Correspondence. 264 [Sept. 1906. 



so far as I know, no real effort was made to fight it. The style of cultivation was 

 extremely crude. Trees were just left to grow up— like Indian and Ceylon "native 

 coffee"— and no attention, save an occasional weeding or manuring given; while 

 a pruning knife was an unknown factor. The trees, naturally weakened with 

 neglect, soon succumbed to disease. 



When I took charge ot this estate, there existed a small area originally 

 planted with coffee, but entirely submerged in scrub. Anxious to prove for myself 

 the questionable unsuitableness of the country for coffee, I had the field cleaned 

 up, and all the existing trees some over 20 feet high cut level with the ground. 

 I then grew from each stem a single sucker which I topped at 4 feet, and put the 

 field under artificial shade (Grevillea robusta). The coffee I carefully pruned and 

 handled each year, and manured once with cattle and stable manure. The result 

 has quite overstepped all expectations, and this season, in spite of very scanty 

 rainfall, I have gathered 15 cwt. per acre. The trees have just been pruned, and 

 although showing slight traces of leaf disease, for this time of the year (the middle 

 of our winter) are remarkably healthy and carry fine red wood. I am very sanguine 

 about it, and am pretty certain, if coffee is grown as it ought to be, it will not be 

 the failure it is generally called. 



To give you a fair idea of how things are conducted here, the following 

 would not be out of place. A farmer in the Colony, who shall be nameless, thought, 

 after his coffee had not yielded for 2 or 3 years, he would try pruning, and his 

 method was to cut away one side of the tree clean to the stem, including primaries, 

 the other side being subjected to the operation the following year. Needles to add, 

 the field is now extinct ! 



Cotton promises to be a future industry here. Two years ago a syndicate 

 was formed to test the practicability of growing cotton on paying lines, and Mr. John 

 Kirkman (of Bever-stove-Equeefa), an old and experienced colonist undertook the 

 management. He has proved beyond the experimental stage that the industry 

 well repays itself, and prices he has obtained are highly encouraging. The seed 

 used was mainly Sea Island and also a good deal of German East African, the fibre 

 produced being of intense whiteness and a very long staple. 



Rubber in t Natal. — Some correspondence appeared in the local newspapers 

 as to Natal being suitable for rubber — one gentleman, from Ceylon I believe, beiug 

 quite emphatic as to its being made a paying industry. He must have been a new- 

 comer evidently, for the insufficient rainfall is in itself an insurmountable obstacle, 

 and rubber can never be made to produce a yield that will be profitable. It grows 

 here well enough, as evinced by some trees I have on the place of the Para variety 

 planted by a former owner, but there is little or no sap in the trees. We have also 

 a wild rubber, producing a gum of very superior quality. Here agaiu the quantities 

 that can be got are so little, that with the expensive labour we have to employ 

 here, it would not pay to try to collect it. 



Ceylon seems to have gone crazy on rubber-growing, and from all accounts 

 in the " T. A." the industry seems to be highly remunerative. It is amusing what 

 a little time ago was almost exclusively a tea paper, deals now with rubber, and 

 almost nothing but rubber ! 



I hope to hear from you in due course and, when 1 can, I shall not forget 

 to write again. 



Yours faithfully, 



W. A. GILBERT. 



[Somewhat over a year ago Mr. W. A. Gilbert sent us some samples of his 

 teas which Messrs. Forbes & Walker kindly reported on for us. This firm has 

 again given us their opinion on his teas, and this time it is a much improved report 



