April i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
835 
id the best I could for 
twenty lour hours out 
were all carefully si 
itiis tim", 
0111 Kollu- 
nono of 
ground, 
nth jun- 
but the 
; another 
nty years' 
planting 
season of 
id the 
lit, ioi 
tly as I did then. 
nail plants that re- 
more advanced onse 
see them from the 
ling of September, 
thirty per cent of 
" From 
Tamil coo 
to eetablis 
estate. A 
do wiihou 
to work 0 
Miiallv OV( 
lost. The 
before a h 
Again the 
continued 
that I rer, 
pitiya. I 
them wen 
and they 
gle leaves almost 
rains stopped tim next 
dr.'p for upwards of ; 
experience of other ' 
1 concluded that Jut 
month, but, at least 
lS7i» *as abnormal!} 
that it would be 
Believed then that t 
planting out. The el 
the possibility of ar 
which there was the 
certainty that if thi 
six month! 1 , a large 
and all be more or 
the affairs at this lap 
the circumstances, bu 
"It remains to tre 
maiued at Kollupitiyi 
bad been removed, 
middle of June till 
daring which time I 
them had perished, 
left where they we 
till the next plantin 
had prepared soil of 
•hade and water at 
them in, tilled with 
though the weather 
that, by dipping the 
diluteil cowdung, am 
gunnies, they could 
perfectly succe-^tu , 1 
had no previous ae 
chosen home oi the 
the month in wind 
and most active. 
Besom ces for saving those seedlings, that 1 brought 
aw- ay above three tiiousaud of tho?e that hail already 
■ dropped all their leaves, but the very first night 
' that thc.v were in the ground the crickets cut five 
per cent, mid they continued to increase their depre- 
date 11- nightly, till within a month not live per cent 
BHuiued uncut, and, in very fact, before the middle 
" of November, when they stopped, there were not 3U0 
out nf the tour thousand, that might have been fairly 
Bpeoted to survive, that the nicker had not des- 
trey. d. 1 b lievcd at first, that they were only in 
the root'-d unci u- tidied nurse ty uioiitid, and trio, 
to exterminate tin in by digging tin in out. 1 thus 
destroyed many thousands, bul produced no effect, 
and 1 80ou found that they were rvory where. My 
two years' experience his not resulted in any plan 
of absolute protection for plants under eight or nine 
Srehoe in height, I ut, though many are cut in t li ■■ 
Mftninntiog sheds, they are very much safer there 
than outside. Again the baskets are not a certain 
protection, but the percentage of destruction is much 
lens than outside. The bud months are Maroh and 
Apul. September and October, but there is uo time 
that more or less ot them are not in tho ground. 
juaintance. This land was tin 
mole cricket, and September i; 
i its armies are most numerous 
I had bi-en so confident in mv 
The conclusions 1 have arrived at are, that germin- 
ated in sheds and transplanted thence into baskets, 
we may calculate on a loss of 20% before the planting 
out : but, if they are kept in the baskets till well 
hardened, and eight inches high, and planted out at 
the end of the cricket seasons, in May and November, 
very little loss will take place in tho field. I may be 
asked, why, when seedlings are in such clanger, on this 
place, I do not get strong, well-hardened plants, 
from elsewhere. My answer is that, except when 
very young, the Liberian coffee stands transplanting 
badly, and, if it encounters a serious check in the 
operation, it never regains its original vigor, even 
when it survives the occasion, and our climate is so 
uncertain, that the finest planting weather may be 
suddenly succeeded by a period of dry sunshine, 
very trying to any recently-transplanted member of 
the vegetable kingdom. For those causes I germinate 
the seed in sheds. I transfer the seedlings to baskets, 
and con avail myself of a few showers at any time, 
without fear of any serious check to the growth of 
the plant, and it is by this treatment that I have 
plants with seven pairs of branches, and a fair sprink- 
ling of flower at eighteen months from eeeds. 
" Of the first year's planting, the least disastrous 
was the produce of the seed you imported, and which 
only gave about 800 plants. These 1 planted during 
the November rains, which came late that year, and 
stopped early ; so that they had to encounter a try- 
ing drought, before they were fairly settled ; besides, 
the crickets having lingered long that seasoD, about 
200 of the smallest were cut. With all those draw- 
backs, about a third of that lot survived, and are 
now many of them fine trees, with a sprinkling of 
crop, and a large promise for next year. 
"As nearly every one who had imported or bought imported 
seed had burned their fingers more or less severely, there was 
no more question of resorting to Liberia for seed, aud locally- 
grown seed continued very scarce and very dear, and none 
was obtaiued till the following June, when 20,000 were 
purchased for K300 from . This seed could not 
have been good, for little more than 30 per cent germinated 
in the sheds. I was at first iucliued to ascribe some of 
this loss to neglect of watering during ten days of com- 
pelled absence on my part, but continued experiments 
with fresh seed proved that there had been no loss from 
this cause. Liberian coffee seed held its high price till 
the end of 1SS0, when so many trees came iuto bearing 
that the supply very nearly came up to the demand, and 
it has regularly fallen in price ever since till now. I can 
supply it from my own place at a nominal price, say. 
one rupee per thousand. From my last nursery f planted 
up all the land formerly opened, supplied the thousands 
'lestroyed by crickets, and a new clearing of three acres. 
I have now about 8,000 ready for removal frot.i the ger- 
minating sheds, aud as soon as t hey are clear, I propose 
putting down 30,000 seeds to produce plants for November 
planting. Those I now have will be ready for May, but 
they will not suffice for all the interplanting emit tmplated 
for the coming year, besides the demands of the old field. 
J propose planting what still remains in jungle of the 
40 acre block. The following is my estimate for the new 
clearing pet acre :— 
Felling contract ... ... K10 
Lining and holing ... ... ^ 
Hootiug batali ... ... 8 
Plants ... i> 
l'lautiug and shading... ... S 
IMS 
The actual cost of the acre lot wus K100 for cooly 
labbur, mid 1 can get the holes made by contract, Kl'SO 
less than they cost by my own peop!c. 
"t'oc-uu is tho most "refractory plant, while yeuiig. that 
I ever have attempted to cultivate. Much of iuy fniltiiv 
wan no doubt clue to my own ignorance of the rcquirr- 
inents of the plaul : much tu uufavoutable S6O30OS ; but 
much more to white ants and other inteets. 1 did every- 
thing that my judgment could Mijjest for welfare, 
