40O 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883 



true Uva railway, along every mile of which the 

 climate is perfect, the scenery a combination of the 

 grand and beautiful, while nature is waiting for the 

 tbe operations of enterprise and iodustry on a 

 soil which will reward bjth. Apart from exten- 

 sion of tiie plauting enterpiise pnipur, it is ini- 

 possible to siy how miieli grain and root and fruit 

 cultivation, with tbe rearing of stock, may be de- 

 veloped in the magnificent valleys of Uva when it 

 is joined by the iron bands of the railway to the 

 niBtropolis of the island, the harbour of which ia the 

 constant resort of the ships and the people of all 

 the nations. Holding such convictions, we ra-e grate- 

 ful to the Koslanda plauter who has supplied us 

 with rainfall returus indicative of a peiiect tea 

 climate. He has sent us complete figures for the 

 five jears ended 1882, as follows : — 



Years. Inches. 



1878 ... ... ... 95-35 



1879 ... 96-22 



1880 ... ... ... 9.3-53 



1881 PS-04 



18S2 81-63. 



The average is almost exactly 93 inches, which 

 average 1883 is expected to exceed, the fall to 29th 

 Oct. having been 82-26 inches. Our correspondent 

 has also supplied the monthly figures which show 

 the distribution of the raiufall over the year, of 

 special importance with reference to tea cultivation and 

 we Eubmit very satisfactory. Having deduced the 

 averages from the table sent (o us, we find that in 6 

 years the raiufall in Janu.nry varied from 2-69 inches 

 and 6 rainy days to 12-C4 inches and 14 days: the 

 avei-ages being 664 inches and 11 days. In February 

 the range was from '20 to 10-61 inches aud 1 to 13 

 rainy days'- the averages being 4 '30 aud 6 respectively 

 March ranged from 2-31 to 20-42 inches and 5 to 21 

 days : the averages being 6 inched and 10 days. In 

 i^pril the ramfall varied from 3-96 to 20-01 inches and 

 the rainy days from 10 to 18 : the averagi-s being 12-13 

 inches and 15 days. May gave a range of 4-59 to 13-10 

 inches aud 10 to 23 days : the averages being 6 inche 

 and 13 days. June varied from -23 to 3-28 inches aus 

 ."to 8 days : tbe averages being 1-20 inches and 5 

 (lays. July ranged from 15 to 11-75 inches and 1 to 



16 days: the averages for this monlh being 4-58 inches 

 audio days. August varied from 1-54 to 6 35 inchea 

 and 9 to 13 days. The averages were: inches 4-21; 

 rainy days 1 1. In September the range was 1-45 inch 

 to 7-43, aud from 4 to 13 rainy days. The averages 

 ■were 4 35 inches aud 9 days. We now come 

 to aver:iges for only fiv.i years. October varied 

 from 7'49 to 19-iO inches aud 14 to 22 days, with 

 averages of 13 inches and 15 d.ays. Kovember is by 

 far the rainiest montli, havinj; varied from 1042 

 inches to 20 80 aud 12 to 2U d^ys. The averages are 



17 inches and 17 rainy days. December gavearao^c of 

 S-66 to 17-35 inches and 12 to 22 days ; the averages being 

 12-60 inches and 18 days. At Koslanda, therefore, the 

 average annual rainfall is from 92 to 93 inches falling on 

 140 days ; the monthly vjiriations being from 1-20 inch 

 and 5 days iu June to 17 iuchis and 17 days in Novem- 

 ber. The bulk of the rain falls in the three con- 

 cluding months of the year, which will probably 

 be the pruni itf season in this district as well as 

 in Uva generally. Kaiulall iu the spring of tbe year 

 is not of such cons-eiiucnce in Ceylon, where our 

 only winter is a winter of rainfall, but about one 

 third of the total rainfall occurs between 1st Jan. 

 aud 30th April. There is a geni.^l climate with 

 warm air from the lowlands all ihe time, and it 

 will be sceu that our correspondent describes the 

 i-aiu as falling chiefly at night. Nothing could be 

 niore proniiaing for tcu cultivation iiud railway 

 extension. 



AUSTRALIAN TREES ON THE NILGIRIS. 

 When the mysterious disease appeared which spotted 

 and withered the leaves and cankered the stems of the 

 eucalypti in Uimbula and the neighbouring districts, 

 we felt inclined to attribute the affection to high 

 altitude as well as to the excessive moisture and 

 cold wmd of the south-west monsoon of 1882. Bitt 

 from the facts recorded iu a report with which we 

 have been favoured by the Madras Governmeut on 

 " Measurement of the Growth of Australian Trees on 

 the Nilgiris," we are compelled entirely to abandon 

 this idea. The higher the elevation at which the 

 blue gums are gro\vn on the Nilgiris— and plantations 

 exist at 7,550 feet above sea-level — the more the 

 trees have flourished and the more rapid has been 

 the rate of mcrement. On the Nilgiris the soil is 

 probably mot'e suitable, and, although the wmd can 

 blow witli any possible horsepower on the Utaka- 

 mand plateau, the raiufall generally is not nntch more 

 than one- half that which falls on the region between 

 Nuwara Eliya aud Adam's Peak, while there are 

 longer intervals of dry weather. Frosts occur on 

 the Nilgiris, of which we know nothing in Ceylon, 

 but the eucalypti and acacias of Australia have to 

 endure pretty severe frost in their native habitat. 

 The terrible southwest monsoon of 1882 did, how- 

 ever, injuriously afl'ect the plantations exposed to 

 its influence, the foliage at least suft'eriug as in Cey- 

 lon, although in the report before us we see no 

 mention of stem mortification. We quote as follows :~ 

 During tbe past unusually violent monsoon there is no 

 doubt, however, that some of the plantations to the west 

 of Ootacamuud liave suffered severely. Large portions of 

 the Guveruor's shola group of Eucalypt plantations have 

 hid their foliage nipped aud scathed as if fire or frost 

 had passed over them. The acre-increment for the pre- 

 sent year iu these plautatious cannot but be lowered and 

 the trees must suffer in health. The past severe mousoon 

 has in uo marked way affected the plautatious to the east 

 of the Uodabetta range. I have nowhere observed that 

 pecuUar action of the mou.soon by which the young foliage 

 of the blue-gum is withered, shrivelled and killed. 



This action is not analogous to a wuiteriug or fall of 

 the leaf : it is the young foliage and tender shoots at the 

 top of the trees which are attacked first. Probably, in 

 ordinary years, or always where the situation is sheltered, 

 in the cooler and damper climate of the west side of the 

 Dodabetta range, the Ootacamuud plantations (other cir- 

 cumstances being equal) have a higher acre-increment than 

 the plantations near Ooouoor aud Wellmgton. Where the 

 effect of the monsoon is most to be considered iu the 

 Ootacamuud plantations is, when we come to compare the 

 stock on the total area with that on the sample area. 

 In plantations in exposed situations to the west of Ootaca- 

 muud, the stock is iu places deficient aud irregular ; here 

 and there are areas where planting has been a failure. 

 In the Coonoor plantations the stock is generally more 

 regular and more equal throughout to that ou the sample 

 .irea. Doubtless the question of plantmg shelter bands of 

 dense growing trees to the wiudward of plantations in ex- 

 posed tracts ^viU receive attention. The blue-gum with its 

 lender branches and scanty foliage is itself singularly 

 unfitted for planting as a barrier iigainst wind. A dense 

 band of Acacia metunoxyloii would be more serviceable m 

 this respect. The foUowing trees are of rapid growth at 

 Ootacamuud as may be noticed in the c.ise of the fine 

 specimens of them in the Governmeut gardens, aud they 

 appear well fitted for planting as barriers against the 

 wind and for forest purposes generally :— , , 



Fcciida thomhoicha or oyster-bay piue,* seeds and re- 

 produces itself readily from seed. There is a thicket of 

 self-sown seedli ngs of these trees near Bishopsdown. 

 "T^StatalTiTbe an. important forest tree iu the colony 

 of South AustraUa— ride Conservator's 1st Annual Report, 

 "Indian I'orester," 1880. 



