522 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb.  t,  1893. 
fore  same  in  weight  and  capaoity — ensuring  even 
tares.  They  save  20  per  cent  in  freight  and  10 
per  oent  on  the  inland  carriage. 
They  are  put  together  in  four  minutes  by  an 
ordinary  coo’y,  and  are  opened  and  closed  in  two 
minutes,  and  conveniently  sealed  against  pilferage. 
The  chests  when  emptied  have  a return  value  of  8 1 
per  chest  and  6d  per  half-chest. 
I was  informed  that  the  grower  will  actually 
save  2Jd  per  chest,  although  the  primary  cost  is 
greater,  no  lead,  hoop  iron  or  nails  being  required  ; 
but  this  is  not'  borne  out  by  experience — see 
figures  below. 
Here  is  the  comparative  price : — 
s.  d. 
Aomo  100  lb.  chest 
3 6 
Saving  on  inland  carriage  2d  ...  1 
Saving  on  freight  9d  / 
0 11 
2 7 
Cost  of  wooden  chest  R1 
1 3 
Lead  and  solder 
1 3 
Nails  and  hoops,  &a. 
0 34 
2 94 
In  repiy  lo  your  query  bb  to  cost  of 
tea  chests, 
here  are  my  figures  for  year  ending 
1892 
30th  June 
Per 
lb.  of  made 
tea. 
Cents. 
Cost  of  Japanese  fu  1-sized  cheats] 
•992 
delivered  at  Matale 
Hoop  iron  and  nails.. 
•121 
Lead,  solder  fluid,  Gtenoil  iok 
•761 
Cart  traneport  to  estate 
•10 
Carpenter’s  wages  
•097 
2 090 
Paokages  have  therefore  coH  2 09c.  per  lb.  of 
made  tea. — Yours  truly,  PLANTER. 
Coffee  Planting  in  Mexico.— We  received 
by  yesterday’s  mail,  a long  and  most  interesting 
account  from  our  well-known  correspondent,  Mr. 
W.  J.  Forsythji  (formerly  of  Maturata)  of  his  ex- 
perience as  a coffee  planter  in  Mexico.  It  is 
addressed  to  the  Tropical  Agriculturist  and  covers 
some  13  pages  of  post,  giving  full  particulars  of 
his  experience,  with  figures  for  cost  anl  results, 
and  a description  of  the  lands  available  for  coffee. 
These  are  ohiefly  on  the  Pacifio  slope  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  coffee  belt  is  distant  only  about  30  miles 
from  the  coast.  The  Guatemala  coffee  district's 
are  not  far  off.  The  jungle  is  very  fine  and  the 
Boil  rich  : the  mode  of  working  very  different  from 
that  in  India  and  Ceylon.  Mr.  Forsyth  is  busily 
engaged  opening  a large  coffee  plantation  himself 
out  of  Borne  3,000  acres  of  fine  forest  land  : he 
planted  250  acres  in  1891  ; 150  acres  this  year 
and  he  will  have  another  100  acres  in  by  June 
1893 — 300  more  acres  (the  forest  now  decaying 
away  after  only  a flight  burn)  to  be  planted  in 
1895-6.  But  we  must  refer  to  the  letter  itself  for 
the  full  particulars  and  further  letters  are  to 
f illow.  It  is  quite  dear  that  in  Mexico  and 
Guatemala,  besides  Jamaica,  the  Straits  and  the 
East  African  hillcouotry  there  is  plenty  of  soope 
still  for  the  experience  and  energy  of  Ceylon  coff  e 
planters  ; and  it  will  be  our  business  to  keep  them 
fully  apprised  through  the  T.  A.  and  Observer,  of 
the  ohanoes  open  to  them,  and  to  collect  the  best 
information  respecting  these  new  coffee  coun ! l ies  from 
our  own  correspondents  and  other  reliable  sources. 
THE  DRAINAGE  OF  OUR  ESTATES  AND 
PADDY  CULTIVATION. 
A correspondent  asks  us  if  we  have  ever  considered 
how  seriously  the  change  made  from  ccffee  to  tea 
as  the  main  growth  on  Ceylon  estates  has  affeoted 
the  paddy  cultivation  among  our  higher  ranges. 
He  tells  us  that  stories  have  reaohed  him  of  long 
cultivated  lands  having  had  to  be  abandoned  be- 
cause of  the  cessation  of  the  supply  of  the 
manurial  element  which  in  days  gone  by  used  to 
be  washed  down  from  our  ooffee  estates.  We 
cannot,  oite  any  instances  known  to  ourselves  of 
such  abandonment,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine 
them  as  the  result  of  changes  made  within  the  last 
twenty  years.  In  the  early  days  when  coffee  was 
king,  not  muoh  attention  was  given  in  the  lower 
planting  districts  to  systematic  drainage  on  estate5. 
The  leaves  and  cuttiogs  from  the  trees  were  turned 
into  the  soil  loosened  by  the  mamoty,  and  cufing 
heavy  rains  a large  proportion  of  such  admixture 
was  washed  down  the  steep  hill-sides  until  it  found  a 
resting-place  in  the  paddy  fields  cultivated  at  their 
base.  No  doubt  this  wash  was  of  a particularly  fer- 
tilizing description,  and  must  have  been  most  valu- 
able to  the  cultivators  of  fields  so  situated.  It  is 
alleged  that  this  supply  is  now  altogether  stopped, 
and  that  the  adoption  of  systematic  drainage, 
which  has  stayed  the  denudation  of  soil  from  the 
uplands  under  cultivation  with  tea,  has  become  a 
Eerious  matter  for  the  paddy  growers  in  the'lower 
country.  However,  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that 
improved  methods  of  drainage  had  become  a vital 
necessity  for  our  planters.  Denudation  of  the  soils 
of  our  hillsides,  which  no  longer  enjoyed  their 
natural  protection  of  long  graseea  and  under- 
growths, had  been  proceeding  for  a long  series 
of  years,  until  it  beoarne  a question  as  to  how 
long  there  would  remain  any  depth  of  soil  upon 
them  sufficient  for  cultivation  of  any  kind  to  be 
carried  on.  Now  one  of  the  ohief  outlays  that 
has  to  be  made  where  new  land  i3  beiDg  opened 
for  tea,  or  old  coffee-growing  is  being  abandoned 
for  it,  is  upon  the  establishment  of  a thorough 
system  of  drainage.  The  tea  bush  does  not  yield 
to  the  soil  that  return  of  leaf  which  the  coffee 
tree  did,  and  which  in  some  degree  compensated 
for  the  waste  due  to  the  oarrying-off  of  soil  by  the 
heavy  surface  wash.  If  any  soil  at  all  was  to 
be  retained,  therefore,  it  teiame  an  absolute 
necessity  to  put  a stop  to  this  surface  wash,  and 
the  care  taken  to  lead  eff  the  waters  by  accurately 
graded  drains  that  is  now  apparent  on  most 
estates,  proves  how  thoroughly  alive  our  planters 
have  become  to  the  duty  imposed  upon  them  by 
changed  conditions.  No  doubt,  however,  some 
wash,  in  spite  of  all  the  oare  taken  to  prevent  it, 
still  reaohes  the  lower  levels  in  which  the  paddy 
fields  we  have  alluded  to  are  situated.  But,  as 
we  have  pointed  out,  such  wash  does  not  contain 
the  same  manure  as  it  did  in  the  days  of  coffee 
cultivation,  and  we  therefore  think  it  likely 
to  he  oorreet  that  many  paddy  fields  that  in 
the  olden  time  were  reinvigorated  by  the  drainage 
off  the  coffee  estates,  and  flourished  exceedingly 
as  the  consequence,  are  now  suffering  so  greatly 
from  its  absence  as  to  render  it  not  worth  the  while 
of  their  owner  to  continue  to  cultivate  them  It 
was  time,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  that  some 
steps  should  be  tiken  to  maintain  a depth  of  soil 
upon  our  hills.-  The  fallen  coffee  leaves  no 
doubt  contributed  towards  this  end.  With  tea, 
even  though  mainly  a deep  feeder,  it  was 
necessary  to  adopt  a more  scientific  method  ; 
and  although  we  may  sympathize  with  the  paddy 
growers,  we  can  hardly  regret  the  loss  they  have 
now  to  put  up  with. 
