3i8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1882. 



withstanding be informed me we should not get 

 water agaiu. We arrived at the top at last, 4,700, 

 and then began our descent on the other side, having 

 made a fiirtiier arrangement with our guide to 50 

 on till evening with us, but to serve his owu con- 

 venience he took US down tha wrong road, as there 

 was a ready made Dus un hut close by ; but I 

 declined to stop it being only 2 o'clock, the usual 

 alarm about no water, no house, &c., &c., having 

 no effect on me. From the untrodden apiiearance of 

 the track, I was certain this was not the right path, 

 although lie Hrmly stated it was. About 5 o'clock we 

 came to a ravine, and I decided to halt here, but my 

 guide informed me if I went on a little farther I 

 should Hnd a leaf hut. This was the only bit of truth 

 that came out of him. We found the usual little bags 

 of rice, tobacco, etc., hung up, belonging to same Diisun 

 who was either away trading at Kunanis or hunting 

 gutta. It is an understood tiling amongst them not to 

 touch what does not belong to one. I was told if one 

 of these little bags was stolen there would be a tremen- 

 dous hue and cry all over the country. I was very 

 lucky to be in a wateriight hut, as it rained heavily 

 all night and consequently the rivers were much 

 swollen in the morning, making wading very difficult. 

 The guide expressed a wish to return, but 1 declined to 

 allow him, as I told him he had brought us into a path 

 we were all ignorant of and where we had no chance 

 of coming across any travellers, as we would have 

 had if we had gone down the proper ridge. How- 

 ever I came into a track I had travelled before ; so I 

 allowed him to return. Soon after «e came into the 

 green pastures above Kimanis and then to the river. 

 Here we borrowed a boat and floated down with the 

 current to the Residency, Mr. Dalrymple, the officer in 

 charge, kindly attending to our wants. On the following 

 day I went round, by boat to Pappar, which brought a 

 very pleasant and useful trip ot a little over 3 weeks 

 to an end, which, thanks to Providence, was marred by 

 no accident. Two of my party were men from 

 Tambunan and had never seen the sea, though their 

 village is only four or live journeys from here, \yhat 

 strikes one inland is the independent manner of living 

 among the natives. They appear to have as much 

 rice as they want, they grow their own tobacco, also 

 cotton for making their clothes, and out of rice they 

 manufacture theh- toddy. Everywhere we went they 

 appeared happy and contented, and we and our party 

 were everywhere most heartily welcomed, though the 

 first white men many of them had seen. I saw no 

 sign of persecution or slavery : in fact slavery out 

 here is very different to what people imagine it at 

 home. The few slaves I liuve seen have invariably 

 been fine men who to .ill apptacance are one ot the 

 family ; they are generally married and have children 

 who appear quite as well cared for ns their parents. 



Selam, July lUh.—l intended closing this at Kuddat, 

 but I fouuil so much correspondence awaiting me that I 

 was unable to do so. Mr. Collinson I found very busy 

 surveying this rising little town and suijerintending 

 the erection of several buildings. I return there in a 

 few days to see the country aiound which is said to be 

 first-class and easily got at. 



The experimental garden hert is progressing slowly. I 

 am anxiously awaiting the result of Sir Walter iVied- 

 hurst's mission to China, and have no doubt in the 

 course of a month or so I shall be able to announce that 

 suitable labour is both abundant and cheap. 



Selam is already a small Ceylon colony, Messrs. 

 Lempriere and Callaghan both being old Ceylon plant- 

 ers. The former fills his position as Assistant Kesid- 

 ent with both grace aud dignity, and gives us every 

 assistance that lies in his power. I was sorry to find 

 on my return here that Bagoos, one of the conductors 

 I brought with me from Ceylon, had been accidentally 



killed from a tree being felled on him. Everything 

 that could be done for him was done, but he suc- 

 cumbed to concussion of the brain a few hours 

 afterwards.— Yonrs truly, L. B. VON DONOP. 



LIBEKIAN COFFEE IN JAMAICA: INFORM- 



ATION ABOUT PULPEKS ASKED FOR. 



BotanicalDepartment, Gordon Town, Jamaica, 22nd June. 



Sir, — As some of our Liberian coffee trees on priv- 

 ate plantations are coming into bearing it would be 

 interesting to learn for the information of planters in 

 the West Indies whether you have at work in Ceylon 

 a " pulper" successfully adapted for cleaning the Lib- 

 erian coffee bears. 



Naturally the difficulty with the Liberian coffee 

 planter, when his first crop is produced, is the remoral 

 of the somewhat hard fibrous covering of the beans, 

 and to those accustomed to the treatment of the ord- 

 inary or Arabian coffee the subject at first sight is 

 somewhat discouraging. 



I have no doubt, however, that the problem has, 

 ere this, been solved by Cejlon planters, and you 

 would confer a great benefit on planters of the new 

 coffee hero if you were to publish the results achieved 

 in Ceylon in this connection. It would also be in- 

 teresting to learn whether, as compared with Arabian 

 coffee, the pulping and subsequent treatment of the 

 Liberian coffee is more tedious or expensive? 



I have noticed with pleasure the good prices ob- 

 tained for Ceylon-grown Liberian coffee at New York, 

 which appears to be the best market for this kind ; 

 and Ceylon planters are to be congratulated on hav- 

 ing taken the lead in placing this cofi'ee in the market 

 as an article of commerce. I must not, at the same 

 time, forget, to congratulate you personally upon the 

 establishment and extension of Liberian coffee, in Cey- 

 lon, for the Ceylon Observer undoubtedly did great 

 service in bringing Liberian coffee into notice, and its 

 columns were for a long time the chief repertory of 

 all the practical knowledge we had on the subject. 



We cannot hope in the West Indies to compete 

 with Cejlon in the growth of Liberian coffee, for our 

 lowlands are limited in extent and for the most part 

 taken up by sugarcane ; but, I believe, thut before 

 many years have elapsed we shall export an appreci- 

 able quantity of this coffee. I have just .«een a good 

 patch of Liberian coffee growing freely and well, at 

 almost sea-level and on land exhausted by about 180 

 years of sugarcane cultivation. The yield wase-itim- 

 ated at the rate of about 10 cwt. per acre with trees 

 3J years old at 9 ft. apart. The trees established in 

 Jamaica had not up to a late date afforded all the 

 seeds we recfuired, and in order to meet the large de- 

 mand for plants we had to procure seeds from the 

 trees so successfully established at Domiuica by the 

 late Dr. Imray. I his year we are having large crops 

 everywhere, so there is practically now no limit to the 

 cultivation. 



Our crop of Blue Mountain coffee is the best for 

 several jears and is only to be approached by that 

 of 1879, and although small compared with the total 

 exports of Jamaica coffee it is of considerable value. 

 The total crop of this fine cofi'ee for 18S2 will prob- 

 ably reach some 12,000 cwt. which is shipped chiefly 

 to the Liverpool market Although the prices of cof- 

 fee generally are very low just now, Blue Mountain 

 coffee is ai^parently unaffected, for alreadv prices rang 

 mg from IJiOs to 135s and 140s per cwt. have been 

 obtained by several properties. As this coffee is 

 wholly cured on the estate and only leaves just before 

 shipment, the expenses of pulping, curing &o. are 

 necessarily higher than they are in Ceylon. In spite 

 of this, however, the cultivation must be highly re- 



