May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



86g 



WEEDING OOFFEE ESTATES. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MADRAS MAIL." 



1. I would strongly recommend hand weeding being 

 done as early us possible, i.e., as soon as the regular early 

 showers of May have caused the seeds to genniuate. I 

 advocate the estate being weeded from "find to fiuish," 

 and if this is done but little weeding will be necessary in 

 June. I would persistently ''pidl up" by hand the weeds 

 thi-oughout the remaining monsoon, and allow the heaps 

 to rot on the ground. 



2. If the estate is regularly weeded, but little grass 

 will show. I find nothing tends to eracUcate grass so much 

 as renewed "puUingup," whereas grass-knifing causes it to 

 throw out innumerable rootlets which bind the earth as 

 with a carpet, and which in my humble opinion do immense 

 harm to the trees, particularly in forcing distiicts where 

 the rainfall is light. 



3. If the weeds have been persistently "pulled up" 

 during the monsoon months, a coating of moss will cover 

 the surface of the soil, making the latter hard and caked. 

 Now the digging or forking system shoidd bo pursued. 

 Tiu-n up the soil as much as possible and in large clods. 

 If a fork is used the roots of the coffee tree will not be 

 injured to any appreciable extent; on the contrary the 

 trees respond to the forlnng almost immediately. Continue 

 the forking throughout October and November until crop 

 time. 



4. The cost of forking with me is about E5 per acre 

 on old land, and from RG to 8 on new. 



5. I strongly recommend the thi-ee-pronged diggmg 

 forks made by Messrs. Parkes and Oo. 



6. If you can keep your estate clean for 12 anna.s or 

 one rupee per acre per mensem, I say, on no account allow 

 it to get into a weedy state. My experience from observ- 

 ation shows that such an undesirable result tends to 

 lameutalile issues. I woidd add that I find forking most 

 beneficial on tenacious loamy soils; in cases where the 

 soil is friable I do not consider annual forking cither necess- 

 ary or desii'able. — Atchoor. 



THE JAMAICA BANANA TRADE. 



Amid much depression, it is satisfactory to note that the 

 comparatively new trade of exporting fruits from Jamaica 

 to the United States is rapidly increasing. The trade is 

 carried ou chiefly from the ports of Kingston and Port 

 Antonio, from which regular lines of steamers ply monthly 

 or Vu-monthly to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 

 New Orleans, each of them carrying large quantities of 

 fruits, among which bananas are perhaps the chief item 

 each vessel carrying from .5,000 to 10,000 bunches. The, 

 banana is an annual, the fruit coming to maturity about 

 a year after the shoot is planted, the trunk of the tree 

 subsequently attaining a height of 8 feet to 10 feet, and a 

 girth of 36 inches. From this trunk, which is of a fibrous 

 nature, producing a fibre similar to Manilla heiup, are 

 thrown out long palm-like branches, at the junction of 

 which appears the fruit, each group of bimches, number- 

 ing from four to twelve, being called a "hand," and each 

 hand having eight or ten bananas upon it. A bunch of 

 eight hands is the ordinary standard size of shipping fruit. 

 From the root of the tree several shoots or suckers sprout, 

 each of which, in turn, becomes a fresh tree. The life of 

 the banana tree, however, is not usually long, for it is 

 felled after the fruit is gathered, and sometimes, indeed, 

 during the operation. Jamaica contains a good many 

 banana plantations, varying in size from 2.5,000 to 200,000 

 trees, for the most part cultivated by the small settlers 

 in the different parishes. These holdings generally consist 

 of three or four acres of land, on which the owners live 

 in a temporary mud hut, being afraid to leave their pro- 

 perty to the tender mercies of their neighbours, who rob 

 each other's ground with the sti-ictest impartiality when- 

 ever thry can get a chance. The habit of " prandial larceny," 

 although, fortunately, much le.ss prevalent thau formerly, 

 is, indeed, one of the great obstacles to the employment 

 of natives in new industries of this Idnd. The cultivation 

 is very prunitive. The laud being cleared, a hole is dug 



110 



and the sucker is planted in it ; but in larger plantations 

 the trees are planteil with some degree of system in the 

 form of squares, and trenches are dug for irrigation, the 

 banana thi-iving best in damp, stiff soil. The value of the 

 mdustry is shown by the fact that in 1877 there was 

 shipped from Kingston ^22,101 worth of bananas, whereas 

 in 1882 the value exported wa.s $56,538. The amounts 

 cleared out at Port Antonio for the same years were 

 S45,871 and $153,136 respectively. Besides all this, con- 

 siderable quantities were shipped from the ports of Lucca, 

 Montego Bay, St. Ann's Bay, and Port Mara, on the north 

 side of the island. The average shipping price is 50 cents 

 per bunch aU the year round.— Colonies and India. 



INDIAN SEEDS. 



to the editor of the " SYDNEY MAIL." 



SiH, — Seeds should be sown as soon as possible after they 

 have been imported. E-xposm-e to a humid atmosphere will 

 often cause them utterly to fail. Coffee seeds, for instance, 

 very soon lose then- vitahty, and of some thousands of 

 berries of Liberian coffee that I distributed last year, 

 scarcely one germinated. Some seeds perfectly good in 

 themselves may be sown too soon in the season, and are 

 hastily pronounced bad because they do not come up as 

 soon as expected. Of such, for instance, are larkspur and 

 nemophila. Succulent seeds, again, such as beet, ice plant, 

 &c., are very hable to be eaten by sparrows ; and others, 

 such as lettuce, may be entirely carried away by ants. 



Seeds of any size, lupins, beans, and of many shrubs 

 and trees, the rinds of which have Ijecome hard and tough 

 by keeping, may remam long in a dry soil before they 

 gerim'nate. It is an excellent plan with all such, and 

 especially with hard horny seeds of the Acacia mimos;B 

 and similar varieties, to throw them into a basin of hot 

 water, pick out those that float, and throw them away as 

 useless. Let the rest steep for 12 hom-s, and then sow 

 them at once. 



One of the best authorities I know recommends sowing 

 in pots and seed pans, in a mLxtm-e composed as follows : — 

 One part leaf mould, one part common garden earth (loamy), 

 and an eighth part silver-sand, well mLxed. 



A slight soil for covering the seeds with may be made 

 of coarsely-pounded charcoal and leaf mould. The charcoal 

 has a tendency to keep the soil from becoming green and - 

 sour, as it so often does from continued waterings. 



The soil .should be moist only, not wet, before .sowing, 

 and kept as equably moist as possiUle. 



Tree seeds need not be wholly covered with .soil, but 

 the top just left barely appearing ab.jve gi'ound. 



Pots are the better for being kept in a dark place till the 

 seeds show symptoms of germinating. They should then 

 be immediately removed to where 1 hey can have abundant 

 hght and air, provided care be taken to shelter them from 

 strong winds, heavy rains, and direct sunshine. 



I have now growing a good few va'.ieties of plants, shi-ubs, 

 and trees that I have raised from imported Indian seed. 

 Some are three years old, and have had to be cut back 

 freely on accomit of making too rapid growth. The first 

 year I raised them under glass, and at the end of a year 

 I potted them in separate pots. After two years I trans- 

 planted them into the open, and several are now thriving 

 after having had one cold and all of this hot season in 

 the open at Redmyi-e. — Yom-s, &c. James Inglis, 28, 

 Charlotte-place. 



FORESTS AND RAINFALL. 

 to the editor of the " austealasian." 



Sin, — In his annual address, Mr. Ellery, president of the 

 Royal Society, says: — 



"Wherever destruction of the forest has occmTcd on 

 the ranges, si)riugs have seriously diminished, and in very 

 many instances ceased altogether, therefore the reckless 

 denuding of our higher forests is absolutely robbing the 

 country of wat<>r. Shoidd this destruction continue, a 

 seriously diminished flow of oiu rivers, di'y creeks, and 

 scarcity (if water over formerly well-watered districts will 

 become inevitable." 



I cannot but think Jli-. Ellery le.ikes these remarks lui- 

 advisedly, and without due investigation. The opiuiuu of 



