Feb. 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
539 
unpruned, in every way neglected trees, miserable, 
worm infested crops of worthle.^s fruit are gathered. 
Providence has been kinil to the coli'ee-ti ee, which 
still flourishes and beais abundant croijs of ex- 
cellent coflVe of ihe old Mociia stock, but for all 
the care that man takes, it might have gone the 
way of the grape and the peach. I, v. ho have 
seen the care, the pruning, manuring and hoeing of 
COFFEK PLANTATIONS 
in India, have never ceased to won- 
der at the generosity of the St. Helena tree, 
which often bears its white starry blossoms 
whilst the pickers are gathering the ripe fruit. 
There is much land now devoted to pasturage 
which would j'ield a better returu under coii'ee 
cultivation, but there is the drawback of scarce 
and dear labour ; however, this uiiglit be overcome. 
I have shown that the tree does not require so 
much attention as in India, and the picking can 
be done by girls at sixpence a day, supervised 
by women who get a shilling. Ordinary labourers' 
wages have now gone up from two shillings to half 
a crown a day, owing to military and other works 
in hand. I had an idea that tea would grow 
well, not so mucli for export as for island con- 
sumption. Some years ago, whilst inspecting the 
Lawrence Asylum at Ootacamund, I found that 
the boys were drinking tea which they had grown 
on the estate, and had made up at a neighbouring 
factory for a few annas a pound (I think two 
annas). I saw no reason why the poor of St. 
Helena should not be able to buy tea at sixpence 
a po"nd, grown in the island and made up at a 
small central factory. 
THAT TEA WILL GROW 
IS proved by the existence of some China ()lants 
which were introduced in the time of the East India 
Company. In 1896 I tried the experiment, having 
taken out with me a native of India who had been 
for nine years an overseer on a tea estate in 
Assam. 1 got some tea seed and reared a number 
of plants, but in the meantime I had to return 
to England, and whilst there to recall my tea- 
planter, and on my return I found that the rabbits 
had devoured my young tea seedlings, and so 
ended an experiment, which cost me nearly a 
hundred pounds. But still I feel inclined to try 
again under my personal supervision. But what- 
ever experiments are tried in the starting of any 
industry, they should be tried by those who will 
devote the whole of their time, laboui-, and money 
to it, as a tea or coii'ee planter does, when he goes 
out to India. Land is not dear here — the average 
price of estates lately sold has leen from £10 to 
£15 per acre — but as the culturable area is limited, 
it does not often come into the mnrket. As I said 
before, much valuble land is now kept solely for 
pasturage, which would, if highly cultivated with 
coffee, yield a mucli better return. That island 
coffee is now in dein md is proved by the fact that, 
having sent away last moHth a barrel of coffee 
from the (iovernment House plantation as a 
sample to Messrs. Lewis and Peat, coii'ee brokers, 
of Mincing Lane, wii h a view to ascertaining its 
quality, I discovered that I could not purcliase 
any island coffee from other sources, as the whole 
stock had been bought up by the contractors for 
the troops, Messrs. Solomon and Co., who kindly 
let me have a little for my own consumption. It 
was only the other day I was pointing out to some 
friends, Avho had lately arrived, some cofl'ee-trees 
on an estate, which had been allowed to run up from 
12 to 15 feet in height ; they looked the picture 
of health, and were bearing freely, but ought to 
have been pruned down at about 4 or 5 feet. In 
1869 the Government attempted to introduce 
CINCIIOWA, 
but without much success. A nursery 
was farmed under the supervision of a skilled 
gardener sent ouufrom Kew, who raised about 10,000 
plan's from seed, of which about one half were put 
our on the slopes of Diana's Peak ; but the experi- 
ment was discontinued in 1870, by Admiral Patey, 
who came out as Governor with instructions to 
reduce expenditure, and in the retrenchments 
which ensued, the gardener from Kew was struck 
off. From tbat time the cinchona-trees were left 
to shift for themselves, and now there are prob- 
ably not more than 150, some of them line ones 
ami fairly healthy. At the present time, the 
cultivation on such a limited scale as could be 
carried out here would not be commercially profit- 
able, as the large cinchona plantations in India, 
Java, and other places have brought down the 
price of the bark. Still, the trial has shown the 
wonderful capabilities of thi^ little island, where 
in an area of 47 square miles, plants from all 
piarts of the globe have been grown with success; 
and one remarkable feature of this adaptai^ility 
of soil and climate has been the struggle between 
the indigenous and the imported 
FLORA, 
which has resulted in the former being driven back 
to the central mountain range, the northernedge of 
the vast crater^whieh existed in the volca.nic ceriod, 
the southern portion of which is now under thesea. 
There you will still find tlie ferns of the place, 
from the stately tree-fern and the huge Daplazium, 
with its seven-feet fronds, down to the tiny filmy 
fern (Hi/mcnophyllum capiUaeeuin). Here too, 
the foliage strikes you as being of an old-world 
character. The trees have a weird, unfamiliar 
look, such as one would associate with the 
megatheriam and the mylodon. Sir Joseph 
Hooker, in his lecture on Insular Floras, refers to 
that of St, Helena as being " most interesting; 
it resembles. none other in the peculiarity of its 
indigenous vegetation." In another part he says, 
speaking of the indigenous species : " Forty of 
them are absolutely confied to the island. These 
forty are absolutely peculiar to St. Helena, and, 
with scarcely an exception, cannot be regarded as 
very close specific allies of any other plants at 
all." It is to be regretted that some of the most 
interesting species have become extinct, among 
them the beautiful ebony-tree (Melhania melan- 
oxi/lon), of which no traces remain, save a few 
crooked bits of wood, occasionally disinterred from 
the soil in places where it grew, and even these 
are becoming very searce. Yet this was one of 
the most abundant trees, probably one of those 
which in Juan de Nova's time clad the rocks with 
verdure down to the clilfs overhanging the sea. 1 1 
was so abundant that it was cut down to burn 
the lime used in the building of the fortifications. 
The destruction of the forests and extinction of 
many of the indigenous plants were due to the 
ravages made by goats, which in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries existed in thousands, 
laying wa te the country. 
AN OLD ORAN(iE-TKEE. 
The oldest orange-tree in France has just died 
this is an item recently fouj^d in the " Press 
Miscellany." If true, it is interesting as showing 
the very great age to which an orange-tree may 
attain under favourable conditions. The details 
as published are as follow : — 
It was brought to France with several others in 
1421, by Queen Leonora of Castile, ths wife o{ 
