May 2, 1887.J 



VHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISt. 



74? 



18 inches deep with pickaxes, and Hire liberally: this 

 will render the soil friable and the effects of the hme 

 will be felt another loot at least below the dug depth. 

 After other two years, increase the width of the circle 

 dug and lime til) the whole surface has been done. 

 Ploughing once a year after this will be necessary. My 

 advice, however, to those who think of planting on say 

 cabooky soil is don't. Moderately stiff clay, if well 

 worked, might make a valuable and lasting property. — 

 Yours, TENNAM PELLAI. 



COCONUT PLANTING IN THE WESTERN 

 PEOVINCE. 



Veyangoda, 7th April 1887. 

 Dear Sir, —I was very much interested in lately 

 reading in the Observer a communication signed 

 " S,"; interested, because it contained glimpses of 

 the past. His letter makes it very apparent that 

 " S." is no coconut planter. Comparing the ap- 

 pearance of coconut trees in this and the adjoin- 

 ing districts, with those of Negonibo at the pre- 

 sent season, he infers that those in the latter 

 district look better because they are planted deeper. 

 To anyone who has given the subject a little 

 thought the reason will be sought for elsewhere — 

 the low-lying ground which constitutes the bulk 

 of these estates and the free sandy soil. " S.", 

 too, seems afflicted with the new-born craze for deep 

 holes for coconut plants and suggests live feet as 

 a good depth. If he were a coconut planter he 

 would have observed that even with holes of the 

 usual depth plants get drowned during the mon- 

 soons. What the object of deep holes is I cannot 

 divine. The richest soil is always at the surface 

 and plants always seek for it there. Coconut holes 

 can be made too deep, but never too wide. I 

 would never cut holes deeper than two feet and 

 five or six feet wide, and I will fill them a foot with 

 surface soil and ashes. If holes of less width were 

 cut, the excellent advice of " Tennan Pill?i " can, 

 with advantage, be followed and an annually in- 

 creasing circle be dug round the trees, though as 

 regards the application of lime I would first satisfy 

 myself whether the nature of the soil is such as 

 will render the application advantageous. As to 

 ploughing, I think annual ploughing disadvantageous, 

 as tending to break and disturb the roots formed 

 since the previous ploughing. " S." seems to have 

 an idea that deep holes favour early bearing. The 

 popular belief is just the other way, I believe. A 

 sandy soil favours early bearing, early maturity and 

 early decay, while a soil with more body will be very 

 much more lasting, though trees planted on it 

 will not be so heavy-bearing at an early age. A 

 saudy soil will benefit the father, while the se- 

 cond description of soil will benefit his descendants. 

 —Truly yours, B. 



TEA HOUSES AND WITHEKEES : COFFEE F. 



TEA FOE THE FUTUEE. 



9th April 1887. 

 SiR: — Is it not time now we have got an approved 

 withering machine which may be capable of im- 

 provetnent to do something towards putting a stop 

 to the mania which at present exists for erecting 

 palatial tea-houses'? These are made to cost a lot 

 of money, which is simply thrown away. The con- 

 version of coffee stores into tea-houses is aloo a 

 fruitful source of wasted capital. It was only the 

 other day I was told of a building of this sort, 

 which had, in the transformation process, occupied 

 a period of nearly two years, and was even now 

 not quite completed. I should not like to be the 

 unfortunate person who supplies funds for this 

 costly experiment. The V. A. evidently wants 

 waking up, but possibly there is no V. A in this case. 



of Mr. Barber's stamp ? He is certainly a credit 

 to his class, and it were well lor his countrymen, 

 if they made stronger efforts than they do, to follow 

 his example. 



With the coffee market in such a satisfactory 

 condition, and the prospect of still better prices, 

 it behoves all who have any fairly good coffee left 

 to preserve and cultivate it, and so come in for 

 a certain run of luck. 



The sudden fall in tea prices is rather discour- 

 aging, and the rate at which production is in- 

 creasing, and will increase, is not likely to induce 

 an improvement. G. W. 



Rubber Culture.— A Haputale planter writes : — 

 As to rubber cultivation, my advice to those intending 

 to plant Ceara rubber is " don't." To those who have a 

 large area under Oeara rubber trees only, my advice 

 is let it grow, but spend nothing on its cultivation, 

 suchas on weeding. I have not yet found that it pays, 

 even the cost of tapping and curing of the 

 rubber, and some of the trees in my charge are 5J years 

 old. We have the assurance that the trees give a 

 plentiful supply of rubber when they are older and 

 I have no reason to doubt it. Meantime, I am not 

 aware of its having proved a paying investment to 

 anyone in Ceylon by harvesting the rubber, there- 

 fore, I do not recommend its cultivation. It is my 

 honest opinion, there are far too many acres under 

 the product already and as regards rubber anyone 

 with land suitable for rubber would do better to 

 select some other product. — Yours sincerely, J.W. 



Udagama. — The papers have not been troubled 

 with many planting reports of late from hence, and 

 your notice in yesterday's Observer regarding the 

 intended auction sale by the proprietors, of 

 Ginmedominie land, reminds me that a line on 

 our doings and prospects may be in place. We 

 rank, if I mistake not, as the youngest of the lower 

 districts that rushed into Liberian coffee or certain 

 fortune, and the last, unfortunately, to replace it 

 with tea ; and it makes one heave a sigh to think 

 of the amount that, humanly speaking, must 

 already have been realized here had the latter by 

 good luck been made our sheet anchor from the 

 first. But let prices keep up fairly, and to judge 

 by the working of the small quantity of old tea 

 lately cut down, and the promise of several young 

 clearings, we have quite as good a time before 

 us as any district in the island. As to its appear- 

 ance neither the Kelani or Kalutara valleys can 

 boast much, or probably better things in regard 

 to soil ; which here is usually light and stony at the 

 surface, with as good depth of friable subsoil. 

 Where we have our great full is in the even 

 distribution of the rainfall — equal to about IGO 

 inches 1 For practical evidence of this, the bushes 

 have continued to improve their yield steadily 

 at each flush since January, during a season 

 which, in most other districts — for drought 

 has probably never before been paralleled— 

 " tea looking as if it would die out " or " flush» 

 ing at a complete standstill " being the 

 general burden, as far as I have read, of your 

 planting reports of late. The flush taken from the 

 old bushes on this estate just before the first 

 general rains come, and the outcry was at its height, 

 was at the rate of 600 lb. of made tea to the acre ; 

 and this at the next, after heavy rain had fallen, 

 ran up to nearly double. The recent verdict of, 

 I may say as high, and safe, an authority on tea, 

 as there is out here, is that we may calculate on 

 a steady 100 lb. ; and witla exce|>tional facilities 

 for cheap transports and work generally, when a 

 property is in bearing, can contemplate the future 

 with a cheerful countenance 1 Time will, 1 am 

 convinced on properly opened land, proyg Iji^ 



