282 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct, 1, IflOO. 
low. I have one Pepper vine doing well. 
Vanilla and Kola plants were introduced, 
but they died before reaching maturity. 
Wild Pepper, both the vine and the tree 
varieties, are to be found in the forests. 
CINCHONA. 
Ledgeriana and a good hybrid were in- 
troduced by somebody and are to be 
found on some estates, but they are not cul- 
tivated to any extent. I have often thought 
of putting in a nursery of Ledgeriana, as it 
seems to grow well,and now the price is better, 
there is encouragement for attention to this 
valuable tree. 
I remember the days when the Dimbula 
planters used to value Cinchona Succirubra 
trees at so many rupees each, and calculate 
their fortunes by the number of growing 
trees.and their age;— quinine was then selling 
at a guinea per ounce. I went in for planting 
cinchona with the rush, but found when 
my trees were fit for harvesting that the 
bark, when delivered in Colombo, did not pay. 
CHILLIES. 
Some time ago I saw a letter in the Observer 
from somebody in Kakwana, enquiring about 
the cultivation of chillies. I have 100 odd 
acres planted between the Jines of coffee as 
a catch crop ; they are now three years old 
and lots are beginning to die off after 
continuous cropping for two years. After 
the first crop I cut them down and dug them 
in as manure to the coffee ; they grew up 
again quickly, and I have now nearly 
finished a second crop. I intend to uproot 
and dig them in altogether in the course of 
a few months more, as the coffee 
has now closed in upon them and they have 
served me well, having more than paid for 
the opening of the coffee-clearing. I could 
not pick half the crop tor want of labour; 
but I should say eagh tree gave more than 
1 lb. of dry chillies, and the price I got was 
from 37s 6a to 56s 6d per cwt. The variety 
I have planted is the common bird's-eye used 
by the Ceylon cooly and found growing 
on most estates wild in Ceylon. This kind, 
if of good quality, bright and clean, always 
meets with a ready sale. I have tried other 
varieties, and Capsicums, but there is a very 
limited demand and uncertain market for 
any kind, except the very pungent bird's-eye 
chillies. Chillies take about eight months 
before they begin to bear fruit. 
I might give your readers a list of our 
FRUITS 
to shew them that we are not wanting for 
delicacies for the table :— Soursop, oranges, 
bullock's-heart, pomegranate, loquats, guavas, 
red China, pink-hearted and gooseberry 
varieties ; papaws, peaches, plums, figs ar« 
here, all in bearing for the past two or 
three years. Apples, pears, and cherries 
are growing on one or two estates. Pine- 
apples, raspberries and Cape gooseberries 
are common everywhere, the latter a weed 
like tomatoes on estates. Flowers — shoe- 
flower, convolvulus, roses of different kinds, 
amaranthus, nasturtiums, caliopsis, gera- 
niums—are in profusion in most little garden 
plots in front of bungalows, 
FOOD SUPPLIES. 
By way of food supplies we can boast of 
the cheapest if not the choicest in the world. 
English potatoes Id per lb. ; sweet potatoes 
3d per bushel ; cabbages Id to 2d each ; 
village fowls 2d each ; rice Id per lb. ; pump- 
kins and cucumbers about 6d per basket; 
beans in great variety, Indian corn and millet', 
all at Is per load of about 60 lb. ; eggs 3d 
per dozen ; plantains and bananas in great 
variety, 3d per bunch. 
Store prices for imported goods are :— 
Flour 6d ; sugar 6d ; tea 2s 6d ; jams Is ; 
butter 3s per lb. ; and other articles in pro- 
portion. Cassava and arrowroot are grown 
everywhere, and are as cheap as other native 
products. We can always get fairly good 
curries made here ; the only thing we do miss 
is the coconut. Breadfruit I have never 
seen here. We have no jaks either; I had 
some plants once growing about 2 ft. high, 
but they were eaten hy white ants. 
Henry Broww. 
COFFEE PLANTING IN B. C. AFRICA. 
[to EDITOR "CENTRAL AFRICAN TIMES."] 
Dear Sir,— As I have already stated I shall only 
be too glad to visit any plantation where berries 
are in a state of growth, with BIr. Henry Brown or 
any other planter, so as to convince me that we 
are troubled with much worse enemies whether borer 
or " drought which do the maximum amount of 
damage to our coffee," and I should like to see 
" some old estates where no bug is to be found 
which have 80 to 90 per cent spotted and light 
berry caused by these enemies." — I am, &c., 
Kenneth Cameron. 
Namasi. August 9th. 
Dear Mr. Editor,— The first time I observed coSee 
in this district really affected by drought was in 
1896, when the thermometer registered 98 degrees 
Far. (at some stations over 100 degrees was regis- 
tered I believe). The coffee drooped, the leaves and 
bark shrivelled up, the natural healthy flow of sap 
was checked, fissures were laid open in the bark 
of the trees, and canker set in on fifty to seventy 
per cent of my coffee trees after which bastard and 
barren wood was very visible. 
Dr. Macvicar paid me a visit after another dry 
season; 1897, when my coffee also suffered from 
drought and in the coarse of conversation one day 
asked me if I had anything I would like examined 
with the microscope. I suggested the sap of coffee 
trees in the shade and in the open. He first went 
t9 work on the leaves and bark from a number of 
trees in the open. When the sap from those trees 
was examined it was found to contain brown spots 
which proved beyond a doubt that the sap cells were 
damaged and the sap diseased. When the sap of 
the bark or leaves of the shaded trees was examined 
it was found to be perfectly natural and of alight 
green colour. 
The above observations, I think, prove beyond a, 
doubt that our coffee is damaged by excessive heat 
and the fact is well-known that coffee will not do 
well where the shade temperature reaches ninety 
degrees without shade and heavy shade too. 
I have tried heavy pruning and cutting down both 
as a remedy for sunstroke and canker in coffee but 
when the trees are damaged into the ground as is 
often the case,' it is as bad as canker in the flesh of 
a human being and had better be abandoned to the 
inevitable. Roadside shade trees are frequently cut 
down on the plains in India for sunstroke andcanker. 
— Yours, &c., jj_ 
WiBiaie., Isi &.-agmt,— Central African Times. 
