April i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 831 
at which the coffee of Lib 
and we should be glad t 
to shelter, exposure to moi 
of temperature, &c. Oui 
Dr. Thwaitea put his ba 
a hybrid between the An 
ure 
Assa 
hyl 
md fruited, 
imation as 
d extremes 
:mber that 
j to obtain 
can coffees, 
f tea cult- 
indigenous 
rior to the 
native Assam in robustness and to the China in size 
of leaf and strength of liquor. Why a process which 
has resulted favorably in the case of tea should be 
objectionable in tbat of coffee, we have forgotten if 
we ever had the reasons explained to us. Amongst 
the notes of our visit to UdapoLLA, we find the re- 
mark, with reference to the doubts expressed as to 
the cherries ripening, that no difficulty was experienced 
in pulping even after the heat, of May and June. 
As those are the months when cinnamon grown near 
Colombo is peeled, because of the 
rams and the consequent 11 >w of 
and bark, we take 
north-east from C< 
ference of season ; 
almost at right an 
store from Colomt 
Alawwa, and the 1 1 
and attention will 
granaiics by the 1 
ith-west monsoon 
neat 11 iff of juice between stein 
, for granted that at 45 miles 
nbo there is a perceptible dif- 
climate. In going to the estate 
» to the railway, the 47th mile- 
by road via Ambepussa and 
from Kurunegala, will be noticed, 
attracted to the nice wicker 
Iside, erectei over pedestals, and 
the lower portions of the wicker work plastered 
with clay. Here the paddy growers store their grain. 
And this reminds us that in Java the women not 
only reap the grain but perform the operation of 
planting, which in the Dutch colony is most scienti- 
fically and carefully regulated. Tho seed is germinated 
thickly in nurseries at corners of fields, and when 
the men, with their buffaloes, cattle and ploughs, 
have prepared the earth for the young plants, com- 
panies of women make their appear mce to conduct 
the planting. Each removes a bundle of plants 
about 4 to 6 inches in height from the nurseries, 
arranges the roots straight together, and chops 
off from 2 to 3 inches of the tops of the 
young blades. Tho plants are thus uniform in 
size and start fair, in the rows in which they are 
placed, those rows being as straight aud as equi- 
distant, while the epaces between the plants in the 
rows arc as regular, as is the case in the most care- 
ful coffee planting. In Java, the Government have an 
important Culture Department presided over by a high 
civil servant, every young gentleman who joins the 
■ervico spending tho first six mouths of hie resid- 
ency in tho colony at the Culture Gardens at Buiten- 
lorg, not ouly reading books on agriculture and listen- 
ing to frequent lectures, but taking part in tho practi- 
oal work of growing sugar, coffee, cocoa, cassava, 
rice, .Vc. The peasantry are not ouly taught but 
we believe compelled to adopt what is deemed tho 
best method in cultivating tho great staple article of 
food, rice, as well as other products, indigenous and 
exotic. The two largo volumes which Mr. Van 
Gorkom, tho lato director of tho Agricultural De- 
partment, has just published (in Dutch, we regret to 
say) are proof of tho great interest taken by tho 
Dutch Colonial Government in all branches of agricult- 
ure and the importance they attach to "new pro- 
ducts" as well as old staples. We hope, shortly, to 
be able, by means of translations, to give our readers 
the benefit of some of th» information which the 
learned and able Dutchman has collected re- 
garding cultures so diverse as cassava and coffee ; 
sugar and indigo ; rice and cinchona. And this 
reminds us of what we were told at Uda- 
POLLA, that, in the Kalutari district, calisaya 
ledgeriaha plants are fl< urisbing at so low an 
elevation as 200 feet (on Geekianakande estate), 
the refuse of the citronella grass from which tho 
essential oil has been extracted being used as manure 
for the cinchona plants. We shall be curious- to learn 
the subsequent history of those plants and especially 
the results obtained by analysis of the low-grown 
bark. We were struck with the different growth on 
Uuapolla of seedling Ceara rubber trees and those 
grown from cuttings. The former shot up about a 
dozen feet, before commencing to form "heads"; the 
latter sent out primaries close to the ground, and the 
whole habit was bushy and squat. A large number 
of suriya trees (Thespezia popuhiea), which had been 
grown along the paths, we found uprooted. It was 
explained to us that the trees failed to grow straight 
and injured the coffee near them. Trees which had 
been spared in one portion of the grounds, where 
shelter from wind was required for a separate patch of 
cocoa trees, shewed the same tendency to early blossom- 
ing and seeding in this forcing climate as did the 
other plants grown. The timber of the suriya is so 
valuable for coach-building .and other purposes, that 
we suspect a regular plantation of the trees would, 
in from the fifth to the fifteenth year, yield a large 
return to the planter. Trees grown from seed are 
doubtless superior, and plenty of seed can be 
obtained. By close planting a straight habit in the 
trees could be secured. Cassia Jlorida, the wd of 
the Sinhalese, yields excellent firewood for railway 
purposes in four years from plantiug out ; and this 
and p-rhaps some other trees could be combined with a 
plantation of suriyas. We were amused at the details 
of an experiment which Mr. Jardine had tried with 
a faet-growiug shade tree (Jonah's " gourd "), Pabna 
Christi, the castor oil plant. AH was serene uutil 
one morning in the course of his rounds the super- 
intendent was horrified to see almost bare stems, ex- 
cept that they were covered with multitudes of 
oaterpillars which had already eaten up the leaves. 
We suggested that the " poochies " had been pro- 
duced by the tuster. silk moth, but our friend said ho 
was too anxious to exterminate the creatures, with 
the plants which had attracted them, to glean any 
information as to their identity. Happily none of 
them eeem to have shewn au inclination to taste 
tho foliage of the cuff 'c and cocoa plants. It is imposs- 
ible, however, to predict what enemies introduced pro- 
ducts may have to enconutor. Not only hav • tho cock- 
chafers of Ceylon discovered that tho tender root- 
lets of ooffe" aro proferablo to those of the pitana 
gTOBses. as food for tho grubs ; hut suddenly aud 
myst. rioiisly a fungus, previously so latent that eveu 
science was ignorant of its existence, discovered that 
