July r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



51 



$otit]6spond6nc0. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Obse7i:er. 



NEWS FROM FAR FIJI:— COFFER AND 



■HEM I LEI A VASTATRIX, TEA, CINCHONA, 

 SUGAR, LABOUR, &c. 



Fiji, April 18S2. 



Dkar Sirs, — It is some time since I dropijed ynu a 

 line fiom this utmost oonier of the eirth, and I don't 

 ofttu see any remark in your valuable paper concern- 

 ing this latest addition to Euglaud's colonies. 



Of co'irse, you have heard that all the experiments 

 conducted on the great Amalgam estate for thf eradic- 

 ation of H. viislatrix, and a list of which I sent 

 you long ago, describing what was done, proved in- 

 effectual in spite of every care taken, and that Mr. 

 Parr, the owner, has sued Government for £20,000 

 damages, on the grounds that the estate was ruined 

 by tliem during their occupation. The case has been 

 tried, but the Chief Justice has not, as yet, given his 

 decision : so I cannut well comment on it. One thing 

 1 am certain of alter all our experiments, and that is 

 that lime and sulphur will not cure H. vastatrix. The 

 raiiture may mitigate the disease for a short time, 

 and may do good, if constantly applied, but 

 I much doubt if the extra expense incurred would 

 be recouped by larger crops. After what I have 

 seen I should not dream of applying any more. 

 I have a great deal more fail h in hyposulphite of soda 

 and carV'olic acid, and I fancy an antidote to oiir enemy 

 will be found in one or the other. 



A friend of mine, Mr. Storck, who resides on the Rewa, 

 declares most emphatically that he has discovered a cert- 

 ain cure. Of course after rf-peated failures here, as well 

 as in Ceylon (the exiierimeuts in the latter colony being 

 co'idiicted by scienlifio men), one is very chary of 

 believing in certain cures. Nevertheless, Mr. Storck 

 has given me permission to use, and is anxious that 

 I should try, his system of vaporization for the ex- 

 tinction of leaf-disease, and, after what I have read 

 in his letter to me describing the system to be 

 adopted, I feel inclined to give it a fair trial, over, say, 



20 acres, and to see if it will turn out, as he says, a 

 perfect and Listing cure. Should such be the case, of 

 course the enormous benefit that will be conferred on 

 all coffee planters where H. V. exitts cannot be over- 

 estimated, and Mr. Storck will certainly deserve to 

 make a pile. His system, as far as I can see, will not be 

 a costly one, and the expense, after first outlay, will 

 l>e but small. I cannot give you particulars, as Mr. 

 Storck has not given me permission to do so, 

 but, should I try the experiment, as I hope to do 

 shortly, I do not suppose there will be any objections 

 to my making the results public. In that case you 

 shall know wh;it I think of it. 



Hem'teitt vastatrix has commenced again just here 

 (Taviuni), but the attacks do not seem to affect 

 the trees so much as they do in Ceylon, owing, 

 I suppose, to oni- richer soil. 'I'he young coffee 



21 to 3 years old is giving a heavy maiden crop 

 at an ilevation of about 400 feet above sea-level 

 at the north end of this island : above that elev- 

 ation the crop is not ao good on coffee the same 

 age at the same end, but, strange to say, about eleven 

 miles down towards the south end, cnflee of the same 

 age a"d at an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet is giving 

 about 4 cwt. to the acre, whereas at the north it 

 may be put down at half, shewing how the weather 

 varies at the different places. I iiave often known it 

 raining day afier d.iy up here (1,000 ft. above sea- 

 level), when they have hardly had a drop below, and 

 again raining away here, when it has been very dry 

 weather indeed at the nther end ! 



All the estates I have seen look very promising in- 

 deed, for the everlasting "next year," and, sliould wo 

 have dry weather, wo shall get bnnipcrs and no mis- 

 take, if hurricanes only leave us alone. We have 

 just passed the hurricane months, and we escaijcd, I 

 may say, almost scathless this year. We had a blow 

 at the beginning of January, but it did but very 

 little d.amage indeed ; hardly worth mentioning, in fact. 

 They had a flood on the Rewa, in Viti Levu, where 

 most of the sugar-planting is going on, but only one 

 or two planters seem to have been serious losers— one 

 especially, who had a large acreage of cane under 

 water for a long time which was utterly destr. yed, 

 and whose losses are put down at £.3,000. I had a 

 letter from a friend, planting c^ft'ee on the Rewa, the 

 other day, but he does not complain of the ill effects of 

 the blow, although his place must, I think, havefelt it. 



A Mr. Wilson is putting up a coffee-curing estab- 

 lishment at Wairiki in Taviuni, which ought to be a 

 boon to the planters there, if he gets out a man who 

 understands the work to superintend the curing. There 

 is more coffee I should say planted in Taviuni than 

 the other parts of the group put together, and yet 

 our acreage is but small : less than 1,500 acres. 



Tea.— I have planted up about thirty acres with 

 Assam hybrid and want to plant up another forty 

 acres. The young plants are growing well, and look 

 promising. I sincerely trust the cultivation will prove 

 successful. 1 see no reason why it should not, as we 

 have such good soil, rainfall well distributed, and 

 favorable temperature. I notice a good many of the 

 plants tending towards constantly seeding, which ia 

 a drawback some of you have had to contend atr linst. 

 This, I expect, is owing to the seed not being the 

 right kind exactly. Some plants, on the other hand, 

 have fine large leaves, and do not show seeding in- 

 clinations so much, and it is oft' these, I fancy,°seed 

 for nursery purposes ought to he gathered. Our old- 

 est plants, stock ones, are nearly 4 years old from 

 the time the seed was planted ; our next 1 year old 

 and so on down to some just planted out. I have 

 planted both at stake and with nur.>*ery plants. I prefer 

 the hitter plan provided the plauts are not tool. roe. 



Cinchona. — I have made nurseries of both con- 

 daminea and succirnbra. Some of the former after 

 germinating died off, and part were destroyed by 

 some insect or other during the night.' The latter is 

 growing well in the nurseries, but when planted out 

 does not grow so rapidly, or look so well, as pl.ints 

 in Ceylon of a similar a^e. I am disappointed with 

 these results, as I was in hopes that succiruljra would 

 have turned out a success at an elevation of 1,000 

 feet and upwards in Fiji, but, judging from what I have 

 seen here, succirnbra will not do at 1,000 toeli. 



SlTGAE. — This is the industry attracting most atten- 

 tion at present, and which I expect will turn out to be 

 the staple product of the colony. Several mills have 

 lately I ein erected, and more will soon be put up iu 

 different portions of the group. At present Rewa 

 (a river in Viti Levu) is the place were most of the 

 sugar-planting is done, and wliere the colonial sunar- 

 retining company have erected a very large mill. 

 Mr. Lee (late of Ceylon) has aho a large mill .and is 

 growing cane on his oa'u account as well as crushin"' 

 that of others. It is strange that Ceylon men, n-ho 

 have been coffee-planting, should leave their old lovj 

 and go in lor something new out here; but such 

 seems the case. There is Mr. H'dges in Taviuni going 

 iu most extensively for sugar. He has already aht 

 of land under cane, and by the end of this vear will 

 probidily increase it by 600 to ?00 acres. His mill, a 

 10 ton one, is expected this or next month. Then 

 again there is Mr. Akers, who has just bought nearly 

 2,400 acres in Vanua Levu, and wuo intends to plant 

 cane : so you see three of them have changed over. 

 Ten shillings is the general price paid per ton foi 



