May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



935 



NEW PRODUCTS IN THE LOWCOUNTRY 

 OF CEYLON. 



THE WEATHER — CACAO — TEA — VVEEDlNfl- 

 PINEAPPLES — RUBBER. 



-A RETROSPECT — 



General Report foe March 18S3. 



The only rain that has fallen this month was a few 

 sprinklings from tlie outskirts of thunderstorms that 

 spent tlieir force elsewhere. On the ioth, after an 

 elaborate muster of forces threatening a deluge, we 

 were put off with a few hailstones, like pistol Ijalls, 

 and a sharp shower of ten minutes' dm-ation. 



Whatever progress //. I', may make when the 

 rains come, it has been making none during these 

 di'y months. The old spots cannot be obliterated, 

 but no new ones have been formed, for four months. 

 The cofifee trees have been growing, but it seems to 

 go mostly to suckers, taking much labour to remove.- 

 There have been several small blossoms out during the 

 month, and in this climate there is no difliculty 

 about setting. 



The cacao trees are still being teased and held in 

 check by the afternoon winds which still blow daily, 

 but tliey coutuiue to come into bearing as they get 

 into form and gather strength. The nurseries, what 

 with drought, white-ants, crickets and lizards, are 

 a rather uphill job in these times. 



The tea nursery still requires aud receives a daily 

 ■watering, as a good deal of the seed that has germ- 

 inated is not above ground yet, though other plauts 

 are eight inches high. I observe by the advertise- 

 ments that anything above 60 is considered a fair 

 percentage of plants to seed, and I think I will get 60, 

 if not more, thougli some of the boxes have gi\'eu 

 less than 50. My sworn foes, the crickets, have 

 discovered the new venture and make their mark 

 daily, but tea, unlike coffee and cacao, if cut, grows 

 again from the root. I hope to be fully prepared to 

 get the whole planted out during the break storms 

 of the monsoon. 



I suspended weeding for a fortnight, because there 

 "were no weeds. 1 am now racin;; over the field two 

 hands to tlie acre, and if the daughters do not shoulder 

 mammoties and betake themselves to digging tea lioles 

 they must take tlieir otium in the lines till the 

 weeds grow again. 



The year 1S79, in which I commenced here, was 

 disastrously dry from the 7th of June to the 2nd 

 of November. From that date till November 18S2 

 we had on two occasions twenty days without rain 

 in the centre of what we call the dry season, aud 

 we had no light rains during those three j'ears. Jf 

 a thunderstorm brewed within fifty miles, its course 

 aud its central virulence was here, but this season 

 the storms have taken another course. On two suc- 

 ceasixe evenings this month I saw the army of 

 waters muster in the south, and, with the black 

 banner in the centre, march straiglit upon us. The 

 scouts reached us as fierce gusts of cold wind, the 

 ad\ance-guard in the form of the nimbus approaclied 

 within three miles, when suddenly the army broke 

 into two detachments : the right marched off to 

 lay the dust in Colombo, and the left to moisten 

 native interests, on the line of country between 

 Hanwella and Kegalla. 



Though the progressive growth of all plants has 

 been retarded, tlie few light rains we have had during 

 the last three months have come on so nearly at the 

 right time, no great harm lias been done liitherto, and 

 some of my experimental ventures seem to get on 

 better in dry tlian rainy weather. 



Over ten acres that I cleared this season, I liad 



succeeded in leaving as much shade as I thought 

 necessary for my purpose, but having taken in hand 

 two acres more this month and arranged the under- 

 growth so as to burn without serious injury to the 

 trees I intended to leave, tlie fire burned so fiercely, 

 that over more tlian an acre not one is saved. 



Mr. Halliley's answer to my challeuge is more 

 in accord witli my views tlian his own. The estate 

 he mentions did not liear the unique series of crops 

 he claims for it (which I would believe if I could) 

 while under weeds, but wliile lunler process of being 

 restored to rational cultivation. There seems hardly 

 to be any difference between the cases, repectively 

 adduced by him and by me : both estates were in a 

 bad state from long neglected weeds ; both had a 

 large reserve of fertility in the soil ; aud in both the 

 coffee responded vigorously on the conquest of the 

 enemy that starved it wliile free scope for its 

 plundering operations were allowed. The same 

 operations which in the fifties restored coffee fields from 

 barrenness to a highly profitable yield may utterly fail 

 in tlie eiglities, because the same conditions do not 

 exist. In the old times weeds were allowed to run tlieir 

 free course, unchecked for years among young coffee, 

 resulting in crops that were hardly worth gathering, 

 while the reserve of fertility in the soil, remained 

 almost intact. Such fields only needed weeding, to 

 bring out in the shape of pa am whatever power the 

 .soil possessed. The original fertility of a soil is 

 practically a definite quantity, which is diminished 

 in volume by every particle of matter removed from 

 it, and, unless an equivalent is restored to it in some 

 form, the crops of cultivated land will yearly dimin- 

 ish. A specially favourable season may cause a spurt, 

 but the tendency must always be downwards : quicker 

 or slower, according to the amount of the original 

 fund, but always downwards. For the last twenty 

 years, the general treatment of coffee has been such, 

 as to draw out this fund quickly. From ten to fifteen 

 years ago planters became fully alive to the necessity 

 of giving as well as taking, but before much progi'ess 

 was made in the new direction, Hemileia vantrilrix 

 came on the clean and the weedy, the sluggisli and 

 the enterprizing, the encumbered strnggler and 

 the full-handed capitalist alike. A bravely contested 

 battle against this last enemy has been fought, and 

 not won, but it may decline and coffee planting re- 

 vive on a new system, not Mr. Halliley's. 



18th April. —Rain at last, and as usual rather more 

 than we wanted. Herewith a pineapple : it is the 

 second one of this variety I have grown, and the 

 misfortune that has happened to both, has gixen me 

 a lesson in pinery. If the Kew pine is not sup- 

 ported by a strong stake or otherwise, the weight of 

 the fruit is apt to give the plant a list, and as soon 

 as the plant leaves the perpendicular the fruit stem 

 snaps .icross, like a pipe stem. This one is hardly 

 mature and so far short of the dimensions I have 

 heard of ; yet it is a fruit of highly respectable ap- 

 pearance, I have not wished to say anything about 

 Gear, I Rubber, till I see what comes of tlie present death- 

 like appearance of the trees I believe sometliing of 

 the sani; kind has happened elsewhere, but for the 

 present all that have borne seed are leafless as well 

 as some that have borne none. Everything is looking 

 fresh and flourishing after the rain. 



Kpskus R0OT.S. — Mr. A. C. Sumps writes : — "With 

 reference tu Mr. A. P. Abrah<-ini'3 desired iiifurni- 

 atinn on kuskus roots aud to your editorial query 

 therein referred to, in your issue of the 20lli mst., 

 I have tlie pleasme to state that I lue kuskus for 

 tats, for I he hangings of punkahs and for fans. The 

 kuskus tats h.anging all round the (ir;uid OrienteJ 

 Hotel verandahs are those supplied by me." 



