406 
THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTURIST. 
[Dec 1, 1900. 
THESE STOCKS 
•will have run out, or have assumed very 
small proportions, and to carry on their 
trade properly, the makers liiust make 
them up again, and it is on account of 
the replenishment of these invisible stocks 
that I anticipate a higher range of prices 
next year, for the circumstances under 
which the sales will be made will be different 
to what they were in 1899, when the visible 
supply was 55,000 bags, more than it is now 
(on 31st August the combined stock of London 
and Havre was 202,731 bags, against 257,734 
bags in 1899) a,nd the sellers uncertain what 
stocks the makers held. 
_ This year has undoubtedly been a very try- 
ing one_ for makers in more ways than one ; 
for whilst selling prices have not been ad 
Tanced with drinking cocoas, not only has 
raw cocoa been high, but the sugar, and with 
cheap cocoas, the arrowroot as well ; even 
the packages, for this has been a famine year 
in the paper trade, and the tinfoil have been 
much dearer. Confectioners and retailers of 
eating chocolates are already complaining of 
the rise in the wholesale price ot the sweet- 
mecit, and being unable to put up the price 
retail, their profits are reduced to such an 
extent that, important as the chocolate trade 
has become, it hardly pays them to handle. 
Now this is just what must be avoided if the 
CONSUMPTION OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 
is to go on increasing, for it is to the eating cho- 
CDlate trade, more than to drinking cocoa, that 
we must look for any substantial and regu- 
lar increase in the demand, and there is no 
doubt that the demand will go on increasing 
if it is not prevented by the high price of 
the raw article, which must below enough 
to leave a reasonable profit to the retailer, 
and yet let them sell the goods at popular 
prices. Otherwise the goods will notbe pushed; 
and as in this world nothing stands still, if 
you do not push your goods you cannot get 
on, and therefore, you go back. As to the 
prospects of the preseno rate of consumption 
being maintained, if not increased, the follow- 
ing paragraph taken from a book on Cocoa 
published by the largest manufacturer in 
America speaks for itself :— "If the increased 
consumption of the last 37 years is continued 
until 1934, and that is altogether probable, 
in view of the fact that cocoa is one of the 
very few articles which contain all the 
essentials of a perfect food, the amount of 
crude cocoa required by this country 
(America) alone will be nearly 
600 MILLION POUNDS." 
Hence it is to the interest of every cocoa 
planter not only to extend his cultivation, 
but to increase the crop of what he has al- 
ready got planted, by improved methods of 
cultivation, manuring, pruning, &c. To 
m.ake cocoa planting profitable you must be 
up-to date in the methods emploj^ed, other- 
wise you lose the increase in the crop, that 
is part of your profits, and if this increase 
does not come, and pretty quickly too, there 
will be a scarcity of the raw material, and 
though at the time planters may feel elated 
at the high jjrices they would obtain, in the 
end they would suffer, for owing to their 
want of foresiglit they would be starving, 
instead of feeding up, the goose that is now 
laying them golden eggs. 
IMPROVEMENT ON COFEEE CULTURE 
IN SOUTH INDIA. 
(To the Editor " Madras Mail") 
Sir, — I beg to differ with the idea prevalent among 
some of my brother planters tha,t an acre of coffee 
in Brazil contains three hundred trees only thongh 
planti;d twelve feet by twelve feet. It is distinctly 
Ktated in Laei-ucss " Coffee Culture in firazil and 
Java " that in the former country the land is pitted 
twelve feet by twelve feet, and in each of these pita 
four coffee stamps are planted, one at each corner 
of the pit, so that this will give three hundred clumps 
to the acre: fas each contains four trees, this 
works out 1,200 clumps to the acre. These four 
stumps being planted so close together naturally 
make very little growth inwards, that is towards 
each other, hut grow Ir.xuriantly outwards ; hence 
this wide space of twelve feet between the clumps 
is essential to their healthy growth. If one side of 
a tree is cut away and kept free of shoot?, the other 
side will make most abnormal growth, and this is 
what takes place in a lesser degree with the cluinps 
If single trees were planted at twelve feet apart the 
spread of branch would not be nearly so extensire 
as that of the clumps; hence a s:naller space would 
be jnst as suitable, say eight or nine feet. I'oth in 
the Brazilian and Leeming's system the trees are 
left to Nature and attain a height of twelve feet 
and upwards. Conclusions as to what is the right 
distance to plant apart cannot be drawn from seeing 
Mr. Leeming's trees, as these were originally 
topped at the usual height four feet, and only 
will it be possible when his new clearings left en- 
tirely to Nature, attain maturity. Planters with coffee 
planted 6 ft. by 6 ft. and who wish to adopt the 
Leeming system would do well to cut out every 
alternate row diagonally, which would leave the field 
8J ft. by 8?<ft. In these days, when the borer is 
committing such havoc in most Indian coffee dis- 
tricts, the fact must not be lost sight of that shade, 
both from the shade trees and the coffee itself, ia 
inimical to its spread, and that open spaces with its 
attendant sunlight encourages the pest, also that there 
are four chances to one against the whole oJumo 
being destroyed by borer. I quote from Laernes the 
following: — ^" In the Santos zone, the first step 
there is to dig a pit from 2 to 2 J p^lmo square 
and of equal depth. It is immediately filled up half 
a palmo with the earth that has been thrown out 
which the slave presses down a little. Then a mudaa 
stump is taken and placed at one of the corners of 
the pit, in such a way as to allow the fibres to be 
spread out. After these have been covered with a 
little earth, a second is planted and so on till there 
is one at each of the 4 corners. The spaces left between 
the plants are not uniform everywhere. According 
to difference of soil to the physical aspect of the estate 
and its height above the sea, planters in the Eio 
zone generally leave spaces of 12 ft. by 12 ft. 12 ft. 
by 14 ft., 14 ft. by 14 ft. and even 15 ft. by 15 ft. 
palmos, while in the Santos zone the spaces are 
14 ft. by 14 ft. 15 ft. by 15 ft., and by way of experi- 
ment during the last 3 or 4 years sometimes 16 ft. by 
16 ft. 18 ft. by 18 ft. and over 20 ft. by 20 ft. palmos, 
It is needless to observe that this method of planting 
does not produce Brazil single-trunked coffee trees, 
such as are almost universal in Java, but very wide- 
spreading coffee shrubs, that is to say a brood of 
8, 10 or 20 slender stems branching out from the 
mudas stump. As regards the height of the shrub, 
though it is difficult to state an exact average, seeing 
that the breadth and growth of the plant frequently 
depend on the altitude of the plantation, yet we may 
safely assume that i.n the Bio zone the full-grow<^ 
