592 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1882. 
Coffee Leaf Disease: Three " Richmonds " in 
the Field ! — The following paragraph is from the 
Batavia Handelsblad : — "A Sourabaya paper asserts 
that Mr. Jacob P. Storck, coffee planter in the Fiji 
islands, intends to visit Ceylon via Java for the purpose 
of diffusing an invention of his. The said gentlemen 
has discovered a remedy for the Hemileia vastatrix, 
consisting in charging the atmosphere with an element 
which is fatal to the Hemileia, and may be produced by 
women and children. All this is very mysterious, 
but we must wait for Mr. Storck's arrival before we 
can say more about it." Mr. Stork has already sent 
one or two letters to the Observer expressive of the 
utmost confidence in his remedy for coffee leaf disease. 
His journey hither all the way from Fiji will afford 
very practical evidence of his good faith, and so it 
behoves the Planters' Association to consider betimes 
what is to be done with their visitor. Would it not 
be advisable to select 150 to 200 acres of typical coffee, 
and, dividing it into three equal portions representing 
the same conditions as far as possible, to hand one over 
to Mr. Stock to experiment on for 6 months ; another to 
be treated with carbolized vapour under Mr. Schrottky's 
care ; and a third with sulphur and lime according 
to Mr. Marshall Ward's suggestions ? Half-a-dozen 
Visiting Agents — say, Messrs. W. D. Gibbon, Bosan- 
quet, W. Mackenzie, Young, Grigson, Ballardie and 
Irvine — representing varied interests and experience, 
Should then be constituted a Board of Inspection, with, 
the Planting Member of Council, and the Chairman 
and Secretary of the Association, to report definitely 
on the result. 
Mercara. 31st Oct. — The S. W. monsoon closed 
about the first week in October, and will be reckoned 
as one of the very lightest that lias happened in the 
annals of the country. The weather was similar to 
what was in by-gone years, but the rains were neither 
so persistent nor fierce, there were no terrific down- 
pours of twelve or thirteen inches in a day and there 
happened occasional breaks during the day-time, when 
the gloom was relieved by glimpses of the sun, and 
patches of the blue sky in July and August. The 
rain-fall registered by me from the beginning of the 
monsoon to its close on October 3rd was 149 5 inches 
against 246 inches for similar dates in 1880, and 242 - 5 
in 1879. Cardamom picking, which commenced a fort- 
night ago, is well forward : the out-turn will be a 
little below the average, but they are of an excellent 
quality, the pods being of a more uniform size, and 
of a good chrome-yellow color, whilst the seed are 
well pronounced in flavor and scent. There is an 
active demand for them in Mercara, by the native 
buyers, and prices keep high ; the fine weather of late 
has given them every facility for being dried quickly 
and well, which so much improves the quality. The 
partial failure in the crop is owing to a shortness of 
showers, necccssnry for biinging out the blossom, which 
should fall in April or march, being, this year, both 
uncertain and late. Cardamoms have hitherto been in 
the hands of the Coorgs, who combine together in a 
district and rent large tracts of forest from Govern- 
ment . there is little more excitement or expectation 
of making a large profit in this way theu in being 
the lessee of a toll-gate. The plant is indigenous in 
the forests, us persistent of life as ihe Pelris Aquilina, 
our common fern, requires no cultivation, little atten- 
tion, self-germinating, and dies only from etiolation. 
Until quite recently it was a Government monopoly, 
like andalwood and tamarind fruit to-day — and was 
a large source of income to the old Rajahs who held 
the country. Tbo yield has ;.;rown less year by year : 
Europeans have never regarded cardamoms as a special 
culture until this year; there was some forest laud 
that has been paid tax for above twenty years, and 
has literally produced nothing. Well, under the 
spirited energy of a now manager, attempts have 
been made to grow them. About forty acres are 
planted up, come six feet apart, with young seedlings 
The forest trees are left standing, an occasional tree 
being felled to let the light in— there will be a small 
crop next year. — Madras Standard. 
The Nilgiri Coffee.— The coffee crop is expected 
to be late this year. The late spring rains brought 
the blossom out a little after time and the dry weather 
generally that succeeded did not contribute to devi lop 
the berry. In some localities it is abnormally small, 
but the bean shows compact and firm. The crop will 
probably be characterised as light and small. Most 
estates are short and even this limited outturn was 
menaced during the year. If prices rise, working ex- 
penses may be recovered, if not the outturn will leave 
many of the estates with an increasing debit balance. 
The gold industry has thrown coffee back consider- 
ably, but beyond a temporary depression this product 
will assTt its superiority and remunerative charac- 
ter before long. — Indian paper. 
Slavery in Brazil.— In its issue of October 
1st, the Anglo-Brazilian, Times hasan interesting 
article on the Free Birth Act of Sept. 28th, 1871, 
'•when the light of freedom first dawned upon the 
dark horizon of Brazilian slavery, and it was pro- 
claimed that from that glorious day — glorious alike to 
Visconde do Bio Branco, Brazil, and humanity — not 
a slave could be born within the wide expanse of 
the Brazilian Empire." Our contemporary proceeds 
to remark as follows :— "Happily," tne experience of 
the last ten years has served to dispel in great measure 
the doubts and fears which at first clouded the future. 
The generally cheerful and even benevolent co-opera- 
tion of the slave-owners has smoothed away many 
of the inherent difficulties of the law and has extend- 
ed its benefits far beyonr.d anticipation. It ie, indeed, 
most honourable to them that tbey have discharged 
their duty towards the children of their slaves with 
humanity and kindness, and that, instead of viewing 
the continuance of the charge as irksome, and to 
be rejected at the earliest opportunity, the right of 
option has not been availed of in more than two 
cases in a thousand. It is also most honourable to 
them that their private emancipations have been upon 
a scale of unexpected magnitude that proves the force of 
emancipatory sentiment in their midst and has thrown 
the official emancipations completely iuto the shade. 
As regards the solution of the labour question created 
by death among the slaves and a progress of emancipa- 
tion which it is the desire of mauy in the nation 
to hurry to the goal, the mists of uncertainty, un- 
fortunately, still, envelop it and reuder it obscured. 
The attitude of the native freeman, the freedman 
and the ingenuo in face of it, is still a problem. 
Immigration, partially repelled by the existence of 
slavery, by the defects of the land system, and. by 
the sanitary perils of our maritime cities, has not 
yet become an agricultural power, and Chinese labour, 
even as a temporary assist nee, is still of small promise 
of attainment. Nevertheless, some progress towards 
the solution is apparent; immigrant labour is super- 
seding that of the slaves in many employments 
within the cities, the central sugar factories ex- 
preience no difficulty in obtaining the free labour 
the law imposes on them, and yearly the influence 
of free native labour is becoming more sensible in 
the production of our staples, so that we seem gradu- 
ally to be approaching the point when a proper ad- 
justment of wages and the personal rela'ion3 of the 
labourer and employer, relations still hampered by 
mischievous attempts to retain from the slave system 
intolerable restraints upon personal independence, may 
suffice, if not, what cannot be hoped, to avoid great 
difficulties and perhaps a revolution in the planta- 
tion system, and to at least tide the country over 
a labour crisis without great danger to the interests 
of agriculture. 
