October i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



321 



COFFEE LEAF DISEASE. 



What may be doue to check coffee leaf disease is thus 

 mentioned by Mr. E. M. Holmes, in a letter to the Planters' 

 Gnzette : — 



l»t. — To select for fre.sh plantations at a proper elevation 

 the eide of a hill which is leeward of the wind which 

 prevails at the time the fungus usually appears, so that 

 the shelter of the hill may prevent the spores being readily 

 carried to the trees, and the trees themselves from being 

 liable to such sudden changes of temperature as if exposed 

 to the direct action of the wind, AVhere it is not possible 

 to select such a situation, some shelter might, at all events, 

 be made by growing a barrier of taller trees between 

 different plantations, more especially on the side on which 

 the spores are likely to be brought by the prevalent wind, 

 trees of leafy habit and not belonging to the natural order 

 Cinclionaci'iv being selected. 



2nd. — It is very importaut also to ascertain as far as 

 possible the freedom of the seed sown from the fungus. 

 It has recently been observed in tliis country that the 

 hollyhock blight {Paccinia iiutlvaceai-um), which in a re- 

 markably short space of time spread over the whole of 

 Great Britain, altliough quite unknown Imre before, attacks 

 the seeds of the common mallow, and thus gives rise to 

 the same fungus in the seedling plants. {Gardeners'' Chronicle, 

 July 15th, p. 87.) It is quite possible that the coffee fungus 

 may be propagated in the same way. 



3rd. — Probably it might be a wise plan to destroy trees 

 whose vitality seems very low. Although cases are on re- 

 cord iu which a tree stripped of its leaves by the fungus 

 one season may yield a very heavy crop the next, yet 

 in such case the tree has probably made \ngorous growth 

 previously, and a cessation of a drain upon its resources 

 by the non-production of fruit one year enables it to pro- 

 duce more the next. It cannot be hoped that the fungus 

 will ever be exterminated — it is sure always to be latent 

 on the wild coffee and Cnnthinm, as well as in weakly 

 trees, awaiting only favourable conditions to enable it to 

 spread. "Weakly trees will help to do this by affording 

 suitable conditions tor the development of the fimgus, and 

 serving as a sort of centre for its distribution, and their 

 destruction by fire might lessen the evil. 



SUGiVR IN INDIA. 



Tlie map of cane areas in the North-West Provinces 

 and Oude, prepared by Mr. Buck, C. S., Director of Agri- 

 culture and Commerce, gives the i)ercentage of the area 

 under cane in the various districts as averaging from one 

 to eight per cent. The census returns of 1S71-2 give the 

 area of the sub-Himalayan portion of the North-West 

 Provinces as 69,903 square miles, and of Oude as 23,992 

 square miles, or together, a total of 93,895 square miles. 

 The report of the Assistant Director of Agriculture and 

 Oommt.'rce states (see North-West Provinces Circular, No. 

 8, of 7th July, 18S0) the area under cane in the North- 

 West Provinces and Oude to be 1,067,000 acres— 1,668 

 square miles, or about 1'75 per cent of the whole area. 

 This includes an increase since 1876-7 of 160,000 acres, 

 or 250 square miles which is only 0'26 per cent of the 

 total area. 



We estimate the maximum average produce of raw sugar 

 (goor or jaggery) to be about 30 cwt. per acre, which makes 

 the total yearly production over the above area to 32,000,000 

 cwt., which at 7s. 3Jd per cwt. equals £11,666,000. By 

 being doubled, the area under cane would be only Si per 

 cent of the total area, and at the rate of increase between 

 1877 to 1880, above alluded to, this may be done in 25 

 years. 



Assuming the out-tiu'n from' this area to be at the rate 

 of 30 cwt. of "goor" per acre, and the value at 7s SJd. 

 per cwt., we have 42 million cwt. of raw sugar produced 

 annually, worth £15,312,000; here also, if the area under 

 cane were doubled, it would be only 276 per cent of the 

 total area. The Punjab, Madras, Bombay, Burma, and 

 the native States produce sugar in quantities of which it 

 is difficult to get reliable figures, but suppose it is half 

 as much as that of the Gangetic valley, the total would 

 be 111 million cwt., or 51 lb. per head of the population. 



The exports are comp.aratively small, only 368,546 cwt. 

 in 1879, while the imports were 923,381 cwt. It thus 



appears that India is producing sugar for home consumption 

 only, and at the rate of 51 lb. per head of population. 

 (This does not include the produce of the date palm, which 

 is considerable in some parts of India.) To those acquainted 

 with the habits of the agricultural and labouring classes 

 of. India, this will appear more than a liberal allowance 

 for consumptiou. (In 1880, the consumption per head of 

 the population of the United Kingdom was about 63i lb.) 

 It is evident the production could be easily doubled, with- 

 out making an undue aud disproportionate demand on the 

 supply of laboiu- and land. Any increase in the area under 

 cane, will tend to reduce the present low prices, if it be 

 greater than a proportionate increase of the population. 

 Profitable extension, then, is only possible when the cultiv- 

 ation of the cane, and manufacture of the raw sugar, 

 has been so far improved as to bear export by sea, or 

 long journeys by land, exposed to changes of weather and 

 temperature. 



The "Colonial Statistical Abstract" for 1879 gives the 

 total production of sugar by Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad, 

 British Guiana, and Mauritius, as 6,870,725 cwts., valued at 

 £6,967,128, being an average of 20s. SJd per cwt. 



It may be here mentioned that there is a large bi- 

 weekly bazaar or market at our chief village, Jugdespore, 

 and a register of prices is kept up at the zamindary oflice 

 there. Taking an average of five years (the "goor," or 

 "jaggery," being of the improved quality produced by the 

 Beheea cane mill), the value is only about 7s. SJd. per 

 cwt., or a little more than one-third in value, as compared 

 with colonial sugars. The total Indian production. 111 

 million cwt., if of equal quality to the sugars produced 

 in the West Indies and Mauritius, would be worth 126 

 miUions sterling, but it appears the Indian cultivators get 

 only about 40^ miUions for it. It is not to be expected 

 that the necessarily domestic nature of the sugar industry 

 of India can ever be improved to equal in quality of 

 produce, the careful scientific manufacture of the large 

 sugar estates in the colonies above referred to, with their 

 costly machinery and all recent improvements. The 

 difference is 854 millions, and it may reasonably be hoped 

 to recover one-fourth of this, which would amount to an 

 additional 22J millions sterling — a vast advantage to India, 

 especially were this sum the equivalent of sugar exported. 

 There seems to be no reason in soil, climate, time, or 

 value, and supply of laboiu: why this advantage .should 

 not be recovered. The first necessity is a careful "garden" 

 cultivation of the sugar-cane plant in harmony with its 

 nature and habits, instesd of the present rude field cultiv- 

 ation ; secondly, improved meaus of extracting the cane juice; 

 thirdly, the proper treatment of the juice after extraction, 

 by cleansing and fumigation of receiving vessels, ■ .straining 

 and removal of foreign matter, defecation and evaporation 

 of the watery portion of the juice at the lowest possible 

 temperature, all of which essentials are obtainable by means 

 within the reach of the people. These remedies are witliin 

 the means of the smallest cultivator, but but he is only J 

 an atom iu the huge mass of the Indian ryots. Were he to • 

 step out of the rut to produce a better article, no one would 

 give him a corresponding price for it. — Journal of the Society 

 of Arts. 



GAMBIER AND GUMS FROM THE STEAITS 

 SETTLEMENTS. 



A staple article of export from the Straits Settlements 

 is gambler (terra japonica), derived from the gambler 

 vine, which latter is most extensively planted by Chinese 

 exclusively in the province of Jahore and other provinces 

 on the Malay peninsula, and in Sarawak, Borneo, as well 

 as on several islamls in Netherlands India, south and 

 near Singapore. Our Consul at Singapore, Adoljih J. 

 Studer, writes as follows regarding it : — 



This ^ne grows so luxuriantly and bushy that it will 

 exhaust the fertility of the soil in a short time. After 

 a few crops (clipping of the .shoots and tendrils) the land 

 is abandoned, anrl proves worthless for several years. 

 Notwith.standiiig this, the demand for gambler is con- 

 stantly increasing, and with it, of course, the cidtivation 

 of the vine. Gambler planters are constantly on the 

 move for new lauds, which they clear and make ready 

 for the time when the fertility of the last plantation is 

 exhausted. They larely fertihze, because wild jmgle 



