452 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



PLANTING IN THE LOW COUNTKY NEAR 



HENAKATGODA. 



16th Nov. 18S3. 



It vni\ indicate the sort of weather we have been liav- 

 iug when I say that I put down a tea nmsery on the 

 6th ult. and have not since found it necessary to give 

 an artificial watering : there has not in the six weeks 

 been thirty hours without rain. As regards the amount 

 of rain, I had occasion some time ago to liig a pit eight 

 feet square and three feet deep into which, I directed 

 the surface drainage, of somewhat less t'lan 1,000 feet ; 

 on two occasions that pit was filled to overflowing. The 

 weather has been such that the labour' has been much 

 interfered mth, and weeds have gone so ahead that I had 

 to suspend eveiy other operation, and set all hands weeding. 



The coffee is beginning to ripen. Ucmiltia has been 

 hard on many individual coffee ti-ees, but the attack has 

 not hitherto been so general as last year ; but on this 

 occasion it is mostly the largest and finest trees that it 

 has selected for destruction. 



I planted out half an acre of cardamoms on the 16th 

 of last month, and there are few if any failui-es. I have 

 since sown as much seed as ought to give me all the 

 plants I will require for a ten-acre field. I am satisfied 

 that seedlings will be more economical than bulbs at 

 RIO per 1,000, and from recent observation I believe that 

 the gain in time, by using the latter, «-ill not be great. 

 From seed sown only six months ago, I have seen 

 ■vigorous plants of eighteen inches high. 



I have recently planted out 1.50 cloves as an experiment, 

 and their appearance is encouragiug, where the plants were 

 well-gro«-n and healthy to begin with, but unfortunately 

 some of the plants had beeu injured by water in the 

 seed-bed. 



I have continued to plant out pepper, as I could get 

 suitable slips. Thej' attach themselves readily to the sur- 

 face of the rocks, wherever there is scurf of vegetable 

 matter, but very reluctantly to a bare washed surface. 

 The most advanced plants are twelve feet high and well 

 branched. As my progi'ess in extending this cultivation 

 is not so rapid as I could wish and the price of slips at 

 the Government garden absurdly high, so I propose, as 

 soon as I can get ripe seed, to put down a nursery. It 

 will take many thou.sands of plants to give all the" rocks 

 on the place a chance of becoming useful ; and I have 

 planted about 500 imhul pUiiits, along the roads with the 

 ultimate view of attaching a pepper plant to each, but 

 even for their o^vn produce, I am credibly informed, 

 there is an inexhaustible market in Australia. [And now 

 in Britain. — Ed.J 



The continued wet weather has been very injurious to 

 the cacao : thousands of pods, of all sizes, have rotted 

 on the trees before coming to maturity. I am afraid I 

 must admit the new cacao field as a failure : fully one- 

 half of the plants are gone, and of those that remain 

 more than one-half are not promising. I have given the 

 best parts of the soil another chance by putting down 

 fresh seed, but I will plant up the land with cardamoms 

 as soon as the plants .ire ready. 



Some of the tea is growing very well in the field, but 

 it haugs back on parts that have very promising soil ; and 

 all over the growth is very unequal, and the failures 

 numerous. The nursery has now been six weeks down. 

 The most advanced plants are four to five inches. I have 

 still no certainty as to tlie percentage of plants for seed 

 I am likely to get : less than one-half has yet germinated ; 

 some of the ungerminated seeds still appear perfectly 

 sound, but as many are evidently done for. None of the 

 very small seeds have gerniiriated, and most of the other 

 certain failures have a light brown colour, which, I fancy, 

 is indicative of their liaving been gatliered while in- 

 Bufliciently ripe. I cannot measure the injury done by 

 the seed having fermented and contracted considerable 

 heat in the bags before it reached me, but this is a 

 matter that buyers should attend to, and return all seed 

 that has heated. I know not who suggested wet moss as 

 packing for fre^ h tea seed, but I know that it Tvill rather 

 promote than retard fermentation. I would not insist on 

 powdered charcoal, but dry sand, or, where that is not at 

 hand, common earth, dried, poundc<l, and sifted, will 

 answer as well, and effectually prevent fermentation, 



i have not lately beeu luaking any experiments iu the 



harvesting of rubber, but I have several projects which I 

 will test, at a convenient season. That was a rather re- 

 markable advice given by the rubber expert the other 

 day, but I hope it will not be followed by the Oeylon 

 planters, whose honour and reputation are concerned 

 in the character of their produce. It may be true, that 

 the buyers of rubber discount as much as forty per cent 

 for foreign matter in the samples with w'hicli the markets 

 ai'e now supplied, but they will not long continue that 

 practice with parcels absolutely pure. I woukl have my 

 brother planters take all the pains they can to supply 

 an article unmixed with any foreign substance whatso- 

 ever, and trust it to find its value iu the market ou its 

 own merits. There can be no gain in sending earth 

 and gravel half round the world, and the certain recovery 

 of the forty per cent discount for dirt will cover all extra 

 cost. 



ALL ABOUT TEA. 



{Hi/ a K. C. £. on Tva-totum.) 



Tea is a bush, and good tea needs no hush. Now this 

 is a thing no fellah can understand. A man who gets a 

 good flush is soon flush of money and has nothing owiii'. 

 No tea planter should be without a T square, or he is sure 

 to get mixed, which is quite an art by itself and does not 

 matter to anyone but a, Mtn-hunt. Be sm'e you buy high- 

 bred tea, as low varieties ain't no sort of use. 



Germinated tea seed is very good ; but some say China 

 is the best, at any rate there is much to learn upon tliis 

 point. Ask for tips. 



When j'ou begin to gather leaf da(i)ly, then yon must 

 look out ; and do not ' iii'e ' your tea too much, if you 

 Itnow anything about ' vetinary ' surgery you will soon see 

 the mistake of tliis, and when you make, or all take, tea 

 do not have any more iron in the water than you can help. 

 Solder the water a little and it will be a soft Uquor. 

 Never drawer tea too long, unless you are sure the 'being 

 in the wood' a long time will not make it fusty. Tea 

 may be tippy, but this can only be ensm'ed by having 

 pekoe and not broken. Souchong is not a China tea, and 

 congou does not come from Africa. Brick tea is not made 

 of Loudon clay, but is much used upon steppes. 



Indian tea is not black like Indian ink or Asiatics, but 

 is quite green like coffee until withered. Persons in train- 

 ing should not drink much tea even if tee-totallers as 

 they may get a regular ' tannin ' when it comes to the time 

 for the struggle. 



A maundering sort of per.son should never be about 

 a tea-house, and it requires a man of small bulk to 

 get off a good break. A break-down in any way will give 

 one a severe dance, and an accident to your Sirvcco will 

 fill you with a disgust. A maund of seed is a measure, 

 but half-measures will spoil your seed. Some people 

 ferment their tea too long, and then it is not as sweet as 

 JIaj/ which is a ' sinc-qua.' The Ceylon people have 

 great hope in tea, and in their pilgrimage about Adam's 

 Peak iu search of land have made their progress as well 

 estabhshed as Bum/mi's. However, I will not tcas(e) you 

 with further details, and will conclude with one word of 

 advice, and that is to triumph te(a)duce ! 



Desteoyixg Tire Phvlloxeh.1, — It is not necessary to 

 destroy ^^ines in order to get rid of the phylloxera. Carbon 

 bisulphide and sulpho-carbonate of potassium have been, 

 and continue to be, very extensively and successfully used 

 in \Tneyards where the phylloxera has appeared. Carbon 

 bisulphide is used where water is scarce. There are two 

 objections to its use — it is explosive, and it cheeks the Yine 

 to which it is applied. Sulpho-carbonate of potassium is 

 used where water is plentiful; it destroys the phylloxera 

 without checking the Vines, and it acts as a maum'e. For 

 1 square y:ird of soil the application should be I5 oz. dissolved 

 in 5 gallons of water ; this mixture shoidd be poxu-cd on 

 gradually, so that it may sink evenly into the soil. For 

 this country sidpho-carbonate of potassium has beeu manu- 

 factm-ed wholesale by Messrs. Wm. Bailey & Son of A\'(>lver- 

 hampton. — G. T., Oporto. — Journal of Horticvlitirf. [If the 

 remedy were effective on a large .scale, we should not con- 

 tinue to here of the <lestruction of viney.ards in France and 

 other countries. — Ep. 



