March i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



605 



it 18 stated that " the greenLecanium has spread at 

 an extraordinary rate, aud we have in consequence been 

 compelled to abandon a large acreage of coffee aud 

 replant the ground with tea. This species is vastly 

 more destructive than anything of the kind that has 

 previously been experieuced. The ravages of L. coffeea, 

 were nothing in comparisou. It is curious that though 

 they have been increasing so rapiiily, there has been 

 apparently no generation of male insects." 



The foregoing facts are of sufficient importance to 

 owners of plantations to induce them to devote more 

 attention to the subject than hitherto appears to have 

 been done, and by investigation, to hit upou remedies 

 in view to protecting their plantations from the 

 ravages of these insect pests. — Indian AyricultHriat , 



THE CULTIVATION OF POTATOS ON THE 



NILGIRIS. 

 The cultivation of potatos on the Hills dates from 

 the earliest settlement of Europeans. Analogy of 

 climate si:ggeeted its introduction to the first settlers, 

 and experimental efforts were crowned with uniform 

 success, for it took kindly to the soil and became in 

 time a valuable addition to the food production of 

 the district. In the early days of European occup- 

 ation Government were disposed to assist settlers of 

 energy and enterprise with advances of money for 

 general farming purposes, the acclimatization oi new 

 products being one of the n.ost important. The Kaity 

 valley and Kulhutti were originally selected for ex- 

 periments with potatos, and to this day these places 

 retain a reputation for growing the finest tubers in 

 the greatest abundance. Thence are derived the best 

 potatos locally consumed and despatched to the plains. 

 Their elevation ranges above 6,000 feet, an altitude 

 below which this vegetable will not thrive, though 

 we are acquainted with two experiments at 3,000 and 

 4,000 feet in the extreme North and South of the 

 Nilgiris which were not quite failures. Up to within 

 the last fifteen or twenty years the cultivation had 

 not gone beyond the range of experiment, but each 

 year the limits were enlarged with satisfactory re- 

 sults. Since then the strides have been rapid, and 

 now it is well establislied among the agricultural 

 classes, who find in it a lucrative and permanent 

 livelihood. 



The extent of land under potatos is estimated at 

 1,000 acres, including large areas of semi-drained 

 swamps within the town of Ootacamund. For these 

 swamps growers pay at the high rate of twenty or 

 twenty-five rupees an acre, and cultivate expensively. 

 Though remunerative crops are obtained on such 

 lands, without much trouble the quality of the out- 

 turn is inferior. The potato when boiled is found to 

 be wet, hard and waxy. Grown on the hill sides in 

 the favorite localities to which we have alluded they 

 boil dry and mealy, and possess good keeping qualities. 



Two crops are raised annually, if the season is 

 favourable, the one sown in February and lifted in 

 July, the other sown in August and lifted in Decem- 

 ber. Although the climate of the Nilgiris is admir- 

 ably adapted for sowing and reaping throughout the 

 year and thus securing a regular succession of new 

 potatos, the natives adhere to the periods indicated 

 and accordingly the market fluctuates considerably, 

 ranging very high just before crop time, and falling 

 below remunerative prices just after, when it is 

 glutted. Indeed so great is the scarcity in the local 

 market at times that it pays speculators to obtain 

 a supply from Poona and Bangalore. The imported 

 Poena and Bangalore potatos are inferior and innu- 

 tritious, the eyes are deep set, and on arrival the 

 sprouts are well advanced. 



The mode of cultivation is simple. The soil is 

 forked up before the fr^st sets in, in order that the 

 sods may be thoroughly loosened and ajrated by the 

 action of the atmosphere. A week or so before 

 planting it is pulverized and raked over, the furrows 

 are drawn and the seed dropped, with a handful of 

 manure for each to rest upou. Weeding is carefully 

 attended to, and when the plants are six inches 

 above the ground, the first hilling takes place fol- 

 lowed by two or three similar processes before lift- 



ing. The yield averages two hundred maunds per 

 acre, which at 8 annas a maund pays the rent of 

 the land, cost of cultivation and a return of from 20 

 to 50 per cent on the capital outlay according to tha 

 character of the season. 



All field operations for potatos are manual and 

 therefore expensive. The plough is never used either 

 in the preparation of the soil or in process of culture, 

 probably because the implement does not turn up the 

 soil sufficiently deep for a root crop. 



The potato disease which prevailed in Europe with 

 such virulence between 1875 and 1878 extended to this 

 country and temporarily extinguished the cultivation 

 in the swamp lands in and around Ootacamund. 

 Crop after crop was so extensively affected that the 

 produce was not worth the cost of lifting. Growers 

 preferred to allow it to rot in the ground, rather 

 than incur the expense of removal. In the garden 

 assessed lands surrounding the villages of the Hill 

 ryots, the disease prevailed in a milder form, and 

 growers were kept in countenance by the high prices 

 obtained for the partial outturn. Science in England 

 exhausted itself in trying to find a remedy for the 

 disease which amounted almost to a national disaster. 

 In this country not an effort was made either of 

 prevention or of cure. The swamps were allowed to 

 lie fallow in order that the disease-spores might 

 die out. As good seed as could be procured was 

 purcbased and sown, but beyond this nothing was 

 done, and the disease was allowed to run its course, 

 and, if possible, to exterminate itself, which as might 

 have been expected it failed to do. The season in 

 the current year, when perhaps the largest area 

 ever put under the tuber was sown, has been most 

 unfavorable. The incessant wet weather that pre- 

 vailed during the most vigorous period of growth 

 developing the disease afresh in its worst form. To 

 save the affected crops, growers lift as soon as the 

 tubers are of moderate size though immature. They 

 are no sooner out of the ground than disease at once 

 sets in and a few weeks suffice to render them fit 

 to be consigned to the manure heap. It is unfor- 

 tunate for this cultivation on the Hills, that the 

 period when the disease is known to be most active 

 is the period of sowing and reaping. This is in July 

 and August when the spring crop is lifted and autumn 

 crop sown. A change in the present system of cul- 

 tivation would under these circumstances offer some 

 prospect of minimising the effect of the disease. 

 There is also in this country, to some degree an 

 absence of that noticeable folly in England, so potent 

 for the propagation of disease of trying to grow 

 potatos of abnormal size, though it is encouraging 

 to learn that Judges at Exhibitions and Agricult- 

 ural Shows, at home are, by the awards recently 

 made marking their appreciation of quality as dis- 

 tinguished from mere bulk. The features now com- 

 mended at potato exhibitions are beauty of form, 

 elegance of proportion, evenness, color, and mark- 

 ings, clearness of skin and polish, but above all, 

 superierity as an article of diet in the matter of 

 nutriment. These qualities are hardly yet brought 

 home to the mind and experience of Indian growers, 

 because the spirit of competition in agricultural 

 produce is absent or awakened only at such long 

 intervals that there is no sustained impulse given to 

 improvement and the attainment of excellence. The 

 opportunities for bringing together specimens of pro- 

 duce and comparing them one with the other are 

 few and far between. The spirit of emulation is 

 wanting, and year after year the dead level of medio- 

 crity maintained with change, if at all, by way of 

 retrogression and deterioration. 



The most injurious practise in this husbandry on 

 the Hills is that of cultivating, year after year, on 

 the same soil, without an attempt at rotation. Mis- 

 management in this respect is universal. Mere re- 

 munerative crops would undoubtedly be obtained if 

 alternated with other garden produce or with cereals. 

 Until the ryot takes up potato cultivation more 

 generally this can hardly be expected. Native spe- 

 culators are not the class to look to for progress. 

 As soon as the crop is ready to lift they dispose 

 of it, and leave the rest to the dealer who removeg, 



