20C 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [ September i, 1887 
of years, as was supposed at one time by many 
planters. 
Estates at high elevations escaped the scourge of 
leaf disease for a considerable time after it had 
wrought such havoc on estates at an average elev- 
ation of 3000 feet, but eventually it reached them, 
but hardly with such disastrous results, the colder 
nature of the climate at these higher elevations 
helping the plants through their season of privation. 
When an estate suffered to such an extent (I 
mean on the lower elevations) as to leave it with- 
out a single healthy leaf by the end of December — 
which was often the case — it was usual to prune 
the trees back severely, the primary shoots coming 
under tbis operation, which, under more favourable 
circumstances, were never touched. Manure was then 
given to the roots to the greatest extent possible, 
and with the first rain the trees at once started 
into growth, and were quickly reclothed in verdure, 
but of course no hope could be entertained of a 
crop for the next season, the tree only producing 
fruit on the one-year-old wood. All would go well 
up to the bursting of the monsoon, and through- 
out all the rainy months. "When the rains ceased 
the trees presented generally a very beautiful ap- 
pearance, covered with long freshly made shoots and 
glossy leaves, but only, alas ! to succumb to the 
attacks of the fatal fungus as soon as the dry 
weather again set in, aad thus the battle went on 
till the year I left India ; in some instances the 
planter continuing the unequal contest season after 
season, while others, not believing that any ultimate 
good would result from such an expenditure of 
money, abandoned their properties to the indigenous 
growths of the country, which quickly obliterated 
every trace of the coffee shrub and former cultiv- 
ation. Many planters are, I am given to understand, 
even up to the present date, continuing* the fight, 
but with what result I am unable to say ; but I 
know, that notwithstanding all the efforts to coanter- 
act this disease, they have not succeeded in driving 
it from the land. 
With one exception I never found the fungus 
attack any other plant, even in the near neighbour- 
hood of plantations suffering from the disease. This 
exception was in the case of a large timber tree — 
Lagerstresmia microcarpa. The leaves of this solitary 
tree were to all appearance affected by the same 
kind of fungus, but it did not seem to spread to 
other trees, and the disease may be said to belong 
essentially to the Ooffee plant, but its origin and 
gradual dispersion over Ceylon and the Coffee 
districts of Southern India is enshrouded ia mystery. 
To make matters still worse for the Coffee planter 
of the Wynaad, if that could possibly be, the 
great Madras famine took place during the last two 
years of my sojourn in India — viz. 1876-77. This 
dire calamity resulting by some computations in the 
death of nearly six millions of human beings in the 
Madras Presidency, affected the Coffee planter in 
several ways. Labourers came in from the Mysore 
to the estates in such a wretched condition from a 
long-continued scarcity of food, that they were 
wholly unfitted for work, and in hundreds of 
instances only arrived on the plantations to die, and 
their bodies in too many cases to go without 
burial. Hundreds perished by the waysides, their un- 
buried bodies becoming the prey to wild animals 
of various kinds, the planters and even the repre- 
sentatives of Government itself in this wild district 
being quite unable to meet the emergency. The 
sights seen all over the district were appalling and 
revolting lo the last degree, and can never be effaced 
from my memory. Every effort was made on 
the part of the planters to mitigate the distress, 
but under the circumstances they could do but 
little. Each and every hut on the estates was 
transformed into an hospital, full of men, women, 
and children, perishing from hunger and disease, 
and receiving DO response to their piteous cries for 
help. In the district of Wynaad itself there was 
no actual failure of crops, as the total failure of 
tbe south-west monsoon in that region was never 
known, but in the Mysore country it was different, 
and as sufficient grain oould not be produced in 
the Wynaad for the consumption of the imported 
coolies, and as the famine extended all over the 
Mysore territory, it followed that when the bands 
of labourers arrived on the Coffee estates, if in 
some cases able to work, could find little or no 
grain to purchase with the wages received. Grain 
was imported at the instance of proprietors of 
estates from Bombay, and even Burmah, but only in 
insufficient quantity to supply the working portion 
of the estate coolies, and as the district was far 
from the centres of Government relief arrange- 
ments, little could be done for those who were un- 
able to work, and great mortality followed in 
consequence. It was very remai kable the quiet be- 
haviour of the labourers under these fearful circum- 
stances. No attempt was ever made to loot the 
small stores of grain on the different estates 
although any step in that direction could not have 
been successfully met by the planters. Seemingly, 
the natives preferred quietly to suffer starvation 
and death rather than break the law, and this was 
characteristic of their conduct, not alone in the 
Wynaad, but all over the Madras Presidency, during 
those two dreadful years. Previous to this famine 
it was the general belief that the ryots of Mysore 
had enough Baggy and other grain stored in the 
underground granaries to last out the longest period 
of any famine, but the fallacy of this belief was' 
soon revealed after the first six months of 1876 
had passed. The English nation responded nobly to 
tbe urgent call for help, and if I rightly remember, 
something like £600,000 was sent out for the relief 
of the perishing thousands. This sum together with 
that voted by the Indian Government doubtless 
saved innumberable lives, but relief could only reach 
certain centres, such as the town of Madras and 
other large towns along the lines of railways ; the 
districts and towns remote from these means of 
communication suffering bejond the belief of all 
except those resident in the particular districts 
at the time. Could the terrible evils and consequences 
of an Indian famine be fully realised by all those 
engaged in the legislation of the Empire, they 
would, I imagine, throw fewer obstacles in the way 
of any scheme of irrigation or other work having 
for its object the prevention of any such disaster 
as over-took a large portion of Southern India 
during 1876-77, resulting in the death of some 
six milhuns of the native population. 
This closes my remarks ou the district of Wynaad. 
The little I have to add in my concluding papers 
will be devoted to subjtcts in connection with the 
Neilgherry Hiils. — Planter. — Journal of Horticulture. 
+ 
Vegetable Products of the Oanaby Islands, — 
According to a recent report from Teneriffe the 
Cochineal cultivation still continues to decline, not- 
withstanding which it remains the staple article of 
export from the islands, the total quantity exported 
amounting to 1,449,698 lb., valued at £78,525. The 
average price during the year was calculated at 
about Is. lrf. per lb., being 3d. lower in the pound 
than in 1885. Oranges and Bananas were shipped 
in great quantities for Loni'on and Liverpool. The 
exportation of the latter had considerably increased 
over tbe year before, and would doubtless have 
been still greater had it not been for quarantine 
impediments on arrivals from the Biver Plate; 
nevertheless, some 50,000 clusters of this fruit were 
exported at the average pr'ce of 3s. per cluster, 
equal in value to about £4,400. Tobacco as an article 
of export is becoming of great impoitance fn Tene- 
riffe and Grand Canary, where several factories 
have been established, which turn out considerable 
quantities of good cigars, much approved of in 
Germany, Spain, and South America. Large con- 
signments weie made Jasl year to Spain under 
contract with the Government. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
