid. Will tiiose who are so fond of blaming the 

 weather, explain how it is that one estate in Dim- 

 bula has 8 cwt. an acre on it, and the surrounding 

 ones not? And.r-ag^tn» a fine vigorous tree has a good 

 crop on and those round it not. Were there not estates 

 that used to ^ive crop all the year round so that those 

 estates must have blossomed in all sorts of weather t 

 If one considers that coffee grows in as it were a pot, 

 that is, that its feeding extent is limited to 5' x 6' 

 and about '.i' deep, can any other result be expected ? 

 A plant in a pot has in proportion to its size more soil 

 to feed on than a coffee tree, and how often has the soil 

 in a pot got to be removed, and yet it is expected that 

 coffee is going to give crops without [the cultivator] 

 in some way renovating the soil I dare say some 

 have been able to manure, and if they have not got 

 results they are to blame and not the weather. 



Coffee, by extending its roots and getting into some 

 food, may give a crop, but, if not manured, it may 

 be the last flicker of the candle. There are several 

 ways of killing tlie goose that lays the golden i-gns, 

 and one of them is by starvation. What is cofFee- 

 planting, horticulture or agriculture ? If horticulture, 

 we must manure at le.ist every year; if agriculture, 

 we must give up aping horticulture and resort to 

 the old style of a few periodical weediugs in the 

 year, and put the weeds where they will feed the coffee, 

 (joffee must have a constant supply of food somehow 

 to keep it in a state of vigorous growth. — You fs truly, 

 G. F. HAL LILEY. 



The " Tropical Agricctlturist."— Mr. Henry 

 Prestoe, Superintendent of the Government Botanic 

 Gardens at St. Ann's, Trinidad, writes: — " I beg now 

 to return you sincere thanks for the kind assistance 

 afforded me in this excellent publication and to 

 which I decided to become a subscriber from the 

 first. I will be most happy to forward you all re- 

 ports 1 have of a sufficiently important nature for 

 the publication, and will do all in my power to 

 promote its circulation : indeed I cm already claim 

 the credit of being the means of increasing your 

 readers, for I never fail to direct .attention to the 

 Tropical Agriculturint in my correspondence with 

 West Indian agriculturalists." Mr. Jeniuan, the 

 Government; Botanist of British Guiana, writes : — " I 

 am much obliged to you for sending nie your 

 excellent journal the Tropical Ayricultiirist, v.hich I 

 have read with inucli interest from its first is.sue. I 

 am sorry that I have not a complete sot of mr 

 reports, but those I have to spare I scud herewith. 

 Th -.v deal chiefly with the very rough elementary 

 vporks of the gardens I am forming htre," 



