766 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1884. 



thunderstorms nearly every day, some of them very violent. 

 What with the previous action of the Hcmikia, the 

 almost total suspension of growth, aud the fierce wind, 

 the coft'ee looks awfully bare, but the one shower on the 

 17th January saved a very full blossom, a considerable 

 proportion of which set .even on the bare briiuches, and 

 a second opened three days ago, the greater part of wliich 

 has fau-ly set. Great numbers of the trees had their leaves 

 drooping aud appeared to he in heavy distress in the long 

 intervals between the showers, but very few perished 

 outright. . J , 1 



The older cacao trees suffered much from the wind, but 

 did not seem to care for the drought, till towards the 

 end. The yoimg seedlings in the field enjoyed the first 

 three weeks of dry weather, aud grew rapidly, but gradually 

 gave in as it coutiuued, aud finally all perisheil that had 

 been sown later thau June. 



Out of about 1,000 pepper vines, planted during the 

 N.-K. rains, and that seemed to have got a fair start, one- 

 half or more are dead, and the survivors look seedy. 



The cardamom patch planted in October had made a 

 promising start before the drought set in, but the check 

 has been a severe one, and about 15 percent have died 

 outright. . 



The tea in the field has not grown, but very little of it 

 has actuallv died, and I believe it will now take a vigorous 

 start. The' uursery has been watered daily, and we have 

 had no little trouble in deepening the well, to get enough 

 of water to merely keep the plants alive, for they have grown 

 none; but very few have died. I am now clearing off odd 

 jobs, so as to be able to attack the holing vigorously aud 

 persistentlv. 



I putout a tew imbul (tree cotton) plants late in the season 

 along the roads ; as the seedlings were very small, one-half of 

 them died, but the survivors have thriven bravely through 

 all the dry weather, and some of them are now two feet 

 high. I propose to extend them along all the roads 

 and to plant up a guinea grass patch that the vil'.i"e 

 cattle have ruined. I believe this product (tree cotton) will 

 become far more important than Ceara rubber. Civilization 

 is rapidly opening its mind to the fact thai pulaii* makes 

 a sufficiently soft bed, at a comparatively small cost, 

 while in it the manufacturers of gun-cotton have found 

 a cheaper and equally efficient raw material, as a succed- 

 aneum, to that used formerly. No statistical materials 

 exist, on which to fouud an estimate of the cost of 

 drodiictiou, and local prices have not yet fouud their 

 level liy the operation of competition. The small 

 local demand has hitherto been met by chance- 

 grown trees iu the villages, and no fixed value has 

 ever settled down on it. Iu the neighbourhood of the 

 towns, the villagers have found it worth gathering. 

 but far out in the country it has generally been 

 allowed to pass away on the wings of the wind, but this 

 is not likely to fmppen in future, as the kadei Moormen 

 are always prepared to barter for any product that has 

 a certain market in Colombo. The amount of crop will, 

 no doubt, be proportionate to the richness of the soil, 

 but the tree will grow aud yield more or less crop on almost 

 any soil. In tolerable soilj it begins to bear iu the second 

 year, and anywhere in the third. It does not seem likely 

 that it requires any very great care in cultivation, but it 

 does not thrive on grass land, and very evidently detests 

 jungle. I have had almost daily opportunities of studying 

 these trees for twenty-seven years, but not twelve mouths 

 have passed since I began to avail myself of them : such 

 is the carelessness with which we pass by things that 

 offer us no return for our pains; but as soon as it promised 

 to be worth my while, I began to look on it in a new 

 light, and have stored every fact concerning rt that close 

 observation supplied, lly knowledge is still defective, but 

 will daily improve. I have seen at least one tree, this 

 season, bearing over a thousand pods ; I have learned that 

 the general crop has sutt'ered this season, to the extent of 

 50 per cent from drought. I have read that the produce 

 has been valued in France at 8|d per pound, aud I am 

 credibly informed that E8 is oSered in Colombo per cwt. 

 including the seed. My knowledge in this department of 

 the subject will be complete, when I have had an opport- 

 unity of ascertaining how many average pods make a 

 pound, and the proportion between the weights of the 



* Sinhalese for cotton wool.— JSd. 



seed, and the pulan (cotton). Whether the seed has any 

 separate value is another point worth investigation, and, 

 if fit for no other purpose, it must be worth crushing for 

 manure. — N. B. Submit a sample to a chemist for analysis. 



The rata pu mtk ( foreign areka) has stood the drought 

 wonderfully ; I only lost ten out of the six hundred, and 

 as the plants have now a pretty good hold on the soil 

 they will probably come on rapidly. 



The talipot aud wax palm are very slow-coaches : 

 at their present rate of growth, neither you nor I 

 have any chance of ever seeing their steins ; thougli 

 both have taproots running four feet deep, all 

 they show above ground resembles a few large blades 

 of grass. 



The Ceara rubber is takiug out its wintering, and is 

 utterly bare. I will be ready to give it its last chance 

 with the new instrument, as soon as I can spare time. 

 There is no use in counting the cost, aud crediting returns, 

 till by careful experiment the one is reauced to the 

 lowest, and the other raised to the highest possible result. 



The Indian bamboo has shown itself such an ill-neigh- 

 bour to every other plant, that the cheapest aud earliest 

 means must be used to extermmate it. Its systematic 

 robbery extends in area continually, and every plant 

 within five and twenty-five feet suffers. It makes a very 

 secure boundary fence, but its growth should be kept 

 down to five feet, instead of the forty-five to which 

 some of it has attained. Many of the stems are 

 large and very strong, being very nearly solid ; there 

 may perhaps, be a paying market for them in Colombo. 

 4 



Date Palms. — As an instance of the time Date Palms re 

 quire to develope into fruit-bearing trees, says Mr. Prestoe 

 in his report on the Trinidad Botanic Garden, " I might 

 mention the flowering and fruiting of specimens planted out 

 by me in 1S69 from tubs in wliich they had grown — ha\ing 

 been small plants in Uamboo pots in 186i — about twenty 

 years. Theh stems are now 12 feet high, having magnificent 

 heads, large hunches of fruit having been produced last 

 year.''— Grrtrf/e/;^v.s' Citron icU. 



Ants in Tbinidad. — British gardeners, who often com- 

 plain, aud not without reason, of the damage done by ants, 

 may congratulate themselves to a certain extent after 

 hearing what Mr. Prestoe, in his recent Keport on the 

 Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, has to say coucerning the rav- 

 ages of these objectionable insects iu the "West Indies. 

 "As locusts in North Africa and rabbits in Australia," 

 says Mr. Prestoe, " are a national calamity for their de- 

 structiveuess to herbage and corn crops, so are the parasol 

 ants iu this island for destructiveuess to trees aud shrubs 

 of all kinds, particularly exotic ones." The labour of com- 

 bating these ubiquitous pests is very heavy in Trinidad, 

 as they occur iu colonies of large area, and are composed 

 of thousands of nests, extending over 1,000 or 2,000 square 

 feet. The destruction of a colony some 50 feet over, em- 

 ploys four or five men ten to twelve days, according to 

 the depth aud nature of the strata. Where the use of 

 boiling soap-water is impracticable sulphurous fumes are 

 blown into each chamber, as it is opened by means of 

 a machine with fan and tube. Care has to be observed 

 to keep the ground clear of insects, otherwise the feet 

 and legs of the workmen would he severely bitten. Mr. 

 Prestoe flunks that it is unlikely that the island will ever 

 be free from these pests ; for, though all withiu range may 

 he destroyed, there is a continuous supply from without, 

 impregi';ited females being brought iu myriads to the shores 

 on the ! irinoco current. These arc to be seen occasionally 

 in the Gulf, floating in patches several inches thick, 1 to 

 2 feet wide, and many feet long. So far the habits and 

 economy of these West Indian auts are only imperfectly 

 understood, the best account of them known to Mr. Prestoo 

 occurs iu Belt's Naturalist in Nicarayva, a work which has 

 been frequently mentioned in these columns. Mr. Prestoe 

 agrees with Mr. Belt, that the auts in question feed on 

 " a kind of fungus, for growing which they obtain the 

 leaves of certain trees or plants, when suitably dry, and 

 apply them to the fungus mass for its sustenance and ex- 

 tension." Even in the neighbourhood of a small colony 

 " no plant is secure from attack, and its leaves may dis- 

 appear in a single uight ; for, the workers being in infiuite 

 number, could clear a large tree in a single night, each 

 making but one journey. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



