April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



795 



Gloucestershire, May 16th, 1877. Sir,— I think it only 

 due to you to tell you that I have Iried your Uiiirers- 

 <i] Dislroijer, aud tiud it tlie most wonderful thiug 

 1 have ever seen. My houseaiid tho lioihousi^s and gn'on- 

 honses were infesti'd with crickets, woodlice, and 

 other pests, and one application has very nearly freed 

 me from them. I therefore wish you to make use 

 of my name, if it will do you any service, as I 

 should recouiQicnd any housekeeper or nurseryman 

 to procure your insect powder without delay." The 

 misfortune is that our cultivation is not confined to 

 greenhouses, but spread over vast areas. — Ed.] 



WHAT AILS OUR COFFEE TEEES ? TRY 

 FRESH SEED. 



" A certain man had a fig tree planted in his Wneyard ; 

 and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. 

 Then said he to the dresser of his vineyard : ' Behold 

 these three j'ears I come seeking fruit on this fig tree 

 aud find none : cut it down ; why cumberetli it the groundy 

 And he answering said unto him : * Lord, let it alone this 

 year also till I shall dig about it, and dung it ; and if 

 it bear fruit, well ; and if not after that thou shalt cut 

 it down.'" 



Dear Sirs, — The above parable applies very closely 

 to the case of the coffee tree not only in Ceylon 

 but in India. " VV. " has come forward with a long 

 sefles of letters on a campaign showing that the 

 world at large is wrong in drawing its conclusions 

 as to the effect of leaf-disease. Such physiological 

 amusements are all very well to one whose nature 

 loves to wander afar into mysterious regions, but they 

 do not help anyone to come nearer the truth. Up 

 till lately I was always convinced that grave injury 

 was caused to the trees, but I could not satisfy 

 myself clearly. Now I will tell your readers what 

 I know will interest them, and it will give heart 

 of courage to those who have the framework of a 

 coffee estate complete : that is, wlio have unexhausted 

 laud, good machinery and appliances, and labour 

 abundant. I saw on one side of road 011 a wellknown 

 estate in Munzerabad old wi-ary looking sapless coffee 

 trees that well exemplified my text. They had been 

 dug about aud dunged with all the care and solicitude 

 possible, and there these worthy old fellows stood 

 still bearing a little, but looking terribly worn and 

 dry. At a distance the amount of loaf deceived one 

 just as in Ceylon — but, similarly, on close inspection, 

 the wood was very sapless, and it was plain that the 

 tree was unhealthy. Show this to a Ceylon planter 

 and he would say : — " Put in cinohoua, tea, cocoa, 

 anything else — the soil is exhausted for coffee." Aye, 

 so you might think. But, reader, turn this way 

 just a yard oft', merely separated by the road on 

 which you are standing, and what meets your eye ? 

 Short, level, juicy, sappy, luAuriaut coffee bushes such 

 as pleased the planter ten years ago and not since. 

 Before leaf-disease came, and not since. '"Ah, but 

 this is new land and highly manured," you say. 

 "No," )ou are told. "This old piece of coffee was 

 what people looked at formerly with pleasure, aud this 

 sheet of young coffee was an ejesore — a ijlace that 

 seemed to refuse to grow anythmg." This is the re- 

 sult of Coorg seed being introduced and persevered 

 in. All over these properties I refer to, the Coorg 

 seed is gradually superseding the played-out old coffee, 

 and you are shown long sheets of beautiful dark 

 luxunaut coffee nourishing in laud that, iu Ceylon, 

 you would describe as " played out chcna that might 

 do for lea." \^'here is the wonderfully mysterious 

 "wave of depression" that has swept over Ceylon? 

 Not only have Ceylou men been Mind to the danger 

 of having but one pioduct, but they also have re- 

 fused to see the beuetit of several varieties of coffee. 

 Iu fact, they went so far as to be prejudiced against 



Liberian coffee, simply because it was coffee. But 

 you will say— that is all very well to condemn Ceylou 

 for not going iu for this now coffee when you are 

 not sure that the saum benehts would result in Ceylon 

 as have resulted iu India. 1 ask in reply : " Has 

 anyone given the thing an honest attempt ? " Years 

 ago one or two gentlemen iu this neighbourhood 

 turned their attention to trying the Coorg coffee. 

 Someone asked: "Why don't you try the Coorg 

 variety?" It was done. Those who" began were 

 laughed at, but others became convinced and joined 

 in plauting the new product, and results are begin- 

 ning t;o appear. You know, I left Ceylon as great a 

 disbeliever in coffee as you couul find, but " facts are 

 chiels that winna ding. " Ceylou men may say : "What's 

 the good of a product that gets leaf-disease ? It will 

 gradually go the same way as the other coffee has 

 done." Well, I do not affirm th.at the new coffee 

 will succeed in Ceylon, but, as it has had such a 

 marked superiority over I he old Munzerabad kind ; as 

 the old Ceylon kind may be equally iuferior ; and, 

 as in the favoured district of Coorg the lucky planters 

 calculate their crops by the ton and look down with 

 beniguant gaze on leaf-disease and its reported terrors • 

 as such is the case, is it not worthy of a fair trial 

 by those in BaduUa, Matale and Dumbara and other 

 similar districts whose soils cannot be worn out ? 

 They have the appliances for coffee, and surely the 

 Colombo sgeuts would vie with each other in pre- 

 senting tho successful grower of coffee with presents 

 of manure, and offers to cure his crop free of chirge. 

 I was asked by the owner of a fine sheet of coffee 

 (new kind) : " If this were in Ceylon, what value 

 at {ire.sent would you put on this per acre ? " I re- 

 plied th.at coffee nowadays was not included iu the 

 valuator's figures. " Where 's your cinchona ? Let me 

 see the tea How many tons of bark are you likely 

 to harvest ? " These are the style of questions put 

 by a modern valuator in Ceylon. Let me plead for 

 your old love, my brother planters. See her sister 

 from Coorg willing and ready to respond to your loving 

 care, as her now sickly sister ever did. You are iu 

 a country selected by young capitalists because every- 

 thing was found. Coffee at first iu its pristine vigour 

 bore grandly, aud great wa3 the extravagance resulting 

 from too great an influx of wealth. Now should you 

 ascend again to similar heights of fortune, it will .be 

 with a steadier brain. Tlie school of misfortune has 

 taught you lasting lessons. Surely, with noble mills, 

 and .tgency offices at the seaport ; an already large 

 staff of V. A.'s ; splendidly roaded districts and estates ; 

 aud a railroad now being constructed through these 

 districts— sure/;/, I say, it ie worth while trying this 

 new variety of coffee, and trying it honestly 



India. ABERDONENSIS. 



[The Cooi g variety has already been freely tried inCey- 

 lon, but the last report on thq coffee trees so grown was 

 not favourable ; how are they looking now ?— Ed.] 



A N.ITIVE REMEDY AG.IIX.ST ATfACK.S OF LAND 



LEKCHES ie thus noticed iu a report on the Boundary 

 Line between Cochin and Coinibatore bv Mr. A. W. 



Feet Deputy Conservator of Porests, Madras : The 



foUower.i suifered a good deal from the swarms of leeches 

 all along the ronte. Of course, Europeans with ordinary 

 precautions can defy them ; but I should like to mention 

 the Kai'ers' preventatives, which is useful as an ad- 

 ditioual (U'ccaution plastered outside leech-gaiters. The 

 substanc ■ tliey use is call-d Koogaraaujil (curcuma aro- 

 tnatica cr Zeodajia). They powder the root, which has 

 a very strong aromatic scent, place it in a small 

 bucket made of a section of bamboo, wet it thoroughly, 

 aud plaster it on their feel and legs with a brush 

 made of a stick split and battered at the end. Leeches 

 will not come near it. 



