m 
rHE TROPICA!. 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Junk I, 1903. 
experience on account of what I took to be a 
sort of hopelessness which saw nothing better 
than abandonment of the enterprise altogether. 
There are only two 
COFFEE PLANTATIONS 
at or near Port Moresby, one about 50 acres owned 
by Messrs. Burns Philp& Co., and the otherabouc 
100 acres owned by someone whose name I forget. 
They were too far for me to visit during onr stay i.i 
port even if there had been roads worthy of the 
name to enable a journey to be quickly done. 
1 understood that the disease had not spread 
over the whole area, but was conliued to the oat- 
lying corners where it had broken out. Possibly 
this may mean that the disease of fungus came 
out of tiie ^oi■e^t). NDtlimi; had been done in the 
way of remedial measures and they -eemed quite 
at a loss what to do. 1 told them that the vapour 
of carbolic acid and the fumes of sul|>hur had 
been tried in Ceylon witliout any better result 
than a temporary stoppage in the progress of the 
disease and a temporfiry recovery iiithe output of 
foliage. Even if hot lime applications would be of 
avail there is no lime anywhere near and, wanting 
roads for carts, figging up thetree^ with manure 
is out of the question as a matter of reasonable 
expense. The age of the coffee in Messrs. Burns 
Philp & Co.'s plantation runs up, I fancy, to 6 years. 
I did not find out for a certainty, where the seed 
came from, but I am inclined to think from 
East Java, where I saw leaf disease in 1897. I 
have advised them to seek the co operation of 
Government in sending some competent man to 
Java to see how things are there with regard to 
coffee ard the conditions under which it is grown 
as reearils shading, pruning and cultivation 
generally. It may be that shade would mitig-ite 
if it did not prevent the attacks of the lungus. 
Dutchmen do not believe in growing coffee without 
shaile pnd their experience goes a long way back 
in their own island and climate. Tlie climatic con- 
ditions in New Guinea mnst be pretty much skins 
to those existing in Java tiiuuiih the soils may 
be different, the latter being volcanic, and the 
former riow more or less volcanic. There is im- 
mense scope for coffee gro win in the numerous 
valleys of the uplands, where the rainfall is more 
abundant and its failure a matter of unfrequent 
occuirence. Coffee is grown here and there on the 
mainland of Australia, but New (Juinea by its 
situation and conformation should be the eoffee- 
erowing country of the Commonwealth. As an 
example of the 
RESULT OF DROUGHT 
it might interest you to see 
COFFEE BfatRIKS 
of this year's picking after dronaht from Burns 
Philp's estate as compared with the beriies from 
last year's picking from the same estate before the 
drouvrlit took effect in New Guinea. Tlie small 
shrunken beans tell their own tale of the severity 
of the drongiit in a land of high, forest-covered 
mountains that is supposed to be always attract- 
ing and distributing moisluie. It only shows how, 
though in a modified degree, Australian droughts 
react, on New Guinea though separated by con- 
siderable seas. 
The future of 
BRITISH NEW .GUINEA 
is what the Commonwealth, who are now taU'ng 
it over, may choose to make it. If the Central Go- 
vernment go iu for spending money in opening up 
the country, great resuUs will follow in enterprise, 
in establishment of plantations of all tropical pro- 
ducts, especially coconuts in which there has been 
ne.xt to nothing done on any large scale. If 
Government continue the starvation policy 
hitherto followec', then private enterprise will 
leave New Guinea alone and go to the other islands 
of the Southern Seas for a field of investment. 
The coffee leaves referred to, have not yet 
reached us ; but the experience of Ceylon 
is not eiicouraging to any one trying to 
fight heniileia vastafrix. At the same time, 
a better fi^ht could be made over small 
isolated plantations in P^ew Guinea than 
on om- extensive planted districts. The first 
and most pi<tent means of getting i-id of 
the fimgns should be to gather and burn 
all affected leaves, if possible as soon as the 
yellow pin spot appears. If in addition 
sulphur and lime can be applied, all the 
better ; but burning the affected leaves 
should in any case be done. — The contrast 
between the properly grown sample of 
parchment beans sent ns and the small 
pealike beans matured in the drought, is very 
striking. No doubt a good cup of coffee 
can be got from the tiny beans ; but it 
would take a big lot of such beans to fill a 
bushel or weigh a cwt. 
THE SHBINKAGE OF TIMBER. 
Some little known facts as to the shrinkage of timber 
are disclosed in the latest Rjport ou the Panj i.b 
Forests. Ic is calculated that during the last ten 
years there has been a loas in the timber launched 
on the river fiom the Paiigi forests amnnntiue; to 
157,000 cubic feet of deod^tr in the log and 94,000 cnbie 
feet in scantlings. Similarly, from the Bashahr 
forests in twenty years there has been a loss of 
834,000 and 196,000 cubic feet, respectively. Tnia ia 
by no means all due to theft or accident, for observa- 
tions taken at Chamba show that between forests and 
sale depots identified logs lose 13 per cent in volume 
from shrinkage. It is calculated by the Divisional 
Officer of Bashahr that for every 100 cubic feet of 
logs cat in the forests not more than 72 cubic feet 
are received in the depots, 19 per cent of the loss 
being due to shrinkage, while only 48'5 per cent of 
the scantling despatched reaches the sale depots. It 
is to be observed that the Punjab Government is 
already looking forward to the time when "all the 
chief fuel preserves of the Forest Department in the 
Punjab plains will have been surrendered for colonisa- 
tion," and we are told that to retain any large area 
of these rahhs uU'Jer natural jungle growth would ba 
preju'licial to the success of irrigation schemes now 
maturing as well as bad economy. In the zeal for 
irrigiition it is to be hoped that the importance of 
trees as effecting climate will not be forgotten. Only 
a few days ago we called attention to a report from 
the Punjab, in which reference was mitde to the 
ruthless denudation of the Punjab forests for fuel 
and the opinion was expressed that already this 
denudation had had an appreciable effect on the 
climate and rainfall. There is some talk of an exten- 
sion of irrigated plantations; but so far aa we can 
gather from the Report, these are to be regarded only 
from the financial point of view: if they do not pay 
a substantial profit they will not be extended, — Pioneer 
May 15. ' 
