iSS 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept,  i,  1892. 
the  general  prosperity  of  the  coffee  industry  provided 
the  labour  supply  be  as  plentiful  in  the  future  as  it 
has  been  during  the  past  year,  and  seasons  are  favour- 
able. 
THE  WHOLE  TEUTH  AS  REGARDS  BOBER 
appears  to  be  as  far  from  solution  as  it  ever  was,  The 
good  oid  way  of  removing  the  trees  and  burning  them, 
although  it  may  not  make  a big  hole  in  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy,  has  at  least  the  recommendation  that  the  un- 
sound trees  are  got  rid  of  ; and  it  appears  to  keep  the 
evil  within  bounds.  If  they  wore  left  alone  some  perhaps 
would  recover,  but  the  majority  of  those  that  did  not 
die  out  would  carry  on  a precarious  existence  doing 
no  good  whatsoever ; and  in  process  of  time  whole 
estates  would  be  reduced  to  a similar  condition. 
Borer  is  less  severe  in  forest  than  in  low-lying  bam- 
boo lands.  Is  the  warmer  climate  of  the  latter  or 
the  bamboo  accountable  forthis  ? New  clearings  some- 
times suffer  very  badly  three  and  four  years  after 
being  opened.  The  burn  probably  drives  the  insects 
out  of  the  place,  and  they  do  not  return  to  it  till  they 
find  no  farther  danger  is  to  be  apprehended.  They 
have  been  found  to  lodge  in  decayed  wood,  and  I once 
found  one  in  a dried  twig  of  a jungle  tree.  Native 
proprietors,  except  the  few  who  work  on  European 
lines,  do  not,  as  a rule,  remove  borers  ; hence 
A NATIVE  NEIGHBOUR  IS  MOST  OBJECTIONABLE. 
His  place  soon  becomes  a breeding  nursery  for  borers 
whence  they  migrate  in  swarms,  carrying  destruction  in 
their  path.  This  is  one  reason  why  the  average  yield  of 
native  gardeusis  so  muoh  poorer  than  that  of  European 
estates.  Much  has  been  said  about  the  coffee  industry 
being  eventually  entirely  left  in  the  hands  of  native 
cultivators,  owing  to  their  being  content  with  small 
profits  and  consequently  not  adopting  a forcing  and 
exhaustive  system  of  cultivation.  On  the  other  hand, 
I am  afraid  their  system  of  cultivation,  which  con- 
sists in  taking  all  they  can  get  out  of  the  land  without 
making  any  adequate  return  iu  the  shape  of  manure, 
is  calculated  to  bring  about  its  destruction  as  speedily 
as  possible.  A Coorg,  who  owns  a small  place  near 
Santikoppa,  told  me  that  he  got  a 6,000  rupees  crop 
off  it  last  season  and  spent  only  half  that  sum  in  the 
working!  Native  cultivators  are  heavily  handicapped 
by  the  high  rates  of  interest  demanded  by  Sowcars  for 
loans.  18  and  24  per  cent,  are  the  ruling  rates, and  they 
have  to  hypothecate  their  crops  to  secure  the  loans  and 
sometimes  are  induoed  to  allow  the  lenders  to  take 
them  at  a lower  valuation  than  the  ruling  market  rates! 
The  individual  above  referred  to  considers  himself  for- 
tunate in  beiDg  able  to  borrow  at  12  per  cent ! There  are 
of  course  several  native  proprietors,  and  all  honour  to 
them,  who 
DO  THINGS  IN  THE  RIGHT  WAY. 
Mr.  Thimiah,  who  has  recently  become  famous  through 
H.  I.  M.  the  Queen  Empress  conferring  the  title  of  Rai 
Bahadur  on  him,  is  one  of  them.  He  owns,  I believe  three 
fine  places,  one  in  South  Coorg  and  two  in  North 
Coorg  and  has  been  successful  with  all  of  them.  The 
oue  near  here  possesses  a good  soil  and  aspect  and 
has  invariably,  I hear,  done  well.  It  has  a fair  supply 
of  Palghaut  Wodur  labourers  and  work  is  fairly  well 
forward.  Mr.  Nanjappah,  the"  advocate  and  brother 
of  Dr.  Apiah  of  Bangalore,  owns  a nice  young  place 
near  Mr.  Thimiah’s.  It  uufortunately  appeared  to  be 
short  handed  a while  ago.  One  is  quite  strnok  with 
the  enterprise  shown  by  the  owner  in  fencing  in  the 
places  with  barded  wire.  He  did  not  stick  at  the 
expense.  It  proves  to  be  very  good  economy  in  the 
long  run.  Barbed  wire  fences  promise  to  become 
quite  an  institution  in  the  country  in  the  near  future, 
several  estates  hereabouts  having  gone  in  for  them. 
THE  MUCH-MALIGNED  CHARCOAL  OB  BENDE  TREES. 
Juas  also  been  charged  with  causing  borer.  I do  not  know 
,how  this  is  maintained.  Many  of  us  are  of  opinion  that 
it  is  the  planter’s  best  friend,  as  it  springs  up  spon- 
taneously and  soon  covers  a young  clearing,  affording 
protection  to  the  coffee  and  the  durable  kinds  of 
shade  plants  planted  out  with  it.  It  is  undeniably 
a source  of  danger  if  left  beyond  a certain  limit  of 
time,  os  if  it  dieB  of  itself  the  coffee  for  several  feet 
around  it  dies  out  with  it.  If  on  the  other  hand  it 
is  killed  by  a ring  being  cut  into  the  steam  near 
the  ground  no  harm  is  done.  I confess  to  have  been 
considerably  nonplussed  in  this  connection  by  being 
met  with  the  query  “Supposing  something  goes  wrong 
in  the  soil  which  kills  both  the  charcoal  and  the 
coffee?  ” It  may  be  so,  but  why  should  a detrimental 
change  of  this  nature  take  place  only  at  the  spots 
occupied  by  the  trees  in  question  ? Matters  being  as 
above  related, 
THE  USUAL  PRACTICE 
is  to  gradually  get  rid  of  the  trees  as  the  permanent  ones 
make  sufficient  growth  to  take  their  places.  The  limit 
beyond  which  none  of  them  should  be  retained 
is  a matter  of  opinion.  It  has  been  put  at  6,  7 and 
9 years,  but  they  are  sometimes  left  beyend  that.  I 
have  noticed  them  dying  in  fields  of  11  and  12  years, 
causing  much  damage.  I recently  notioed  the  death 
of  an  old  jungle  tree  causing  similar  damage.  The 
decaying  stump  of  the  jnngle  nutmeg  does  the  same. 
Hull  thus  refers  to  it “ The  stump  of  a certain 
class  of  tree  causes,  when  beginning  to  decay,  the  death 
of  all  the  coffee  trees  in  its  immediate  vicinity.  The 
remedy  for  this  only  lies  in  the  removal  of  the  stump 
in  question.”  This  form  of  blight  was,  I believe 
common  down  the  ghauts,  where  it  was  pointed  out 
to  Mr.  Hull  when  on  a short  vist  to  Coorg. 
flogging  a cooly  to  death. 
A Coorg  ryot  was  a short  time  ago  fined  RfiOO  and 
imprisoned  for  6 months  for  chastising  a cooly  lad  of 
his  so  severely  as  to  cause  his  death.  The  boy’s 
offence  Was  that  he  had  absconded.  The  ryot  bad 
some  time  previously  a breach  of  contract  case  in  the 
Subedar’s  Court  against  a man  and  his  two  wives,  who 
had  taken  employment  on  a European  place.  They 
pleaded  in  defence  low  payments,  oppression,  and  that 
their  marks  had  been  affixed  to  the  contraot  bond 
under  compulsion.  As,  however,  they  could  produce 
no  witnesses  to  bear  out  their  statements,  they  were 
ordered  to  go  back  and  work  out  their  contracts.  The 
conviction  of  the  ryot  lends  a guise  of  truth  to  their 
story  ; but  1 don’t  suppose  this  can  help  them.  There 
have  been  some  early  arrivals  of  labour  from  Puthur 
way.  These  have  been  able  to  complete  their  paddy 
field  work  as  their  fields  are  supplied  with  water  from 
streams.  The  great  bulk  of  coolies  cannot  be  ex- 
pected for  some  time  to  come  as  the  long  break 
in  the  weather  has  retarded  cultivation  generally. 
WAYLAYING  COOLIES. 
Some  landholders  here  are,  I believe,  in  the 
habit  of  waylaying  these  coolies  on  the  Manga- 
lore road  as  they  come  in  and  impressing  them 
into  their  service,  thus  preventing  them  from  ful- 
filling their  legitimate  contracts.  I know  it 
for  a fact  that  some  coolies  belonging  to  a European 
estate  were  impressed  in  this  way  and  the  offender  got 
into  a blue  funk  and  begged  off  when  the  gentleman 
concerned  looked  in  on  him  about  the  matter.  Some- 
thing ought  to  be  done  to  prevent  this  sort  of  thing. 
The  coolies  are  too  ignorant  and  frightened  usually  to  do 
anything  for  themselves. 
the  weather  dubing  june 
was  abnormally  light,  the  break  reported  in 
my  notes  of  the  16th  ultimo  continuing  up  to 
the  16th  instant.,  and  the  total  fall  of  rain 
for  the  month  amounting  to  only  9 inches  32  cents  at 
Mercara  and  6 inches  58  cents  on  an  estate  near  Santi- 
koDpa.  The  rainfall  registered  for  the  same  month 
last  year  amounted  to  12  inches  83  cents  at  the  for- 
mer place,  and  6 inches  '56  cents  at  the  latter. 
As  this  was  something  under  the  average,  it  will  be 
seen  the  fall  this  year  has  been  exceptionally  small. 
9*78  were  however  registered  at  Mercara  in  May  as 
compared  with  6'59  the  previous  year.  This  will  have 
made  up  in  a measure  for  the  short  fall  in  June.  On 
the  whole,  from  the  1st  of  January,  1892,  to  the  end  of 
June  the  deficiency  amounts  to  about  3 inohes.  This 
does  not  appear  very  alarming,  but  it  was  apprehended 
in  some  quarters  that  great  harm  would  result  to 
