May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



U5 



estate and to Mr. Owen's new clearing below it. 

 But the cardamom fields which mo3t impressed us, 

 from their enormous yield of fruit and the profits 

 stated to have been already derived from them, 

 were situated in a dense grove of magnificent timber 

 trees in the lower part of Kandanuwara estate. In 

 this case the effects of the long continued drought 

 had been more than counteracted by the utilizing of 

 a fine irrigating stream, the effects of which, added 

 to the deep rich soil, were wonderful. 



Coffee, before the fatal fungus appeared, gave grand 

 returns on Kandanuwara, but the berry in its palmiest 

 days never gave profits at all approaching those de- 

 rived from the spice here and in some other cases. 

 Unfortunately the demand for cardamoms is limited, 

 the market is getting glutted, and prices are going 

 down. If the worst comes to the worst, however, 

 the cardamom plants can be uprooted in favour of 

 tea, which will flourish none the worse for the pre- 

 vious cultivations On Kandanuwara we not only saw 

 the richest yielding field of cardamoms (although 

 a good many bushes had been smashed down by the 

 fall of giant trees, victims to a limited but violent 

 cyclone in December last) but witnessed and had 

 explained to us the whole process of preparing the 

 seeds, from the gathering to the sulphuring which 

 bleached them white. But it was only those gathered be- 

 fore being quite ripe which turned out white. The seeds 

 left to ripen fully were distinguished by a colour 

 resembling that of Indian corn, while the large white 

 BeedB gave one the idea of very well prepared parch 

 ment coffee. We saw and received a specimen of a 

 box of large, choice cardamoms which are, we believe, 

 to be exhibited at the Kandy Show. Other card- 

 amom-growers will have to be on their mettle to beat 

 the No. 1 Kandanuwara spice, Besides the Malabar 

 and Mysore cardamoms, there is a plant indigenous 

 to Ceylon, the elongated seeds of which, however, 

 are deemed inferior to the foreign kinds. I need 

 scarcely say that I gave a wide berth to the snlphur- 

 iog-house at Kandanuwara store, although a3 a Scotch- 

 man, I am, of course, no more inclined to under- 

 value the good properties of sulphur than to refrain 

 from bestowing a blessing on the Duke of Argyll. 

 EquaUy unattractive as a place of human sojourn, 

 was Mr. Robert Fraser's weird-looking hermetically 

 clos"d (when the door was shut) chamber for " sweat- 

 ing " the cacao beans, of which his magnificent trees 

 yield so many. Readers of the Observer are aware 

 that from cardamoms a liqueur is prepared, asd a 

 similar use is made of the matter which oozes from 

 the cacao beans in the process of curing. But the 

 most scientific process of cacao curing is to be seen 

 as carried on by Mr. A. Ross on Kawudapelella, where 

 a Blackmail's air-propeller (so favourably mentioned, 

 and we believe with good reason, by Col. M >u<>y, 

 as enabling tea manufactores to regulate the temp- 

 erature of their withering-houses,) is worked by a 

 steam engine. On this machine, which is not ci*tly 

 and which is most effectual in bolb the propelling 

 of fresh air through a building and attracting hot or 

 foul air from it, we shall have something further to 

 say. We had proof of its power of rapidly removing 

 hot and vitiated air from a loft where, beside 1 millions 

 of silkworms' eggs, tens of thousands of the worms 

 themselves were feeding on mulberry leaves, with a 

 crunching noise, as if of cattle chewing ; others 

 weaving beautiful cocoons of white and golden yellow 

 silk filatures. The experiment is most interesting and 

 wo should say likely to be successful. Mr. Ross's 

 fear was, in view of the fearful voracity of the in- 

 Bects, that his supply of mulberry leaves would give 

 out, although immense and luxuriant hedges of the 

 plant lined the roada through these magnificent 

 grounds. We should hope that the leaves of some 

 of the numerous forest trees, so plentiful around, 

 100 



might be found suitable. In any case, the mulberry 

 culture can be rapidly extended. The eggs were 

 brought by Mr. R. S. Frascr from China or Japan, with 

 much else peculiar to those countries, while from 

 Trinidad Mr. Fraser has introduced not only the best 

 kinds of cacao but the beautiful immortelle which the 

 South Americans regard as the mother of Theobroma. 

 Mr. Fraser has also reproduced in his truly ma"ni- 

 ficent cacao groves at Wariapolla, names so well-known 

 in Trinidad as those of the valleys of "San Antonio" 

 and "San Francisco," while some of the trees ho 

 brought thence show what the cacao can uttain to 

 as it increases in years, the years of its life being 

 not threescore and ten, but; if properly cared for 

 by successive cultivators, a couple of centuries. We 

 have said "cultivators," but really the amount of cult- 

 ivation required by this beautiful bush, which vies 

 in its vari-coloured foliage with the vivid spring tints 

 of the Ceylon mountain forests, is of the smallest, once 

 it is settled in the soil. As it covers the ground it 

 eradicates weeds, and the amount of pruning and 

 handling demanded is almost nil, although we felt 

 inclined in some cases to advise stripping some of the 

 umbrageous foliage to admit "more light" to 

 the splendid pods, some of which, we were 

 told, gave twice the twenty-five seeds usually 

 regarded as the average. We were amused to 

 learn that Mr. Vollar, on his weJI-roaded cacao 

 fields, believes in cherishing the large red ant 

 as an antidote (pun unintended) to HelopeltU. Of 

 the latter, I saw neither specimen nor effect in my 

 rounds, the bared points of branches visible in soma 

 cases being attributable, so planters insisted, not to 

 the insect but to drought. Mr. Robert Fraser con- 

 siders the couple of men he employs to go round 

 examining the trees and disposing of pests when dis- 

 covered a sufficient assurance against the insect 

 which, in some less favoured localities, has proved 

 so destructive. One of the men carried a chatty of 

 tar, to be applied, we understood, should sign of 

 canker appear on any of the stems. But of any such 

 affection we saw no sign. As a large portion of the 

 cacao which has succeeded in Ceylon is situated in 

 regions liable to drought, we were scarcely surprised 

 to learn, that, unless careful precautions are taken, 

 repeated plantings, or, if not, a large amount of 

 " supplies," will be necessary, the plants ,according 

 to Mr. Ross's experience being most difficult to estab- 

 lish on flat ground. Ou the lower sides of steep 

 hills, where the soil is rich, they specially flourish. 

 Such is the description of the locality in which grow 

 Mr. Urummond's celebrated seed-bearers ou " Gang 

 Warily " in Dolosbage. The top of the estate is 

 about 3,000 feet above sea-level, we btlieve, but it 

 is down in the hot climate and rich soil of the sides 

 of ravines, at an elevation of only eighteen hundred 

 feet that the cacaos specially flourish. So in Kawuda- 

 pelella, but we are bound to say that in Dumbara 

 and on Wariapolla, near Matale, nothing could be 

 fiuer or more luxuriant than cacao growing on com- 

 paratively flat land— with undulations sufhVent to 

 secure good drainage. The great requisite conditions 

 seem to be rich soil, almost perfect shelter, and, at 

 low elevatious at any rate, a certain amount of shade. 

 A tea estate, brilliant with its greeu and golden 

 expanse of foliage, spreading over hills and valleys, is 

 certainly pretty and pleasing, but for scenic effect there 

 is no comparison with groves of large warm-foliaged 

 cacaos, overtopped and shaded by noble forest trees. Of 

 course, the gathering and curing of the first involves 

 anxious labour and care, but thecultivation of well-esta- 

 blished cacao bushes requires so little work, neither 

 ' pruning nor handling being necessary, that we 1 :<■ 

 pressed our fears to onr ever-active friend, Mr. 

 thai some day he would be found, native faahinii, 

 sitting on his bankers and waiting for the falliug of 



