26 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [J UNE l88l . 
all its leaves withered. Finding it was quite dead, 
I tried to pull it up for further investigation, but it 
retained too firm a bold of the ground for my 
strength. In February every plant drooped on 
the 21st dry day except the very smallest ; in 
March it was the 25th day on which they began to 
complain. If therefore what I have stated of the 
ctoao be the effect of drought it would appear that 
every cacao plant has its own constitution, and that 
while one gives up in a week another of the same 
age and treated precisely the same holds out three 
or four weeks and rapidly responds to the first 
shower. Mr. Fraser tells us that in Trinidad it is 
only the larger seeds in the middle of the pod that 
are used for reproduction. There may be something 
in that, but we who have been paying a cent each 
for our seeds naturally grudge doubling the cost by 
rejecting any. 
NORTHERN QUEENSLAND. 
{From the " Mackay Standard,") 
COFFEE. 
We could not perhaps do better than reproduce 
a few extracts from an article which appeared in a 
former issue of the Standard on this subject :— " Mini- 
cent, the property of Mr. Costello, is situated at 
about twelve miles distance from town. At the back 
of a compact homestead the cultivation begins, and 
here are found 25 acres of coffee, two or three years old 
in vigorous growth. It is growing on a spur running 
north from the mountain. Half the coffee is on the 
east side, the other on the west side of this spur. 
The land is the usual basaltic scrub, and we noticed 
that if possible the coffee looked more flourishing where 
the stones were most plentiful, William Sabonadiere 
in his well-known work ' ' The Coffee Planter of Ceylon" 
sums up the characteristics of the soil most suitable 
for coffee culture as follows: — "A dark chocolate 
colored soil mixed with small stones under ledges of 
rock and bestrewn with boulders of granite." On Mr. 
Costello's selection these characteristics are found to 
perfection. The three-year-old trees have a fair crop 
of young coffee on them, and the two-year-old trees 
have already a very promising maiden crop. The 
trees are planted 6x8 feet apart, and the older 
ones are already topped to four feet in height: 
Although the entire crop is in a most flourishing 
condition those situated on the west side of the 
range are in a more vigorous condition than those 
on the east, being more sheltered from the force 
of the E. S. gales that the district is occasion- 
ally liable to. From the summit of the hill 
among the coffee one of those magnificent views for 
which the north side is so justly celebrated spreads 
out before us. To the east, like a panorama, the 
waters of the South Pacific glistening in the sunshine, 
and dotted with innumerable islands of verdant green, 
to the west and south the dense masseB of the coast 
range and scrub land slopes of Blackfellow Mountain 
tower high above us. We visited Mr. Costello's coffee 
nursery where we found many hundreds of healthy 
young coffee plants ready for planting out when the 
proper season arrives. Highly gratified with our visit 
we started on our return after congratulating Mr. 
Costello upon the pluck displayed by him in his en- 
deavor to introduce a new industry into the district. 
While on this subject we desire to draw the atten- 
tion of farmers to the advisability of following Mr. 
Costello's example. The growth of coffee at Mackay 
is no longer experimental. The machinery required 
is inexpensive. The families of many of our farmers 
could do most of the crop gathering and the demand 
for coffee in the colonies will absorb all that can be 
produced for many years to come, while the duty of 
4d. per lb. on imported coffee will offer that amount 
of protection to our producers until the Queensland 
market is supplied with Queensland grown coffee. That 
Mr. Costello may be considered the pioneer of coffee 
growing in Mackay does not admit of a doubt, and 
we trust he may reap the reward which he so justly 
deserves for his enterprise." 
COCOA NUTS. 
Whether it would be profitable to grow these on 
account of the copra we are doubtful, but there is a 
steady demand for the nuts in the South which 
will for some years render their growth a paying 
speculation. In this connection we may with pro- 
priety take the following extract from the columns 
of the Australasian. It forms, part of a special re- 
port upon this district which appears in that journal. 
Barnes' garden is the sight of Mackay, and a very 
interesting example of the power of industry and 
perseverance, it is. Manv years ago Mr. Barnes took 
up a selection on a tract of land that was little better 
than a salt swamp. Twenty acres of this have gradu- 
ally been formed into the finest fruit, vegetable, and 
flower garden in Australia. Mr. Barnes supplies the 
whole of Mackay. He has reared 1,200 cocoa-nut 
trees, besides great numbers of apple, peach, and other 
English fruit trees, and bananas and date palms. He 
is famous for the enormous size of his pine-apples. 
Vegetables of every description are produced. A pro- 
fusion of splendid flowers completes . the beauty of a 
very remarkable spectacle. Bearing with us substantial 
proofs of the excellence of Barnes' garden, we rejoined 
the steamer which proceeded on her way through the 
most charming of Queensland waters." 
DATE COFFEE. 
(Smith to Jones.*) 
I hope 'twill ne'er be my fate, Jones, 
To drink that stuff composed of date stones, 
I never heard that juice of dates 
Consoles, cheers or invigorates. 
You might as well scrape mud from gutter, 
And dub it "best prime English butter,' 
As call this coffee : oh, 't is awful 
That such a swindle should be lawful. 
Some say 't is made of rotten figs, sir, 
If that's the case then " dash my wig," sir, 
Your system 'twill completely flummock 
When you convey it to your stomach. 
Others declare 't is made of raisin, 
Which statement seems to me amazin' ; 
For if you '11 list to me a minute, 
I '11 shew there is no raison in it. 
If made of rotten dates or figs, sir, 
'Tis only fit for feeding pigs, sir, 
Then throw it to your swine and boars, or 
Cocks and hens, but don't buy more, " sorr.' 
We planters of this ipicy island, 
Whose business 't is to till and buy land, 
We cultivate the coffee berries 
Somewhat resembling English cherries. 
True coffee can't be imitated, 
'Twere well to call ours " anti-dated," 
To shew that difference there be, sir, 
'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee, sir. 
Smith. 
Colombo Graphs. — Mr. P. T. Slema Lebbe has 
been good enough to send us a bunch of grapes the 
produce of his cultivation which was referred to in 
a paragraph in the Jaffna Patriot, copied into our 
issue of last evening. He informs us that the bower 
yielded over 120 lb. Having tasted the grapes we 
can testify that in the present hot weather they are 
very refreshing. The bunch sent us is 6 inches long 
and weighs 7 oz. 
* The latter (Jones) has purchased a packet of 
•'Date Coffee:" hence Smith's remarks. 
