September i, 18S4.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



229 



COTTON CULTIVATION IN MADEAS. 



In the year ending 30th June 1883, there was a very 

 considerable increase in the cultivation of this staple, the 

 total area under cultivation being 1,708,679 acres, against 

 1,655,657 in the previous year, or an increase of nearly 

 53,000 acres. This is the highest figure recorded since the 

 year 1863-4, the time of the American war; and is the 

 more satisfactory as the increase has been gradual since 

 the famine of 187G-7, and has progressed steadily iu face 

 of the discouragement caused by the fall iu prices at home. 

 The average prices during 1882-3 in the English market 

 were nearly id per lb. lower than in 1881-2, which, on 

 a low priced article like cotton, means a depreciation iu 

 value of about 10 per cent — a serious item to the cultiv- 

 ators of the staple iu this country. The total quantity 

 exported by sea was 598,534 owt., equal to about 223,400 

 bales of 300 lb, against 4.39,351 cwt., or about 171,500 

 bales of 300 lb., in the preceding year. 



The three mills at work witliiu the town of Madras, viz., 

 the Southern India Spinning aud Weaving Company, the 

 Madras United Spinning Compauy, and the Buckingham 

 Mills Company, consumed during the year 57,265 cwt., 

 or say 21,379 bales of 300 lb. This was 2,553 cwt. less 

 than in the preceding year, but showed an increase of 

 9,134 cwt. over the average of the previous four years. 

 The condition of the weaving classes is said to be satis- 

 factory iu Salem, and improving in Kuruool, but in all 

 other districts it is deteriorating. This is not to be won- 

 dered at when we consider the annually increasing im- 

 portation of cheap piece goods from Europe, aud the 

 establishment of weaving mills in this country. The future 

 of these classes might be viewed with some concern, were 

 it not that, with the extension of railway construction, 

 other fields of labour will gradually, but surely, be opened 

 up for them. — Madras Mail. 



FORESTRY EXHIBITION AND LARCH DISEASE. 



The following article from the Scotsman ought to 

 have, at least, a melancholy interest for Ceylon coffee 

 planters, as showing them how mysterious diseases 

 affecting planting industries on a large scale have 

 baffled all the practical and scientific skill of the 

 West, loDg before the coffee-leaf fungus was heard 

 of in Ceylon. The Ceylon exhibits at the Edinburgh 

 Exhibition are now in good hands and will shortly 

 be arranged. . That the larch planting industry is 

 not destroyed in Scotland we have practical evidence, 

 by recent personal inspections of the fine trees, indeed 

 forests, on the Craighall, Camperdowu, Kinnaird aud 

 other properties on the borders of Forfar and Perth- 

 shires — with scenery equal to any in grandeur and 

 beauty we have seen iu the more remote Highlands 

 of Inverness, Ross or Sutherlaiulshire. Meantime 

 here is the article referred to : — 



Practical Forestry Exhibits. 



Those who may have heard a good deal about the disease 

 which has worked havoc in the larch plantations of the 

 country, antl occasioned much loss to the planter of this 

 graceful and valuable conifer, may study its effects in 

 exhibits from the forests of Athole aud other parts of the 

 country. The larch, the satire home of which is the Tyrol 

 or Carpathians, was tried in Scotland about 150 years ago — 

 the Duke of Athole having the credit of being the first 

 planter of it on a large scale, though in the face of much 

 controversy on the point, aud the many " first larches" 

 which exist, it would be unsafe to assign to him the honour 

 which manj believe he deserves, of having been the first 

 also to introduce this useful tree into the country, Su 

 suitable was it believed to be for covering the moors and 

 bare mountain-sides of Perthshire and other Highland 

 counties, that between 1759 and 1800 — a period oi forty- 

 one years — it is estimated that over 28,000,000 larch trees 

 were planted, to the advantage of the landowners and the 

 great imj rovement of the appearance of the country. Of 

 all tlie trees of the forest, larch is, or was, perhaps the 

 most profitable. It grows last, attains to maturity within 



; 



a reasonable period, aud its wood when sound is of a very 

 durable character, aud can be turned to account in a great 

 variety of ways. Unfortunately the larch iu Scotland is not 

 the tree it was. Compared with the older larches, the 

 present generation appears to be a degenerate race. There is 

 scare, ly a plantation throughout the length and breadth 

 ot the land — a few in Wales are said to have escaped — 

 which has not been attacked by a mysterious disease, in ac- 

 counting for which practical foresters are by no means 

 agreed. Bad seed, undue forcing iu the nursery, deterior- 

 ation of the climate, exhaustion of the soil, careless manage- 

 ment of plantations, fungi, insects, all have been blamed ; 

 and as the disease appears to be a many-sided one, it is 

 thought not unlikely that the causes which produce it 

 are complex, and not simple, in their nature. Of all the 

 causes, the arboriculturist will probably incline to the 

 idea that the larch has declined because of the poor seed 

 from which it has been reared — the demand for the tree hav- 

 ing sent a flood of worthless foreign seed into the market, 

 which it is impossible to know until its results are seen 

 in the nurseries. Cone gatherers in the larch-woods, being 

 paid at so much per bushel, are not so careful as they 

 should be where they collect the seed — the immature cones 

 from the lower branches being, of course, first taken, 

 while the mature seed on the upper sie tl branchesf 

 In the Exhibition visitors may see examples of larchwood 

 both iu an unsound and healthy condition, and even to the 

 uninitiated the contrast they present is very apparent 

 From the Athole plantations— laid out in the south-western 

 transept — are examples of how the tree iu its diseased 

 conditions blisters and bleeds externally, and in that way 

 is deprived of its resinous nourishment, which should go 

 to sustain its wood-making power. Alongside of this ex- 

 hibit is a young tree iu a tub, covered with that pest of 

 the larch plantations, the aphes. The tree looks as if it had 

 been dusted over with a tlowery-looking substance, which 

 conceals innumerable microscopical insects, under whose 

 attack many of the young larches receive a severe check, 

 or succumb altogether. Plenty of air, and room for the 

 trees to grow in the plantations are said to be the best 

 means of routing this enemy — close, unthinned, and badly 

 managed plantations being more liable to be attacked 

 with it than others, just as overcrowding in human dwell- 

 ings generates disease, and tends to degeneration. Sections 

 of larch attacked with what is known in the Highlands 

 as " Roy," but which is nothing more or less than dry rot, 

 are also shown — this occurring apparently in the tree when 

 it has begun to go back through having exhausted the 

 soil in which it stands, or some of the roots having struck 

 into a subsoil which disagrees with it, or other deteriorating 

 cause. These diseased timbers may be compared with one 

 or two splendid specimens of larchwood, also from Athole, 

 with some excellent wood of the same kind from the 

 Steveustone estate, Devonshire, which was grown in a fiat 

 plantation with an open subsoil, or with the fine exhibit 

 of larch from "Wollaston, Notts. It is satisfactory to know 

 that the larch disease is rather on the decline ; and that 

 the tree is still being very extensively planted. Among the 

 exhibits of pine wood from different quarters may be specially 

 noted here a splendid section of Picea NobUis — an exceed- 

 ingly handsome member of the great conifene family iu use 

 for park or landscape purposes— which come from Cul- 

 toquhey, Perthshire. The tree, which was planted in 

 1853, had attained to a height of 65 feet, and was 8 

 feet 2 inches iu circumferance. It was blown down in a 

 recent gale ; but in the year previous 150 cones were 

 picked off it, a good many of which found their way 

 to the Scottish Arboricultural Society, no doubt to be 

 duly utilized. The visitor cau scarcely fail to note the 

 extraordinary size of the yearly ring growths— a proof 

 that the soil of loam and sand in which it grew was 

 greatly to its liking. A root-cut, said to be of one of 

 the tir.^L larches introduced iuto Scotland b\ Mr. Menzies 

 of Culdares iu 1730, and planted at Meggeriue, may also 

 i. i n by the curious. Practical foresters have been 

 with a good duil of curiosity at some Parisian 

 exhibits hi the east end of the buildiny, which illustrate 

 the results, in the shape of loose knots and oilier faults 

 iu the wool, of the injudicious priming ot trees— con- 

 trasted therewith being the fruits of a more "ra 

 system,'' which is advocated by the exhibitor, the Couut 

 des Cars. The idea of the Count, as explained iu print, 



