October i, 18S4.] 



k HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



311 



It should not be overlooked, that the share market in 

 the beginning of 1880 was in quite as bad a state as it 

 is now ; yet siuce then we have had nearly three years 

 of very good trade aud very large profits. — Pioneer. 



PLANTING MATTERS IN CEYLON. 



The coffee industry appears to have as many lives- 

 as the proverbial cat. Three crises in its history have 

 been distinctly marked, and now there are signs of a 

 revival — not in price, for that is low enough, but in 

 oondition of the trees, the coffee pest notwithstand- 

 ing. The seasons may have a good deal to do with 

 it, and surely we have not had such a rainless south- 

 west monsoon as the present for many a long year. 

 It has been breezy enough, but the rainfall has been 

 abnormally light, — no bursts, no heavy downpours, 

 only occasional showers, just enough to keep the tea 

 refreshed, but not nearly enough for planting out. 



There will be comparatively little tea put out this 

 season, and, as a matter of course, the bushes will 

 not flush as they should, and the shipments will show 

 a decrease. Still there is a large area of new and old 

 land out in tea, nobody can say how much ; but go 

 where you will, even amongst really good coffee, you 

 will find young tea corning in. We went a long 

 round a short time ago through some of our once most 

 favoured coffee districts — north, east and south, and 

 in every direction there were the same signs of 

 transformation, the conversion of the old coffee estate 

 to a young tea plantation. At first it was believed 

 that the old land on which coffee had thrivrn aud 

 borne crops for so many years — thirty and forty in 

 some cases — would not grow tea — but this has now 

 been proved a fallacy — at any rate for some years 

 tea has flushed on such land, and crops of 400 lb. 

 per acre are being taken off many an old place that 

 had long ceased to be productive in coffee. 



In the course of our journey we passed through 

 estates that in their palmy days had given coffee crops 

 of twelve and fifteen cwt. an acre, now all but re- 

 fusing to bear, yet growing tea vigorously and of ex- 

 cellent quality. The object of our journey was to 

 gather information as to an insect pest which is said 

 to be attacking cacao trees in bearing. We do not 

 mean the cocunut trees which are palms, growing only 

 in the lowcountry, but the tree now being extensively 

 cultivated in various parts of the interior of the island, 

 and from which the chocolate bean is obtained. Re- 

 cently numbers of these trees have been found dying 

 at ;the branches, which are eaten round tLe edges, — ■ 

 at the same time that the fruit pods are perforated by 

 some insect, aud the only creature found on and about 

 the tree is the Helopeltis Antonii, known on Indian 

 tea estates as the " musquito blight." These tiny 

 things are invisible duriug the day making their ap- 

 pearance only at night ; and where they harbour at 

 oth r times no one has yet discovered. We visited 

 three cacao estates; and true enough on one of these 

 there were visible sigus of the work of some insect 

 pest, though the little destroyers were not to be seen ; 

 but they had done a good deal of damage, causing 

 the loss nf an entire crop then coming forward. 



Ou the other two estates visited, we did not feel 

 satisfied that the sickly appearance of the trees had 

 been caused by any living creature, but was rather 

 the cousequeuce of the extremely dry weather acting 

 on a somewhat shallow soil ; it is well known that 

 this tree cannot stand drought, especially if the soil 

 be poor and not of any depth. Opinions amongst 

 planters are divided as to the existence of any insect 

 pe»t as the cause of damage ; but so serious is the 

 mait.r thought to be that the Government has been 

 requested to depute Dr. Trimen, their botanical adviser, 

 to investigate the affair, whilst the Planters' Associ- 

 ation of Kandy has named a committee of its members 

 to institute enquiries aud carry on investigations on 



the subject. There is very grave apprehension with 

 regard to the existence in our midst of the Helopeltis ; 

 for if it be really existing and doing damage to the 

 cacao, it will be impossible to say when it may not 

 attack our newly-formed tea plantations on which the 

 hopes of the planting community are now centred. 

 This same iusect exists in great numbers in Java, but 

 there, strange to s«y, it attacks only the cinchona, 

 never troubling the tea,* so that gardens may not 

 after all suffer much from it. 



There is in Ceylon not only a Central Plauters' As- 

 sociation in Kandy, but branch institutions in various 

 plautiug districts, where local subjects are dealt with, 

 as well as questions affecting cultivation ; the largest 

 measures of the day connected with Government action 

 in planting matters, are usually tnken up by the 

 parent institution of which the others are the offshoots. 



One result of this Co-operative Association is that 

 the most reliable information is obtained concerning 

 the progress of cultivation throughout the island, 

 nothiug being left to guess-work. Everything con- 

 nected with the coffee, tea, cinchona and cacao inter- 

 ests is in the possession of the Association, all of 

 which is made public in the Ceylon Estates Directory t 

 aud the proceedings of the body, printed yearly. The 

 only information dwellers in Ceylon are able to obtain 

 in respect of Indian tea gardens is to be found in the 

 Beugal Directory, which gives little more than an 

 alphabetical list of plantations. In this respect, as 

 well as in the matters of roads aud transport, Ceylon 

 is decidedly in advance of India. There is another 

 great advantage, in that Ceylon possesses a popular 

 Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, who is now travelling in 

 the northern districts of the island, seeing for himself 



in matters of rice cultivation and water-supply. 



Indigo and Tea Planters' Gazette. 



COFFEE SEED. 



From a long tour undertaken a short time ago in Wynaad, 

 we were surprised to find thousands of acres of coffee 

 had died out— on enquiring into the cause, some said, it 

 was leaf disease, others borer, but neither of these facts 

 were substantiated by the appearance of the trees, their 

 generally small size, their want of vigor, even in the most 

 favorable situations, such as deep ravines, their general 

 puny condition told another tale to the observant eye. 

 Two causes were evidently at work to produce this sad 

 state of things, these were, bad seed nud want of maunure, 

 for instance, where the soil was rich, and moisture 

 abundant, as in the bottom of ravines, the trees still 

 wanted a robust appearance. Here- the cause was in- 

 different seed, which very probably had been grown on 

 the same soil and climate for years. Now when it is 

 considered not only do tea planters constantly change their 

 6eed, getting it from long distances and chincona planters 

 have been giving fabulous prices for the very best varieties 

 procurable, but English farmers never dream of using seed 

 grown by themselves, hut get it from those men whose 

 special trade it is. to sell selected seed, or from a neighbour- 

 ing county famous for its straiu, then why is the coffee 

 planter contented so easily with the first seed to hand ? 



We have often been surprised to observe the little 

 attention coffee planters pay to the source from whioh 

 their seeds are procured. To use seed grown year after 

 year on the same laud, is simply breeding in and in, 

 aud to take seed from an unmanured or exhausted 

 tree is to perpetuate the evil. 



We happened to be talking to two very old planters 

 in Ooorg and on askiug them if they ever made any 

 exchanges in 1heir coffee seed, they replied in the 

 negative, it was not their custom and we believe they 

 were doing simply as others were doing. 



Oue hardly ever sees goods trains of coffee seed ad- 



* A grave mistake. We saw oue of the finest tea estates 

 in Java pruned close to the ground with the hope of 

 getting rid of this destructive pest. — Ei>. 



I The Association gets its statistics from the Directory. 



