December i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



459 



COFFEE PLANTING IN CEYLON: 



IS " ICHAEOD '" TO BE WHITTEN ON THE COFFEE ENTEEPRIZE 

 OF CEYLON, BECAUSE THE GLOHY HAS DEP^UITED? 



Our coiTespondent " G,. " (on page 465) who has wi-it- 

 ten on " Ceylon revisited,'' would answer in the affiiTna- 

 tive, except as to a few highly -favoured districts. We 

 cannot help asking whether he and his despairing 



friends who cry "One year more and then ?" 



do not take too pessimist a view of the situation. 

 Our correspondent has been naturally struck with 

 the altered conditions of districts such as Pussellawa 

 and Eamboda which he remembers in their glory, 

 but has revisited in the sear and yellow-leaf 

 and worn out soil of their decay. But those 

 districts yielded fortunes in their day ; and even 

 if leaf-disease and abnonnal seasons had remained 

 absent, from effluxion of time and the hoeing and 

 scraping system of weeding, their present case might 

 not be much better than it is. And even as to the 

 old and effete districts, as far as coffee is concerned, 

 it is gratifying to learn of the probability of new 

 leases of life as cinchona and tea plantations. {Our 

 correspondent did not visit the region in which cocoa 

 is flourishing. ) This was just what Sir Wm Gregory 

 said, when he described|coffee as "precarious" "Even 

 if coffee entii-ely failed," said our late Governor, "I 

 never meant to indicate that Ceylon had come to the 

 end of her tether. It is impossible to predict the 

 number and the value of other products for which 

 the climate and soil of the island are suited , and which 

 can yet be cultivated remuneratively." The shrewd- 

 ness of .Sir WillLim's. vaticinations have been fully con- 

 firmed, and, although the new products introduced and 

 growmg associated with or in supercession of coft'ee, 

 have their own leaf and root diseases and other draw- 

 backs, yet the prospect to the manful, careful, sagacious 

 persevering fighter of the battle of planting life seems 

 fairly promising. Another old planter, whom we should 

 gladly see revisiting Ceylon, thus alludes to I he mis- 

 takes of the past — in the direction of extravagant 

 purchase of land and costliness of management — and 

 the prospects of the future of men taught by the 

 bitter but wholesome lessons of adversity, writes to 

 us as follows : — 



" 1 am really hopeful tor the futui-e of Ceylon, 

 but a new generation of planters must arise free from 

 the painful recollection of the fatal bungling wliioh 

 led to the collapse of coffee planting. £20 an acre 

 for juulIc ! £20 an acre for 'cultivation' ! ! Ac, &c. 

 Looking over some oil reports the otlier day, I found how 

 urgently Mr. (not now in the island) wrote to cer- 

 tain proprietors recommending not to fell another tree 

 ' till we see the result of this blight.' ' Why not ?' was 

 the ready reply, ' you say the jungle ia worth £5 an 

 acre, but I can get £50 if planted ; and the argu- 

 ment was not easily answered ; altho' I did think it 

 would lead to di=aster, but did not think the di.'sa^ter 

 and dinrirace would come so soon and be so cowpli-te. 



" While writing this to catch the out-going mail, 

 who pops into my office, but our good fiiend, 



he shows me his bill of sales and certainly,- his prices 

 for cii'chona bark (o> fid and 6h per lb.) puis a new 

 aspect un Ceylon matters. With Tea as the backbone 

 and Bark as the right arm, with land at £1 an acre 

 again and planters purged of their idio'ic ideas of 

 their ' poweis of financing ' and fabulous value of 

 estates, there would be a bright future ; till adversity 

 has taught this lesson, there is not." 



We are glad to leai-n that the gentleman alluded to 

 has been as successful with coffee as he has been 

 with cinchona, and that his case is by no means 

 singular. From what a coffee planter told us this 

 morning of his own case, we suspect it will be 

 many years, before the epitaph of old king coffee 

 has to be written if ever. An average yield of 7 

 cwt. per acre of coffee over 300 to 400 acres main- 

 tained to the end of last year, by tlie aid of bones 

 and poojiac, judicious and timely handling and prun- 

 ing, seems too good a report to be correct ; but 

 sucli is the statement made to us in referen';e to a 

 property in a favourite district not (SO miles from 

 Kaudy, with the oft'er to verify it by "the books." 

 At the same time, our informant (any more than ourselves) 

 would hinder no one from doing all in his power with 

 ' 'new products;" but he probably would unite with a well- 

 known Dikoya proprietor lately returned to Ceylon, 

 in saying " Do not spoil really good well -cared for coffee 

 by turning it into a cinchona field." These gentlemen 

 and others believe that, after this prolonged wet monsoon, 

 an exceptionally di-y and favourable blosaomuig season 

 witli a good cofl'ee crop will follow ; but then there 

 are those again who answer this by saying. " Yes, 

 and it wUl be the last good crop " ! Amidst all 

 the depression, it is cheering to know that there are 

 hardheaded men of experience amongst us, who 

 have no fear of being able for j'ears to come, to 

 fight leaf disease and cultivate coffee profitably, 

 more especially when supplemented by belts or fields 

 of cinchona, cardamoms, or cocoa and tea. What 

 with so many alternative resources we do not think 

 there is any reason to fear for the future of 

 planting enterprize and Ceylon. It is possible that 

 " Resuroam " will be the appropriate inscription 

 even for coffee, rather than "Ichabod." 



TEA CULTURE IN TRAVANCORE. 



Although a successful trial with tea was made in 



Travanoore many years ago, yet up to last year the 



progi'ess made with this cultivation is represented 



by such insignificant figures as the following : — 



Mature plants ... ... 71 acres 



Immature 



Taken up but not planted 



103i 

 36 



Total... ... -im ,, 



The approximate yield of tea in ISSl was 9,300 lb., 

 the average per acre of mature plants being only 

 135 lb. Of course, if nothing better than this could 

 be got, the planters have done wisely in avoiding the 

 pursuit : but the average is between in one district ; 

 300 lis. in a second and 41 lb. in a third, while in 

 three out of four estates the plants were allowed to 

 grow to seed. The tea was grown at elevations 

 varying between 2,175 and 3,650 feet. We suspect- 

 that before 1891 comes round very different figures 

 will have to be used to represent the tea cultivation 

 of the Travancore State. 



SERICULTURE IN TINNEVELLY. 

 {From a Correspondcut.) 

 The following details of the silkworm industry 

 of Tinncvelly were taken down directly from an 

 old native, who lives by their culture. He states, 

 that the silk wor-n, cumbly poochi or paltu poochi ia': 

 not indigenous but was brought here long ago. 

 The first step in tiie production is to get the male 

 and female moth and have them together. In about 

 tea hours the female begins to deposit eggs. The 



