November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



'SVi 



THE DIMBULA PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION 



ON COFFEE AND CINCHONA. 



(See BepoH on 'page 322.) 



The great district of Dinibula has well followed 

 the eflForts of the two sister districts to diffuse \a\n- 

 able information connected with the planting enter- 

 prize. Tea, so fully dealt with at the Dikoya and 

 Maskeliya meetings, did not, on this occasion, form a 

 subject of discussion. Attention was mainly directed 

 to the old and important staple, coffee, which was 

 the subject of a careful report, wliile a subsidiary 

 discussion brought out some valuable facts regardicg 

 cinchona, specimens of what we may hope to see 

 when a report similar to that on coffee is prepared 

 by the competent sub-Committee appointed for the 

 purpose. When the various district Committees have 

 completed the discussions and reports on which they 

 are now engaged, it might be well for the Centi'al 

 body to appoint a Committee for the purpose of 

 bringing the scattered information into a focus, — facts 

 independently obtained from estates and districts 

 beyond the scope of tlie districts which have taken 

 action, being embodied, and a general report founded 

 on the whole. In this way trustworthy information 

 might be recorded and issued in the most authorit- 

 ative form possible. 



Meantime it \v\\\ be seen that facts collected in 

 the Dimbula district make altogether in favour of 

 ^vhat might he regarded as the foregone conclusion, 

 that coffee, fairly slieltered and with a good ex- 

 posure, still responds appreciably to manuring, prun- 

 ing and culti\ation generally. Coffee entirely ne- 

 glected has not only gone down in amount of yield, 

 but has in many cases, absolutely ceased to yield 

 fruit. 



No intelligent and experienced planter, we suppose, 

 will deny tlie value of continued, systematic high 

 cultivation. But there are several difficulties in the 

 way. In the first place, the planter has to answer 

 tlie (juestion, " Where is the money to come from ?" 

 and in the next, "If I can even procure the 

 money to enable me to manure liberally and cul- 

 tivate carefully, will the results be commensurate with 

 the expenditure ? May not the effects, mainly, of 

 the application of manure, (costly in itself and costly 

 in application,) be to feed cockchafer gi-ubs below 

 ground and the spores of the insidious, life-exhaust- 

 ing fungus above?" Some planters who most be- 

 lieved in and practised manuring, have ceased to apply 

 fertilizing materials, not merely because of paucity of 

 means, bnt because their experience had sliewn that 

 a liberal application, especially of cattle dung to the 

 cofiee bushes, went chiefly to feed grubs snd Hnnileia 

 m^tatrix. In the worst of such cases, no doubt, 

 fruit-bearing was increased in some degree, and the 

 strength of the trees largely uplield in their life and 

 death struggle with insect and fungal plagues. But 

 if, year after year, the returns from cultivated land, 

 continue to be less and less in proportion to the ex- 

 expenditure, what wonder if heait and hope fail and 

 eultivation is neglected ? Hard beyond measure is 

 the case of the large class described by Mr. Talbot, 

 who have only coffee to rely upon, and who, dis- 

 appointed of the looked-for returns from their one 

 product, are not able even if they were willinc to 

 supersede or supplement it by new products. The 

 deductions from facts collected in Dimbula, however, 

 are that, while unmauured coffee has gone down to 

 42 



from 2 cwt. per acre to nothing, the crops from 

 manured coffee range from 3 to 10 cwt. per acre : the 

 average being 5j cwt. Such being the result, the 

 great question is the cost of the manure and its .ap- 

 plication, as compared with the value realized by the 

 crops gathered. Information in this direction is not 

 afforded, nor do we get definite figures for the cost 

 of cattle manure, which still holds its position with 

 such artificial manures as steamed bones and bone 

 meal, which, in various mixtures have given the 

 best results. The cost of artificial manuring varies 

 from R45 to R70, or taking the average, 1!.")7, some- 

 what over the average selling price of a cwt. of 

 good plantation coffee. If the result of such expej\di- 

 ture should be to raise a production of only 2 cwt. 

 per acre to an average of 5| cwt., there can be no 

 question that the operation is not only paying but 

 very profitable. The most striking result of the ex- 

 perience of planters, since the advent of hemUeia 

 vaxtatflx is the disfavour into which oil-cakes — coco- 

 nut and even white castor poonac — have fallen. In 

 Dimbula the once favoured substances are put out of 

 court. In this connection we may mention what we 

 heard when recently on a visit to "the Agras." A 

 gentleman who owns a coffee estate in that district, 

 o«iis also a coconut oil establishment in Colombo, and 

 the statement was that, finding no market for the oil- 

 cake, he reduced it to ashes, which ashes he applied 

 to his coffee bushes, with the result of putting on 

 them a crop estimated at 10 cwt. per acre. It would 

 be important to obtain the details of this case, be- 

 cause it seems just possible that oil-cakes or other 

 substances objectionable in their raw state, {as tending 

 to the generation of fungi or grubs, or otherwise,) 

 might give good and paying results, in the concen- 

 trated shape of ashes. That the oldest fields should 

 pay the best, may be due to the fact that the bushes 

 being planted before the fungus pest appeared to 

 infect and weaken plants in the nurseries, have been 

 able better to hold their own against fungus and 

 grub and wind. But western exposures have, some- 

 times, in Dimbula given the best crops of cotlee, 

 while fields with an eastern exposure have yielded 

 only disappointment. The decision is just as clear 

 in favour of judicious pruning and handling (the 

 question of allowing weeds to grow was not raised,) 

 as in that of manuring, and the average cost per acre 

 is given at RIO to R14. The average cost of manur- 

 ing with preparations of bones, therefore being R.")? 

 and of efficient pruning and handling 12 



we get a total for the main items of cultivation of R(>9 

 or say H70. This is only R30 short uf the old ortho- 

 dox allowance of RlOO per acre per annum for the 

 cultivation of a coffee estate. With reference to the 

 case of one regularly mamired estate where crops 

 went down from 8 cwt. per acre prior to 18b0, to 

 half that average subsequently, it would l.>e interest- 

 ing to know if the cinchonas put in, in ISSO were 

 the cause of the decrease. We certainly doubt it. 

 There may have been the gradual debilitating etVect 

 of the fungus, aggravated by absence of warmth, or 

 as in Wallaha, grubs may have been responsible for 

 the decrease of TiO per cent. The other details of the 

 best times and modes of m.anuiing and pruning, will 

 receive the attention of planters and no doubt <Uio 

 note will be taken of the fact, that one Dindiula 

 planter, who evidently is nothing if not critical, ob- 

 jected to the "term," heavy or light pruning. As 

 alternatives were mentioned, the scope of the objection 

 must remain a mystery. We hope the objector made 

 up by his presence the m.ajority of one by which the 

 publication at once of the report was carried. 



The discussion on cinchona at the Dimlnda meeting 

 certainly elicited facts directly adverse to the recently 

 broached (Jootrine that bark deteriorates Avith repeated 



