October i, 1882,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



287 



to the idea of their having cauecd the ruinous infertility 

 we now deplore ? 



Adopting for our enquiry the practical and simple 

 definition of the term season, as already described, what 

 are wo to understand by a normal season ? There 

 has not been, during my long experience of the coflfee 

 districts, any sucli regularity of season as theory pres- 

 cribes. The changes of mnnsoon, and the weather 

 these changes are expected to bring about, have not 

 occurred with the punctuality and precision that thiory 

 lays down. In uiy experience irregularity in all di tail 

 has been the rule, and punctuality the exception. 

 If, therefore, seasons which have deviated from the 

 tlieoretical law are to be accounted abnormal, nearly 

 all that I have witnessed would come under that 

 category. But, setting aside details, both of date 

 and character, those seasons may fairly be regarded as 

 normal, in which the monsoons have set within two 

 or three weeks, one way or other, of the theoretical 

 date, and with n fairly good rainfall, both as to 

 quantity and distribution. And those seasons only 

 would be excepted as abnormal, when the monsoons 

 have failed, or when one monsoon has materially in- 

 vaded the precincts of its opponent, or when the months 

 which should be dry have proved wet, and vice versa. 

 Of all periods of the year, the blossoming months are 

 those to which the planter looks most anxiously. Pract- 

 ically, the idea of season in the mind of the planter is 

 almost concentrated upon and confined to those critical 

 months during which the spike is forming, and the blos- 

 soms setting. At other times the coffee bush withstands 

 great vicissitude of season without material suffering. 

 Severe and prolonged droughts duriug the crop-beur- 

 ing months may affect the filling of the beau, and the 

 ripening of the fruit, but it is in the blossoming 

 months that the effect of the weather is critical. If 

 the months of January and February of one monsoon, 

 and August and September of the other, be hot and 

 dry, and, if there be a fair rainfall in the intervening 

 months, the planter may be said to have good normal 

 weather. But, on the other hand, persistent rain in 

 the blossoming months is most adverse, and is even 

 worse, perhaps, than the want of rain in the months 

 which should be wet. 



Now, it is matter of history that the critical months 

 of the present year were of the worst. The rain in 

 January and February was persistent and heavy. The 

 usual heat and dryness were wholly wanting, and 

 the blossoms were therefore poor and scattered. 

 Under any circumstances euch a season would neces- 

 sarily have proved adverse ; nevertheless, it would be 

 wrong and misleading to attribute the failure we 

 now witness to this cause alone ; because seasons 

 similar in this respect, and even worse than this, 

 occurred in former times without producing effects at 

 all comparable to the failure of this jear ! Moreover, 

 if we were to assume this failure to be due to the 

 adverse blossooiing season, how should we account for 

 the failure of tha crops of previous years '! It seems im- 

 possible to attribute a failure of eropssogeneral ns that of 

 this last decade, to a cause which IJas operated so parti- 

 ally, and which past experience proves unequal to produce 

 so terrible a result. The same appeal to experience 

 of the past months enables us to answer the question as 

 to the effects of season generally ; for there has not been 

 any such special feature of the seasons since 1&70, as has 

 not been witnessed in former times, when their influence 

 went no further than to slightly impair our crops. 

 It is in fact within our knowledge that seasons sim- 

 ilar in all observable respects to those of the past 

 decade produced no such disaster as we now suifer, though 

 they doubtless caused some loss of crop 1 



Without taxing your readers' patience by any attempt 

 at detailed analysis of all the elements of season 

 during the past decade, it may, I think, be confid- 

 ently alleged that there has not been any single ele- 



ment, nor any combination of elements, recognizable 

 In the seasons eiuce 1S71, but such as had been ex- 

 perienced before tl>at fatal year. It does not appear 

 reasonable or possible, therefiire, to refer a result eo 

 widely diverse from all our irrevious experience to 

 causes which were in oijeration then. 



If, however, for the sake of argument, it could be 

 conceded that all the blossoming seasons had been 

 adverse since 1870, how should we account for that 

 falling of immature fruit in advanced stages of growth 

 which has so strikingly characterized the period of 

 infertility we are now discussing ? Or, to what 

 cause should we attribute that novel feature of tho 

 past decade which is to be seen on our finest estates 

 in the most favoured districts, and on the strongest 

 coff'ee trees in the shape of abortive fruit ? After a tine 

 healthy-looking spike has burst in good weather, and 

 has set, to all appearance, well, how come.s it that two 

 or three months after the blossom, its only representative 

 remaining to be seen is a berry here and there amongst 

 a multitude of abortive stalks ! And this, alas ! is no 

 uncommon case: it is to be seen everywhere. Informer 

 times, in one or two extremely wet districts, where the 

 soil was cold and clayey, the fall of immature fruit was 

 often seen, but the abortion which has lately become 

 so fearfully prevalent has affected our trees without 

 regard to soil, climate, or apparent vigour of growth. 

 This is a new phenomenon without any parallel in 

 the history of the coffee eni;erprize prior to 1871. 



For such results as we have experienced during the 

 last decade, it seems to me that no vicissitude of season 

 nor any abnormal features if the weather which we 

 can recognize, will at all adequately account. 



Seasons have been sometimes adverse, and, so far 

 as they have operated, they have helped to aggravate 

 our misfortune, but, when all reasonable allowance 

 has been made for any effects they were capable of 

 producing, there remains a terrible balance of disaster 

 for which they will not account. 



The object sought in asking the question " What 

 ails our coffee trees ? " is, if possible, to dissatisfy 

 the planters with those reasons which have been too 

 commonly and too long accepted ; and to direct their 

 resell! ches and efforts to the discovery of the real origin 

 of the evil. Whoever clings to an erroneous theory 

 raises a barrier against the truth, and, if all these bar- 

 riers were removed, there would at least be a free 

 and unobstructed course for research. W. 



THE CEYLON COMPANY (LIMITED): 

 THEIR TEA AND TEA BOXES. 



Colombo, 2lBt August 1882. 

 And now, for the benefit of your readers and ship- 

 pers of tea in particular, I will make you a present 

 of a piece of information which may he of service 

 to tbtni. It is quite true that some of our teas 

 and other people's teas too, most unfortunately, did 

 go home in boxes which, when they arrived in London, 

 were found to have an objectionable odour, and we 

 have suffered some loss in consequence, both in re- 

 placing the objectionable chests with others, and in 

 liberal allou-aiiccs to our constitittntu for supposed 

 depreciation to the tea carried in those chests, not- 

 withstanding that, as stated in my letter of 19th 

 inst., these very teas competed successfully with 

 Indian teas sold at the same date, and "it was 

 difficult therefore to suppose they could have suffered 

 any appreciable depreciation through the lead linings, 

 from the effect of the wood. So jealous is this Com- 

 pany that the reputation of Ceylon teas and the 

 pockets of their constituents should not suffer from 

 any error of judgment of theirs, however unforeseen. 

 The wood of which these boxes was made was 

 buckme— a very good-looking, cheap, light, and work- 

 able wood, and we and others had used it for long, 



