754 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1884. 



is prepared carefully and successfully, there is a very fair 

 demand for it at good prices. 



Bananas. — This fine tropical fruit is grown to a small 

 extent, hut owing to the destructive influences of wind 

 they do not bear so abundantly as they should. The small 

 Chinese banana (Mum Caiendishii) is admirably adapted for 

 cultivation in St. Helena, but with the exception of one or 

 two plants it does not appear to have been largely tried. Be- 

 ing a small plant, seldom more than 5 to 6 feet high, it 

 would grow well under shelter of a wall or side of a house ; 

 and under these circumstances it would be more satisfact- 

 ory to grow than the taller kinds. 



Flantiiins. — This higlily esteemad vegetable rather than 

 fruit appears to be absent in St. Helena. At least no 

 plants came under my notice. As a food plant it stands 

 high in most tropical countries, and is very easy of cul- 

 tivation. Suckers might no doubt be obtained from the 

 AVest Coast of Africa iu large quantities. It would require 

 shelter, and a moist and somewhat rich soil. The latter 

 conditions are easily attained iu Jamestown, at least by 

 means of irrigation. 



Vegetables. — Of ordinary table vegetables there is a fair 

 supply. Potatoes, cabbages of good quality, pumpkins in 

 five or six varieties, onions, shallots, beaus, peas, cucumbers, 

 parsnips, carrots, beetroot, chillies, are all growu more or 

 less, and flourish best in sheltered spots at mid-elevation. 



"What is called in St. Helena Yam (Colocasis escii/enta), to 

 be distmguished from the '• Yam Flower," (Rickardia), is 

 only shghtly cultivated, whereas the "Coast Yam" (Dioscorea), 

 has almost entirely disappeared. 



For the shipping, lettuce, radish, and water-cress appear 

 to be receiving chief attention. 



The Cassava plant (Manihot utilissima) is not present, 

 although its cultivation might be attended with great success, 



The Chiote or Chocho, the Pepinclla of Maderia (Sechium 

 edule), is a hardy vegetable, somewhat resembhiig the veget- 

 able marrow, which shonld certainly be introduced to St. 

 Helena. In the West Indies it is reckoned extremely whole- 

 some, and is commonly used as an article of food by all 

 classes. The plant is propagated by seed, and when once 

 established becomes a hardy self-sown climber, bearing 

 nearly all the year round a fruit larger than a pear covered 

 with soft prickles. It is boiled (or parboiled and fried) 

 and eaten as a vegetable. 



I noticed that pumpkins, vegetable marrows, cucumbers, 

 melons, and all plants of this class were severely attacked 

 by a fungus (Eri/siphe) which covered them with a whitish 

 floury deposit as if they had been powdered over with hme 

 dust. This or a very closely allied disease also attacks peas, 

 cabbages, roses, and other plants. The best treatment for 

 this disease is the appUcation of flowers of sulphur dusted 

 over the plants immediately it appears. 



Where the disease has taken firm hold of plants in a 

 garden, the better plan is to burn them at once, and so 

 destroy the spores, which would otherwise remain in the 

 land and attack the plants of the ne.xt season. 



Pumpkins, vegetable marrows, and melons should never 

 be planted in old garden soil. These plants require freshly 

 broken ground away from other cultivation, but it is rot 

 necessary that the land should bo very rich or heavily 

 manured. It is said that too rich a soil as a tendency to pro- 

 duce a large proportion of male — and hence barren flowers. 



A native vegetable much resembUng celery is found grow- 

 ing wild on Diana's Peak, which formerly was sold and 

 eagerly bought in the market at Jamestown. This is the 

 Angelica (Sium Hehnium, Hook, f.), a handsome uaibelli- 

 ferous plant, growing to the height of six or eight feet 

 amongst the caVibage trees and ferns on the central ridge. 



The inner portions of the stem, which is of a tender suc- 

 culent character, may be eaten raw, and form an excellent 

 substitute for celery. The native people eagerly eat it. 

 As brought to market it is in .short tubes, much like bamboo 

 stems, and is sold und er the name of jelico. 



A plant growing in one of the economic houses at the 

 Eoyal Gardens, Kew, shows that it might be easily cultiv- 

 ated if necessary. 



Fotatucs. — This is probably the staple production of the 

 farmers and small cultivators in St. Helena, and if there 

 were a convenient and abundant market, potato-raising 

 might become the source of a considerable export trade. 



Some time ago St. Helena potatoes were exported to the 

 Cape and found great favour there. Owing, however, to the 



restrictions attending the introduction of the phylloxera, all 

 vegetable produce, and even potatoes, are placed under a ban, 

 60 that the trade from St. Helena is hopelessly cut off. Pota- 

 toes are sold in fair quantities to the shipping and to 

 supply local demands, })ut there is no incentive to grow 

 such large quantities as the island could produce, as cul- 

 tivators have often seriously lost thereby. 



The potato disease (/*ero«6.«po7-a), so well known in Eng- 

 land, is at times very severe on lands at the higher elevations, 

 but if the soil were more kindly treated and new stock 

 introduced from England from time to time, this disease 

 would not probably be severely felt. 



I was informed that as many as three crops per annum 

 of potatoes have been off the same land; as the use of 

 manure is the exception and not the rule, and as some 

 soils have been under continuous cultivation for the last 

 two hundred years, it speaks well for the iuherent quality 

 of St. Helena soils that they are still yielding large, and 

 where properly treated, abundant crops. 



Hops. — AATiile on a visit to Mulberry Gut. in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Longwood, it occurred to me that in such 

 sheltered, rich hollows as this hops might be cultivated 

 with success. I discussed the subject with many of the 

 cultivators, and the impression was that hops would do well 

 in St. Helena. Plants might be obtained either from Eng- 

 land or America. The cultivation, like tobacco, inasmuch 

 as it yields a large return on a small acreage, is well worthy 

 of attention. 



Cotton.— A fine sample of St. Helena cotton was presented 

 to me by Mr.Benjamin Grant, which attracted consider- 

 able attention at home. The sample has since been depo- 

 sited in the Museum of the Royal Gardens, Kew. At 

 present prices, I fear St. Helena cJiuuot grow.cotton to com- 

 pete with other countries, but the subject should not be 

 lost sight of in case the plants, growing almost wild, can 

 ha utilized. 



Coconuts. — Only a few co^ionut palms grow in the island, 

 and these chiefly in the Jamestown Valley. Owing to there 

 being no sandy beach, or any sandy hills or banks, along the 

 coast of St. Helena, the coconut palm is unable to obtain 

 the couditions so essential to it. Few, if any. of the plants 

 are in bearing, and o^^iug to the dry, gravelly, and poor 

 quality of the soil, the stems are slender and weak, lack- 

 ing the robust, luxuriant, habit so marked in the West In- 

 dies, and evidently showing is is not at home here. I would 

 recommend a more generous treatment of the plants; plenty 

 of manure being forked in among the roots, and an oc- 

 casional application of salt water or of the brine out of 

 pickled beef or pork barrels. 



fSui/.ir Cane. — A few plants of the ordinary varieties of 

 sugar cane are found in Jamestown, but no attempt is made 

 to cultivate them. For eating piu-poses many of the newer 

 varieties might be introduced, as also for the purposes of 

 fodder for horses and cattle.. 



India?' Coi-n or Maize. — This is cultivated to be cut as a 

 forage plant in the green state, but is seldom grown as an 

 article of food. To many people in coimtries where maize, 

 either in the green state (cobs), or as meal, enters largely 

 as an article of daily food, it would be a matter of surprise 

 to find that it is hardly known here. Owing to custom and 

 habit the people in St. Helena consume large quantities of 

 rice ; in fact, as long as a St. Helenian can procm-e a httle 

 rice to go with his fish he is quite happy. There is no doubt 

 if maize could be substituted for rice a,s the staple food of 

 the bulk of the inhabitants of St. Helena, the island could 

 easily dispense with the present large importations of -rice, 

 and possess within their own resources the chief food supply 

 of the inhabitants. The taste for rice has arisen from the 

 former close connexion of the island with India, and the 

 facilities which then existed for obtaining it by means of 

 homeward boimd ships. In case of war and the blockade 

 of the island for any length of time, rice would be practically 

 cut off. but maize if growu locally would be at hand and 

 provide a good food siqjply for an indefinite period. Both on 

 these grounds and the gi'eat adaptabihty of the soil for 

 growing maize, when it cannot possibly gi-ow a bu.sliel of 

 rice, it might 1)0 adv.-mtageous to do something to encourage 

 the cidtivatiou of maize in St. Helena, and so bruig it pro- 

 minently before the people. 



At the present time oats and maize arc imported from 

 the Cape and America for feeding horses, whereas the latter 

 at least might be produced locally iu large quautities. 



