i49 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1S82. 



the local papers of the height attained by trees in 

 this place and the yield per acre in that ; and with 

 that belief which we have in the soil and climate 

 of Ceylon we may readily jump to the conclusion 

 that we must do a great deal better in Ceylon than 

 in India. There are districts and estates in Ceylon, 

 beyond doubt, that may realize the most sanguine hopes 

 of the enthusiast. But in planting up an old estate one 

 must be careful not to overrate the fertility of his 

 soil, or the suitableness of his climate. Here in Ceylon 

 many of us have accepted 4 x 4 as a fair distance to 

 adopt in planting tea. It may be open to question 

 how far it would be safe to accept this as a fah" 

 distance for old clearings, steep slopes, and high elev- 

 ations. For certain aud speedy returns it may, there- 

 fore, be advisable to adopt a closer system of plant- 

 ing on old clearings. Even on the same clearing tlie 

 difference of growth is apparent between the buslies 

 on flat, or gently undulating land, and those on hill- 

 sides, pointing clearly to the necessity for closer 

 planting on certain lands. Apart from the consider- 

 ation of wash, which does not exist in any gi-eat 

 measure in Ceylon clearings, there are advantages 

 which cannot be overlooked. For one thing the 

 tangible advantage of speedy returns. Indeed Colonel 

 Money hunself, hi spite of the general rules laid down, 

 points out the advantage of close planting. At page 

 44, thii-d edition, he speaks of slopes and adds : — 

 " The closer the lines to each other and the closer 

 the plants in the lines to each other, in short, the 

 more thickly the ground on slopes is planted the 

 less will be the wash, for stems and roots retam 

 the soil in its place and the mo)-e then arc the greater 

 the adrantaije."* Again at page 59 he i-epeats hun- 

 self with a modification: — " Plant as close as you 

 will in the lines, but give each plant its own home." 

 Then at page 70, he maintains : — " Where manui'e is 

 obtainable aud the soil can be kept up to a rich 

 state by yearly applications a garden can scarcely 

 be planted too close. I see no objection to trees 

 touchuig each other in the lines. On considerable 

 slopes, to prevent wash of soil the plants should 

 be placed as close as possible, say 3iV feet between 

 and 2 feet in the lines. A closely planted gai'den 

 will grow less weeds than a widely planted one, 

 and will consequently be cheaper to work. As the 

 expenditure in a garden is in direct proportion to 

 the area, and the yield in du'ect proportion to the 

 number of plants (always supposmg there is power 

 enough in the soil to support them), it follows that 

 a closely planted garden munt be very much more 

 profitable than the reverse." 



His advice as regards " iiat land aud for hybrid, 

 if hifjh elass " is to platit 4 x 3A or 4i x 4. What 

 then should be the distance, in planting up old cofl'ee 

 is a question, the answer to which miist depend on 

 soil, elevation, lay of land, &c. 



All the same for speedy returns the writer would 

 advocate close planting. The Ceylon planter would 

 soon enough know how to keep the soil in a state 

 of fertility, to support the trees when the estate proves 

 a paying concern. — Yours truly, PEKOE TIPS. 



P. S. — Smce writmgthe above I have read the advice 

 of the Darjiliug correspondent recoumiendiug tlie sowmg 

 of a few seeds under existing bushes to make them 

 many stemmed. 



WHAT AILS OUR COFFEE TREES? 



Dear Sm, — As you have paid my letter the com- 

 pliment of devoting a leader to a critique thereon, I 

 will ask jou for a little space by way of rejoinder. 



Let me premise by pointing out that the letter did 

 not profess to answer the question as to what ails 

 our coflee, but was intended solely to prove that 



* The italics are luiae, 



hemileia was not the primary cause of the universal 

 dicline of the fruit-bearing power of our coffee trees; -' 

 In that connexion I submit that no other cause came 

 logically within the scope of the argument. Though 

 fully sensible of the ravages of gmb — and also that 

 seasons have been abnormal — I submit that these terri- 

 ble factors of our depression had no counexiou what- 

 ever with the argument with which my letter was 

 exclusively concerned. 



Of the many causes to which our misfortune has, 

 at one timn or other, been attributed by your corre- ■ 

 spondents and others, there is not one, I believe, which 

 answers the essential conditions of a prinuiry cause of 

 the universal effect we all deplore ; nor am 1 hopeful 

 of any immediate discovery of that cause : but there 

 is reason to hope that, even though it remain a 

 mystery, we may discover the counteracting influences 

 or conditions to which we are indebted for those 

 strange and exceptional cases of fertility which are to 

 be found in the very midst of surrounding bar- 

 renness. 



My letter under review was intended as a contrib- 

 ution towards a thorough analytical and critical 

 investigation of each of those causes which have 

 met with any general acceptance. And by pro- 

 ceeding logically, step by step, disposing of each 

 in turn, we may hope to direct our efforts to 

 useful ends, and not waste thein in wrong directions. 



Leaf-disease was tlie first to claim attention, aa 

 being the most universal and also the most mis- 

 chievous in its efforts, of all those secondary 

 agencies which have followed in the train of that 

 remoter, mysterious and uneeen influence we would 

 fain know, or learn to counifract. Grah, abnormal 

 seasons, a "too exclusive devotion to one product," 

 and other causes which have contributed to the " terri- 

 ble change" in the fruit-bearing power of our coffee, 

 will need special notice, but each separately and in 

 turn, and not all at once. 



Considering the thorough knowledge you possess of 

 the views of the whole planting conimiinitj, and the 

 strong interest you have always taken in the discus- 

 sion of agricultural topics, the views you advance may 

 be regarded as almost an embodiment of those most 

 generally held by planters, and may be dealt with 

 accordingly. 



Confining myself, for the present, to such of your 

 remarks .as bear on leaf-disease, and deferring the 

 rest to a future occasion : your argument against the 

 existence of a " predisposinj^ condition of the cof- 

 fee trees" seems to me to favour iny view and 

 to imply the existence of such a condition. 

 You say that " the fungus was latent on the allied 

 trees of our jungles," an assumption which seems to 

 me to imply that it remained in a latent state zmtil 

 some favouring condition supervened to bring it into 

 active play. Your words clearly regard the hemileia 

 as a secondary factor, brought out of its latent con- 

 dition of abeyance into terrible activity by some j«'e- 

 cedinr/ influence. It is this influence, this primary 

 motive power, of which we are in search I Coffee had 

 covered large areas of land for 30 years, surrounded 

 by the indigenous vegetation in which, you say, 

 the fungus was all along latent ; but it so remained 

 until stimulated into fearful activity by some newly 

 acquired condition of the trees. The existence of this 

 primnri/ cause is what I conteud for, its nature, or 

 something to counteract its ruinous influences, is what 

 we want to discover. 



The secondary character of black bug, which you 

 regard as a parallel case to hemileia has been estab- 

 lished in our experience. Thi* pjst w.is known in 

 the country long before it took its sudden devastat- 

 ing tour of the coH'ee districts, aud threatened to 

 extinguish the enterprize. It had long disfigured some 

 few of our garden ehrubs, but vvati powerless over our 



