December i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



439 



bones in their least active condition will be found most 

 suitable. Where, however, the soil is close of texture and 

 retentive in its nature, together with a climate giving a 

 paucity rather than an excess of moisture, a maximum 

 quickness of action such as is produced by the super- 

 phosphate process is desirable. Although mainly used for 

 the green crops, it must not be assumed that bones are 

 not of value as applied to the silica crops. Considering 

 that cereal crops, especially wheat, remove from the soil 

 a considerable proportion of phosphates, it was regarded 

 at one time as unaccountable that the spplication of bones 

 to such crops was not followed by any adequate result. 

 The mistake, however, was in applying the roughly broken 

 unfermented bones, which are altogether too slow of action 

 for this class of crops. For these the active superphosphate 

 must be used, and even then it requires putting in with 

 a previous crop, or at latest when the seed is sowu, or 

 just after, in order that it may receive the quickening 

 action of the autumn rains. In England, with its moist 

 climate, a favourite top dressing of the wheat crop in the 

 spring consists of a mixture of 2 cwt. of superphosphate 

 and 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre ; but in this colony 

 a better result is obtained by the superphosphate being 

 put in with the crop, or just after sowing, and applying 

 the nitrate mixed with its own weight of salt as a top 

 dressing in spring, when the process of vegetation is most 

 active. — Melbourne Leader. 



COFFEE, CINCHONA AND TEA IN THE HAPUTALE 

 DIVISION OF UVA, CEYLON. 



A visit to any of the planting districts now-a-days, 

 after a long absence, supplies much food for reflection, 

 and a trip through what always was, and still is, the pre- 

 mier district is no exception to the rule. The change in 

 Haputale that has taken place during the last four or 

 five years is marked and somewhat saddening. It is not 

 only that there are new faces as well as new products, 

 but everything is different — the crops, the coffee itself, 

 the planters, their prospects, their habits and their con- 

 versation. Perhaps the appearance of the coffee has changed 

 least, but on the second-rate estate there has been a per- 

 ceptible retrogression, and even the best properties are 

 beginning outwardly to show signs of sliding down the hill 

 which the bulk of Ceylon estates have been descending 

 for a long time. There are still sheets of fine coffee to 

 be seen in the district on which leaf-disease comes and 

 goes with apparently little effect, but the crops are not 

 there. It is true next year's prospects are more favorable 

 that last year; and they had need be. But, though a 

 small crop will generally be succeeded by a large one as of 

 yore, the rally is not quite up to the last one, and the maxi- 

 mum outturn of alternate years is receding like the waves of 

 an ebbing tide. How much diminished cultivation may 

 have to do with this it is difficult to say, but, with coffee at 

 present prices, he is a speculative man who goes in for high 

 cultivation. Haputale never indulged in much artificial 

 manuring ; it was too costly, and the amount of coffee manur- 

 ed in the palmy days of the district formed but a small 

 portion of the whole acreage. There must be thousands 

 of acres in the district that have never seen an ounce of 

 manure, bulky or otherwise, since they were opened, and 

 never will do so now, for, even if the railway staggers 

 along to the Pass, and does not founder at Nanuoya, 

 what is the use of manuring with coffee at sixty-five shillings ? 



Indeed, I heard the question discussed recently whether, 

 at the time, it paid to pick the autumn crop on the trees ? 

 This may seem a paradox, but you see the outturn of 

 light coffee after the drought has been terrible, ranging 

 from 30 to 60 per cent, and many estates' pa! am has turned 

 out parchment and light in equal portions with strict im- 

 partiality. Such being the case, and the daily picking per- 

 haps half a box, does it pay to pick? Is it profitable to 

 pick less than a box with present prices and present 

 outturn ? — that is the question that I heard seriously 

 debated. And if the condition on which it pays to gather 

 crop in Haputale have undergone a change, there has also 

 been a revolution in pruning. The time was when the 

 term " Knndy-side pruning " offended the nostrils of the 

 bulk of Haputale planters, and sundry were the jokes cut 

 at the expense of the system as carried on outside favored 

 Uva. When Kaudy-side coolies were taken on in Haputale 



in the good old days, they had to be watched closely in 

 the pruuiug field to prevent them turning the trees into 

 cart-wheels and otherwise hacking the valuable trees, laden 

 with crop. " Heavy pruning is all very well for those Kandy- 

 side places," would say the planter of the old school, with 

 slight contempt, " for they won't give crop without it," and 

 the gloomiest forebodings were uttered as to the ultimate 

 fate of those Haputale places that went in for " Kandy-side 

 makdri." This, however, is changed, and " Randy side " now 

 sets an example in moderation and forbearance. I heard, 

 indeed, that a visiting agent from the neighborhood of Kandy 

 was recently horrified at the sight of a Haputale field, where 

 the littered ground showed that the pruners had had a regular 

 field-day, though many of the places that used to prune heav- 

 ily have given it up. 



With regard to cinchona, when one remembers the pro- 

 spects of about three years ago, the presents state of affairs 

 is disappointing. When the craze for cinchona set in about 

 six years ago, the outlook for the quinine tree in Haputale 

 was promising in the extreme. Though the amount put out 

 in the coffee was not so large — the necessity not being so 

 urgent — as in shuck districts, small clearings, both jungle and 

 patana, were planted up, and for a time prospered exceeding- 

 ly. It looked indeed as if Haputale, which had grown coffee 

 so well, was going to show other districts how to cultivate 

 cinchona. This idea is now all over, for Haputale has shared 

 the fate of too many other localities, in spite of its splendid 

 climate. The death-rate on many places has been heavy, 

 while in the clearings whole sheets of young cinchonas have 

 gone out of existence. Not regularly though, and seemingly 

 after no fixed rule, for the mortality has been on jungle and 

 patana clearings alike, while there are still small fields of both 

 kinds flourishing, in a more or less favorable manner. The 

 causes which have led to the settiug-in of canker are as 

 much a mystery as ever, so that no one can tell how long his 

 present cinchonas will last. This being so, it is. not difficult 

 to understand why planters should be planting up their cin- 

 chona with tea, and even uprooting cinchona to make room 

 for the coming product. 



For Haputale is not going to be behindhand in the new 

 cultivation. Nurseries are springing up, and this monsoon 

 now at hand will see many acres planted out. Already lining 

 and holing are going on, and the former on land already 

 thickly planted with coffee and cinchona is no easy task. 

 With these three products all growiug side by side it will be 

 a veritable case of " survival of the fittest." Whether tea 

 will prosper remains to be seen, but it will not be for want 

 of trying, as it is being planted out in every kind of soil 

 and situation. Quartz ridges and sterile patanas will be 

 experimented on along with more promising fields, and, if 

 tea will grow on some of the localities now being planted, 

 it will grow anywhere in Ceylon. The acreage put out 

 this year will not be small, for, though most of the clear- 

 ings will only be from 10 to 20 acres, one estate, Kaluijahani, 

 is going in for 120 acres this year. The first time I saw 

 Ivalupahaui was in 1875, and there were not many patches 

 in the fine sheet of dark coffee then. The white streak, 

 where the coffee had gone out on either side of a ravine, 

 and here and there a small patch in the centre of a plot, 

 were all that then indicated the presence <*f the mysteri- 

 ous disease which has seized hold of this once magnificent 

 property. The white rings have grown and grown till they 

 promised at one time to absorb the whole estate. To 

 cover up the nakedness of the land the ubiquitous succi- 

 'rubra was planted largely, but the laud was flat, and not 

 particularly suitable, and today the cover is poor in the 

 extreme. I was pointed out the premier patch of tea in 

 the district on the Haputale side of the Kalupahani bunga- 

 low. Though planted wide apart, the trees make a fine 

 show, and are evidently fine specimens of their kind, hardy, 

 strong, and vigorous. The bushes are said to flush extremely 

 well, but the smallness of the patch prevents anything 

 being done with it. The superintendent having received 

 instructions to plant up 120 acres, has selected that portion 

 of the estate nearest Haldumniulle, from Webster's culvert 

 onwards, and the whole of this portion of the estate is 

 lined, and new being holed for tea. This monsoon will 

 see the whole 120 acres under that product. 



A noticeable feature in the new order of things though 

 is the burning-out of 20 acres of high coffee on one of 

 the crack estates above the Pass to make way for tea !! 

 Talking about burning out, the question as to the effect 



