November i, 1882,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



369 



palm shoukl be pat into soil broken up and cleaned 

 to the depth, of from nine to twelve inches, and cover 

 to a depth of two inches. Water as the weather requires, 

 and never indulge in the monkey trick of digging the 

 seed up to eee how it is getting on. All seeds grow 

 root befnre they grow stem, and in their early stages 

 the radicle is far too tender an organ to be exposed 

 above ground with impunity. If left undisturbed, all 

 seeds that retain their vitality will show it above 

 ground during the third, or, at latest, early in the 

 fourth mouth. This is much about the same time that 

 our indigenous palms take. I believe the seed that 

 ■cameiuto my hands was, for the greater part, past 

 germinating, but I have enough of plants to establish 

 the tree firmly in the island, even if there were none 

 elsewhere. A few previously germinated seeds that 

 were sent to me are still making no sign above ground. 



The dying of many of my Cardamoms after planting 

 out, and the unhappy look of those that survive, 1 

 have been ascribing to too much rain, but when I 

 recollect that the habitat of the indigenous species is 

 in the neighbourhood of Padupda, that position 

 becomes untenable, and I am hitherto unable to take 

 up another not equally weak. [On an estate not 

 far from Padupola, the cardamoms grow, but produce 

 • very little fruit. — Ed.] 



To get up Orange plants in this locality appears to 

 be almost a hopeless undertaking. They have two 

 enemies ; the caterpillar that eats the tender leaves, 

 and possibly the cricket that cuts otf even tolerably 

 hardened branches. I will have to give up trying to 

 grow them from seed, and try what can be done 

 with cuttings. 



Ceaka Rubber — It is just tea months since I put 

 down the first Ceara rubber seeds, and I have already 

 collected and sown ripe seeds, produced from the 

 resulting plants. The largest tree is about fifteen 

 feet high, branches at about seven feet, and now 

 shades a circle of ten feet diameter. Some others 

 have reached the height of ten feet without branch- 

 ing, but the greater number have branched at from 

 two and a half to five feet, and the seed-bearers 

 are those that have branched lowest. As to the 

 growth of this praduct there is no longer a question, 

 and the value placed on the only sample sent from 

 Ceylon seems satisfactory ; but we have much to learn 

 before we can pronounce it a paying industry. At ten 

 feet apart, we will have 434 trees to the acrp, but 

 we are still in utter darkness in respect to yield per 

 tree and the cost of collection. Till those two questions 

 are settled, it can hardly be considered Siife to go 

 largely into it. As for the cost of cultivation, exclusive 

 of colleotiim and preparing for the market, it would 

 after the first year be tnfling, as it is evident that 

 the tree is able with twelve months' start to hold its 

 ground against all competitors. The tield of conjecture 

 is a wide one, and I dare not go a step further in it. 

 In front all looks au open plain, but beware of sloughs 

 and pitfalls.* 



Ill re Eucalyfdm globulus, Tropical Agriculturist 

 vol. 1, p. 415., will bardly account for the infection of 

 other species of plants, but proves this particular 

 tree subject to some mysterious disease. [Which 

 dist'ase is said to attack cinchonas entirely beyond 

 the influence of eucalypti. — Ed] 



TEA IN UPPER INDIA. 



(From the Indigo Plattters' Gazfttc.) 



The land of the Doon has a beautiful slope, just 



sufficient to admit of proper drainage. The town of 



Dehra which stands on the watershed almost exactly 



half-way between the Ganges and the Jumna, is 2,345 



* The rapid growth of this piaut surely indicates its 

 use for shelter belts. It could be planted thickly and 

 thiimed out as experience dictated. — Ed. 



feet above sea level. The Ganges, .SO miles to the 

 east, has a height of 1,050 feet, and the Jumna, an 

 equal distance to the west 1,000 feet. This is an 

 average fall of 34 feet per mile, an^ple for drainage 

 purposes, and not by any means too much, as when the 

 slope is great, the soil, and pai-ticulaily thi* humus, 

 which forms tlie most valuable part of it. gets washed 

 away. The geological formation of the Doon gives 

 evideuce of its having been tho bed of a mighty river 

 at some time, the traces of the current on the banks 

 being most distinctly miirked on the Sewalic range at 

 Hurdwar, at which point the river evidently found 

 its way to the plains, as the Ganges does now. From 

 the pri'sent formation, however, it is clear that the 

 existmg soil, with its exuberant humus, is the product 

 of washings from the Sewnlic on the soutli, and the 

 Himalayas on the north. Countless streams are still 

 bringing in fresh supplies from the everlasting hills, 

 and thus the luxurious richness of the soil is fully 

 accounted for. Prospecting for good laud, we have 

 personally had the soil examined to the depth of 12 

 feet, and in nine trials out of ten, have found no break 

 in the continuity of the soil, and it were strange if 

 such a soil should not prove good for tea. Here and 

 there one comes across beds of gravel, over which tea 

 grows well for a few years, till the tap-root reaches 

 the stratum of gravel, when all growth and produc- 

 tion of leaf practically cease ; the tap root cannot reach 

 the source of nourishiiient, aud during the dry weather, 

 such a thin soil as we are speaking of, gets denuded 

 of its moisture. The soil is particularly rich in plant- 

 food, and is easily hoed, unless during the early spring 

 months, when it becomes hard from constant baking 

 by the sun. The Doon is furnished with canals, bring- 

 ing water from the many streams of the Himalaya 

 mountains, but unless for seedlings, this water is 

 of no value to the t'-a planter. Tlie geological feat- 

 ure of the hills above Dehra is lime, and the water 

 is so impregnated with this lime, as to be almost 

 fatal to tea. A field wiitered plentifully from 

 the canal, will, as a rule, give scarcely any leaf 

 for a year or two, and in many gardens the track of 

 old village canals can still be traced, the line being 

 absolutely bare of plants. Much has been written 

 on the value of lime to the soil, but in too many 

 cases the fact has been entirely overlooked, that lime 

 does not enter largely into the composition of the 

 tea plant. In fact, the proportion of lime in the 

 ashes of the plant is only 4J per cent while in coffee 

 it is 60 per cent. Lime is, therefore, one of the 

 best ingredients for coffee soil, and in this way it 

 has come to be considered good for tea as well. 

 This is a great mistake, and hence irrigation in the 

 Doon is a doubtful blessing so far as ti^a is concerned. 

 The Doon planters are so alive to this fact, that in 

 letting spare land to rayats, it is customary to stipul- 

 ate that no rice shall be grown on the land. Rice 

 requires so much water that a year or two of its cult- 

 ivation destroys the laud ffu- tea, unless several years' 

 fallow intervence. [We have now discovered in Ceylon 

 that claypy and ferruginous soils in which lime is not 

 present in sufficient abundance for coffee culture, 

 answer-^ admirably for tea. — Ed. | 



The labour difficulty never arose in that happy 

 valley. The country around is very scantily iuhabited, 

 so muih so indeed, that local labour is almost un- 

 known. Oiie result of this is a scarcity of food grains, 

 large supplies of which come from S iharunpur and 

 Meenit. This forms one of the traffic i ems on which 

 the promoters of the Doon railway rely for their 

 dividend. We have no doubt that another ri-sult of 

 the railway will be to bring a larger population to 

 the Doou, thi' more so when the Oudh and Rohilk- 

 hund line is ext'uded from Moradii' ad to Sabarunpur, 

 with the branch to Roorkee and Hurdwar. The tea 

 planters of the Doon rely for their labour on im- ' 



