and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



91 



prevailed, cocoa rivalled rubberasone of the two 

 chief articles of exporc from Para. The yield 

 varied greatly in different years, and the fluctu- 

 ations of price did not follow the abundance or 

 scarcity of the crop. From figures supplied by a 

 former United States Consul in Para we find 

 that in 1856 58 the cocoa yield of the Para dis- 

 trict was as follows : — 



Weight of Cocoa Exports. 



lb. £. 



185C .. 1,343,136 99,247 



1857 .. 7,428,48 J .2 8,926 



1858 .. —a vigors 

 a Not stated. 



Beside the figures of today these figures show 

 that practically no development of cocoa raising 

 has taken placo during the last half-century. 

 With the growth of the rubber trade and the 

 yearly widening area of search for the Hevea 

 and kindred milk-yielding trees nothing has 

 been attempted to put agriculture, the basis of 

 all sound development, on a healthy footing The 

 following table, giving the apparent shipments 

 of cocoa from Para during recent years, has been 

 compiled from unofficial sources : — 

 Cocoa Exports via Paha. 



Total Total. 

 Metric tons. Motric tons. 



1902 .. 4,411 I 1905 .. J,2t5 



1903 .. 5,125 1)00 ... 2,152 



1904 .. 5,191 I 1907 .. *,501 

 Note,— Product of the two States of Amazonas anil Para. 



The cocoa shipped in 1907 came in the follow- 

 ing proportions from the two States : — 



Tons. £ 



Para .. 2,025 131,273 



Amazonas . . 876 43,810 



Total .. 3,501 175,(1^3 



Note.— The value is calculated at an exchange of Is 

 3 5-32d. 



Of this total 2,639 tons were exported to Eu- 

 rope (almost all to France) and 862 tons were 

 exported to the United States. Of the 

 cocoa from the State of Amazonas 96 tons 

 were shipped at Manaos and 780 tons at 

 Itacoaciara or (Serpa). In Ainazonaa the cocoa 

 crop is very much smaller than in the State of 

 Para, and the aunual shipments from Manaos 

 are insignificant, almost all the cocoa from this 

 State being shipped from Serpa to Para. This 

 is not due to the absence of cocoa trees in 

 Amazonas, for in the report on the State of 

 Amazonas compiled by the late Mr Vice-Consul 

 Temple in 1900 (No. 530 Miscellaneous) he shows 

 that the plant grows extremely well, and in many 

 places wild, and that the little attention paid 

 to it is due to the want of labour. 



GREEN MANURING IN SOUTH INDIA. 



Tinnevelly Bridge, Nov. 29.— Today a deputa- 

 tion metH.E. Sir A. Lawley on various settle- 

 ment questions. . . . The Deputation urged 

 that the Forest Department should grow " kol- 

 ingi " (wild indigo) and avarai on the forests, 

 in the plains, and on the hills, and supply them 

 to the raiyats at a nominal fee, and should 

 give the raiyats licenses to cultivate these, and 

 similar manure-yielding trees in forest areas, 

 subject to the necessary restrictions. It was 

 pointed out to the Deputation that the Forest 

 Department was already making experiments 

 in growing shrubs for supplying manure leaves, 

 but the Deputation urged that the oxperimonst 



should bo carried out neap the, foot of the hills, 

 either by the raiyats or "ny^lna Forest 'depart- 

 ment. His Excellency aakert the Eittiiot Forest 

 Officer to endeavour to meet this request. One 

 of the members of the Deputation offered to 

 supply the District Forest Officer with some wild 

 indigo seeds for the purpose. — Madras Times. 



THE BURNING OF PRUN1NGS. 



INSTEAD OF MIXING WITH LIME AND 

 BURYING. 

 Mr. John Hughes, f. i. c. — who is Agricul- 

 tural Analyst for Herefordshire— writes from his 

 Analytical Laboratory, 79, Mark Lane, London, 

 E.C., under date December 10th, 1908 :— 



"In the Overland Observer Nov. 13th, 1908, on 

 page 1,700, I was much interested in reading 

 certain remarks on the importance of burning 

 primings in order to check the enormous in- 

 crease of the Shot-hole Borer in Tea. Indeed, 

 according to the statement of Mr. Hohl, of 

 Messrs. Freudenberg, the enormous increase 

 in the ravages in tea caused by this borer is 

 largely due to the indiscriminate burying of 

 pruuings from tea ; for though lime be used, 

 it cannot penetrate the young stems and shoots 

 in which the shot-hole borer is established, 

 As your readers may remember, 1 have, from 

 time to time, strongly recommended the bur- 

 ning of primings as opposed to the burying of 

 them after the sprinkling of lime. It is not 

 considered desirable to bury ordinary hedge 

 trimmings in this country ; and, if farmers were 

 recommended to do so, they would simply 

 laugh at their adviser. Why should tea prim- 

 ings be buried in Ceylon with the extra cost of 

 the addition of lime brought from a distance ? 



" On the 23rd December, 1903, the writer ad- 

 dressed a short note to the Observer, pointing 

 out that the indiscriminate burying of prunings 

 from tea in all kinds of soil and under varying 

 climatic conditions was likely to lead to most 

 unsatisfactory results ; for damp, green leaves 

 associated with small and large branches, if 

 buried in a naturally damp ferruginous soil in 

 a wet district, were more likely to produce 

 fungoid disease than to supply plant food to 

 the tea shrub. 



" On 23rd March, 1906, a somewhat similar 

 communication was addressed to the Observer 

 and attention was called to the statement of 

 Mr. Joseph Fraser as Chairman of the Pita- 

 kandeTea Company who, at the annual meeting, 

 mentioned that all the prunings had been 

 buried at a cost of 5'58 cents per lb. It is 

 now more than 31 years since E first visited 

 Ceylon officially on behalf of the Planters' Asso- 

 ciation and I have continued to take a deep 

 interest in the coffee and tea industry of the 

 evergreen Island. I hope, therefore, that in 

 supporting Mr. Hohl's suggestion that planters 

 should burn their primings rather than bury 

 them with lime, my views will be accepted as ex- 

 pressing a carefully considered opinion on a 

 very important planting operation." 



Wo cordially commend to the attention o 

 all planters the above expression of opinion, 

 based upon long experience and experiment, 

 as expressed by so export an authority as Mr. 

 John Hughes. 



