THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882. 



No doubt, leaf-disease must be regarded as a chief 

 cause of the steady falling-off revealed by our coffee 

 crop figures. But, simultaueously with the depression 

 und short crops experienced since 1S78, we have had 

 a less liberal system of cultivation — taking the country 

 as a whole — and a large expanse of compiiratively 

 young coffee has not received that attention in 

 manurmg (and perhaps pruning) which was the rule 

 in the previous decade and which proprietors 

 would only be too glad to render, had they the means 

 of investmg in steadied bones, castor cake, or other 

 similar valuable fertilizing substances.* A fair index 

 to the quantity of artificial manure used is afforded in 

 the returns of traffic : they run as follows : — 

 Manure carried by the Main Railway Line. 



Years. Tons. 



1875 ... 14,410 



1876 ... 24,277 



Of course it cannot be denied that a great deal of 

 money has been wasted, and that injury rather than 

 benefit has resulted from thcindisciimiuate and thought- 

 lees application of manures in past years ; but when 

 we know of good old propreties which have been 

 continuously treated for a score of years or so, giving, 

 in such a season as the last and in spite of leaf 

 disease, as much as 7 and 10 cwt. over fields of no 

 inconsiderable area, it is impossible to deny the con- 

 nection between judicious mauuring and the amount 

 of the coffee crop, whatever may be said of the sea- 

 sou and of leaf-disease. 



Still there are puzzling exceptions to almost every 

 one of the rules of practise cherished by the most 

 experienced of our plautei-s, aud never apparently were 

 tiiese more strikingly illustrated than during the past 

 few seasons. When proceeding to England in July 1880, 

 Mr. Giles F. Walker of Elbedde, Bogawantalawa (a 

 gentleman who is second to none in the country in 

 the careful attention he has paid to the weather and 

 its bearing on crops), attributed a good deal of the 

 disappointment attending two previous blossoming sea- 

 sons in Dikoya to the absence of the continuously 

 wet weather which usually prevailed right through 

 crop-time, so enabling the trees to recover speedily 

 and be ready for blossom. He expressed the hope then 

 that wet weather from September to December might 

 again be the lule. In 1880 this was not the case ; 



* Of the vaUie of manure we had a satisfactory illustra- 

 tiou the other day. "Look on that coifee and on this," 

 said a planting friend : " see how the bushes there .are full 

 of blossom set, while hero wc have biire branches with 

 incipient berries few aud far between." The diitpreuce was 

 certainly very striking, in the s.ime soil, field aud circum- 

 stances—the two strips adjoiniug each other: the ouly 

 diiterence being that the one had been fed with bones 

 and castor cake, while the other had got nothiug. On the 

 other hand a leading V. A. has often met our call for 

 mauOTe by bringing forward cases of estates giving as 

 good returns without as others in the same district with 

 ma)im'e. No doubt, for some seasons, such cases can be 

 found, but who will dare sny that the unmanured coffee, 

 however f avour.ably situated for climate and soil, will con- 

 tinue to maintain its good crops and reputation without 

 manure? 



but last year the crop season was wet enough in all 

 conscience. The rain continued all through December 

 and on through January, and when some begau to 

 call " Hold, enough," there were other old h.ands who 

 declared themselves more than satisfied, anticipating 

 a hot dry March and April to make full compens- 

 ation. Th.it such has not been experienced is now gener- 

 ally admitted, and we believe iu spite of our Matale 

 correspondent that taking the country as a whole, had 

 the rains stopped on the 15th February and dry we>ither 

 proved the rule since then, instead of a crop of 300,000 

 cwt-, we might fairly look for one of double that 

 quantity. Still the anomalies reported in the experi- 

 ence of different districts are very curious. For 

 instance a visiting agent, passing from Matale deluged 

 with rain for weeks together in February and March 

 this season, finds a blossom in danger of being burnt 

 c£f in Kadugannawa for want ofi.ain. Sinmltaueonsly 

 we had recently a Dikoya planter expressing thank- 

 fulness that the rain had kept off for four days in con- 

 trast with the delight of his compeer in Hantaue, 

 over a day bringing heavy rain. Mr. G. D. Jamieson, 

 who lately left Ceylon, on being asked about crop 

 prospects in the district he had bid farewell to 

 forever, said there was a good deal of blossom, 

 more particularly on pruned coffee in Bogawantalawa 

 and Dikoya, so far indicating the advantage of early 

 pruning. But on the other side of the country we 

 have a case where early pruning has destroyed the 

 chance of crop. On Eangala properties, among the 

 best cultivated in the country, after very satisfactory 

 crops, the work was pushed on of clearing up and* 

 pruning in the full hope of another fair return from 

 trees which, well-manured, had not suffered from 

 carrying a good many cwts. per acre. But trees 

 pruued early in January have since had nearly three 

 mouths of growing weather, the rain moreover de- 

 .s eloping a fierce attack of leaf-disease, so that pos- 

 itively the only crop worth speaking of to be gathered 

 during 1882-3. from the properties in question, will 

 be from the fields unpruned in January and so far 

 neglected ! Places always manured in the Knuckles 

 and Kelebokka districts are giving no crop this sea- 

 son. How this may operate was well illustrated by 

 the statement of Mr, Wm, Mackenzie in a previous 

 season when rain fell freely throughout the blossom- 

 ing season. At the beginning of the year in question, 

 we remember his saying that the only district he con- 

 sidered to be quite ready for blossom was Dikoya ; 

 but the trees which in January had ' wood' ready 

 to burst into spike and ffower, with some weeks of 

 wet growing weather, lost their chance, and by the 

 1st March, the Dimbula coffee, which was bare two 

 months earlier, had got ready, and so when the dry 

 weather did come, the chance of Dikoya as a district 

 was at an end ! ?.o much for the influence of the 

 weather. But at the same time there can be little doubt 

 thrit in the pre-fuugu.s days the coffee tree in good 

 heart and well-clothed with vegetation did develnpe 

 blossom, resist sudden changes of weather, and mature 

 crop in a way not often experienced at the present 

 time. 



Nevertheless can it be truly said that our planters 

 are worse off' than agriculturists iu other parts of 



