460 
THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1900^ 
DR. WATT IN THIS INDIA PLANTING 
DISTRICTS, 
{By a Planter.) 
la due time Dr. Watt will no doubt is»ue a 
valuable a«d instructive Report as the result of 
his observation during his 
RECENT TOUR THROUGH COORG AND WYNAAD, 
but as it will probably be soni« time before this 
Report app«ais, an account of his visit to Wy- 
naad may be of some interest to planters. 
Dr. Watt took specimens of the canker on 
Ledgeriana cinchona, of the disease whicli 
kills the pepper vine, of a new blight on tea, 
and of the fungjus on Liberian coffee. It 
is to be hoped he will not only name 
these pests, but, as he has done in the case of 
tea blights, recommend efficient methods of com- 
bating them. He also observed a mite preying 
on Hemeltia vastatrix, and thought this might 
lead to the discovery of some method of fighting 
this pest. Libenan coffee was found to be suffer- 
ing from another fungus than Henieleia and it 
is not improbable that as many planters have 
' thought, it is this fungus that makes Liberian 
'sickly and liable to Hemeleia, which it seems to 
resist when in a healthy condition. Similarly, 
the failure of Ledgeriana of late years may be 
due, not to deterioration of seed, bub to a fungus 
which has mastered the plant. The new blight 
on tea is the two hundred and first to which thai 
' plant is subject ; but blights are more prevalent 
in Assam, where plantations give 1,200 to 1,600 
lb. of made tea an acre than on the Nilgiris, 
where tea averages only about 250 lb. an acre, 
and Dr. Watt thought well of the Wynaad as 
a tea District. 
The management of tea has been so thoroughly 
1 worked out in Assam, and the results so amply re- 
corded, that planters will be mora interested iu 
what Dr. Watt had to say on coffe. This related 
chiefly to the methed of pruning, to tha importance 
of growing plants which supply nitrogen to the 
' soil, aud to the advisability of ettabliahing a hardier 
type of plant than the present coffee tree. Kxpe- 
. rience has taught planters that of late years the 
wood most certain to resist leaf disease, and to crop 
well, is that found on gourmandisers and suckers, 
and that it is not possible to get the tree to crop as 
well at the bottom as at the (op. Some fine all es- 
tates, therefore, have their trees in the form of um- 
brellas, and others in the form of a cup formed of 
a ring of great gourmandisers rising from short 
primaries on a short stem. Dr. Watt condemned 
both the umbrella and goarmandiser systems, on 
the ground that an enormous mass of old an- 
produotive wood, often as thick as a man's arm, 
and full of knots, bends and dead sangs, had to be 
maintained in order to support a amaller extent of 
bearing wood. He thougtit quite as much bearing 
wood could be maintained on short primaries if the 
tree was trained in a pyramidal shape, such as it 
naturally assumes when young, lu order to retain 
this form Dr. Watt would, as soon as the young tree 
has reached its proper height, cut the top pair of 
primaries at the joint from the stem, the next pair 
at two joints, the next at three, and so on till a 
foot from the ground is reached when he would 
remoTe all the nrimaries to admit a free oircnlatiou 
of air. From t&e shortened primaries young shoots 
should be encouraged to form a fan oonsiating of 
bearing wood and green wood for the following year 
■ the former being removed as soon as it has borne. 
When too much of a claw is formed, the primary 
(3 to be out back just behind it, and when th^ 
primaries are gone, the tree is to be collar pruned 
that is, cut off 2 inches below the soil. The object 
of cutting below the soil is to prveut the formation 
of any dead wood as this causes decay to eat down 
into the stem. Dr. Watt believes that if the trees 
were thus kept free of all dead stumps to cause 
decay and bends to check the flow of sap, and re- 
lieved of the moaes of old wood they now carry, 
they would be much less liable to blight. He thinks 
the high price released for " Faith " coffe this year 
is due to the system of pruning adopted on that 
estate. No doubt planters will experiment on a 
small scale on the lines Dr. Watt recommends ; but 
many think the coffee tree will not stand such 
drastic treatment in these days of leaf disease, and 
condemn severe pruning and the stumping of old 
trees which often give only sickly suckers. The 
cutting .under ground is, howerer, a new method, 
and may give better results than stumping at 6 or 
9 inches above ground. 
Dr. Watt was struck with the absence of aitro- 
gen forming plants amongst the weeds found in 
COFFEE 
and recommended the growth of dlial in open 
spaces, or among young coffee, and of Albiztia 
stipulattd in thick coffee. He condemned the 
Erithrynas as nitrogen-forming shade trees on 
account of their liability to bug. Soil destitute 
of nitrogen-forming plants soon becomes sterible 
from the absence of nitrogen-forming bacteria. Dr. 
Watt took specimens of the various hybrids he 
saw, and was much interested in the experiment. 
He had some useful hints to give as to the necessity 
of protecting an approved hybrid from fertilisation 
by inferior forms, which would cause deginera- 
ti«n in the resulting plants. It is equally neces- 
sary, however, to avoid degeneration from self- 
fertilisation only and good hybrids should be 
cro.ss fertilised either by other good hybrids or by 
vigorous Arabica trees. Dr. Watt doubted if a 
cross with Liberian, now that this is so diseased 
would be likely to afford continued immunity 
from disease, and suggested breeding from the best 
Arabica trees in order to try to establish a pure 
blight-proof Arabica tree. fhe extraordinary 
vigour of the best Liberian-Arabica hybrids may 
however, preserve them from blight as all ex- 
perience so far shows that such vigour is the only 
successful prevention of disastrous attacks of He- 
meleia vastatrix. 
Dr. Watt's visit is another proof of the 
ABSOLUTE NECESSITY, NOWADAYS OF EXTKNSIVfi 
SCIENTIFIC AIDS 
to agriculture being afforded by every Govern- 
ment which hopes to see its ifidustries flourish. 
Such aid on any scale is alien to the official 
mind, which is mainly fixed on administrative 
measures. The perfection to which the Ledgeriana 
tree has been brought in Java is, however, entirely 
due to the labours of scientist in Government 
employment over some twenty years, and such 
expensive and continuous research is beyond 
the means of any individual or firm. Th« 
United States maintains a whole Department 
exclusively devoted to the discovery and preven- 
tion of blight, and to the introduction of the best 
manures, the best methods of cultivation, and the 
best varieties of plants to grow. It requires the 
exclusive attention over a considerable period of 
a man of Dr. Watt's energy, scientific attain- 
ments, and practical ability, to establish new and 
valuable varieties of crop beavers, and a, successful 
system of combating pests. 
