February i> 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 553 
COFFEE CULTURE: ' NATIVE ' AND 'PLANT- 
ATION ' FASHION. 
We call attention to the letter of " S."* (written 
by a gentleman of considerable influence m India), 
with the questions which he raises. Some ot 
these "S," will find answered on page 50b 
by our planting correspondent, "Peppercorn, 
and, having made reference to other quarters, we 
have the opinions of two more practical men to 
give as follows : — 
"If leaf disease and green bug are about, then 
coffee can hardly be too well cultivated, though 
high cultivation must not be confounded with ex- 
travagant cultivation. If leaf disease and green 
bug are present, I do not believe any cutting clown 
of cost will make coffee a permanent paying in- 
vestment. My advice in this last case would be 
' Don't go in for coffee on any system of culti- 
vation. If unfortunately you have already done 
bo, then sell if you can, and if you can't then 
take all the crop that will come, and do as Utile 
as possible in return— make money while your 
eoffee lasts.'" 
And again : — 
" I really don't know what answer to give you tor 
' S.' I have almost forgotten nil about coffee I An 
Uva man tells me that native coffee is n't affected 
to nearly the same extent as plantation with bug or 
loaf diseasef. Native toffee after two to three years 
is allowed to take care of itself, an occasional weed- 
ing is generally all it gets, so that cultivation costs 
very little. No doubt there will always be plenty 
demand for nativo coffee, and if it is pulped and cured 
same as plantation I don't see that the value of the 
two would vary to any extent. 1 S 1 will be a plucky 
man if he goes iu for either." 
The only native gardens in Ceylon that gave con- 
tinuous crops at all approaching those ever yielded 
by regularly cultivated plantations, were gardens along 
the roadsides getting the full benefit of manure 
and road wa-hings. Our old calculation in the 
pul my days of coffee in Ceylon used to be an 
average of 5 to U owl. per acre for plantations 
and of 2 to .i cwt. for nativo gardens. But certainly 
the garden owner's expenditure was much less— -only 
the more care he" did give, as a rule, the better re- 
turn he got. Plantation coffee generally sells at from 
25 to -10 percent better than native; but when prices 
run high, inferior coffee much more closely ap- 
proximates to superior in the market. The chief 
peculiarity in native gardens is the absence of 
any topping, pruning or weeding. One thing is 
certain, — that when leaf-disease became epidemic 
in Ceylon it ran through and snuffed out our 
native gardens in one-half the time which was 
required to bring down our plantation coffee-trees. 
We are not bo strong as our planting friend 
quoted above in saying "Don't plant ooffen at 
all." If the land be virgin and the soil really 
good, we would advise " S." to follow the cx- 
amplo of the Coorg a*d Mysore planters who 
plant under shido and in some cases treat 
their trees a little moro in the native fashion 
than was the custom in Ceylon, allowing them 
grow up. The Mysore planters have thereby 
(through the shade chiefly) kept off leaf-disease 
and continue to got good crops. From Mr. P, 
H. Prico, of the local Civil Service, who has* 
just visited Java, " Bi" will bo interested to 
learn, wo liavo a similarly favorable report of coffee 
in Java grown under shade, great big trees loaded 
with birro< (12 to 90 owt. pi r aero was the osli- 
• S, c pnge .VIS. 
I That must b« a recent experience ; for at tbo outsot 
h af-diKCimo did enormous damage to nativo coffee.— 
Ed. 
70 
mate), and Mr. Prico was told by Government 
officials that they had u rule now forbidding the 
cutting down of their big forest trees in clearing 
land, only allowing lopping ; while everywhere on open 
coffee land which had suffered from leaf-disease, the 
dadap tree was being cultivated as fast as possible 
to secure shade. As regards the expense of pre- 
paring coffee, we think the cost of barbacue 
and pulper will be speedily covered by the 
difference in price obtained, provided good crops 
are gathered, and " S." need not be told that when 
a hardworking resident proprietor looks after his 
own work, there should be no room for the extrava- 
gance he refers to. Fifty rupees an acre per 
annum used to be considered the very minimum 
for the cultivation of an established coffee estate in 
Ceylon ; but hard times and short crops brought it 
down to 30, 20 or even 10 rupees in accordance 
With steadily diminishing returns, before tea took 
the place of our old staple, 
Wvnaad Notes, Jan. 5th. — Our hopes regarding 
crops, have, by no means, been fully realized ; and 
those estates are exceptional which have at all ex- 
ceeded their estimate. However, bad crops are also 
exceptional; so that with a generally fair ''medium," 
and much improving prices we have good reason to 
be content. The reports which reach us from different 
realiahlc quarters regarding the probable continued 
riso in both <• dl\ e and cinchona markets, are especially 
encouraging. There is an extraordinary demand for 
coffeo amongst the natives about here. The local 
Moplahs, are offering prices (cash down; for tails, 
cherry, and iu fact mere sweeping — exceeding that 
which is offered for parchment, in the regular market- 
There is some mystery about this, and it is generally 
supposed that our rubbish is being purchased for the 
Arab Market, to represent Mocha ibn real article 
being almost unobtainable. O e Mopl ib last week 
offered K2.0U0 tor " tails and cherry " and a brisk 
trade is goiug on all over the district. Coffee is sold 
in the bazaar, for ordinary drilling purposes at one 
rupee the seer ; which in the land of Coffee, is very 
high inch ed. Unfortunately th. re is auother side to 
the question. The increased value of coffee, has in- 
vited our old friends the cjffee thieves to a great ex- 
hibition of energy, and hardly an estate has escaped 
their depredations. The police have not hitherto 
been very successful in convicting the real culprits. 
But iheir researches have brought to light sundry 
' dedges " which arc certainly ingenious. That, for in- 
stance, of pn paring cherry coffee — with a rapidity to defy 
detection. It is well kuow that stripping, (i.e. mixed 
greeo,half ripe.aud ripe) — which is the thieves' mode 
of gathering, can only be dried, and must taku at 
least ten dajs or a fortnight, to becomo one uniform 
color, ss that the chances of detection are consider- 
able. If however, they can produce the appearauce 
of dried cherry, in a short time there is no sayiug 
how long it may have been iu their possession. 
Ami this appearance is caused, by steaming the newly 
picked coffee, and then drying it as soon as possible. 
This can be done very rapidly,— and only an experi- 
enced person could discover (by a slight stickiness iu 
the beans) that there was any deception in the method 
of curing. Naturally it does not improve the color, 
but this matters little when one considers the un- 
critical market in which it will probably be disposed 
of. Wo had begun to despair about cinchona, which 
grow aud flourished in proportion to its docadeuco 
in value. We spoke of it as " an estate weed," uud 
mauy were more than half inclined to root it up, 
and replace it with the hitherto ftwpiscd < ffee. 
But if wo are to believe our prophets, go.nl times are 
coming cvon for cinchona. Certainly a moro cheerful 
spirit !\p:isses its. If legnrduig cinchona pro-] . . 
and after our many revorses wo, planter*, aro not giT„„ 
to be over !>anguiue.— Jladra* 7»mm, January 6th. 
