Feb. I, 1887.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



533 



marvellous ; in density more especially. Aa most 

 of our readers are aware, the marked characteristic 

 of this species of acacia is to send up shoots, 

 which in their turn become trees, from every hori- 

 zontal root, and the roots are many and stretch 

 to great distances. All that is wantpd in growing 

 these trees on the patanas, to encourage their ten- 

 dency to form dense groves, is to clear away the 

 grass from the surface soil in their neighbourhood. 

 The tendency to send up innumerable shoots, in- 

 deed, is embarassing where paths are a necessity. 

 In going down the sides of the belts on Albion 

 we literally trod on a earpetting of young acacia 

 shoots. Trom Mr. Wm. Cotton, who, with Mr. W. A. 

 T. Kellow, accompanied us, we learned, as the result 

 of his experience, that as a t'nwher txee, Acacia deal- 

 lata, is excellent for all such purposes as hoe and 

 axe handles, while nothing is better for charcoal. 

 The bearing of these facts and of the rapid ori- 

 ginal growth and recuperative powers of the tree 

 when coppiced, on the future supply of fuel for 

 the tea enterprise, has an importance which can 

 scarcely be exaggerated. Failing the discovery, ,or 

 pending it, of a cheap artiticial fuel, firewood or 

 charcoal from hundreds of square miles of Aracia 

 dexlbata groves might be supplied! Of course other 

 tress can be grown on the mountain prairies of 

 Ceylon, and in Mr. Kellow's case the success of the 

 black wattle, Acacia Melanoxylon, has been such, 

 during the four years, that he has indented on 

 Australia for large supplies of seed. This species 

 of wattle grows into a tine, tall i^yramidal 

 tree, the tendency to send up shoots in its case 

 being slight and easily repressed. So much is the 

 "blackwood" timber of this tree valued in Aus- 

 tralia, that when the eucalypts are "ringed" and 

 destroyed, these acacias are carefully preserved. 

 Nor need the selection of trees for the patanas be 

 confined to natives of Australia, for amongst the 

 wattles we saw, growing luxuriantly, numerous 

 specimens of the European cherry tree which we 

 were interested to find, grows readily from cuttings. 

 Cherry tree wood is much valued in Britain. There 

 can be little doubt the Cryptomerio Japonica and 

 other pines, with Toona cedrela, and many other 

 plants of various species and from different regions 

 of the world, would flourish on and render profit- 

 able the at present vast expanses of waste patanas 

 in Uva and elsewhere amidst the mountains of 

 Ceylon. 



(Continued on page 537.) 



THE BRAZIL COFFEE PEOSPECTS. 



It is very perplexing to find Ceylon coffee falling, 

 even though it be only one shilling per cwt., at 

 the very time we expected it to rise. We refer 

 to the following report published in the latest 

 Public Ledger to hand, from 'a firm that evidently 

 claims to be an authority on the subject of Bra- 

 aii crops, to shew what we mean. It will be observed 

 that the report winds up by saying that prices are 

 bJund to rise rapidly iu January and to advance until 

 the rates of 1873-1-5 are reached : — 



(From the '' Public Ledyer'" Dee. 2Sth.) 

 (From Messrs. Lacerda & Co.'a Report.) 



We think it advisable, under present circumstances 

 to supplement the remarks we had tho honor of laying 

 before you in our circular of 7tli inst., with some fur- 

 ther observations in reference to more recent occur- 

 rences ; and iu doing this we rely' as we did iu our 

 earlier reports, on the knowledge and experience we 

 possess of the cultivation of coffee in Brazil. 



At the date above referred to we showed that o 

 accovmt of the circumstances being entirely differ e ot 



there was no reason at all for expecting this year a 

 late flowering in December-January, aa happened in 

 January, 18S0, attributable to the drought which pre- 

 vailed from May-June to October, 1879. Since the 

 month oi May last the rains have been regular and 

 occasionally excessive. We propose submitting to you 

 certain considerations which may afford you means of 

 arriving at sound conclusions iu spite of contradictory 

 reports and rumours more or less unreliable, professing 

 to gives estimates of the Brazilian crops. 



After so many over-confident assertions, we think 

 that a few observations concerning the method and con- 

 ditions of production in Brazil may not be aut of place 

 here. 



And, as a commencement, it may be of assistance to 

 point out the order of the seasons in the Southern hem- 

 isphere where Spring commeaces on the 24th Sep- 

 tember, and does not end until 21st December, when 

 it gives place to summer, which terminates on the 

 20th March, followed by Autumn, which holds sway 

 until 21st June, which date marks the advent of winter. 



It will be worth while also to recall the fact that 

 coffee crops are alternately heavy and short, aa is 

 well known, at least to all those who understand the 

 difference between cultivation by means of periodical 

 sowings, and cultivation by plantation ; m the former 

 case the soil only is exhausted by production, whilst in 

 the latter the exhaustion of the plant is added to that 

 of the soil, which has a direct and sometimes long- 

 continued influence on a production invariably of the 

 same nature, 



It will be equally to the point if we introduce here a 

 few remarks on the subject of the influence of age on 

 coffee plants in connection with their power to bear 

 fruit. 



Considerable time is required to bring a coffee plant 

 into condition to bear fruit, and this period is generally 

 calculated at from four to five years. From four to 

 eighteen years of age the plant gives a regular yearly 

 product and remunerates the planter. 



From eighteen to thirty years of age the production 

 becomes alternately good and poor, that is to say a 

 year in which the plant gives a satisfactory return is 

 followed by one in which the production is small. 



When once this latter period is passed, the crops 

 from such trees become more and more irregular and 

 according to the geological and climatic conditions of 

 the plantations, the productive power of the coffee 

 plants goes on diminishing, and finally almost or entirely 

 disappears. 



It would be wrong also to omit any reference to what 

 has been described as the disease of coft'ee plant. 

 On this subject the Jonial do Coinviercio of Rio Ja- 

 neiro, in its issue of 4th June last published the fol- 

 lowing: — 



" Disease iu the Coffee Plant. — The Minister of Agri- 

 culture despatched the day before yesterday the fol- 

 lowing notification to the Director-General of the Na- 

 tional Museum. 



" As it is desirable to obtain precise information re- 

 specting *^he cause of tho disease which is devastating; 

 the coffee plants throughout a large extent of the pro- 

 vince of Rio Janeiro, chiefly in the municipalities of 

 Sauta Maria Magdalena, S. Fidelis and Cantagallo, I 

 have determined to charge Professor Etnilio Goldi, 

 sub-director of your museum, with the duty of follow- 

 ing up this matter in the districts named, and after 

 ah necessary investigations, I wish him to present a 

 detailed report on the subject, indicating at the same 

 time the measures which he may judge to be expedient 

 in order to diminish the effects of the disease, to arrest 

 its further development, as well as to attack it in its 

 very origin. 



" The Professor alluded to will receive from you 

 such instructions as you may deem useful, and you 

 will please to demand of this department «uoh facilities 

 as may secure the success of the commission herein 

 indicated." 



The disease which is here alluded to is "ot attribut- 

 able in our opinion to anything more than the advan- 

 ced age of the Coffee plants, and to the fact that the 



oil is worn out, for it. is to be observed that the muni- 



ipahties to which reference is made are especially 



hose iu which the cultivation of Oottee was first deveU 



