526 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1882. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 



PLANTING POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF 



TRAVANCORE. 



Travancore, 14tb October 1882. 



Dear Mr. Editor,— Being a regular reader of your 

 much esteemed and admirably got-up T. A., T 

 have often wondered how you got such a searching 

 and exhamtive periodical through the press without, 

 at times, getting a snacli of news from this, not far 

 distant, but much-inaligned, country. There are many 

 here in a much better position to .supply you with 

 the news of the place than I am. However, in the 

 absence of anything better for the present, I trust you 

 will excuse the liberty 1 am about to take in asking you 

 to accept a few Hues tiom my but scantily informed pen. 



Our chief produce, cofTee Arahica, has, similar to 

 Ceylon, greatly lost favour with us lately, but from 

 the fact that a few new clearings have been planted 

 this last planting season, with this product, it does 

 not appear that planters have aUoijelhr lost faith in 

 it yet. I think I may safely say that this much 

 abused product may yet, with proper management, 

 be induced to pay a lilUe. Of course the good old 

 times are over, and capitalists should uot be disap- 

 pointed if they cauunt uow make fortunes such as 

 have been made in former times. When I say proper 

 management I mean, if young plants for new clear- 

 inns are raised from seed procured from properly 

 matured, well-nourished .-nd vigon us plants, instead 

 of being taken from amongst the I'M coffee— as pbints 

 for new clearings have, iu the majority of cases, been 

 done over here — if new clearings are felled with proper 

 attention to aspect, elevation and soil, and, last but 

 by no means least, trees and belts being left for 

 shade and shelter where required, and if due atten- 

 tion is paid to the necessity for efficient and economic:d 

 cultivation. We all look forward to the time when 

 the carbolic acid treatment, after having had a fair 

 trial, shall be pronounced a failure or success. None 

 of us, however, have ventured on a trial of this new 

 mode of entertaining li. V. 



New Products and their result B we all look 

 dorward to more or less ; but we have not plunged 

 into them with the same sanguine vigour many of 

 our Ceylon friends have, for the chief reason that 

 imany of us have not the moeey to spare. 



Cinchona is- having a fair trial, and on some estates 

 very fine cinchonas 2 years old may be see;. No 

 one as yet h.i8 ventured to shave or bark their young 

 cinchona. I may mention that a sample of C. 

 snccirubra bark taken from trees 10 or 12 years old 

 grown at an elevati. u of 3,000 feet on Uppir 



Victoria fetched 28 9d per lb. in the London market 



lately. . , . , , 



Cacao has had an extensive trial more or less ; 

 and although it has occasioned loss and disappoint- 

 ment, there are a few plan's flourishing in evidence 

 of some euterprizing attempts to grow this product. 

 We have not however been :iltogether discouraged 

 from trying to grow this Jickie plant, as a lot of 

 plants were put in this last season. An old planier 

 here, who has bad a few cacao trees growing on his 

 estate for "ages," got a very favourable report of a 

 sample he sent home lately. On the strength of 

 this report he has been extending his little patch 



of cocoa. , , , .1 



Tea is very little thought of over here except by 

 one or two. I believe the reason for its being so 

 little thought of, is becnuse so few know little or 

 anything about the plant and its capabilitiep. There 

 are two" estates at the extieme south end of the 

 range, each owning an acre of a very good kind of 



tea. (I have heard this tea styled " Assam Indi- 

 genous" ; others again say it is ouly a very tine 

 liyhrid. However, let it be what it may, one acre, 

 which was planted some 10 or 12 years ago, 5 feet 

 X 6 feet, and in wh ch there are a goid few vac ni- 

 cies, gave one year 370 lb. prepared tea aiid the 

 next 350 lb. This acre of tea. is in most wretched 

 soil and at an elevation of 3.500 feet above sea level.) 

 Seed from this tea is being taken and endeavours 

 are being made to extend the plimting of this valu- 

 able tea by the fortunate possessors as much aa 

 p issible. This and a little tea planting in the north 

 are, I am sorry to say, the only endeavours I know 

 of to go in practically for this new product. 



Ruhher is being a little thought of. There are, 

 however, ouly two estates that I know of, which pos- 

 sess rubber planted out in the field and growing. 

 There are one or two others, however, who have the 

 pi-odact in their nurseries. The kind gone in for is 

 Ceara. 



Other new products we hear very little if anything 

 about. Certainly Liberiau cofifee has had a feeble trial, 

 but for the want of funds it has not been gone in for to 

 any extent. However, from what I know of the country 

 and have seen of this new coffee, I fancy it might be 

 grown with success over here as well as in Ceylon. 

 To shew what we are capable of growing over here 

 I will encV>se one of a couple of leaves which I 

 picked off a coffee (Arabica) bu-h this morning. The 

 bush itself, together with all its neighbours, is in 

 a very wretched condition from the heavy crop and 

 leaf-disease of last season, and a further visitation 

 from our obliging friend " H. V." from which it is 

 just recovering. Leaf measures now 9 in. x 4 in.* . 

 A new sanitarium has been started at a place 

 called Muthukurlie Viyal, some 4,200 above sea level. 

 Two small bungalows" are already built, and others 

 are proposed. His Highness, our Maha Ri.ja paid 

 the place a visit a short time since for the pur- 

 pose of seeing it and choosing a site for a bunga- 

 low for himself. He was presented by an address 

 on the occasion signed by ten people who made 

 themselves out to be " representat ves of the Euro- 

 pean Community of your Highneas's Kingdom." 

 The address was got up solely at tiie instance of 

 those who signed it, and it is believed at the in- 

 stigation of one Rev. " fientieman " who is known 

 to wish to get into his Highnees's good books. How- 

 ever, be that as it may, they had no right whatever 

 to force themselves on the notice of His Highness as 

 representatives of a body whom they had no power 

 to represent. There are many more Europeans in 

 South Travancore bi sides those who si;:ned ihe ad- 

 dress, who from the fact that most of them have 

 been in the country for from 8 to 15 years, and are 

 more or less proprietors, may jus ly claim to have 

 a voice iu the matter as to who sh-.U be sent to 

 represerd them ou an occasion like this. So particular 

 was one " geiHli-iiinn " to have as few signatures be- 

 sides his own, as propriety would permit, that he 

 refused to allow one yountr planter, who has been 

 13 years in the country and through whos ■ charge the 

 road to the Viyal runs, to put his signature to the 

 address. 



I heard a good yarn the other day, which you 

 shall have for wh.it'it is worth. A peisou who has 

 liurned his fingers in coffee and who owns a small 

 " tort " went ihe other day to two planters, with 

 whom he was acquainted, and in a meaning and groan- 

 ing manner abused the hard times and intimated 

 that, as he had no funds, he would not mind selling 

 his estate, and induced the two jilanterB who had 

 an eye to buying the place to go over the property 

 and make a full report and valuation on it. After 

 * it IS a splendid leal whuh, but for the abseuce of 

 serrated edges, we should have taken for tea. — Ed. 



