724 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1889. 
p preciate really good coffee is by no means insigni- 
ficant here, and on their account it is to be hoped 
that the attempt of the Dutch Government to prevent 
the further decay of its Bast Indian plantations may 
prove as successful as the Hollanders themselves 
would desire. 
CULTIVATION OF COFFEE UNDEE SHADE. 
The cultivation of coffee under shade is, we be- 
lieve, an experiment well worth trying at a 
suitable elevation and under judicious management 
in Ceylon. We have already referred to the sub- 
ject and urged that there are some reserves of good 
soil in Uva which might well be devoted to such 
coffee clearings. If there are no individual pro- 
prietors prepared to take the risk, in this era of 
Companies might not a limited Company be organ- 
ized to give coffee a fair trial ? 
We refer to the matter again, in view of the 
receipt of the following communication from Mr. 
Alex. Primrose of Mercara, Coorg, who will be re- 
membered in Ceylon when he held a responsible 
post in the office of Messrs. Alstons, Scott & Co. By 
the use of carefully selected seed from Mysore, and 
the cultivation of the proper shade trees, we do 
not see why Ceylon — the Uva districts especially — 
should not have clearings of coffee as free from 
disease as the fields referred to by Mr. Primrose as 
follows : — 
Ohickmaglur, 20th March 1889.— In the Coorgand My- 
sore districts (the latter I am now going through) shade 
is universal, and by it the coffee and the planter have 
been paved from ruin. In Wynaad where it was not 
adopted the coffee has gone to the bad just as in Cey- 
lon. The article is selling at unheard-of prices here. Un- 
garbled native R68 per cwt. Parchment R80. The 
season is just closing. There is little jungle in these 
districts that has not been taken up, and the yield has 
been greatly increased by the introduction of new plants - 
Since writing the above we have had a visit from 
well-known estate proprietors — Messrs. W. H. Wright 
and Akbar — in reference to the alleged coconut 
disease of which more anon, and we have pressed the 
subject of coffee on their notice with the result that 
Mr. Akbar will probably try 50 acres with plants 
grown from Mysore seed and interspersed with suit- 
able shade on his Kadugannawa property ; while 
Mr. Wright is confident that coffee will yet come 
to the front. When his coconut plantation is 
fully established, Mr. Wright will probably look 
out for land suited for coffee under shade between 
1,500 and 3,500 feet above sea level. There can 
be no doubt that coffee is to be one of the scarcest 
and dearest of tropical products within the next five 
years. 
THE MONARAGALA PLANTING DISTRICT. 
PROSPERING WITHOUT TEA— HOW TO GET TO MONARA 
GALA — THE NEW ROAD TRACE — CACAO — LIBERIAN 
COFFEE — PEPPER— TOBACCO — COOLIES — RICE. 
It is refreshing in these days of everlasting tea 
when toujours tea is becoming as monotonous at 
toujour perdrix to visit estates which are doing 
well without the assistance of that ubiquitous 
product. 
Such may still be found here and there through- 
out our planting districts and amongst other places 
at Monaragala, in the extreme east of Uva. 
Although the cart road from Wellawaya at the foot 
of the Haputale range is only two-thirds completed, 
and it is necessary to ride by tavalam and bridle 
roads for the last few miles of the journey, this 
is now probably the easiest way of approaching tha 
district. Some 150 pioneers are now engaged on 
the road near the 15th milepost, and it is 
hoped the work will be completed to Mupane, 21 
miles, before the dose of the year, 
The country traversed on the first part of the 
journey cannot be called fertile, but after leaving 
Buttala, an oasis in the great Sahara, which 
stretches from the Uva coffee districts to the sea- 
coast, the soil improves and the road passes 
through heavy jungle with signs of a little rainfall. 
It may be said, in passing, that the road, a 
gravelled one, appears to have been well traced and 
well cut throughout, and this, including several heavy 
culverts at a cost of about R3.000 per mile. At 
present the terminus will be Mupane, but there is 
some idea, scarcely one would imagine, yet " within 
the range of practical politics" of carrying it on to 
the sea-coast. 
Cultivation on the corner part of " The Hill," and 
on this occasion the higher estates were not visi 
ted, is chiefly confined to the following products : — 
cacao under the shade of jak, dadap, Albizzia stipu- 
lata and mohiccana (the latter for choice), bois 
-immortelle, &o., &c. — Liberian coffee decreasing, but 
still remunerative, pepper and tobacco. 
The cacao is looking particularly well just now 
with no sign of helopeltis or other pests and a 
very fair crop set all over. But surely the cacao 
tree must be of the feminine gender, so fickle is 
she and yet, sometimes, so true. Else why is it 
that one tree should be loaded with fruit (on a 4§ 
year old tree I counted 80 well-grown pods), while 
the next of equal vigour and appearance without a 
sign of crop ? 
The short rainfall of 1888, bad especially as re- 
gards distribution, naturally resulted in a poor 
crop, but with a return to the wet seasons of 1880- 
1885 satisfactory results cannot fail to be secured. 
Pepper is here a very promising product and 
is far more likely to do well in this soil and 
climate than in the moist lowcountry of the 
Southern Province and Kegalla district with when 
all is said, has a poor soil and a leaf forming climate. 
The older vines are now coming into bearing and 
the cultivation is being considerably extended. 
Tobacco of the Havana variety is being tried 
on Sirigalla, and the progress of this experiment 
will be watched with the greatest interest. The 
plants when seen by the present writer had been 
in the ground about 9 weeks and were growing 
in an old cardamom nursery of rather poor soil. 
This notwithstanding they averaged 2b to 4 feet in 
height, some of the leaves measuring 30 in. x 18 in. 
In the growth therefore there is nothing wanting, 
and if the curing is equally successful it should lead, 
and that before long, to the opening up of a 
large acreage under the most paying of products. 
It is indeed surprizing that the hill has not been 
already visited by some of those enterprizing 
capitalists now prospecting for tobacco land, for there 
must be close on 1,000 acres of virgin soil available 
for the nicotian weed. It should be remembered that 
the chances of failure, such as that experienced in 
Kurunegala, are here minimized, the N.-E. mon- 
soon being practically a certainty, and as regards 
curing the fact that Mr. Sparkes's cacao fetched 
an average last year of R54 net goes far to show 
that his tobacco also is likely to take a high posi- 
tion. "Uva," said a recent writer, " will grow as 
good'tobacco as Sumatra;" and I know of no land in 
Uva which would grow it better than Monaragala. 
It is satisfactory to note that the health of the 
coolies on the estates is much improved. Whether 
this is only to the opening up of land and the 
establishment of a dispensary, or, as a cynical 
friend remarked, is merely an example of the 
" survival of the fittest," cannot here be argued ; 
but the faot remains, that the experience, so 
common in the western tea district, of 30 or 40 
I per cent of one's labour force down with fever, 
I is here unknown. 
