August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



139 



$otiti6spond^no$. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 

 HOW A PLANTER IS TREATED IN FIJI. 

 Levuka, 22nd Mny 1S82. 

 Sir, — As I believe the Ceylon Observer is the leading 

 planters' jouiunl in the world, I shall be much obliged 

 if you will kindly insert the following letter in it. I 

 have informed Ur. McGregor and Mr. Hedges that I 

 should write to you. 



In June 1877 I commenced to open the Great Amalgam 

 estate, which ab that time was dense forest, and bv 

 the end of 1S7S I had 355 acres planted with coffee. 

 The land was selected after much thought and due 

 inspection, and upon the advice at that time of the 

 most experienced coffee planter in Fiji. The lay of 

 the land was as perfect as it could be, and it was 

 very heavily timbered and covered with enormous soft 

 and hard wood trees and looked as though it would 

 grow anything. Mr. J. P. Storck had often been over 

 the place when hunting for specimens, and he says in 

 his opinion the land was everytliing tliat could be 

 desired for a cofTee plantation. As a matter of fact, 

 some 21 months ago I caused to be sent to Mr. 

 Cochran (Colombo) for analysis a sample of the soil 

 from the surface down to a depth of 3 feet, which 

 analysis Mr. Cochran published iu the Ceyhn Olixerver 

 with a letter dated 11th October 1880. On reference 



to that letter it will be observed that he says : 



" Upon the whole it is very similar to that of our Jey. 

 Ion soils. The percentage of lime is low, but higher 

 than most of the Ceylon soils that have been analyzed. 

 The amount, of potash is about our average, while the 

 phosphoric^ acid is higher. The percentage of nitrogen 

 is fair.* * * In makmg this comparison, however, 

 it IS to be ren.emberedthat the Ceylon soils analyzed 

 within the last three years have been chiefly, if' not 

 exclusively, surface soils," and, as stated in the early 

 part of his letter, the sample ho received represented 

 the composition of the soil from the surface to a depth 

 of 3 ft. I am therefore led to the conclusion that 

 with propee cubivation, such as draining, digging, lin- 

 ing, &e., the estate would have become a most valuable 

 propei-ty ; foi- the maiden crop on the coffee first 

 planied waf, at two years of age, esiimated at from 

 4 to 6 cwt. an acre. As much as 13:5 cwt. an acre 

 have been g:ithered in Fiji, and 10 and 12 cwt. more 

 than once ; and, if estates in Ceylon producing 5 or 6 

 cwt. are worth as much as £100 an acre, I don't 

 thiuk it unreasonable to imagine that coffee property 

 in Fiji might be equally as valuable when producing 

 double tliat amount of crop. 



In 1879 leaf-disease, abnost as a natural consequeuce 

 of planting coffee, made its appearance iu Fiji, and 

 everyone, -specially those least acquainted with the 

 disease, appeared to be panic-struck ; and Great Amal- 

 gam was the place on wnich it was first no/iced. I may 

 meutiou that now scarcely anyone fears the disease 

 in Fiji, and but little damage appears to be done by 

 it.* I was absent in the Australian colonies during 

 the ti lie of the great .'■care ; otherwise I should have 

 hoped to liavo allayed it. But to prove to what ab- 

 surility men, otherwise sane, can commit themselves 

 under similar circumstances, the fact that the Agricult- 

 ural Society sent a dei utat on to the Governor, and 

 begged him to bnru off the place at once— without 

 first ascertaining whether the disease was on any other 

 plantatinu, auii after several simpletons had carried 

 diseased trnvcs to various islands in the group as r.peci- 

 mens— wonld, if that Society had not since then collapsed 

 through incapacity, have entailed everlasting disgrace 

 upon it ; and its then acting members can never otherwise 



» "Wait-a-bit."— Ed. "" ' 



be regarded than as the least practical of men. How- 

 ever after one or two meetings had been held a com- 

 mission was appointed, whose working members 

 consisted of two young men— one of whom had never 

 seen a coffee tree, and the other had merely stayed 

 i# Ceylon for a few months as a visitor— to visit and 

 report upon every estate in Fiji; and within a few- 

 weeks lifter they had reported that leaf-disease only 

 existed on Gi'eat Amalgam— as soon in fact as a practi- 

 cal man could visit each estate— leaf-disease was 

 reported to exist upon nearly every patch of coffee 

 in the country. 



Great Ainalgam was opened by, and was in charge 

 of, a Ceylon planter of 10 or 12 years' experience, 

 .and the. magnilicent .appearance of the young coffee 

 ■when lu full blossnm was the cause of numerou? 

 congratulations. Earlj in 187ii Mr. George P Drum- 

 mond (a brother of your Mr. John Drunimond), who 

 was then a perfect stranger to me, wrote to me at my 

 request to tell me of the prospects of my plantation. 

 He said:- "In all my planting experience, and that 

 extends over 16 years, I have never seen finer or 

 more promising-looking young coffee than that now 

 growing on Great Amalgam &c." Before any definite 

 action was taken by the Agricultuml Society the dis- 

 ease was officially reported on o' her patches of coffee 

 and nothing was then done until after my return to 

 the colony in September. The Government were very 

 anxious to get my estate into their own hands in 

 order that Br. McGregor, Chief Medical Officer, 

 might try his hand at experimenting, and see if he 

 could not get rid of the disease. This w;is partly, I 

 believe, because the natives had grown a little coflee 

 but principally because Sir Arthur Gordon had such 

 a high opinion of Dr. McC4regor's ability that he may 

 have thouglit it would be a fine chance to shew to 

 Messrs. Abbay and Morris that where they had failed 

 Dr. MclJregor had succeeded. I, on the other hand, 

 objected most strenuously to their interfering with to 

 valuable a property, as I felt certain, after the man- 

 ner of Governments in crown colonies, that sufficient 

 care would not be exercised iu the supervision, and 

 that CTreat Amalfiam would be sacrificed. Numerous 

 interviews took place at my office with the Colonial 

 Secretary, the Attorne.^ -General, Dr. McGregor, &c 

 but I declined to accede to the wish of the Govern- 

 ment. Eventually Sir A. Gordon sent Mr. A. .1 

 Stiphens (formerly of Ceylon) to me and told me 

 that, if I would agree to their desire, I should 

 receive compensation for the crop of coffee then 

 on the trees, and not be called upon to pay any- 

 thing towards the cost of experiments ; Morris' 

 lime and sulphur treatn.ent— which was then so much 

 talked of in Ceylon— being the only experiment that 

 occnrred to either Mr. Stephens or myself. Knnwino 

 as I did that anyone in this "crown colony of a 

 severe type" who would not f.all in with the wishes 

 of the Governor might at once retire, as his fate could be 

 safely pi-edicted I made a virtue of necessity, and agreed 

 to do what he wished ; and, as I knew that Great 

 Amalgam would bo benefited by a good liming, I fool- 

 ishly proposed to pay half the cost of applying it if 

 the Government were unsuccessful in stampingmit the 

 disease. I also stipulated that a gentleman should be 

 put in charge in whom I had confidence, and Mr 

 Stephens wiis .appointed. An agreement was drawn 

 up and executed between the Colonial Secretary and 

 myself in which the Government agreed to ende.avour 

 to stamp out tlie disease ; to weed, and keep the plant- 

 ation as free from weeds as it then was ; to put in 

 all necessary supplies ; before the end of January to 

 properly stake all the coffee ; and to cut roads and 

 drains ; they also agreed to compensate me for the 

 crop of coffee then on the trees, and, in cise of any 

 dispuie arising between us, it was to be settled by 

 arbitration in the nsnal -way. 



