762 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April, i 1884. 



No. 436. Bread-fruit (Artocajytis irwisa, L.). A staple 

 food of the South Sea Islanders. Introduced into the East 

 and West Indies. Observe biscuits, &c., made of slices of 

 the Bread-fruit. Also Bread-fruit Meal. 



On the bottom shelf are fruits of other species of Arto- 



The upper part of this compartment contains woods 

 and fruits of various species of Artocarpus, and in the lower 

 part of this and upper portion of the next compartment 

 are a series of native cloths (some ornamented), made 

 of barlss of Artocarpus, spp. 



No. 438. Stems of CiiiNA-nRASS (BocJimevia nivea, H. 

 and A.), a Nettle of Ohina, India, and the Indian islands, 

 affording the valuable Ehka fibre, specimens of which and 

 fabrics made of it are exhibited in the next Case, No. 103. 



On the upper shelves of the central compavtmeut of this 

 C.ise note sections of the extremely light anil open-grained 

 wood of a gigantic nettle of Australia (i 'jx/i'lea i/i'/as, 

 AVedd.), sometimes exceeding SO feet in height. 



COFFEE PLANTING 



" Singapore soil is good for nothing." Such was the 

 expression in the mouth of superficial observers, imtil M. 

 Chasseriau proved the contrary, and others followed in 

 his wake. This glibly uttered formula did Singapore an 

 immense amount of harm, for it discouraged any attempt 

 at plantation work. We all know that to give a certain 

 animal a bad name is to hang him, and this was certainly 

 tlio case ■with our lovely little island. M. Chasseria,u. true 

 to the faith that was in him as regards the possibilities 

 of the careful scientific cultivation of Singapore soil, vent- 

 ured on coffee, and what ho has achieved is now a twice- 

 told tale. Those who want to see what watchful and care- 

 ful cultivation can do had better go and inspect his trees, 

 many of whic'> are laden with young berries, others iu 

 flower, the whole the picture of health. Another has been 

 of M. Chasseriau's opinion, and he is om- esteemed towns- 

 men Syed Mahomed bin Alsagoff. His house and grounds 

 are weU known, we venture to say that directions there- 

 to are superfluous, so we will pass on to tlie brief notice 

 of how his coft'ee looks. Five or six years ago, more or 

 less, he planted Liberiau coffee, on a comparatively small 

 scale, in the firm belief that it would pay well, if pro- 

 perly attended to. The soil was bad, nothing could be 

 more unpromising : and to the superiicial planter, in other 

 ■vvords the soil-ticker who smokes Us pipe and leaves the 

 rest to Nature, it would appe.ir that he who put money 

 into the ground might wait tiU tlie resurrection of the 

 dead for a return. Syed Mahomed planted Liberian coffee 

 into this soil, or rather iu large deep holes in it, which 

 were well manured, twelve feet space being given to each 

 tree ; they were carefully and thoughfuliy attended to 

 and what is the result ? Failure. No, a success. Already 

 he has made §20,000 from these trees by selling the seeds, 

 at, we believe, a cent apiece, besides the returns from 

 the sale of the coft'ee. Some of the trees are now in their 

 sixth or seventh year, and what a picture they present, 

 to gladden the eye of the planter ? They are laden with 

 berries, many of them having in the opinion of an un- 

 biassed expert, as many as forty pounds of fruit. The 

 healthy look of these trees, their vigour, and the beauti- 

 ful way they have been looked after are subsidiary fea- 

 tures that strike the visitor. But of course the great 

 thing is the result, the yield of cofteo. We saw some 

 Arabian coffee which looked very well, but we should 

 imagine this to be an experimental lot j udging from the 

 limited nature of the cultivation. If Syed Mahomed Alsa- 

 goff can mth a small piece of ground produce such re- 

 sults with his coft'ee, solely by superior cultivation what 

 is to prevent others doing the same thing. What is to 

 hinder small native planters, if it comes to that some of 

 the f/etis (k patjs cultivating coffee on a small scale 'i They 

 could make a small fortune out of it, specially the in- 

 dusti'ious natives, who could get from |a patch of land, 

 worked by them and their picaninies, the living of a lord, 

 and a small fortune in the future. The worst of it is 

 that people "will let the idea that the soil is bad run away 

 ^vith them ; forgetful of the fact that we have proof posi- 

 tive what the soil can yield when properly looked after. 

 Some will not let common sense or thought have a 

 share in their plmting transactions ; that is why many 

 come to grief. Others are so careless as to leave every- 



thing to chance. The laud wants tending as carefully as 

 the wife of your bosom, and must be watched quite as 

 narrowly ; and those that love their land, and keep a 

 watch over it, and attend to every little want and wish, 

 like many French peasant cultivators and Italian growers 

 do, will reap rewards in bountiful yields and sure prosperity. 

 — Straits InteHii/eacer. [We do not know what the ultimate 

 fate of coffee may be, but this we know that Mr. Chasseriau, 

 after trj-ing coconut palms for fourteen years, and seeing 

 uo signs of frmt, cut them all down. — Ed.] 



TEA— PLUCKING. 



The fii'st thing to be taken into consideration is what the 

 style of pruning is, whether it has beeu light, heavy or medium, 

 as upon this must the pluckiug depend for the first month 

 or two. We have seen iu the case of very heavy pruning, 

 the flushes allowed to grow out to a tremendous length, 

 until they were waving in the wind like a field of corn at 

 home. No doubt the planter thought he was doing a wise 

 thing by this arrangement, but we consider he could not have 

 done anything more prejudicial to either giving good wood to 

 prune upon in the following season, or to ginng a good crop 

 in the meantime. When a flush or flushes are allowed to 

 run away iu this fashion, neither will the wood grown be 

 as good, nor will the axils, from which the next flush is to 

 be expectid, be as numerous as if the flush had been care- 

 fully taken off. In cases of this kind six leaves will probably 

 have formed on the main shoots, and so on from the other 

 shoots resulting in the necessity of going over the bushes once 

 in a week or ten days at most, and of course only getting a 

 comparatively meagre return in the way of leaf at first. 

 When, therefore, heavy pruning has been done, the plucking 

 eutails necessarily more careful supervision, and in the be- 

 ginning of the season gives more unsatisfactory results, than 

 some people are willing to put up with, and the consequence 

 is that there is very often a tendency to over-pluck. "NVe do 

 not consider that it is safe to pluck more than three leaves 

 from a six-leaf flush under ordinary circumstances after heavy 

 pruning until the end of IMay, when after that a five-leaf flush 

 may be plucked, say till the middle of July, and after that 

 date to end of August a four-leaf flush. In September a 

 three-leaf flush may be begun, that is taking off two leaves and 

 a bud and leaving one fuIl-g^o^vn leaf, and \ihat is known as 

 the "gool," or round leaf at the bottom of the shoot. In 

 November everything should be tciken off that is soft, as 

 by that time the bush lias made quite sufl5cient wood to 

 prune upon, if it has to make it at all. And, moreover, 

 there is no time left for a flush to develop from any axils 

 should they be left. With lighter pruning of course there is 

 not the same necessity to .allow leaf to remain on the bushes 

 to form into wood, as the height of the bush, and consequently 

 its vigor, is not so much a point of consideration, in such cases 

 of course a five-leaf flush can sooner be taken off. Now-a- 

 days when plucking has been reduced more to a system than 

 it was, it is necessary to go romid the plantation as quickly as 

 possible in order to obtain the best results, and so far as we 

 can learn, once a week is considered about the correct thing. 

 In former times once in the twelve days, and sometimes once 

 a fortnight, was considered quite often enough, but now-a- 

 days it is supposed that much of the substance is Itfst by 

 allowing such a lengthy period to elapse between the pluck- 

 ings, and the best information we can obtain on the subject 

 points to a weekly pluck as the best. No doubt this entails 

 a closer supervision from the European staff, and it may, we 

 think, be safely affirmed that to the extra supervision may 

 be attributed to some extent the superiority of Indian over 

 Ohina Teas. — Indif/o and Tea Planters'' Gazette. 



TEA— DP.jVINING. 

 In our last issue wc hurriedly noticed the subject of 

 draining as being a little connected with hoeing. It may 

 appear somewhat incongruous to say so. but the ordinary 

 planter will no doubt agree with us. Draining is neces.sary 

 in certain soils, and uuder certain conditions it is absolutely 

 necessary for the prim.iry existence of the plant. In com- 

 mencing draining — and there is probably no plant which 

 will more quickly point out where it is necessary thaa tea 

 — the first point to be t.akon into consideration is the nature 

 of the sub-soil before it is determined at what intervals 

 or distances it is desirable to have the drains put down. In 

 addition to the interv.als the question of depth has also to 



