212 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 188*1 • 
The gathering of the coffee crop in Dumbara 
has begun and goes on in fine style. Spite of the 
dry season we have just come through, the per- 
centage of light is nothing like what might have 
been expected, and although the bean is small 
it is a full one. To hear that on one well-known 
property there, as much as 5,000 bushels of 
parchment is confidently looked for, and that on 
a single morning 300 bushels have been washed, is 
like a gleam of a happy past. So encouraging has 
the revival of coffee culture in Dumbara become, that 
extensions have been made of considerable size. The 
seed is imported from Coorg, and the trees are 
said to be in fine health, with little or no leaf- 
disease and just a suspicion of bug. 
A friend of mine is anxious to know how to 
make a creamy tea. Sometimes he has done it 
and often not, and he is quite at sea as to why 
this should be. If the tea were very young io 
could be better understood, but at three and a 
half years, it is somewhat of a puzzle. 
During this month tea has been flushing well, 
and many of the estates above Kandy have nearly 
doubled what was plucked in July. The weather 
is all in our favour still, although most of us 
would prefer to see just a little more rain. 
Peppercorn. 
COFFEE. 
(From the Straits Times, Aug. 13th.) 
Coffee quoted at $19'50 last January now stands at 
$28'50 for the Bali kind, after reaching fluctuating 
quotations in the interval. These high prices, however 
they may increase the quantity brought to market, 
have brought on deterioration in quality. In Bali, 
by last advices, the heavy rise in price has so stim- 
ulated the greed of the natives, that in picking they 
gather ripe and immature berries alike, confident as 
they were of finding customers no matter how inferior 
the quality may prove. The crop there has turned out 
short. In Java, the high quotations now ruling have 
revived plantation enterprise in the fragrant berry 
long depressed under low prices and leaf disease. 
Prospecting parties have gone out there far and wide 
in quest of land suitable for coffee. Applications for 
extensive stretches of waste land for the purpose keep 
pouring in upon Government. It will take years be- 
fore estates started under the stimulus of improved 
prices can yield sufficiently to materially affect 
the market. The total production of coffee through- 
out the world is esimated at 650,000 tons, of 
which Brazil alone contributes 380,000, and Java 
90,000. Coffee gr6wn in British Colonies totals 35,000 
of which India yields 18,000 Ceylon, 12,000, and 
Jamaica 5,000. Coffee growers in this part of the 
world have every reason to look forward to the future 
with confidence. The action of Brazil, the main de- 
termining factor in the coffee market, tends inevitably 
to keep prices higher than ever. The emancipation of 
the slaves in that vast empire, expected to be carried 
through within twelve years or before 1899 cannot 
fail to work unfavourably on coffee cultivation there. 
Experienced persons assert that the emancipated 
slaves will fight shy of plantation work, and take to 
easier ways of earning a livelihood. How coffee 
growing can be carried on there under these circum- 
stances is a problem, not easy of solution. The 
Brazilian Government try to meet the difficulty by 
offering inducements to European immigrants settling 
down as estate labourers, but hitherto without success. 
The class of labour sought to be attracted gives Brazil 
a wide berth, owing to the disadvantages of settlement 
there proving a powerful deterrent. Hence there ia 
ev<ry likelihood of the cultivation of coffee in the 
h.-uth American Empire decreasing greatly within the 
next few years. Coffee growers in the East will hail this 
result with satisfaction. It will make the cultivation of 
the berry in the East Indies as remunerative as it 
was in bye-gone years. The Residential reports on 
the different Malay Protected States show that 
planters there hare not been slow to take advant- 
age of such a favourable concatenation of circum- 
stances by starting coffee estates. It is to be hoped 
that before investing heavily in this form of plant- 
ation enterprise, hope of gain will not lead them 
to overlook climatic considerations. Arabian coffee 
is a plant requiring a climate with regular wet and 
dry seasons to ensure success. It will only flourish 
under certain conditions always to be taken into 
account, such as a warm and moist atmosphere from 
64 to 85 deg. in countries with heavy but not ex- 
cessive rainfall periodically, and a soil continually 
moist. Plantations yield the heaviest where a moist 
atmosphere and warm temperature go together. In 
Johore, climatic peculiarities arising from the ir- 
regularity of the seasons proved fatal to Arabian 
coffee growing. In these Settlements, Liberian coffee 
seems most suitable with proper methods of cultiv- 
ation. In Java it has been found to withstand 
leaf-disease far better than the Arabian kind. It 
takes so kindly to low elevations that its oultiv- 
ption here will assuredly make rapid progress, 
should the local environment and careful tillage be 
systematically attended to. 
HEMILEIA VASTATRIX. 
Sib, — The letters in the Madras Mail regarding leaf 
disease lead me to ask for a little, space in your paper. 
Here (Travancore) the disease appeared in 1872, and 
has in the south swept away mauy once flourishing 
estates. In Peermaud the destruction has not been 
so severe, but except under shade it appears likely to 
be only a matter of time before the district is either 
converted into tea or abandoned to the sambur. That 
shade is a great protection is, as " Novice " remarks, 
a recognised fact, and I have seen leaf disease stop 
abruptly at a piece of shaded coffee while all the fields 
around were wrecked by the disease. I have seen 
coffee in pieces of original forest and under jack and, 
other shads trees, and in every instance the coffee has 
escaped and yielded fairly good crops. The best shade 
I have seen tried is the Qrevillia Robusta which for 
rapid growth beats everything else at this elevation 
(3,500 feetj. In three years it grows into a good, shady 
tree, and besides forming a good protection soon be- 
gins to enrich the soil with its leaves, which form good 
mould. " Novice " appears to think that carefully 
selected seed may secure healthy plants, but in con- 
nection with this I will mention the following fact. A 
few years ago, I had some well-selected seed from 
coffee under shade that had never shown any taint of 
the disease. One-half was treated to a soaking of 
weak carbolic acid and water ; and the other half 
put into the nursery in the usual way. The latter 
showed signs of the disease soon after germin- 
ation, but the medicated seed germinated well and 
continued healthy till planted out (in freshly 
opened forest) but soon afterwards became as diseased 
as any old coffee. In my opinion carefuily select- 
ed seed if treated to a. solution of carbolic acid aud 
planted in partly shaded land, may be made to bear 
fairly remunerative crops, and even coffee not too far 
injured by leaf disease may be pulled round by being 
planted up with fast growing shade trees either in 
belts or at distances through the estate. 
Peermaud. 17th Aug. M, 
II. 
Sib,— We planters are indebted to Dr. Bourne for 
sending such a concise and clear epitome of Mr. "Ward's 
report on leaf disease. In the first volume of the 
Tropical Agriculturalist there are recorded three or 
four reports by Mr. Ward as well as interesting cor- 
respondence on Hemileia Vastatrix. Perhaps Dr. 
Bourne will permit me to take up the matter from a 
planter's point of view. Mr. Ward made the same 
mistake which Dr. Bourne follows The life history 
of the fungus ; the necessary conditions favourable 
lor development of the spores ; the damage to the 
plant in devastating the food cells by the spores 
entering the stomata ; the terrible drain on the plant 
by such a severe call on it for fresh leaves to enable 
it to resist the fungus — all these were clearly shown 
but who has found a remedy ? Shade does undoubted 
good iu the case of all pests, but ii is not necessarily 
