April i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
697 
RATE OF GROWTH OP TEAK. 
Sir, — Yesterday I and the superintendent of Owella 
Estate, the property of the Ceylon Land and Produce 
Company, measured a teak tree planted there 20 
months ago, and the girth at an inch from the 
ground was 13 inches, while the height was only 
a few inches short of 20 feet. There are many 
more trees on same estate of same age measuring 
from 15 to 18 feet high, with a proportionate girth. 
I have seen other specimens of rapid growth of 
this tree in other parts of Matale district, which 
is pretty good proof that some parts of Ceylon are 
well suited for growing this most valuable timber 
tree. I am, &c, Jas, Wilson. — Local " Independent. " 
COFFEE. 
Culture du Oafeier : semis, plantations, taille, 
cueii.lette, depulpation, decorticage, expedition, 
commerce, especes, et saces, par E. Raoul, avec le 
collaboration pour lapartie commerciale de E. Darolles. 
(Paris : Augustin Ohallanel, 5, Rue Jacob, 1894.) 
This is the first part of the second volume of a 
Manuel des Cultures Tropicales, by E. Raoul and P. 
Sagot. The ground-work is that of the late Prof. 
Sagot. It is brought up to date by M. Raoul. The 
latter has had wide experience in the French tropi- 
cal colonies. He has also given attention to econo- 
mic subjects. The work is divided into two parts, 
viz., Partie Culturale and Partie Commerciale. The 
former deals with the distribution of Coffee culti- 
vation in various parts of the world, and the methods 
pursued in establishing regular plantations. It oc- 
cupies, however, only twenty pages, and is the 
weakest part of the book. The diseases of Coffee 
are discussed in fuller detail. An important chapter 
deals with the analyses of various parts of the Coffee 
tree, including the stem, branches, leaves, pulp, parch- 
ment, and beans. The preparation of the crop or 
export is well described. The botanical part is the 
least satisfactory. It consists of a bare list of species 
without any indication as to those of economic im- 
portance. For all practical purposes we have only 
Coffea arabica, with its several varieties, more or less 
distinct, which yield about 99 per cent, of all the 
Coffee known to commerce. Coffea liberica comes 
next, chiefly from Java. Malay States, and West 
Africa, Coffea stenophylla yields locally some Coffee 
at Sierra Leone ; and the Abeokuta Coffee of Lagos 
may come from a fourth species not yet identified. 
A very useful list is given t>y M. Raoul of suitable 
shade trees for Coffee. Shade trees, as a rule, are 
not much in favour with Coffee-planters, but those 
mentioned are certainly the best. A final page is 
devoted to the precautions necessary to keep out 
from existing plantations the destructive Coffee-leaf 
disease of Ceylon. This disease has already almost 
destroyed all the Coffee plantations in the old world. 
It has also reached East Africa, but is not known 
on the West Coast. It has also hitherto been kept 
out of the New World. This is by far the greatest 
enemy known to Coffee cultivation at the present 
time. It is not probable that this Manual will replace 
and of the existing works onCoffue. It has, however, 
a special merit in dealing rather more fully than 
usual with the machines and appliances for cleaning 
and curing Coffee ; and the commercial part, so far 
as we have tested it, is accurate and exhaustive. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
— ♦ 
SETTLING SINHALESE ON NEW LANDS. 
THE PALLEGAMA EXPERIMENT. 
It will bo with no little interest that we shall 
watch the experiment of setting Sinhalese upon their 
estate in the North Matale district now being under- 
taken by the Pallegama Grant Association. For many 
years we have thought it right to denounce as im- 
practical the half-hearted attempts made from time to 
time by Goverument to settlo indigent Sinhalese 
below somo largo and well-advertised irrigation work. 
In every case in which this has boeu attempted, 
bo far as we know, it has. egregionsly failed, but we 
68 
should be sorry to lay all the blame of this on the 
shoulders of the villagers. To take a number of 
men and women, drawn in all probability from an 
impoverished district, and to literally " dump" them 
down below the bund of some tank in a malarious 
country, and to expect them to convert the primeval 
forect into paddy fields in the course of a few months 
is the height of foliy. Food, seed, and we believe in 
some casss tools, were, it is true, supplied to settlers, 
but the task before these people invariably proved 
beyond their powers, and such a result might have 
been expected. But how different i3 the treatment 
which those who have gone from the Western Pro- 
vince to Pallegame will experience? The intending 
settlers are taken to the estate free of expense. 
They receive a small advance in money on their 
arrival, and are provided with regular work at fired 
wages from the date of their arrival, whilst comfortable 
lines are ready waiting for them. After six months 
every three men are to be given two acres of land, 
one irrigable and the other garden land. The former 
is cleared and only wants water, which is to be sup- 
plied gratis, and labour to convert it into gooi as- 
wedumized land ; so that all that is required is a 
certain amount of energy and labour for the settlers 
to become possessed of valuable land for their own 
use and benefit. Seed, of course, they will have ti 
purchase ; but the valuable part of the offer made 
to them is this, that work can be obtained by them 
in abundance close to their homes at fixed rates of 
pay, so that the means of earning a livelihood irres- 
pective of the land are given them, and they are 
thus provided against emergencies, so that the set- 
tlers ought to have no difficulty in gradually bringing 
the laud allotted to them into cultivation. A more 
advantageous offer has never, as we said before, been 
made to the people in Ceylon, and we hope that 
revenue officers will not fail to make the people in 
districts periodically visited by famine or pestilence 
acquainted with its terms. The settlement schemes 
of Government, on the other hand, were bound to fail. 
Mo provision was made for keeping the people alive 
and providing them with a livelihood whilst they 
were converting the lands allotted them into paddy 
fields — often the laborious work of years. They 
were abandoned to their own devices in the jungles 
and, not being used bo hard work, and generally of 
poor physique, they became an easy prey to disease ; 
and when the store of provisions provided them ran 
out they returned to their old homes too often to 
die. With the Pallegame scheme things will be 
very differpnt. The people will be well cared for 
from the day they reach their destination, a Euro- 
pean is on the spot to hear their complaints and 
generally to look after them and encourage them to 
work, whilst regular daily labor at a remunerative 
rate is provided for them. Everything that can be 
thought of, therefore, to make their path easy hns 
been done, and if the experiment fails this time, it 
will certainly not be the fault of the scheme itself 
or because too much was expected of the settlers. 
Failure will mean that the Sinhalese cannot be 
settled on new land either because of their inherent 
laziness or because they are incapable of assimilating 
themselves to new surroundings. Should such a 
scheme as this fail, it will be perfectly useless for 
Government to make similar attempts, however liberal 
the treatment accorded to the settlers may be. 
But should it succeed — as we hope it will succeed — 
then 'a very good "line" will be supplied to Goveru- 
ment as to how such settlements should be conduc- 
ted iu fnture,— Local Times. 

IRRIGATED COFFEE. 
The Possum, itiks ok Crop. 
(Special for the Planter.) 
In my former letter in this subject, describing the 
methods in vogue on the two famous but all too 
littlo known estates o( Northern Hay and I. 
1 had perforce to omit a good many points of 
interest owing to want of space. It is not too late 
yet, I think, to touch on tnem briefly. 
