534 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



OINOHONA AND COFFEE IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE MADRAS MAIL. 



Sl R; — My idea that cinchona is suitable to grow with 

 coffee, as shade, your Wynaad correspondent regards as an 

 astounding assertion. Your correspondent should travel and 

 gather wider experience, rather than treat and settle matters 

 from his own contracted sphere of observation. Coffee will 

 go back under the shade of the best known trees, such as fig, 

 unless the shade is treated, as experience shews necessary, 

 by lopping up gradually every year until the lowest branches 

 are 12 feet above the coffee or more, to admit light and 

 ventilation. "Where coffee has been stifled by cinchona left 

 in a state of nature, with its branches among the branches 

 of the coffee trees, the coffee languishes. Leaving opinions, 

 however, for discussion, and moving to facts, I will quote 

 one instance, of several known to me. On an estate in the 

 Bambu district of Ooorg, a plot of ground of about a quarter 

 of an acre, was planted up 20 years ago, with, may be, 100 

 Suecirubra trees in the coffee. The cinchona trees were 

 kept lopped up high, the coffee thriving and bearing well 

 under them. Three years ago, or about, the ciuchona trees 

 were coppiced, and yielded 1,300 lb. of bark, which sold at 3s. 

 4d. a lb. The stools of these trees measure IS to 36 inches 

 in circumference. If not too wise in his own conceit, your 

 correspondent might try the treatment on an acre, and he 

 may discover that his coffee will thrive, and the growth of 

 his cinchona be stimulated by reducing his cinchona trees to 

 one stem, and pruning off the lower branches with a saw 

 every year untilthey are high above the coffee utilising the bark 

 from the pruuings. By this process he will find his cinchona 

 trees more rapidly thicken and the quantity of bark be in- 

 creased. Many planters, whose opinions command respect, 

 think the quality of the bark deteriorates ; that is a debate- 

 able point that extensive growers may record their opinions 

 upon ; the above quoted instance, and another within my 

 knowledge, do not prove it. These remarks apply to the 

 robust kinds that grow into trees : the shrubby kinds are 

 unsuitable to plant among coffee shrubs. Let us hope your 

 correspondent will favor us with some of his own original 

 ideas, dropping the role of preceptor, and leaving criticisms 

 of the opinions of other writers to your own better judg- 

 ment and taste. Original opinions from practical men. ex- 

 changes of ideas resulting from experience, conceived in a 

 tolerant spirit, and expressed in courteous terms, are calcul- 

 ated to be useful and instructive, but conceited wordy crit- 

 iques, such as the one under notice from your "Wynaad cor- 

 respondent, serve no useful purpose, adding nothing to the 

 general stock of knowledge on subjects of great inter stai i 

 moment at the present critical juncture to those engaj i d in 

 planting pursuits. Planter. 



■ ♦ 



QUEENSLAND: MINOR INDUSTRIES AFFECTED BY 

 KANAKA LABOUR. 



COFFEE TEA CINX'UONA — COCONUT ROBBER. 



Some years ago Mr. J. M. Costello conceived the idea that 

 it would be possible to successfully grow the eolt'ee plant in 

 the Mackay district, and accordingly he selected as the place 

 where he would make the attempt a hill distant about 13 

 miles northward from the township, and there planted sev- 

 eral acres with the coffee plant. The plantation, which at pre- 

 sent consists of about 20 acres under cultivation, bears the 

 name of Millicent, and supplies almost without exception the 

 whole district with coffee of excellent quality. The coffee 

 grown is of the kind known as coffee Arabica, which has been 

 found to flourish best in this district, the. Mocha coffee having 

 been tried, but not having succeeded as well, it being rather 

 too delicate a plant for the climate. The surface of the hill 

 upon which the coffee is grown is exceedingly rough and 

 stony, and would at first sight appear quite unfit for the pur- 

 poses of cultivation, but between the rocks aud rubble are 

 deposits of rich volcanic soil, and some of the bushes grow- 

 ing on the hillside are spleudid specimens of their kind. ( hi 

 the eastern slope where the bushes are well shaded from the 

 wind by a clump of scrub, the plants have attained very great 

 size aud luxuriance. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Costello 

 is unable to obtain sufficient labour to keep the plantation 

 well weeded. Properly speaking, the rows should be weeded 

 every month, but this under present circumstances is impossi- 

 ble, consequently out of the 20 acres nominally under cultiv- 

 ation, only about eight acres are really crop-bearing. The 

 crop ripens about June, and at the time of my visit, late in 



July, many of the trees were still unpicked. A full-bearing 

 coffee bush with its dark-green glossy leaves and scarlet 

 fruit is a very pretty sight, aud a hill covered with such can 

 at a short distance be transformed by an average imagination 

 into a huge plum-pudding decked with holly. When fully 

 ripe the fruit becomes darker in colour than in the earlier 

 stages, and it is then picked and spread out in the sun to 

 dry. Each fruit when the outer skin is removed contains 

 two beans. These beans are sometimes sold in what is known 

 as the green state, that is before being roasted. Mr. Costello, 

 however, roasts and grinds all his coffee, aud prepares it fit 

 for infusion. He states that he finds a ready sale for all he 

 can grow, and could, had he sufficient coloured labour, find a 

 market for all he could produce. At the present time he 

 is in great trouble, and fears that unless circumstances ap- 

 pear brighter in the future, he will after all his trouble and 

 labour have to abandon the industry. His indentured boys 

 will in a few weeks terminate their period of engagement, 

 and unless he can secure others, or labour equal to it, he will 

 be unable to carry on the work of his little plantation. The 

 supply of kanaka labour is becoming so limited, that it is 

 only with the greatest difficulty that the places of time- 

 expired boys who desire to return home can be refilled, and 

 unless coolie or some such labour can be found to meet the 

 demand, which has so enormously increased of late years, 

 there is no doubt many small farmers and men of enterprise, 

 such as in this instance, will find it difficult, if not impossi- 

 ble, to carry on their operations. To use the words of Mr. 

 Costello, " it means ruin." The proprietor has also several 

 curiosities in the way of trees and plants growing on his farm 

 or plantation. He pointed out a lew tea plants, which looked 

 very green and healthy, but he states that tea-growing would 

 not be a success. The plant requires great care and a constant 

 supply of water. A spleudid young rubber tree was a con- 

 spicuous object. It was but 20 months in age, and had 

 reached a height of 14 feet clear of the branches. The stem 

 was perfectly straight, and without a branch till the crown 

 was reached. The rubber tree is principally grown in South 

 America, and the trade in rubber is confined to a compara- 

 tively few firms, into whose hands the plantations have fallen. 

 When sufficiently matured the bark of the trunk is cut in a 

 zigzag form by a'knife or other instrument, and a glutinous 

 white matter exudes ; this is generally caught in clay moulds, 

 and when the rubber solidifies the moulds are broken, and 

 the rubber is then sent to be manufactured in different forms. 

 Pepper plants, yams, mangoes, ami other growths are also re- 

 presented in the plantation. The cinchona or quinine tree 

 is also cultivated there. 



One cf the most conspicuous objects to a stranger visiting 

 Mackay is a large coconut grove on the side of the Pioneer 

 River, opposite to that on which the town has been es- 

 tablished, and immediately facing the Victorian wharf. This 

 grove is the property of Mr. J. O. Barnes, and is a favourite 

 Sunday resort for the Mackay people. It is now about 20 

 years since Mr. Barnes crossed the river for the first time, 

 and determined to start his grove and plantation, aud about 

 a year afterwards he planted his trees, which for many years 

 have borne him good yields. He has about 20 acres of land 

 under cultivation of one sort and another. The coconut 

 palm have been planted in the sandy soil near the river 

 bank. They are laid out in eight rows, each of about25 palms, 

 at regular intervals one from the other. The first impression 

 on entering the grove is, that the palms are so many immense 

 columns up-bearing the roof of an ancient temple. Under 

 the four spread leaves of the palms are clustered great 

 bunches of nuts in all stages of development. The sheath has 

 just opened, and the nodules on the branch are seen ; then 

 on the same palm, there is the nut, quite green, and beside it 

 the yellowy brown husk of the fully-developed fruit. 



In all some 20 different varieties of pines in the plantation 

 about four acres being utilised in this way. Elsewhere we 

 saw a quantity of young coconut palms beiug raised. They 

 had been grown from the nut, and appeared to be strong, 

 healthv plants. Talking of coconuts, Mr. Barnes stated 

 that, with his best palms, he had, in some seasons, from one 

 alone, taken as many as 400 nuts. He has also about six 

 acres of land planted with bananas, principally of the cavend- 

 ish variety. The soil does not appear to be altogether favour- 

 able to the growth of bananas, but notwithstanding, the yield, 

 I was informed, was in some seasons very large. The plant- 

 ation was in very good order, and, as with the coconuts, the 

 fruit could be seen in every stage of development. First of 



