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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March 2, 1885. 



PLANTING : NOTES FROM HAPUTALE. 



14th Feb. 1885. 

 During the mouth of January the rainfall did not much 

 exceed two inches on mo.it estates above the Puss. The 

 days were cloudy and misty with occasional light showers, 

 and the sun's heat was not great ; but since the beginning of 

 February warmer and drier weather has set in, which is 

 ripening young wood and preparing the coffee bushes for 

 an early blossom. The prospect of crop on all the higher 

 estates continues good, but on most of the lower lying 

 estates along the Koslauda and Lemastota road wind 

 and leaf-disease combined have played sad havoc with the 

 trees, and consequently the prospect of spring crop in 

 that direction is miserable in the extreme: on many places 

 the coffee is stripped of every leaf and the ground is bare 

 as a new clearing, and the bare twigs trying to force out 

 a blossom, but what can the unfortunate trees do with- 

 out leaves p So the outlook for next year's autumn crop 

 is not very cheering. 



"While round oil that side of the district I had 

 an opportunity of seeing the result of the " patent 

 pruners' " handiwork, the old and long ago exploded 

 idea of cutting back all primary branches to within a 

 few inches of the stem had been done with a vengeance, 

 and the limit of the bearing wood reduced to the smallest 

 circle, all the possible new wood thrown into the ceutre 

 of the trees making a mass of " crows' nests" of cross 

 wood, making the subsequent handling a difficult and ex- 

 pensive process. Is it any wonder tbat the crops on these 

 " patent pruned " estates have got " small by degrees aud 

 beautifully less," and that the coffee is showing signs of 

 premature extinction ? The young men who learnt under 

 this " patent pruuer " would do well to get another 

 teacher, or buy copies of Laborie's and ffm. Sabonadi^re's 

 works on coffee planting and study the articles on Prun- 

 ing. The late high wiud along nearly every estate 

 from east to west end of what I will call the Lemas- 

 tota side of the Pass must have been very severe this 

 year. The coffee is a pitiful sight, wrecked of nearly every 

 leaf on exposed fields, which are just now struggling to throw 

 out a flush of new wood and blossom. Tea may stand 

 these high winds and denuding of leaves, and require less 

 pruning in consequence, but it is fatal to coffee in a few 

 years' time. Tea has been planted out on many estates 

 amongst coffee and cinchona fields, and in small new clear- 

 ings wherever available, aud many acres of tea must now 

 be in the district, but it is difficult to say how much until 

 the coffee and cinchona is removed. Large nurseries and 

 other preparations for extended tea cultivation are visible 

 everywhere, so that our district will soon be giving the new 

 product a fair trial and the question decided of the " yet-un- 

 ouched-patana" 's capability for tea growing. 



Some tea plants put out last sear in the Kalupahana valley 

 ate growing apace and growing finely, notwithstanding the 

 everlasting wind which proved too much for the coffee and 

 cinchona "planted there three years ago. Tea may do 

 there, but the rugged and precipituous nature of the 

 land will ever be a drawback. On Happootella estate 

 I was shown the f tump of an old cinchona tree measur- 

 ing 64 inches in circumference at 18 inches from the 

 ground, which it is intended to send to the Agri-Horti- 

 eultural Show at Kandy. I mention this as a challenge 

 to other districts to try and beat Haputale if they can 

 with a larger specimen. J. A. 



Another F.emeby for the Phylloxera is an- 

 nounced. Professor Bauer, of San Francisco, has 

 been conducting a number of experiments, and he 

 has, it is stated, found a sure cure in quicksilver. 

 He' suggests that half au ounce be thoroughly mixed 

 with au equal weight of. clay in the soil of the hole 

 in winch the vine is planted. The cost of the mercury 

 was, at the time of the experiment, only ^d per vine, 

 or, as the vineyards are planted in California, from 

 £1 8s to £2 per acre. The suggestion aB to the use 

 of mercury came from the fact that a small globule 

 of that metal in a case of mounted butterflies will 

 protect them against the depredations of beetles, and 

 also to the fact tbat mercurial treatment is destruct- 

 ive to insects. It 13 believed that a dose of the 

 mixture will protect a vine for at least twenty years. 

 —European Mail. 



Suoar in Persia.— A correspondent of the Times writing 

 recently from -Teheran mentions the strange fact that 

 although the sugar-cane is abundantly cultivated in Persia, 

 there is not yet a single manufactory for producing sugar 

 in the country. Consumers are entirely- dependent upon 

 Java, France, and llussia for their supplies of sugar. An 

 encouraging feature is the fact that the Persian silk crop 

 has this year proved most abundant, and it is expected 

 that the Persian silk trade, which has long been depressed 

 owing to the failure of the crops, will now show distinct 

 signs of revival. It is even hoped that the former highly 

 prosperous state of this trade may again be reached. The 

 practical conclusion to which the correspondent desires to 

 draw his readers is that it would be a good thing if the 

 English and Russian Goveruments»eould agree to act to- 

 gether in aiding the construction of railways in Persia. 

 The writer does not appear to have any doubt that political 

 difficulties might intervene to prevent the execution of his 

 plan. What he is impressed with is the conviction that 

 in Persia there is a large field for the profitable employ- 

 ment of capital in the construction of railways, and that 

 Englaud and Knssia may with advantage join hands in 

 providing the necessary means.— Home and Colonial Mail. 



The Formation op Laterite by the Oxydation 

 of ferruginous rocks is thus noticed in a paper on 

 tne geology and mineralogy of Malacca by the Eev. 

 J. E. Tenison Woods of Australia, who ought to be 

 asked to make a similar report on Ceylon : — 



The paleozoic rock is largely mixed with poor iron 

 ores, and where the surface water charged with carb- 

 onaceou3 matter has come into contact with these 

 oies, they have been oxydized and converted into a 

 red and reddish-brown limouite called here lateiite. 

 This laterite has been a geological puzzle to most of 

 those who have written on the geology of the Malayan 

 Peninsula. It is remarkable what a variety of guesses 

 have been hazarded as to its origin. Some writers who 

 have pretended to offer an explanation seem purposely 

 to have obscured their meaning from inability to deal 

 with the difficulty. It has been called volcanic, and 

 regarded as a tertiary outpouring of basalt, aud so 

 forth. As already stated, the real character of the 

 stone is simply due to the oxydation of a ferruginous 

 series of rocks. The formation which has mostly sup- 

 plied the materials for the laterite is the stratified 

 paleozoic slates and the grauite in contact with them. 

 It is a decomposed rock. Water and air have been 

 the decomposing agents. It is a most significant fact 

 that there is no evidence whatever or recent upheaval 

 from the sea, or even marine action. It would be 

 hardly possible for this laterite or limonite with silic- 

 ates of iron to be in course of formation without en- 

 | tombing some marine remains bad they been in contact 

 with them. Malacca is no exception to the general 

 rule throughout the Malayan Peninsula that there is no 

 evidence of recent upheaval in all the great extent of 

 its coast line. — Straits Times. 



Coconut Copperah. — The present price of copperah, on 

 which some people are felicitating themselves, we are assured 

 by competent authorities, cannot make good the losses 

 from scanty crops. Even well-cultivated estates have given 

 only about one-fourth their usual outturn at the last two 

 pickings ; and prices are bound to rise. The present 

 drought threatens further to lead to short crops for the 

 : rest of the year, as young nuts arc dropping off freely 

 ! in most places. One estate, whose highest picking was 

 close on 80,000 nuts, has just picked only 10,000— the cor- 

 responding picking last year having been 30,000 nuts. 

 Another which picks 5 to G00,000 nuts has just gathered 

 only 150,000, while a third has fallen from 400,000 to 

 100,000. These are the results of the rainless months in 

 the first half of last year. The absence of rain since Dec- 

 ember will be felt, as regards results later on ; so that 

 copperah is bound to go up much higher ; and unless it 

 does, proprietors must suffer. The weather suitable for 

 coffee blossoming has come too late to help coffee, and is 

 likely to prove injurious to tea up-country, as weil as to 

 low-country products, — Ceylon " Examiner." 



