THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
who bad shade to preserve their coffee in the long 
dry months, cut it down as fast as possible, and 
numerous plantations were f0rmed where not a 
tree was left standing, and where shade was scouted 
as a thing of the past, and as a relic of barbarous 
times, The planters cut down the forest and 
planted their coffee; and then came dry seasons 
and sickly plants, and an insect called the borer, which 
aided (ended ?) in killing the trees from one end of the 
plantation almost, and, in many instances, quite, 
to the other. When I last visited Coorg in 1865 
I recollect telling the superintendent of the district 
that I was then going to England, and that on 
my return to India I certainly expected that many 
of those plantations, which were then so promis- 
ing would probably be used for firewood, and that 
many an acre in my own district would share the 
same fate. But though confidently predicting the 
inevitable result, I confess that when I returned to 
India in the spring of 1867 the result had far ex- 
ceeded my expectations. The season of 1865 was 
dry and hot, and the season of 1866 had been 
worse ; and during the last two months of 1865 
and the first four months of 1866 there was not, 
on our side of the country, I think, a single shower 
to revive the drooping plants. It was then seen, 
but in many instances seen too late, that a wall 
is no stronger than its weakest point ; that the 
weak point in our climate is bound occasionally 
to appear sooner or later ; and that, when it does, 
it is sure to be accompanied by that enormous in- 
crease of insect life which invariably accompanies 
long droughts and dry seasons in any quarter of the 
globe. And here it will naturally be asked why it was 
that shade and shelter had been so universally 
neglected. One of the reasons I have already given ; 
and the fact that experienced Ceylon planters 
were looked up to in India as the safest guides, 
Was, of course, one of the principal reasons. But 
there was another, which had probably as much 
to do with the matter, for it had been already 
found on the Neilgherry Hills (on Mr. Ouchterloney's 
plantations, I think), that the coffee planted in 
the belts of forest-trees left for shelter was a total 
failure. The plants grew slowly, the branches 
Were poor and lanky, and the yield was trifling, 
and there eeerned to be some fatal objection to 
growing coffee in the shade at all. And the same 
thin>? was found elsewhere ; and many instances 
of the same sort may be pointed to in other dis- 
tricts. It was therefore held that coffee under 
shade would not do, because, in many instances, 
it would not do under the shade of the old forest-- 
trees. But no one seems to have asked whether 
it would not do under shade of another descrip- 
tion ; and the idea of cutting do*n the whole 
forest, allowing a secondary growth of forest trees 
to spring up and supplementing that by planting 
trees which were most suitable for coffee shade, 
seems to have been an experiment that no one 
thought of trying in Southern India until it was 
adopted by myself and a few other planters in 
Mysore. But the droughts and the borer together 
have at last opened the eyes of even the most 
prefudiced planters, and it is now pretty generally 
admitted that a light shade is no loss in any 
season ; and that in the driest ones it is absolutely 
oece ary, to preserve the plantation from the 
attacks of insects." 
Thi3 was published in 1871 ; since then leaf- 
disease has come and troubled the planter, and 
shade has along with climate modified its ravages 
in Mysore. But there is another stage reached. 
Leaf-disease played such havoc that planters look- 
ed elsewhere and discovered a stronger caste of 
coffee in Coorg. Strange to say many troes that 
suited the old chick coffee are prejudicial to the | 
New Coorg. Yet still the planter toils on and 
studies what is best. Ceylon men. without shade, 
and in a climate favourable to blights, succumbed 
and have now taken to tea. This is a much more 
suitable plant in their climate, than the Arabian 
coffee tree. 
But strange to tell — the cacao planters in Ceylon 
found themselves exactly in the same plight as 
that just now described by Mr. Elliot. To continue 
our author's test : — " When I entered Mysore in 
1855 there was no such thing thought of as plant- 
ing coffee without shade. * * * The general result 
was, that the plantation could not, at a little 
distance, be distinguished from virgin forest." 
This is much the description of an estate at the 
present time in Mysore. So planters have gone 
back to the old way. A V. A. on my last visit to 
Ceylon asked me how many chains apart did we 
have shade trees. " You mean how many feet or 
yards, I presume?" was my reply. * 
Mr. Elliot now goe3 into " aspect as regards sun 
and heat," but you are all well enough instructed 
on that point whether with shade or without. 
I will, however, remark that whereas northern 
aspects are best for a shade plantation of coffee 
here, yet in cardamoms it is the very reverse. 
First, because the Ghauts forests, where the card- 
amoms spring up, want all the sun they can get 
from the south ; and second, because the cardamom 
is very susceptible to the cold wind from the 
north and east. 
The reason why the northern is better than the 
southern aspect is because the latter is twice 
as hot as the former. This is for coffee because 
heat dries up coffee. 
The reason why the southern is better than 
the northern for cardamoms is because card- 
amoms love warmth. Mr. Elliot now enumerates 
the shade trees. This would not interest 
you except his remark : — " Of all the trees 
suitable to coffee, I am inclined to place jak at 
the head. From coffee planters I admit that I 
have heard very contradictory accounts of this 
tree ; some asserting it to be indifferent and even 
injurious, while I have been informed by others 
that some very fine estates in Ceylon have numerous 
jak-trees scattered about amongst the coffee." t 
Cacao planters in Ceylon have found the 
Erythrina, or Madre de Cacao, and Bubber (Ceara) 
to be good shade for cacao. As these trees shed 
their leaves in the hot weather it is evident that 
cacao, unlike coffee, wants a good roast, and shelter 
afterwards. The sycamorej sheds its leaves in the 
wet weather and thus gives light and shade 
exactly when required. Cacao evidently differs 
here from coffee. I must quote again our 
author's final remarks on shade : — " I find it 
impossible to quit this subject of shade 
without saying a few words as to the numerous 
advantages that plantations of coffee have, that 
can be grown under the shelter of the original 
forest. In the first place, from the greater part 
of the land being only cleared at first of the 
underwood, and from the fact of that being burnt 
in separate heaps, a large proportion of the soil 
is entirely uninjured by fire, and the valuable sur- 
* Feet, or yards only, apart is close for mere forest; 
so that to support both the shade trees and the coffee, 
the soil must be exceptionally rich. The aridity of 
the climate, too, must greatly modify the density of 
leafage on the shade trees ? — Ed. 
f On tea estates we have seen groves of flourish- 
ing jaks which were, close on the timber-yielding 
stage ruthlessly cut down. The jak draws heavily on 
the soil and its foliage is specially dense. — Ed. 
J The "sycamore"? We suppose a species of 
Indian fig is meant?— En. 
