6 9 3 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April r, 1895. 
I have already mentioned that on two or three 
occasions over a ton an acre had been gathered off 
the whole estate in former years, but even this last 
year individual trees have borne at a rate far exceed- 
ing this splendid crop, despite the way in which 
they have been neglected for the last six years or 
so. 1 was shown n tree off which two bushels ol 
crop had been gathered. Now a bushel of cherry 
means about 25 lb. of parchment of coffee, therefore 
this tree was bearing at the rate of about 111, - 
per acrel What in the wide world can compare with 
this? Talk of gold mines, why a hundred-acre block 
of coffee bearing at this rate would, if valued on 
ten years' purchase, be worth about twenty million 
rupees, giving a yearly income of two milbon^I 
Shades of Pactolus, the very thought makes one fait.t. 
Touching on the value of irrigated coffee-land I 
see that Meenatchee Iyer's much bucked of irrigated 
coffee at Bangalore has bsen sold for R40,00U, or 
some 2,000 rupe s per acre. The go-ahead native 
owner disposed of it to a capitalist in Australia, on 
his recent visit to that country. 
A NOVEL WAY OF BEATING " BORER." 
Among the miny novel methods in vogue on Nor- 
thern Uay, Blr. Grey had a peculiarly smart way of 
doing Mr. Borer in the eye, wlieh I do not remember 
ever having seen before. Being in such a dry and 
hot locality, notwithstanding irrigation, and his shade 
not being yet fully established, he suffers a grep.t 
deal from this most destructive pest. So instead 
of fussing round with bark-scrapers and moth-catch- 
ers, he just allows his young trees to grow two 
stems instead of one, so if one stem is attacked by 
borer the other is still all right. By this means he 
has saved a very large number of trees on his joung 
extensions, as I witnessed myself, and consequently 
has saved the expense and great bother of planting 
up vacancies. If the tree escapes altogether, he does 
not trouble to cut down the extra stem ; being in 
such a dry climate his coffee doesn't rnn much to 
Wood, so it dosen't really matter one little bit. He 
believes thoroughly in nature and lets her to do his 
work for him as much as possible in her own way. 
In a correct appreciation of this fact lies most human 
wisdom, in things other than the cultivation of c ffee. 
NATURAL MANURES. 
There being any number of eiephants about, huge 
quantities of their dung can be obtained at a very 
cheap rate, but the value of the stt ffs is very slight. 
The largest part of the dung is simply half-digested 
bamboo fibre, which would probably take a long time 
to decay and could be, moreover, obtained a great 
deal cheaper direct from the jungle in the shape 
of gteen manure. Still, it would be interesting to 
know what real value elephant duug possesses com- 
pared with cattle-manure. If it were only worth 
half as much, it could sti 1 be probably obtained f> r 
less than half the price, and it would consequently 
jpay well to use it. In the i eighbouring Ochterlony 
Valley it is highly prized, and when the late Maha- 
raja of Mysore travelled up that way with his 
elephants, special relays of coolies followed ur> their 
tracks. A comical contrast just strikes me, the use 
of elephant dung in" India and that of silk-worm 
droppings in China for tea. In India the former is 
scorned by some, in China the microscopic refuse 
of the latter is prized: emblematic of the national 
characteristics. 
Descanting on the value of different kinds of this 
manure Mr. Grey alluded to the higher value of 
buffalo and cow dung compared with that of the 
horse and bullock. 
GRASS PESTS. 
Somewhat unusual pests on these irrigated gardens 
are the root of hurry aU grass, and the dubbie or 
flag-grass. The former shoots up to a great height 
on the slightest provocation, and nothing but deep 
forking and pulling up the roots is of any avail. 
Of courwe constant weeding keeps it down, but if 
left to itself at all it forms a dense bed of flags 
which starves and chokes up th" coffee, especially 
in young clearings. The liurryali is, perhaps, not 
gujte so bad, though it seerns more formidable owing 
to its tenacious roots and the thorough way in 
which it covers the soil In former days, when the 
estates were quite without shade, the only way they 
could keep the ( e^t under was by silting it over. 
That is to say fcbey dug h la' fie pitful of loose earth 
through whrch the irrigation water flowed, and bus 
each year a thick deposit of silt » as conveyed o'er 
the obuo' ious grass. The only objection to this was 
t' at at this si 1 1 was subsoil stuff, it spoilt the 
texture of the esUte surface soil, though, on t e 
other hand, if surface silt were used it would act as 
a top-dressing to the grass and make it spring np 
with rein wed vigonr. Hot weather foiking therefore 
and plenty of shade are the only means to keep this 
grass in check: luckily they do their work thoroughly 
well. Perhaps this grass is a blessing in disguise, 
after the stjle of the fable of the treasure in the 
orchard. 
Looking at it in another way, it would eem that 
the grass would make an excellent fodder and migiit 
be cut and sold in Ooty during the season for a 
good price. Iu fact, I hear Mr. Grey inWnda doing 
something that way this hot weather. The grass 
grows to about a foot high, and several ton* of 
valuable fodder might be cut per acre off some of 
the abandoned fields and roads. 
However, it would never do to encourage the grass 
at the expense of the coffee, s eing that the root9 
are seven to eight inches deep and form a regular 
mat, robbing the young supplies ail the year rnund. 
Iu fact in dry weather, when the young plants are 
parched and almost dying, it is impossible to turn 
on the water as it would gi e the gias* such a 
tremendous fillip. I forgot to mention that in the 
silting method to kill th- grass, the land was first 
well thatched and then silted. 
VARIETY OF SHADE DESIRABLE. 
Mr. Grey is a thorough believer in variety of shade 
and pins his faith to no one kind or jat, but far pre- 
fers alternate row6 of grevilleas, atti, jack, (though 
this last does not do well on Northern Hay) cedar 
and howligay. He has also tried some loquat, but 
does not like it very much, though he is not cutting 
any down He has a few howligay trees, tl e great 
cosy shade, which he does not much fancy; but that 
is because he has plauted them, as I have already 
mentioned in my former notes, far too far apart. 
The potato tree be has a certain effection ior, even 
up to the ^ge of six or seven years, though he cannot 
help sharing the general prejudice against it as a 
quick growing soft-wooded tree. Some Castilha elan- 
tica he has growing, very nicely, but the tranches 
are too low down and the leaves too big and thick, 
Still, in view of a ro3sible income from the rubber, 
he is watching their growth with interest Charcoal 
he objtcts to strongly when they are at all old, 
though it is hard to say why. 
Beloie I leave this subject of shade I fhould like 
to iusist on the tre.t importance of choising such 
trees for shade as will yield in some way or other 
a profit by the sale of their produce. The Castilha 
elastica gives rubber, the grevillea, if looked after, 
yields a most valuable gum identical with gum arabic 
— and there are doubtless other trees which would 
also be profitable. By the way, grevilleas can be 
made to branch out well if they are cut down close 
to the ground. About half a dozen stems 6hoot up 
and eventua ly form an ugly but very efficient shade. 
"Where sambhur are plentiful, this proceeding would 
hardly pay, but a modification might still be adopted 
with advantage. Let the tree grow np for say, three 
years, then top at 10 feet and cat back all, the young 
shoots for say one year within two feet of the stem. 
This would give a bvshy head and make the branches 
spread out properly. Grown in the usual way gre- 
villea is a decided sham. 
WIND BELTS, 
To protect the coffee from the wind before the 
shade trees had got properly up, Mr. Grey planted 
up a series of wild-croton hedges, which did the 
work well and quickly. This plant being almost a 
poison no animal w ill touch it, and its tenderest and 
niosi succulent shoots are left unharmed. 
