THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1883. 



In the first place perhaps you can explain how I 

 "great expenditure in upkeep is to be avoided " where 1 

 " Clerihew, good roads " Ac. are a necessity. Also ' 

 your countryman's idea of the meaning of the \\'ord 

 "surety" — likewise Ur. .lohnson's. 



In the next placi\ wc. like yourself, woiUd like to 

 have sonic description of an Indian cardamom estate. 

 ('an your correspondent show us ."lOO acres cultivated 

 cardamons S feet x S feet without a vacancy ? My 

 hundile idea has always been a forest containing car- 

 d.Tmoms infested with weeds and elephants. 



Our '-private orch.-vrds," of 8 to 10 acres, have, as 

 ".\berdonensis" is aware, given a profit for a series of 

 years of 40, 60, and even 90 pounds per annum per 

 aeic and are doing so still. Can your con'espondent 

 show us anything half as good as this on his 500 

 ami 1,000 acre blocks'/ and if not can he tell us of 

 any industry in India on which " capital might lie 

 more profitably employed " ? 



Then wliat is the knowledge of "advance and wages' 

 of which < 'eylon planters (of all people in the world'; 

 are supposed to be in want ? 



I belie\e we do not " yet understand liow cardamoms 

 are pidlcd without clipping or splitting, " but as long 

 as our London friends (piote '* fine vell-d!ppfd " at 7s 

 I think wo may be satisfied. 



"Whilst on the subject of bulbs (the "better" 

 "kinds" of which, by the way, can be seen growing 

 in one out of every half dozen gardens within '20 miles 

 of Kandy) our friend might ha\-e given us a useful 

 piece of information. Why will planters persist in 

 putting in bulbs at 30s per 1,000, when seedlings, 1 

 inch in length at as many cents, per 1,000, and with 

 far fewer failures, will in six months erjnal, if not 

 outstrip them in growth ? 



" No doubt there are secrets to be learnt in India," 

 yon say. " I doubt it " said the Carpenter, and so 

 do I and you are indeed thankful for small mercies, 

 "'when you ask for "more. " I think the cry of the 

 local cardamom " fancier '' will more likely be "Hold 

 enough. " The experience from which we should ap- 

 preciate a sermon, is not the growth of six mouths. 

 Let us have the ripe fruit, not 



P.\RTI.\LLY (;REEN. 



[The difficulty, we apprehend, is not that ".-\ber- 

 donensis " has not more to tell but that as a man em- 

 dloyed by another he is not at liberty to tell, all he 

 know.s. The superior custom of Ceylon planters is 

 freely to communicate and exchange the results of 

 experience. — Ed.] 



MILKY CUM-YIELDING CREEPERS. 



Udagama, .Inly 4th, 18S3. 

 Deak Sir, — Regarding rubber creepers indigenouo 

 to I 'eylon. Last year 1 not only tried a number of 

 experiments myself, but also sent a considerable samples 

 of milk to I'r. 'I'rimen, — all tending to the same re- 

 sult : "a putty like niavs." This refers to the vaiiety 

 me'itioned, with a very handsome large fruit, the 

 ones in this neighbourhood at any rate, I may add, 

 growing to an immi-nse size, often sev. ral inches in 

 di.imeter, and yielding an immense quantity of milk, 

 which too Jiuwx firel'l. But there is another .ind much 

 smaller kind, witli a quite different leaf, thouah I f.incy 

 of the same family, which I have better hopes of. 

 'I he milk however is a thick creamy consistency, and 

 in consequence difficult to collect, though apparently 

 plenty .'f it. 1 hnpp to be able to speak more detiniti-]y 

 as to qualiiy of tlie rubber soon. — Yours f^iithfully, 



K.' 



I Query'? Might lu't the putty-like substance be im- 

 ].r V d liy the application of cheap rlieinical sub. 

 sUiices? — Ed.] 



LEDGER-HYBRIDS. 



July 5th, 1883. 



Dear Sin, — In my letter in reference to ledger-hybrids 

 in your issue of the 2nd inst. a slight misprmt occurs 

 regarding tb.c analysis of bark quoted. I intended it 

 to read "between 6 and 7 per cent sulphate quinine," 

 and on looking up correspoiuleuce I hnd 1 might have 

 added positively " with but a tran- of other alkaloids" 

 and from "original bnrk." 



The bark was taken from a number of consecutive 

 trees, some ol purr and some of hybrid type, and not 

 from selected irees of either ; all being from the .same 

 " pure ledger" seed from trees of the best origin, — 

 as indeed 1 think this analysis testifies. 



Even if the bark prove less rich— though this is not 

 at all a certain result of the cross (vide Mclvor's 

 finrrj.-offic. pnbcscens nearly as rich as Ifdgeriana iu 

 quinine — and far richer than eithrr parent) — my impres- 

 sion is that a hybrid of the sort ofl'ers every prospect 

 of being found at maturity a tree of greater value 

 tnan a pure ledger of the best type and analysis of 

 similar age ; with every prospect too of a more permanent 

 growth. I recollect a striking instance cf the improred 

 covMitulion of hybrids, in the ca^e of the mixed clear- 

 ing of snccirubras and officinalis, which, though well 

 grown trees of their age, commenced nt the 4th year 

 to die out wholesale. A few rohu^ta hydrids how- 

 ever that had crept in amongst them, it was a well- 

 remarked fact, rontiniied to Jlourish ; though if I 

 remember right they were cut down the next year 

 with the remains of the cloaring. X. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SUNHKAT ON THE SOIL 

 AND PLANTS. 



Dkar Sir, — Mr. G. F. Walker and those who hold 

 his conviclions may be interested in the following 

 extracts. I am with him in agreeing that we have 

 been suffering from a want of sunpower of late j'ears; 

 and that it is not the rainfall we have suffered from, 

 tiut the long continuance of it with little or no inter- 

 mission, and the absence of the requisite sunheat. 



The sun of course is a most necessary fnctor iu tlie 

 consideration of climatic influence nn vegeintiou ; and 

 no doubt the reason why (as someone remarked) one 

 estate bear?, while another does not, may in a measure 

 arise from the power of retention or non-retention of 

 the soil of excess of moisture. It takes a congenial 

 season to make a hnilthy blossom ! 



The extracts are as folluws : — ' It has been calculated 

 by Mr. Raikes, that the temper-tiire of the soil when 

 drained, averages 10° higher than it does when un- 

 drained ; and this is not surprising when we tind that 

 1 lb. of water evaporated from 1,000 lb. of soil will 

 depress the whole liy 10', owing to the latent heat 

 which it absorbs in its conversion into vapour." 



" Faraday calculated that the average amount of 

 heat radiated in a day from the sun on each acre of 

 earth in the latitude of London is equivalent to that 

 wlaich would be produced from the combustion of 

 13,000 lb. of coal." 



" Slightly beneath the surface of the soil in 

 tlie tropics, Humboldt states temperatures of I(i2' 

 and 134' are frequently noted, and in white sand 

 at Orinoco 140°, whilst at the Cape of Good Hope 

 under the soil of a bulb garden a temperature of l.'iO' 

 is recorded by Herschell. In China the temperature of 

 water of the fields was found to be br Meyer 113°, 

 and adjacent sand much hotter. These extremes < f 

 temperature wculd cause the specific gravity of the air 

 to vary from llfi7 to 8(i3, may serve as a kind of 

 incisure of the disturbing causes which interfere with 

 the velocity and Inc 1 direction of atmospheric cuirents 

 and other phenomena, the calculation of which h:is 

 been foundeii on me in results. " 



It would be a good thing if certain stations were sup- 

 plied with sunshine recorder!, but perhaps their cost 



