682 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[May  r,  1893. 
aid  their  oabin  freights  afforded  to  their  goods 
freights.  Now  theBe  floating  palaces  must  have 
their  holds  filled  up.  Some  hundreds  oi  passengers 
aod  the  stores  and  water  needed  for  these  will 
not  suffice  to  ensure  stability  to  the  vast 
bulk  by  which  they  are  transported.  It  has  ( 
become  cheaper,  therefore,  to  carry  cargo  ' 
in  such  ships  almost  for  nothing  rather  than 
to  have  to  fill  up  with  the  ballast  required 
to  ensure  stability.  Passengers  may  be  described 
as  “top-hamper,”  and  their  weight  must  be 
counteracted  by  a load  we'l  below  the  centre 
of  a vessel.  It  was  attempted  to  supply  this 
to  some  extent  by  water-ballasting;  but  a shift- 
ing load  of  this  character  becomes  dangerous  when 
adopted  beyond  certain  narrow  limits.  These 
monsters  which,  week  aft;r  week,  disgorge  hundreds 
of  passengers  upon  our  shores  are  therefore  the 
Ohief  faotor  in  keeping  down  freights.  Their  re- 
ceipts being  mainly  for  passengers  they  can 
afford  to  fill  up  with  2,000  or  3.000  tons  of  goods 
at  almost  nominal  rates.  We  confess  we  do  not 
Eee  how  this  influence  oan  ever  be  got  rid  of  to 
the  extent  which  may  redress  the  effect  that  it 
has  upon  the  vessels  of  private  owners.  When 
we  hear  that  the  ships  of  the  P.  & O.  and  Orient 
Companies  are  carrying  oement  from  London  to 
Australia  for  one  shilling  and  sixpence  the  cask, 
we  may  well  believe  the  assertion  that  the  saving 
to  the  shipper  is  made  at  the  cost  of  every  in- 
dividual passenger  on  board  the  ship,  But  we  ean 
only  state  the  point : we  can  suggest  no  means  for 
reducing  the  disabilities  which  it  creates. 
COFFEE  IN  MYSORE. 
LiE  value  of  shade— no  buening  of  foeest— a new 
CEOSS  SPECIES  OF  COFFEE, 
We  had  as  visitors  two  leading  proprietary 
planters  frem  Mysore  s Mr  Middletcn,  formerly 
of  Ceylon,  a friend  of  many  years1  standing— ar,  exten- 
sive cultivator  of  cardamoms  as  well  ae  coffee,  and 
the  value  of  whose  main  staple  has  been  con- 
siderably affeoted  by  the  large  produotion  of 
cardamoms  in  Ceylon  of  reoent  years.  Still  ooffee 
is  making  amends,  for  Mysore  ocntinucs  to  orop 
well.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  successful  coffee 
planters  in  Mysore  is  Mr.  Moekett,  and  he  declares 
that  the  main  reason  why  their  ooffee  has  kept 
up  againBt  fungus,  borer,  bug  and  all  tbe  other 
modern  enemies  of  poor  coffee  in  the  Eastern 
hemisphere,  is  to  be  found  in  the  selection  of 
the  proper  shade  tree.  Mr.  Moekett  has  25  years’ 
experience,  and  yet  he  alleges  that  only  within 
the  past  ten  years  or  so  have  they  arrived  in 
Mysore  at  a proper  solution  of  the  “ shade  ” 
question  and  they  can  now  point  to  coffee  ae 
healthy  and  vigorous  as  they  could  wish  it  to  be. 
But  we  must  always  remember  the  rich  soil  and 
comparatively  dry  climate — inimioal  to  fungi — of 
Mysore  with  a rainfall  not  exceeding  70  inches 
concentrated  chiefly  into  a few  months.  Still,  why 
ehould  not  our  coffee  in  the  somewhat  similar  soil 
and  climate  of  Uva  live  as  long  and  do  as  well  as  in 
Mysore  ? On  this  point,  Messrs.  Middleton  and 
Moekett  (both  old  planters)  had  some  further 
suggestive  information  to  give.  Mr.  Middleton 
was  the  first  to  inlroduoe  (over  thirty  years  ago) 
the  Ceylon  system  of  burning  off  the  forest  into 
Mysore,  and  he  believes  it  now  to  be  an  utterly 
wrong,  mischievous  as  well  as  wasteful  system. 
To  Mysore  at  least,  it  proved  quite  unsuited. 
Estates  so  opened  never  lasted  beyond  a limited 
term  of  years,  no  matter  how  liberally  treated ; 
whereas  plaoes  opened  with  the  forest  ohopped, 
piled  find  allowed,  to  die  down  gradually,  how- 
ever untidy  foi  a term,  have  gone  on  without 
manuring,  yielding  heavily.  Next,  however,  we  learn 
bow  the  original  Coorg  “ chick”  coffee  proved  a 
failure:  it  was  the  diseovtry  of  tho  hardy  “Nal- 
kanaad”  enffee  that  made  the  cultivation,  always 
under  proper  shade  planted  and  cultivated  in 
the  clearing,  a success  in  Mysore.  A good  deal  of 
menuring  is  done,  but  both  gentlemen  have  even 
more  faith  in  digging  and  turning  over  the  soil 
in  their  fields  odco  a year — in  tilth  in  faot.  The 
returns  have  been  most  handsome  in  heavy  orops 
and  high  prices  of  reoent  yeais— though  the  past 
season  has  been  an  unfavourable  one  for  blossoms, 
&o.  A difficulty  now  is  about  labour ; for  with 
eo  keen  a demand  and  high  prioe  for  coffep,  the 
Mysore  natives  have  set  to  work  planting  it  on 
their  own  account  in  every  piece  of  ground  they 
can  command— often  most  unsuitably.  lodeed 
the  greater  part  of  such  planting  will  be  complete 
failure;  but  meantime  the  people  cannot  be  got  to 
work  for  the  planters  as  before.  Perhaps,  though, 
the  most  important  faot  related  by  Mr,  Middleton 
and  confirmed  by  Mr.  Mookett  has  reference  to  a 
new  coffee  plant — a cross  from  natural  cross-fertili- 
zation between  Liberian  and  Nalkanaad  coffee.  This 
plant  (and  he  has  a few  specimens  6 to  8 years  old) 
is  a very  vigorous,  bushy,  free  yielding  one.  It 
seems  to  have  the  good  qualities  of  both  the 
parents  with  none  of  their  drawbacks.  The 
bushes  have  never  been  touohed  by  disease  of  any 
kind,  though  they  are  in  no  way  treated  differently. 
The  orop  return  from  them  is  extremely  heavy, 
equal  to  a few  tons  per  acre,  It  is  only  within 
the  past  three  years  that  Mr.  Moekett  noted  these 
peculiar  bushes  in  his  Liberian-field.  He  has  now  a 
big  clearing  of  seed  which  he  believes  similar  to  what 
produced  these  cross-species ; for  he  has  already 
found  that  there  is  degeneration  if  he  takes  his 
seed  from  the  orossed  speoieB  itself:  The  first 
generation  alone  apparently  shows  the  vigour,  and 
heavy  cropping  oapacity  referred  to.  The  bushes 
in  their  wide-branching  luxuriant  appearanoe 
present  a contrast  to  the  tall  and  rather  spindly 
Liberian  and  equally  to  the  much  smaller  Nalka- 
naad bush.  We  are  promised  photographs  of  the 
bushes  as  well  as  some  seed,  and  further  infor- 
mation as  to  the  progress  of  the  new  olearing,  all 
of  whioh  will  be  of  interest. 
"♦= 
SCIENCE  TO  AID  THE  TEA  PLANTER. 
The  following  Resolution  was  moved  by  Mr.  T.  G. 
Haves  at  the  General  Meeting  of  the  Dimbula 
Planters’  Association  on  the  24th  March : — “ That 
this  Association  deems  the  time  has  arrived  for 
calling  in  the  aid  of  the  best  scientific  opinion  to 
determine  the  means  that  should  be  met  to  retain 
the  quality  and  quantity  in  the  output  of  tea  from 
the  island.”  The  mover  said  : Mr.  Chairman  and 
Gentlemen. — To  save  jour  time,  I have  written  what 
little  I wish  to  say  in  bringing  forward  tbe  motion 
that  stands  in  my  name,  and  I will  ask  you  to  allow 
me  to  read  it.  I am  no  speaker  and  my  objeot  is  to 
provoke  speech  from  those  who  can  talk  and  have 
something  to  teli  first  here  and  then  I hope  in  the 
other  Associations  of  the  island.  To  commence  with, 
my  motion  is  evidently  ambiguous  in  a way  I did  not 
intend.  It  has  been  taken  to  mean  that  our  enterprise 
is  in  so  risky  a condition  that  steps  must  be  taken 
to  bolster  it.  To  correct  this,  and  to  dissociate  my- 
self at  onoe  from  the  faction  of  croakers  at  heart, 
who  are  so  ready  to-tabe  alarm,  1 will  ask  leave 
to  amend  it  as  follows  : — “That  in  the  opinion  of 
this  Association  tbe  tea  enterprise  of  Cejlon  has 
reached  a position  of  present  success  and  future 
promise  such  aa  warrants  us  in  taking  tho  best  scion, 
tific  advice  eto.”  The  past  eight  years  may  fairly  be 
described  as  years  of  eearee.  First,  quite  early  in 
