March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



Hr 



formed which resists the feeble effort of the young 

 rootlets. Even where no sucb oiust is forniid, and the 

 soil is quite permeable, I have observi-d many seedlings 

 strani^lo I by having their roots tvTisted round and 

 round and entangled with others in the same Sfurch 

 for admittance into the soil, in a case wiiich has j 

 recently come under my observation, the failure j 

 arising from this cause has been effectually stopped ! 

 by a gentle breaking up of the crust. I sliould not 

 have troubled your space with this very eimple fact, 

 but that I have known several cases in which it had 

 been quite overlooked, and the death of the seedlings 

 had been erroueously attributed to the attack of 

 insects. Y 



WEEDS AND COFFEE FORTY YEARS AGO 

 IN CEYLON. 



Sib, — If I expressed myself, so as to lead anyone 

 to believe that I ascribed to the slovenly manaye- 

 ment ot weeds in Ceylon between 1840 and 1S47 the 

 miserable prices of coffee tliat ruled the markets of 

 the world, for three or four years in the middle of 

 the century, I am sorry for it, because I did not 

 so intend. The price of coffee must have gone down 

 as it did, if there had not been a coffee plantation 

 in Ceylon. I only meant to convey the idea that 

 Ceylon was weakened in the contest of life and death 

 which then took place by the idea that prevailed 

 about weeds, and their treatment. It was not only 

 said that weeds did no ill, but every third planter 

 you met asserted they were a positive benefit. Have 

 I not seen young coffee plants unweeded for two years 

 after plantiiig because the order was "Keep sticking 

 in plants;" I have then seen a line of coolies set 

 in at the bottom of a hill to attack the moss with 

 mamoties : every cooly drove his tool into the ground, 

 dragged it towards him and then tossed all that 

 came behind him, and all this was called coffee 

 cultivation in the year of grace 1S45. I knew a retired i 

 civil servant, the owner of several estates, rush out 

 again to put a stop to weeding, and did so efTectually 

 that from that time till they were finally abandoned 

 the crop never paid the coal expenditure, though that 

 was reduced to very little more than the cost of 

 collecting and preparing ench crop as came of itself. 



In the course of the fifties, the general practice 

 oame to be a suspension of weeding during the crop 

 seasoij, and a vigorous attack when it was over ; 

 more or less sustained during the interval. The estates 

 on which monthly weeding was kept up through the 

 year were a small minority, and the reasons assigned 

 for the practice, then as now, were that it was the 

 most economical system, and that the land was not 

 rich enough to grow both weeds and coffee ; and 

 further, that when it came to a battle for bire life 

 between ihu two, weeds would have the best of it. 



The leasons on the other side were much the same 

 as now used ; weeds saved wash ; weeds added to the 

 substance of the soil, and improved its quality in 

 their decay ; and weeds retained the moisture in the soil, 

 when the sun came out, strong enough to absorb it. 



It is, and was, freely granted, that weeds, or anything 

 that retarded the How of surface water, tended o 

 save wash, but as weeds take up the same i)lant food 

 as the cullivaied plant, in its interests, therefore, 

 we keep down the greedy rival, and thereby sacrifice 

 any good it may do. in protecting the soil. As for 

 weeds keeping moisture in the soil for the use of the 

 cultivated plant, the very reverse is the truth. — 

 You IS, W. L. 



C'ocoA-DKYiKO. — Mr. C. Shand is still continuing 

 his experiments with the preparation of cocoa seed 

 on big patent tea dryer. He had first of all, seed 



from the Ceylon Company Limited to experiment with ; 

 but he is now getting ]icids from Dumbera and Matale 

 so as to have the seed fresh and ihus give a fair 

 trial. We shall publish a full report of the results. 



Aloe Fibke— JSlr. Payne of HundrokaMde shewed 

 us today a fine sample of aloe fibi-e, which 

 seemed quite equal to the sample on our table which 

 was valued at £40 per ton In the London market. 

 Mr. Payne has utilized a coffee pulper after a very 

 ingeniou.s fashion to do the work of preparation and 

 the result seems certainly very satisfactory. With 

 many miles of aloes in the Kurunegalla district, a con- 

 siderable quanty of the fibre ought to be turned out. 



Success of Cinchona Ledgebiana in Ma.skeliya. 



Mr. T. N. Christie of St. Andrews writes: — I have 

 had to cut down half a-dozen trees and their yield 

 has astonished me. Yesterday 1 cut down one ot 

 my largest trees and got 24 lb. stem and 9 lb. 

 branch bark, wet. I don't think it will dry down 

 to less than 13 or 14 lb., which will compare with 

 any 6^ year succirubra. This is exclusive of root 

 and 6 inch>-s of stump. At last «e seem to have 

 a promise of decent weather, Feb. 6th. 



A Lucrative Enterprise. — Never did a Govern- 

 ment do a better stroke of business than that of Indig 

 when it esttiblished cinchona plantations. Takina 

 Bengal alone, the profit ou the enterprise is such as 

 must sorely vex the promoter species for being so short- 

 sighted as not to perceive the suitability of cinchona for 

 limited liability operations. The cash profit on the 

 Bengal plantations last year amounted to 130,000 

 rupees, being just equal to 13 per cent, on the amount 

 invested. This, however, represented only a small 

 portion of the gain accruing to the Government. Had 

 it been compelled to buy quinine in the market, for the 

 use of the troops, the lowest rate would have been 75 

 rupees per lb. But quinine, of equally good quality, 

 manufactured at the cinchona plantations cost only 11 

 rupees a pound. In this way 350,000 rupees were 

 saved, and, adding these to the cash profit of 130,000 

 rupees, the netresult was a duideud of 480,000 rupees 

 on a original outlay of 1,300,000 rupees, or about 39 per 

 cent, per annum. It is remarkable also that, as the 

 supply increases, so does the demand, the consumption 

 having been larger by far last year thsn ever before. 

 No doubt, there is a limit beyond which production 

 cannot be safely carried. Judging, however, from the 

 present report, plenty ot room for developmeut stil 

 remains. — Globe. 



Aloe and other Fibres in Mauritius. — The editor 

 of the Merchants' and Planters' Gazette of furt Louis 

 has been writing a series of articles upon the island's in- 

 dustries, amongst which aloe fibre is begiuning to take 

 an important place. He does not, however, look very 

 favourably upon it, and strongly recommends tho.se who 

 have embarked in the enterprise not to trust wholly to 

 aloes, for the reasons thus set forth : — " If we compare 

 the shorter time required for the growth of the pine 

 leaves we shall have three, fom', perhaps five crops, against 

 one. Then bulk for bulk and waste for waste how 

 infinitely much more would the yield of fibre from the 

 one be to the other in comparison. The aloe leaves con- 

 tain, or rather give off, full 95 per cent of useless 

 waste, consequent in a great measure upon the quantity 

 of water they contain. But very little moisture, and other 

 material than fibre does the family to which the pine 

 apple leaves belong contain. They are each of themselves 

 very little else than natural skeins of fibre. If our pre- 

 sent machinery can be utilized or easily adapted to and 

 for the production of filre from plaiutain, pineapple, 

 and aloe leaves, the hints wo throw out (with all due 

 deference to the experiences of more practical men) are 

 these — might not the plaiutain, which is the quickest 

 of the three iu its growth, and next the pineapple, bo 

 planted betwixt the newly to bo laid out fields or tracts 

 of aloe plants in order to produce successive and con- 

 stant crops whilst the aloe takes its fill of time ere 

 full grown." 



