THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
In order to conceive of them as they really are, one 
must picture to oneself a number of sloping valleys, 
studded with a chain, more or less perfect, of up- 
headed, hills or morros from 50 to 80 meters high, 
and shaped like a half orange. Then one may obtain 
a distinct notion of the coffee-grounds of the Rio 
Zone, the favourite terras de meia laranjas. And when 
one then pictures those chains of hills planted with 
ooffee-trees, or, to speak more correctly, with coffee- 
shrubs without trees yielding shade, it will be obvious 
that the aspect presented by those coffee-producing 
districts is very peculiar and bare indeed. 
The Serra Acima, the actual plateau of the Parahyba 
is usually subdivided into three strips or zones. 
a. Terra abaixo or low lands, from 100 to 200 meters 
high, which are comparatively little sought after. 
b. Terra medio, or lands between 200 and 550 meters 
above sea level. 
c. Terra frio, or cold, lands situated more than 550 
meters above the level of the sea. 
Of course one cannot always adhere strirtly to this 
division, seeing that the slope of the valleys and then- 
situation in regard to the sun, exercise a great influ- 
ence on the success of coffee-growing on lands higher 
or lower than the terra medio. For there are valleys, 
for instance those of the Rio Negro and the Rio 
Granda in the district of Cantagallo, where coffee is 
successfully cultivated at a height of 130 or 150 meters 
thus in the terra abaixo itself; while cafesaes there 
at a height of more than 450 meters yield little fruit, 
although they look more flourishing than the lower- 
lying ones. 
On the whole, however, we may say that in the Rio 
zone the terra frio, or lands situated more than 550 
meters above the level of the sea, are unsuitable for 
coffee-planting; seeing that the trees there, although 
they thrive very well, yield little fruit, while many of 
the beans are empty shells or chochos. Moreover these 
high-lying cafesaes ripen their fruit very late, while the 
season of full blossom generally falls in the end of 
January and beginning of February. But the crop of 
these cafesaes does not mature till the beginning of the 
rainy season ; that is to say, in November and Decem- 
ber, frequently even in January. 
It is this coffee which, peculiarly oblong in shape, 
and often imperfectly formed (rosea), is known in com- 
merce as Cafe das aguas or rain-coffee. But it is very 
little thought of. 
This is why the coffee-grounds in the mountainous 
Rio zone are designated according to their exposure to 
the sun, soalheiro and norwega lands. 
By soalheiros are meant the lands longest exposed 
to the sun — that is to say from about eleven in the 
forenoon till sunset. These are thus situated to the 
north, north-west, west and south-west of the morros or 
hills ; while the norwega lands, which only get the 
morning sun till eleven o'clock, form the opposite 
slopes of the morros. 
In several districts, especially in the Cantagallo, one 
may ride for hours through coffee plantations, where 
the one side consists exclusively of soalheiros, the other 
of norwegas. 
As to which of those exposures is preferable, that of 
course depends on the altitude as well as the general 
slope of the valley. In the province of Rio, for instance, 
at an average height of from 450 to 500 meters, the 
warm soalheiro lands are preferred, while at from 150 
to 300 meters more profit is often expected from the 
clearing and tilling of the shaded norwegas. 
It will thus be seen that generally the best zone 
of altitude in Brazil is from 600 feet to 1,800. In 
the San Paulo district, however, conditions of climate 
render coffee cultivation profitable at considerably 
higher elevations. But what our correspondent 
wanted to know was how low he could go at 17° 
north in India. In Brazil the favourite elevation 
is above GOO feet, although in some cases coffee 
grows well at 450 feet, and in Jamaica, which is in 
17° south, the best coffee grown is the "Blue 
Mountains" product. What we feel is that pro- 
vided leaf-disease is absent, our correspondent might 
reckon on half-a-dozen largo crops and then on 
collapse. 
NATIVE AND FOREIGN PLOUGHS AND 
RETURNS OF RICE CULTURE. 
" Some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some a 
hundred-fold," constituted the illustrations of one 
of the matchless parables ef Him "who Bpake 
as never man spake," and one hundred-fold was 
evidently used to indicate the highest increase 
which could be expected under the most favour- 
able circumstances from a grain far more prolific 
than rice, — viz. wheat. No wonder, therefore, if 
our breath was taken away when we read Mr. 
Green's statement made at the anniversary meeting 
of the Prince of Wales's College, that, as the result 
of improved culture here in Ceylon by the use 
of an improved plough, the yield of rice had been 
raised from the wretched figure of 8-fold, not to 
18-fold, not to 28-fold, or even 80-fold, but 108-fold 
at one jump ! Professor Wallace of the Agricult- 
ural Chair in Edinburgh University came to our 
office immediately after we had seen this statement, 
and on our mentioning it to him, he at once 
said: — "That is the way harm is done and re- 
form arrested: by exaggerated statements founded 
on isolated and extreme cases." But our readers 
will observe that Mr. Green now deliberately 
repeats the statement in an official letter, con- 
tenting himself with the calm remark that such 
a result as the gathering of a one-hundred-and- 
eight-fold crop is "fairly good." In our opinion 
it is so much more than fairly good, that we 
should like to have full details of all the cir- 
cumstances, of seed grain, soil, depth turned up, 
subsequent treatment of soil, quantity of water 
used, mode of germinating, system of planting 
out, &c. Above all, was manure applied ? f 
so of what nature and in what quantity? We 
have heard of seventy-fold, under favourable 
circumstances, in Ceylon, but we should like to 
be assured that the statement was made on 
ascertained and undoubted data. Sure we are 
that 18-fold is a very fair average in our island, 
while too frequently the yield does not get beyond 
the 8-fold of Mr. Green's experiment. Mr. Elliott, 
who takes a sanguine view of the possibilities of 
rice culture in Ceylon, thus wrote in his paper 
on the subject contributed to the Journal of 
the Ceylon Asiatic Society : — 
I will now pass to consider the quantity of paddy 
that can be grown on an acre of land. But I must first 
point out that the yield in Ceylon is generally spoken 
of by " fold," and, ordinarily, without reference to the 
amount of seed sown, or the mode of sowing adopted. 
In India the seed is, 1 believe, invariably sown in small 
beds, and the plants transferred when about a month 
old to the prepared land in which they are to be ma- 
tured. Under this system 50 to GO pounds weight of 
paddy, or about an English bushel by measurement 
suffices to sow an acre of land. 
In Ceylon (except, perhaps in Jaffna on a small scale) 
this system is not followed. The seed is sown broad- 
cast, and in the Batticaloa District for the munmari 
without being previously germinated, as usual in the 
Sinhalese districts. This leads, I believe, to great 
waste, as much as 3£ bushels to the acre being,;it is 
alleged, sown in some lands in Batticaloa, and no- 
where less than two; while in the Sinhalese districts 
it takes six bushels to sow an amunam's extent, or 
about 2J bushels to the acre. A return, therefore, 
which might be termed one of 30-fold in India, would 
be equivalent to one of 12 in most parts of Ceylon, 
and in some parts to only 7J-fold. In examining the 
figures for Ceylon, therefore, it will be well for pur- 
poses of comparison to reduce the returns secured to 
the number of bushels of paddy per acre. 
In Mannar, Baldffius speaks of a return of a 100- 
fold, and Mr. De Hoedt, late Head Clerk of the 
District Kachcheri, and a landowner and practical 
cultivator, assures me that in a favourable season 
(in the absence of proper irrigation) he has ordinarily 
