June 2, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



80S 



MR. HALLILEY'S PRO-WEED THEORY. 



There is nothing like having the courage of one's 

 couvictions, and so Mr. Halliley takes occasion from 

 \iu name being mentioned in tbe local " Times " 

 emphatically to re-iterate his theory that leaf-dieease 

 anil short crops are coeval with and the consequences 

 (if clean weeding insisted on in 1867. He goes much 

 on the fact that coflfee is a surface-feeder. But so 

 arc th^ vast majority ol weeds, and, as two bodies 

 ca inot occupy the same point iu space, Mr. Halliley 

 m ght, concede, tliat if two surface feeders are left 

 to feed on the same nutriment, they will either share 

 it half-and-half, or one will go to the wall. On 

 thu doctrine of " the survival of the fittest " most 

 )jeople believe that the weeds (mainly indigenous) 

 would have the best of it against the foreign coffee, 

 but Mr. Hallilej sticks to his theory that weeds, 

 alive as well as dead, are good for coffee. The 

 jinnter has done the advocate of vegetation in the 

 wrong place considerable injustice ; for instance, in 

 the passage where " Ducandole the acknowledged 

 : uthority ou Arboriculture " is represented as stating 

 that " there is a very great similarity between trees 

 und man, as both man and trees in the first instance 

 convert their food into the same substance, 'chye,' 

 Mr. Halliley, of course, wrote " chyle," but the printer 

 did not make him pen the truism : — " With a oon- 

 rtant state of growth, there can be no stoppage of 

 growth," which all will admit, even thosB who like 

 ourselves believe that the perfection of all cultivation 

 is to prevent weeds from competing with the cultiv- 

 ated product. As to the disposal of weeds, that is quite 

 jtnother question, and "mulching" with withered 

 weeds might answer where heavy rains are not likely 

 to sweep the covering downhill and into the ravines. 

 Burying seems the better process; if with sonie lime, 

 30 much the better still. But, while Mr. Halliley 

 insists that clean weeding brought on the develop- 

 ment of the fungus, and that coffee would flourish 

 best with a moderate surface-covering of weeds, it 

 is unfortunate that all the scientists should be against 

 him and phould insist on the burning of weeds, leaves 

 and pruuinga, so as not to afford a 7tidus to the 

 spores of Hemileia vastatrix. " I was told," writes 

 Mr. Halliley, 



'* by the former proprietor of Rathangodde that when 

 that was a weedy estate it used to give good crops, and that 

 all the manure it used to get was onlv round about the 

 cattle-shed, so that it cannot be the weather or the season." 

 But when Rabatuugoda was a weedy estate, was 

 in the days of its j'outh when the soil enabled the 

 coffee to grow and fruit well in spite of the weeds. 

 Ceylon planters may have gcme to excess in the 

 matter of clean weeding ; but that weeds any more 

 than " thorns and thistles" are a good and not an 

 evil to bo as much as possible kept down and got rid 

 of, few intelligent planters, we suspect, will admit. 

 But in case anyone should like to try Mr. Halliley 's 

 system, here are its principles as stated by him- 

 self :— 



Every book that treats on coffee tells us that coffee is a 

 surface feeder, and any one who has had anything to do 

 with coffee must have noticed that when coffee was vigorous, 

 or becoming vigorous, it sent roots to the surface. Under 

 the clean-weeding system as carried out these roots are 

 drstroyed and we have been trying to force our trees to 

 became sulisoil feeders — with what result we all knew to 

 our cost. We cannot change the nature of a tree ; all we 

 can do is to assist nature, and, by assisting the nature of the 

 coffee tree, we a.ssist it to bear and be fruitful. The proper 

 way to cultivate cotfee is without doubt with a carpet of 

 weeds, taking care to keep these weeds down as au inter- 

 mediate and not allow them to grow up and become a 

 suhntitute. In wet weather, those weeds will absort* any 



superabundance of moisture and thus prevent the coffee 

 taking up too much, and thus causing the impoverishment 

 of its sap ; as when the sap of a tree becomes impover- 

 ished, as soon as there is a Uttle bright sun-shine, mildew 

 is the result. In weeding, the proper place to put the 

 weeds is on the surface of the ground, round the stem of 

 the tree. In wet weather, these weeds will rot and form 

 food which the tree will take up by these roots that it 

 sends to the surface. In dry weather, these weeds will 

 shade the roots and keep them moist : that moisture will 

 keep the tree iu a constant state of growth. 

 And here is a trau-cendental passage for those who 

 believe with Darwin in the evil effects of self- 

 fertilization and the value of insects in aiding cross- 

 fertilization : — 



If we read the account of the creation, we find that the 

 vegetable kingdom was created in the third period, and 

 that bees were not created till the sixth period, so that 

 can any one state that trees did not bear fruit for two 

 whole periods, although they were created with their seed 

 within themselves each to bring forth seed after its kind; 

 so that what ails our coffee can only be the cultivation? 

 " Cultivation " in Mr. Halliley's estimation being the 

 cherishing of a well-regulated carpet of weeds, while, 

 iu his opinion, it shows tbe hardy nature of the 

 coffee-plant that it could so long have survived the 

 deprivation of weeds to which it has been so recklessly 

 ubjeoted.— Q. E. D. 



FROM CAROLINA TO FLORIDA. 



Under this heading there is a letter in The 

 Times from which we quote a portion, as Florida and 

 its orange orchards are of some interest to us here iu 

 Ceylon : — 



For 90 miles the railway goes south-west- 

 ward from Savannah on au almost straight line, through 

 the great pine belt of Southern Georgia, and then, 

 making a right-angled bend, is .in aim ist equally 

 straight line for nearly the same distance south-eastward 

 towards the coast. It traverses the edge of the famous 

 Oketiiiokee swamp, a moipt and mushy region of 

 mystery and Indian legend, drained by the poetic 

 Suwannee river, which has given the scene for a well- 

 known negro melody. This streams flows into the 

 Gulf, and on the eastern side this extt-nsive swamp 

 overflows into the winding St. Mary's river, leading to 

 the Atlantic, which the railw.iy crosses into Florida. 

 More pine woods, much of it cut off for timber, and 

 growing out of a sandy soil as level as a door in which 

 every depression and fissure is full of water, is then 

 crossed ; and the balsamic odours of these pines 

 combined with the mildness of the climate, are the 

 attraetiong that make Jncksonville such a popular 

 health resort. The line finally comes out upon the 

 broad St. John's river, and the train lands us at 

 the Florida metropolis, which has grown from 1,000 

 peop'e iu 1S50 to 7,000 iu I8S0, and probably, under 

 the recent stimulus, to 18,000 now — a Northern city 

 set upon Southern soil, 900 miles from New York, 

 a distance that is traversed in about SOhours by ex- 

 press trains now, and next season will probably, by 

 increasing speed and making better arrangements, 

 be run in 24 hours. Jacksonville has been built by 

 Northern capital and is a watering place with fine 

 hotels and a fashionable Northern society in the winter, 

 when many thousands come here from tlie North, 

 seeking gentler air and a balmy climate. The 

 negro seen here is a somewhat ditlerent type from 

 the listless " darkey " of the Carolinas anri Georgia. 

 Contact with the energetic men of the North has in- 

 fused life into him, and the hotels, which are con- 

 ducted by Northern landlords, are managed on an 

 improved plan compared with those of the o^her 

 Southern seaboard towns. He'e, with the large influx 

 of whites, the Irishman also reappears among the 

 labouring class. The " craker " wanders into town 



