October i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



295 



I see that there is an anticipation of a large pro- 

 portion of light coffee this year, and very likely it 

 may turn out to be so, but the results of a few 

 small pulpings which I have seen do not tend yet 

 to establish that opinion. There was not more light 

 than the average of a usual season, and 1 was equally 

 surprized to note that for an early picking the sample 

 was good. The dyin^-back of branches, and as a 

 consequence the blackening of the coffee at the points, 

 is very excessive, and you don't know what to do with 

 it. To let it " slide " is the first idea which occurs 

 to you, lor there is little, little in the husk. But 

 to do so would be a constant worry all through 

 crop, and be an encouragement to the slovenly picker 

 to neglect what of good might fall. So it is brought 

 in, and its presence in the store is ever a mental 

 stimulus to solve the problems who will buy it and 

 will the price got for it pay the cost even of picking ? 

 I had an amusiug letter the other day from a 

 native conductor of mine, and mention it now, not 

 that it is an uncommon thing to rind unconscious 

 humour in the epistles of this class, but rather to 

 show how near the end of the world must be when 

 knowledge— scientific knowledge — is increasing at such 

 a rate that its learned nomenclature actually wells up 

 through a stratum of very indifferent nglish. When 

 I give the extract, my readers will see that the 

 writer has no ambition to be rhetorical, that deadliest 

 pitfall in the way of the English-speaking native. 

 He does not write like the Arvan brother, who, de- 

 sirous of giving an idea of the April heat of Colombo, 

 said : " The maritime capital is at present eo hot, 

 that even if I were plunged into a r>ver of ice I 

 could Dot be coul " : nor the necessituous individual 

 whose humble petition had it that he was so poor 

 that " he had no place into which he could lay his 

 head " ! No, nothing of the kind ; this is what he 

 says : — " I beg to say I have taken great pan9 to 

 bring up the casuarina plants, and succeeded with few 

 hundred plants. After I have done planting, there 

 is a lo»s therein in those days. Eaten away one by 

 one by something, it is supposed by rough lizards 

 (Laceita erittnla) Now I am obliged to tie a piece 

 of paper,* tix it in a stick to fly for the wind, which 

 is considered as a scare-crow." The scientific name 

 given above of this enemy of the casuarina — whose 

 life-history after the fashion of these days, I purpose 

 asking my conductor to work out — may or may not 

 In- correct, 1 decline to enter into the question 

 This, however. I may say, that " the rough lizard," 

 when it was brought in this shape to my notice, 

 was not only rough in itself and on the ca-uiarinas, 

 but positively " rough " upon me. It reminded me, 

 however, of a reply another planter got which was as 

 staggering and quite as scientific. Some Java Ledger 

 seed he had came up — uncommonly unlike the true 

 Ledger — and he asked his Sinhalese conductor, who 

 prided himself on his knowledge of cinchona, if 

 the young plants were not the true type. " Not 

 exactly," was the answer, after a little examination ; 

 " but they are numberforty-two of the same variety " ! 

 George Eliot has it that " comprehensive talkers are 

 apt to be tiresome when we are not athirst for 

 information, but, to be quite fair, we must admit that 

 superior reticence is a good deal due to the lack 

 of matter." The employer of this Sinhalese botanically- 

 inclined conductor had in the reply he got b>-en 

 somewhat " taken to the fair." and covered his dis- 

 comfiture by going in for 'the superior reticence " 

 referred to above. Need I add that in regard to 

 "the rough lizard" — Lacertacriatala — I am following suit. 

 I have been interested for some tune back in observ- 

 ing several cacao trees which eight or ten months 

 ago were gnawed round the stem in a distressing 

 manner by an unfriendly porcupine. This brute seemed 

 not only to have torn off what balk it could in 



broad stripes, to have broken branches and eaten the 

 pods, but had used the stem of the tree in the same 

 manner in which a dog uses a bone, when it is too 

 strong for his teeth to break : the marks of the 

 gnawing were deep into the woody pith of the stem, 

 and altogether it was a sad sight. The result of this 

 barbarous treatment was to throw the tree very much 

 back ; albeit in the matter of blossom, when the due 

 time came, it was a sight to see such a show as 

 that with which they decked themselves. Up to the 

 very tips of the branches the little sprig was out in 

 such masses, as I have never seen at all approached 

 by any of the numerous varieties of the cacao family. 

 Of course that clustered mignificence of blossom came 

 to nothing in the way of fruit, and it was a question 

 with me whether it would not be well to accept 

 what seemed to be inevitable, cut down at once the 

 maimed trees, replant, and so save time in the long 

 run. But I elected otherwise. The seeminyly slowly 

 dying trees were left to struggle, successfully turn- 

 ing the corner — after a hard fight — in all cases save 

 two, and now they have picked up again. The bark 

 has been steadily renewing, and they look on the 

 whole almost as well as other tree" near which had 

 no porcupine to check them. 



On the renewed bark I have for a few weeks now 

 lookel in vain for flowers. I knew it was said to be 

 a peculiarity of the cacao, that bark once injured 

 lost the power of blossoming, and, so far as my observ- 

 ation has jet gone, this fact seems to be established. 

 There is no lack of blossom in the branches and the 

 scraps of original stem bark which remain ; but in 

 the large patches of renewed, none whatever. 



Peppkr ClIHN 



QUESTIONS ON THE PROSPECTS OF THE 

 PLANTING ENTER PRIZE. 



The following has reached us from the Nilgiris : — 

 To the Editor of the " Tropical Agriculturist." 



TheNeilgherry Hills, 29th August 1884. 



Sim — In these gloomy, depressing times for coffee plant- 

 ers, the faintest gleam of light, indicating brighter days, 

 is not to be despised, and therefore the following extract 

 should not he without interest. 



A correspondent writes to the Church of England Teiu/>- 

 eranci Chronicle: — '" I was going North last Monday by 

 the train which leaves King's Cross at 5-15 a.m., when 1 

 heard the following (to me) new complaint. About 7 the 

 train stopped at a large station ; a man got out of the 

 third-class carriage I was in and went for a drink, but 

 came back complaining that the attendant was so busy 

 serving coffee, that she bad no time to give him beer.*' 

 Taken ill connection with the fact that extended consump- 

 tion amongst the public in general is the great desider- 

 atum, the above incident is hopeful. In order to make 

 the English public acquainted with the great superiority 

 of a genuine decently-made cup of tea or coffee, would it 

 not be worth the while of planters to secure the services 

 of a smart man of tact and experience to make a tour 

 of all the principal coffee houses and temperance hotels 

 throughout England, introducing Indian and Oeylon teas 

 and cott'et-s to the notice of proprietors and managers, and, 

 above all, showing how a decent cup of tea or coffee should 

 be made. The experience acquired at "The Healtheries " 

 shows pretty clearly. I think, that the main obstacle to 

 the more widely extended consumption of tea. especially 

 in England, exists in the generally prevailing ignorance of 

 the British public regarding the mysteries of the •' brew." 

 By tlie usual "stewing" process doubtless a stronger dose 

 of tannin is swallowed than is quite agreeable ! 



Mr. Armstrong affirms that heavy or continuous rains at 

 high elevations check the flushes of tea ! Is it the rain or 

 the terrific winds i which always accompany monsoon rains 

 at high elevations) that is detrimental? During the ab- 

 normal weather of .lulv when we had the monsoon wind 

 blowing without any rain, my tea trees hardened ami refused 

 to Hush as usual in monsoon weather, although the ground 



