912 
THfc tropical 
AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1882. 
high as to allow rain and rubbish to be blown in by the 
wind ; and then place a stone up to the size of a fist to 
make all more secure. This done you may go on charging 
your vessels with a density of at least 5 per ceut., but, as 
said above, I would for the first charge recommend a den- 
sity of 10 per cent. The effects of the first week's dense 
vapour will amply repay the extra outlay in striking a 
deathblow, not only against the rust in full developement 
but— which is the greatest triumph of my system — against 
the mycelium of the fungus. This first blow will under 
these circumstances save a large proportion of the foliage 
unless too far gone, by instantly arresting the develop- 
ment of the fungus, and killing all that may be still alive 
on the dead and dying leaves strewing the ground. If 
the disease is not visibly present, all the better ; the car- 
bolic vapour will in a short time force it to show itself, 
chiefly in the character of dying mycelia, and save still 
more or all of the foliage which would have gone in the 
next attack of disease. The treatment may be started at 
any time with equal advantage. One week's ordinary 
weather will be found to evaporate about one-third of the 
contents of the cups, and thenceforth weekly supplies of 
5 per cent, will be quite sufficient. Should at any time 
during a spell of wet cool weather so little water have 
evaporated (evaporation of the acid goes on continually) 
that there is not room in the cups to receive the or- 
dinary quantity of diluted acid, raise the density of 15 
per cent, or more, or only give a few drops of undiluted 
acid. All this is easily calculated, and must be left to the 
discretion of the operator. 
If planters are disinclined to make larger experiments, 
they may try my system with as few as 10 acres, and th y 
will soon see the contrast between them and the untreated 
portions of the field. One acre with another will only take 
thirty vessels. Six months after starting the process those 
10 acres and a considerable margin all round will be in full 
foliage and crop, when the area outside the limit of effective 
vaporisation may be standing without a leaf, aud the crop 
shrivelling and starving for want of shelter and food con- 
ductors. Choose your trial patch right in the centre of a 
good 100-acre field, and the experiment, conducted with 
ordinary intelligence and regularity, will in a few months 
convince the most sceptical of the value of my method. 
The chief merits of my method of permanent vaporisa- 
tion may be summarised in the following: — 
1. Undeniable simplicity. 
2. Economy of material and labour. 
3. The most perfect control. 
4. Oomplet isolation of material from soil and plants. 
5. Complete and unconditional immunity from leaf disease. 
I could bring the evidence of several neighbours who have 
witnessed the conditions of the nursery and the few solitary 
trees, and the effects of my process, but as it could serve 
no practical purpose I abstain from doing so. 
Some months ago I applied to the Fijian Government 
for protection of my invention, and was refused on the 
strength of the reading of the local Patent Ordinance, which 
only partly covers the subject of my discovery, and only 
applies to inventions of a purely mechanical nature. My 
process has to be exhibited for many months in the open field, 
and cannot be kept under lock and key like a new machine 
not to mention paltry matters patented every day. There- 
fore I commend myself and my interests ouce more to 
the good-will and love of justice of the public. Jacob P. 
Strode, Belmont Estatne, RewaBivcr, Fiji Islands, November 
25th 1881, 
Mr. Storck'a mode of application may have some 
advantages over that of Mr. Schrottky. 
Cevlon Cloves. — We call attention to the inter- 
esting report in anol her column from Messrs. Brookes 
& Faith on a pircel of locally produced cloves : 
it is satisfactory once more to see that whatever we 
grow and ship from Ceylon is sure to be about the 
li st of its kind. We wish the pioneers in cloves all 
"stkav Notes, 5th March.— Before- settling down to 
v, oik, in, friend and ] continued our rambles through 
the districts lhat havu their outlet via Nawala- 
,)itiya. We found old Kotinale in the name spot as 
it wa8 when I knew it first, but I regret to say some 
of the fine old coffee is now of little good, but other 
places look as fit as they were years ago and I must 
say in far better order than they were when I knew 
them first. I can't but think that large doses of 
forcing manure have caused some of the "red braes" 
you see in the old district. You will there see the 
advantage of Sombreorum in ihe zigzags of old Kataboola. 
Ambagnmuwa and Lower Dikoya I found looking fairly 
well. The former shows well up in tea, and, if it con- 
tinues to grow as well as it is doing, it will certainly 
take the shine out of all the tea I have hitherto seen. 
The coffee in the latter district is certainly not so 
good as it ought to be, or as it was a few yeais 
ago ; the cause is no' far to seek: want of cultivation 
and Colombo management. To prove I am correct 
take Abergeldie estate as an instance. It looks as well 
as it did five years ago, and I am led to believe is 
giving fair returns even in these bad seasons, and it 
looks to me as if it was to do well this coming crop. 
There is no denwng the fact that cultivation checks 
leaf-disease ; any one can see that in the abovemen- 
tioued estate. In my last I spoke about seeing the 
future Ceylon in the lowcountry. Don't for a mo- 
ment conclude that ihe new di-tricts are not to play 
a good part for years and years. Only give us seasons 
and fair cultivation, and coffee will cone down to 
you as of yore. The fine fields of coffee are still to 
the fore. I will challenge any one to say otherwise 
than that coffee is now as fine in Dimbula as ever it 
was, barring a few phices that are said to have been 
eaten with grub, but still they Kill improve. 1 saw 
one place last year like a new clearing; this year it 
is a fine cover of coffee. Auyone that doubts coffee 
being again king let him go through Dikoya and then 
go to the too of Dim hula, the Agras, Wallaha and 
K'attagaloya Valley. Coffee there is as fine as it was 
six years ago. The other part of Dimbula I have not 
seen for some months, but, from what I hear of the 
crops it has given, I conclude it is in as good fig as 
the places I h ive mentioned. I also did Maskeliya 
and I was glad to see that the places that were done 
up with the grub are improving and look quite 
another thing to what they were some months ago. 
Maskeliya is a district that is very much rundown; 
the reason I don't know. I think the blame lies in the 
style of management. If the managers would l>-t a little 
more light into their trees, coffee would again do as 
well as it has done in days gone by. I was told b\ a 
visiting agent that it was "want of cash and too much 
lawn tennis" that was the reason many of the estates 
were in such a matted state. All I know is that the 
estates in that valley don't look so well managed 
as they are in the other two districts. I was glad to 
see cinchonas were promising so well in all the dis- 
tricts I went through, but there is no doubt that the 
A^ras are head and shoulders to the front boat in 
coffee and cinchona. I find the estates there are 
managed, or mostly so, by the residents, and not from 
Colombo offices. Another fact I learned in mi travels 
was that all the estates that have given a decent crop 
and are promi-ing to give another are so managed by 
ttr managers on the places. Strange but neverthe- 
less true. So the conclusion I have come to is that 
coffee if fairly dealt with, will again pay the planters 
quite as well as it did four or five years ago. Crops 
may not be so heavy, but then the 'lesson planters 
have had in cheaper working will compensate for a 
year or two of less heavy bearing. As I have already 
said, don't blame the coffee. We still have the trees; bad 
seasons and bad management had to account for our 
short crops. If proprietors and agents think they can 
get crop from place-* that only shew an expenditure of 
H 30 per acre and places that have not been we-ded or 
suckered for four or five months, they are certainly mis- 
taken. It is after treating places in the way I have men- 
tioned that the cry has got up coffee is doomed. — B, W. 
