726 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
ducts, who was prepared to avail himself of it. 21 
days was the longest period without rain, and the 
other spells of dry weather were fifteen and eight : the 
latter on two occasions. The fact if that, for nine 
months, planting might (with proper precautions) have 
been done any day, with perfect safety. I] am only 
sorry that in my individuality I had not many plants 
to put out. 
I planted some ■ thousands of Liberian coffee plants 
on the two last days of 1880, and they are now 
from 2£'to 3^ feet high (not meters), and some of them 
have flowered more or less, though I had no plants 
with more than three pair over the seed leaves. 
Plants of the same size, planted in July and August 
last, are now one foot high, and many of them more. 
It is not, however, the inches of rain that fall between 
the two ends of the year that constitute a good 
planting season. We could do with much less than our 
average amount of rainfall, would it only fall at the right 
time, and not too much. Unfortunately, the most com- 
mon season here is a mighty succession of heavy showers, 
for one, two, or three weeks, and then not a drop for 
one, two, or three months. I fear we may wait and 
wish long for another year like 1881. 
If Mr. Ward's dicta are to be accepted, that the 
hemileia, needs wet weather to obtain a settlement, 
there has been one evil attending the frequent rains 
of the past nine months. I was aware, nearly a year 
and a half ago, of the presence of the pest, but it 
only began to extend with the rains, and there are 
now hundreds of plants, of all ages, more or less 
affected. I thought at first to circumvent it, by 
stumping every young plant I found affected, but the 
small percentage of those bo treated, that did after 
long delay send out a sucker, had spots on the very 
first leaves opened. I have nothing new to offer on a 
subject that has engaged the attention of so many 
hundreds of my brother planters, for a dozen years ; 
but it is impossible to stand by and do nothing, or 
to follow the costly, all but impracticable, and, on the 
face of them, necessarily ineffectual, recommendations 
of Mr. Ward. If hemileia finds its way to the most 
remote coffee fields, avid even to single plants, grown 
from imported seed, and no other of any variety within 
many miles, small service will be done by destroying 
a few local millions out of the hundreds of thousands 
of millions of spores carried by every wind that blows, 
to every square foot of the island's surface. It is easy to 
understand, how a given space may be cleared, by the 
application of a vapour that has been found capable 
of destroying the vitality of the spores it comes into 
contact with, but it is not easy to see how any vapour 
that is not heavier than atmospheric air can effect 
even so much. Suppose that such a remedy is found, 
its effect must only be temporary, because, though you 
have destroyed the vitality of every germ produced on 
your own estate, every wind that blows brings you 
germs from a distance, with which you have to contiuue 
the war. It is not the business of a practical planter, 
who probably never spent an hour of his life in a 
laboratory, to make haphazard experiments with chem- 
icals, but the planter is supposed to know the treat- 
ment that conduces to the health of his cultivated 
plant, and this knowledge it is his duty to apply, so 
far as power and his means extend. It may be, prob- 
ably is, true, that all coffee is liable to the intrusion 
of hemileia, but I think the bulk of planting opinion 
tends to the conclusion that all coffee trees are not 
equally liable 'where all are equally exposed. 
1 have here, at least, half a score of well-defined 
varieties of Liberian coffee. One of those varieties (of 
which I have several hundreds) scattered all over the 
estate gets the disease early, and keeps it. Not 
one specimen escapes, but the effects are different 
on different points. One special tree has had the 
tLmeaae for fifteen months, and every leaf, except 
the last developed pairs, has more or less of the pin- 
spots, yet this tree has not dropped a leaf from this 
cause. Other trees of the same variety do drop leaves, 
but none of them get utterly denuded. Another 
variety, not originally so hospitable to the uninvited 
guest, as the above, drops every leaf within two or 
three months of the first spot appearing. This is an 
unfortunate circumstance, for the variety in question 
is otherwise one of the most desirable, branching low, 
flowering early, and bearing heavily. 1 cannot assert 
that any of the varieties are absolutely proof against 
the disease, but there are two that have hitherto 
kept it at the stave's end : whether I may be 
able to say the same twelve months hence remains 
with the future ! 
Among the newer products, out of three-quarter lb . 
of Ceara seed I have had 85 plants, of which I lost 10 
in the nursery, and 8 in the field. Those that remain 
are getting on tolerably, some of them being two 
feet high in two mouths from sowing. 
The Cardamoms have given 75 per cent for seed, but 
they are very tender things at first, and are liable to 
be washed out by the usual watering with a common 
pan. Out of 1 lb, of Pimento seed, I have possibly 
one plant, but am by no means certain. 
The Cocoa that was so troublesome and costly during 
the first two years, and promised so little, is now 
getting on, and 1 have better hopes of it, especially 
as the oldest plants are coming into bearing. I now 
feel inclined to give it another trial, instead of putting 
other products on the spots where it failed — 
at least, on the spots where the survivors are now 
flourishing. 
I think we are now in for a spell of dry weather ; it 
is what we have to expect, and is seasonable. The 
mornings are cold, the sky clear, and the sun fear- 
fully hot : but the wind is not so constant and 
steady as the January winds usually are. Thi3 is 
the more satisfactory, as the dry breezy wind is as 
important a factor in injurious drought as the sun 
itself. So far, however, all cultivated plants seem to 
benefit by the suspension of daily rain. It is only 
after two weeks of hot, dry weather, that even the 
youngest plants in the field begin to show symptoms 
of distress. 
18th January. 
We are having the genuine January weather : hot 
sun and strong wind. This is only the 13th day, but 
it is beginning to tell on the weaker plants, those 
especially that were affected by hemileia. Since the 
dry weather set in the pest has ceased to extend its 
operations, and all the diseased leaves are dropping. I 
have at length the promise of a few pods of cocoa. I 
have finished my felling and hope to* burn in a week. 
I am putting out my young plants from the sheds and 
fully testing what shade and water can do. Not one of 
them has turned a leaf. There is very little blossom 
out yet, and it is not progressing lately . How long it can 
remain in spike it is hard to say. The coffee to be 
gathered this season is very little, but little as it is it 
makes no advance towards ripening. That which 
coloured a month ago remains precisely the same : no 
softening of the pulp ; no deepening of the colour. 
I would be glad to have more lime, and must get it, 
not by rail, but by cart, which costs less and gives less 
trouble. The two tolls still remain between us and 
the station and have become even more stringent with 
the new year. 
THE COFFEE PRODUCTION AND TRADE 
OF THE WORLD. 
We extract the following review of the Coffee trade 
from the Statist. The writer does not hold out any 
hopes of a rise in price during the season of 1881-82, 
as there is no immediate prospect of a reduction in 
