828 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1882. 
which has been that in the ten years only one really 
good crop has been harvested : 2,200 bushels being 
the substitute for 8,000 due under old conditions, in the 
season now closed. Having previously seen Arabian 
coffee trees in Java about three to four years old, 
in a plantation about 1,500 feet above sea level, shaded 
by trues of Albizzia Mol/uccana, rather badly affected 
with leaf disease, we feel justified in taying that 
Hcmikia vastatrix is as certainly present in the Dutch 
colony as in Ceylon; and if it never acts with such 
fatal virulence in Java as it has done here, the cult- 
ivators will owe their comparative immunity, first to 
favourable conditions of soil and possibly of climate 
(the atmosphere being in many places so permeated 
by sulphurous gases that our silver watch turned 
black during our travels) ; and second, to the diligent 
and intelligent use of the plenteous stores of sulphur 
at their command, and the lime which can also be 
obtained. Shelter will be more or less given by the 
shade trees. The great merits of the Albizzia for 
shade is its rapid growth into a grand tree, "its 
leaves turning down at night, so as to permit a free 
fall of dew." We are using the words of a Dutch 
friend. The chief demerit of the tree is its brittle- 
ness, so that great branches sometimes do not need 
wind or anything beyond their own weight to send 
them crashing down, destroying the coffee or the 
cocoa below. Of this peculiarity of the tree we had 
full proof when we visited the cocoa plantation at 
Buiteuzorg, in company with Dr. Treub, whom it was 
then our turn to question as to the comparative effects 
of shade and full sunlight on cocoa pods. We felt 
regret and depression to see so many thousands of 
pods, which ought to have been beautifully red, 
presenting a funereally black appearance from the action 
of a ppecies of blight, of fungoid origin, we believe. 
We attracted Dr. Treub's attention to the fact, 
which he could not deny, that in spaces to which 
full light had been admitted by the fall either of 
whole trees or large branches of the shade trees the 
proportion of healthy pods was far greater. He ad- 
mitted that this cocoa blight was a serious visitation, 
so early in the history of the young industry, and 
stated that the Government had arranged for con- 
siderable importations of Cacao alba, which was be- 
lieved to be blight proof. Specimens of the red and 
■white varieties, in a perfectly healthy condition, we 
saw in the hot open (it can be hot there) at Uda- 
polla. and, although Liberian coffee has not been 
equally fortunate, yet the badly affected trees were 
but rare exceptions to the rule of an undulating ex- 
panse o! trees rich in da:k-green foliage and laden 
with fruit. Out of a great variety, certain trees, the 
seed oi which is specially selected for side and pro- 
pagation, seem, able almost entirely to resist the fungus, 
while tlicir yield is exceptionally good in number as 
well aw .size of cherries. Of the latter we brought 
a few with us to Colombo, and a dozen, in a pretty 
dry state, weighed 3£ ounces ; while a single spesi- 
men measured round 3£ inches by 2|. If trees of this 
coffee, planted 700 to an acre, yielded only an aver- 
age of 2,000 cherries, and single trees have given 
1 1 • 000 to 6,000 (enough to fill a bushel), the re- 
auH ..uuld be 14 cwt per acre of clean coffee. Half 
this yield would pay exceedingly well, but the whole 
ok more is likely to be gathered at Udapolla. The 
mucilaginous matter is more in proportion than in 
the small coffees, so that from 100 bnsbels of Liberian 
"cherries" is obtained only 25 bushels of •'parch- 
ment." That quantity of parchment, however, yields 
cwt. 5-1 of clean coffee.— But here we must stop for 
today. 
No. III. 
THE KURUNEGALA ROAD — UDAPOLLA ESTATE LIBERIAN 
COFFEE. 
In proceeding from the Polgahawela railway sta- 
tion to Udapoll I estate, the traveller cannot but be 
struck by the luxuiiant growth of the coconut and 
areka palms and the jak and other trees which line 
and shade the road to Kurunegala. A village is 
passed through, the inhabitants of which looked well 
and cheerful. In certain years and at certain sea- 
sons, however, they, like most of the dwellers in the 
region at the foot of our mountain ranges, - the " Terai" 
of Ceylon, — suffer a good deal from "jungle fever." 
No doubt liability to this depressing affection is one 
of the most formidable obstacles to extended cultiv- 
ation over large tracts of fertile soil in the lowlands 
of Ceylon, — along the banks and on the deltas of 
such rivers as the Mahaoya. So strongly did this 
objection offer itself to a planter of whom we once 
enquired why he did not try an experiment with 
lowcountry cultivation, that he emphatically said he 
would have nothing to do with a pursuit so risky to 
the health and life of Europeans, not to speak of the 
native labourers. If such a principle were generally 
acted on, much of the world, notably Africa, would 
never be opened to culture, commerce, civilization and 
Christianity. Not only are there large areas of healthy 
land in the lowcountry of Ceylon, but even in the 
Seven Korales and along the banks of the Maha- 
oya a fair degree of immunity from sickness can 
be secured by the adoption of sanitary measures and 
the taking of occasional charges. On Udapolla 
salubrity has been secured by shifting the bungalow 
site from a low situation to a breezy knoll, and Mr. 
Jardine, the able and intelligent superintendent, looked 
hale and hearty, as he conducted our parly round the 
estate, pointed out- the varieties of trees, and dwelt 
on the ascertained characteristics of each. He con- 
firmed what our own experience had previously taught 
u j , that imported seed had given not one or two 
but about a score of types of African coffee. Some 
are as objectionable as others are superior. On the 
latter, dense and dark in foliage, unaffected by the 
fungus, with the primaries springing from the stem 
close above the ground and every branch and twigs 
as well as the stem, covered with fruit in all stages 
and shewing blossom, flags were being placed, so 
that the fruit of such selected trees might be separ- 
ately gathered and prepared for the nurseries or for 
sale. We have spoken advisedly of fruit on the stems 
and blanches, for, in the enso of the Liberian 
coffee, clusters of blossom and fruit appear on the 
bark, after the fashion seen on jak and bilimbi trees. 
It is also, as yet, impossible to say how frequently 
the same wood will bear fruit, so that pruning is 
