May r, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
953 
LIBERIAN COFFEE, COCOA AND INDIA 
RUBBER. 
A correspondent, dating from a " Lowcountry Pro- 
ducts " estate about twenty miles north -eastward from 
Colombo, writes : — 
February is usually the driest month in the year 
over all Ceylon. On the present occasion, and in this 
locality, it could not be called a wet month'; but 
there was rain enough to prevent any check in the 
growth of our cultivated plants. Indeed, if I were called 
on to name the period of most rapid growth, dur- 
ing the last twelve months, I would say, from the 
middle of January to the end of February. The 
coffee trees, in their second year in the field, have 
in that time, added two pairs of branches and two 
pairs of leaves on all those pre-existing, and such 
of the ca>;ao trees as were previously thriving have 
made much wood, and got more and more into form. 
The older coffee has had a heavy blossom every 
ten days during the month, and there has been a 
considerable sprinkling on that in its second 
year, and more is still to come. There are no 
abortive flowers. All that open, set, and, on trees planted 
in November 1879, 2.000 faTly-establshed cherries are 
an exceptionally small crop, many of the larger trees 
having or promising more tlian double this standard. 
The larger c coa trees produce masses of blossom con- 
tinually, but the few pods that have formed drop 
before they attain the size of a coffee cherry. I have 
about 800 plants, of the Cnrracas variety, thriving in 
baskets, to fill in vacancies ; but I live in terror of 
the white ants, when lam obliged to plant them out. 
The rubber plants, resulting from seed obtained four 
mouths ago, are now four feet high, most of them in 
flower, and some of them with pods that bid 
fair to ripen their seed. There is now no ques- 
tion about the success of the plant. It only remains 
to be settled whether the produce will pay for collecting. 
Should experience decide this question in the affirmat- 
ive, Ceylon will be able to allay the anxiety felt 
in Europe about where the rubber of the future is 
to come from. As the rubber is not a pernickety plant 
as to its treatment, or the soil it grows in, it may 
be extended over all the abandoned coffee, in the 
lower districts, where the soil is too much exhausted 
for lea, cocoa or Liberian coffee, to siy nothing of the 
vast plains of the north and east. 
Cardamoms are rather slow coaches in the early 
stages of which alone I have any experience; extremely 
tender as Seedlings, of slow growth, and the prey of 
very minute insects. They seem now, however, incliued 
to make a start, and so far as I learn, how. shall 
meet with all due encouragement. I am advised to 
plant out adder shade aud will do so, though no friend 
to the system of hiding away cultivated plants from 
the light of the sun. In Ceylon, the Arabian coffee 
has long placed the question of shade beyond the 
region of debate, aud the Liberian is asserting a like 
predilection For solar influence. Under even moderate 
shade it becomes a large, open, long-jointed, large- 
leaved, brilliantly-green tree, but it yields little, or 
no crop. Shade for cocoa is still an open question, 
but the decision will probably turn out the same as 
for coffc. Everyone who attempts to grow this plant 
where wind blows soon learns that shelter for the 
young plant is a necessary element of Buccess, und, 
young or old — so far as my observation ha» hitherto 
enabled me to judge— it is as much a sun-iowng plant 
as any of its fellows. Shelter, by all means: tem- 
porary shelter for the young plants, and closely-planted 
line* of j.ik would answer, or any other 
valuahlt t inber tree with heavy foliage at regular 
•paces ..cross the course of the wind. I uamo 
202 
jakasthe most suitible tree I know, for shelter belts 
in the lowcountry, but there may bo otheis of 
equal value. In soil fit for Liberian coffee or cocoa 
cultivation, it will reach a height of 20 feet in three 
years; branches low, has denso foliage, and is worth 
money, in the course of 20 years, to eay nothing of 
the fruit it bears in the mean time. I have been 
thinking about the ceara rubber for this purpose, but 
its appearance is not favourable to the idea ; it has 
not the look of a good wind-resister, with its sparse 
foliage, and brittle-looking branches. We will however 
see how it behaves when further advanced. 
The Hemileia has not been spreading litely, and 
some of the plants formerly suffering seem to be 
throwing it off'. There are however many to which 
it still clings, and which will furnish abundance of 
spores when the suitable season for its propagation 
arrives. 
It is said that leaf-disease has not killed ont one 
Arabian coffee tree in the island, but it killed many 
young Liberian plants here, all grown, from one 
batch of seed livjlihj recommended. I have no doubt 
the liability was inherited from the parent trees, 
and, whatever others may do, I accept the warning, 
never henceforth to take seed from an affected 
plant. 
I saw a curious whirlwind here the other day, 
travelling across the estate from south to north, at 
the rate of about three miles an hour. It wa< some 
15 feet in diameter at the base; it picked up all 
the loose leaves in its course, carried them fifty or 
sixty feet high, where they gyrated like a fbek of 
swallows, and then gradually settled down, as they 
passed out of the influence of the storm. I have seen 
the same sort of thing before, but never had so long 
or so good a view of it. 
Our readers will notice that our correspondent's experi- 
ence of the rapid growth, and precociousness and heavi- 
ness of bearing of Liberian coffee is consistent with that 
of others, including Mr. Prestoe of the Trinidad Botan- 
ical Gardens. In a very interesting report on Liberian 
coffee, which we hope to publish in an early issue, 
Mr. Prestoe says his fear is the trees may ex- 
haust themselves from bearing too heavily in the early 
years of their existence, and he suggests thinning out 
the cherries. Of course this would mean taking awav 
the smaller cherries, if the crop came on at once, as 
in Arabian coffee, but in the case of this wonder- 
ful coffee, the ordinary process of picking must be 
one of constant thinning out. But, no doubt, what 
Mr. Prestoe means is that all the cherries should 
not be allowed to ripen, lu the case of cocoa, nature 
seems to interfere so as to prevent the evil effects 
of premature bearing. But, if we understand our cor- 
respondent aright, Ceara rubber trees excel all others 
in precocity. Trees four months from the seed, four 
feet high and most of than in fiowr ! Does this ex- 
perience square with that of other growers, and 
what degree of longevity can be expected for trees 
which flower and even fruit at four months from 
germinating and which will be tapped for the juices 
of their bark ? What our correspondent says about 
juk trees for shelter belts is worthy of attention. 
The primings for fodder will be useful as well as 
the fruits for tood, while the tree is maturing for 
timber purposes. But mangoes and oranges might 
also be put in with reference to supplying the Colombo 
markets, which will be heavily drawn upon by the 
passenger and mail steamers about to resort to the 
port in increased numbers. 
