794 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, 1883. 



€-i}xxeBp(xnd0Xioe, 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 

 VARIATION OF RAINFALL. 



Waveile.v, Agrapatana, 10th Feb. 1883. 

 Deai; Si];, — Your correspondent " From thp Hills'' 

 in his letter of 7th instant says the excessive rainfall 

 of last year, a record of which he sent you, was ex- 

 cessive in general over the planting districts, but as 

 my rain-gauye does not corroborate this I send you 

 my figures for the past two years, and as a check 

 on last year's total my neighbour tells me he had 10 

 inches less, or say only SI inches for 1882 : — 

 Kainfall at Portmore. 



1881 total inches 89 '88 January to December 



1882 do do 91-33 do do 



Inch r45 excess. 



The elevation is 4,600 foet. For January 1883, I re- 

 gistered 3'59 inches. — I am yours faithfully, 



ROB. C. BOWIE. 

 [Apologizing for che delay, we may say that the 

 Agrapatana district seems to be climatically as well 

 as geographically in Uv». — Ed.] 



CINCHONA ON ST. HELENA. 



February 22nd, 1883. 

 Dear Sir, — Has the writer of the paragraph be- 

 neath (quoted from a home paper) made a mistake, 

 or do cinchonas grow at St. Helena? 



In describing a visit to that island he sajs : — 

 " However, reminded by our guide that we had 

 still three miles to walk to Longwood, we left the 

 valley, and followed our track through thickets 

 of cinchona trees where our attentiou was constantly 

 occupied by flitting visions of some new bird, or 

 the examination of tiower.s and ferns. " 

 The italics are mine. — Yours faithfully, 



NAPOLEON. 



GUINEA GRASS, CATTLE AND CATTLE 



MANURE IN COFFEE CULTURE IN 



TIMES PAST. 



Uva, 25th Feb. 1883. 

 Dear Sik, — According to promise I now send you 

 a few remarks regarding my experiences in forking, 

 manuring, &c., on coffee plantations. It was my fortune, 

 about the year of the Indian mul.iuy, to become 

 superintendent of a large property which needed to 

 be manured. Uncle Sam informed iDe that my pre- 

 decessor had recL-ritly planttd some 13 acres of guinea 

 grass, converting a piece of scrubby land into a guinea 

 grass field, aiul that he had also purchased in Kandy 

 or Matale 65 head of horned kine, and invited me 

 to accompany him and inspect them and the field 

 also. ''This estate has," he said, "been second to none in 

 the districf, but the lower cofl'ee must now be kept 

 in heart with manure." The cattle were a motley lot 

 horned indeed they were, horns like Jack and the 

 beanstalk, twiddling and twirling up to the skies— and the 

 celebrated cow with the crumpled horn was there with 

 horns so wide apart that a jockey might ride between 

 them. Now I never could abide cattle with triumphant 

 horns. " What do you think of them" said the Colombo 

 agent? " Must sort them and keep only the best." 

 "Umph!" he muttered, "gathered from the four 

 corners of India I guess." What shapes and colours 

 and ages they exhibited. I had to part with 

 some 30 of them ; and try how the guinea 

 grass field would maintain the other 35. Besides the 



ravines were mostly planted with Mauritius grass to 

 help out the fodder supply. For some half-a-dozen 

 years, I managed to feed the "madu," and the iicrease 

 was about equal to the decrease, and to manure 

 extensively the lower part of the estate. The cattle 

 shed was a small one, and it was very difficult to 

 turn the manure in if. So I built a semicircular wall 

 round half the shed and had the manure thrown into 

 it and this acted in part as a turning for it. Then the 

 rain from the side of the roof served also to decompose 

 the straw and grass, so that when it was a pplied it might 

 be termed "old rotten manure." Now I don't believe 

 in what modern books tell us : that we are to apply 

 "crude manure stuffs." We treated the coffee trees 

 to J a basket of it, once in every two or there years, 

 and it answered admirably, and in order to extend 

 our operations had relays of coolies, one relay carry- 

 ing the basket full of manure, say, past .30 trees or 

 so, and the other putting down empty baskets and 

 carrying the full ones past another .30 trees. It was 

 in those days thrown into large square holes, say 10 

 or 12 inches deep, but now I cut holes in the shape of 

 a horse-shoe and only say 9 or 10 inches deep. At the 

 end of G years, I found the guinea grass held sadly 

 failed and gave little grass, and had hard work to 

 keep the cattle in good condition. Had it been in the 

 lowcountry, I could have purchased fresh paddy straw 

 at a reasonable rate and could have rented a paddy 

 field and planted it with Mauritius grass — a hint io 

 all planters in the louxountry ! And will it pay ? Yes. 

 During those six years it paid well, for, when we 

 consider the transport of poonac to tho hills, surely it 

 pays to raise cattle manure, even if we have to apply 

 bone dust also. Lately I have been forking in cattle 

 per manure, but 1 prefer the old plan at any rate where 

 the trees do not well cover the ground. 



It would be difficult and unprofitable to apply fresh 

 cattle pen manure : the quantity daily or weekly 

 would he too small. Then cattle pen manure requires 

 to be mi.xed well, or else it is all straw or dung. 

 Finally, we can always regulate the dose per each tree 

 and so avoid the stimuLation of any kind either from 

 nitrates or potash. I may mention I tried a paddy lield 

 near Galle and got it planted with Mauritius grass and 

 for years and years it bore well. J. J. 



IS COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE ON THE DECLINE ? 

 Haputale, March 6th, 1883. 

 Dear Sir, — Can any of your scientific readers ex- 

 plain how it ia that with two years of the most fa- 

 vourable weather for the development of leaf-diseasg 

 Haputale should be so free of the pest? In ihis part 

 of the distiict we have only had one slight attack 

 during the above period — 30 slight that only one OQ 

 the look-out for the enemy would have noticed Is 

 leaf-disease on the decline? — Yours faithfully, 



MOKE LIGHT. 



AN INSECTICIDE. ' 



Dear Sirs, — I enclose particulars of an insecticide 

 that I brought from England with ma last month : 

 it is an excellent remedy easily applied, and cheap. 

 I have tried it on grasshoppers, ticks, crickets, &c. , 

 with satisfactory results. I have no doubt it would 

 prove equally destructive to red spider. — Yours faith- 

 fully, MOSQUITO. 



[ I'ho substance referred to is the London Beetle 

 Powder. It is claimed for it that the ravages of 

 moths are effectually prevented, and bedrooms cleared 

 of bugs in one night, beetles, bugs, crickets, cockroaches, 

 flies and Ue.as, however nujierous, are destroyed in a few 

 nights by using the above. Harmless to domestic 

 animals. An excellent insecticide for greenhouses." 

 One of the testimonials runs thus: — "From the 

 Rev. C. VV. Grove, the Mythe House, Tewkesbury, 



