January, 1912.] 



31 



Edible Products. 



rious district. He was, however, removed 

 before the works were finished, and the 

 completion had to be entrusted to 

 others, with unfortunate results. At 

 Tissamaharama, in Magam Pattu, more 

 storage was provided to meet the increas- 

 ing cultivation developed by the foster- 

 ing care of Mr. Colin Murray to whose 

 untiring interest and steady advocacy is 

 due much of the success in this locality. 



In the Eastern Province cultivation 

 continued to increase, and to meet the 

 wants of the energetic and pushing 

 cultivators of Batticaloa, additions had 

 to be made to the existing works. In 

 the Northern Province communal rules 

 for the better cultivation of paddy had 

 been agreed to and provided for the 

 completion of the cultivators in the 

 repair of village tanks. In addition 

 several of the more important at Vavu- 

 niya and elsewhere were restored by the 

 Board on the usual terms. 



A small but most useful concession 

 Was made by the Minute of 8th March, 

 1886, "according Government Agents 

 liberty in the course of the year to incur 

 expenditure not exceeding Rs. 1,000 on 

 such irrigation works in their respective 

 Provinces " without obtaining the 

 authority of Government in each case ; 

 but reporting to the Colonial Secretary. 

 This was continued under the P. I. B,, 

 but was discouraged, and any action 

 taken so criticized during the next re- 

 gime that it had to be abandoned, but 

 not till a lot of very useful work had 

 been done. 



With a view of bringing the important 

 districts of Sabragamuwa and Uva 

 more in direct touch with Govern- 

 ment, Sir A. Gordon declared them 

 "Provinces," controlled by Government 

 Agents corresponding direct with the 

 Colonial Secretary and Central Ir rigation 

 Board. The district of Kegalle was 

 attached to the Saragamuwa Agency. 



Daring Sir A. Gordon's reign the 

 satistical position of paddy was as fol- 

 lows : — 



Arable area 1890 about 690,000 acres; 



Maxim um area cultivated ti06,000, Crop 10 million bushels. 

 Minimum area cultivated 56-;,000 ,, 7*7. ,, „ 

 Average area cultivated 575,000 ,, 9 - 2 „ „ 



Notwithstanding this increase in pro- 

 duction the Grain revenue for the whole 

 Island fell to an average of Rs. 932,000 

 (1883-90) as against Rs. 1,040,000 during 

 the five years prior to the introduction 

 of compulsory commutation. 



(To be continued.) 



TROPICAL INDUSTRIES: 

 COFFEA ROBUST A. 



(Prom the Queensland Agricultural Jour- 

 nal, Vol. XXVII., Pt. 4, October, 1911.) 



Rubber planters in new tropical coun- 

 tries who have not had any experience 

 of rubber planting in older rubber dis- 

 tricts are much divided in opinion as 

 to the most suitable catch crop, which, 

 planted between the rows of rubber 

 trees, will serve the twofold purpose of 

 keeping down weeds and of giving some 

 annual return until the rubber trees 

 have arrived at the tapping stage. 

 Amongst the various crops grown for 

 these purposes are cotton, yams, sweet 

 potatoes, coffee, &c. Coffee appears to' 

 be much in favour in some rubber coun- 

 tries, and the variety Coffea robusta 

 would seem to be better for the purpose 

 than C. arabica or C. liberica. 



We have received from Mr. Stuart 

 R. Cope, London, an abstract Of a paper 

 on Coffea robusta which .was published 

 in the Agricultural News oj Barbados, 

 and we republish it, as the information 

 it furnishes on the subject will, we 

 think, be of great value to intending 

 and to already established planters in 

 Queensland. Mr. Cope's planting leaflet 

 says :— 



The following information is taken 

 from Dr. P. J. S. Cramer's paper on 

 Coffea robusta as an intercalary crop 

 with Para rubber, which appears in the 

 "Bulletin de la Societe Beige d'Etudes 

 Coloniales," for February, 1911, This 

 commences by referring to the origin of 

 Coffea robusta, which Dr. Cramer con- 

 siders to be identical with Coffea Lau- 

 rentii ; this species is as distinct from 

 Coffea arabica and Coffea liberica, as 

 these are different from one another, 

 and requires conditions quite other than 

 those needed by these for its proper 

 growth. In the history of the distri- 

 bution of the species, it was first 

 obtained from Brussels in 1900 for plant- 

 ing in the east and centre of Java, 

 where it was considered as a curiosity 

 until two years later, when its large 

 power of production came under observ- 

 ation. Since 1907 there has been a 

 great extension of the area of Coffea 

 robusta in Java ; the estimated area in 

 1907-8 was 5,000 acres, and in 1908-9 from 

 20,000 to 30,000 asres, and it is probable 

 that this estimate is below the actual 

 extension. No other kind of coffee is 

 being planted at present to any extent 

 in Java. 



Climate. 



Experiment in Java shows that this 

 coffee will flourish from sea-level to an 

 altitude of 3,000 ft. The best planta- 



