and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— April, 191&. 



365 



COFFEE GROWING IN MADAGASCAR. 



Coffeo-growing in Madagascar is beginning to 

 take an important place amongst the agricul- 

 tural industries of the island. In the Mananjary 

 district there are no fewer than twenty coffee- 

 growing estates, containing at least 700,000 

 plants, producing at the present time about 120 

 tons annually. It is estimated that the yield 

 from these plantations will in a few years' 

 time be increased to at least 500 tons. The 

 Liberian variety of coffee is chiefly grown in 

 Madagascar, but many planters are introducing 

 a quality resembling East Indian, with small 

 berries and thin husks. Madagascar coffee is 

 beginning to find a market in France, — R. S. 

 Arts Journal. 



THE COCONUT INDUSTRY ABROAD. 



The increased importance which products 

 of the coconut palm are attaining is evidenced 

 by the constant reference to them in foreign 

 journals. The February number of the Philip- 

 pine Agricultural Review contains a number of 

 interesting notes on various aspects of the in- 

 dustry. Until recently the bulk of the coco- 

 nuts produced in the American tropics was 

 shipped as nuts to New York, Boston, Balti- 

 more and New Orleans ; but now the making 

 of copra is being taken up, and artificial driers 

 are coming to be employed in its preparation. 



One of the largest of these driers has been es- 

 tablished at Georgetown, andis of the heated -air 

 instead of the steam type. It takes about 24 

 hours to dry a charge of the fresh kernel, and 

 to turn out about 1 ton of the finished pro- 

 duct for which the prices realised are said 

 to be rather better than for the best sun-dried 

 Philippine Copra, which is described as 

 "unsmoked and bone-dry." 



At present Jamaica is exporting about 12 mil- 

 lion raw nuts and Trinidad about 9 millions, the 

 total value of the coconut products of Tropical 

 America being about Pesos 4,000,000 per annum. 



It is believed that within the next three years 

 the output from the use of artificial driers will 

 materially reduce the export of nuts. The manu- 

 facture of coconut products has also begun in 

 the States. A factory has been opened at Port- 

 land for handling copra from the Philippine 

 and Pacific Islands. The chief product at pre- 

 sent is a vegetable butter called " Kaola." It 

 is a pure article, uncoloured by the yolks of eggs 

 or anatto, and containing no water to induce 

 rancidity, and its price is less than half that 

 of dairy butter. 



Bud-rot is reported to be playing havoc in 

 Cuba, where, according to Professor Earle, who 

 was specially deputed to investigate the disease 

 which is killing the palms, the industry is in 

 a parlous condition. He reports that the ex- 

 port of nuts from Baracos has dropped from 

 to 6 millions, (bat more than half the trues 



are dead, and that many more are affected ; 

 while the oil factory that worked day and night 

 now works only two days in the week. Whole 

 plantations are reported to have been com- 

 pletely destroyed. The President has offered 

 a reward of P60,000 for a cure. In this con- 

 nection the Philippine Review commends the 

 excellent work of Professor Copeland in check- 

 ing bud-rot in the Philippines, but for which, 

 it believes, the Islands might to-day be in the 

 same deplorable condition as Cuba. 



Beside bud-rot, the coconut is subject to 

 a goodly number of pests and diseases — the 

 squirrel, rat, coconut caterpillar, black beetle 

 and red weevil ; the stem-bleeding disease, 

 leaf disease and root disease — the last sup- 

 posed to be caused by a Botryodiplodia which 

 basdone great damage in Travancore. Ceylon 

 might well congratulate itself in so far having 

 escaped any serious loss from these pests and 

 diseases, and in having Messrs. Green and Petch 

 to assist in keeping them at bay. It is worth 

 noting that the ravages of red weevil, and to 

 some extent also the black beetle, can be mini- 

 mised by a simple device. This consists of 

 leaving a tree here and there to be tapped for 

 toddy which by its smell attracts the pests and 

 so facilitates their capture. 



FRUIT GROWING IN CEYLON. 



A NEGLECTED BUT POSSIBLE 

 INDUSTRY. 



A Sufficient Output not Available, 

 In June last tho Fruit Growing and Pre- 

 serving Co., Ltd., was incorporated in Ceylon 

 with a capital of R150,000. Since then consi- 

 derable interest has been awakened in the in- 

 dustry. Up to now the fruit which has mostly 

 attracted the attention of the Co. has been the 

 pineapple, The plant for preserving and can- 

 ning has been installed, but much progress has 

 not been made because of the small quantity of 

 fruit available and the high prices demanded. 

 The pineapple is a plant of the cactus kind 

 and saps the best part of the soil, so it is not 

 popular as a subsidiary crop. Before rubber 

 was introduced the pine was grown largely 

 and in some parts of the Southern Province, the 

 Kalutara district and in the North- Western 

 Province it 



FLOURISHED EXCEEDINGLY. 



Since then, the cultivation seems to be dying 

 away, and a fruit which could have been bought 

 for 5 cents or less about five years ago, cannot 

 now be bought for even five times that value Mr 

 A D MacHalfie, of Messrs. Geo. Robson & Co. 

 (who are the Co's Agents) and who is acting, 

 for Mr Harry Martin, as Manager of the firm 

 in conversation with a representative of the 

 Observer to-day, stated that great difficulty had 

 been experienced in getting a sufficient supply 

 of fruits to carry on the industry of preserving 

 and canning. Hence the results during the 

 seven months ending December 31, 1911, had 

 been far from satisfactory. Fancy prices were de- 

 manded and the supply was exceedingly limited, 



