i24 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August I, 1898. 
AN AGRICULTUEAL CHEMIST FOR 
THE CEYLON TEA INDUSTRY: 
fl.COO A YEAR SALARY IF GOVERN- 
MENT APPROVE. 
We direct special atttention to the official 
correspondence received from the Secretary of the 
Planters' Association regarding the doings of the 
Thirty Committee with reference particularly to 
the appointment of an agricultural chemist. There 
are several items of general importance, but the 
most important we believe to be that of the 
agricultural chemist, and that the selection of 
Mr, Kelway Bamber to act in this capacity 
would give universal satisfaction. 
♦ 
CACAO : THE FUTURE OF CULTIVATION 
IN CEYLON— BAD ROADS-GOOD TEA. 
When passing througli the Wnttegama cacao 
the other day it was not difficult to see tlie 
impress of the teaching of our cacao expert. 
*' Moisture and heat," Mr. Carruthers maintains, 
are the favourite conditions for the growtli of all 
fungi, and that they get in Ceylon to perfection 
especially where the shade is at all dense. "Thin 
out your shade" is the order which has resulted 
from this deliverance, and as one travels up from 
the Waitegama station it is clearly evident that 
the axe and the woodman have been about. 
Letting the sun in, is, as if you put salt on 
the tail of the fungus, and it wants the source 
of energy evidently to cope with the reproductive 
powersof fungi, for, given the favourable conditions, 
it spreads beyond calculation. 
It is becoming clear that the future of cacao 
in Ceylon may be safe enough if the cultivation 
be intelligently pursued. The artist's advice to 
mix your colours with brains, will apply to the 
cacao planters now that the cacao pest has got 
a hold, for it is brains that will be wanted. Too 
much shade will be the death of him, as the 
fungus will rage and rampage ; too little will let 
in the helopeUis, and that sucking bug will pro- 
duce results as hard to bear. The conditions of 
cultivation are changing, and it is only by patient 
care, the watchful eye, the regular inspection, 
knife in hand to cut out the first appearance of 
the pest, that this plague will be stayed. Cacao 
has ever been responsive to attentive treatment ; 
but the eld hunting for borers and the squirting 
of kerosene into the eye of the "poochie" gene- 
rally, which was formerly undertaken in an in- 
termittent way, has now to give place to an 
orderly campaign. The fungus will have to be 
Avatched as keenly as weeds are watched, and 
a gang will have to go round the estate monthly 
anyhow to examine each tree, and where neces- 
sary apply the knife. What will they be called ? 
We haVe weeders, pruners, pluckers, drainers, and 
so on 5 but what can be added to fungus or fungi 
that will make a decent word? In Tamil it is 
easy enough. " Kokalatehie-al" will cover a lot, 
but the English cognomen has yet to be discovered, 
Mr. Carruthers has it that the cacao culture of 
the future will be more like orchard cultivation 
than the roiigh and ready system which obtained 
in the past. Each cacao tree will have its own 
Individuality, be regularly examined, and treated 
accordingly. We are evidently not going to have 
a panacea for the pest, to treat by tlie million 
and be done with it. All the more call for the 
brains. It will be interesting to watch what 
will be the effect of the thinning of the 
shade. That it will not wholly stop the pro- 
gress of the fungus is likely enough, for on 
cacao trees that aie away from thade, and have 
been ^rown in tlie oi^en, tliere have been deaths 
from the pest. The laie Dr. Trimen made many 
cacao planters "sit up" when he condemned hhade, 
and got it cut out in many places to the t>a«l 
detriment of the cacao growing below, and we 
will have to wait and see what the tliinning out 
will result in before swearing by it. Meanvihile 
the cacao lound and ahout Wattegania wae 
looking vigorous and hopeful with a fine blossom 
out, and the promise of more to come. 
It is queer how the cacao pest rebembles "lh« 
pestilence that walkelh in darkness," and why 
It should be so virulent in one part of a district 
and absent altogether from another. You hear 
of a place here and there "smitten hip and 
thigh" for no obvious reason, while others have 
wholly escaped, and tlie lesson for the cacao 
planter is to be very watchful. In the days of 
our ignorance when whitewash, lar, kerosine oil 
and other things were applied to the stricken 
tree, on the principle that something had to be 
done, we were only hali-hearted. A\e might 
stumble on a discovery and we might not. But 
now that a system of'^ mitigation — for since the 
fungus is in, it will be impossible to hunt out 
and exterminate — has been recommended, and has 
where tried been successful so far, there is a 
heart of hope about, and though the cacao planter's 
difficulties have very much increased he can ex- 
pect to overcome them with biains and care. 
Mr. Carruthers gave a fine object lesson on the 
need of observation, w hen to a man w ho pointed 
out how tar had done good, the expert made a 
cut with his knife and revealed below the tar 
the fungus in full vigour? "That's liow it is," 
said our expert, "tar may do good ; but it pre- 
vents you f^rom seeing what is going on under- 
neath" ! What was wanted was to kill the 
disease and to plaster it with tar seemed as if 
that would "cook its goose,'' but fungi like the 
Heathen Chinee have "ways that are dark" as 
the knife of our expert certainly revealed. The 
late Dr. Thwaites used to have a fine contempt 
for the planter as an observer. He cannot scien- 
titically observe, he used to maintain, he never 
was trained to it; and although it is a humbling 
confession to make, still it must be allowed. 
However put him on the track of any thing that 
can be hunted down, and that is capable of 
being exterminated, and he will give it a warm 
and a merry time. 
By the way into what a dreadful condition has 
the road to Panwila and beyond been allowed to 
get ? As you drive over it, yon are banged and 
tossed about as the trap gets out of one hole 
into another. Driving is now-a-days on Ceylon 
roads more fatiguing than walking, and a couf la 
of hours' run on roads like these, leaves you sore 
all over an aching at special points over and 
above. We used to have roads which were a 
credit and things to be proud of, but now a-days 
all this is changed. Who is the officer in charge 2 
He ought certainly to be promoted. 
Tea about looked very vigorous, and the re- 
turns for June are considerably ahead of what 
were expected. This is doubtless the result of 
the enforced inactivity of the months of dfoughtj 
and a miWness of the S.-W, monsooqi 
