128 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[AtTGUST I, 1882. 



deal of interest in the gardens ; their ladies espeoially 

 took pains in teaching the gardeners the best mode of 

 raisin" various cropa of vegetables, often supplying 

 them with seeds brought from Europe and from other 

 parts. If the ladies of the present generation would 

 only "show equal interest, I am sure they would con- 

 tribute much to improve the products of the gardens, 

 ■which certainly need improvement. The natives do 

 not read, and are therefore ignorant of the new 

 methods of raising better crops of vegetables and fruits. 

 They invariably, from year to year, follow the same 

 method once taught them, never taking the trouble of 

 selecting good seeds or stock. The potato of Maha- 

 bleshwur was at one time liighly esteemed and reckoned 

 the best in the Presidency ; but the old stock has 

 degenerated. What tlie cause of this degeneration is 

 it is not easy to ascertain. Varii varia dicunt. Some 

 say the degeneration is due to the owners having taken 

 up the tubers too early ; others attribute it to the 

 crot) being grown in successive seasons on the same 

 spot. The latter is, I believe, the true cause of the 

 degeneration ; experience has proved that the potato 

 plant does not thrive well when raised in successive 

 years in the same place. Although an intelligent 

 gentleman informed me that he hud heard that the 

 potato tubers became black some time after being dug 

 up, I am led to believe from inquiries made that the 

 fungus Pcronospora ivfestans, which frequently appears 

 in Europe in an epidemic form, has not as yet shown 

 itself on this hill, sacred to Shiv and Krishnabai. 



Last year Dr. McCotiagby, the energetic Superintend- 

 ent, brought tubers from Mussoorie and other parts 

 of India and distributed them among the gardeners 

 here. The crop raised is said to have been good. 

 Major Affleck also brought some stock from England, 

 but failed to raise a good crop. 



Raspberries and strawberries are cultivated here. 

 These fruit?, with which Europeans are familiar, are 

 susceptilde of improvement both in size and flavour. 

 Bubus lasiocarpiis is the species of raspberry grown ~ 

 on this hill. It is a large, very variable, straggling 

 kind of bramble with compressed prickles: indigenous 

 to Neilgherry, Himalaya, Murree, Cashmere, and other 

 higher ghauts of India and Ceylon. It thrives well 

 here, flowers in February, and fruits in March and 

 April. It delights in rich soil, which is belter re- 

 newed every year. We read in the Bombay Flora 

 that Euhus idocm (the common raspberry of Europe) 

 is successfully cultivated at Phunda Ghaut, south of 

 Kolhapur. 



The kind of strawberry cultivated here is Fragaria 

 Nilgerensis ; F. eUitior of the Bombay Flora. It is 

 indigenous to the Neilgherries and Kassia. The Bom- 

 bay Flora says : — " It is successfully cultivated abuve 

 ghauts and extensively near Poena for sale in camp. 

 The strawberries of Kolhapur and its vicinity "ppear 

 to be tha best in the Deccan." It is now in fruit here. 

 Abundant water is necessary for raising a good crop 

 of it. Fra(,aria vesca, which is, perhaps, a form of 

 the Neilgherry strawberry, is said to be raised at 

 Saharanpore and Meerut. Supplies of other fruits, 

 such as figs, grapes, plantains, mangoes, &c , are drawn 

 from Poena, Dapoli, Wai and Satara. It appears to 

 me that cardamom ( Elatleria Cardamoimnn) could be 

 introduced on the shady places of this hill. Whether 

 an attempt has ever been made, I have not been able 

 to asceitain. The elevation of the Travancore forest, 

 where car(himoni is indigenous and cultivated, is from 

 3,000 to 5,0OU feet ; tlie mean rainfall, 121 inches, 

 and the mean temperature 72° F. 



Lingm.ala is a place worth seeing ; the distance from 

 the garden is aljout two miles, and the road leading 

 to it from the ' latter place is very good ; the one 

 ramifying from the Satara road not being in good 

 order. Lingmala is situated on the right bank of the 

 Yenna river, and waa the site selected for the cin- I 



choua plantations. It appears that about 20,000 young 

 plants, brought from the Neilgherries, were planted here, 

 but four years afterwards, being attacked with canker, 

 almost all of them died, and there are at present 

 only a few pi mts of stunted growth from about three 

 to five feet high, to bear witness to the experiment. 

 There are also here some pear and guava trees, which 

 were, I believe, planted at the same time. They 

 flower and yield fruit, which is small, and I am told 

 not of good flavour. Government abandoned the cin- 

 chona plautaiions in 1875, after spending about Pi60,000 

 in the attempt to introduce in tliis Presidency these 

 useful American plants. The spot selected was not 

 appropriate, being exposed during the greater part of 

 the year to the dry hot winds of the Deccan.* The 

 jambul, hirda and other plants, which become large 

 trees elsewhere on the hill, are at Lingmala bushy. 

 Should Government ever again attempt the experi- 

 ment, they would do well to select some other spot : 

 periiaps the valley, known to bazaar people as Concu- 

 bag, where formerly a Chinaman tried to raise tea- 

 plants, would be appropriate. Cinchona succirubra and 

 0. Cardifolia ought not to be thought of again ; in- 

 stead Lcdgtriana should have a trial. 



About a quarter of a mile below the cinchona plant- 

 ation is the romantic valley to which many people 

 go to see the Yenna waterfall. This is enjoyed best 

 at the end of the rains and during the cold season, 

 when the volume of water is said to be large and 

 the sight magnificent. Here in this valley on the left 

 bank of Yenna, as well as in Wai, there are very 

 handsome trees of Elococarpus Oblongtis, known here 

 as Kassou, which, when in full bloom are very beauti- 

 ful. They are now beginning to flower; the flowers 

 being arranged in simple drooping racemes ; calyx red- 

 dish brown and petals white, beautifully fringed. This 

 tree is closely allied to rudrach (Rudrach ganitrus) 

 also found here, the nuts of which are elegantly 

 tubercled and nsed as necklaces by Brahmins and 

 fakeers. The nuts of a euphorbiaceous plant, Putran- 

 gioa Eoxburghii are used in the same manner ; being 

 strung up into rosaries and put by fond mothers round 

 the necks of their childien, on the supposition that 

 they have the virtue of warding off evil spirits and 

 keeping the little ones in health, whence the name, 

 putra jiva, "life of the child."— Times of India. 



APPROCHING VISIT OF MR. STORCK 

 TO CEYLON. 

 We are glad to learn tlu-ough the letters in an 

 other place that the discovei'er of the carbolic acid 

 vapour treatment of the coS:ee leaf fungus is about 

 to visit Ceylon, and we think the thanks of our 

 planting community are due to Mr. Dobree for act] 

 iiig with so much promptitude and public spu'it as 

 he has done in this matter. We have always en- 

 deavoured to place the " Coffee Leaf Disease " liter- 

 atni-e of Ceylon within the reach of every savant or 

 experimentalist interested in the question, and how- 

 ever gi'eat may be the doubt entertained of the success 

 of a fiu-ther set of experiments — after our prolonged 

 disappomting experience — every one must be pleased 

 to see Mr. Storck himself on the spot to watch the 

 effect of his treatment. Should Mr. Storck be in- 

 strumental to any extent, in dissii^ating the present 

 dark clouds which surround our coffee enterprize, he 

 will indeed deserve well of the planters of Ceylon ; 

 but at first he must expect uphill work, for so much 



• We slionld have thought that they rather suffered, 

 canker being specified as the cause of failure, from the 

 excessive rainfall of the Bombay eanatarium.— Ed. 



