136 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[August i, 1883. 



CASUARINA PLANTING. 



The failm-es that attended the attempts made by some 

 ™ter|)rising people to grow casuarina for purposes of tuel, 

 We uot altogether tluN«vn a damper upon small capital- 

 St, for we learn that in a large part of the Madra., 

 chstrict between Avady and Trivel ore on land not 

 fai from the railway line, extensive plots have ]ust been 

 to ed with casuarma. Some of the plantations near the 

 raOway are about two or three years old, so that m the 



,!1p of a few years these plantations xvill be fit to be 

 curdo^ and The' wood sold fV fuel purposes. The Mad- 

 ras Railway and the different cotton and other miUs are 

 Ur.'f purchasers of wood, and with the contmued demand 

 for "domestic pm-poses, casuarina plantations ought to thrive 

 and trir number increase so as to form large and ex- 

 tnsive plantations which it is well kno^vn have a great 



,r ,1 ,„vin the rainfall and otherwise improve stenle soils. 

 In the Madras ehttrict there are large plots of land within 

 easv distance of the raUway lying waste: they may be un- 

 filed foi grain cultivation owing to the nature of the sml 

 thereabouts, but casuarma may he grown on land where 

 ft is difficu t to rear any other tree or plant and such being 

 the casea few cntoq.rising people with the money and will 



•„M form Tilautatious, obtain land ou very easy terms 

 "nf plantTnd^w^ them m a mamier that will lead to 

 succeC In a letter, to which we dn-ected attention a few 

 weeks a-o, Dr. Bidie, writing of saud-bindmg plants^ stated 

 That casuarina was very useful hi this way and that ex- 

 tensive plots of land on the Matos coast gave place to 

 casurma and that in adchtion to the benefits derived by 

 ?hnwners, the plantations had a very good effect upon 

 cnltiv^le land by protecting it from severe wet or dry 

 weather The Government have resolved to du-ect the at- 

 reution of the Forest Department to this subject and the 

 Con^vators wiU shortly report wliat steps are to be taken 

 S"u direction and where plantations on the sea-coast 

 between Madi-as and the Northern and Southern districts 

 !?„ nnpnediro If the Government intends to move 

 SVe Se'tSere fs no reason why private enterprise 

 should not do Ukkewise and some small well-managed jomt 

 stock companies established to increase casuarina planting 

 not only on the seacost, but in the districts wi hin very 

 easy reich of the railway. By the estaWishment of the 

 rXay line, the gravel quarries of Umbatoor and the 

 wrboulders of ShoUngur granite have come into ex- 

 ten Jve use, the former in connection ™th the harbour 

 worfo and the latter with other pubhc buildings. The 

 Tasy access afforded by the railway may also give an mi- 

 Ss to an industry, the successlul workmg of which ^vlll 

 be of very great advantage.— I/.i.^ras f.Uou!arU. 



♦■ 



CiOFFEE LEAF DISEASE IX INDIA. 



TO THE EDITOR " MADEAS MAIL. " 



Nellore, Sth Jlay 1883. 

 Sib -May not the gro^vth of one universal plant over 

 a riven area continuously or for a length of time be the 

 caifse of the leaf-disease? It is a well known fact that 

 htcour-se of time forest soil becomes impoverished for the 

 class of tree that predominates. In forests, trees fall and 

 decay and various other classes fiU their places and become 

 fine ta-ees and keep up an advantageous state of sod, and 

 For tWs reason, it is advantageous to have other trees on 

 ri,la,itation One luiiversal plant over a given area, must 

 te^e from its iimnediate soil all the chemical properties 

 Snub ed to perfect the said plant, and then it is that 

 dlease sets n. To keep land in a clean and fertile state, 

 f rntetion "f crops is adopted in all eivihzed countries, 

 L^iT^manurine The follomng observations of Professor 

 Anderson are appropriate:-'- The necessity for a rotation 

 has beeu "ually attributed to different crops removing 

 different inorganic constituents from the soil. Thus cert- 

 ;„ pl-mts -Iquire for their luxuriant growth a large 

 ain P'™^* nmtash- and they must be loUowed m the 

 S'o by sJme other plant ^?hich does not extract that 

 dement from the soil, or at least only m a comparatively 

 smSl Quantity, and each indiridual crop can only be suc- 

 Tssfuhy repeated when, by the lapse of tmie, a sufficient 

 nuantity of its characteristic constituents has been hber- 

 S from some inert form of combmation. m which, it 

 exSs in the soil." It a certain crop is cultivated year 



after year ou the same piece of ground, it will ultimately 

 remove such a quantity of the particular plant food it 

 deUghts in as to render the raisuig a remunerative crop 

 of this particular plant a matter of great difficulty. By 

 careful manuring the elements of plant food taken up by 

 a certain crop, cau be regukrly returned to the soil, and 

 the food which would support other kuids of crops would 

 then remain unused, but certain msects prey on particular 

 crops and plants, and if these crops or plants are repeated 

 too frequently, they increase to such an citent as to in- 

 terfere very seriously with profitable culture of tho.se part- 

 icular crops or plants. And therein, perhaps, lies the 

 chief cause of the Itaf-disease in coffee or other plants 

 grown continuously or for a great length of time on the 

 same area of ground. The wet crop or paddy lauds in 

 India have by the continuous growth of paddy on them 

 already impoverished the Indian peasant, neces.sitatmg the 

 sales of holdmgs for the recovery of the land revenue, and 

 large annual remissions of the revenue. Independent of 

 this growing infertility of the soil, these paddy crops from 

 their universal adoption over the same lauds are now re- 

 gularly subject to bUght and other distempers which no 

 amount of maturmg can remove. It is time that Govern- 

 ment should bestir itself and remedy the giovving evil. 

 By regulatmg the supply of water and insisting ou a ro- 

 tation of crops, the peasant will be eventually rescued 

 from his present abject poverty, and the Government 

 revenues will be collected with facility. But to return from 

 this .slight digression. By taking a hint and planting in 

 coffee, tea, cinchona, cocoa, &c., estates, other trees, such 

 as the wood-apple, jak-fruit, mangoe, diri-divi, &:c.. trees, 

 and palmyra, coconut, nut, &e., pahns, planters will benefit, 

 and in most probability the progress of the leaf-disease 

 will be checked and ultimately eradicated. When a ti-ee 

 gets too old, or is aft'ected in any way, it should be cut 

 do^vn and burned, and another of a different land planted 

 in its stead. The leaves of trees in plantations should 

 also be raked or ploughed up before the rains, that the 

 heavj' and obnoxious gases may escape or get sucked up 

 in the soil, for the leaves get wet and flattened down in 

 svich a way as to prevent this. This will not only make 

 the the place healthy but keep the soil in a profitable 

 state for futm-e work. Much has been said of a " wally 

 coating "—a species of fungus that covers the under p.arts 

 of the coffee leaf. Would it not be advisable to ascertain 

 by chemical test what proportions would not only suit the 

 coffee plant, but at the .same time destroy this fungus. 

 In some countries on the continent the mustard and bhang 

 plants are sown in rows between the standard trees, and in 

 other crops, to keep them in a healthy state, they besides 

 gixing a ])rofitable return. A. 



THE IXDIA-RUBBEll AND GUTTA PEROHA 

 TREES OF BRITISH GUI 



At a meeting of the Royal Agricultund and Commer- 

 cial Society of Briti.sh Guiana, held in May last, the 

 Secretary laid over a communication he had received from 

 Mr. .leninan with regard to the India-rubber trees in Demerara. 

 The letter is as follows: — 



My Hear Su-,— I enclose herewitli tor the Museum of the Eoyal 

 A^ciiltural and Commercial Society, samples [\-ulcanised] of india- 

 rubber, produced respectively by the Hatic and CuiuatrabalU of 

 this colony. The raw rubber from which these samples wen- manu- 

 factured, I collected on the Pomeroon River, and sent to Kew, 

 to be tested a few mouths ago; wldch resulted [n-ith other cor- 

 respondence] in the follnwmg report, communlcatod through the 

 SetTCtary of State for the Colonies and pubhshed in the Official 

 Gazette of the tSth instant: 



" The mdia-rubber made ou the Pomeroon River, British Guiana, 

 from the IIei;ea Spriicmna contains caoutchouc, but is impregnatetl 

 with other priuciples which desti'oy its prcperties for any manufact- 

 urin'^ purposes mvolving the process of vulcanizing. Since most 

 of the species of Hevea have been described as yielding good india- 

 rubber, including the Heuea Spruceana growing severnl miles north 

 of the Amazon,^ it would be important to determine whether in 

 this case the deteriorating principles are foreiga *.' belonging] to 

 the tree, or whether they arise from injudicious incision. The 

 rubber smells very strongly of the oily matter which goes off in 

 the smoke from the bui-iiing of the nuts of the Uracapi palm, 

 which also has the eftect of softening and rendering theruhber dark. 



"The loss on washing and di-ying is 11 '70 o/o. The soft and 

 sticky character would appear to be due to a volatile, or perliaps 

 easily carbouised substance. When mixed with sulphur and .sub- 

 mitted to the vulcinizing process, it vulcanizes, but becomes spongy. 

 The caoutohoue vulcanizes so completely, that it would be woi-tJi 



