390 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885, 



" experimentally " as to the cause of the deterior- 

 ation of the coffee bean. I imagine the large majority 

 of the AVynaad men were weeping and waihug and 

 gnashing their teetli. but doing nothing, and he, with 

 others, is doing his bust to pull them together. 



Ceylon or Indian, we are all of one blood, and it 

 only needs earnest and sensible men like an •' I. T. 'and Mr. 

 .lowitl to remind their brothers in affliction, that they are 

 Englishmen, for them like the chivalrous knight of old, 



"To fight the light" 



"Though e'er the night" 



" Their ' toUams ' pass away." 



5th August. M. V. - 



Another correspondent writes as follows:- — 



Sir, — The \\'ynaad Planters' Association, in bringing 

 forward the very important subject of the deterior- 

 ation of their coffee beau, may perhaps fiud some 

 cousolatiou in the fact (although it seems hard to 

 say so) that the other districts of the country could 

 tell much about the same tale. I find from parti- 

 culars of London coffee s.ales for the past two years 

 that coffee from all the planting ceuties of Southern 

 India has been reported upon as more or less poor 

 in quality — not excepting even Mysore, if we leave out 

 Oanuon's and one or two other standard brands, the 

 remarkable prices paid for which no fellow can under- 

 stand, especially when Shakespeare says "what's iu a 

 name? " And ]i, I. coffee, while being generally poorer 

 in quality, is iu itself nut solely to blame, because 

 all medium to good middling qualities have suffered 

 from undue depression, while fancy prices have been 

 paid for a few choice lots of particular boldness and 

 color. The last two months have witnessed a consider- 

 able turn for the better, and a rise in the prices of 

 our B. and A. qualities of 10s. to 15s.. and they are 

 again. I find, taking the lead of M. T. Oeylon. This 

 is as it should be. A good sound coft'ee. although | 

 lacking somewhat in color, will geuerjilly find its level — | 

 and what I would say iu the matter in this " Don't ; 

 despair." A\'e shall yet have Pulney days. I have read 

 with interest the several and various theories put ■ 

 forward by numerous correspoudeuts in your columns ' 

 regarding the deterioration, or want of color, in the 

 bean, and as a practical planter I can't say there 

 secims to me much to be learnt in these days about 

 the curing either on the estate or the coast — if there 

 were, the logical deiluction would be that during the 

 last two seasons every planter and every Coast Agent 

 had been careless in their curing — a palpable absurd- 

 ity. I should say it is something iu the seasons, and 

 it would not be a bad idea for our omniscient Gov- 

 ernment to import a special I\Ieteorological Reporter 

 for the benefit of the planting communiti, now they 

 have a craze on that way ! Combined with topsy- 

 turvey season.^, I thiuk there is one point — and a 

 very material one — that seems to liave been either 

 entirely lost sight of— or but barely aliiuled to, and 

 that is, what do the majority of planters now spend 

 per acre oi; their properties ? ' It used to be nothing 

 i<nder 10(1 Ks. as a rule; then 80 Rs., and now 

 it has come down to, well goodness knows what. I 

 hear some parties who have had a large experience 

 in the industry expect estates to be worked on 

 l!4n per acre ! And so we go on, — wo shall be lauding 

 into the twenties eventually— and then I should think 

 the cry will be, not Where's the color and quality, 

 but where's the bean y 



As far as AA'ynaad and the Nilgiris are concerned 

 too, I am presu,aded that the gold mining mania of a 

 few years back has much to answer for. Many a 

 poor coffee bush could tell a tale of lliotc days. 

 A\'hy, of what value was cott'ee if you could oidy prove 

 that you had a gohl r<^cf or two under ground, not 

 to mention a tr/w Ji.tstur rein '.' AVas not every one 

 hastening to be rich with gangs of estate coolies delv- 

 ing hito the bowels of the earth all over the coimtry, 

 .and besides the prospective lakhs, was not all tlic 

 talk about the "dip" and "strike" of one's reefs' 

 I don't forget that grand stalking hor.se " leaf dis- 

 ease" it is so convenient to trot out and put all the 

 blamo ou. It is an insidious disease and does its 

 work Btealthily, but you will find it delights to revel 



in neglected plantations and, like all diseases, may 

 be expected to attack our enfeebled constitution first. 

 It has been, and always will be, I hope, of little 



consequence on well-cultivated and manured estates 



with rare exceptions. I am alluding to .Southern 

 India, solely, I may add not to Ceylon. I don't want 

 a Ceylon man to vent his spleen on me. The con- 

 ditions in the exi.stence of coffee have always been 

 different iu that far-famed spot of the earth, I main- 

 tain. Coffee wants a dry season to give the tree a 

 rest, winter in, harden its wood, force out blossom, 

 and free it, or the soil from fungoid and parasitical 

 growths, such as leaf disease for instauee. It is a 

 wonder to me coffee has lasted so long in Ceylon, 

 with its all-the-year-round moist climate. I fear few 

 coffee planters in Southern India realise what a bless- 

 ing our dry season is, because, unhappily, it often 

 lasts too long. I don't think the AVynaad Planters' 

 Association can be congratulated on the wording of 

 some of their queries, which is a pity. For instance, 

 it said " and variably fetches a lower price, compared 

 with that of other districts, thair it did iu fromer 

 years." I have said at the outset of this letter enough 

 to show that other districts have also suffered, and 

 if it would not be that I should be taking up too 

 much of your space, I could fill in a huge column 

 of prices from Mysore down to Cape Comorin for 

 comparison; and I am much surprized to fiud that the 

 Association should apparently be ignorant of the fact 

 that coffee produced on the Travancore Hills — about 

 Permaad — is invariably the lowest type of coffee 

 produced in India, if I am to judge from the prices 

 it alw.ays sells at. And surely one would have ex- 

 l^ected them to know that there are still estates in 

 "Wynaad that can show a record of good prices even 

 in these days. While the older districts in "Wynaad 

 in the open seem to have about had their day, 

 there are several promising young districts sprung up 

 protected by shade. One wonders rather at the Associ- 

 ation damning its district with such faint praise. 

 Surely, with a favorable situation, good soil, and 

 careful cultivation, coffee yet does and will yet do 

 as well as ever it did, but for, say, an occasional 

 attack of leaf-disease, or a bad season. Leaf-disease, 

 I think, we must expect nrore or less of at times, 

 but according to the degree we cultivate will be 

 determined the extent and damage of the attack. I 

 can't believe, myself, that there is any deterioration 

 in the coffee tree as such: for the sitnple reason that 

 seed is alwys picked from the robust and healthy 

 trees, and although it is quite right to say that, 

 this, it can scarcely be believed has always been 

 carried out; yet e%'en if it be allowed that seed has 

 been picked from poor trees too, it can scarcely 

 amount to any argument in support of a deterior- 

 ation iu the tree in general. 



Before closing, I would also state my belief that 

 shade under 4,000 feet does seem generally to improve 

 both the size and colour of the bean. From my o^m 

 experience on two properties adjoining each other — 

 one under shade, the other in the open — the one 

 under shade does better, both in colour and size. 

 But both quality and colour depend, I thiuk, a good 

 deal upon whether you have a heavy crop, a medimn 

 one, or a light one. The coffee crop of South C'oorg 

 of 1884-85 was a heavy one, and prices, as a ride, 

 were very low, quite as low as AVynaad coffees. The 

 crop of season 1SS5-86 — just past — was a light one, 

 an<l has getu'rally been well reported on for tjuality and 

 colour, .and has fetched wonderfully good prices generally. 

 Take Naiduvuttum coffee — the synonym for the Ouch- 

 terlony valley. Their crops for the past two seasons 

 have not been large ones, and their jirices corre- 

 spondingly good, but two seasons b.ack, I remember, 

 when they had rather a he.avy crop — the general 

 rnu of their prices was much lower. 

 Nilgiris, 31st July. Anon. 



♦ 



A Mic.v MiN'i'., from which sheets twenty feet in 

 width are taken, is said to have been discovered about 

 ninety miles from Virginia City, Nevada. — American 

 Grocer. 



