474 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1884. 



up in a novel style : when felling, I only cut down 

 the scrub and small trees and left all the rest and burned 

 off sharp ; in doing so saved the roots of a great many 

 trees. The lining was rather difficult, but I persevered 

 and had it all lined in proper form 6 ft. x 6 ft.; then I 

 have my holes cut, good old-fashioned holes IS inches 

 and well tilled in with all the surface soil, only 

 allowing all the scrub to grow up to answer for 

 shade : this mode has answered excellently, and I have 

 a fair over of shade all over my clearing. In planting 

 out my plants, I had them shaded until they 

 stuck then I had the shade all removed, and they 

 are now bonnie and green and thriving A 1. Of 

 course, I have my troubles : it is not all mild sailing. 

 The little rascal the mole-cricket is the enemy, and 

 I may say the only enemy, to the plants that I am 

 troubled about, he cuts them down about oue inch 

 from the ground. The Arabian coffee grows again, but 

 it 's almost death for the Liberian. Well 1 have kept 

 pegging away and supplied up again and again. I have 

 lota of fine plants, and have supplied up also all 

 sickly plants, and the appearance at present is a good 

 cover — could not be better. 



The cacao is 'very fine and the cricket does not 

 touch them, but they grow here at a great rate. I 

 have cacao 18 inches high already, nice little bushy 

 plants and the soil is excellent : a dark brown loam 

 seems to suit them. I have no wind and am in a 

 valley well protected on all sides. Of course I had my 

 pick of the land and did my best to select what I 

 consider a suitable soil and aspect, etc. Cardamoms 

 have given me some trouble, only I am gaining ex- 

 perience and have hit on their requirements now. 

 Owen's little book assisted me greatly. Tea grows 

 apic.e at a great rate — could not be better. " Auotta" or 

 " arnotta" splendid. I have arnotta planted for shade in 

 a flat field. Nu'megs coming on beautifully, and I have 

 now mistered them and have no difficulty in germinat- 

 ing them. Teak is a slow grower, and I don't think 

 suited fir Tavoy district. Durians are a success, audi 

 have planted this in every seventh line for shade, 

 also jak, common jak and Penang jak, and also other 

 Burmese fruit trees. I have planted them mixed in lime 

 for shade, every seventh row. 



I have succeeded in planting a lot of chesnuts : they 

 will come in handy for tea- boxes. ItTis a beautiful tree 

 and boars a heavy crop of nuts in Tavoy district. I 

 have a number of rubbers, but will not say anything 

 about them, until I gaiu more experience gradually 

 with tlvnn. Gambiers grow nicely, three varieties: 

 they grow sloxo at first for two years, I nm told by 

 foresters. I have a few inangosteens and their growths 

 ha\e been very slow to my idea. 



Dividivi grows slow also, but they are hardy 

 and nice plauties. Croton-oil tree, Mr. Holloway's 

 favourite, grows at a great rate, and 1 have trees three 

 feet lii^h already. 



Heuaratgoda William & Bros, sent me a lb. of croton- 

 oil tree seed, Brazilian eoffea, rubber, cinchona of 

 kinds, and also Acacia, Arabica and Dalbergia 

 Siesoo seed ; they all came in splendid order, nicely 

 packed and by all appearance most carefully selected. 

 I have put them all in, and will report progress by 

 and bye. 



By last mail William & Bros, sent me 48 pods of 

 the best cacao ; the pods tcere packed as J advised them, 

 an d I am happy to say we have succeeded : 32 pods were 

 as bonnie and fresh as the day they were put in by 

 them ; 14 were a little discolored outside, but the 

 seed quite sweet ; two were rather black and dis- 

 colored but not germinated, only showed a very little. 

 I can now recommend anyone who wants 

 cacao pods, by all means apply to J. P. William & 

 Bros., Wilhelm's Ruhe, Henaratgoda, Ceylon. I had 

 out of my 48 pods 1,300 seeds in excellent' order, 

 and I trust William Brothers may turn out a patent 



process of transport to good account. 20 days on 

 the journey, and on the 21st day I had them into the 

 nursery. But my dear " Brother Planter," you must 

 avail yourself of the parcel post. Agents and steam- 

 ship agents are a queer lot, and have a happy knack of 

 not understanding you. No, no, you cannot put them out 

 of their own trust. If you advise anything original, you 

 must be a fool and cannot explain yourself. I have 

 a'maund of. tea seed kicking about somewhere, aud 

 goodness knows when I am to hear of it ; it was booked 

 at the same time as my cacao seeds. Invoice received, 

 but no box of seeds, nowhere to be found ; perhaps 

 it 's rotting in Madras. 



I bought all the Nat-ya-doung plants from Capt. 

 Schwolly. He has left ; he found Nat-ya-doung to be 

 exactly as I said in my report, not fit for the pro- 

 ducts he had given the Government a guarantee to 

 cultivate. 



I left this in the middle of July en route for Nat- 

 ya-doung to remove part of my plants with 28 

 Ramasamis. Such a time we had ! It was in the full 

 burst of the S. W. monsoon. For 15 miles the road was 

 in fine order, I may say 17 miles until we reached 

 Mr. Wallace's spacious wire bridge near Thatchory, 

 and after we left the splendid wire bridge, for other 

 sixty miles. Fancy yourself, Mr. Kditor, starting 

 from Colombo to go to Kaudy with no road, only a 

 track, aud all the bamboo bridges broken down aud no 

 place to put down your old head ! I bad to look out for 

 a soft plank aud woke up, dreaming of climbing up 

 Ardallie hill, saw T. M. cracking his thumbs 

 with his beaming cheery face, singing out, " Hill-o 

 Watson, foo are you man ?" My coolies came on man- 

 fully and cheerily, and, after a lot of cannie engineer- 

 ing, we reached Bubble Town and Nat-ya-douug. The 

 three coolies, pior fellows, in charge of the nurseriei 

 were very glad to see nie an 1 ran to bring coolie* in 

 Burmese "murgies." We were well pumped out and tired. 

 1 found the plants in firstrate order, some of the Liberian 

 coffee three feet high, tea, etc., also L'eara rubber 10 

 feet high and fruit out on, it, cardamoms well forward; 

 also Arabian coffee, orange trees and other fruit trees.. 

 The following day we started and packed up plants 

 I had larger baskets m<de for the purpose but not 

 enough ; the balance we packed in sacks and coodies. It 

 rained awfully. We stopped the night and started early 

 next morning. Now comes the rub ; we could not 

 crossjhe river, too high by far; however Nat-ya-doung 

 postmaster (a Tamil) came to our rescue and offered 

 to pdot us a new route. We started at once aud came 

 on all right until wo came to the first stream ; it was 

 rapid and deep. A few of the best of the coolies got 

 across hand on to land, when one fellow, a chetty 

 cartman, went down the stream. The bushel floated and 

 was rescued, but poor chetty was losing giMuud fast. 

 I plunged in aud dragged him out by his wrist. 

 He was more afraid than hurt and was quite useless 

 for that day. We reached the huge river, but 

 could not pass — too much water by far. The post- 

 master turoed back to a Karen's house and the 

 owner offered to pilot us to another temporary bridge 

 of his for some piees. We got over with some diffic- 

 ulty and proceeded along in pouring rain until 

 we came near the sea. We took the sea route as 

 the rivers are broader, and when the tide is full 

 there is little current. The coolies walked into the 

 larger river but turned back again to me saying 

 that they could not pass. I selected the tallest man, 

 and I myself am a 6-footer and took him by the 

 hand, and as the tide happened to be full there was 

 no current, so we reached the other side nicely, but 

 it was so deep that I had to hold up my watch 

 by my left hand. The whole lot took courage and 

 came wadding along. We reached the sea and had to 

 wait until the tide receded, and we passed the other 

 large river in safety. We reached Ya-Na at last and 



