Oct. 1, 1898.J 
THE TROPICAL 
ACtRICULTUEIST. 
COFFEE-PLANTING ON THE NILGIRIS. 
The following further particulars regardinc; tl e 
coffee alluded to, on tlie Nilgiris, by Mr. T. (J. 
Anderson, have been furnished us by the jiro- 
prietor : — "The estates are the Leighwood d'^d 
Northern Hay estates. In the good old cofVce 
days they yielded two or three times one ton 
per acre, and on an average of several years 13 
cwt. an acre. On the advent of leaf-disease 
they were semi-abandoned and the present pro- 
prietor, Mr. L. W. Grey, bought them for a 
song. By manuring (with cattle manure) irri- 
gation and shade, he has brought them round 
to their present high stafe of cultivation, and the 
present crop now being picked is estimated at 
7 cwt. per acre all round— a safe estimate. The 
irrigation is secured by tapping the Pykara River 
below the falls, 3,000 feet above the estates, 
and diverting the water into their own Valley. 
During the blossoming season the water is turned 
on to the coffee and field after field irrigated. 
By judicious management tiiis allows the coffee 
to ripen gradually, so that there is no danger 
of a rush of crop and loss, for want of labour. 
The greatest enemy of the coffee and shade 
trees are the wild elephants, which do a certain 
amount of damage at night. There is splendid 
shooting on and near the estates— present area 
about 300 acres planted, and another 400 to be 
opened out. Estate always open to inspection." 
This is all very interesting. The late Mr. 
Tytler and his partners spent £20,000 on irriga- 
tion works for their Dumbara Valley coffee estates 
and yet could not make irrigation pay. Will Mr, 
Grey tell us if his coffee has always been, and 
is now, free of the leaf fungus? Were it not 
for our pests of the fungus and green bug, we 
should say that the experiment of growing cofl'ee 
under shade, in Ceylon, with manure and irri- 
gation, would be wortii a trial, wherever such trial 
could be given under favourable circumstances, 
say on a small area witii good soil and a con- 
venient stream. 
CEYLON PLANTERS IN MEXICO; 
We are glad to have a long letter from Mr. 
E. 0. Dai-ley on life in Me.xico and treating of 
its coffee, cacao, rublter, tobacco, and which ap- 
pears on page 285. ^Nlr. Darley kindly adds: — 
" I will be glad to send you any information you 
wish ; and whilst I am no scribe and the rifle or 
pruning knife feel more at home in my hands than 
the pen, you may rely on any statements being facts 
and not hearsay." 
He also adds that Mr. W. L. Malcolmson is 
at present in London, but that he and another e.x- 
Ceylon man much enjoy the Observer and Ceylon 
news. 
A LABORATORY FARM. 
Mr. John Mills sup|dies the Hunianitaiian for 
August with a highly instructive account of the 
laboratory farm founded and endowed by Sir 
John Lawes, under the heading " Scientihc Agri- 
culture at Rothamsted," near St. Albans. For 
more than tifty years careful experiments in agri- 
culture and agrii-ultu' al chemistiy have been car- 
ried on there. 
The rainfall is carefully studied. Kesuhs prove 
that the " fertilising rain " is an incoirect 
phrase, for the rain washes out the nitrogen which 
is the fertilising element from the soil ! Nitro- 
gen is the principal element, it appears, in the 
fertility of land. Arable land treated only with 
mineral manures without nitrogen becomes im- 
l)Overished. Conversion to permanent grass is 
needed to restoie the nitrogen, which is, however, 
also restored by its fixation from the atmosphere 
by growing leguminous crops. Even when nitro- 
gen is present in manures, the plant cannot assi- 
milate it except the soil be " infected'' with th.e 
pov.er to do so ; and this power is supposed to 
he the work of bacteria. These bacteria llourish 
in the roots of leguminous plants, and once ]ue- 
sent enable the plants to take up nitrogen freely 
from the air. Hales, two hundred years ago, 
found that a plimt growing in a pot of soilln- 
ereased in weight out of nil proportion to the 
very slight diminution in weight of the soil. The 
Rothamsted chemists have shown that 95 per cent, 
of the weight of the plant comes from the air, not 
the soil. 
Experiments with and without manures have 
yieldeil the following results, which Mr. Mill put 
in this tabular form : — 
14 Tens 
Farmyard Without Mixed Ammo- 
Averages. Manure Manure Mineral nium 
every every Manure Salts 
year. year. alone. alone. 
Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels., 
8 years, 1852-59 ... .^^i 
8 ,, 1860-67 ... 35i 
8 „ 1868-75 ... 35g 
8 „ 1876-83 ... 28| 
8 „ 1884-91 ... Bwi 
20 „ 1852-71 ... 3,oJ 
20 „ 1872-91 ... 33.i 
40 „ 1852-91 ... 311 
50 „ 1844-93 ... 33| 
The average without manure for fifty years is 
above the average of the United States, and about 
the average for the whole world. 
161 
13i 
12i 
lOJ 
121 
14J 
Hi 
13 
13* 
19 32f 
151 3li 
14 28* 
12| 27i 
17 314 
m 29i 
A DRUGGIST'S GARDEN : 
MR. T. N. CHHISTY AT WALLINGTON, 
About twelve months ago did the Manor House 
WalliDgton, pass into the hands of Mr. Thos. Christy, 
who is exceedingly busy iu an endeavour to hxin^ 
it and the gardens into good condition. The Manor 
House and grounds occupy nearly 20 acres, and the 
lind is situated between two roads, one of which 
leads to Hackbridge, the other two Croydon. The 
residence is a famous house, and parts of it are very 
old. Almost underneath the drawing-room even is 
an old Norman chapel, and qnaint steps leading 
thereto. It is said that the first Italian roof pu"t 
upon a residence in this country was that used in 
the case of the Manor House. "There is evidence 
that at one time the gardens were the subject of 
intelligent interest, as, for instance, in the selection 
of the trees and shrubs, which according to report, 
was the work of an Italian. Everythmg has since 
been neglected. The trees have overgiowS each other, 
the fine, extra large, variegated Hollies and other 
ornamental species are either in unsuitable positions, 
or are hidden by less worthy specimens. A year ago 
there were no laws, unless a meadowlike greensward 
may be described as such; there was no kitchen- 
garden, and the Rockery, which, in spile of its 
neglected condition, may be capable of improvement, 
was utterly overgrown with undesirable plants. Mr. 
Christy has done much iu the direction of impmve- 
iiieut, by attacking the most needed reform. ilions 
first. There is now, therefore, a kitchen-g.aden, 
with good crops of vegetables, and young fruit trees 
have been planted. There is a conventional but 
pretty flower-g.irden close to the house, and the sur- 
rounding lawn has been brought into as good a con- 
dii.iou as the time would permit. 
Walking with Mr. Christy through the vegetable- 
garden, we were made aware of a fact that we 
suspect gardens in rural districts may not know ao 
well aa their sabnrbau confreres. The Uabbagea were 
