Aug. r, 1894.] TFLE TROPICAL 
89 
no reason why the success attained I y Kondesalle 
should n< t be possible in most cases provided >nffi- 
cient rare is taken in the selection of the soil. We 
believe that complete failure resulted from an attempt 
of a similar kind made by Mr. Farquharson with 
the same seed, the soil in his case evidently not 
being suitable or so long abandoned as had been 
much of that on Kondesalle. It is p'ain, therefore, 
that, without great care, success is not to be looked 
for; but, given a good soil, long abandoned and well 
covered with lantana and jungle growth, coffee will 
make a valuable feeder to cocoa whilst the latter is 
coming into bearing, and without affecting it in the 
least. We should also like to see an attempt made 
to grow coffee again for its own sake, both on old 
abandoned land in some of the lower-lying districts e nd 
in new land. With prices as high as they are at 
present — and there is no probatility of any serious 
decline for many years to come — very small crops 
would pay handsomely; but it would be better to 
try coffee under light shade at a very low elevation. 
Anything like extensive clearings we do not now 
advocate, but those who hive really good laud at a 
low elevation might do worse than experiment with 
15 and 20 acres in coffee. If, h wever, this be thought 
too risky, it might be planted in alternate rows with 
tea and taken out, after it had borne one or, say, 
two crops, to make way for the tea. No great loss 
could possibly follow such an undertaking, and, with 
reasonable care and foresight in the selection of the 
soil, such as any old coffee planier would use, it 
might be very remunerative. Planted in conjunction 
with cocoa, as has been so successfully done on 
Kondesalle, it evidently provides a valuable adjunct 
to the premanent cultivation, so much so that we 
can quite believe that the superintendent of that 
estate will sacrifice the coffee to the cocoa — as the 
latter grows — only with great reluctance, as befits an 
old experienced coffee planter. However, altnongh 
it would not be prudent to open up large and un- 
supported clearings of coffee at any elevation, we 
are distinctly of opinion, from information reaching 
us from several sources, that it would be well to 
make small experiments in selected areas and under 
varying conditions such as those we have suggested. 
Care, of course, would have to be taken in the 
selection of seed, for it would be a great mistake 
to plantuup Ceylon seed again. There ought to be 
no difficlty, however, in obtaining good Coorg seed, 
and we do not doubt that Mr. Hamlin — who has had 
a loug experience of coffee planting in Southern 
India — would gladly be of assistance in ende>vour.ng 
to get down only the best, from trees supposed to 
be free from disease than any others His experi- 
ence and knowledge in such a iratter as that would 
he very valuable, for it is certainly remarkable that 
Southern India can still export 30O,0l'O cwt. of coffee 
annually in spite of leaf-disease whilst our export 
has fallen from 1,000,001) cwt. to some 50,000 cwt. 
Whether that is due to the greater isolation of estates 
in ludia or to the general use of shade, we cannot 
say, but some estates in Coorg and iti the Ouehterlo- 
ney valley are yielding large and highly remunerative 
crops to this day, and promise to continus doing so 
for many years to come. -Local "limes." 
TEA GROWING IN TONQUIN. 
-Sir, — There are several slight inaccuracies in 
your paragraph of the 21st headed " Over-pro- 
duction with a vengeance," as we 1 as in that 
commented on ther in and taken from the M. Mail 
This paper has made a hash of the name of the 
new tea district. It is, I expect, Pliu-Lang-Tuong — 
not "Plm-Tuong " Th s place is in Tonkin, not 
Annam, and on'y eight hours' steam from Hai- 
Phong, the commercial capital o! that country. I 
should have heard or read in the local papers if 
there were a " considerable area" under tea culti- 
vation i ither in Annam or Tonkin. There cannot 
be. What has happened id likely Ibis — 51. Mope do 
Vilert", the political officer who negociatcd the lato 
Franco-Siamese Treaty, is now, or was, Acting 
Governor of Ind > China, which, perhaps, £ had better 
state romprises what I will call the fonr Presiden- 
cies Cambodia, Cochin China, Annam, and Tonkin. 
J'c has very likely started tea planting; but, if 
so, it is only within the last six months, and he 
is a very clever chap if he has put "a considerable 
area" into tea in that time. 
There would be no forest or heavy chena in or 
near Phu-Lang-Tuong, and the soil would be poor 
and worn-out with ages of chena cropping — for at 
this ruinous system of agriculture the Tonkinese 
can give their Sinhalese brothers long odd. The 
rainfa 1 would be small — probably 50 inches — same 
as at Hanoi. 
From this place the Government has been mak- 
ing for the last 1h years a light railway to Lang 
Sm, the French Metz of Tonkin. This place is 
close to the western frontier of the Chinese Em- 
pire, and only a day's march from the Sung-Chi- 
Kiang, or western river, whi"h is here navigable all 
the way to Canton The object of this railway is 
obvious. About half, or fifty miles, is now fin'shed. 
Near to the place where the engineers have got, 
it crosses mountain ranges 3,000 feet high, and the 
land is all heavy forest. M. Mepe de Vilers may 
have started his plantation in this neighbourhood, 
but I doubt it. A short time since two French- 
men were seized by the pirates here, and they still 
hold them, I believe, Government declining to pay 
any more ransoms. The last given away was for 
the chief engineer of the railway, seized in 1892, 
and kept several months in "safe custo 'y". He 
did not like it, for when he returned to quieter 
scenes he was almost off his head, and his hair 
had changed from fair to grey. In this place an 
estate could only be opened close to a military post, 
and the superintendent would have to live within 
this (there are posts from five to ten miles along 
the railway for its protection) or start one on his 
own account. This would mean the keeping-up of 
a small native army not always to be depended on. 
The factory, too, would have to be inside the post, 
so as to save the expense of two garrisons. The 
super ntendent and his assistants would have to 
take all care when in the fields that they did not 
share the fate of the engineer, with this difference 
— that they would have to find their own ransoms. 
There are no Black Flags pirates in Tonkin 
now. The present pirates on the eastern frontier 
are nearly all Chinese, and many are regular troops 
from that country. I remember reading of 2,000 
Chinese regulars, well-armed, having joined the 
pirates here ; but this was in a few days contradicted 
by the officer commanding at Lang-Son, who stated 
that the number was only about 800. 
China deserves a sound drubbing for her perfidy 
in connection with pirate supplying, and she will 
get it one of these days ; but not before the railway 
to Lang-Son is comple ed aud French steeds have 
sniffed or drunk the " sweet waters" of the Spree. 
I was planting on the Black river — not the Ked — 
but I never saw Black Flags pirates "hunt the es- 
tate laborers." In the first place, as I have already 
stated, there are none now of this description, and 
if there were, they would not be so foolish as to 
chase common coolies, who had nothing worth tak- 
ing except their lives — a form of "spoil," which 
would not substantially help towards the support 
of a gang. I was not allowed to plant tea, coffee, 
or cocoa, only cotton, and on land almost as swam- 
p - as the late Mr. Venn's rice fields near Colombo. 
For my amusement, however, I was permitted to 
collect tea seed fr in the villagers aud start a small 
nursery. The jat seemed all right. Tea is indi- 
genous to Northern Tonkin. The natives there 
grow it in much the same fashion as the Sinhalese 
do, or did, c ffeo; but I never saw more than a 
f w trees round their houses, and the greater number 
had none at all. It never flushed, and th . did 
no mind in the least, when plucking, taking off 
coarse a d bangy leaves. This was sold to market 
women, boiled green in large pots, and ladled out 
in cups to the thirsty wayfarer. I was often, when 
travel ii'g, precious glad to get a cup of this bever- 
age, though s t >ng'y suspecting the wator was not 
