4$8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1884. 



believe all the coffee iu Ceylon comes from one stock. 

 I do not know with what other stock it could be crossed, 

 Iu this respict, its fertilizatinn, or source, was the same 

 as all the young coffee phmts or seeds which viere 

 being planted, the same yiar. on the many clearirgs all 

 over the country. Unless, indeed, in a few exceptional 

 cases (so late as that year) seed from very old coffee 

 might be said to be only two degrei-s removed from 

 the first importation, inet'^ad of as was generally the 

 case everywhere many generations removed ! 



2. Question \»t.—From whevce. loas the seed ohtained 

 that served to plant that ealate (u'here leaf-disease 

 has Jirsl. reported)/ First, as to my qualification 

 to answer these questions ; I opened and planted 

 these estates myself. I procured stumps (and 

 stumps only with one exception to be presently 

 noticnd) from every possible quarter. No nurseries 

 existed that first year, and no seed was used at all. Pre- 

 vious to that year, extension round about Badulla was 

 limited and slow, jungle plants plentiful aud nurseries 

 almost unknown. The land was felled at once after 

 it was bought, and there was a scramble for planis. 

 I, as well as my few neighbours, scoured the villages 

 all round for miles ; and, so far as 1 can remember, 

 these plants only were used, except a few I collected 

 from the Spring Valley forest, and some others above 

 referred to. The Sinhalese brought thim up in bundles 

 already stumped (so that their leaves were not observed) 

 and were paid cash on delivery. Notwithstanding this, 

 the coffee on " Doomoo" and " Galloola," apart from 

 leaf-disease, and in spite of leaf-disease, turned out 

 equal to any in the country. Whence the coffee trees 

 in these many villages came and what was their 

 condition when the seed dropped from them which 

 produced these stumps, this deponent knoweth not — 

 nor does any other man. 



But it so happens that one circumstance, pertinent 

 to this enquiry, I do know aud remembrr. So greatly 

 was I driven for plants, that I fell back upon quite 

 young seedlings from under the trees on a small estate 

 of my own, in the Laggaloya valley, at the foot of 

 the Madulsima range, which estate, that year, bore 

 considerably over 10 ewt. per acre I And finer or 

 healthier young coffee never was seen. These small 

 seedlings I planted on Galloola between the river aud 

 O'Brien'8 gap, the very part upon which Mr. Donald 

 Eeid first discovered the fungus, and where very soon 

 after (for I was .it home at that time) I saw boys 

 and girla trying to check its spread by picking them 

 off to be burnt. At that time the parent trees had no 

 disease upon them. Now, :^heneesoever the plants 

 were obtained, Ibe lcaf-diseo.'-;e did not appear upon 

 them until the third year of their age, when they 

 were large trees : they were planted iu virgin forest 

 soil ; had never been manured at all ; had been always 

 kept quite free from weeds ; were (as I have said 

 before, but repeat here to make this account an ex- 

 haustive one) in detached clearings with forest, in a 

 detached district, full olhexs at the time and for some 

 years after. And here, perhaps, the editor will permit 

 me to digress, just to say that I noticed his ex- 

 clamation of surprise on my m.iking lliis assertion on 

 a previous occasion and to explain that on and off I 

 resided on Doomoo from 1869 (the year of its discovery) 

 till 1873 when I left fur good. 



I have little more to add. " Swaddy" will find his 

 other quistions included in the above answer. The 

 subject is important as affecting the possible appear- 

 ance of some such fungoid growth on our tea trees, 

 but I do not think we are any nearer to a solution 

 of the mystery. The selection of seed for annuals (such 

 as wheat) mvsthtf of high importance, as any imper- 

 fection in it IS shown at once in the germ and plant 

 It produces ; and for perennials it should not be ne- 

 glected. But, surely, if a seed produces a healtby tree, 



vigorous and prolific for years, not much fault can be 

 found with it. 



Every effect has a cause, but the origin of leaf- 

 dieease has yet to he discovert d : so hns its remedy 

 and cure. But looking rtiuud me now, after ten years 

 absence from the country, knowing what the leaf- 

 disease was in its earliest years and seeing wlmt it is 

 now in its dotage, I cannot help coming to the con 

 elusion that weakly old coffee in old districts owes its 

 present condition lar more to cinchona and yrtd> ihan 

 to leaf-desease, iintessiis prts^nt rootless condition is 

 also a consequence of the fungus, iu which case Mr. 

 Grub is a very much abused gentleman. Insuffici- 

 ency f'f roots and not of foliage (otberwiee than as an 

 effect) is what ails our coffee trees at present. — Yours 

 truly, A 0. C. S. 



£hea Fibke : M. Favier's Process.— We call 

 attention to the interesting letter from Mr, Kay- 

 Shuttleworth on this subject, which will be fouud 

 on page 486. Our correspondent will be inter- 

 ested to learn that Dr. Foi bes Watson aud Mr. 

 R. Collyer — than whom notwo men living have given 

 greater attention for a very long period to the 

 question of utilizing rhea fibre — after being present 

 in Paris at a series of dem nstrations of the value 

 of the Favier as well as the Fr^my process, re- 

 turned to England highly satisfied with the result. 

 But they were then induced to attend trials of the 

 Death & Elwood's machine with rhea, and the re- 

 sult according to Mr. Thomas Christy and the 

 Planters' Qaxette is that both these authorities 

 agree that from the English machine we have as good 

 resulls as from the Favier process, if not the Favier 

 Freniy process combined. VVe await the confirmation 

 of this report from Messrs. Watson and Collyer, for, 

 if the £5,000 offered by the Indian Government is 

 to be claimed, their report must soon appear. Mean- 

 time, nothing can be more satisfactory than the 

 samples left at our oti5ce of M. Favier's work, re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Kay-Shuttleworth. The manager 

 of a large planting company in Southern India 

 writes to enquire if we can supply Dr. Forbes Watson's 

 report on the cultivation of rhea. This was published 

 at AUahab.id many years ago, but we have come across 

 a copy from which we are taking all that is of practical 

 value for republication iu the 'J'roj)ical A(j)icuUurist. 

 In a previous letter lying by us since November 

 19th, Mr. Kay Shuttleworth wrote :—" But since I last 

 wrote to you about the local kmd, I have seen it 

 growing iu every part of the hill-couniry that I 

 have visited, from above 6,000 dowu to Polgaba- 

 wella. Enclosed is a rough specimen of the local 

 fibre which you will find very similar to the sample 

 given me by M. Favier. The names of the local 

 kind are Urtica verrucosa aud Morocarpus (Dibregtasia) 

 longifulia. The Sinhalese call it 'gambatu,' and the 

 Tamils use it for fishing iu Tanjore, &c., but I forget 

 what they call it. That it grows throughout the hill- 

 country here, and in the plains of India, and that 

 other varieties grow in the Dchra Doon in India, aud 

 that the French aud ILiIiaus are cnllivating it iu their 

 warmer valleys is certain, but how will it pay ua 

 commercially, or as a planter's crop ? If it pays in Italy 

 and France, as M. Favier thinks it does, for he 

 has shares iu such plantations, surely it may be 

 expected to pay in a country where it is indigenous, 

 if we have the proper appliances, &c. But where iu 

 these days is the iiiouey, or the faith in Ceylon 

 that would bring money for even a certainty? For 

 such tried things as tea aud cocoa and Uva eofl'ee 

 aud cinchona it is hardly to be got, so I fear that 

 any one of the hundred and ono other tropical 

 things must wait a bit," 



