April i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
827 
r- 5~ — 
apparel, and after laughing 
cume to the conclusion tha 
only were their eyes, li 
strength,— the pink-skinn 
exceptional, "few and 
as numerous as their ds 
good friend Mr. Mocns tol 
buffaloes were, if anylh 
most curious fact of all 
colours are produced wh 
dark ; both light ; or or 
The question then is ho 
parturo from typical cc 
it perpetuated in Java (w 
we 
they were albino*. But not 
e their frames, perfect in 
d animals wero by no means 
ar between," but almost 
k-coloured congeners. Our 
I us that the light-coloured 
ig, the stronger. But the 
is that animals of both 
ither the parents be both 
a dark and the other light. 
> was it that such a de- 
our originated and how is 
lich once was joined to the 
Himalayas), while in Ceylon, and wo believe in 
India, a pink buffalo is as rare as a white ele- 
phant. If any reader can tell us where this pheno- 
nenou has boen discussed and solved we shall feel in- 
debted to him. But there are much greater diverg- 
ences from Ceylon conditions in Java, although the 
one island is just about as far south of the equator 
as the other lies north of " the line." We brought 
acorn, from Java which for size amazed beholders 
here, and no doubt the four indigenous oaks of 
which Java csn boast, while Ceylon has not one true 
oak, are sylvan memorials of the far- back geological 
period of union with the Himalayas. But why is 
it that Java with a climate as tropical as ours, is 
jable to breed not only a race of ponies famous for 
bottom and speed (we can see them rushing over 
Marshal Daeudel's mountain roads, three abreast, 
and tiding the sand flying into the traveller's face !) 
but elegant and fleet blood-horses. Attached to Mr. 
Kerkhovcn's large tea estate at Siuagar are stables 
accommodating a couple score of as fine racers and 
saddle horses as could be seen anywhere, the 
manuro (which is most carefully conserved) paying 
much of the cost of keep. The rich so'l, no doubt, 
produces rich grasses, and equally certain it is that 
the "paddy " grown in the rich volcanic soil is pro- 
portionally rich in nitrogenous properties. Travellers 
along the railway line can now see the rice fields 
being regularly reaped by means of sickles. Poss- 
ibly owing to a government regulation, forbidding 
tho removal of the straw from the soil, in the paddy 
fields of Java, which probably cover as large an 
area in tlio I'reanger ltegency as the whole rice 
cultivation of Ceylon, sickles are not used, only sharp 
knives by mcaus of which a few inches of the straw 
below the head are cut oil'. Tho women perform 
this operation, as well as the subsequent one of tying 
tbe heads together in equal sized bundles, with fern- ! 
ioino neatness and dispatch. Two bundles are slung, | 
one on each side of a piugo, and iu this way cooly 
loadn of paddy are curried to market or store, tho 
grain adhering no closely to tho stalk, that but little 
it lost. In travelling, our driver, when ho wanted 
to feed his ponies, purchased a couple of tlieso 
bundles, from a travelling cooly or at a waysido 
boutique, and tho animals ate grain and straw, with- 
out pounding >» preparation, finishing off with a 
draft of water, and then recommencing their gallop. At 
luis rate wo shall not get to L'dapulla today, and, aa 
WO iU'o going to ico Liboriau cofko uud CMMj tk 
may as well dispose in advance of our Java reminis- 
cences of these now products. We had tho advant- 
age of the guidance of Dr. Treub, who is in charge 
of the Culture Gardens as well as the Botanical 
Gardens at Buitenzorg, in our visit to a large 
private plantation of cocoa,* as well as to the Govern- 
ment Culture Gardens, where, besides coffees of all 
possible species and varieties (including some with 
copper-coloured leaves), wo were shewn fruit-bearing 
Liberiau ciffce trees under shade and in the open and 
also extensive nurseries of this plant. Dr. Treub, in 
view of a controversy which had raged as to the 
quostion of shade for the African coffee (the rule in 
Java, for Arabian coffee having been shade, even up 
to considerable elevations), requested our special at- 
tention to the comparative or contrasted appearance 
of the Liberian trees in the open and those grown 
under shade, both as to leafage and fruit. Although 
we fully share the orthodox Ceylon belief that shade 
is unnecessary, we felt compelled to say that not 
only were the trees under shade in this case superior 
in both respects to those in the open, but that never 
in Ceylon had we seen finer Liberian coffee trees. 
Dr. Treub seemed veiy much gratified at this latter 
concession, and, a9 regarded the shade question, be 
proceeded to state that the then head of the Culture 
Department, who had succeeded van Gorkom, had 
thrown the authoritative weight of his opinion 
against shade in the cultivation of the new coffee. 
"The result has been," said D:\ Treub, "that mil- 
lions," and then correcting himself he substituted 
"hundreds of thousands of plants were lost, before 
shade was resorted to for this as for the old coff-e." 
All we could say was ti at evidently, notwithstanding 
almost equal conditions of latitude, there was some- 
thing in the climate of Java which rerderedit essenti- 
ally different from that of Ceylon, and that the 
planters in each colony must act on the results of 
their own experience. On the mature Liberian coffee 
trees, as well as those of tho other varieties, we had 
to lock carefully before we could detect a single trace 
of the fearful fungus, llcmikia vastalrix, but the 
case was very different when wo came to examine 
the youug Liberian plants iu the nurseries. They were 
closely planted in the rows (one possible condition of 
comparative debility and liability to disea e), the 
foliage was close to the ground, and the soil, as well as 
the plants, was copiously watered at least once a day : 
perhaps m re frequently, for there had been a three 
months' drought. Our readers will see that lure were 
all the conditions favourable for the vivifio&tinn and 
virulent action of the spores of Hemileia, it t ey were 
pro-suit. PmeiH the$> were with a vengoanci t>», on 
turning up the 1 'avbs of the nursery plauts at Bui < nzorg, 
we bad a repetition of what wo saw eleven years 
ago on an estate in Ceylon, tho owner ot Wbiih, after 
thirty four yearo' resideice in the island, invested nil 
his life's savings in coffee culture, only to emm nee 
a deadly struggle with "leaf-du^ase," tho result of 
* Correctly written etufao ; but sometime ago wo in- 
timated in tho Observer that, for tho sake of uni- 
formity, we should adopt " cocoa" (tho almost universal 
pronunciation in Ceylon) for cneno ; spelling the unnio 
of the palm, by way ot distinction, "coco." 'ihis form 
has been adopted iu our L'ixvttory. 
