Sept. 1, 1903.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTTTRIST. 
161 
tained. The oil having itself no manurial proioertie? 
and being derived from the atmosphere, and not 
from the soil is a fitting object for export, but to send 
away the entire seed, or the refaae after the removal of 
the oil, is to send away the valuable manurial con- 
stituents contained in the seed, iuclading those taken 
oat of the soil itself, in brief, to export them is to ex- 
port the soil's fertility. The answer given will doubt- 
less be that there is the advantage of the ready cash 
obtained in exchange ; but it becomes the duty of 
Agricultural Departments, and of Experimeuial Farms 
in particular, to demonstrate clearly to the people 
what the advantages are of using such refuse materials 
either as food for cattle, and thus indirectly as 
manare, or else by direct applics,tion to the laud. 
Where, as in India, supplies of manure in auy form 
are so short, it seems wrong to allow so much manuriiil 
element to be carried beyond the seas without en- 
deavouring to establish its value and the importance 
of retaining it in the country, We in England are 
not slow to avail ourselves of the advantages this 
export system offers, and at the time of my leaving 
for India, I was feeding bullocks at the Woburn Ex- 
perimental Farm on linseed cake, and v/as aho grow- 
ing crops with rapecake manure. Both these mate- 
rials, in all likelihood, were the produce of Indian 
soil, and represented its transported fertility." 
Thus the loss to India by neglecting its possible 
cottonseed oil industry is not to be measured only 
by the profit that would accrue from the manufacture, 
and its advantages iu affording a new and probably 
extensive field for the employment of both labour and 
capital. — Capital. 
COFFEE IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
Coffee-planting in Central Africa has not turned 
out the great success which was anticipated, it we 
may believe a couple of articles which Mr. J. Dempster 
has just contributed to the Blantyre paper. The 
planting problem, he says, is clamouring for solution, 
" Its demands must be met in some form or other 
and before very long. If the agricultural interests 
are to be maintained at all, it is evident that a 
new movement must be made in order to defend its 
present position, for, in a very short time under its 
existing conditions, it must be hopelessly abandoned 
and the stakes lost." The reasons he gives are that 
the culture of cofTee " was entirely a new process 
to many who formed the planting community, and 
lay quite outside the scope of their comprehension. 
Many clamoured, but were ignorant of what they 
clamoured about. At best it was only a piece of qua- 
ckery where quack ontbellowed quack." This according 
to Mr, Dempster, was the state of things at the begin- 
ning and this is the state still. When all went well, 
he says it was more by luck than by sound judg- 
ment ; but when things went badly the planter was 
powerless to find the cause or the cure. The greatest 
obstacle to the successful growth of the plant is, 
he continues, a disease which has hitherto defied 
all the curative measures brought to bear upon it. 
Each year it has gone from bad to worse." This 
disease, which he says must be watched from the 
very beginning, he describes thus : — 
Bastard trees exhibit diseased berry from the very 
outset, when the berry is no larger than a pin's 
head. Every joint of the primaries will be found 
more or less diseased, and in aggravated cafles disease 
can be traced along the whole course of the pith. 
Trees that appear healthy may not exhibit disease 
even when the berry is half grown, but it may appear 
as a minute speck hardly visible to the naked eye 
at a later period. It however, never occurs without 
disease in the joint of the primary or secondary 
upon which it grows. The malady begins and rivets 
itself in the joints of those branches, but when it 
sppears in the bean it lo?alisea itself in no particular 
part— sometimes in the very heart of the bean and 
working its way through the whole substance. At 
other times it originates on the surface immediately 
under the silver skin, and is then known as spotted 
berry, but is only the modified form of rotten berry. 
Inasmuch as the disease is aggravated by excessive 
moisture and checked by drought it would appear to 
be much the same as that known in this country 
as ' black rot.'' 
Among other ills that Central Africa is heir to 
is el) borer which, Mr. Dempster says " can easily be 
kept out of the coffee, though he admits that in the 
past there have been 80 to 90 per cent, of blanks 
in every coffee field due to ihi; cause , and (2) a spotted 
bug which seems a terrible scourge. Yet another 
item claimed as an evil is drought, but Mr. Dempster 
will have none of this. "There would need to be 
something more fatal at the roots than want of 
moisture in order to kiii a coffee tree," he says, 
''or even cause it inconvenience." And he tells his 
readers that he very early came to the conclusion 
that ■' coffee was heir to no evils whatever except^such 
as the igi;orauce and inexperience of men had thrust 
upon it," He points to similar neglect and deterio- 
ration in stock rearing, wheat-growing, and other 
matters of agriculture, and he attributes the " general 
smash of the agricultural affairs of British Central 
Africa" to ignorance and inexperience. It is hard to 
jsdge of the accuracy of the writer's view from this 
distance, but inasmuch as he sets up as an authority 
himself, and on the other hand scouts the effects of 
drought and insect pests, and the idea of importing 
new seed, and of shading his coffee, it would appear 
to be a case of the blind leading the blind. What 
will planters in Coorg and Mysore, for instance, think 
of the following ? 
In case planters are still in doubt as to whether 
shade is a benefit or the reverse, I will again touch 
in the subject. I need not remind them of the fact 
that as shade has gradually appeared, coffee crops 
have rapidly disappeared. Despite this fact it seems, 
still a question with some men on the ground of 
having read about its good effects in India and Ceylon. 
I have the testimony of the most intelligent planter 
in B, C. A., and the most experienced, a trained 
Indian planter, who maintains that shade did con- 
siderable damage to the Indian plantations, but it ex- 
terminated borer. 
Estates ruined by shade ! Borer exterminated ! 
One wonders where this " trained Indian planter " 
obtained his experience. — M. Mail. 
«> ^. — 
DESTRUCTIOis' OF PLANTS GARDEXS 
IN ABERDEEN. 
Much indignation is being felt in west-end circles 
in Aberdeen, write" an Aberdeen correspondent, at the 
idestruction caused in garders by midnight prowlers. 
These persons have torn'up and scattered about almost 
everything they could lay their hands upon. Their 
object has not been theft, as the more valuable 
plants and flowers have been left strewn all over 
the grounds. The absolute ruin for this season of 
some of these pretty gardens seems to be entirely 
malicious. One night recently, in the suburb of 
Queen's Cross, at least ten different gardens were 
visited by the scoundrels, and the whole of the 
beautiful and expensive plants which these gardens 
contained were torn up, tossed about, and trampled 
upon. Some idea of the destruction committed may 
be gained, says our correspondent when it is stated 
that at one house at which I called, and which has 
a very small garden, the owner estimated the damage 
done at over £.0, without taking into consideration 
the loss of the pleasure he derived from his garden. 
The loss entailed upon those with large gardens 
must be exceedingly great. In one case a long length 
of garden hose was glestrpyed, nnd after dragging i^ . 
