August i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



T2g 



COFPEE AND THE GENERAL PLANTING 

 ENTEEPRIZE OF CEYLON. 



At a generul meeting of the Maskeliya Planters' 

 Assooiaticn, held at Bloomdeld Reading-room on tlie 

 18th July, Mr. W. D. Bosaxquet, read the follow- 

 ing paper : — 



GsxTLEMEN, — The subject of my address to you today 

 is coffee and the general cultivatiou of the same. But 

 as coffee in this district promises in time to become a 

 secondary cultivation, I trust that I shall be pardoned 

 for digi-essiug from the sti-ict consideration of the sub- 

 ject to glance at the general aspect of the planting eater- 

 prize as now cai-ried on in Ceylon. 



At the present time we are very much in the position 

 of pioneers opening up a new country : we are gi'oping 

 more or less in the dark to tliscover what product may 

 be most profitably cultivated not only on certain estates 

 but on different poi-tions of those estates. Cinchona we 

 have found on most properties to faU us in many por- 

 tions; cocoa, rubber, and cardamoms require each special 

 conditions of soil and climate ; and though tea will gi'ow 

 everywhere it is hardly probable that everywhere will it 

 be found to pay. There are some men who, when their 

 coffee or cinchona fails, give up all attempt to experi- 

 ment with other cultivations but cry out forthwith for 

 abandonment. It is my owu beUef that everj' acre of. 

 the country will be found to grow something to a profit if 

 we can only discover what. The energ}' displayed by so many 

 planters in trying new cultivations on their estates and of 

 which this district and Association furnishes many examples, 

 is the true spirit which will lead Ceylon to a sound and 

 prosperous future. It may be that some of us will have 

 to succumb during the struggle, aud that the benefit of 

 our labors will be reaped by future proprietors, but let 

 <-ach one do at his best for his own estate and so will he 

 be best promotiug the general welfare o( the country. 



I think that the recent years have done much good 

 in training the minds of planters in a more mercantile 

 groove and in t'vaching them that questions of cultiv- 

 ation arc after all a consideration hetween profit and loss. 

 To be conducted profitably agriculture like mercantle 

 affairs must be guided by the balance of probabilities. 

 I would therefore take as my te.'it today ' the law of 

 probabilities,' urging upon each one to take into his eon- 

 sid ration as regards the working of his estate the question 

 whether certain portions are most likely to return the best 

 profits from tea, cinchona, coffee, of other cultivation, 

 wbetlier some portions are more likely thau others to re- 

 spoml to a system of high cultivatiou i.e., manuring or whether 

 a particular method of pruning and handling is not calcul- 

 ated to put crop on the trees : in fact to reason out 

 things for your.selves instead of doing » thing simply 

 because your neighbours are doing it and testing 

 everything first on th) small scale; — thus let everyone use 

 his judgment to the best of his abilitj- and, if he does 

 not feel sutBcieut reliance upon himself, consult those in 

 whose judgment he has more confidence. 



The questions of cultivation are not such as any one 

 man can be dogmatic upon, but if in my adilress to you to- 

 day I .am able to offer any suggestions which may help 

 others to judge better themselves, my object wiU have been 

 attained. 



I have been asked to consider the questions of leaf- 

 disease aud seasons and how far the present infertility 

 of coffee is due to one or the other. 1 will endeavour 

 to make my own views on the subject clear and to give 

 my reasons for holding them. In the first place then I 

 look upon leaf-disease as the primary cause of our pre- 

 sent distress, and think that if it was .absent we should 

 find our coffee trees giving remunerative crops in even 

 doubtful seasons ; but that coffee, even with leaf-disease 

 present, would be able to return paying crops had we 

 really favourable seasons, Uva is I consider a standing 

 proof. I have seen leaf-disease in Uva worse than I have 

 ever witnessed in the high districts on the Kandy side, 

 but in Uva the leaves do not so quickly drop off 

 aud the trees recover themselves sooner. This is not 

 by reason of its better soil, for on this side we have many 

 soils equal to Uva ones, but in consequence I hold of its 

 17 



drier and more forcing climate. One reason however why 

 Uva crops in spite of leaf disease is that it is bloss nning 

 more or less all the year round and is therefore capable of 

 turning to account any period of comparative relief from the 

 attacks. It is the time therefore of the attacks that is with 

 us as important a factor as the disease itself. If an outbreak 

 of leaf-disease comes upon our coffee just at the com- 

 mencement of the blossoming season the trees are natur- 

 ally weaki lied just at a time when they are required to 

 be most vigorous. The seasons are however I think largely 

 responsible for the time aud virulence of an attack, aud 

 if the coffee has been weakened by any long continuance 

 of rain and low temperature, they are more open to the 

 assaidts of the enemy and less able to throw it off ; and 

 here I think a writer in the Observer has well called at- 

 tention to the imfavorable chai'acter of the north-east 

 monsoons of late and to the amount of rain which has 

 fallen in the latter months of the year, which has kept 

 the trees back from hardening aud preparing the wood 

 for the ensuing period of blossom. As I shall notice 

 later on imder the subject of Pruning, it is the 

 early blossoms that we want to prepare our wood tor, 

 but last year at any rate I can answer for it that 

 the wood in our higher districts was kept green and mi- 

 ripe up to the middle of February, when at length the 

 weather became fair. That the effect of seasons, in Cey- 

 lon alone of all countries in the world, shoidd be by 

 some ignored aud ridiculed, has seemed to me most extra- 

 ordinary, and the reasons frequently given in the papers 

 for ridiculing the arguments of those who hold that sea- 

 sons have had their share in producing the falling-off in 

 crop production are truly absurd. If it be admitted, and 

 everywhere else it is not denied, that the effect of too 

 ranch moisture, combined with tmusually low temperature, 

 is weakening to vegetation in generally causing a cess- 

 ation of root development, then is it not reasonable 

 to attribute the various indications of wealaiess as much 

 to seasons as to leaf -disease. We have most of us noticed 

 how, if a constantly running stream bursts its bounds, or 

 there is a steady leak from a coffee .spout, the coffee 

 trees coming under the influence of the unaccustomed 

 moisture speedily die, and in a modifieil degree the effect 

 of long continued rain is the same : what wonder then 

 if branches die back, or crop drops oft" in such seasons 

 as that of last year. Jlr. Giles "Walker's valuable statistics 

 prove what unusual rainfall aud low temperature Boga- 

 wantalawa has suffered from of late, and the estate journals I 

 consulted show that, from 1870 to the end of the blossom- 

 in" season of 1876, the weather was invariably favorable for 

 blossoming diuring the months nf January, February, March 

 and the beginmng of April, being hot aud dry with occasional 

 daysofraiu. Itshoidd not be forgotten also that the effect 

 of long-continued rain is to wash the fertilizing matters of the 

 siu*face soil into the subsoil aud therefore out of reach of 

 the feeding rootlets, while if a soil becomes water-logged, 

 as it practically did last year oa many estates, the effect 

 is to destroy the nitrates present and evolve nitrogen as gas, 

 then causing a very considerable loss of plant food. 

 Tliis brings me to the subject of cultivation. 

 The main resource at oiu- command for combating leaf- 

 disease is manure. I do not however propose to consider 

 the whole subject of manuring, which woidil take up 

 too much of your time aud be mostly a recapitulation of 

 what I have already written in the Observer, but merely 

 to give a few suggestions for the general guidance at 

 those who are desirous of trying the effect of manm-e upon 

 their estates. And here the law of probability must be 

 taken largely into consideration. It requires in the first 

 place some faith in the future to give one confidence 

 to make the requh-ed outlay of capital, for the effect of 

 weather upon crops is gTeater than the influence of manure, 

 and you may therefore lose yoiu" return througli the effect 

 of an adverse blossoming season ; in a doubtfvd season 

 however the sod best furnished with plant food will jield 

 the best results. Another point to be considered is that 

 imless the soil is in proper condition for the reception of 

 manure its effect "will be reduced to a miuimimi. To put 

 the soil into condition there are two means, viz. tillage, 

 aud liming. By tillage, that is in our case freoiug the soil 

 with the fork, the surface soil is kept in an open condition 

 favorable for the distribution of roots, while lime has the 



