April r, 1882.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
*33 
In reference to the remark respecting the favour- 
ite transplanter used on Udapolla, we find a 
correction is required. The fitting complement 
to Scowen's transplanter, which is the one chiefly 
used, is found in a tin envelope and ring 
contrived by Mr. L. W. Davidson, manager of 
Uulloden estate, Kalutara. This envelope is, as we 
said, a single piece of sheet tin cut to the size re- 
quired, which opens out to clasp the plant and ball 
of earth when released from the transplanter, the 
envelope being secured by a ring slipped over the 
end. In practice this has been proved to be a most 
convenient and successful mode of working, and Mr. 
Davidson's envelopes and rings are likely to become 
general favourites. Not only for Liberian coffee and 
cocoa, but for cinchona, the transplanter and en- 
velope will be used with full confidence that they 
will save the life of many plants which, under ord- 
inary circumstances, are either killed ofF through 
the shock of being pulled up, or from a break in the 
' planting ' weather, or through the water settling 
round the stem. Against oach of these evils careful 
transplanting with a ball of earth is found to be a 
wonderful safeguard. 
No. V. 
LOWCOCNTUY ESTATES — LEARNING BY EXPERIENCE. 
We feel it a simple duty to add a few " more 
last words," in order to do justice to the gentle- 
man who originated the Liberian coffee estate at 
Udapolla, and to whom its success is mainly due. 
Mr. R. Porter is a lirst-class Visiting Agent, and 
Mr. Jardine is a model Manager, and to both Uda- 
POLLA. owes much of good service. But, from first 
to last, Mr. Win. Carey Leechman has been the life 
and soul of an enterprise which we are glad to be- 
lieve will liberally reward him for his indefatigable 
exertions, and the firm to which he belongs for their 
liberal outlay on the "new products" cultivated on 
Udapolla. We speak from personal knowledge when 
we say that Mr. W. ('. Leechman put forth the 
whole energy of his nature, and spared himself neither 
in bodily fatigue, exposure to heat and disease, nor 
mental anxiety, in order to make the experiment the 
success which, iu less than four years, it has as- 
suredly become. The soil is fairly good, and it re- 
spouds to culture, especially good drainage, which has 
been found essential, although for a large portion of 
the year the climate is distinguished for a high de- 
gree of heat. We should think that iu some of these 
lowcouutry estates, where not so much masses of 
rock or large boulders are scattered over and in the 
soil, but manageable stones or fragments of rock, 
underground drains might succeed ? The danger, of 
course, would be choking up iu exceptional rain-storm*, 
although gratings might obviate this objection. If 
any experiment iu this direction has been tried, we 
should be very glad to learn the result. On looking 
at our few rough pencilled notes, we timl that the 
very bust trees, which resist leal' disease and yield 
in great abundance "cherries" of the largest Bize. 
are distinguished by drnso dark foliage, tho leaves 
being uot only sharp pointed but "crinkly.'' Seed 
gathered from such selected trees are sure to give 
immensely better results than the imported seed, 
which Mr. Win. Leechman, above most men, was 
successful in germinating, resorting to the expedient 
of spreading the seeds on coir mats and keeping them 
steadily damp until the cotyledons began to appear. 
Perhaps Mr. Leechman will admit that in. some 
cases he was only too successful. To illustrate our 
meaning, wo may mention that we once visited a medical 
man who, by constant care as to temperature, &c, 
had undoubtedly prolonged, by nanny years, the ex- 
istence of his wife, who was suffering from a b; d 
form of heart disease. In reply to our natural remark, 
" What a blessing to humanity has medical science 
become," he replied: "In many cases the benefit is 
questionable : the feeble and diseased, who used to 
die, are kept alive to grow up and marry and per- 
petuate their infirmities." We thought of this, when 
we heard that the few weakly trees on Udapolla 
owed their origin to imported seed which only Mr. 
Leechmau's unremitting cure compelled to germinate, 
and which, being imperfectly ripened and formed, 
gave, of course, trees after their own kind. Planters 
are now able to go to work at an immense advant- 
age over Mr. Leechman and others of us, who had 
to depend entirely on imported seed, some lots of 
which were all bad and many of which yielded only 
tens of plants for thousands of seeds. Those com- 
mencing now can fill their nurseries with not only 
seed from selected trees but the select seeds of the pro- 
duce of selected trees : seeds like those of the cherries 
we carried away as specimens and which (the cherries) 
weighed over a quarter of an ounce each. The modern 
planters, too, have the benefit of accumulated ex- 
perience in the correction of such ideas as that 12x12 
or 10x10 or even 9x9 feet distances apart were ne- 
cessary and shade essential for the new coffee. A 
proper use of Scowen's transplanters supplemented by 
Davidson's envelopes has proved that even t.:e ex- 
pense of temporary shade for plants put in. > the 
field in dry hot weather may be dispensed with. 
Trees planted 7X8, and, therefore, at the rate o'f over 
700 to the acre, may be expected to yield on an 
average (as already stated) one hundredweight of 
clean coffee for every fifty trees. As 5,700 cherries 
have been gathered from one tree on Udapolla, the 
rate of bearing mentioned, and which is calci. aDed 
on only 2,000 cherries to a tree, is likely in some 
places to exceed the figure 'we have mentioned. We 
wrote without our notes when we represented Vda- 
tolla as being free from insect plagues, after Mr. 
.Tardine had smitten the castor oil plant "poochies,' hip 
and thigh. More than thirty years ago, when the 
scale insect on coffee was as much a bugbear as the 
fungus and grubs* are now, a Mr. Young announced 
a euro lor bug by colonizing the coffee with red 
ants, which had been observed preying on the BOftle 
iinects. (Tho probability is that tho auts only fa;. <«< 
the ineoets for the sake of their juices.) The obvious 
objection, in view of too almost nude etate iu 
which the coolies worked amongst the coffee bushes, 
• A gentleman jast returned frqm an upnountry tour 
told um this morning that lie saw sixteen gmbf tal an 
up with the rooU of one tuftof grata. 
