570 
THE TROPSCAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1890. 
just under a joint, and potted in 6-inch pots, the best 
time for the operation being the commencement of the 
winter. The soil should be covered with moss, and the 
shoot secured to the pot with string. The pots are 
then placed in a shed to which frost has no access, 
the grafts being placed in the stock by saddle-grafting 
in February, and secured properly with binding and 
grafting-wax. The cuttings are then brought into a 
house with a temperature of 65 c to 70°, but which is 
not kept very humid, the stocks being sprinkled with 
a syringe but two or three times daily, and the young 
growth diligently cut off them, so as to prevent the 
drying up of the scion. In the same way it is stated 
fta idard Gooseberries may be obtained on long shoots 
of Currants, or Ribes aureum and R. palmatum. 
As soon as union has taken place between stock and 
scion, as will be seen from the growth made by the 
latter, the plants are by degrees accustomed to a 
cooler air and ventilation, and stood out-of-doors in 
May. The pots may in summer be sunk in the earth, 
the latter being mulched with litter. In autumn the 
plants may be planted in the nursery. The above 
method of grafting is recommended for any plant which 
makes roots freely. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
CEYLON IN 1879 AND 1889 : 
Coffee and Tea. 
In going over old papers we lighted on a letter 
by our correspondent *W. A. T. written towards the 
end of 1879, but not published. We submitted 
the old letter to the writer, and he has returned 
it with his views of the change which has ocourred 
in the decade and thejoutlook for the future:— 
No. I. 
Central Province, Sept. 13th, 1879. 
Dear Sir, — I have considered all along that it would 
need a rude shock to Bhake Ceylon men in their be- 
lief in ooffee. Such a shock, however, is necessary ; 
and such a shock is being now experienced. Why 
do we persist in sticking to a crazy ship ? Who can 
deny now that our former staple can be compared 
to such. We have treated coffee with all the defer- 
ence due to it, as the means whereby Ceylon has 
beoome what it is. But surely in the light of facts 
staring us in the face we cannot continue to do so. 
Some years ago William Smith of Mattakelly warned 
us to turn our attention to tea and cinchona ; and, I 
ask you, have subsequent events proved he was wrong ? 
It is only the fortunate few who have possessed fine 
land in a fine climate who have made money by the 
cultivation of coffee. 1 exclude speculators. A great 
deal of money has changed hands in speculation in 
coffee property — especially in the younger districts. 
But cannot speculation, the healthier sort, be carried 
on as well, even better, in cinchona ? In cinchona 
the out-turns can be more confidently anticipated ; 
and therefore speculation in standing crops, and in 
the cutting and curing of the same, will afford a 
brisker flow of trade and money, than is the case of 
the present stagnant state of the coffee enterprize. 
Cinchona cultivation requires less labour, less ap- 
pliances, and less supervision, and therefore less ex. 
penditure. 
Look what "high cultivation" of coffee comes to. 
It is heart-breaking to think of the thousands of 
valuable rupees daily sunk in maintaining a diseased 
and comparatively unproductive plant. Wearisome 
weedings ! High-pressure manures to afford fuel to 
the accursed name of Hemileia I to make luxuriant 
foliage to be torn off by relays of pruners and hand, 
lers ! Buildings up and pullings down I Costly main- 
tainance of bovine herds, for what ? For the pro- 
duction of crude manure to be washed by the mon- 
soons to the rich fields of the Government-pampered 
villages below.* 
* Largely true : hut the ory now is that the poor 
villagers have been deprived of irrigation water by the 
forest cJearaucee of Europeans I— Ed, 
To anyone travelling about the coffee districts, the 
general unsettled, discontented air of the men he meets 
could not but be apparent. There is not a superinten- 
dent sure of his berth ; some are not sure of their pay ; 
have their hands tied in carrying out necessary works 
owing to the pressure of the time. If this is the case 
with superintendents, you can believe that proprietors 
are not much happier. The fall of " Houses" and 
the mutterings of the storm have brought proprietors 
out with a rush, displacing good tried men, who are 
thus thrown out of employment. Altogether it seems 
as if the "crisis" he near, and then — what have we? 
Sad ruin to many and deplorable distress ; but anxiety 
over— the worst known, and is not that better ? And 
afterwards the calm ! cinchona and tea in the higher 
altitudes, cacao in the lower, Liberian coffee in Liberia, 
Arabian coffee m Arabia! 
You may say that I am too summary in my dis- 
posal of coffee. You may instance the cases of potato 
blight, and vine blignt; but I reply that neither 
potatoes nor vines, in health or in disease, can be 
compared to coffee. Potatoes and grapes are severally 
cultivated by a people dwelling in the country of their 
fathers, to whom the cultivation of any other product 
would be a species of heresy. Their fathers before 
them lived by this cultivation, and no arguments save 
absolute sterility would ever persuade them to change 
it for something else. Thus both blights were combated 
with for long. The people were assisted in every way 
by their Governments, and some success at last attended 
their efforts. Now let us come to coffee. It is cultivated 
by men who have come across the globe to a country 
where nature forbids them to " multiply and replenish 
the earth," where no permanent settlement can be 
made as in America, Australia, or the Cape. Their 
object then is to make money speedily and quit the 
country. Is it so likely then, that the campaign against 
blight will be so combinedly and energetically pursued ? 
And if it has been so to a certain extent, what help 
have we experienced from Government? Ours is not, 
as in the case of the Governments I spoke of, a Paternal 
Government. It is a Government steeped in Official 
Ink, beswaddled in Parchment, and bound hand and 
foot with Red Tape 1 The departure of Mr. Morris 
offers a deplorable instance of the kind. I ask your 
readers to turn to the lucid narrative of Mr. Shand. 
How ineffably disgusting was the whole affair ! An 
able man comes to Ceylon to assist Dr. Thwaites in 
his efforts to keep up wonderful correspondence and 
exchange of plants with other countries — useless fiddle- 
faddling amid the shadows of trees whose age testifies 
to the ength of time wasted and money spent. 
This able man sees at once what his duty is. He is 
heard of very soon amid the assemblies of Planters. 
At last he is proclaimed a doughty champion who 
has entered the lists against the red-spotted Hemileia ! 
And he proves no empty braggart. But! ! Ye gods 
and little fishes! Tell it not in Galle ! Whisper it 
not in the Fort of Colombo ! Just as the enemy was 
being worsted, when it was merely a matter of time, 
our champion was tempted away, in fact had on alter- 
native, and our cursed enemy is still at large ! 
Let this enemy range at will amid the gardens of 
the heathen, let him fiercely ravish the sickly plants 
sprung from animal deposits, let other climes supply 
the fragrant cup to dwellers in the north. We can 
laugh the fungoid fiend to very scorn in cultivations 
his rusty finger oannot harm. We can stroll nmid 
our oinchona or cacao groves whioh will soon enable 
us to stroll along the sweet hedgerows of England 
or climb the bonny heather hills of Scotland ; und 
far from blighted fields, where hope deferred sickens 
the anxious heart, enjoy thoroughly, and realise what 
it is to be at home. W. A. T. 
No. II. 
21st Jan. 1890. 
A great deal has happened since 1879- Tea is 
understood so well that we have sent men to the Indian 
tea districts and have had hardly any Indian men tn 
show us the way. The day is long past the exper - 
mental stage. Armstrong and Owen are counted as 
