April h i^^7>\ 1?ME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'T. 



641 



COCONUT CULTIVATION AND lEEIGATION. 

 We have received through Mr. W. H. Wright 

 some particulars of a very interesting experiment 

 made by Mr. Akbar in irrigating coconut-palms 

 on an extensive scale. Mr. Akbar is proprietor of the 

 Siramgapata and Tuisava estates, covering 614 acres 

 in the Katukenda division of the Negombo district, 

 Alutkuru-korale. His average yearly crop has been 

 from 900,000 to 1,000,000 nuts. On this pro- 

 perty he has expended about £1,000 in ma- 

 chinery, chiefly powerful force-pumps, with 

 some 15,000. feet of cast-iron piping, 4 inches 

 diameter, besides 12,000 feet of other spout- 

 ing. The property being some 150 feet above 

 the Maha-oya, which forms its boundary, the water 



of the river is pumped up and distributed in 

 channels among the coconut-palms, with a result 

 which, after personal inspection, has aston- 

 ished so old a cultivator and planter as 

 Mr. Wright is himself. During the first day's work 

 some 20 acres of very dry land were irrigated, and 

 the effect on the drooping palm-trees was almost 

 immediate and very striking. The coconut-palm is 

 a very thirsty plant, and has the faculty of very 

 quickly appropriating liquid brought within its 

 reach, so that, on this occasion, it seemed to 

 drink up the irrigating water at once. Mr. Wright 

 has no doubt that the experiment will prove a 

 thorough financial success in giving bigger crops 

 cf nuts, steadily, season by season, while main- 

 taining the trees in full vigour. 



Mr. Akbar also shows an example of capacity 

 and enterprise, we learn, by manufacturing his 

 own oil and coir, while, we suppose, he is the first 

 Ceylonese to lead the way with an experiment on 

 an extensive scale, such as above-described, in 

 irrigating coconut land with river water, drawn and 

 distributed by force-pumps. 



As regards coconut cultivation generally, Mr. 

 W. H. Wright is now experimenting on his own 

 account in the Mirigama valley, and he is likely 

 to show what can be done through manuring 

 and high cultivation. Although a cempar- 

 atively dry region, Mr. Wright says, the palms 

 flourish in the good deep soil, sending their tap- 

 roots far down. By judicious clearing of his land, 

 leaving the large trees for shade for a year or 

 two, by making large holes and burning dchrh 

 to ashes therein, he is also able to plant his coco- 

 nuts at almost any time of the year with satis- 

 factory results. As to what may be done by 

 manuring, Mr. Wright has already proved in his 

 garden at " Wilhelmsruhe," Turret Road, where 

 by careful planting, good soil and manuring, he 

 has succeeded in bringing coconut-palms into bear' 

 iu't, in tliree years ! Six to eight years have 

 been considered the minimum hitherto under 

 the most favourable circumstances, and, of 

 course, an exceptional garden experiment can- 

 not be taken to regulate a plantation. But 

 it is evident that, granted good soil and 

 careful planting with the means and opportunity 

 for manuring, there is no reason why coconuts 

 should not begin to repay in erops after five and 

 six years. This, in fact, is the term given by Mr. D. 

 Morris for bringing coconut plantatious into bear- 

 ing on the littoral of the West Indian islands, 

 where, Mr. Morris says, there is great scope for 

 the extension of the cultivation with the prospect 

 of a clear return of Ho or £6 per acre per annum. 

 In the favourite Madampe district, in Ceylon, 

 where coconuts are being widely planted, seven 



to eight years is the term allowed for trees to 

 come into bearing, and, meantime, a European 

 gentleman who has gone in for coconut cultivation 

 there, gets a fair return by cultivating plantains 

 between his young coconuts. 



TEA SEASONS IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 



Although here in Ceylon, within 7 ® of the equator, 

 we have no winter such as the Darjiling and 

 Assam tea planters experience in 20® farther 

 north ; yet, as our readers are aware, there are two 

 periods of the year, when, over a large portion of 

 Ceylon growth is checked, and flushing, — though it 

 never entirely ceases, — is coHsiderably diminished. 

 One of such periods extends from January to March 

 and is distinguished, especially in the hill country 

 by cold temperature at night and in the mornings 

 and by north-east winds which are occasionally 

 parching. Such winds have been especially pre- 

 valent from December of last year until now. 

 This period is, so far, our winter, — from about the 

 middle of December to the end of March, — although 

 when rain falls freely, as it sometimes does in 

 January, tea is harvested in quantity in this sea- 

 son. Then a second check to the luxuriant growth 

 of tea occurs, on places exposed to the full force 

 of the South-West monsoon, in the months of 

 June and July. The rain alone, which falls so 

 copiously in those two months would promote, 

 rather than check growth, but for the fact that it 

 is attended by chilling winds and obscuring cloud. 

 Some hold the opinion that pruning ought to be 

 performed in those months, — months in which our 

 neighbours in India pluck their heaviest crops 

 of leaf. 



Looking over the series of valuable tables which 

 Mr. Sumner Hogarth has placed at our disposal, 

 we find that in the large proportion of Indian tea 

 districts, December, January and February are 

 blank months, while March and April do not count 

 for much. The tea harvest extends from May to 

 November, the bulk being gathered in the live 

 months, June to October. In the richest bearing 

 district, Luckimpur, the bulk is really gathered in 

 three months, July to September ; 40 per cent of 

 the whole being on some estates gathered in August 

 and September. We have often remarked how 

 tolerant tea is of heavy rain, how it rejoices in 

 moisture and now we find that the tea harvest is 

 synchronous with the rainy season and not only 

 so, but as a very general rule the quantity of tea 

 gathered is, month by month, in proportion to the 

 rain which falls. August is, we believe, the hottest 

 month in Assam and it is one of the rainiest. 

 The absence of strong cold wind is doubtless the 

 great reason for overflowing crop in the rainy 

 months. There is the inconvenience that the con- 

 ditions most favourable for growth should be the 

 least favourable for withering, and no doubt this 

 is the reason why artificial heat is so much re- 

 sorted to and good "withering" machines so much 

 desiderated. In most parts of the tea districts of 

 India some seventy per cent or more of Ihs rain- 

 fall occurs in the four months, June to September, 

 and about a sniiilar proportion of the crop is harv- 

 ested in those months. As was the case formerly 

 with our coffee planters who had a rush of work 

 in crop time and then a lull, so it seems to be 

 with the tea planters of India. For the live months, 

 June to October, they must often be driven to theii 

 wits' end to secure the harvest, while Decamber 

 ty April aye couipavatively, holidays, Here in Cej'« 



