May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



861 



MANURE. 



Mr. Jardine carts manure from Kurimegala, a distance 

 of 9 miles, and lands it on the estate at about KG 

 per acre, allowing a bushel per tree, or 75 cents per cart, 

 including pui-chase money (about 12^ cents per cart). 



RAILWAY TUANSPOET CHAEGES. 



Mr. sturgeon on Liberia was de.sirous of taking advantage 

 of the railway to transport manure to the estate (Liberia), 

 having to cart, and the railway passing along the boundary. 

 The late careful TrafBc Manager only asked the very 

 moderate sum of K4-40 per ton for 2| miles transport ! ! ! 

 Mr. .Sturgeon reiiuii'ing to load or unload the manme. 

 Calculating that Mr. .Jardine's carts ordy take J a ton, it 

 only costs him lli cents per mile per ton landed on any 

 point of the estate, compared with about E2 per mile 

 here, with the additional e.'.pense of loading and unloading. 

 Of com'se this stopped the work being carried out, but 

 it is surely very hard to think that instead of giving 

 every possible assistance and encouragement to new pro- 

 duct planters Government officials seem, in many cases, 

 to put as many difficidties as possible in the way. 



THEFTS OF PRODUCE. 



Another case came under my notice is this district, of 

 a man who was caught steahng in the act, with a bag 

 of cocoa pods ready to be removed ; he was fined KIO : a 

 friend who had also a bag picked ready for removal escaped 

 free. Now the magistrate who tried them, a Sinhalese gentle- 

 man, must look on robbeiy of this kind from a very 

 lenient point of \'iew, and a little reflection on 

 his part would at once convince him of the amount 

 of damage he has already done ; as a man can remove in 

 one load K20 worth of cocoa beans, and it is almost im 

 possible to catch the thieves in a large cocoa estate 

 therefore it strikes one most forcibly, seeing that the 

 chances are about 50 to 1 against the thief being caught, 

 he is likely to make a fah-ly good thing of it, in the 

 course of a year : in fact by this singular prmishment on 

 the part of the Galagedara magistrate, he has fairly laid 

 the foundation of a new imlustry for his fellow-country- 

 men, doubtless unintentionally, and let us hojje that the 

 next offender may get punishment in lashes and hard- 

 labour somewhat adequate to his offence. 



A FINE RUBBER TIEE. 



One india rubber tree in front of Liberia bungalow 3 years 

 old measured 2 feet in circumference IS inches from the 

 ground, and is very high .and the milk very thick. 



THE CARBOLIC ACID CURE FOK LEAF-DLSEASE. 



I saw the area treated on TTdapoUa with carbolic acid, 

 and quite agree vnth what Mr. Jardine wrote to yoiu- paper 

 lately : and in one case I felt the carbolic acid fume, 

 strongly, several feet from the tree, which had leaf-dis- 

 ease on it, and a tin of pure carbolic beneath it ! 



CHEERING PROSPECTS FOE OLD AS WELL A NEW PRODUCTS. 



When the foregoing notes were written for your jom-naj, 

 1 had not seen your junior editor's very able papers on 

 " Matale revisited," which every one musthavefelt e.xtremoly 

 interested in, and I now send on the balance of my notes 

 feeling .sure that at the present crisis, as a sequel (however 

 poor) to those letters just referred to, they will reach you at 

 an opportune moment, when their appearance can do no harm, 

 but may possibly do good by cheering some hard-worked 

 planter on the verge of despair, and I feel certain that any- 

 one who takes a trip over the ground I have just gone, 

 ami sees what I have feebly clesciibed, wiU exclaien like 

 the queen of Shelia that " the half has not been, told." 

 and in the not very far distant futiue there is :i likeli- 

 hood of comparative prosperity to the country agaiji, when 

 we shall be able to look on days of depression as a thing 

 of the past, and instead of only one great staple t'he failure 

 of which, in a bail season, l)rings such disastrou.s effects, 

 we shall have a variety of jiroducts, and be more op less 

 independent of the failure of any one of them ajiy year. 

 The year that m.ay be di.sastrous for one crop fas the late 

 one for coffee) is exactly suiteil for another (a,s last \'ear 

 was for tea), aiul the ba})py planter will then be abb- to 

 console himself with the retiection. tliat "it is anill-win<l 

 that blows nobody any good," and that '' his eggs are not all 

 in one basket." 

 109 



If in the figures I have quoted there are any errors, I 

 apologize to the gentlemen who so lundly gave me the in- 

 formation; but one conclusion only can be arrived at from 

 the foregoing, which is, that in the 1,50U acres of cocoa, 

 besides Liberiau coffee, rubber, &c., which are flomishing on 

 Liberia, Udapolla, DelgoUa, Djnievor, Lowlands, (.!aiinhill, 

 Lismore, Kockcave, and a number of other equally good 

 estates in this vicinity, the nucleus of a grand district has 

 been formed, which in a few years will have thousands 

 of acres under " new products"; when the present 

 pioneers will have the satisfaction of seeing what bene- 

 factors they have been to the country, and also of knowing 

 that in their early investments they made a really " good 

 thing " of it, a very unusual curcumstauce in this world 

 \vith pioneers. 



• Then happy lowly* heads lie down, 



" Uneasy hes the head that wears the cro^vut." 



ALKALOIDS IN C. SUCClllUBBA AT HIGH 

 AND LOW ALTITUDES. 

 All connected with the cullu'e of cineliona will 

 read with special interest Dr. Trimen's letter given 

 on page 864. From this it will be seen that a 

 difference of altitude of 4,000 feet in favour of a 

 tree over nineteen years old grown at Hakgala 

 over one of equal age grown at Peradeniya, rcsultid 

 not only in more robust growth and more than 3J 

 times more bark, but in a pn^portion of alkaloids, 

 especially of the more valuable kinds, enormouely 

 greater. Unless, which is not very probable the tree 

 at Hakgala was specially sheltered from wind, the 

 case in favour of high altitude is exceedingly si rong. 

 If those who own high estates could only trench the 

 ground to 4 feet or so, they could no dnubtgrow 

 the vigorous C. succiruhra to great profit. Now that 

 shaving has been adopted, of course there would be no 

 necessity to wait more than a fourth of the period of 

 the growth of the trees experimented on. 



THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE, 

 ACTUAL AND PROSPECTI\E, IN' TROPICAL 

 QUEENSLAND AND THE "NORTHERN TER- 

 RITORY" OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



To a correspondent, who is turning to good ac- 

 count, in Northern Queentlaml, planting experience 

 obtained in Southern India, we are indebted for the 

 following very inti resting details: — 



The state of the planting industiy in Queensland at 

 present is faudy prosperous. Mackay, hitherto the premier 

 sugar district, will, perhaps, have, comparatively speak- 

 ing, the worst outtum. At Bundaberg a large area — hereto- 

 fore a cattle station — has been bought by a sjTidicate who 

 are now advertising for sale and lease in sections of 20 

 acres and upwards, and promising to put up a central 

 mill to crush the cane. They have foimded the township 

 of Barohn and are claiming for it points over which 

 Euskin and Dr. Richardson woidd agi'ee. The Pandora 

 Sugar Co. has satislicd the people of Rockliamptou thtit then- 

 neiglibourhood is suitable for sugar. Proprietors of the rich 

 scrub lauds in the Logan valley aie also ofi'ering land for 

 sale or lease in small .acreages, undertaking to give 10s 

 per ton for matm'ed caue as it stands in the field. This 

 plan the Colonial Sugar- Co. has largely adopted in New 

 South Wales and Fiji, and it is found to answer weU for 

 all ijarties concenied. Many people who do not care not- 

 withstanding liberal tenus to take vip land on the outposts 

 of settlement readily avail themsi-lves of this aiTangement 

 by which they are sm'e of a fis( d ix-tui'n for capital in- 

 vested. On the Burdekin Delta £2.j0,0U0 has al- 

 ready bctu expended on the plantations. Audmillaii 



» Lowcountry. 



t Of King Coffea Arabica. 



