428 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1882. 



allowed to "snuff out." It was soon covered with 

 lantana, aad I remember Mr. F. Sabouadiere tellinj; 

 me that he believed the laud would be reudered fit 

 for growiug coffee in 7 or 8 yeai-s. This was 17 

 years ago ; the land has been planted up about two 

 years. So it was allowed to lie fallow for 15 years. 

 What the result of the planting up m.vy be, I do 

 not know. — Yours truly, X. 



NEW PRODUCTS IN DUMBARA FELIX ! 



Dumbara, 9th Oct, 1882. 



Dear Sir, — I have been knocking about in this 

 district for a few days, and think you might like to 

 hear the impressions of a casual visitor. 



Cocoa, as of course you know, is A 1. I must con- 

 fess though that, high as my expectations were, they 

 have been far supassed by the reality. I have seen 

 it at all ages, from the seedling of a few inches to 

 the patriarch of twenty years old and more thau as 

 many feet, and the strongest impression they have 

 left on my mind is crop, though I hare been informed 

 that this is the smallest crop of the two. I have seen 

 trees from four to five years old, with 100 to 12U 

 pods on them beyond the doubtful age ; this represents 

 eight to ten ewts. an acre. And this is their small crop ! 



Liherkm comes only second to cocoa, and a very 

 good second it seems too. I have seen a five acre 

 clearing, four and a bittock, where some trees are 

 bearing at the rate of ti.-enty-four cwt. per acre (as- 

 certained by counting the berries), and the average 

 of the whole clearing cannot be under fifteen cwt 

 Again am I told that this is "our small crop": Three 

 years old trees with (550 berries, or four cwt. an acre. 

 Leaf disease makes hardly any impression on it, but 

 il shows signs of drought more readily thau the 

 Arabian vftriety. 



The old staple (Coffee) too shows more crop generally 

 than I have seen anywhere this year : on one place in par- 

 ticular, where a lot of soft wood shade trees have 

 been ringed out, there musi be a crop of five cwt 

 an acre at least— not bad for (his year. Alongside 

 of this there is a very fine clearing of cocoa, Liberiau 

 and ceara rubber, with tobacco planted between the 

 rows, and all coming on as well as could be wished. 

 This' latter is a step anyhow towards carrying out 

 your sugge-tion, of planting sonething to preserve the 

 nitrates, though I fear tobacco will take more out 

 of the soil than it puts in. Happy Dumbara !—Yonrs 

 faithfully, MULLIGAN GUARD. 



p. S. — Touching this same preservation of nitrates, 

 would rape or clover grow so low down as this? 

 Mustard does, I know, as I have often seen it in 

 chenas. And do you think an equally good effect 

 would be produced by simply grass-knifing the plants, 

 and leaving them to rot ou the surface, giving the 

 place a dig over say once a year ; as 1 fear few i states 

 could afford to dig over as often as the plants came 

 into seed ? 



[Tobacco, which is removed from the soil and not 

 turned down into it, is one of the most exhausting of 

 crops, depriving the soil especially of potash. Tobacco 

 culture involves heavy manuring or speedy im- 

 poverishment of the soil. On the subject of weeds, see 

 our remarks in today's issue on the letters of Mr. 

 Harmau and a Wynaad planter. We do not suppose 

 clover would succeed in the hot dry climate of Dumbara. 

 —Ed.] 



ALOE CULTIVATION. 



Colombo, 10th Oct. 1882. 



De.\r .Sir, — I have once or twice directed your at- 

 tention to the increasing cultivation of aloes and the 

 manufacture of hemp therefrom in the* Mauritius, 



* Protest after protest against the definite ai-ticle, seems 

 in vain, Why ihn Mauritius and not the Oeylon 'i — En. 



and pointed out how suited the soil, climate and 

 cu'cumstances of this island are for the same purposes. 



Application having been made to a firm in Mauri- 

 tius for information as to tiie description of aloes 

 cultivated and the method of manufacture, I have been 

 obligingly furnished with full particulars not only as 

 to the mode of cultivation, but as to the description 

 of the machinery employed in the manufacture of the 

 hemp. 



The description of aloes cultivated in Mauritius is 

 the Fom-ci-oya ijif/anfea, or Agave fcetida. It appears 

 to grow- within the tropics in almost any sort of soil, 

 in the most exhausted to the richest, as well in the 

 lowcountry as in the high, in a diy climate as in 

 a moist one ; and when it is once planted does not 

 require much cultivation. I WTote to the Director of 

 the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya to enquii-e 

 whether this description of Arjave is the same which 

 grows so well in the higlier districts of Ceylon, and, 

 though he has not favoured me with a reply, I am 

 satisfied that it is. 



In Mam-itius it is propagated either by seeds planted 

 at stake or by means of young plants from twelve 

 months to three years old : they are put in the ground 

 fire feet apart. 



If grown from seed, they require five years to at- 

 tain then- full size, but, if jilants 18 inches high are 

 jjut in, they mature in three years. 



On an average they blossom in seven or eight years; 

 they can therefore be cut only four or five times be- 

 fore requu'ing to be re -planted. 



The yield of clean fibre with the improved machine 

 is three per cent of the green leaf, or equal to a ton 

 to a ton and-a-half of fibre per acre. 



The machinery is very simple and inexpensive.* 

 The value of the hemp was at first £.30 to £32 per 

 ton in London ; it advanced subsequently to £38 to 

 £40 owing to the high price of Manilla hemp. The 

 Mauritius firm say that the latest accouuts from England 

 are not so favourable, and in some quarters it is feared 

 the supply of fibre from that island alone will exceed 

 what is rcquii'ed for the purposes for which it serves. 



Be that as it may, the cultivation of a product 

 which costs so little to grow and whose area of growth 

 is so enormous, is not likely to be stopped by dismal 

 forebodings, so long as the immediate prospects are 

 highly favourable, and the question will as a 

 matter of course ultimately resolve itself into 

 the cost of labour and transport. There ai-e hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of land in Ceylon 

 adapted to its cultivation, with the probability of a, 

 maximum yield per acre, owing to the humitlity of 

 the climate. It would be a cultivation adapted to 

 the genius of the Sinhalese, if they co.ild find at 

 central- factories markets for their green leaves. — Yours 

 truly, C. S. 



ALOE FIBRE : A " GRATTEUSE " NOT TO COST 



MORE THAN R200. CULTIVATION AND PRK- 



PARATION IN CEYLON. 



Colombo, 11th Oct. 1882. 



Dear Sir, — Referring to my letter of yesterday, 

 will you allow me to explain that, iu describing the 

 machiuery used iu the munufacture ol hemp in 

 Mauritius as being very simple and inexpensive, 1 did 

 not include the cost of the motive power, because 

 its existence iu Ceylon was one of the circnmstiinces 

 which made tlie island, in my opinion, as suited to 

 the cultivation of aloes as Mauritius ? 



If the previous possession of steam engines on the 

 sugar estati'S made the cultivaiiou of the aloes prac- 

 ticable in the .'.liiuritius, does not our water and steam- 

 power plice us ill an equally f.ivorable position ? In 



* .See owe aticlc and extracts: can machinery costing 

 ijeijUOO at least be called inexpensive.— En. 



