January i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



577 



®otiti6spomlonce. 



To the Editor of tin '■'■Ceylon Observer." 

 IRRIGATION BY MEANS OF HANK FIRE-EN- 

 GINES AND RENOVATION BY MEANS OF 



CRUSHED LIMESTONE, IN THE CULTURE 

 OF COFFEE, TEA, &0. RECOMMENDED. 



London, 28th Nov. 1864. 



SiK, — As exception is generally taken to advice upon 

 planting matters, tendered from England, to those engaged 

 therein in the tropics, such being considered the wild 

 suggestion of mere theorists, in inditing the following re- 

 marks, I may premise that my planting experience covers 

 twenty years in North, Eastern, Central and Southern 

 India ; as also a few weeks' run through several estates in 

 Jamaica, where planting is managed upon scientific prin- 

 ciples that Ceylon and Southern India owners would do 

 well to study. I may as well ni ntion tiiat I hold testi- 

 monials from several Neilgherry men acknowledging the 

 benefit derived from following suggestions made them by 

 me in the treatment, in all details, of tea, coffee and cin- 

 chona. It is just as well at the outset to say that in most 

 cases my suggestions, if acted on, mean, at first increased 

 expenditure, in a more or less degree, dependent on local 

 surroundings ; but those who doubt their efficacy might 

 with advantage rake up and carefully peruse a book un- 

 justly forgotten or ignored and now, I fear, out of print, 

 viz., Simmonds' Commercial Products of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom.* 



Nothing is more common to read in the planting columns 

 of the Indian and Ceylon papers than querulous and dole- 

 ful complaints at the beginning of the season, that the 

 blossom is dropping off and the crop in danger from want 

 of sufficient rain to set the buds ; no effort to counteract 

 nature's shortcomings is attempted, but all sit down in a 

 hopeless despairing manner and helplessly look at their 

 property deteriorating, like a Mussalman waiting the decree 

 of fate — though without his calmer demeanour. Now, in 

 Jamaica,'and in fact all over the West Indies, on every estate 

 large and small, portable hand fire-engines are kept and 

 at once made use of when rain holds off or drought is 

 threatened ; in consequence, the crops there maintain a 

 steady average and though it is not possible to combat 

 the exigences of the home markets, it is possible always 

 to put the same quantity up for sale though the profits 

 therefrom may not be so great each year. Whatever the 

 expense of irrigation may be, should it ensure a margin of 

 profit it is far better to incur it than by apathetically star- 

 ing at the sky vainly imploring Jupiter Pluvius, to submit 

 to actual loss. Labor is cheaper, by a long chalk, in Ceylou 

 and India than in the West Indies and it is manifest that 

 if irrigation pays in the latter countries it will do in the 

 former. Water can be led from falls into pits or tanks 

 over the largest estate and one hand engine will be found 

 quite sufficient for 200 acres. The natives of Assam even 

 are far ahead of our Southern planters, for their pan 

 gardens are systematically watered by a network of 

 bamboo pipes and thus two months is gained, by irrigating 

 previous to the setting in of the regular rains. When 

 the estate is terraced the conduits cau be led behind the 

 plants but the engines will be found, as in Jamaica, the 

 mure preferable m"de of setting the blossom. Irrigation 

 is the remedy for droughts and those who will not resort 

 to it have but themselves to blame. Those who assert they 

 cauuot afford it have no more business with an estate 

 they cannot work than with a horse they are unable to 

 feed. So much for failure through drought. 



Next we come to the three B's and red spider. New a 

 good deal of money his been spent upon attempting to 

 discover a remedy for these pests and eminent scientists 

 have given us full details of their structure, habits and, 

 rather unnecessary, of their depredations. Some fifteeu or 

 twenty years back when a Madras Government Official 

 was specially detailed to report on the possibility of el 

 atiug these insects, we in Northern India watched an: 

 for the result, and wheu disappointed made up our minds 

 to accept the inevitable and so conduct affairs as to as 

 much as possible to mitigate an evil, we wereobligi 1 un- 



* A book well-known iu Ceylon and dealt with freely in 

 our Tropical Agriculturist which we doubt if " Synteng " 

 has seen ? — Ed. 



73 



willingly to entertain. Careful consideration shewed that 

 the best way to meet diseases that would come was to 

 prepare our plants by good cultivation ; constant atten- 

 tion to cleanliness, and taxing their powers with moder- 

 ation to enable them to withstand the ravages of sueh dis- 

 eases with the best possible chance of combatting them 

 successfully. The result has been that blight, (the leaf- 

 disease) though visiting the N. E. tea estates annu- 

 ally, now does comparatively little damage ; as, by 

 judicious nursing, the plants are rendered robust enough to 

 stand its attacks almost with impunity. Within the range 

 of the limestone deposits, indeed* plants either of tea, 

 cinchona, coffee or vanilla enjoy an immunity and this 

 fact attracting attention led to the employment of enisled 

 or rather pulverized limestone, as a manure. One garden 

 that had suffered so severely as to he on the point of being 

 thrown up was thoroughly renovated by the application of 

 two pounds placed round the base of the stem of each 

 plant. The cost of application being for an acre of lea, 

 2,722 plants, at a task of 500 for 3 annas, a little over a 

 rupee per acre. If there is no limestor.e in the vicinity the 

 cost of getting it from Bengal would notamount to so much 

 as the indulgence in those highly priced artificial manures 

 at present in vogue. 



Lime is the most powerful renovator known (renovation 

 must not be confounded with stimulation whose effects are 

 transient). Lime contains all the elements of strength- 

 giving vitality and, plants, so strengthened, will be as well 

 able to encounter disease as a strong healthy man does. 

 The puny effects from renovating pits filled with cowdung 

 and weeds avail little and cost three times as much as a 

 seer of limestone would. It is unreasonable to expect 

 that our plants of tea, coffee, cinchona, cinnamon or other 

 spices can go on standing the exacting demands constantly 

 made on their leaves, berries and bark without some 

 corresponding nourishment as compensation, and though 

 disease must be endured, our plantations must be 

 strengthened to fight it, even, where it can be afforded, at 

 the expense of abstaining for one whole year from growing 

 a crop, after liming. SYNTENG. 



ABNORMAL APPEARANCES ON TEA PLANTS 

 AND THEIR LEAVES. 

 St. Raimbold's Estate, Dolosbage, Dec , 30th 1SS4. 



Dear Sir, — By this day's post I am sending you >i 

 tea branch. It caught my attention whilst I was 

 amongst the tea plhckers this morning. I noticed two 

 or three bushes very similar to the branch I send. 

 Can you or any of your referees tell use the cause of 

 tlii«V [ shall feel extremely obliged. Wishing the 

 'Old Rag" a Happy New Tear.— Yours faithfully, 



J. H. STEPHENS. 



[Our scientific referee "cannot account for the ab 

 normal growth. Maybe caused by the nature of the 

 soil or from atmospheric influeuci s." A Dimbula 

 correspondent sen r ls curiously mottled leaves, enquiring: 

 —"Can you tell me what is wrong with the enclosed 

 tea leaves ? One (the green one) appears to be a blight 

 and the spotted one also. They are very young pla] I 

 only out three months." We do not think there is 

 anything more than a sight abnormal appearance due 

 to climatic causes A South of India tea planter 

 sends us some injured leaves on which the injury may 

 have been eauserl by some kind of sucking insect — 

 a bug perhaps. —Ed.] 



RIVAL TEA ROLLERS. 



Sir.,— The paragraph that appeared in your corres- 

 pondent's letter, "Pepper < 'oru " referring to a large 

 Tea Roller manufacturing firm bringing a local in- 

 v ntor to book for an infringement of patent requires 

 notice. I think the firm referred to, will scarcely 

 veil iin ' ve l rouble. R 3 port( of this kind, have 



at various time ai don various occasions before been 

 in circulation, and no doubt, this now latest one will 

 share the same fate as the former ones. It is a 

 qiu-siion whether the lirge firms have not infringed 

 on their smaller brother's patent. 



CORRESPONDENT. 



