October i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



35^ 



a limestone bottom, I firmly believe ; and that this 

 equally applies to cinchona as to coffee — instance 

 Jamaioft ! Though a clay soil, the limestone it rest"- 

 on affords perfeo drainage ; and hence I fancy the 

 reason we do not hear of the former dying out 

 there." I well remember too poor " Squatter " David- 

 son (a far above the average well-read, wellinformeil, 

 man he was ; as other members of his family, a keen 

 observer of anything connected with natural his- 

 tory, and a good talker to wit : one I never wearied of 

 listening to — except only perhaps it might be on 

 one subject — and, as others too out here, I don't 

 doubt, would gladly .add, many a ple.asaut hour I 

 have spent at his fireside at Hattou, so doinj; !) 

 attributing the exceptional crops of a certain locality 

 — I think in Dimbula somewhere, but am not cert- 

 ain— to its Umeslone boltom ! 



As to the suggestion of a protective crop of some 

 sort to be grown amongst the coffee : that the idea 

 occurred to, and its adoption recommended by, so good 

 an authority as Liebis, 1 think entitles it to con- 

 sideration. And further that it has received a long 

 and successful trial already in Ceylon, I venture 

 to name AUoowiharee : there the wholo surface 

 was permitted to become covered with moss (a velvetty, 

 olive-green moss as far as I remember) with a view to 

 check wash, which it would seem to do effectually ; but 

 probably too, more than this, in the conservation of nitro- 

 gen. Still, ihough natuially a rich soil. I think on 

 encjuiry it will be found that it was necessary to apply 

 liberal supplies of the latter artificially in order to sup- 

 port and maintain the splendid crops it notoriou.sly 

 gave, year after year, for years, and for ought I know 

 may still be giving. Save possibly to a partial extent, 

 through wash and neglect, can " W. D. B." kindly 

 name any other sufficient cause than a waste of nitrogen 

 and refusal of nature's supplies for the deplorable 

 contrast that I fear has prejudiced many a passing 

 visitor to Kanrly unfairly against the coffee enterprize 

 generally in Ceylon between the terraced paddy fields, 

 that I suppose for generations have retaimd their fertil- 

 ity, to be Been on the righthand side ascending the 

 Kadugannawa Pass, and the adjacent melancholy-look- 

 ing scrub grown on the hilltops with but a few coffee 

 stumps remaining as a memento of the past ? 



Apropos of your suggestion of rape as a green crop, 

 and as possibly equally applicable to it, the following 

 quotation may not be out of place : — "Leguminous crops 

 generally flourish in soils containing little or no nitro- 

 genous matter ; and not only so, but are able in some 

 mysterious way to obtain nitrogen from the atmosphere, 

 and to store up a portion in the soil. The fact is well 

 kilow to chemists It has been proved that a soil from 

 which two crops of clover had l)een cut, thereby taking 

 away a large amount of nitrogen, is richer in nitrogen 

 than before the clover was." 



If so, how much more rich, had the clover only been 

 dug in ! It has since occurred to me that every 

 bundle of weed I removed to be burnt in anxiety to 

 clean a certain property was equivalent to removing 

 (instead of applying) a basket of grass-fed cattle-dung. 



The following is the opinion of an eminent Professor of 

 Agriculture at home(for which, by the way, to a neigh- 

 bour of mine who studied under him, thanks are due) 

 which maj affurd your correspondent "W." some clue in 

 connection with leaf-disease. I think it is briefly thus : 

 — " That different plants inhale and exhale different 

 gases ; that consequently, if only one product be cultiv- 

 ated over large areas, the atmosphere becomes after a 

 Xixae exhrnstcd of the element it requires to inhale, or that 

 it may become poisoned by re-inhaling its own breadth ; 

 and that thus a door is opened to the different blights 

 that almost invariably put in an appearance under these 

 conditions." But this theury would in the present 

 instance seem to be entirely upset by the prevalence of 



the disease in Sumatra, Java, &o. , where properties are 

 all more or less detached. .And it is curious to note 

 that, whereas in these countries the climate is generally 

 a huinid one, in India, the dry districts (Coorg, &o. ),as 

 in Ceylon, seem to be comparatively but little affected 

 by it : X. 



P. S. — Besides Mr. Bosanquet's success I heard the 

 other day of a property in Matale on which the resid- 

 ent proprietor had, by systematic and judicious manur- 

 ing, any how kept up the yield to an average consider- 

 ably more than sufficient to enable him to gradually 

 lionvert it into a cocoa vvalk "in embryo." These are 

 no doubt but two instances among many, and why with 

 good blossoming seasons in the future should it not be 

 to the same extent general? 



NATIVE-GATHERED CAOUTCHOUC. 



Galkissa, Sept, 2ud, 1882. 



Sir, — T take the liberty of sending you, per this day's 

 tapal, for your inspection, a ball of caoutchouc, dis- 

 covered and taken by me from a certain species of the 



caoutchouc-bearing family indigenous to Ceylon 



Yours faithfully, F. 3REWARDENNE. 



[The ball sent to us is not like rubber at all : Dr. 

 Trimen, who has seen it, cannot suppose it to be of any 

 commercial value. Can our correspondent tell us the 

 Sinhalese name of the tree from which he collected 

 this ball ?— Ed.] 



PREPARATION 01? TAPIOCA. 



Kalutara, 7th September 1882. 



Dear Sir, — Having 4 acres of manioc ripe, and being 

 ignorant of the manipulation of the root, I should be 

 much obliged if you, or some of your subscribers, would 

 let me know a simple way of preparing t.apioca for the 

 mai-ket, in return for which I will with pleasure give 

 you the benefit of our experience with it here, along 

 with figures showing the profit or loss, in the trans- 

 action, which will be a rough criterion for intending 

 planters to go by. 



The natives in this district willingly take up arrow- 

 root and make it into very good flour for J share of 

 the produce, but of the manipulation of manioc they 

 are quite ignorant, refusing even an offer of i of the 

 product. — I am, yours faithfully, \V. L. F. 



[Our correspondent will find in our Handbook for 

 1880-1, p. 400i-, a paper by a Singapore planter de- 

 scribing the preparation of tapioca. — Ed.] 



THE SOUTH-WE.ST MONSOON OP 1882 AND THE 

 RAINFALL RETURN FOR BOGAWANTALAWA. 



Delrey, Bogawantalawa, 7th Sept. 1882. 

 Sir, — The S. W. monsoon now drawing to a close 

 has been admittedly one of the most severe on record, 

 and the following results of observations taken here 

 may be of interest to some of your readers. The 

 mean temperature during June-August, as compared 

 with the mean of the nine years 1872-80, was as fol- 

 lows : — 9 years mean 1882. 



Jane ... 65-7 63°5 



■luly ... 65 60-7 



August ... 65-4 627 



shewing an adopted mean for the three months of 

 623° this year agdust 65'4°: that is a mean tem- 

 peratur ; for this period more than 3° below the aver- 

 age. The rainfall was : — 



10 years mean 1872-81. 1882. 



Rainfall, Days. Rainfall. Days. 

 June ... 14-72" 252 1586" 29 



July ... 10-2(i" 2.S-2 2107" 30 



August ... 7'70" 2:;S 14-37" 30 



For the 3 months 32-63" 



51-30" 89 



