9° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, i88z. 



"uring to promote the introduction and cultivation of 

 *11 tropical plants in this territory, and, as I have publicly 

 axiJressed the opinion that cinchona will thrive there 

 perhaps you will kindly permit me to answer Mr, Holtze 

 in a very few words — words at which I trust he will not 

 take any ofltence. I had the pleasiu-e of meeting Mr. 

 Holtze several times, and went over the gardens twice 

 with him, and I have every respect for his abiUty, iudus- 

 rty, and truly gentlemanly disposition ; but differences of 

 opinion will exist, and, I am sure, no one would be 

 better pleased than Mr. Holtze himself to find he was 

 mistaken, and that cinchona will succeed in the Northern 

 Territory. 



Although there are mountains in Ceylon upon which 

 cinchonas flourish, it is equally true that many thousands 

 of tree.s are successfully grown at an altitude of only 

 from 100 to 200ft.; above the sea in that httle island. 



In Ceylon the liigher altitudes are chosen in place of 

 the lower, not only because the more valuable varieties 

 of cinchona tlu'ive better there, but because the climate 

 iu the former is more suited to the Em-opean constitu- 

 tion. I do not deny that a higher elevation than that 

 obtaining in and around Palmerston would be preferable, 

 but I am quite at issue with Mr. Holtze when he so un- 

 hesitatingly condemns the enterprize. Unless he has con- 

 siderable experience in the cultivation of cinchonas, he 

 should be very chary of giving utterance to an opinion 

 adverse to the probable success of so interesting and valu- 

 able an industry as would be developed, if chinchona be 

 Buccessfully grown. An opinion coming from him mil 

 doubtless have great weight, and should therefore be only 

 given after very matm-e deliberation. It is quite a mis- 

 take to suppose that cinchona seeds are pecidiarly de- 

 licate and hard to rear. They are more often destroyed 

 ,by over attention than by neglect. Those who have not 

 had a varied experience, iu rearing these little seeds are 

 very apt to .smother them with too much and wrongly- 

 timed attention ; hence the nmaber of failures. This may 

 have been the case with Mr. Holtze's seed, or it may 

 have been too old, or too green, or immature. In any case, 

 methiuks it was premature to condemn the industry be- 

 cause (I write under correction) one small batch of seed failed. 



I have in my time planted great quantities of this seed, 

 and grown millions of plants under different conditions, 

 ' and I am convinced that certain varieties will grow very 

 profitably in North Australia. — I am, &c., 



Hexey Poett. 

 6 Apsley-place, May 10. 



The cinchona nursery on the Rumjungle plantation is 

 said to be getting on well, l)ut it is evidently too soon to 

 speak of success. A moderate account of success 

 there may be, but certainly coffee and cinchona are not 

 the products we sliould single out as most suitable for 

 the territory in question. To judge by the accounts we 

 have seen published of the country, its soil and climate, 

 sugar, tobacco, cocoa and indiarubber are the products 

 we should look to chiefly ; but tbeu we have not been 

 over the laud, and Mr. Poe^t, a practical planter, 

 has, and be ought to know something of the conditions 

 suited both to cinchona and Liberian coflfee. 



CEYLON : GEISTEEAL PLANTING REPORT. 

 {From a Planter North oj Kandy.) 

 COrFEB (AEABIAS and liberian) ; COCOA ; CIN- 

 CHONA ; TEA ; CAEDAMOMS. 



I trust the readers of the Observer will pardon me, 

 if I occupy some space in the columns of that valu- 

 able journal in reviewing the position of the planting 

 enterprize, and in dealing with the various products 

 that have a.ssumed such proportions since the advent 

 of leaf-disease has crippled our once-flourishiug staple. 

 One cannot avoid being struck with the wonderful 

 energy and intelligence with which the Ceylon planters 

 enter upon new cultivations, and improve on methods 

 that have long satisfied planters in other countries. 



The reason is just this : that the body of men average 

 above any other body engaged in a particular branch 

 of cultivation anywhere in the tropics. For instance 

 in 1S79 Mr. Andrew Nicol made the first experi- 

 ment in Ceylon* in shaving cinchonas, and now how 

 largely has that method of harvesting developed. It 

 has opened out a very large lield in obtaining pay- 

 im returns from cincliona never dreamt of in tlie 

 old coppicing d;iy3. And so iu everything else. Cey- 

 lon men have proved themselves equal, if not superior, 

 to scieutitic Government officials, in attaining practical 

 success. I will now go over the difTcreut products 

 now being cultivated in Ceylon wiih rem.arks on each, 

 which I put forth in all diffidence and modesty. 



I. Arabian Coffee. — To one journeying through the 

 cofifee districts in the month of May 1SS2, the abund- 

 ance of wood and the absence of crop inevitably 

 prove that, v\ithout leaf-dise.ise, collVe Mould still 

 give paying crops as iu days of yore. At present 

 we are growing wood for bumper crops of Hemileia 

 spores ! Most of the money spent on weeding and 

 pruning and other works is spent to provide food 

 for the speedy maw of leaf-disease. The everdiope- 

 ful planter looks on his fields covered with fresh 

 foliage, and ti-ies to deceive himsell that he has lots 

 of wood for next year. Yes; next year's crop of «hat? 

 Leaf-disease, and so year by yeiir till our hearts are 

 verily sickened. It would merely be folly to at- 

 tempt to fatten and nourish a diseased man, unless 

 the disease itself is eradicated. Therefore the ques- 

 tion arises : " Why go on cultivating this product that 

 has become unproduotful '!" This i,s not a financial 

 crisis, cor a market crisis, that has overtaken the 

 colony, but the sure result of the presence of a fatal 

 disease in our coffee. The end I would say is sure.+ 

 All attempts to light the disease have been bafiied, 

 and we have had the greatest scieutitic authorities 

 diagnozing on the case. 



II. LlEEKlAN Coffee. — Here is a brighter, more 

 hopeful aspect. As surely as is the decline of the 

 other coffee, so surely is the rise of this into f ivour 

 as a successful product. It is the opinion of some 

 that a certain jealousy lest this might prove a 

 dangerous rieal to the old staple has caused Liberian 

 coffee to be looked upon to a great extent nitii pre- 

 judice. But there can be no rivalry now. Iu Kalutara, 

 Kurunegala, Polgahawela and Dumbara, this j^roduct 

 is being largely and extensively cultivated. There 

 is ample scope in the moribund district of Morawak 

 Korale and in many parts of .Sabaragamuwa. The 

 Liberian plot on Stubton estate in Rakwana shows 

 what that plant can do when carefully cultivated. 

 Then round by Passara and Bululla-i'eldeniya 

 and round by Bintenna to the Mahaweligauga rapids 

 up to Durabfira, there are thousands of acres avail- 

 able for Liberian coffee. To illustrate the obstructive- 

 ness of Government, I understand that an application 

 for land w.is made soii.e years ago by two planters 

 for the cultivation of Liberian cotl'ee near Bintenna 

 resthouse, and that this was refused by the Kandy 

 kachcheri for some red-tape reason. There is a lai'ge 

 acreage of land round by Nitre Cave and Laggala at 

 low elevations suitable for this product, and also 

 surely in Matale, wliich finishes the round of the 

 low districts. Near (lalle, Mr. Dobree is, I hear, very 

 hopeful as to the prospect of success of Liberian coffee on 

 the Company's land. I expect the product will prove a 

 worthy successor to its smaller and choicer cousin. T)ie 

 pruning of Liberian coffee differs (^ousiilerably from 

 thatadopted with regard to Araban coffee, yecondaries 

 and tertiaries, thrusting themselves upwards and back- 



* Nonsense. — Ed. 



t This view is not consistent with the fact that coffee 

 as badly afflicted with the fungus as any iu the country, has 

 of recent years borne hea\'y and profitable crops. — Ei>. 





