bcT. 1, 1898. J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
251 
a man imagine the amount of labour required to 
make 1,GOO lb. of tea per acre? 1,600 lb. of 
tea=6,400 lb. of leaf. Say that cacli pluck- 
ing of the estate takes 5 days, then there will 
be 6 pluckini,'s in the month and in Sh months 
there will be oO iiluckinss Divide 6,400 by 50 
and we have 128 lb. oi leaf for each pluckinp- per 
acre. Three pliickers would have to pluck 425 lb. 
of leaf to get in 128 lb. .And this means 
that the bushes must yield suftieient leaf 
to take the best work of .3 pliickers per acre, at 
times 2 per acre and in heavy flushes 4 or 5 per 
acre. I believe the tea bush capable of this ; but 
I doubt whethei' any estate can afford to keep 
up the enormous labour force required, even if 
it iiad command of local labour when required. 
In time to come no estate will be able to keep 
up any, but the best plots of tea; there must 
be no \va.ste for cultivating vacancies, the whole 
area must be covered with leaf— and when times 
become really hard for good estates, the periodical 
cutting down which i.s now universal will become 
a thing of the past. Planters will lind out means 
of keeping the yielding area intact from year to 
year, and I have only tried to suggest the means. 
I am looking ahead. It is no use to merely keep 
level with the times and allow each improvement 
to be discounted by the fall in prices. One must 
go ahead by careful trial, and from actual ex- 
perience I find that a certain system of pruning 
is the best. 1874. 
HYBKIUIZING COFFEE. 
Dear Sir,— Judging from what I have read about the 
Coffee liybrid in the 7\A. and from some experiments 
of my own 15 to 18 yeurs ago, I am inclined to thiak that 
this new hybrid is worth trying, and therefore I am 
anxious to procure some seeds. So if you can assist 
me by informing me of the name and address 
of the Wynaad planter who claims to have discovered 
the hybrid, when yon, as you probably will, come 
across them, I shall feel very much obliged. My ex- 
periments were not made wilh a view to find a 
H.V.-r''aistiiig type of coffee by hj'bridising, but to 
find one aniong the coffee then existing, and I be- 
lieve I suoc'eded ; bnt through misfortune there has 
been no result, all my plants having been killed by 
green bug. .1 would go more into details, but there 
is no use in writing about what has been practically 
a failure. If circumstances had permitted, the result 
might have been different as I might have been able 
to save a few of the plants. — Yuurs truly, 
OLD PLANTER. 
THE FLOKIOA VELVET BEAN. 
Dear Sir, — It has more than once occurred 
that a so-called new product" coming with a 
great reputation from abroad has proved to be 
a familiar plant with a new name. It will be 
remembered that the famous "cow-pea" turned 
out to be Vic/)ia Catkins which is represented in 
Ceylon by the legumes well known to the Sin- 
halese as (los-ine, Li-inc, Nil-inc, &c., and of which 
the common Me-karal is only another variety. 
The Florida velvet bean which was originally 
wrongly named Dolichon Multl/lotxs, has now been 
identified as Mucuna jjntruns, var. tdilis, a cul- 
tivated variety of the plant commonly known 
as ciiwhagc or cuwitch. 
Mucuna, pruriens is known locally by the Sin- 
halese name Achariya-pala. Dr. Trimen says that 
it is found in the " dry and intermediate resion.*; 
rather common." The (Queensland Agrkiilturc'l 
Journal for May last has a good plate illustrat- 
ing a description of the ])lant. — Yours truly. 
[See the extract from IncUaii Gardeniiuj 
on page 242 where it is identihed with "Mucuna 
Nivea" known to natives in India as " Kamach." 
A very high character is given to tb.e bean and 
fresh seed from a nf:w land may be of S))ec,ii(,l 
advantage. — Ed. 2'. A.] 

PLA.N1ING IN STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 
Klaxg.— Notwithstanding the decrease in the 
demand for land, and tlie depressed condition of 
tlie coffee market, the European estate owners 
e.Nhibit continued contidence in the inture, and 
have not ceased to o|3en and plant up new land. 
The natives on the coast are exhibiting interest 
in the new copra factory now being established 
at Kuala Selangor, and it may be anticipated that 
tiie wjrk to be carried on there, and the certain 
market thus established, will materially stimulate 
the people to plant their land with coconuts. It 
has not been possible to obtain complete infor- 
mation regaiding the amount of land newly opened 
by the European planters of tiie district during 
the year, but these tisures which are to hand are 
evidence of substantial advance. In eight estates 
from which returns are available the total addi- 
tional area opened up appears to be fourt-^en 
hundred acres. Principal among those ai-e the 
Anglo-Ceylon Company, who have added about 
live hundred ajres ; the Kapar Estate, witii three 
hundred and twenty acres ; Mr. Christie's Lanian- 
sara Estate, one hundred and ten acres ; and Mr. 
Bailey's estate at Sungei Rengan, one hnn Ired 
acres. Mr. Bailey is now erecting a complete and 
capacious collee store and curing establish, lu-nr, 
which will be of the utmost be/.etit to the n^i-'n- 
bonrhood. Up to the present there h.as been ovly 
one coffee curing establishment wyked b-, sceani, 
and the objections to a monopoly have b-en rather 
severely felt. 
Kuala Langat.— Rent v/ns jiaid op .3 560 acres 
of land taken up by European planters, for whi(di 
grants had not yet been issued at the close of 
the year. The area of these estates is therefore 
not included in the total amount of land alie- 
nated, which is returned at 18,031 acres. There 
is included in this total 1,492 acres of land newly 
occupied by native cultivators in ^44 holding.s. 
The land in the occupation of Malays is mcs: ly 
devoted to the planting of coconuts and coff.-e, 
regarding which latter cultivation the District 
Officer makes some pertinent remarks. He con- 
siders, and I think he has good ground for 
his views, that the cultivation of coffee i.s emi- 
nently unsuited to Malay.s, who will not devote 
the labour and time required to bring the trees 
into bearing. They seem to have been mostly 
imbued with the idea that the coffee trees, once 
stuck in the ground, would take care of 'thcm- 
.selves, so having done this thev went and sat 
down to wait for the profits, wliicli n.-iturally have 
not fulfilled their somewhat elastic expectations. 
The fall in market prices has stren;;thened their 
recently formed conclusion that collee crowing is 
not what they once imagined, and oilbrt.s will 
now be made to attract their attention to coco- 
nuts as an alternative. The Scpang g.unbier and 
pepper estate:-, are not being if)(d<eil after ay well 
■as they ought to be. and consequently the amount 
of pepper and gambler exported was con.siderablv 
less than in 1890- 
LTlu L vngat. — Eleven grants, includingan area 
of aojiii 2,6 0 acres were issued lo European 
planters. All the permits previously issued for 
coffee estates were replaced by grants, and no 
