442 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1884. 



loose a soil is and the less clayey and tenacious, 

 the more is its liability to wash. Now most of the 

 soil of India and Java is free loam, richer than I hat 

 of Ceylon (which is, however, a very good tea soil), but 

 more readily carried away by rainstorms. Mr. Hughes' 

 verdict on the soils of Dimbula and the adjacent district 

 was : — " Fairly characterized by most of the elements 

 of fertility in good quantity excepting lime, but de- 

 fective in its stiff mechanical condition." Tea doas 

 not demand a large proportion of lime, however, while 

 it is more than toleiaut of a large proportion of alumina 

 and iron. Our stiff soil well suits the product which 

 is now becoming our staple, and it far better resists 

 the wasting effects of rainstorms than the richer but 

 looser soils of India. And there is another consider- 

 ation. Very steep features on mountain plantations 

 can be bound by tea bushes planted at distances from 

 or rather close to each other, which would never hive 

 answered for oi'ffee, .Such features can be planted at 

 one foot apart in rows across the free of the p eeipitous 

 place", with a space of two feet between the rows. Such 

 planting will prevent both laudslips and auy material 

 degree of wash. The perfection of tea planting we 

 believe to be about 8' or '.i-V by 4' on moderate slopes, 

 as close as we have indicated on steep faces, and hedges 

 of closely planted tea bushes on both sides of all roads, 

 paths and drains. With such a system (paths and 

 drains being frequent), and careful forking, the amount 

 (jf wash would be reduced lo a minimum. Then as to 

 shelter where wiud is so strong as to be injurious, let 

 it be noted that it has been proved that tea trees in 

 Ceylon will grow to a height of 20 to 30 feet. Shelter 

 belts of tea bushes might, therefore, be allowed to 

 grow at proper distances across tho fields, such 

 belts yielding both shelter and seeds — or leaf, if it is 

 deemed well to prune aud trim them. With such 

 a system of culture on tea estates, terraciug can well 

 be dispeuEed with. 



A PLANTER'S LIFE AND GOSSIP. 



ADAPTABILITY OF THE CEYLON PLANTER— NEW PRODUCTS— 

 INVENTIONS — HOW TO PREVENT THIEVING — PROSPECTS OF 

 CACAO — COFFEE BEING ROOTED OUT IN BADULLA TO BE 

 REPLACED BY TEA— A COFFEE CROP IN THE DAYS OP OLD 

 — PRUNING COFFEE WITH AN ALAVANGA — A DRASTIC CURE 

 — RETURNING COLONISTS — AN ERST-WHILE COFFEE PLANTER 

 IN A NEW SPHERE. 



22nd October 1884. 



It has been recognized as a distinguishing feature 



of the Ceylon planter, his ability to adapt himself 



to a changed environment. If an old product fails 



be pets about trying another, aud, if there be any 



kind of promise in it at all, it is encouraged by a 



liberal mixture of brain to do better here than it 



lias ever done elsewhere. We took to cacao, and the 



Ceylon marks quickly topped the market ; we grew 



cinchoua. and have driven the South American bark 



out of the field ; we have planted tea, and, not only 



have the profits been great, but the outturn per 



acre have astonish/ d ourselves, as well as the older 



race of Ind'an tea planters. If a new invention be 



wanted to save the cost of labour, to give a cjuicker 



dispatch, or a sun r result, we are not content with 



the old and tried, but scheme anil plan for something 



.new. What a catalogue of Ceylon inventions one 



( ould detail ! Scissors ai d bleaching machines for carel- 



. moms, road tracers, anel transplanters of all kinds, 



drying stores for bark anel cacao, pulpers for coffee, 



tea-rolling machines, iediarubber tappers, et hoc genua 



ovine. Ev n on such a simple tool as a weeding 



soraper, the amount of thought and ingenuity which 



has beeu expended in tile last decade or ^o is 



marvellous. Iu Walker & Co. 's workshops in Kauely are 



unples of those they have from time to time maim- 



factured from hints or elravvings are duly preserved, 

 aud the array is a goodly one. Many of them are of 

 course now practically useless and obsolete, still around 

 each there is a history, anel all tell of a purpose 

 they have served. 



Spite of this wealth of invention, I have yet to 

 chronicle another. It is a new dodge, its purpose 

 being to prevent thieving. Like many other great 

 inventions, the discoverer stumbled on this one, and, 

 although he might have set up a claim to honour 

 for having evolved it from his own consciousness, 

 without a snarlinft public being able to gainsay his 

 right, yet he purposes taking up a humble position. 

 Sir Isaac Newton was not' ashamed to admit that he had 

 learneel much from the fall of an apple, so this new 

 benefactor of the planting tribe takes his stand on a 

 s ; milar platform in the attitude of course of a lowly 

 disciple, and says that that problem of problems, the 

 outwitting of the thieving native, solved itself in his case 

 when he erected a clieeta-trap. Many apples had 

 fallen ere the historical one dropped from the bough 

 at the feet of the great philosopher, which was the 

 genesis of a train of tbought leading to the discovery 

 of a univeral law, anel so with the cheeta-trap. 

 Hundreds have been set up from time to time, but 

 what problem have they ever solved before? 



The effect is got in this way. You have a field 

 open to the enemy, anil into which he loves to raiel. 

 It is of necessity considerably removed from auy 

 habitation of man, lonely aud outlying. Here you 

 get up the ueedful footprints, lock up your dog for 

 a few nights, warn your cattle-keepers, drop hints 

 to your coolies, and set up the trap. When that 

 has been elone, yon may withdraw your watchman, 

 sleep comfortably, and for the rest of the season your 

 soul may be at peace and your coffee safe. The discoverer 

 of this invention has this year found his plan work 

 so well on the estate on which he is resident, that 

 when I saw him last he was then starting for an- 

 other part of the country, where thieves do abouuel 

 with the express intention when there of working up 

 another cheeta-scare. He is prepareel to stake his 

 honour on the Buccess of the dodge if carried out as 

 it should be. No thieving native will enter a field 

 of coffee in which, preliminaries having been duly at- 

 tended to, a cheeta-trap has been erected. The 

 clutches of the law he has often evaded, will run the 

 gauntlet of them again and again if need be, but 

 his courage evaporates, and his arts are nought when 

 he is brought face to face with a rude trap, anel has 

 his mind filled with the horrors of a cheeta scare. 



Cacao is goiug to do well, if the promise of blossom 

 be auy indication. Iu Dunibara where during the drought 

 there was much anxiety, and where even now the 

 effects are to be seen in places where the soil is thin, and 

 even below, the late rains have elone much good. Some 

 of the trees, which, seemed to have succumbed, have 

 picked up, and the luxuriance of blossom is a sight 

 to le. It is setting well also, and' the promise of 

 crop is belter than it has been for a very long time. 

 As an example of the faith in tea, and, alas ! also 

 of the want of it in coffee, I have lo recorel that 

 one of the Baelulla Companies is rooting out coffee 

 on which there is estimated to be about 4 cwt. an 

 acre set. 



This may be wisdom or the reverse. It reminds 

 me of an incident in the days of old, how, in 

 the same district, a proprietor had such a glut of 

 crop, that he closed his season and cleaneel up his 

 pulping-house while on the higher portions of bis 

 estate there still remained something like 5civt. an acre 

 to pick. When remonstrated with, he said he had 

 enough, and was content to let the balance go to 

 wa te ! 



Pruning ceffee with anjalavanga is a new idea, Still 

 I was benriug of a man who is almost won over to 



