March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



761 



and the prospectus as drawn up is exceedingly taking. 

 Messrs. Pati-y & Pasteur are working at it too, 

 and in addition to its sale of ^jmcc coffee at prices 

 equal to the tiltliy stuff now sold, the Company 

 Avould watch and protect the coffee interest by its 

 agents acting as detectives and iirosecuting adulter- 

 ators. The capital is mentioned as £S0.O0O, first 

 issue in £1 shares and it behoves all in Ceylon to 

 take a few shares. I 11 see it works well and econ- 

 omically and on its Board will be i-epresentatives of 

 Ceylon, India and Brazil. Now what can you do I 

 in getting a few thousand slia,res taken up in Cey- 

 lon? It would sound well for the prospectus to say [ 

 such had been done ! Ventilate it, and if you can 

 secure subscriptions ; wire me. We are promised the J 

 co-operation of Travers & Co., the great wholesale : 

 grocers, with their country organization for the sale, I 

 for, although they themselves tried it a few mouths 

 ago, they had to abandon it, as the small gi'ocers 

 said they would remove their custom in other articles, 

 if they resisted and interfered with the sale of the 

 adulterated article they (the small grocers) made such 

 money by ; but with us acting as an independent 

 body, Travers & Co, said their agents would not be 

 able to refuse the sale, and besides every chemist 

 might be made our agent for sealed packets with 

 the Company's stamp. Our knowledge of the trade 

 in coffee when to buy, etc., would bo greatly in the 

 Company's favor. There is some io.OOO to '26,000 

 tons of trash sold annually as ooflee besides the 

 15,000 tons real coffee." 



Mr. Dickson further mentions that a preliminai-y 

 meeting had been held to discuss the project ; and 

 although thei'e is no capital to spare in Ceylon just 

 now, we trust the large Plantation Companies in- 

 terested here and such of the proprietors as can afford, 

 will endeavour to give their support to a project so 

 well calculated to repay them directly and indirectly. 



COVERING CINCHONA WITH MANA GRASS. 



Radella, LiNDUiA, 9th Feb. — Ton say in a letter: — "It 

 does not seem to matter much whether fresh or dried mana 

 grass is putroundthe olBcmalis trees, or whether the weather 

 subsequeuily is dry or wet" &c. &c. and s.i< on to say: — ■■ The 

 case with succirubra is very different, and my companion 

 t'e'ls stnngly that mana grass should not be put on tlds 

 species until well dried and at an appreciable interval after 

 the shaving of the trees." I beg to deny that raana-grass 

 produces the effect on succirubra stated in your ieiter, and 

 in proof J shall gladly point out to you 30,000 succirubra 

 trees covered with mana grass (ibedate of covering ranging 

 from 20tb Sept. to 8th November last), and aW the gr.;ss being- 

 green mana, put on ihesarae day as cut ; and if you can find 

 one of these trees that has not renewed thoroughly, it will 

 be what I as yet have been unable to do. 



Ihestaiement not made on my own experience, but 

 on the authority of a planter who has used and is using 

 large quantities of Kudella mana grass, that mana 

 grass ought not to be applied in a wet state to 

 succirubras. No .statement was mad" that mana 

 grass in a dry state was prejudicial. But Mr. Mit- 

 chell, contra my authority, declares the result of 

 his own experience to be that mauagias!-, even when 

 wet, deed no harm to shaved succirubras, and be chal- 

 lenges inspection of 30,000 trees so treated. What we j 

 and our readers have to deal with, therefore, are two , 

 statements of a diametrically opposite nature, by two 1 

 planters uf about equal experience, and resident within [ 

 a few miles of each other, regarding/ one of the most 

 common and one of the most imp' rtant proc sses ui the 1 

 Bcientilic culture of the fever trees. The experience is j 

 quite common to us, and in thii' case, happily, it is | 

 ea y for us and our readers to use our judgment I 

 aright, l)y de.'iding iba' as a qiie<tir>n has been 

 raised about applyini; inaua grass in a wet stite 

 t'> shaved ciucfionas, the wise and proper thing for I 



those interested to do is to apply the grass covering 

 lu a dry st.ate. Mana. gra« has the advantage of 

 growing freely and luxuriantly almost in any situation 

 and at any altitude, and our original authority was 

 filling up with this grass what had been a ..uiuca 

 grass plantation. We also, after many flucttrations 

 ot opinion about mana grass, had finally resolved 

 before receipt of Mr. Mitchell's letter to plant it 

 pretty extensively on waste spots in ravines as well 

 as on slips and precipitous spots. If only cattle could 

 be kept so as to pay (which is not the geuf ral ex- 

 perience and which certainly is not ours) there can 

 be no better b-dding for cattle. Tlie grass is equally 

 valuable for thatch for buildings or the slanting 

 sheds by which nursery beds are shaded iud 

 after every substance has been tried, from water- 

 proof paper to old newspapers, in covering shaved 

 cinchona trees we suspect the general veidict 

 would be in favour of mana grass if growing in 

 sufficient quantity, close to where it is wanted Our 

 original authority complained of the expense of carriage 

 from Radella to Dessford, and we know well what 

 the cost has been of getting grass for nurseries from 

 the Kaja Patana. To enable planters to use mana 

 grass economically, there must be plots of it at con- 

 venient centres with reference to the trees to be 

 operated on. No doubt the process carried out so 

 largely lu late years, of superseding mana on road 

 sides, as well as guinea grass, by succirubras, was a 

 Wl^e and well-coDsidered one. But with the disap- 

 pearance of "cattle establishments" on so many of 

 the plantations, and the prevalence of cinchona trees 

 which must be shaved and subsequently covered it 

 will now be an equally wise process to utilize ravines 

 hitherto devoted to guinea and "Mauritius" grass, to 

 the growth of the coarse lemon grass which the 

 Sinhalese call mana, and which the English tnlk of 

 as the "patana grass" par ixcetlence. We are in- 

 clined to believe that no other plant which can he 

 grown will grow so readily and yield, ^y repeated 

 cuttings during the year, so much suitable mateiial 

 for shading nurseries and covering shaved cinchona 

 trees as mana grass. It is also valuable for " mulch- 

 ing, ' a process not so generally adopted as it mieht 

 advantageously be, m Coyhui culture. 



0! course the question m.ay still he raised whether 

 the covering ol shaved cinchona tiees is really necess- 

 ary. If shaved in fairly dry weather, perhaps not, 

 as regards the lite of the tree and renewing of the 

 bark. But it seems settled that bark from which 

 light IS excluded in the procei-s of renen^al secretes 

 qumine mainly, instead of the less valuable alkaloids 

 I mentioned that the Clarendon original officinale 

 trees were still flourishing although coppiced and 

 that the Ijark of the coppiced stems had reliewed 

 without any covering. Subsequently to writing, I saw 

 Mr. Halliley, who told me that the trees were nlanted 

 m 1872. They arc, therefore, now in the llihyear 

 and they are about to be coppiced a third time after 

 having been already t^^ice coppiced and once shaved 

 It will be interesting to see the result of this third 

 coppicmg following on shaving. As to Icavin" all the 

 shoots to grow, Mr. Halliley defended his practice in 

 this matter by referring to the opinion of Air Cross 

 (the Nilgiri cinchona man), that the proper mode to 

 cultivate officinalis is to encourage a wilderness of 

 stems. I think Mr. Cross recommended the layering 

 of shoots, so as practically to cover the ground Has 

 any trial been made of this system ? 

 j 



CARBOLIC AID AS A CURE FOR 



LEAF-FUNGUS. 



About six months ago, we exj ressed doubts as to 



the eflicacy of the cure by carbolic acid, relied on 



by Messrs. Schrottky and Stprck, on tlie ground 



