ATJfi. 1, 1903.1 
THE TROPICAL 
AaRICULTURIST. 
125 
Pliilippines wii.h all otliei countiies. In oidtr to 
inform uur patrons of eommereial opportunities tiie 
Museum has organized a. Department of Irjforma- 
tion. An important adjunct of this Department 
will be a reading roc m, equipped with the best 
nev'spapers, trade joi.Taals. directories and reports. 
You are cordially invited, if you see fit to do so, 
to dotate your publications. 
The Museum has ;^£.tronfi throughout the Orient, 
America and Europe and thus reaches a wi'lely 
diversified cJien'ao:e, affording an excellent medium 
for finding opportunities as well as capital for 
developing them. The journals received at the 
reading room are read by a member of the Museum 
staff, the items of interest are noted and indexed 
in a card catalogue. This catalogue is proving a 
source of valuable information to our foreign and 
local patrons. The reading room is open to the 
public, ajd business men are especially invited to 
make free use of it. 
M."^y I suggest that you can possibly do your 
patrons a favour by informing them that the. 
Conmiei'cial Museum, e.^tablished by the IJ. S. 
Philippines Commission, invitos the attention of 
manufacturers and shippers to the opportunity 
extended to tliem to exhibit in the Museum, free 
of charge, such products as are suitable for the 
marltets of these islands. 
All firms that desire to fornr business relations 
in the Orient, or extend tho?e already formed, 
whether they place exhibits in the Museum or not, 
should send us their addresses, lists of articles 
imported or exported, terms of sale, time, dis- 
counts, etc. This information will be placed in a 
classified card catalogue in the Museum where it 
will be open to tlie business public. No charges 
are connected vvith these services. 
You might also fov. ur some of your patrons by 
warni'ig them that there is much just criticism 
here against American shipper* on account of in- 
secuie packing of ocean freight ; bills of lading are 
often not sutficieutly clear ; 'li/L should always be 
in duplicate. 
Hoping that we may be of mutual benefit to 
each other, I am. — Very respectfully, 
SAMUEL B. SHILEY, 
REMARKS ON R. B. GARDEN'S CIRCULAR 
OF 26TEI MAY, 1903— CACAO AND THE 
EXPERIMENTAL GARDEN. 
Wattegama, June 16. 
Dear Sir, —I find it stated Gangaroowa is 150 
acres in extent ; it is only four miles from 
Kandy and adjoins our R. B. Gardens (only the 
River between two Estates). The annual crop : 
Cocoa, in 1892, was 2-47 cwt. per acre which 
became less every year till 1900, it was only 
0'62cwt, per acre{?): fiat land and good climate. 
We have then the statement that when work 
was commenced by the new Manager 98 per 
cent 3f the trees were affected and 88,76-5 
fungus fruit collected from May to December. 
Planters are calling out for stringent measures 
to make Native Proprietors cultivate their 
Cacao and keep down the fungus etc., to 
prevent the disease going into their Estates, 
If this E-tate (now the Experimental Garden) 
is an example how European planters, V. A.'s 
and A gents work their estates, the less they 
say about their neighbours, the Natives, the 
better. Then who in such a case is to be prose . 
euteu? — the ^Manager, who imy be to blauT^? 
Yet he may not be, as the V. A., Agents or 
Proprietors may not allow him the necessary 
funds to cultivate the estate properly ; they 
wish to give certain returns from the estate, 
though the trees plainly tell them they 
are at starvation point, surrounded by 
bad atmosphere, their sap sucked up or 
poisoned by inseiits, and no notice is taken. 
Next we have last year's outturn of the whole 
of the Matale district given as rSOcwt cocoa 
per acre. Then we have the Pitakande 
Company report giving a profit of Rl-87 per 
acre only, for the year, on cocoa. Now let 
us see what careful working of another estate 
without V.A or Colombo Agents has done. 
Take Franklands estate, Wattegama, formerly 
native coffee gardens. What with mamotie 
weeding, no drains, all the good surface soil 
was lost ; nevertheless the Proprietor had 
confidence in what he could do, opened up 
the land again and pl.inted cacao from 188f 
onwards. The land is steep,in part blue granite 
rocks among the soil, part cabook rock, stones 
and gravel among the soil, part quartz gritty 
soil, part hard clay soil and part deep loamy 
soil, yet all is now worked up and cacao is 
as near alike all over the estate as possible ; 
people who have visited admire it. This 
estate has given an average crop of cocoa of 
4"13 cwt per acre from the 1st July, 1892 to 
1st July, 1902—10 years. 1894 highest 7 cwt per 
acre, 1900 and 19013 cwt per acre the lowest, 
owing to cultivating without shade trees, 
damaging some trees and losing blossom, and 
this year already over 5 cvs^t per acre. It has 
one short cut road to Panwila, another short 
cut road to Nuwaratenne village through the 
estate— a road to a public bathing place on the 
estate. Government road through and a town 
on the estate ; yet no robbery was detected 
these 5 years— mostly villagelabour— watchers 
only. 
The Manager of the new Experimental 
Garden says : — "The best cure for.?killing the 
fungus is sunlight. You must cut out 
and trim shade trees where too thick. " I say: 
you must cut out the lower (at least u'p" to 
3 ft. from the ground it branches hang down- 
wards) branchef of your cacao as well, so 
as to let the sunlight reach the ground for 
some time during the day under the cacao 
tree. You must also remember the sunlight 
let in is not the only benefit your cacao will 
have by cutting shade. The shade trees 
require a certain amount of nourishment 
while standing among your cacao. At the 
same time they give a lot of leaves which pro- 
perly used are good manure to cacao, but 
when a sliade tree is cut down, decay soon 
sets in and insects and rain will, as you will 
see, soon pulverise the stump and roots. It 
is then the cacao roots will take nourish- 
ment and moisture from the decaying roots 
and stem. We, therefore, get sun-light and 
nourishment both, that help the cacao. J 
say : cut your trenches for green manure 
3 ft. by lift, in a dry climate. These oughtto 
be cut in December before rain stops, or in 
June after rains set in and should be kept 
open for some time to allow of ventilation 
of the lower soil and to catch rainwater. 
