October i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
225 
To /he Editor. 
COCONUT PLANTING. 
Sib, — I see someone writes : " I cannot conceive 
why more planters in the island don't turn their 
attention to coconuts," &c. &c. It is very strange 
that more do not, seeing that coconuts have been 
cultivated so long and have never seriously dis- 
appointed anyone. I suppose it is the race for 
wealth : they are too slow. Yet a retrospect will 
show that those who have gone in for coconuts 
are more prosperous than any who have invested 
in other products. Besides, who ever heard of an 
abandoned ooconut estate ? If I began again, 
nothiDg but ooconuts should have my attention. 
COIB MATTING. 
COTTON CULTIVATION : CRITICISM AND 
COUNTER-CRITICISM. 
Dear Sib, — I delayed replying to Mr. Borron's 
letter seeing so many others taking up the subject of 
'* Cotton." Now that the storm is over, I only have a 
few remarks to make to Mr. Borron's insinuations: — 
Mr, Borron, in his first letter about cotton, goes 
much out of his way and brings in some of his 
uncalled-for remarks : he wishes to make me say, 
" Cotton will not pay in Ceylon;" if he had read 
my letter carefully he would have seen that I referred 
to planters whom it would not pay better (in our 
present planting districts) to grow cotton in pre- 
ference to other products named by me, which 
paid them much better if proper cultivation is 
done. I herewith send copies of two letters received 
about cotton from friends : please publish same 
with this letter. I require no sympathy from Mr. 
Borron, I am not despondent, I desired to point out 
of the difficulty attending cotton cultivation in 
other oountries and make known Dr. Duke's and 
my own experience in cotton planting to enable 
my fellow planters to be able to judge whether 
it would pay them best to try cotton cultivation 
or confine themselves to spending their money 
on their present products which can be made to 
give good profit. Planters have not been inclined 
to follow Mr. Borron's lead in planting new pro- 
ducts (to planters) such as 4 : chillies, bringal, annatto, 
arecanuts, or in purchasing and planting land at the 
extreme end of Matale East. Let him prove hia own 
ability before throwing stones at others. Mr. Borron 
has called coffee defunct, I can show him good old 
coffee as also some new, looking well and giving 
good crop. 
I did not ask Mr. Borron for figures from his 
ledger: seeing how one-sided he argues, now I would 
not accept his figures if he gave them. Mr. Blackett 
has promised you his figures. So far from my wishing 
to cry down cotton, I hope Mr. Blackett and others 
will be able to prove that cotton will pay better to 
planters than our other products. Planted in some 
parts of Ceylon where rain or insects do not des- 
troy the pods it ought to pay well, natives 
especially.— Yours truly, J. HOLLOWAY. 
"Woodthorpe, 28th June 1889. 
(True copy : extract.) 
My dear Holloway,— Sen Inland cotton. You are 
right respecting the pods boiug destroyed by insects. 
I planted about 6,000 seeds as au experiment last 
October and have not got a lb. of cotton from them, 
all destroyed by thousands of red beetles and other pests. 
The cotton was planted on different parts of estate 
and in the best soil. As you know I have very good 
soil.— Yours truly, P. D. Young. 
29 
Remark by Mr. Holloway : Woodthorpe is about 3 
miles from Katugastota, 
Randy, 5th July 1889. 
(True copy.) 
My dear Holloway, — I am sure you are quite right 
about cotton : it will, I fear, be a failure, and all I can 
hope is that men will not lose much by it. 
I have just returned from Middlemarch and all the 
pods on the Peruvian cotton are full of poochies and 
the cotton worthless I should say.— Yours truly. 
Valentine Duke, 
FIG CULTIVATION IN COLOMBO IN DAYS 
OF OLD ; THE FIG IN BOMBAY. 
Bombay, 23rd July 1889. 
Sib, — As one who has spent the greater portion 
of his life in Colombo, and being one of your oldest 
readers, I think I can lay claim to a corner in your 
valuable journal. 
I have read " Arborator's " letter in your issue of 
the 2nd instant, anent the fig tree seed, and being at 
one with him in the opinion he has expressed, 
namely that the tree can be propagated better from 
cuttings than raising plants from seed, I forward an 
extract from the " Encyclopaedia Americana," for the 
information of such of your numerous readers who 
take an interest in the subject. The volume that I 
have named is I own an old one, but I remember read- 
ing the same opinion expressed in one of the latest 
works, but as I have not this bo k before me now, I 
cannot quote from it. The fig tree is very largely 
cultivated in Bombay and still more extensively in 
the Decean, and the practice observed in propagating 
it is by cuttings and not seed, though the mode 
practised in the rearing of the tree is entirely different 
from that stated in the extract. I shall try on a 
future occasion to send you full details of the 
method here observed in the cultivation of this tree. 
Fig trees have existed in Ceylon prior to the time 
mentioned by " Arborator." When I first came to 
Colombo — and that was in 1839,-1 remember having 
two fine trees of the finest variety in my own place 
in Baillie Street, Fort, and it used then to be the 
pride of many respeotable Burgher families who 
could boast of a yard or compound at the back of 
their houses to have fig trees planted there. The 
fig tree being indigenous to hot climates does not 
thrive so well in cold climates and in places where 
there is constant rain, as the fruit being exposed to 
moisture becomes mouldy and insected. K. H. 
PLUMBAGO AND MICA. 
31st July 1889. 
Sib, — I am afraid that the idea you say iB com- 
mon among the natives that plumbago or graphite 
is metamorphosed mica must be put down to that 
mode of argument which leads natives to attribute 
the origin of some things (and even of some insects 
and animals, as pointed out by a writer in the 
"Magazine of the School of Agriculture") to others 
with which tbey are almost invariably found asso- 
ciated. It so happens that graphite is found princi- 
pally in the metamorphic system, which comprises 
the gneiss, mica-schist, and clay-slate groups. 
First, what is mica ? It is a silicate of alumina, 
with silicates of potash, magnesia and other bases. 
The two principal varieties of it are rnusoovite and 
biotite The first is a potash mica and occurs as an 
essential constituent of granite. It is of a pearly 
lustre, generally white, but also found of a yellow, 
brown or even green colour. Biotite is a magne- 
sia mioa generally black or dark brown in colour, 
though sometimes found of a dark green shade. 
It is not so common in granite as muscovite, 
and is essentially a constituent of igneous rooks. 
