5 66 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



patches of moss had to be rubbed off. The remedy 

 is to keep the soil stirred about the roots of such 

 trees, as to prevent the growth of moss on the 



surface of the ground. The chief enemy of the tea 

 tree we have to contend with at present is a sub- 

 terranean one, in the shape of the decaying roots of 

 the " poison tree." Our attention was first directed 

 to the baneful effects of this tree iu 1879 by an 

 experienced planter from Assam, who asked : "Do 

 you not lose patches of plants growing round a 

 certain tree ? " Up to the moment we bad not 

 noticed anything ol the kind, but our visitor soon 

 came upon a vacant spot and showed us the cause. 

 We ought then to have done what we are now 

 doing, that i", employ a gang of men to go round 

 uprooting the destructive tree, around which from two 

 to twelve bushes have died at from three years old 

 to eight, when, as we have reason to believe, their 

 feeding rootlets come in contact with the poison in 

 the roots of this "Upas." It has been suggested to 

 us that the destructive agents are fungi or bacoilli 

 developed in the decaying wood, in which small 

 white fungi are certainly abundant ; but we have 

 learnt from the intelligent head-carpenter of this 

 estate that the tree is notorious amongst his people 

 for its poisonous juice, resembling, he said, the juice of 

 the Euphorbias in its milky appearance and its blistering 

 properties. Until today we have been uuable to 

 identify the tree further than that Mr. W. Ferguson 

 pronounced it to be a symplocos, from the twisting 

 habit of the fibrous timber, no doubt. But we have 

 now obtained specimens of the foliage, bark, stem- 

 wood and roots of the living tree, which, with portions 

 of the decayed roots we intend lo send to Dr. 

 Trimeu for such remarks as he may have to offer. 

 I am sorry we cannot at present obtain flowers or 

 fruits, but the carpenter describes the blossoms as 

 white, small and inconspicuous. The foliage, on the 

 other hand, is most conspicuous ; the leaves being 

 lar^e, glabrous and light green in colour. The tree 

 does not attain a large diameter at this elevation, 

 but lower down, the carpenter tells us, it is a big 

 tree. But everywhere it is useless either for timber 

 or firewood. The eirpenter spoke of it contemptuously 

 as commencing to dicnyas soon as it was cut down. 

 In the burning of felled jungle it is described as 

 sending forth a noisome smoke. In cutting cur speci- 

 mens today, suiprize was expressed at the absence 

 of milkiness in the juice, wbich only showed slightly 

 in the root pieces. The juice may probably asBUme 

 the consistence and colour of milk only at certain 

 seasons. But there can I e no doubt the trees pointed 

 out to us in the standing forest today are our enemies 

 of the tea fields. Comparison of the green wood and 

 the decayed roots was quite conclusive, and we ad- 

 vise all tea planters to lose no time in rooting out 

 from amongst their bushes, the stems and roots of the 

 tree known to the Sinhalese as diyaala-hera-liya, 

 the vulgar name being lab-labu. " Labu " means ;i 

 pumpkin, and <• diya-ala " means a watery yam,, the 

 names being descriptive of the tuberous juicy roots. 

 The leaving of the roots of the tree in the ground here 

 has cost us at least the loss of 10,000 tea plants in 

 stages advancing to maturity. 



There is another poison ttee, the badid, known to 

 the Tamils as ■invha-vinyi maram, " the face swelling 

 tree." A man from this estate had to be sent 

 to the hospital for treatment in consequence of the 

 serious swelling of hiB face which followed a squirt 

 of juice from a badul tree which he had struck with 

 his axe. But we have not traced any loss of tea to 

 this tree, although the root resembles that of the 

 t ree which has done such harm. 



Perfumes in Florida— It is said that the perfume in- 

 dustry iu Jacksonville, Florida, is yielding products fully 

 equal to the best French articles.— Gat'Seners' MxmtMy. 



FLANTUSG IN JAMAICA.— No. II. 



the "blue mountain coffee" district of Jamaica- 

 prices RANGING UP TO 140s. PER CWT — TRANSPORT BY 

 MULES — COFFEE TREES 60 TO 80 YEARS OLD — COMPAH1SON 

 WITH UVA— CULTIVATION IN JAMAICA — JOB WORK — MR. AND 

 MRS. QUASHIE. 



Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, 1st Nov. 1884. 



I take advantage of a wet day to commence my 

 second letter, and purpose telling your readers about 

 the well-known Blue Mountain coffee district of Jamaica, 

 which produces such a very fine bold samples, and 

 which still fetches very high prices in the Liverpool 

 market, such estates as " Cold Spring," " Chestervale," 

 'Radnor," "Whitfii Id Hall," Pleasant Hill," "Clydes- 

 dale" "Sherwood Forest;" have lately realized from 

 127s. to 115s. for their best, and last year iu face of 

 low prices one tierce of " Arutully" sold for 140s. 

 These are prices which in some measure make up for a 

 em, all average bearing per acre, and a higher wage than 

 is paid in Ceylon and India. The Blue Mountain range 

 is situated at the Eastern end of the island, the Peak 

 rises 7,360 feet above ihe sea, the range is very bold, 

 and runs off into many spurs on which some of the 

 estates are located. Above Kingston rises the " Port 

 Royal" range, the highest point of which is about 4,500 ; 

 it is separated from the Blue Mountains, by the 

 "Yallaho" river, a stream with a very broad bed, but 

 except when iu flood very easily fordable. In the oid 

 slave days these " Port Royal" hills were covered with 

 fine coffee properties, but it is now very melancholy, 

 to see the abandoned works, and stone houses in rums 

 or perhaps only a few patches of coffee kept up in the 

 hollows, by people who have purchased the property 

 for a trifling sum. There are now only two or three 

 properties on the Port Xioyal hills, producing sufficient 

 coffee to make them worthy the name of a coffee estate. 

 Ou an average the Blue Mountain estates may be said 

 to be 20 to 25 miles distant from Kingston, only 9 

 of which are cart road, the rest is a steep bridle road, 

 in some places tolerably broad, but in many spots very 

 narrow, scarped and dangerous ; all transport therefore 

 to "Gordon Town," the terminus of the cart road, has 

 to I e done by mules or by head loads. A mule will 

 take down 2U0 lb. coffee ( 100 ou each side) and costs 3s. 

 to 3s. 6d. if by hired mule, but most estates keep their 

 own stock, and there is generally an enclosed pasture 

 on every estate for the animals, laken from some of the 

 old abandoned coffee, or the negro grounds of the old 

 slave days. 



To compare the Blue Mountain range with any 

 district in Ceylon I would select " Ouvah " and 

 specially " Haputale " and "Uda Pussellawa"; for 

 iu soil, chmate and steepness of laud they 

 are not unlike ; the coffee is equally fine, and 

 even trees 00 to 80 years old respond most gratefully 

 for kind treatment, simple weeding and pruning work 

 wonders, the soil and climate being so excellent. 

 But Jamaica lacks the noble Uva " patenas," the 

 terraced paddy fields, and the Kandyan villages nest- 

 ling amongst their coffee, plantain, jak and arecanut 

 treeB. In lieu thereof the hills are very steep and 

 precipitous, the valleys narrow and admitting of no 

 cultivation ; but we have a grand prospect of moun- 

 tain and ravine, and the glorious sea 8 to 10 miles off 

 as the crow flies. 



As to cultivation a Jamaica coffee plantation is very 

 behindhand, as compared to upkeep in Ceylon 10 

 years ago, aud in appearance quite different, for in 

 Ceylon estates were commonly 200 to 300 acres in 

 extent, all in one large field ; what Ceylon planter 

 does not remember "Rothschild," "Delta," " Med- 

 dacumbera," "Gampaha" and " Spring Valley." In 

 Jamaica, the fields are mostly small, and all detached, 

 suitable spots have to be selected, where there are 

 flats, or nice hollows amongst the hills. The largest 



