750 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May 1, 1886, 



misjudged the capabilities of Masiisu for tea pro- 

 duction, and that there is every prospect before them 

 of a successful future. 



In working this out it is their intention to avail 

 themselves of the latest improvements in mechanical 

 appliances, one of which promises to effect a very 

 considerable saving in the all important matter of 

 labor. Hitherto it has been the practise to carefully pick 

 the flushes, as the output of leaves to be harvesti.d 

 is called, by hand ; but a machine has been patented 

 which works on the principle of a wheat-header, and 

 travelling along the tops of trees, jjathers the leaves 

 rapidly and reduces the work of picking to a minimum.* 

 The rolling, sorting, drying, &c., is also done by 

 machinery, so that with the plantation once in full 

 yield the number of laborers required should not 

 constitute a heavy working charge. 



At present there are about 40 Polynesian laborers 

 on the estate, and work goes on with them with the 

 very smallest amount of friction. They are well treat- 

 ed and they have the sense to know it. That they 

 are well fed their appearance testifies;' that they are 

 well and comfortably housed a visit to their snugly- 

 built and trimly-ordered "lines" will prove, while 

 that proper provisions has beeu made for them in the 

 event of 6ickne.ss, appears in the spacious and cleanly 

 hospital, which, however, was empty at the time of 

 my visit. 



Besides these mentioned, the buildings on Jlasusu 

 are the homestead, a comfortable wooden structure 

 with native houses as adjuncts, and a large iron 

 erection, huilt in the year one ut the coffee era, but 

 found to be of the great service in the present, and 

 promising to be of even greater service in the futuru 

 tea time. I will not intrude upon the privacy of 

 the homestead further tlian to say that there is a 

 lady ho.stess whose presence and surroimdings contri- 

 bute a softer and higher tone than is generally charac- 

 teristic of plantation lite. 



I have already casually said that the soil is of 

 superior quality, strong, yet easily worked, and need 

 owl nothing to artificial fertilization during the natural 

 life of its proprietors. From the river banks to the 

 hill tops it is a deep, rich friable loam in which all 

 vegetable products, indigenous and imported, attain 

 a most satisfactory development. This was particularly 

 noticeable in the healthy look and Hourishing growth 

 of the food crops after the drought of tbi- late .sea- 

 son. AVith ."^uch advantages, as may be supposed, all 

 necessary supplies, fruit and vegetable, are obtainable 

 in profusion, and with fish and wild fowl from the 

 river, and an abundance of fresh milk, butter, eggs, 

 fee, from a well-stocked farm and poultry yanl, the 

 occupants of the Rlasusu homestead should tind their 

 lives cast in very pleasant places. If they do not, 

 they arc within an easy day's run of Levuka, and a 

 short change will soon reconcile them to th* ir country 

 life. 



DROUGHTS ANU WHAT KIND OF RETURNS 

 WOULD HE OF SERVICE TO TROPICA f. AGRI- 

 CULTURISTS. 



People liviug in a tropical countr_y, especially when 

 that country is alnio.st exclusively liependent upon 

 agriculture as a means of livelihood, must be continually 

 struck with the indispensable value of rain. It is 

 therefore with more than usual interest we are in- 

 clined to look upon the returns shewing the longest 

 periods of drought at various rainfall stations in Ceylon, 

 recently supplied by our courteous Sui vejor-General, 

 though we must say we have always cousiilered 

 the word "drought" has with us a wider meaning 

 than simply freedom from rain. For instance, the 

 most droughty year we can remember, after almost 

 thirty years' residence in Ceylon, was decidedly 188-1. 

 We do not say that rain was neccssanly less fre- 

 quent then, but that, »h(n it came, for a long time 



* Such a machine has been reported from America, 

 but no sane person, we suppose, believe in a leaf-picking 

 machine. — Pak 



the fall was in insufficient quantities to do any appreci- 

 able good. Coconut holes, after inches of rain had 

 fallen, remained dry a foot below the surface. The 

 dry months of February and March were followed 

 by a south-west monsoon, with an exceptionally low 

 rainfall; consequently in many districts it was not 

 until the north-east monsoon set in that the drought 

 of the land actually ceased. 



After a continuance of dry weather, it is very fre- 

 quently the case that a light shower falls, at least 

 light in comparison to what one would then require ; 

 consequently the drought is far from being at an end. 

 Rain is wanted for two chief purposes — first, to 

 maintain vegetation, and second, in a lesser degree 

 to supply drinking water in the wells and streams ; 

 so it is the effect it has in these two ways that it 

 benefits humanity; and in a hot climate, where 

 evaporation is more sudden, there is naturally a great- 

 er necessity for ample moisture. Thus it will be 

 seen that the practical effect of a so-called draught, 

 as shewn by the Surveyor-Oenerars tables, may be 

 quite different from what we should in a purely agricul- 

 tural sense denominate it. 



The moisture requisite for plants will always be in- 

 fluenced favorably or otherwise by sunshine and wind, 

 they being the chief producers of rapid evaporation, 

 so that a larger supply of moisture will be necessary 

 under the intiuence of sun and wind than in a cloudy 

 or quiet atmosphere. In looking through the Surveyor- 

 Oeueral's list and comparing it with our experience 

 of those droughts which for a long time affected 

 agricultm'e and wells, we do not find any very marked 

 similarity of results, and we can only ascertain these 

 by r&ference to the full returns, as usually published. 

 Simply as shewn, they merely indicate the longest 

 period without rain, which may after all be neither in- 

 jurious to moist vegetation, nor to mankind. It often 

 happens that for long periods only a few inches fall, 

 say, something under three inches a month, which 

 where unaided by irrigation, is synonymous with a 

 faliure of crop upon those cultivated plants of most 

 value to eultiv.'itors, except, as sometimes is the 

 case, near streams where the laud absorbs sufficient 

 moisture to retain the fertility of coconut and other 

 perennial plants. 



A table showing the continuance of droughts, 

 where the aggregate rainfall did not exceed 3 inches 

 a Tnouth, would be very interesting; especially in 

 those provinces the climate is such as to permit the 

 growth of our most valuable products, such as tea, 

 cefiee, cocoa, and coconuts. Cocoa is a plant re- 

 quiring, in addition to a rich soil, a fairly regular 

 rainfall niver falling short, for two months conse- 

 cutively, of tile three inches aggregate in a month. 

 Coconuts bear drought much longer, and woidd. in 

 ilee]). rich land stand the same teat for three or 

 four months without much injury. In a locality near 

 the sea, or upon alluvial flats where water can be 

 reached within eight to tea feet from the surface, it 

 is very ditlioult to say how long they would thrive 

 without rain — perhaps six or seven months — but this 

 wouhl altogether depend upon the degree of suitabil- 

 ity of the land upon which they were growing. Tea 

 is not, truly speaking, a tropical plant. JIanv on that 

 account consi<ler that its period of Ufe will not be 

 long in Ceylon ; others again assert that the only 

 way it can be maintained is by a yearly drought 

 necessitating a rest; yet we believe a continuance of 

 the less-than-three inches a month test, for longer 

 than three months, would cause it great injury. In 

 most parts of India tea undergoes yearly fully three 

 months' ilry weather, where probably a smaller rain- 

 fall than wu consider the minimum we can stand in 

 Ceylon is experienced ; but it must be remembered 

 that it is in a latitude fully 10 degrees further north 

 than Ceylon, and also where it is indigenous. Even 

 in our island we should doubt if a larger rainfall than 

 1:20 inches over the nine months, and, say, six inches 

 over the three dry mouths — in all 126 inelies— would 

 be auy advantage' to tea. It .seems to h>- the condi- 

 tiun of most plants in nature to have a period of dry 

 weather in each year, lasting from one to six months ; 



