T J I K A a R I V LI L T URAL J OU RNA L. 28;5 



Coast Fruit. 



THE BAMBOO AND ITri USES. 



INTERVIEW WITH MR. H. W. JAMES. 



By ErgATBS." 



ME. Henry W. James is one of the most 

 successful fruit growers on tlie 

 Coast. He has an enthusiastic belief in 

 the industry, and the more prosperous 

 growers he could see, the better he would 

 be pleased. Mr. James came to Natal 

 in 1860. His reminiscences of the 

 early days in the Colony, and of the old 

 colonists are immensely interesting and 

 diverting, but unfortunately the relating 

 of them does not come within my scope. 

 From 1863 to 1894 he was the Govern- 

 ment Superintendent of roads for Victoria 

 County. In 18G4 he bought his farm— 

 " Zwolle " — one of the Bryne grants, 

 and about four miles from Verulam. 

 While in the Government service his 

 farm was managed by a brother-in-law. 

 Mr. James' experiments at first were not 

 happy. He started with fifty acres of 

 coffee, and after having one very good 

 crop there came a succession of very dry 

 seasons and no crop.s, and then came the 

 "borer," and a few years later, to cap all, 

 the "leaf disease" made its appearance. 

 Mr. James believes that the climate of 

 Natal is too dry, and that the altitude of 

 the Coast land is not sufficient for coffee 

 growing. At present he keeps only 

 enough trees to provide the wants of his 

 own house. Cotton was then tried, about 

 60 acres being put in. It did well, and 

 as the price, owing to the American seces- 

 sion Avar, was high, the prospects were en- 

 couraging. Then came labour difficul- 

 ties. About sixty people for picking 

 were absolutely neeessarv, but on the 

 opening of the Diamond Fields the lalionr 

 — Basutos at 7s. per month — disappeared. 

 Then sugar was tried, the Umhloti Cen- 

 tral Mill having been built-, but the re- 

 sults were unsatisfactory. 



NAAnT.FES AND JMANDAmNS. 



"Meanwhile,'' to use Mr. James' own 

 words, "I -had planted a couple of hun- 

 dred naartje and mandarin trees, and 



every succeeding year I planted more, in- 

 cluding mangoes and other fruit trees. I 

 was then, and am now, even more 

 impressed with the wisdom of Sir Walter 

 Scott's character , who said, 'And, Jock, 

 when you have naething to do be aye 

 pittin' in a tree ; it will be growin' while 

 you're sleepin' ! ' I first saw money in 

 fruit when I realised £90 from the crop 

 of the little patch of the 200 trees I first 

 put in. 



The Soil. 

 The soil of the hillsides on which were 

 planted the orchards I noticjd was a rich 

 chocolate in colour, loamy in texture, and 

 generally about two or three feet thick, the 

 substratum being friable shale. T'he 

 soil, Mr. James informed me, suited all 

 the citrus family splendidly. 



Eaising Young Trees. 



'T raise," said Mr. James, "from seed. 

 It is not uncommon, however, in Natal to 

 graft OM the lemon. Why they do this I 

 don't know. According to my experience, 

 and from what I have seen, naartje trees 

 from lemon stocks do not become half 

 the size of those raised from seed, and 

 they give very poor crops ; as I have 

 heard men say, 'you can put the crop of 

 a tree into your hat ! ' Some five years 

 age I wrote to the Director of Kew Gar- 

 dens for information on the subject. He 

 said he had no personal knowledge, but 

 he referred me to one who was held to 

 l)e tlie highest authorit}' on the question. 

 I wrote, and this eminent authority re- 

 plied, 'Graft on lemon stocks.' We En- 

 glish are terrible at running in grooves. 

 The naartje grown from lemon stocks 

 I admit is bigger and finer looking, but 

 then it is comparatively tasteless, and, 

 worst of all from ffhe grower's point of 

 view, the crop is only a fourth of that 

 from a seedling tree. I hold from ex- 

 perience and observation that the lemon 



