284 
THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1881. 
Tamil and Tiling countries, and the seeds might be 
carefully collected for future experiments. The Agri- 
cultural Department of the United States has 32 varie- 
ties of sugar-producing sorghums and millet*, but the 
Minnesota Early Amber Cane is considered the best; 
after it come the Chinese Sorgho Cane, the White 
Liberian Cane, and the Honduras Cane. I introduced 
the Chinese Sorgho into Madras in 1859 (Proceedings, 
Revenue Board, 18th January 1863), but it was seem- 
ingly neglected. I will obtain and forward samples 
of all the varieties." In the second memorandum 
Dr. Balfour gives further information on the subject, 
quoting the opinions of Dr. Roxburgh, Mr. Wigley, 
and a writer in the Madras Mail, who says : — " To sum 
up the advantages of Sorgho, it produces a good grain 
about equal in value to ordinary cholum (Sorghum 
vuJgare) ; it should produce sugar worth at least two 
or three times the value of the grain ; the crushed 
canes an* still useful as fodder or as manure, if not 
used in boiling the juice ; the produce of ' cerosie ; 
should more than pay all the expenses of cultivation' 
and a valuable dye (note paragraph 12) can be extracted 
from the seeds. And it the cultivator does not choose 
to manufacture sugar, he can sell the stalk as a pleas- 
ant succuleut, or he may sell the syrup as molasses 
or manufacture vinegar or brandy. Paper can also he 
made fr< m the stalk, and it is possible that if the cane 
refuse weie collected and made out here into ' half- 
stock,' a Lrge demand might arise from it in Europe." 
Dr. Balfour adds: — "In conclusion the efforts made 
in India to introduce the 'sorgho,' great as they 
may seem, are slight compared with those of the 
United States Agricultural Department when they have 
a new plant to establish ; and as the farmers of the 
States have found it a profitable crop, it is reason- 
able to suppose that the ryots of British India should 
also be able to cultivate with even larger profits." 
NEW PRODUCTS IN C EYLON : LOW- COUNTRY 
REPORT. 
DROUGHT — CRICKETS AND LEAF DISEASE — USE OF BASKETS 
IN PLANTING OUT— THE GIGANTIC VARIETY OF LIBE- 
RIAN CDFFFE THE LEAST SATISFACTORY OF ALL — 
DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 
Western Province, 31st July 1881. 
In my last report, I professed to have had suffici- 
ent rain for my purposes up to that date. But since 
then there has been none, and for the last ten days 
the usual cloudy July weather has given place to 
bright sunshine, and intense heat, alternated with pass- 
ing clouds, carried forward on the wings of a chilling 
breeze that feels as if it went to the very marrow 
of the bones. In consequence of those sudden changes 
of temperature, there has been a good deal of semi-sick- - 
ness among t-e coolies. Nothing very serious, but 
enough to make all but the old well-seasoned hands 
shirk the afternoon sun, and the chilling blasts The 
wind blows stiffly for e ght hours daily, and is of 
an extremely dry, searching quality that rinds its 
way into the most sheltered nooks, and wheels rouud 
the most intrusive corners. 
Hitherto, the coffee jflants put out in the early 
part of the month have suffered nothing, but they 
will have to be looked to in the way of additional shade, 
if this weather continues for a few days more. The 
older coffee plants seem to grow even better for the 
dry wenther, bowing their heads at the bidding of 
the wind bu< assuming their natural position when 
it ceases. At this stage of growth, they are v ry 
much given to throw out numerous suckers near the 
ground, which require a good deal of trimming, but 
this habit cases when they begin to branch, which 
is generally at from fifteen inches to two feet. 
The plants cut by the last hatching of crickets are 
coming on (that is to say those cut above the buds), 
but they arc a long way behind those that escaped, 
and will only rank with the supplies put or to be 
put down from eight to twelve months later, and 
they will be again liable to attack, when the enemy 
again appears. On the last occasion, many plants 
that had steins too hard to cut had their leaves 
pruned off for six inches or so, and a large pro- 
portion of those so trimmed have been attacked by 
leaf disease in a very virulent form, while hardly 
one of those that have thrown out shoots from the 
cut stem are so affected. I am stumping all that 
have caught the disease, so as to give them another 
chance, for, as I have formerly stated, the pest seems 
never to leave the plant it has once fastened on. 
The dry weather has been more troublesome in 
the nursery than elsewhere. I am obliged to use 
baskets for two reasons : — 1st. — If I transplanted the 
seedlings from the sheds into the open ground, a 
month after t 1 e cricket season opened I would not 
have a plant left, but they do not touch them in 
the baskets, placed on their bottoms on the surface, 
2nd. — Plants in baskets may be put out at any 
time after the third pair of leaves are out, when 
there have been a few showers, and a fair prospect 
of more within fifteen days. Our climate is too 
uncertain to prudently put out plants with naked 
roots at any time of the year, and in baskets 
they are safe at almost any time, if subsequent 
shading be properly attended to. Plants in baskets, 
however, have the disadvantage of requirii g an, 
amount of care and labour in shading and water- 
ing altogether unnecessary in the case of plants 
in the ground. A few hours of hot sun a»d dry 
wind parches the earth contained in the baskets, 
and in dry weather watering must go on con- 
tinually, and shading must be done in the last 
resort, though not to be prescribed except when the 
well goes dry — an event which has taken place here, 
towards every evening, for the last week. 
After the Liberian coffee plant has two pair of leaves, 
it enjoys all the sun it can catch, so long as it can 
draw on the soil its roots occupy for the necessary 
supply of moisture ; the moment the moisture fails it 
begins to droop and if not quickly attended to will die. 
The blo:-som on the older trees due a month ago 
s' niggled out on several occasions, but the greater 
part of the promise remains unfulfilled, and will con- 
tinue to be till rain comes. In the case of almost evry 
one of the remaining two year trees, during the last few 
months, the stem has run up, two, three, and even 
sx pair of leaves without a branch. This is the true 
habit of the tree variety, but even the best behaved 
hitherto have run up from nine inches to two feet 
of stem without a hranch, and this has happened at. 
all the various heights attained, from three to six 
feet. Since the rapid growth has in some measure 
ceased, they are again getting into regular habits. 
One of the correspondents of the Observer complained 
lately that he had been deceive! in the seed supplied 
to his order, because the whole did not turn out of 
the gigantic variety. So far as my present experience 
carries me, I am inclined to think the gigantic 
variety the least satisfactory of all. It runs rapidly 
up to four or five feet and produces one pair of branches 
up the stem; runs another foot and produces a single 
one ; and so it goes on, till at seven feet it has not 
teven branches. It was not the size of the Liberian 
coffee that first called my attention to it, but the 
fact that it would flourish and be productive in a 
temperature ten degree^ higher than suited the Arabian 
k'nd. I do not care for the size of the tree. A giant 
or a dwarf variety are all the same to me, il only 
they can be profitably cultivated, where the known 
and tested variety fails. I have devoted the fag end 
of the longest consecutive planting career in Ceylon to 
the development of this plant, in a small section of 
country, with a peculiar climate, and so far, thiongh 
