and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



83 



But, ray point Dr. Willis fails to take up, 

 viz., that his approval of tapping young trees 

 is being used to uphold the tapping of sapling 

 rubbers, 3 years old, which is detrimental to the 

 interests of our industry. Messrs. Lee Hedges 

 & Co. are quite in their rights to make use 

 of Dr. Willis's approval of their system, but he 

 should not allow it to be used unless strictly 

 as he meant it. While writing, I may also allude 

 to another point. The Director, as Editor of 

 The Tropical Agriculturist, has stated that there 

 is" practically nothing new to write about coco- 

 nut cultivation ! May I give him a suggestion? 

 Tell us about coconut manuring ; the literature 

 on that point is not exhaustive. I was only 

 recently discussing the matter with a friend, 

 and our discussion on the right methods of 

 manuring coconuts would have made an inter- 

 esting article. But your space is limited. — 

 Yours truly, 



HERRING BONES. 



LATEST ON COCONUT PLANTING. 



The veteran Mr. W. H. Wright of Mirigama 

 now 88 years of age, whose coconut property 

 is a model of its kind and who usually picks 

 an average of 110,000 to 115,000 nuts per month, 

 told us some days ago he is only picking 50,000 

 per month at present ; and that crops are short 

 all over the island. At Veyangoda the dessica- 

 ting mills have had a temporary cessation of 

 work for want of nuts, sellers preferring to 

 sell the copra at present prices. Mr. Wright 

 picks twelve crops a year : six small ones 

 from November to April, and six larger from 

 May to October. — He has just now some fine 

 shows of blossom on his Brazil Nut and 

 English (eating) Chestnut trees, promising 

 fruit before long. 



Matara, Telijjawila, Dec. 17th. 

 Dear Sir,— The information about coconuts 

 from Mirigama is interesting. Short crops seem 

 to be universal, but I think there was an im- 

 provement this year compared to the crops in 

 1906. Twelve crops a year are not known in 

 this district— six being the usual number, of 

 which those in May and July are the biggest. 

 They are about three times the number plucked 

 in the first and last crops of the year. There are 

 signs of good crops in 1909, due, of course, to 

 the very favourable weather we have been 

 having. — Yours faithfully, 



JAS. A. WICKREMERATNE. 



II. 



Marawila, Dec. 16th. 



Dear Sir, — The November number of the 

 Tropical Agriculturist reminds me of the old 

 issues before it degenerated into a rubber jour- 

 nal. There are in it many valuable articles 

 which I commend to the close study of coco- 

 nut planters. I refer to the very valuable and 

 practical articles on pages 457-469. 



The statement, " It is a well-known fact that 

 a soil on which plants are growing, loses much 

 more water by evaporation than does a bare 

 soil," reminded me very forcibly of my valued 



friend the late William Jardine, who consis- 

 tently asserted that coconut estates will be all 

 the better for being free of grass and herbage. 

 Of course, this is not practicable, as cattle are 

 an essential of coconut estates. But this can 

 with advantage be carried out on new clearings, 

 where absence of a good pasturage will not 

 attract cattle as greatly as now. What has Mr. 

 Carruthers to say to this? 



Some of the coconut estates that suffered 

 greatly from the drought had a thick carpet of 

 rank grass growing on them. If this had 

 been clean weeded, the soil would have bene- 

 fited greatly by the stirring it would have 

 received, however slight it might have been, and 

 the trees, from the mulch of grass which could 

 have been placed in a circle round them. 



The Government should have printed in the 

 vernaculars the article on " Leaf manuring in 

 South Canara " and circulated broadcast all 

 the island over. Perhaps it is not so necessary 

 in the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern 

 Provinces as in the other provinces. As far as 

 my observation has gone, in those provinces the 

 careful and intelligent cultivation one notices 

 amongst the ryots in Southern India, is prac- 

 tised by their Tamil brethren with whom they 

 are closely allied. No vegetable matter, no 

 garden sweepings, no cadjans from the roofs 

 and fences is allowed to go to waste or is burnt. 

 Everything goes to the manure heap, and 

 eventually to the fields. The Sinhalese goiya 

 never does that. He has always dirt in the 

 wrong place. Agricultural Instructors can be use- 

 fully employed travelling about the country and 

 giving plain, practical lectures on paddy culti- 

 vation. Mr Milne, in the article on "Conser- 

 vation of soil moisture," has a good word to say 

 for the native plough. It must be understood 

 that the Indian plough is a far more effec- 

 tive implement than the Sinhalese plough. 

 Both are practically "cultivators,'' but the 

 former, being broader, does more econo- 

 mical work. A great waste of power is 

 involved in the use of the Sinhalese plough, 

 which stirs the soil along to the width of a 

 couple of inches. As is suggested in the article, 

 a harrow or cultivator might usefully replace 

 the Sinhalese plough. One something like this 

 rough sketch will be useful and not too heavy. 



4 The dots will represent the tines 

 and the dotted lines the course 

 they will take. As will be seen, all 

 the ground between the lines at 

 the base of the triangle will be bro- 

 ken up. The cultivator need not 

 be more than 9 or 12 inches wide. 

 — Yours faithfully, 



B. 



CITRONELLA AND OTHER GRASS OSLS 



We gather from the interesting circular on 

 citronella oil, &c, by Mr. J. P. Jowitt, b.a., that 

 the patana and abandoned plantations , in the 

 Morawakkorale are admirably adapted for the 

 cultivation of oil grasses. Haputale is too dry ; 

 but Mr. Abbot of Malabar says: -"lOOoz. of 

 oil per acre at 8d an oz. pays handsomely as it 

 can be turned out for 2d. Even at 3Jd an oz. it 

 pays." I fancy Morawakkorale has" a better 

 climate for oil-producing grasses than Malabar, 



