498 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1881. 
crop is found to be backward. There are several 
reasons why frequent applications of manure are more 
effectual in producing good crops, the chief being, 
that the noxious ingredients, which all soils contain, 
have the power of rendering unavailable as plant 
food that which may have been applied in tlie most 
available form, thus depriving the plant of the full 
benefit of the application. It is well-known that all 
Ceylon soils are rich in a low compound of iron 
which has this peculiar power, more especially over 
phosphates, which are so essential to the well-being of 
our coffee trees. Knowing this then, it follows that 
better results must accrue from more frequent manuring. 
If it were possible to apply quicklime in large 
quantities, to neutralize the pernicious effect of tbe 
alumina and iron so abundant in our soil, there would 
be less necessity for such frequent manuring. I there- 
fore feel convinced that, if an improved method of 
cult'vation is adopted, the ravages of leaf disease can 
be mitigated. It may be said, and with force too, 
that this is a matter of £. S. D. which, in these days, 
it is no easy matter to command ! 
If ] am not occupying too much of your space, 
I want to have my say on a state of matters which, 
if not soon altered, must speedily bring ruin to the 
coffee enterprise of Ceylon, and it is one which you, 
with your wonted foresight, have been continually 
drawing attention to, viz. the comparative cessation of 
manuring operations. It cannot be denied that the 
wherewithal for this purpose is but too frequently 
at the disposal of people who are not resident in the 
island, .ignorant too of the first principles of good 
husbandry, and who are only too pleased to act on 
the advice of the professional visiting agents, which 
has all tended in one direction recently. In the 
present depressed state of the bean, and the debit 
balances fast accumulating to huge dimensions, it 
m iy be more pleasant for a mortgagee to hear, through 
the professional visiting agent he has employed, that 
estate expenditure can be cut down to half that of 
former years. It may tend to raise the V. A. in the 
estimation of his principal, and so make future em- 
ployment in like cases sure, but I doubt if it is sound 
advice, either for borrower or lender. I hold it is not. 
Let economy be the order of the day ; but nothing 
could be a greater fallacy than to stop cultivation, 
with the hope that one day leaf-disease will disappear, 
and manuring operations again be undertaken with a 
prospect of good returns. 
Say what we may, this was one of the most, favourable 
blossoming seasons we could have wished for ; and 
what is the result ? No improvement on the previous 
season, which was one of the worst. Given suitable 
soil, climate, aspect, and elevation, it is an axiom 
that, if it be remunerative to cultivate without manure, 
then with manure it will be more so ; and again, if land 
will not pay to cultivate with manure, then it most 
assuredly will not without it. 
Wi h the exception of grub and bad seasons, I con- 
sider the professional V. A. and restive morigagees 
are doing more to foster leaf-disease than anything else. 
Let those of our professional Visiting Agents who have 
give themselves up to insensately indiscriminate declama- 
tion in tendering advice, speak out boldly that which 
must be no longer concealed viz., that mortgagees, 
where it is in their power, must make a liberal 
alL/wance for manure as the only chance they will 
have of recovering that already invested. Let the 
Observer peg away at railway extension, so that ready 
and cheap transport may be had, and coffee will yet 
be emperor. — -I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, 
JAMES SINCLAIR. 
P. S.— Your issue of Tuesday has just reached 
me, in which a letter appears signed " Post Tenebras 
Lux," and lest it may be taken for granted that I 
advocate the cultivation of worn-out estates, that is 
estates with surface soil all washed away, I may say 
that, in respect of such, I agree with him, coffee will 
never again be king. Bravo "Old Rag" for your 
notice of your Kotmale correspondent's letter ! — J. S. 
Liberian Coffee Not Ripening.— We have received 
a sample of Liberian coffee cherries (dry and half- 
ripe; picked from some 8 trees in front of Eria- 
gastenna bungalow, Panwila district. The plants 
were got out from Kew exactly five years ago. 
Hitherto the crop has all ripened, but thi3 season, 
although the trees look healthy, Mr. Holloway fears 
not more than five per cent will ripen. He adds : — 
"The trees have been manured with cattle dung, 
pulp and lime, and stand under a fair amount of 
shade. Arabian coffee trees close by look well, and 
are likely to ripen all their crop." Perhaps the 
elevation (1,800 feet?) is against the Liberian coffee? 
Coffee Still King in Ceylon. — Who says coffee in 
Ceylon is rapidly going downhill, past recovery? Where- 
ever coffee has been properly cultivated and taken care 
of on suitable land 1 , is it not still bearing paying crops? 
We are told of fields in Dolosbage which are doing 
better this year than during any one of the pas k ten 
seasons. Again, we learn of coffee which was con- 
sidered useless and abandoned, being resuscitated and 
through cultivation brought to bear 5 to 6 cwts. 
steadily for several years. We admit the area in 
these cases is not large ; but is it not one of the 
mistake of the past, putting too great an area on 
each plantation under one product. On the other 
hand, is it not a fact that coffee has had far lees 
done for it all over the country during the last three 
years than at almost auy previous period ? Not simply 
has there been less manuring, but the attention usu- 
ally given to ordinary or extra cultivation has been 
concentrated on new products, — perhaps wisely, seeing 
they offer on the whole greater promise, in the face of 
leaf disease, but at the same time, it is not fair to 
neglect and yet simultaneously cry down "coffee." 
Our chief staple is not dead or dying, and will be 
found still to respond to cultivation and liberal 
treatment. 
Tea Cultivation is rapidly extending, we are glad 
to learn, in what is the TTea region of Ceylon par 
excellence,— Dalosbage, Ambegamuwa, Yakdessa and 
Yatiyantota, as well as on the Western face of Adam's 
Peak. Locally-produced seed is becoming available : 
that from the Horagalla trees being very fine. On 
Windsor Forest, a set of Jackson's improved patent 
machinery is in course of erection. The Tea-roller 
— an admirably simple and suitable machine — is already 
working, the result being that 2 or 3 coolies suffice 
where 40 able-bodied men were formely required. 
Mr. Hay never saw the equal of this new and im- 
proved machine, in India. Jackson'* dying machine 
is now being erected, and when the Windsor Forest 
Tea house is complete, it will probably serve for the 
produce of well nigh 1,000 acres of tea on planta- 
tions within a reasonable disiance. The largest "break 1 
of tea— some 23,400 lb. —as yet prepared for one 
shipment from Ceylou has just been sent to Colombo; 
by Mr. Hay from Windsor Forest, and will have early 
despatch to the home market. There is no abate- 
ment of the sanguine anticipatione formed by pract- 
ical Indian planters of the success of our enterprise : 
good seed of the right sort ( Assam hybrid as a rule 
being best ) to begin with and a fair start in culti- , 
vation, under experienced guidance especially for prun- 
ing, gathering and preparing : and then all should 
be clear to a careful intelligent planter. Another 
warning both to planters and consumers is that tea 
should not be drunk under from 3 to 6 months after 
preparation. Is it not at present issued, sold and drunk I 
much within this period? 
