286 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1882. 



OEANLEY CROWN BARK FROM TREES 6 YEARS 



(SECOND SHAVING) YIELDING 6s IOd PER 



LB.— THE LOCAL AND HOME MARKET. 



Craiiley, Agrapataua, 16th Aug. 1882. 

 Dear Sib, — I have much pleasure in informing you 

 that the officiBalis trees on Upper Cranley, the bark 

 of which fetched Buch a fair price, are about 6 years 

 old. This is second shaving and was performed about 

 11 months after the first, the increase in quantity 

 being about 20 %• The analysis of the original bark 

 was only l'96 7o sulphate quinine, which realized 3s 

 per lb. You will be surprised to learn that Rl'75 

 per lb. only was offered for the renewed bark in the 

 local market, — Youra truly, C. R. P. 



ALOES &c. AS HEDGE PLANTS. 



Mysore. 



Dear Sib, — I read in your last volume, Tropical Agri- 

 calurisl, a letter from " Ledgeriana," asking what would 

 be the best thing to plant round a clearing as a liedge, 

 and in an editorial I see ynu advise him to try aloes, 

 but you doubt wliether they would make sufficient 

 growth in the time required. Of course they greatly 

 depend on the plants when piit out. If you can get 

 them grown a foot to nine inches they would — I am 

 speaking from experience— reach the lieight of about 

 2i to 3 feet at the expiration of two and a halt 

 years. To begin with : a drain should be dug all 

 round the clearing, say H foot deep, and the mud 

 taken from the drain thrown on, or rather neatly 

 piled up on 'he off side, that is the side opposite to 

 clearing. On this loose earth the aloes should be planted 

 about IJ feet apart ; no more: less, if you have enough 

 plants. " Let them have plenty of air and light, and 

 do not allow them to get choked and overgrown, and 

 they will grow r.apidly. The reason for the drain is 

 because aloes, as I daresay most of your readers 

 have noticed, are very injurious to coffee. One sel- 

 dom sees good trees within 8 or 10 feet of a hedge, 

 and also the great tendency they have of spreading. 

 So much for aloes. 



We in Coorg use all kinds of hedges : rose, 

 stakes and lantana, though very few are foolhardy 

 euoudi now to use the latter and wire. Rose 

 hedges are made by sticking cuttings about a foot long 

 on the ground crossways, and they very soon shoot 

 and make a fair hedge, with a tendency, however, 

 to get gaps in it tlirough some cuttings dying ; it 

 also requires a lot of trimming, or it gets very 

 straggly. Stake hedges .are simply large cuttings or 

 stakes of some good tree that will grow from cuttings. 

 Stick in about 1 yard apart with strips of Ijamboo 

 nailed across them just like a post and rail paling. 

 By the time the bamboos are I'otteu the cuttines. which 

 should be about 5 feet long (one feet in ground), 

 will have shot out all over ; then only a little judici- 

 ous pruning is required. This is all very well for 

 2 or 3 yi ars, but after that they (the stakes) get into 

 renular trees, and the shade necessarily very heavy. 

 As for lantana, the only advice I can give to tkose 

 thinking of planting it is— do not. Wire of course 

 needs no explanation. 



By the way, I should be much obliged if any one 

 of your correspondents will let me know what is 

 the best remedy for, and what causes, a small clear- 

 ing of ledgeriana I have to gradually lose all their 

 leaves except the top pair— apparently eaten away by 

 caterpillars, but on examination deil a one can you find. 

 The soil is a fair one, land quite level, but they do not 

 seem to grow a bit. • P. 



WHAT AILS OUR COFFEE TREES? 



Slf, It has already been shown in a previous letter 



that infertility prevailed generally throughout the 

 coffee districts in 1871 before leaf-disease had appeared 



in any force ; that even after the fungus had 

 attained its fullest development, good crops sometimes 

 followed its very woist attacks : and utter failure of 

 crop ensued in spite of almost complete exemption 

 from attack ; and, finally, that there has not been 

 any such correspondence between the attacks of 

 hemileia and the failures of crop, as would certainly 

 have existed between cause and effect, The case as 

 against the fungus must therefore be dismissed, 

 unless as an accomplice after the fact. 



Let us then put " abnormal seasons" on their trial. 

 Many planters believe that in them is to be found the 

 prime cause of our misfortunes. 



The first step in our enquiry must be to define what 

 is meant by season. The term admits, on the one 

 hand, of a practical and comparatively simple defin- 

 ition, comprizing only such elements as are familiar to 

 us all ; or, on the other hand, it may be so stretched 

 as to involve other forces of which we have no definite 

 knowledge, and may thus become vague and confusing. 

 The practical farmer understands the term to comprize 

 rainfall, wind, temperature, and direct solar influence. 

 He speaks of the seasons as too wet, or too dry ; the rain 

 failing when it was wanted or falling when it was 

 neither expected nor required; as coming in torrents, 

 or drizzling continuously. He remarks on the 

 direction, force and fickleness of the vjind, its stormy 

 outbursts, or its persistent drift. He notes the 

 degrees and changes of the tanjm-atvre ; and 

 takes cognizance of the variations of sunshine and 

 clouds. But he knows nothing of smi.sj)ots, has prob- 

 ably never heard of o-Mne, and has no other knowledge 

 of dectricity than what he sees in thunder showers or 

 the electric light. It is not denied that these are all 

 real and powerful forces, and there may be others yet 

 unknown to us in operation ; but, as we have no 

 knowledge whatever of their relation to agriculture, 

 we should gain nothing, but only confuse everything 

 by speculating about them. 



With regard to sunspots, Herschel thought they 

 had a direct influence on agriculture. He believed 

 that, when spots were moat numerous, they had an 

 adverse influence on vegetation, and vice versa. Care- 

 ful and prolonged observation has proved the exist- 

 ence of cycliciil variations in the number and magnit- 

 nde of these wonderful phenomena ; and they are 

 believed to culminate in periods of about eleven years. 

 As panics or crises in the Commercial World have 

 latterly succeeded each other in somewhat similar 

 cjcles, an attempt has been made to connect the 

 spots and the crises in the relation of eause and 

 effect. The result has as yet proved more curious 

 than conclusive. In fact, all that is yet known of 

 these solar disturbances is that they are gaseous 

 outbursts, of the nature of explosions, on a 

 scale so stupendous as to far surpass our powers of 

 couception. They are believed to affect the magnetic 

 currents of the earth, but, as to their influence on 

 agriculture, nothing whatever is known. In the ques- 

 tion of the infertility of our coffee trees, however, 

 Bunspots may be fairly set aside ; because the coffee 

 enterprize has existed through more than 3 en- 

 tire cycles, and has shown no such periodical vari- 

 tions either of the fruitfulness or growth of the trees 

 as would correspond with those cycles. There was a 

 maximum period in I860, when our coffee was most 

 flourishing. Another culmination succeeded in 1870, 

 which certainly preceded our first disaster, but 

 it was followed by a minimum in 1878, which 

 so far from inaugurating a return of fertility 

 began the worst part of a cycle which has grown iu 

 intensity, and has attained its highest development iu 

 this most disastrous year of the decade ! 



Reverting, however, from things speculative to others 

 familiar to our experience, what abnormal features 

 have our seasons manifested since 1871 to lend sanction 



