5^ 



twt? TROPICAL AGrUCTTLTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



also doing well. A sanitarium for troops has now been 

 established at Thandauug, so there is clearly a tine opening 

 for ary enterprising man to establish himself there, in a 

 good climate, as a tea and coffee planter. That would give 

 Burma a new industry, and attract foreign capital into other 

 channels than the rice and timber trades, both of which 

 are the reverse of flourishing at present. 



Something has been done also, though not very much, 

 in getting Burmese forest-rangers trained. Three out of 

 the five Burman apprentices at Dehra Dun passed out of 

 the Forest School at the end of 1883, one with, and two 

 without, certificates. — "Rangoon Gazette. 



DRAINING OR TRENCHING FOR COCONUTS. 



TO THE EDITOR OE THE [CEYLON] EXAMINEE. 



Sik, — It does seem strange that so necessary a branch 

 of the proper and husbandmanlike cultivation of the Coco- 

 nut is so universally neglected. But then the Coconut is 

 seldom systematically cultivated, it is simply allowed to 

 grow. Weeding a Coconut estate generally receives the 

 exalted term of cultivation, and if a man more intelligent 

 or less apathetic than his fellows acknowledge the necessity 

 of giving back something to the soil for all he his taking 

 out of it, and manure his land, he is supposed to go in for 

 ** high cultivation." The Coconut receives fair and generous 

 treatment only on such poor sandy soils as refuse to give. 

 up elements of fertility they do not contain; and absolute 

 necessity is made a virtue of. 



Now to my subject. Trenching is taken up by some 

 to prevent "wash," by others not to be behind-hand with 

 their neighbours. I unhesitatingly assert that there is 

 absolutely no wash, in the general acceptation of the word, 

 on a well-grassed land. The soil is so firmly bound by 

 the roots of the grasses, that not a praticle can be dis- 

 placed by wash. The grass filters and arrests all soil held 

 in s dution, even in water rushing from the sidodrains of 

 roads, wherever such bound grassed laud. I had an op- 

 portunity of witnessing this while travelling once on a mad 

 during a heavy rainstorm. A large stream of water washing 

 through and over a road, found an outlet in a thick and 

 muddy condition on a Coconut estate skirting the road. 

 Before the water had gone twenty yards, it was Mowing 

 as clear as if passed through a filter! Droppiugs of cattle, 

 even when dissolve. I by rain, rarely travel beyond afoot 

 of where they were deposited. The ouh Coconut 



estate, where rain-water carries along with it any loose soil 

 or decaying vegetable matters, is in a hollow or ravine, 

 and this is owing to the accumulation of water from all 

 sides tow. nits this hollow. Careful trenching, by arresting 

 water before it reaches a hollow, can avert even tbi 

 aihbunt of wash. 



Those who resort to trenching to arrest wash throw the 

 soil dug out of the trench on the upper side of it. The 

 absurdity of this becomes apparent with the first heavy 

 rainfall, as tii i tn ach, not being traced at any g. 

 or even level, the accumulation of water, wherever there 

 is a depression, causes the earthwork to give way, and 

 the rush of water in a volume does all the damage tenfold 

 increased, which trenching was thought to prevent. Every 

 successive rainstorm widens the breach and weares away 

 the earthwork. But I will possibly be told that this soil 

 carried away at the breach is-caught by an ingenious con- 

 trivance for a silt trap designed and used by certain planters, 

 consisting of a fence of life sticks put down at every 

 trench, and protected by rubbish ami the branches of the 

 Coconut. To my mind the game of digging trenches so 

 that the soil thrown up above it is caught in a trap below 

 it, is more expensive than ingenious. 



If there be no wash on a Coconut estate, where is the 

 necessity for trenching? Not to mention the benefit to 

 a soil in its aeration and increased porosity resulting by 

 a system of trenching, it has the additional merit of storing 

 up and slowly dispensing to the Coconut the moisture it 

 revels in, ami which is so much of a necessity to mature 

 its nuts. It is not necessary for me to assert that it is 

 more beneficial for a soil to have rain water stored at 

 intervals and slowly filtered through it, parting with the 

 fertilizing matter it holds in solution, than for it to wat i 

 over a soil. Saturated as such a soil is with water, it will 

 be better able to stand a prolonged drought, than if the 

 water had passed over it, without saturating it to any 



appreciable extent. I would not cut trenches, as I have 

 always seen done, over long unbroken lengths and to a 

 great depth; and for these reasons. Trenches are cut 

 between the lines of Coconuts, and these do not invariably 

 run at right angles to the slope of the laud. Consequently, 

 all the water accumulates at the bottom of a slope, and 

 finds an exit there, and only those trees are benefited, where 

 there is an accumulation of water, while it becomes a 

 question whether those at the top are not in a worse 

 plight than before, by having all the moisture, that other- 

 wise might have been there, drained from the roots. And 

 I will not have trenches deeper than a foot or eighteen 

 inches, as the water caught in trenches three or four feet 

 deep is likely to sink beyond the reach of the roots, for, 

 remember, except in very free soil, Coconut roots are seldom 

 found below eighteen inches, and deep trenches are likely 

 to drain off too quickly the moisture in the soil. It is 

 best I think to cut trenches in sections of say twenty-five 

 feet, making the bottom as level as possible by cutting 

 deeper where the land is high and less where low and 

 throwing the soil on the lower side. The advantage of 

 cutting trenches in sections is that each section holds what- 

 ever water falls above it, benefits the trees adjoining it 

 both above and below, and does not allow the water to 

 flow down to the bottom of the slope and be lost. It is 

 also necessary to fill the trenches with all the droppings 

 from the trees and with weeds, both to prevent too rapid 

 evaporation of moisture, and as manure for the trees, 

 opening new trenches between the old ones as the latter 

 fill up.— Yours truly, Agriculturist. 



PLANTING IN QUEENSLAND. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON TIMES. 



Sir,-- -At a time when there is so much talk about Im- 

 perial federation, it may somewhat startle your readers to 

 find that one of your youngest colonies, Queensland, desires 

 subdivision, and is very much in earnest about it. 



This desire, which has been mooted at various times 

 during the last 20 years, has now come to a head, owing 

 to the entirely diverse interests of tropical and sub-tropical 

 Queensland, and also to the chief industry of the former, 

 mi ar-growing being threatened with utter extinction by 

 the political representatives of the latter. 



There are 55 members in the Queensland Legislative 

 Assembly, of whom three-fourths are derived from the 

 sub-tropical and more thickly inhabited districts. It is con- 

 sequently impossible for tropical Queensland with its vast 

 territory and 1,500 miles of sea coast to make itself heard 

 or to obtain justice. 



The main point upon which the two portions of the 

 colouy are now at variance is the question of the intro- 

 duction of coloured labour. The inhabitants of tropical 

 Queensland declare they cannot exist without it ; those who 

 live in more temperate regions do not see the necessity. 



Let me give a short history of the development of the 

 sugar industry in Queensland. On this very day 25 years 

 ago, in 1859, Queensland was separated from New South 

 Wales, and in 1862 were issued the sugar and coffee regul- 

 ations granting laud on favourable terms to people intro- 

 ducing these industries, and the following year an Act 

 was passed to regulate the introduction of coolies from 

 India. Induced by the encouragement thus held out people 

 began in 1865 to invest their capital and energies in the 

 business of sugar growing, till, by the present year, over 

 £5,000,000 of money had been invested, and the estimated 

 gross annual value of the produce was £1,000,000, while the 

 value of the gold exported was only £SOO,000, and of wool 

 £1,300,000. The Government of Queensland, in applying 

 here lately for a loan of several millions, were therefore 

 justified in drawing attention to this industry as consti- 

 tuting one of its main securities. 



But the same Government now deny that labour by 

 which alone the industry can be made profitable. Up to 

 tin present time the growth of the industry has been 

 entirely dependent upon the coloured labour obtainable 

 from tin South Sea Islands ; but that supply is now getting 

 very limited, besides presenting other and objectionable 

 features. 



But the planters applying to have the Indian Coolie Act 

 put in force, the Government replied by repealing the 

 Act, and, moreover, as an attempt was made to get some 



