October i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



3+7 



THE COORG COFFEE AND CINCHONA 

 CKOP. 



To the Secretary, Agri- Horticultural Society, Madras. 

 Mercara, Ist September. 

 Sir, — On my return from South C'oorg, it is a 

 pleasurable task to write a season report. Having 

 beeu shut up in Mercara by the heavy monsoon for 

 months, 1 felt like a schoolboy on a holiday tour, and 

 the more genial climate of the sunnier south at this 

 time of the year, but especially the vast expanse of 

 splendid coffee estates, and the happy faces of their 

 owners or representatives, exercised a most exhilarat- 

 ing influence and I would invite every one who is 

 interesled in coffee to come to C'oorg, to see for 

 himself, and to take courage. The monsoon, with 

 a rainfall iu June and July of 56 and 90 inches 

 respectively in Mercara, and 28 and 52 inches in 

 the Piomba, has certainly beeu the heaviest on re- 

 cord ; but though excessive in north and west Coorg 

 in the south and especially in the Bomba district, 

 the quantity of rain seems to have benefitted coffee 

 cultivation to an unusual degree. There is a remark- 

 able freshness and luxuriance in the appearance of 

 the trees, which, besides to hit;h cultivation, must 

 be ascribed to the very favourable season. For open- 

 ing out Di-w land, the planting could not have been 

 effected in more suitable weather, and the result 

 should prove a great success. With very few ex- 

 ceptions, the forthcoming crop throughout Coorg 

 aeenis to be a good one. Fine as the estates in 

 South Coorg are, I have seen equally good ones in 

 North Coorg, and success in the rivalry between the 

 two geographical divisions lies still witli the intellig- 

 ent, energetic and hard-woiking planter, who has 

 soil climate and money to rely upon. 



The coffee borer has, in the early part of the 

 season, shown itself in destructive force, but the 

 resolute treatment of eradication checks its progress, 

 and I have not observed a clearly marked borer- 

 tree. Of leaf disease there is little to be seen, but 

 in exposed places the strong monsoon wind has 

 done much mischief in blowing off leaves and crop. 

 Liherian Coffee is now cousidered as not adapted to 

 the Coorg climate ; the berry, though over twelve 

 months on the tree, does not come to maturity, 

 and the bulk of the hard fleshy part is iu excess to 

 the size of the bean, which is not much larger 

 than that of good sized ordinary coffee. 



A grand feature throiighont the Bambu district is 

 the judicious shade planting, which, on more ad- 

 vanced estates, is attended to with careful adjust- 

 ment to local requirements of intensifying or thin- 

 ning out shade. The old favoiite charcoal tree 

 (i-iponca Wrightii) has almost disappeared, and g"iven 

 way to the varieties of the (ig tribe. It climate, 

 especially the amount of rainfall, were a certain 

 factor in the planter's calculations, shade might be 

 dispensed with even in the Bomba, and the fecund- 

 ity of trees regulated by pruning and manuring. 

 On the best cultivated estates pruning, handling, 

 and the regulation of shadj, claim now the principal 

 attention of the planter, and experience has gone 

 far to supply him with trustworthy conclusions for 

 his guidance. The time w hen Ceylon-practice was 

 quoted by Coorg planters as the highest standard 

 of excellence in coffee cultivation, is happily gone 

 by aud the flanters of Coorg have now attained to 

 the proud position of being able to lay down the 

 law for themselves from their own experience, and 

 to find their estates admired even by planters from 

 Ceylon. There is no longer any individual groping 

 in the d.ark, or doubtful experimentalizing in coffee 

 planting ; riding over twenty miles through uninter- 

 rupted coffee plantations one finds the same >tyle of 

 working with the pame results, only varying ia 



degree. Another striking feature rising into promin- 

 ence, is the cultivation of cinchona among coffee, 

 or on separate land. Mr. James Chisholm has 

 evidently taken the lead as to extent of cultivation. 

 His planting among coffee and on waste land on 

 Elkhill amounts to two lacs of succirubra, 10,000 

 of Condaminea and 4,000 of Ledgeriana, and 'the 

 plants of one to three years old are in fine con- 

 dition. Even natives are now taking to cinchona cultiv- 

 ation, and for the last two years there has been a 

 great demand for plants. The seedlings imported 

 from the Nilgiris generally arrive in poor condition, 

 and a very heavy percentage prove failures ; local 

 eff'orts have therefore lately been made, and with 

 much success, to rear the plants from seed, and 

 next year there will be large supplies of siiccirubr.i, 

 condaminea, and even ledgeriana in Coorg. My first 

 attempt at harvesting the succirubra bark by "shav- 

 ing has proved successful ; the bark sent home 

 fetched 3s Sd per pound, and the trees thus treated, 

 and without any artificial covering after shaving, have 

 completely renewed baik, and will be ready for the 

 process next month. The cultivation of Ceara rtMer 

 has been tried by several planters ; but with coffee 

 and cinchona so hopeful, (Jeaia finds little fitvor. 

 The many expensive attempts with acclimatizing 

 Thcobroma cocoa are not encouraging. The plant 

 does not take kindly to the soil, and remains in 

 a languid state and after repeated efforts of produc- 

 ing diminutive leaves withers and dies. The growth 

 of the oil palm leaves, however, nothing to be 

 desired, also Pithecolobinm Sajnan and C'arobal have 

 the same chance. 



Rice cultivation, which in July looked so hopeless 

 on account of the heavy rain, is now everywhere 

 promising satisfactorily, and should today, on the 

 Coorg Kishmut feast, be completed. I observed with 

 pleasure everywhere, the rice valleys green with the 

 thriving grain, and a rich harvest is anticipated. — 

 Yours faithfully, G. RiCHXER. 



— Madras Mail. 



[From Mr. Richter's very interesting report We. 

 should gather that cojfca arabica in Coorg is in a far 

 more flourishing condition than we can report of it 

 in Cevlon. On the other hand cocoa seems an ab- 

 solute failure, while Liberian coffee appears not to be 

 in favour. But they may not know in Coorg that 

 Liberian coffee is ripe, often when yellow or even 

 green, aud that the size of the beans increases with the 

 age of the trees. We are glad to learn that the Coorg 

 planters are out of this pupilage. — Ed.] 

 ♦ 



THE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON OF 1882, 



was, or rather has been, for it does not seem 

 yet to have exhausted its force, about the most 

 severe on record, as affecting the mountain regions 

 of Ceylon and Southern India. At SJercara, in Coorg, 

 no less than 140 inches of rain fell iu the two 

 months of June and July. We do not suppose that 

 anything like this quantity of absolute rainfall has 

 been experienced at any point of record in the 

 mouiitam system of Ceylon, but the interesting and 

 instructive return which Mr. Giles A\'alker (see page 

 351 ) has furnished for an average and fairly central hill 

 station, Bogawautalawa, shews that the south-west 

 monsoon of 1SS2 will be memorable in the meteoro- 

 logical records for combined wind, wet and cold. 

 The latter condition, indicated by a temperature 3' 

 lower than the mean of ten years, assumes a new 

 importance from its bearing on the tl eory of Bequerel 

 that in tropical climates espcciallj the destruction 

 of forest is accompanied with an elevation of the 



