S58 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



so being the festive time of the year I gave him a cjrinl! of 

 *** three star brandy and pushed him into it— altogether bice 

 a certain Duke in English history in the butt of Malmsey. 



Mr. Denison, the superintendent of Lower Perak, when 

 here with the Eesideut, had a young one drop into his 

 finger-glass and wriggle about like a young alligator. There 

 are half-a-dozen good specimens in the bottle of *»*, but 

 their fate does not deter the others from exploring the 

 dinuer tabic , f,jr there was one asleep on a ripe pineapple 

 only last night iu the middle of the dinner things. 



By the bye we made our own tea, and a very .strong 

 brew it was too, everything done in the orthodox man- 

 ner, gathering, withering, rolling, fermenting and firing, 

 the choolah or furnace being an old kerosine drum similar 

 to the Deyeuewatte apparatus iu BaduUa. It was cert- 

 ainly killing 3 birds with one stone, a loaf of home- 

 made bread and a gooseberry tart in the oven and pan- 

 ning tea outside. 



The " Mistress " stove has now found its way into the 

 kitchen, and Johnny China makes the bread as hard asbricks. 



I believe the Revala Kwala Europeans got their staff- 

 of-lite from Thaipeng, 18 or 20 miles off, in the mail- 

 bags, but the postman objected to the great weight of 

 the letters and newspapers as the community increased 

 in number, 



On Mr. B.'s returu from Penang I shall have to camp 

 at Cecilia clearing again to connect the roads already 

 cut and trace some more. I hope the mosquitoes will 

 not find me out unlil the job is finished. The heat is 

 great, too, at this time. 



A notice in the Straits Times appeared lately of the 

 marriage of Mr. Woodgate, formerly our neighbour in the 

 Madulsima district. He was also advertising for a field 

 assistant, both circumstances good signs of prosperity. He 

 is a fledged surveyor in Malacca somewhere. 



With a few Malays we are transplanting aud pricking 

 out Ledgeriana plants, with klings gathering coffee and 

 pruning tea bushes, another gang cementing the bath 

 room floors, and Chinese carpenters making an office 

 and .storeroom. , , , t 1 u 



Life here is pleasant enough when backed up by labour, 

 never mind how many different nationalities come to work. 

 But when nobody comes, the feeling is very much akin to 



running amok ! , ,, . xt 



Today and yesterday the Chinese commenced their P<ew 

 Year and their great ambition seems to be to see how many 

 they can stow away and how much noise they can make with 

 their Chine.se crackers for chin-chin joss. 



Little Hongkong lets bang a volley from the sawyer's 

 lines on the ridge, and immediately big Shanghai opens fire 

 in return from the road contractor's quarters at the foot of 



the hill. , , , . „ 



Kwala Kangsa looked in the darkness from a bird s-eye- 

 view like London (on a very small scale) with its numerous 

 feasts of ;lanterns on the bank of the Perak Kiver or Thames 

 of th» Peninsula. 



» 



LOWCOUN'TRY PRODUCTS. 

 (From a planter on his travells.) 



LIBERIAN COFFEE. 



I have only seen the books of one estate in Kalutara, 

 and they shewed that the 3-4 year old clearing is bearing 

 now at' the rate of over 5 cwt. per acre, planted 10 feet 

 by 10 feet, or nearly U cwt. per acre at 7 feet by 

 7 feet; and this estimate is nearly picked now, 

 the balance being certain, which goes more strongly than 

 words to refute Mr. Ferdinands' opinion and statements. 



Any of your readers who is disheartened with present 

 eloomy prospects, or better still you yourself, Mr. Editor 

 cannot do better than take a trip into oue of the New 

 Products districts, and refresh your eyes and heart 

 with the results of the past five years' work, aud the pre- 

 sent prospects of most estates. 



LEAF-DISEASE ON LIBEKIAN COFFEE : BIG CEOPS. 



I have been told that leaf-disease woiUd shortly kill 

 out Liberian coffee, and indeed an idea of of this kind 

 has become rather general lately, I thiuk, but on this estate 

 we find the trees, which have lately bad an attack of leaf- 

 disease, ripening up a fine crop of coffee, till on this 

 email property of about 180 acres (30 of which are yoimg 

 »nd scarcely contribute anything) Mr. Jaxdine's estimate 



of 3,500 bushels parchment is certain, and he believes that 

 4,000 will be got in, it not more. To date about 2,000 

 bushels parchment , have been dispatched, while the trees 

 are still laden with crop, aud a very fine blossom has just 

 set equal to at least 2,U00 bushels. This is the first big 

 blossom of 1883, and is fully as early as last year's, and 

 from the a^jpearance of the coffee, which is vigorous and 

 healthy now, one can easily understand that Mr. Jardine's 

 forecast of next year's crop, 6,000 buihels parchment, is 

 very likely to be got. 



COST OF CULTIVATION OF LIBERIAN COFFEE AUD COCOA. 



Leaf-disease may attack the coffee — it does, but planters 

 have made up their mind to see it more or less every- 

 where nowadays ; and the desideratum of the coffee planter 

 is not coffee free from leaf-disease, but crop ! — no matter 

 what the condition of the trees is, and coffee bearing and 

 blossoming as this is doing is certainly pretty near what 

 is wanted. Its healthy appearance at present, under 

 the crop, is sufficient to justify our believing that 

 it will live for a number of years, and give returns which 

 will make it a handsome investment. On the 150 acres 

 in bearing the crop is over all equal to 5 cwt. per acre, 

 liut if we take the oldest field it is at present giving about 

 10 cwt. per acre, and taking into account that it was very 

 widely planted — more than double the width Liberian 

 coffee is being planted nowadays f — you will easily under- 

 stand what a crop the trees are just ripening. The pulp- 

 ing-house is small, but railway transport makes up for 

 this, as Mr. Jardine dispatches his coffee straight from the 

 cisterns (wet) to the station, and it arrives in Colombo in 

 perfect condition, to be dried and sorted there. The pulper 

 was cutting a few of the leaf-diseased cherries, but not 

 very many, and on a good sample of cherry this pulper, 

 a Walker's disc, makes very good work, and it will, no 

 doubt, be improved upon yet, when the picking over of the 

 tails, which has to be done at present, will be unnecessary. 



The coolies were picking three bushels cherry on the 

 occasion of my visit, reminding one of bumper crops up- 

 country, in days of old. 



Liberian coffee and cocoa can now be carefully brought 

 into bearing for E1'20 to R150 per acre, including purchase 

 money for land; but iu the days when Liberian coffee 

 plants cost 25 cents each, only 4 years ago, it was a very 

 different matter, and I know of an estate in another dis- 

 trict, which, with plauts, &c., cost about ESSO per acre the 

 first year. 



In order to provide against contingences, and assure the 

 stability of the investment in the future, the proprietors 

 have had cocoa interspersed throughout the coft'ee, and in 

 one field the cocoa I saw about 18 mouths ago a very 

 doubtful success is now rearing its head above the coffee, 

 iu beautiful avenues, while clusters of ripe pods all over 

 prove that it has found a suitable habitat. A few cwts of 

 cocoa have alread been dispatched, aud prices obtained for 

 it, KoOto E55percwt, augur well f or the f utm-e. 



VAEIETIEa OF COCOA. 



There are on this estate in one small field a large number of 

 varieties of cocoa, but, so* far, the market value of these 

 varieties has not yet been ascertained. 



The pods (mostly yellow) on some trees are very large, 

 aud a cwt. of clean cocoa is obtained from two-thirds of 

 the number required iu the common variety. Mr. _ Jar- 

 dine is at present in communication with Dr. Trimen, 

 with a view of finding out if any of the other varieties 

 are now considered better than the ordinary one from the 

 botanist's point of view, aud when Dr. Trimen has given 

 a definite answer in a regard to them Mr. Jardine will 

 probably give the public through yoiu- columns the bene- 

 fit of it. 



EXPEEIMENTS WITH WEEDS. 



The whole estate will this year be planted with cocoa 

 between the lines of coffee at different distances apart. 

 A small plot of coft'ee has been left uuweeded except 

 removal of jungle staff, as an experiment. It has been 

 over a year unweeded and the coffee shows no difference 

 from the surrounding field. Lately however a small 

 grass weed has appeared, which Mr. Jardine fears will 

 damage the coffee much when it spreads, if left; and it 

 will be interesting to know if it does so after a while: this 

 I have no doubt Mr. Jardine will let us know, in d«9 

 course, through your columiis. 



