March r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



(>9S 



Unfortunately at that time it was considered tliat 

 it was no use meddling with cmchoua at this eleva- 

 tion — a mistake since rectilied by flourishing clear- 

 ings at the top of one of the group. Probably 

 calisayas especially of the Ledgeriana species would 

 succeed well lower down. Meantime on Aluwiliare, 

 coffee is still the main resource, and although the 

 past crop is not one-half of the old average, yet it 

 is a remarkable fact that one corner of the estate 

 (well-manured) has yielded as much as 8 cwt. per acre. 

 No finer or healthier looking expanse of coftee could 

 be desired than were the whole 200 acres in the 

 early days of this month and yet as we marked the 

 effect of a few days of wind on exposed portions and on 

 other plantations in strew-iug the gi'ound with leaves, we 

 could not Ijut feel more comfortable about the permanent 

 value of Aluwiliare in watching the vigorous cocoa 

 trees forcing their way up through the coffee. Where 

 coffee has not been well supported, it is lamentable 

 to note the effect uowa-days upcountiy of exposure to a 

 north-east blast. Even wdier-e no leaf-disease is visible 

 the trees seem unaljle to retain their- leaves, so that in 

 some old and perhaps at one tune neglected proper- 

 ties, we could not Ijelieve that there had not been a 

 general handling from the way in which fresh and 

 apparently healthy leaves covered the ground. So 

 long as the leaf fungus corrtinues, — and vill it ever 

 leave us ? — there is no hope of profit from coftee witli- 

 out very liberal treatment, and yet a Haputale 

 planter informed us the other day that in passing 

 through Uva, he found the villagers busy attending to 

 their coftee trees as they had not been seen for some years 

 past. Ou asking the reason, he found they were 

 strongly of the opinion that the bad time with the 

 fuugus was now over and that good crops would be har- 

 vesti'd for some years to come and so they were preparing 

 for the change. May their expectations be fulfilled ! 



As regards another question recently started in our 

 colunms, we found Matale planters strong in condemning 

 the statement that tlie sample of Ceylon coffee beans had 

 not been affected of recent years ; most certainly it has 

 deteriorated in their experience, and as they firmly believe 

 all over the country. Before leaf-disease had seriously 

 affected the trees, the average was 4'50to -i'CO bushels of 

 parchment to the cwt. where now it is 5 and overs 

 and tlie quality of the bean lias also deteriorated. 

 A distinct challenge was made to us, as to any coffee stoi-e 

 in Colombo shewing an average outturn now-a-days 

 approaching to that of eight to twelve years ago. 



Nevertheless how satisfactory it is to feel that not a few 

 old estates even when apparently worn out and use- 

 Jess for coffee, are of much value when new products 

 are taken into account. " Where has tea not succeeded 

 in Ceylon,'' was a question we one day put to Mr. 

 Wall, and curiously enough his answer was " Matale ;" 

 but he qualified his remark about the non-success 

 of a clearing in that quarter by explaining there must 

 have been somctliing wTong in the experiment rather 

 than in the district. At any rate we know that 

 tea is to be freely tried iu addition to the many 

 other products, even in the lower parts of Jlatale. 

 As for Matale East and Laggala they ought Ijy-and- 

 bye to constitute one of the most important tea 

 regions in the countrj'. But apart from tea, with its 

 wonderful success even in old coffee plantations, 

 there is the fickle cinchona, in all its varie- 

 ties, how much has it not done and is douig for the 

 island? We referred not long ago to the complaint 

 of an old planter of the ineonsiderateness (to say 

 the least) displayed in spoiluig one of the finest expanses 

 of coffee in Dikoya by covering it with cinchona. 

 But t'.i'' answer to the complaint is a sufficient one when 

 itis said tliattliis ] ■articular property is worth more in the 

 market as it stands for its cinchona, than ever it was for 

 coftee even in the palmiest days of liigh prices and 

 bumper crops. This, however, is in a comparatively 



young district. But no less satisfactory is the experience 

 in the older divisions. There is for instance a well- 

 known group of estates in Kotmale, that bid fair to 

 be more valuable than ever they were before through 

 "new pi'oducts" chiefly cinchona ! The cynic who says 

 that the planting enterprise in Ceylon is doomed, ouglit 

 to be answered and ' ■ taken in" as a well.kn<ivvn Pus- 

 sellawa proprietor took his friends in a short time 

 ago. He is reported to have shewn them a leaf of his 

 pocket-book on which were given year by year tlie crops 

 from his wattie — good and pretty steady up to 1871 

 or so — then down, almost steadily down, until a minim- 

 um was reached and so he asked them what they con- 

 sidered the property (valued at a good many thousands of 

 pounds ten years ago) was now wurtli? 'Wouldn't have it 

 asagift' seemed to express the general fueling, and the 

 surprise was therefore in proportion when turning over 

 the leaf he shew'ed them his census of cinchona trees 

 from seven years old downwards and proved to them 

 uncontestably that his estate (now over 30 years rid) 

 was more valuable to hiin than at any previous 

 period in its existence. 



Howe\'er, pour revenir d noa moulons. From the top of 

 Aluwiliare the view on a clear morning is magnificent: 

 the panorama of the Matale valley is complete and 

 the amount and variety of cultivation displayed be- 

 tween Ballacadua and I^awdapolella is very noteworthy. 

 Native and European holdings intermingle here as per- 

 haps nowhere else, and the expanse of paddy fields will 

 be Ijounded, at one point, by coconut groves, or a little 

 farther on will contrast with a hillside covered with cocoa, 

 coffee and rubber. The Sinhalese headmen of the distric 

 are very ready to profit by the example and experience of 

 their European neighbours, and cocoa and even rubber 

 have begun to attract their serious attention. In this 

 way the Ratemahatmaya of Matale Nortli was pre- 

 paring to plant some acres with Iiotli products, the 

 seeds of which he was to receive from his obliging 

 neighbours at Kowdapolella. Individual natives liavc 

 always held considerable and even valuable coffee 

 areas iu Matale — more so perhaps than in any 

 other district, not exceptiug even Uva, whi re the 

 proprietary interest, on the wlinle, was lai'gcr but 

 more scattcied. Consequently the effects of leaf 

 disease and "epression are widely felt, and all tlie 

 keener is lue interest among hiadmen and dealers. 

 in "new products." Among other comparatively young 

 plantations in the valley below Aluwiharie, we note 

 Uickheria with its regular lines of cocoa and coftee and 

 easy lay of land with ready access from the road. When 

 " new products " begin to pay and justify liigh cul- 

 tivation, the facilities for supplying manures by 

 railway, roads and through cattle establishments in 

 North Matale are perhaps unequalled in the Central 

 Province. 



THE NEW LEAF-DISEASE. 



This new scourge, which cannot be traced to insect 

 or fungic origui, seems nevertheless to be possessed 

 of enormous powers of propagation, and to be destined, 

 in some portions of Ceylon at last, to prove as de- 

 structive to other products as Hcmileia vaslatrix 

 has been to coftee : Liberian as well as " Arabian." 

 The other day we received a letier from an estate 

 to the eastward of Nuwara Eliya, stating : — 



" By this iios, I send some diseased gum leaves ; 

 also part of stem with fuugus ; and some red poochies 

 on the leaf nearest the joint. Will you kindly tell 

 me if this is what you have on ^Vbbotsford as it is 

 widespread up here. " 

 The appearance of the leaf and also of the cankered 



