Jan. 1, 19G4.1 THE TROPICAL 
AGEICULTURIST. 
45^ 
REPORT OF THE ADMINISTRA- 
TION OP COORG. 
A copy of the above Ksport has been received, and 
we make the following extracts :— 
AGRICULTURE, PLANTING, &C. 
The depression in coffee has indirectly given an 
impetus to the cultivation of(r!ce, the total extent under 
which (80,694!'' cres) inoreased by upwards of 1,400 acres 
excluding areas twice cropped. Coffee planting was 
finally abandoned in large areas held hy natives, endithe 
extent recorded as being cultivated with this product 
(59,417 acres) consequently declined by nearly 10 per 
cent, while the inspection of deteriorated coffee gardens 
led to proposals to reduce assessment in respect; of an 
aggregate area of over 12,000 acres. The year was re- 
markSsle for an exceptionally abundant crop, but the 
advantages which would under ordinary conditions, 
have been derived from this circumstance were en- 
tirely neutralized by the disastrously low prices ruling 
in the London market. Prices hardly less favourable 
contributed to keep the cardamom industry in a simi- 
larly depressed condition notwithstanding the grant 
of numerous reductions and remissions of assessment. 
Though the total area shown as held for cardamom- 
growing is over 58,000 acres, it is estimated that only 
some 1,100 acres are actually under cultivation ; the 
industry is now practically moribund. The only other 
agricultural feature of the year which calls for notice 
was the continuing expansion of orange cultivation. 
The rainfall, though deficient at one season, was on 
the whole up to the average, and except as regards 
coffee and cardamoms the prices realized were normal. 
As an indication of the extent to which coffee has 
deteriorated it may be observed that during the year 
under report reductions of assessment aggregating 
Es 6,958 were sanctioned in respect of 6,652 acres, 
while the ordei-s of the Chief Commissioner were 
awaited in respect of similar proposals relating to au 
aggregate sum of Rs. 6,243 distributed over an area 
of 5,499 acres. The unfavourable conditions affecting 
the industry formed the subject of special represen- 
tations by a deputation from the Ooorg Planters' 
Association on the occasion of Sir Donald Robertson's 
visit to Mercara in February, 1903, the outcome of 
which was the decision to consider the expedience of 
(a modifying the assessment rules by permitting the 
imposition of a grazing rate on land which, though 
naturally fit for coffee-growing, cannot be profitably 
cultivated while prices continue at the present low 
rate, (b) permitting the complete exemption from tax 
of wet lands, the entire bane .attached to which is 
cultivated with coffee paying full assessment, and (c) 
refusing applications for reduction of assessment from 
planters whose negligent cultivation has made their 
estates a material factor in the spread of infection 
from the borer insect. 
The area shown in the Statement under orchards 
and garden produce is made up of 232 acres of arecannt 
and 2,966 acres of orange groves. The expansion is 
attributable to the gradual declinein the interest taken 
in coffee planting An incidental consequence of the 
same factor is the impetus given to the cultivation of 
pepper. No statistics are available, but considerable 
areas have been cultivated with pepper on estates 
formerly worked only for coffee, and the enterprise 
at first promised favourably, but falling prices have 
since discounted the prospects of success, 
The total rainfall recorded at the head-quarters 
of the province was, 120*65 inches as against 118'6(3 
inches in the preceding year and an average of 119"12 
inches for the past ten years. The rice crop was an 
average one and the yield of coffee particularly abun- 
dant, the out-turn under the latter head being esti- 
mated at some 5,650 tons or double the previous year's 
crop. The prices realized were however so low that 
the increased out-turn had no appreciable effect on 
the industry except in so far as it served to retard 
the rnin of estates on the margin of cultivation. The 
cardamom crop was fair, but prices continued to be 
(tisaetroasly low, 
Elephant-Catchivrj operations were successfully initi- 
ated during the year with the assistance of Mr. 
Tiromiin, a Deputy Conservator in the Madras Forest 
Depirtuient, who was deputed to Coorg in May, 1902, 
for the'purpose of inatrncting the local staff in the 
Malabar system of pitting. During his stay in the 
province sites were selected for some 70 pits in the 
southern ranges, and in the ensuing monsoon nearly 
50 of these were excavated and prepared for the 
capturing season, which comprises the months of 
March, April and May. Two serviceable young ele- 
phants were caught in March, 1903, and several other 
captures have since been effected. The actual cost of 
the operations during the year was approximately 
Rs. 1,600. 
PINEAPPLE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 
AN EXTRAORDINARY SYSTEM, 
Along the east-coast railway line, which traverses 
Florida, from 28 degrees north lo.titude southward, 
the pineapple belt stretches, chiefly where spruce 
pine lands existed. For years this grey sandy waste 
was taboo to fruit growers and farmers, but when 
a knowledge was gained of the action of fertilisers 
upon free soil, attention was turned to improving 
this huge sand bed. Now several train loads of 
splendid pines are sent away daily during the ship- 
ping season, and huge fortunes have been made in 
the business. 
The selection of the land is the most important 
problem connectsd with successful pineapple growing, 
for the pineapple cannot endure wet feet. Here 
along the pine barrens the land has proved to be 
ideal. A first look at the soil used would make a 
grower in Queensland roar with laughter says Queens- 
land Gouiitni Life. The kind of soil used is not 
simply absurd, it is preposterous. It looks like pure 
sand, such as one sees going from Mackay to 
the beach, and down along the coast road to Broad- 
sound. As a matter of fact some of it contains nearly 
99j per cent, of substarfces which are quite insolu- 
ble even in strong acids. Fancy raising a crop_ of 
fruit from soil only one two-hundredth part of which 
is soluble in water ! Yet it is done, and last year 
Florida produced about 4,000,000 pines for market 
from these ouoe barren lauds. The unystery is easily 
explained. They have an ideal base for the cultiva- 
tion, viz : free drainage, and the art of fertilizers ia 
thoroughly understood. 
THE GEEaT problem OF FERTILIZERS. 
Iq the south-eastern part of the United States the 
use of commercial fertilizers has more nearly reached 
the stage of exact science than anywhere else in 
this country. The subject is large and complicated. 
The Florida Experiment Station has published a 
bulletin, over one hundred pages, devoted entirely 
to fertilizers for pineapples. We have learned that 
nitrogen from an organic source is better for pine- 
apples than nitrogen from inorganic sources. Sul- 
phate of potash i'S better than muriate of potash. 
Bone meal seems to yield a sufScient amount of 
phosphoric acid. A complete fertilizer would be 
about as follows ; — Two hundred pounds of dried 
blood, two hundred and fifty pounds of low-grade 
sulphate of potash, snd one hundred and fifty pounda 
of bone meal. This is about the right quantity for 
the first application to an acre of twelve thousand 
nlants. The fertilizer is sprinkled between the rows 
and then worked in with a scuflle hoe. The first 
application may be made eight or ten weeks after 
the field has been planted, and the next about 
January or February. After the field begins to bear, 
applications of the above mixture should be made 
immediately after the crop is marketed, and again 
about January or February. 
PLiNTING OUT THE SUCKERS, 
About twelve thousand plants of the Red Spanish 
variety are set out to the acre, and in the course of 
eighteen months 50 to 75 par cent, of pUnta will 
