December r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



527 



receiving tlie repnrt. the gentleman to whom Uie 

 estate helon-s, turned to his plantar friciula and tulil 

 them th.i-I thougn times were liard iie would stictc 

 to his propi'i-ty for the presfut at li;ast. Thu-i"Mr. 

 Owner" got a full n-p .rt and va'uation on his pro- 

 perty from practical planters for notliiug ; and saved 

 what in these hard times may liOt be sneezed at as 

 insiguificaut. 



Again apologizing for the liberty I have taken 

 and for the space this letter will take up (if you 

 see fit to iasert it). — I beg to remain, yours truly, 



XIPHIA'^. 

 P.S. — Please allow me to contradict the statement of 

 "J. L. A " on puge 284 of your '/'. A , when he say^ 

 that your " system of cultivating in Ceylon by 

 keeping the surface of the land bare with monthly 

 weeding and cutting open surface driins is unique 

 and not adnpted in other countries, where 

 labor is plentiful, eithor for coffee, tea, or cinchona." 

 If "J L, A." will Rime over here he will tin<l that 

 in Soutli Travancore all who can afford it, ke.'p 

 th ir placrs as well drained and weeded as plantations 

 in Ceylon. 4s to his statement that this "ayn/im 

 is unique." I will say not'iing, but leave him to the 

 kind mercies of some of our Mysore and Coorg friends. 



VINE CULTUKE IN KANDY. 



Dear Sir, — That the vine will grow, and grow 

 well, is a fict beyond dispute. The question is how 

 to tend it, which, to one who knows, is very simple ; 

 indeed so simple that it is hard to make those 

 who have viues believe in it. For example, at 

 the time the vine was at the Kandy gaol there 

 were two very tine ones in the Pavilion grounds; 

 they wBi-e higlily manured, pruned, aud wintered in 

 what was fully believed the orthodox style. The man 

 in charge was repeatedly told that his system was 

 wrong, but to no avail. The consequence was that the 

 gaol vine gave more fruit at one crop than the other 

 twogavj for I he years they were in e.xistence. I shall 

 be cuiious to hear the opinion of some of our northern 

 friends, after which I may be induced to give you the 

 modus operandi I have seen carried out. 



ONE WHO KNOWS. 



WHAT AILS OUR COFFEE TREES? 



Sir, — I do not know. I only know that what plant- 

 ers have written aud published on the subject, during 

 the six mouths last pist, would fill a tolerably large 

 volume, and to my thinking they have just left it 

 where they found it, in utter darkness. "We want 

 light," but none of the farthing caudles that glimmer 

 all iiround ha>i power eimugh to reach the botto-n of 

 the evil. There are none of the plieuoinena of nature, 

 that havenr) more remote cause than meets the eye, 

 and it is true pi ilosophy to search out aud demons- 

 trate those cau-ee ; but while the grass grows, the liorse 

 starves. Tne fungus is working its ruinous way, while 

 we are disputing aud theorising, and experimentini', 

 aud making no v\a> . In tiie multitude of counaellors 

 there is wi.-dom, but ail the wisdom of all the coun- 

 sellors in this case avails us nothing. The fuuf'us 

 renders our cofl'ce trees unfruitful, the more remote 

 causei of the fungus are probably beyond either our 

 control or appreciation. All u.ature is in a constant 

 stale of tran><itiou ; tlio coudi'ions that are now favour- 

 able to the prop:>L;atiou of the fuugu* will not last for 

 ever. Don't neglect the coffee, but keep stickinc m 

 every oih.r proiluct that promises to pay. — Yours truly, 



PLANTER SINCE 1S4L 



A NEW INDUSTRY : CASHMERE GOATS FOR 

 CEYLON. 

 Dbab Sir,— Can you, or any of your numerous 

 readers, mform me whether the rearing of Cashmere 

 goats has ever been tried in Ceylon, and, if .so, in 

 what part of it and with what results? Also sup- 

 posing it has not, whom could one apply to and 

 what would be the beat way to import a few couple 

 from the Himalayas and the probable cost ?— Yours 

 truly, Q 3 



[Perhaps if our correspondent sent an enquiry to the 

 Secretary of the Zoological Gardens-, Calcutta— although 

 a little our, of his proper line— an answer would be re- 

 ceived to the latter [lortiou of this letter. We do not think 

 llie experiment has been made on our hills yet, though 

 often suggested. Kashmir and Ceylon had communication 

 in the days of old. See what Tenneut sayt: — "/n^eirourse 

 ivith Kashmir. — Possihly the woollen cloths referred 

 to inay have been shawls, and there is evidence in the 

 Rajatarangini, that at a very early period the posses- 

 sion of a common religion led to an intercourse between 

 Ceylon and Kashmir, originating in the sympathies of 

 Buildhism, but perpetuated by the Kashmirians for 

 the pursuit of commerce. In the fabulous period of 

 the narrative, a king of Kashmir is said to have sent to 

 Ceylon for a delicately fine cloth, embroidered with 

 golden footsteps. In the eighth century of the Chris- 

 tian era, Sinhalese engineers were sent tor to construct 

 works in Kashmir ; and Kashmir according to Troyer. 

 took part in the trade between t eylon and the West." 

 Angora goats might do better than Kashmir ?— 

 Ed.] 



MANURE FOR COFFEE: A HINT. 

 Dear Sir, — Will you induce some of your readers 

 to apply a lb. a tree, of the following mixture, in 

 the usual half-rouud bole, making it as bulky as 

 possible by mixing with soil and covering, not HUinc, 

 the hole, more than three-fourths up and not prun- 

 ing till after the blossoming season, and ask them to 

 let you know the result from time to time and also 

 what crop those trees give next year? The mixture 

 is:— four parts tine bone dust, oue part salt and one 

 part soot.— Yours truly, G. F. HALLILEY 



COFFEE BLOSSOM AND WEEDS. 



Dear Sir,— May it not be for the want of weeds, 

 that the weather gets so much blame in spoilin" our 

 blossom. When the tiny shoots first appear "on a 

 coffee tree, it depends entirely on how the sap is 

 evaporated, whether those shoots turn into blossom 

 wood or neither. If there is a rush of sap, those 

 shoots come out in wood and is often teimed bloesom 

 gone to wood; if the sap are gently evaporaied, those 

 shoots come out in blossom; but it those shoots have 

 half formed into blossom and there is a rush of sap. 

 it turns them into neither blossom nor wood, but wliat 

 planters call brush ; weeds absorb any superabun- 

 duuce of moisture and assist the tree to evaporate its 

 sap gently. 



Baron Liebig recommended us to plant an inter- 

 mediate crop — a plant tliat shades our c. flee and pre- 

 vents its bearing, cannot be called an intermediate but 

 rather a substitute. — Yours truly. 



G. F. HALLILEY. 



VINE CULTURE IN JAFFAA AND ELSEWHERE 



November 17th, 18S2. 

 Di^ar Sir. — Referring to a letter in your issue of lust 

 uigi t signed "One Who Knows," aud to previous cor- 

 respondence on the question of grape vine culture I 

 have always heard that the viiie cannot be grown 

 anywhere to jnofitdhle advantage, unless it can have 



