Oct. 1, 1903.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
273 
will in good soil set flowers before four years old, 
80 the first crop is obtainable in five to six years, 
while, if planted close, the trees will only straggle 
into bearirii; after seven to eis»ltt. Also wiili open 
planting, the grass when first started will grow 
luxuriantly, so that a considerably larger amount 
of cattle will find support, thus providing plenty 
of manure. 
Any young men with coconut-planting in view 
might do worse than investing iu this place, as a 
more suitable country could hardly be found, 
Here are no huiricanes, plenty of rain equally 
distributed during the season, the beetle practi- 
cally unknown, the best of soil, no rats, porcupines 
or pigs; so one may practically consider the life 
of the tree assured when the nut is shitted from 
the nursery into the ground. Land may be had 
from the Government on 99 years' lease, at a 
practically nominal rent, or may be bought right 
out from the natives, subject to Government's 
approval. The introduction ot labour from the 
islands to Queensland is now stopped, so a good 
supply may be depended on in the group, at the 
rate of lO/-per month, and very good workers they 
are Should you find space for these lines in your 
valuable periodical, and anyone seeir>g them 
should wish for further inforniatiou about the 
group, I shall be pleased on application to render 
any service in my power. — Yours sincprwlv, 
O. SVENSEN, Solomon Islands. 
[The soil must be very good, for 40 coconut 
palms per acre to grow so that the branches or 
leaves touch : in Ct-ylon it usually requires 75 
trees, all hous;h a '^mailer number iu ^onie cases is 
planted.— Ed., T A.] 
CHEAP FRF.KiHT FOK TEA TO 
AUSTRALIA. 
Sept. 4. 
Dear Sir. —Did yon observe that the tnail 
steamers to Australia have reduced tea 
freight from R50 and over, down to R35 tor 
Preaiantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney? 
This ought to be good news. It is the elt'ect 
of outside steamers calling here frequently 
now and taking cheap cargo there. The 
" Hohart" went; recently and other steamers 
of the line are coming. "Pazilka" goes in a 
day or two, One of Currie's steamers is ex- 
pected in a week or so, and another line 
owning the "Afghanistan," • ' Beluchistan," 
&c., are expected to call. So there may now 
be a good prospect of fair and cheap rates ot 
freight to all Australia.— Yours faithfully, 
SHIPPER. 
SILK CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
Kadugannawa, Sept. 5. 
Dear Sir, — I fancy the " mildew " 
mentioned by Messrs. H. T. Gaddum 
& Co. in their letters re Ceylon co 
coons is Muftcnrdine. one of the disea- 
ses which nearly killed out the silk in- 
dustry in C'intiiiental Europe and other 
countries a good many years ago. The 
Government Entomologisc kindly sent me 
some of the worms he was raising at 
Peradeniya last December, and some of thern 
developed both Pehrine and Mtiscardine, 
Very careful selection of brt'eding-stock will 
be necessary to eliminate these diseases : we 
shall probably obtain better results with 
the next brood. It is unfortunate that there 
is no district in the Island which has a 
sufficiently large number of mulberry trees 
to provide leaf for a large crop of worms, 
and we shall have to wait fully two year's 
before any ccnsiderable consignnient of 
Ceylon silk can be shipped, as' 'the Inaf 
from young trees is of no use. But as the 
cocoons produced in Dirabula twenty years 
ago were reported on as equal to any 
profluced in Italy, we should be able, in 
the meantime, to attam that standard and, 
I hope, to go beyond it. 
But there are other silks beside that of 
the mulberry silk-worm which Ceylon can, 
very largely pioduce, and I have been 
working for the last six months at the 
domesticatioii of our indigenous wild worms 
with very encouraging results. I hope to 
send you notes on these when certain 
experiments now in progress are concluded. 
I am dealing fully with all the different 
species that can be grown in Ceylon in the 
pamphlet. I am writing on "The Cultiva- 
tion of Silk-worms ": its publication haa 
been delayed in order to include the latest 
results. 
As it has taken more than 20 years to 
arouse public attention to the possibility of 
growing silk profitably here, the Director 
of the Royal Botanic Gardens is not unduly 
cautious in expressing the hope that " we 
may be able to establish a small silk in- 
dustry in Ceylon." But I shall be much 
surprised if tlie industry in a few years' 
time does not attain very considerable im- 
portance as we have advantages here which 
other silk growing countries do not possess. 
—Yours faithfully, 
PERCY N. BRAINE. 
CACAO IN JAMAICA AND CEYLON. 
Wattegaraa, Sept. 9. 
Dear Sir,— In the Ceylon Observer of 7th 
inst. , I noticed an extract from the 
Gardeners' Chronicle of August loth re 
"Cacao in Jamaica and|other islands," wherein 
it is stated that trees raised from seed come 
into bearing at the age of five or six years 
after which period they yield about 150 lb. 
seed annually— this means 1 cwt. 1 qr. 10 lb. 
per tree." Our Matale Planters' Association 
have given the average of the whole of the 
Matale district as 1 cwt. 2 qr. 12 lb. per acre. 
Taking 10 pods to 1 lb. dry seed or IJ oz. per 
pod of the Jamaica cacao, it means 1,500 nods 
for one tree. 'I'hen. taking the cacao as there 
planted at, say, 20 feetap irt, it means 109 trees 
per acre and 145 cwt. 1 qr. 26 lb. per acre. 
Is there not an error in the 150 lb. seed? 
Can it be 1-50 lb., or even 151b.? If the 150 lb, 
dry seed is correct, then how can we, in 
Ceylon, compete with Jamaica in cacao culti- 
vation ? I believe our c.icao is considered 
of better fl i.vour and oiir labour is some- 
what cheaper, though with the North Road 
closed we shall never get cheap labour, as 
it prevents small gangs with little capital 
for road expenses coming over, the Colombo 
route being too expensive. They must 
get those expenses either from Recruiting 
Agents, Head Kanganis, or mortgage their 
