August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



105 



a violent effort to throw out new leaves — new lungs — 

 to replace those of which it has been so ruthlessly 

 shorn. As this growth progrpsses, the planter is on the 

 look-out for it, and as soon as it :issumes thedignitj'of 

 a "lliieh," it is pounced upon by the plucker. This pro- 

 cess is repeated, perhaps, a dozen or more times during 

 the tea season ; each tinje the plant puts forth an effort 

 as surely is that efi'ort nullified by the work of the 

 plucker. Is it to be supposed that a plant bo treated 

 can loug escape the ravages of disease — the precursor 

 of decay ? But there is worse behind. The ravages 

 of blight have been found to be much more severe on 

 gardeners having indigenous or hybrid bushes, than on 

 those with the bushes of the ordinary small-leaved 

 China variety. Now, under ordinary circumstances, 

 this f;ict would militate against our theory, because 

 the indigenous variety, and the many hybrids produced 

 from a crossing of it with the China bush, have not 

 been cultivated for so long a peiiod as the ordinary 

 China has. But the indigenous and hybrid varieties 

 suffer very much more under the pruning knife. We 

 do not simply mean that, being larger in every 

 way than the China, the liybrid feels the cutting 

 down more. We refer to the habit of the hybrid 

 rendering it more sensitive to pruning. All who 

 know the tea plant thoroughly must have observed 

 that, while the China variety has the habit of a 

 bush, the hybrid is a tree. A China seedling 

 develops laterals almost as soon as it comes above the 

 ground, whereas a hybrid seedling does not throw 

 out these side branches until the maiu stem has 

 assumed the form of a young tree. In conformity 

 with this difference of habit, the China, if unpruned, 

 would not grow high, while a hybrid, similarly treated, 

 would assume the habit and attain the growth of a 

 forest tree. We speak under correction, but are not 

 aware of a China plant ever liaving grown to a 

 greater height than seven feet. This is the greatest 

 height we could induce one to attain, although we 

 left it unpruned for several years. Thus it happens 

 that the China variety does not suffer so much from 

 pruning as does the hybrid. The former is a "bush, 

 and pruning only keeps it a bush, while the latter 

 being a tree, is, so to speak, compelled by heavy 

 pruning to assume the habit of a bush. This also 

 explains why tlie blights on tea are of comparatively 

 recent date. With regard to the recent occurrence of 

 disease in connection with coffee, it is accounted for 

 by the fact that only within comisaratively recent 

 times has heavy pruning, or pruning of any sort, 

 been resorted to. One more cause of disease m con- 

 nection with tea, and we are done. The fiat which 

 went forth at the creation, that the fruit-tree should 

 yield fruit after his kind, whose seed was to be in 

 itself, indicates the first law of vegetable nature, 

 that the first object of a plant is to propagate its 

 own species, and hence we find all vegetable life at 

 its best just as becomes fit for repiroduction. In this 

 respect the coffee-planter does no violence lo nature, ex- 

 cept in that he expects the plant to be in a chronic stato 

 of making violent efforts to produce a large quantity of 

 seed. With tea it is very different. The planter cares 

 nothing about seed, leaf being the craving of his 

 soul. With this object in view, his whole energies are 

 bent on thwarting nature and preventing the growth 

 of seed. Is it to be supposed that a plant can long 

 remain healthy when its natural instincts are not 

 only interfered with, but directly opposed and crushed ? 

 In this we see a sure cause of disease and general 

 debility. The absurdity of regarding such a blight as 

 simple " leaf-disease" will thus be seen. When an 

 eruptiou breaks out on the human skin, the skilful 

 physician immediately treats it locally, but he does 

 not make the mistake of considering the eruption ouiy 

 a skin disease. He treats it locally to relieve the 

 pain, but he endeavours to remove the eruption itself 

 U 



by acting on the source. This will most probably be 

 the blood. There tlie disease has its seat, and, if the 

 cure is lo be permanent and thorough, the blood must 

 be purified. The eruptiou on the skin is not a disease 

 but a symptom, which draws the physician's aiten- 

 tion to the blood. So with the leaf blight ; it is but 

 a symptom of the radical disease in the life-blood of 

 the plant, and can never be cured by topical treat- 

 ment. It may be mitigated, but we have no hesit- 

 ation in predicting that mitigation will prove but 

 transient at best. 



AN IVORY FAMINE. 



Notwithstanding the introduction of "celluloid" 

 and other substitutes for the real article, the de- 

 mand for ivory increases year by year, and year by 

 year the supply falls off. Not only is the quantity 

 of elephant ivory, both from Asia aud Africa, ra|iidly 

 diminishing, but the teeth or tusks of the walrus, 

 whale, and narwhal, which are so highly prized for 

 many purposes where their fine texture and close grain 

 reuder them superior to elephant ivory, are similarly 

 growing scarcer every year. If it had not been for 

 the large supplies of fossil mammoth ivory which we 

 have received from ^Siberia — the relics of a bygone age, 

 when Northern India w.as the playground of monster 

 tusk-bearing, elephant-like animals whose bodies, sud- 

 denly overwhelmed by an avalanche of ice, are still to 

 be met with, kept in a state of perfect preservation 

 by the most powerful and efficient refrigerating mnchin- 

 ery of Nature herself — if it had not been, we say, 

 for this extens-ive, but necessarily limited, source of 

 supply, the price of ivory would be much larger than 

 it even now is, when a plain ivory paper-knife, of 

 ordinary size, after pufsing through the necessary 

 cutting and polishing operations, is worth half-a-crown 

 an ounce. The Engineer reports that the rapid ad- 

 vances in the value of ivory are causing some uneasiness 

 in the market. At the last quarterly sale, which 

 closed on the 28th ultimo, there were only 81 tons 

 offered, as against 122 tons offered in April 1S81. 

 The falling-ofl' was mainly owing to the continued scarc- 

 ity of Cape, and the limited supply of West African 

 ivory, of which altogether only 12 tons were fortli- 

 comiug. From Zanzibar and Bombay there were 33 

 tons, 24 tons from Alexandria and 9 tens from Malta. 

 Prices cousequeutly have gone up from ol to 41 per 

 cwt. The stores in the docks this year amouut to 

 133 tons, compared with 213 tons for the correspond- 

 ing period of last year. One importer at Sheffield 

 has received 522 tusks, which, he says, will all bo 

 cleared out in a fortnight. These tusks represent 

 276 elephants, and it is argued that, if one ivory 

 cutter alone can get through so many in so short a 

 time, there is some fear of the elephant being releg- 

 ated to the lost genera of auimals. It is time that 

 some steps were taken for the preservation of this 

 valuable animal in Africa similar to those which have 

 been adopted in India aud Ceylon, and the author- 

 ities in our West Afrcan cnlouies might turn their 

 attention to the possibility of devising some means to 

 attain 'ihis object. In the meantime, cannot some 

 inventive genius discover the means of utilizing the 

 scraps aud shreds of ivory which ivory-turners ne- 

 cessarily produce in such quantities, either by re- 

 ducing them to a pulp, aud pressing thein into the 

 desired shape, or into powder, which may be afterwards 

 solidified t— Colonies and India, 19th May, 



COFFEE PULP AS A MANURE. 



By Joun Hughes (late of Ceylon). 



Coffee pulp, as understood by planters, consists of 



the outer skin of the ripe cherry, togellur with a 



portion of the gelftinous, saccharine aud somewiiat 



