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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[July i, 1885. 



COFFEE IN OOORG. 



Mhrcaea, May 10th.— In the year 187G, the prospects i.f 

 coffee planters were at their best, a magnificent crop had 

 been gathered, and above a hundred pounds uett had been 

 realized, which placed planters as a rule free of their London 

 firm, or advancing agents ; coffee then was realizing 30 per 

 cent upon the money invested. A pack of fox hounds 

 was imported, more land was recklessly taken up, loans were 

 pressed upon borrowers: in fact at that moment coffee 

 was lord of all things. In the August of that year, the coffee 

 trees presented a superb appearance, with their healthy 

 look and vigorous show of crop, but when they ripened in 

 November, a terrible crisis was at hand, which changed the 

 aspect of affairs, as completely, ag a sudden squall obscures 

 a placid sky — upon the unmanured, and unskilfully 

 worked estates lying west of Jlercara and which then were 

 the bulk of the whole, a terrible reckoning was at hand — 

 the whole of the crop failed, in so far that outwardly it 

 was perfect to the vision, but there were no berries or beans 

 inside, it was all light, one of the planters, clever and 

 practical, who had then 800 acres in full bearing, assured 

 me on one occasion in that terrible year, he permitted 700 

 bushels of ripe berries, (that would have given him 4^ tons 

 of coffee ordinarily) to pass unpulped away to his manure 

 heap. Then, he amongst others, who had reckoned upon 

 retiring, said that prospects were blasted: money had to be 

 borrowed, estates mortgaged ; whilst others, the blow 

 struck so grievously, that they never recovered, but sunk 

 under it, notably our two * coffee kings ' who at one time 

 owned between them nearly all the best estates. Since 

 then, no man has been able to stand in their shoes. In 

 south Coorg, or the Bamboo «s it is locally termed, matters 

 had turned out most favorably, there was nothing wrong 

 with the crops : low-lying, feverish, impure water, shortness 

 of labor, it offered few inducements for planters, as long as 

 the healthy European climate of the ghat paid so hand- 

 somely — it was now that covetous eyes were turned upon 

 this rich bamboo land, with its thich black soil, on gentle 

 slopes ; and coffee estates sprang up upon all sides, worked 

 in many cases with money borrowed from the old ghat 

 estates which in 1877 was a year of plenty. — Madras 

 Standard, May 1.5th. 



A CDRIOUS phenomenon is reported from somo of 

 the vineyards in the province of Malaga. According 

 to Spanish papers, plants attacked by the phylloxera 

 and given up as pi actically dead have begun to show 

 marked symptons of vitality, due, it is believed in 

 the localities, to the destruction of the insect by 

 gases, or electrical conditions cons quentjon the earth- 

 quakes in that dislviat. — Ovc-land Mail. 



Market Gardening on the Hills. — A corre- 

 spondent writes: — "Itbought of 'market gardening' 

 long before your other correspondent did, but the 

 fact is as most of the gardeners here will tell you 

 it does not pay to send vegetables to Colombo. Perera, 

 the most extensive market gardener, has told me 

 even although he had a contract to supply the 

 P. & O. steamers, it nearly ruined him, and he had 

 to give it up. Now that there is a railway from 

 Nanuoya, it might, pay : the diltioulty is the getting 

 in the money, so many of the natives «ire such r.iscals 

 in their dealings with each other. It might pay one 

 European to send to another European in Colombo, 

 but the Government would require to carry vegetables at 

 very low rates, and rturu the hampers free of charge, 

 and I am not awareethat they have even thought as 

 yet of doing so. The; Colombo market always seems 

 to me to be full of locally grown vegetables of good 

 kinds, only the servants won't apparently buy them 

 for their masters or cannot cook thorn so as to please 

 European palates when they get them, " If such 

 tomatoes as those a friend has sent us from a- Ud 

 pussellawa could bo regularly supplied to Colombo, 

 there ought to be a good deniand, as also for cabb.Tges, 

 peas, (See. The way would bo to register so many 

 regular customers among Steam Companies and 

 Colombo housoholders, 



f CoFi-EE IX MidDimbula.— An old planter writies : 

 I — " Do you recollect criticizing this place un- 

 ! favourably in your paper in 1879? I think you 

 ' rather made a mistake then, and, if you could see 

 this year's crop (in spite of leaf-disease and grub) on 

 the old place I almost believe you would think so 

 too ! According to Mr. Hughes' analysis of soil, this 

 place was to ' go out ' or something of that kind and 

 other places were to flourish, some of them even 

 without manure ; but, alas, for the frailty of th«8« 

 scientilie cards .'—exactly the reverse has been the 

 case. Trusting we will yet have the pleasure of 

 seeing the Railway (for which you have fought so 

 long and so well) advancing towards Uva." We are 

 very glad indeed to hear such good accounts now of 

 Mousa Ella, and hope it may flourish for a hundred 

 years. Would that many more or all Dimbula 

 planters could say the same of a good prospect of 

 fine crops. 



Moisture ik Tea. — The percentages given in con- 

 nection with tea-drying were a little mixed. Taking 

 the fact that 4 lb. of green leaf yield 1 lb. of 



dry tea, we would put the ratio as follows : 



Weights : Green leaf, 4 lb. ; after rolling, 2i lb. ; dried, 

 1 lb. This is based on the assumption that on an 

 average 60 per cent of the weight of rolled tea is dissip- 

 ated as moisture in drying, so that on an average a roll- 

 ing which weighs 2.J lb. gives 1 lb. dry tea ; but 1 lb. 

 dry tea on the average requires 4 lb. green leaf, and 

 therefore 41b. green leaf after being withered and rolled, 

 on an average gives a weight of '21 lb. The percentage 

 of the green leaf, therefore, which is dissipated, on the 

 average, is as nearly as possible 40 per cent. But 

 direct experiments ought to be made in order to 

 settle all doubt : it would certaiuly seem that more 

 moisture ought to be dissipated in the drying than 

 in the withering and rolling ; and herefore probably 

 Mr. Armstrong's estimate of 00 per cent of the roll 

 being moisture may be the nearest. This would give 

 nearly 3 lb. as the weight of the roll making the pro- 

 portional weights : — 



Green leaf. After withering on After 

 the roll. drying. 



4 lb. 3 lb. 1 lb. 



(25 p. c. dissipated.) (GCJ p. c. dissipated ) 



RiiEA FiURE. — Even as the nearly ruined cofTee- 

 planters of Ceylon found salvation at the last moment 

 in cinchona and tea cultivation, bo, perhaps, may 

 the unfortunate gold-seekers of South of India save 

 something by growing rhea grass on their estates, 

 Owiug to recent improvements in the machinery for 

 separating the fibre, this industry promises to prove 

 very remunerative. The main difliculty, indeed, is 

 in finding localities where the soil and climate suit 

 the plant. A supply of cheap labour is also necessary, 

 and as all these requisites exist in the Wynaad and 

 adjacent districts, it requires nothing but capit.il 

 and -enterprise to make a start. According to the 

 calculations of Mr. W. G. Kemp, each properly cult- 

 ivated acre should yield a net profit of £S 33. Id. 

 per annum. This includes all working charges from 

 planting until the prepared fibre is placed on board 

 ship. A farm of 1,000 acres would, therefore, re- 

 turn £8,154 38. 4d. as interest on the capital sunk 

 in buildings and machinery. These estimates are 

 m-ade on the assumption that each acre would yield 

 10 owt. of the fibre per annum, but Mr. Kemp is of 

 opinion that the out-turn might be doubled by careful 

 planting and manipulation. Even, however, as matters 

 stand it would appear that a handsome profit awaits 

 those who are the first to enter this promising field of 

 industry. The pioneers in cinchona cultivation realized 

 huge profits before the market value of the article was 

 depreciated by augmented production. — Q/oU; 



