and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— February, 1912, 175 



sible for insurrections in two colonies recently. 

 • Under one A rl ministration every native un- 

 contracted is liable to arrest. In another the 

 planter raerelv orders so muny labourers 

 through the Government which instructs the 

 chiels to supply forthwith the reauisite number 

 of employees. Under such systems of adminis- 

 tration the prosperous conditions which prevail 

 in the Gold Coast are well-nigh impossible. In 

 spite of these and other practices the supply of 

 labour is inadequate and efforts are made to im- 

 port labourers from other colonies. In some 

 narts of French Congo an admirable system of 

 labour-transfer is in vogue. The labourers are 

 contracted from one part of the colony to 

 another on yearly contracts at 15/- per month 

 with board and lodging. The process is under 

 Government supervision, which if it errs at all 

 is on the side of the labourer. For this super- 

 vison the employer pays the Government 

 5 francs per head and 1 franc for the contract. 



San Thome purlers more than any other colony 

 from the lack of labour, for there are practically 

 no indigenous natives, and the Portuguese ad- 

 ministration has in the past made the fatal 

 blunder of supplying tf'e island with " contract' 

 as opposed to " potential citizens" labour. In 

 the islands of San Thome and Principe there 

 are over 2,000 European overseers and gangers 

 employed on th^ cocoa estates — for no gang is 

 allowed to work without white supervieion — 

 the cost of which must make serious inroads 

 in the profits of the cocoa planters. 



GROWING ORANGES. 



WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT. 



We are led to write some notes on fruit grow- 

 ing, Oranges in particular, by a letter which 

 has come to hand from an up-country corres- 

 pondent who writes as follows : — 



" Gampola.— Will the author of ' Gardening 

 Notes'* kindly inform me through the medium of 

 your incomparable columns," whether it is 

 advisable to bare the roots of young orange 

 trees, say, eight years old, to force the trees to 

 bear ; and whether this is the time to do it ? 

 Their backwardness being due probably to 

 shade (now removed) and deposit of soil cover- 

 ing the roots for some inches. The soil is still 

 gravel and clayey; elevation 1,800ft., rainfall, say, 

 120 inches." 



This leads to some interesting points ; and we 

 w ; ll endeavour first of all to answer our cor- 

 respondent, and then add some general 



Notes on the Cultivation op Oranges 

 which may be of use to many readers. Oranges 

 should do fairly well at 1,800 ft, but the rainfall 

 of 120 inches is rather against them. Did Gam- 

 pola get l2i> inches in 1910— and 1911— and will 

 he this year ? OrangeSjlike a'dry climate, and one 

 which gives them a regular and pronounced 

 "wintering"or "resting" period. Certainly we get 

 very good thick-skinned green oranges in Ceylon 



* Published in the "Ceylon Observer." 



grown in the lowcountry, and good ones also 

 grow at high elevations ; but it is very difficult 

 to grow yellow oranges successfully here. 



Root Pruning. 



It is well-known that many plants and trees 

 which are shy fruit- producers will bear abun- 

 dantly f6r, a season if they receive some severe 

 shock to the system, such as beating and 

 damaging the branches and foliage, or distur- 

 bing and cutting the roots. 8uch a practice 

 is, however, very drastic, and is not one to be 

 lightly resorted to. 



The practice of removing the soil around 

 the tree and laying bare the roots for a time is 

 sometimes resorted to in the case of the Orange. 

 If this is to be done the present is the season 

 for doing it. 



The Treatment 



should be as follows : — At the beginning of the 

 dry season stop watering the Orange trees, and 

 let them >lry up, then open up the soil around 

 the tree exposing the roots for three or four 

 weeks. Over these roots make a heavy appli- 

 cation of old, well rotted cattle manure, with a 

 little lime, and some potash manure if pro- 

 curable. This manuring must be plentiful, 

 covering the roots all over by some three inches. 

 Cover over again with fresh soil. If artificial 

 watering can be done, the trees may then be 

 watered freely, but otherwise arrange for this to 

 be finished at about the commencement of the 

 monsoon rains. 



The Effect 



of layiug bare the roots, and the cutting of the 

 young fibrous feeding-roots, is to cause the tree 

 to go into an artificial wintering aud all the 

 leaves drop off. As soon as water is applied the 

 tree awakes to vigorous growth and activity ; 

 fresh foliage grows all over, and a good blossom- 

 ing should follow, with a resultant crop of fine 

 oranges. 



The Flowering 

 comes on about June, and the fruit should be 

 ripe in eight to ten months. 



[If our correspondent treats his trees in this 

 way, no doubt he will get a good crop of fruit, 

 and when ripe next year we trust he won't forget 

 the author of Gardening Notes !] 



Orange Cultivation. 



As a general rule it may be taken that the 

 Orange will not grow really well and fruit suc- 

 cessfully on its own roots; it has to be 'budded.' 

 That is a bud of a good Orange is made to grow 

 on a stock of a Citron or Sweet Lime — just as 

 most good Roses have to be budded on a wild 

 briar stock. 



In Ceylon, it is not easy to get good budded 

 Oranges, but no doubt the Agricultural Society's 

 Secretary will procure them, or one of the Ceylon 

 florists, or they can be imported from India or 

 Western Australia, where magnificent Oranges 

 are grown. In India good budded plants can be 

 purchased at about Rs. 25 per 100 for selected 

 plants. When they are planted you must see tliat 

 the stock, that is the lime plant, does not throw 

 out its own growth, and deprive the Orange bud 



