March i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
763 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
BEES AND THE FERTILIZING OF COFFEE. 
Kent, 22nd Dec. 1881. 
espondents, in an Over- 
■ reached me, ridicules 
;able in fertilizing the 
ling season, by carry- 
lowers, while collecting 
>ees frequent estates for 
that they may be only 
ccasion of their swarm- 
jrepared to say whether 
reading the pollen, not 
ual c nstructinu of the 
DharSir,— One of yo 
land Observer which ha: 
the idea of bees being 
cofl'ee tree during the 
ing about the pollen ol 
honey. He even doubts 
they are useful 
being acquainte< 
flower, but 1 v 
while on a vis: 
Fernlauds estate 
in the year 1858, 
Nietner, of the 
united on fc to me the very great 
number of bees which were busily engaged in collect- 
ing honey all over the estates. He also called my 
attention to the bee-eaters, which hovered in con- 
siderable numbers in the air, attracted by th-ir in- 
sect prey. It was in the month of March, and there 
was one of those glorious blossoms which give the 
appearance of the trees being thickly covered with 
snow — a sight which often gladdened the heart of 
plauters in those days, but which, alas ! is seldom 
seen now. The bees remained for several days, and, 
to the best of my recollection. Mr. Nietner, who, you 
well know, was an able naturalist, expressed the 
opinion that they were doing good service. In con- 
sequence of the great destruction of forest in coffee 
districts, bees seem to have disappeared. I, there- 
fore, hail with satisfaction the prospect of the domestic 
bee being introduced, to take the place of the wild 
species, which have been driven from their haunts 
by the advancing steps of cultivation. I have no 
doubt that man) old planters could corroborate my 
statement as to the presence of bees and bee-eaters 
all through the blossoming season. My own experi- 
ence extends from the year 184(>, when forest abounded 
in almost every district of the Central Province. 
I have rend with much interest Mr. Marshall Ward's 
final report upon leaf-disease, and regret to find 
thut lie has arrived at the conviction that there is 
no cure, and that all that can be hoped for is that 
the disease may be kept in cheek by the judicious 
Application of manure and the use of lime and sul- 
phur. Let us hope that the introduction of new 
products will save the island from the hard times 
with which it is threatened as far as coffee planting 
is concerned. 1 am inclined to think more of cocoa 
than quinine, as commanding moiu general consump- 
tion. J. P. G. 
•BRAZIL PRETENDING TO ABOLISH THE SLAVE 
TRADE AND EMANCIPATE THE SLAVES, BUT 
ONLY PRETENDING. 
Dollar, Scotland, 12th .lan. 1882. 
Dk\k Sres,— We may have been very far wrong in our 
former opinions as to the in nr collapse of the cot:\'e planta- 
tion-ail Brazil. We have always been right, however, in'as- 
Hertin- that it is on the labour ijue>tion thut the future 
of tl offoe ontorpruso depends. 
The cultivation up till now linn been almost entirely 
carried on by slave labor. Free labourers have la i n em- 
ployed in the felling and clearing of forest liuid for 
cotlee plantations. The bullook-drivors mid muleteers 
Were generally Irani the -aim 1 class, and building-cou- 
trnetors of which there were ii greut mnuy while estates 
wen- being extended, also worked with free labours!!. 
These labium r* were all of the caimnvda </ <•*«.«, descended 
from ever to many mixtures of the l'ortugucae culuuist 
and the Tupy Indian fellows whose idea of life is to spend 
half of it holiday-making, to work as little as possible, 
and even for that little to receive payment a year or 
two years in advance. A good many masons and car- 
penters are Portuguese, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, 
who may have been formerly employed on the railways, 
and are very migratory individuals. On some estates, 
there are families of all the above nationalities who 
cultivate a few thousand coffee trees as so much per 
year, or so much per bushel of cherry coffee picked off 
the price of coffee land they treat. The planter has to 
supply each family first with a good house costing £00 
to £80 ; second to give them a large paddock planted 
with artificial grasses and fenced, so that will mules 
and hungry work-bullocks may not go astray ; third to 
give the family a piece of good land, although at an 
elevation that could not grow coffee (owing to frost) 
to grow Indian corn for colonists' pigs and animals, beans, 
rice, potatoes and other necessary vegetables for food for 
his household (some colonists grow on this patch cotton 
and sugarcane as well). Last but not least in importance 
the head of the family will be also given a sum of money 
to clear his account on the place where he was formerly 
wh 
employe 
considered, in 
£100 at least 
labor of this 
accustomed tc 
tried it lose rr 
to the slaves, 
mainstay, let 
at the presen 
what I have 
the legislativi 
Commencing 
began to iutei 
that in 1825 
and Bl 
Empire 
nixed b 
ment o: 
year, a 
found 1 
nations 
sliamef 
il for 
often lost. So that, all things 
epeudeut of the advance, a capital sum of 
would be absorbed for each family. Free 
ort is not tasteful to those who have been 
work with slaves, and nearly all who have 
>ney and throw colonization adrift and take 
The slaves then being the Brazalian planter's 
is see how the institution of slavery stands 
day, and, even at the risk of repeating 
iften written before, let us notice some of 
enactments relating to slavery in Brazil. 
From the time that the civilized world 
sst itself on behalf of the slave, we find 
treaty was made between Great Britain 
the suppression of the slave trade. The 
icn but three years old and had been recog- 
iritish Government, through the announce- 
mning, in the House of Commons, in that 
after that date, 
i persons intro- 
•rimiiial law for 
ma'le to punish Brazilian subjects 
1S31. All slaves entering into the 
7th November 1831, w re decl«r-d . 
during them were to he punished I 
reducing tree men to a state of slavery. 
This law remained a dead letter, for the slave trade was 
carried on with the connivance of all parties in Brazil, 
both official and unofficial, for many years: some assert up 
to tho time of the rupiute with Great Britain iu 1861; 
say thirty yoars. Mere is what au American writer of some • 
di-tinction, Capt. Codnian, who made a voyage to BrazU in 
1647, describing when the trade was in full swing : — 
" Tho number [of slaves] annually imported now can- 
not be ascertained : but I know that, while we were 
in Rio, (thirty days) lour thousand were landed iu 
its immediate vicinity from five small vessels. We are 
not informed how many were landed on other parts of 
this extensive coast at the same time. It is scarcely 
possible to conceive that one of thoso vessels of twb 
hundred tons could have brought one th usand and 
five negroo: safely, hiving had on board, probably, 
on leaving the coast about twelve hundred — tw. my per 
cent being the usual allowance given io death. Who 
can imagine anything more horrible than their situation 
for thirty days, while crossing on tho warmest ' itiludes 
of the earth, stowed with the nicest caleulat i "t ■ 
stevedore in that vessel's hold living and dying packed 
together ! 
"The slavers aro now so closely watched on the African 
coast that uu owner makes his calculutiuuj to !o«e on« 
vessel out of three ; and. if necessity demands it, no hesit- 
ation is mado in throwing ovorbourd cargo to crcapo 
detection '." 
Tho low of 1831 having lo< u openly evaded, we ran cosily 
understand that tho pn^suro of the Ituvel! Government 
iu 1810-52 induced tho Brazilian Government to ngnin legis- 
late in eurncsi lor tin' suppression of the slave trade, 
uud on 1th September i860 a tocoud act 
