April i, 1887.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



681 



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lo I he Ediioy of tJic '' Ccyloii Observe p\'' 

 COFFEE PEOSPECTS IN BRAZIL. 



The Scottish Trust and Loan Company of Ccylou, 

 Limited, Ingram House, 165, Fenchurah Street, 

 London, 2nd February 1887. 



Deau Sir, — I enclose a Brazilian Coffee Circular, 

 and you can polish up your French translating it. 

 There is no doubt of a very short crop both in 

 Brazil and Java, but whether Messrs. Berlas' ideas 

 are correct or not I cannot say, but. I am curious 

 to learn your own and your planting correspondents' 

 views as to the nature of the disease alluded to ; 

 and whether any such has been experienced in 

 Ceylon. — Yours faithfully, 



THOMAS DICKSON, Managiwj Director. 



COFFEE. 

 (Translated for Ceylon Obac/rer, from Messrs. JJeria 

 d' Co., rUo Janeiro d; Santos.) 



The Journal Je Commercio in its issue of January 

 8th, 1887, writes thus: — "It is generally known that a 

 prolonged drought and after that frosts and severe 

 cold have done considerable damage to the coffee har- 

 vest of 1887- 8S. The information which we have 

 collected with the greatest care will not allow us to 

 estimate the coming harvest at more than 2^ to 2J 

 millions of bags for Eio de Janeiro. If, later on, un- 

 foreseen circumstances oblige us to modify this est- 

 imate, we shall inform our readers. 



The " J-Stoile du >S'«cZ" a commercial, financial and 

 maritime review for the Empire of Brazil, writes 

 on the same subject : — "The news which, so far, re- 

 aches us from all sides is unfavorable, hence we give 

 with all reserve the information that has reached us 

 up to the 31st December 1SS6. According to this 

 the West and North of the province of San Paulo will 

 not offer the third of last year's harvest, which was 

 alreaily reduced, since it will not yield, for the port 

 of Rio only what we had foretold, namely 4 million 

 bags. 



"The region of Campinas is especially tried and in 

 the western ports of the province where there is 

 something to hope for, the plantations are. all young. 



The letters that reach us from Minas-Geraes also 

 inform us that it is only the new cort'ee that gives 

 any hope, the old, though very green and fine, has 

 not blossomed. 



"It is the same in the province of Rio Janeiro. For 

 the sake of those of our readers who know the cen- 

 tres of production, we give the sources of our inform- 

 ation ; it comes from S. Sim;io, Cravinho, Ribeirao 

 Preto, Campinas, Ipiabas, Miracema, Pindamonban- 

 gaba, Guaratingueta, Campo-Bello, Rezende, Rochedo, 

 S. Joao >fepomuceno, Oataguazes, Providencia, Can- 

 tagallo, etc. 



"As we said, we pubhsh this with all reserve, for 

 supposing it to be correct, it would allow us to es- 

 timate the coming crop at 2^ millions of bags for 

 Rio and IJ bags for Santos only. Our chief editor 

 has started for the provinces of Rio and S. Paulo, 

 and will soon verify all our information. 



In the same journal is a letter from M. A. Glaziou, 

 Director of the Imperial gardens, a botanist celeb- 

 rated throughout the learned world, who for many 

 years had occupied himself with the Brazilian flora 

 and who anticipates precouise in this letter, a re- 

 medy for the coffee-leaf disease. The letter written 

 in Portuguese is too long to reproduce and would 

 interest only Brazilian planters, but it accompanied 

 a paper on the coffee disease which, adds the 

 ^■Etoile du Sud," seemed a serious threat when the 

 first symptoms were noted, and which justly alarmed 

 the centres of production in the province of Rio. 



" I will give you an extract from this paper. M. Gla- 

 ziou attributes the disease to a parasitic animal of 

 the genus AnjuillvJa which lodgea itself in the 



hairy roots of the tree and there deposits its thousand 



of eggs It is owing to this scourge that 



the coffee tree fades, becomes yellow, loses its 

 new leaves at the tips of the branches and 

 lets its fruit drop, already dried {atropliiis) by 

 the deviation of the sap which the organs of 

 the nutrition had elaborated in the ground for 

 the benefit of ths normal life of the coffee-bush. 

 Thus attacked, the tree soon dies, bequeathing (ieguant) 

 to the soil, the whole of the mischief, which caused 

 its own ruin. From what precedes, it is evident that 

 the mischief is really greater than is generally believed 

 in Europe, and you know that since the publication 



t of the Journal de Commercio telegraphic inform- 

 ation has reduced the total crop 1887-88 in the two 

 provinces of Rio and Santos to 3,500,000 bags. 



I " In communicating these facts to you, I have wished 

 to put you on your guard against the manccuvres of 

 those interested in the fall, and to enable you to base 

 your operations on reliable documents. I hope they 



' will be useful to you and remain. —Yours, &c., kc, 



J. B. Berl.\." 

 " P. 'S'. — As we go to press, a telegram from Santos 

 reduces that estimate to 1,250,000 bags." 



PINEAPPLES IN BADULLA, 



Badulla, 3rd March 1887. 



Dear Sir, — In re Irvine and his theory of pro- 

 babilities of fruit traffic from here by the long- 

 waited-on railway, what think you of a pineapple 

 weighing slightly over (eleven) 11 lb. which I had 

 presented to me by one of our workmen last 

 night ? It was grown in a garden not far from 

 Badulla : it smells deliciously as well as looks big. 

 Is it out of the common ? — Yours, 



INQUIEER. 



Unusually good we should say. — Ed.] 



COCONUT AND ARECA CULTIVATION I 



UNDER TANKS: A GOOD SUGGESTION. 



March, 7th 1887. 



Sir, — Referring to your article on coconut culti- 

 vation and irrigation, I must express surprise that 

 no one has, as far as I am aware, planted coco- 

 nuts under a Government tank. Mr. Akbar has to 

 raise water from the Maha Oya at a great expense, 

 both for plant and working, while in the other case 

 almost the only cost would be the annual water-rate 

 of one rupee per acre. The advantages w ould be : — 



1st. Saving the expense of hand-watering the 

 young plants ; 2nd. Quicker arrival of the tree at 

 maturity ; 3rd. Larger crops. 



I believe that under a tank in the Puttalam 

 District there is a large quantity of land that has 

 already been surveyed and only wails for purchasers. 

 I presume that the purchase money for this land 

 would as usual in such cases be payable in four 

 annual instalments, /. e., that the coconut trees 

 would almost be in bearing before the whole of the 

 purchase money would be paid. 



The arecanut being a still more thirsty palm than 

 the coconut, all that is said above applies with 

 greater force to the cultivation of that tree. 



E.H. 



TEA FROM THE UVAH COMPANY'S ESTATES. 



Glen Alpine, Badulla, 8th March 1887. 



Dii.vR Sir,— In your issue of 25th February last, 

 under the heading ''Ceylon Produce in the London 

 Market," the following appears : — " Glen Alpine 

 makes a great show with 25 packages" orange pekoe 

 and pekoe at Is 5d, probably expressly prepared for 

 the report of the Directors of the Ouvah Company 

 and a «ample of what the province may be expec- 

 ted to do shortly in the way of producing tea." 



The small break of tea referred to was not "orange 

 jt-ekoe and pekoe ' as described, but unassorted tea. 



