Feb. 1, 1904.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
651 
appears to be no way out of the difficulty but to 
provide tliem with what they want, and not w'lat 
we choose to give them. Only by sludyiug their 
requirements and supplying the exact ariicle in 
demand,; can we hope to oust our rival green teas 
from the Far Ease. So although we preier natur- 
ally coloured ureeu teas, we have no alternative 
but to adopt the policy of satisfying the demand 
of our customers rather than following our own 
inclinations. — Indian Planttrs' Gazette, Jan. 23. 
SUNDRY PLANTING EXPERIMENTS. 
( Special.) 
Finding several varieties of pepper growing wild 
in the jungle, we assumed iha probability that 
the cultivaied kind would succeed on the same 
ground; so a piece of underwood was cleared, 
and euctings planted by the bigger trees, and we 
are now awaiting the result of the experiment. 
Of FBUIT-BKAKING PLANTS we have oranges, 
limes, jak, arecanuts, custard-apple, jambo, (lapaw, 
mulbeiry, breadfruit, pineapple, cloves, and niau- 
goateen, all thriving fairly— especially mulbeny, 
which from cuttings, has, in three mouths, grown 
to eight feet. 
Betel leaf requires specially good soil, which 
must be trenched, and strongly fenced ; it has to 
be staked, staged, and constantly iliulched with 
Keppetiya Itaf, and has lo be watered every day 
in ilry weather. All this makesiit the most costly 
ol local cultivations. Per contra each vine is 
said to be good for 300 leaves per annum, worth 
25 cents. 10,000 plants go to an acre ; this 
estimate is not mine, but that of a person who 
ought to know, and, on his recumiuend'ition, we 
have planted about half-a square chain as an ex- 
periment — about 1,000 vines. Of course if the tenth 
ot an acre yields an annual profit — as promised — of 
K60, it can be indefinitely extended, but it seems 
too good to be true. 
A good many "imbul" trees have been planted 
about the place, but not with a view to direct 
profit. But the article in this month's T. A , 
which tells of its extensive cultivation in Java 
and the satisfactory prices obtained, has decided 
nie to give it a trial, though 1 have not seen a 
tree bearing 5,000 pods. The branches come out 
in ihiees with a lesser or greater space between 
each tree, according to the rate of growth. For 
convenience in gathering the fruit, we have been 
stopping the stem just above the first trio of 
branches. Before me, as I write, there is a self- 
sown plant, less than a year old, topped as above. 
The branches have stretched out from 6 to 9 feet 
horizontally and the longest carries 29 secondary 
branches. The article in question names another 
use for this tree, namely, as support for the pepper 
vine, which I intend lo test in the next wet season. 
Kainfall. — In the 11 months, Ist Jan. to 
30ih Mov., we had 150 inches of rain. May being the 
wettest with 25 inches, and October a good second 
with 22-50. The fall in November was about two- 
thirds of the average and from the 4th of this month 
we have had a scarcity and (a rare thing in this 
distiici) we suffer from drought. The sun rises 
in a cloudless sky, glows with all its might for 
twelve hours and sets as it shone and is daily 
going into the soil deeper and deeper, till herb- 
aceous plants cease to grow aud finally wither and 
die if not frequently watered— where water is 
scarce and far to carry, 
CASSAVA. 
We hear a good deal about cassava. We are 
'■"id of a yield of 8 tons per acre in Florida ; the 
'•"rice in Pondicherry is 11 cts. In the Straits Settle- 
ments it is cnldvated and thousanils of tons of 
starch and tapioca are annually exported ; but, 
though it has been grown in Ceylon fur well-nigh 
a century, it has never taken rank among the 
permanent industries of the Colony, 
The Ceylon clieuas, by lying under jungle for 
a longer or shorter number of years, according to 
the original nature of the soil, acquire a certain 
measure of surface fertility, by the decay of 
fallen loaves and twigs. The object of the goiya 
is to take this out of the land as quickly as 
possible, to this end he mixes, perhaps, twenty 
kinds of grain and vegetables, and sows them • 
broadcast slightly scratching the surface, by way 
of covering the seed; he then plants cassava, by 
digging small holes, in which he drops two or three 
sets and kicks back the loose earth over them 
this is all the cultivation ever bestowed. It is, 
therefore, no marvel, that cassava growing has not 
taken root as a Ceylon industry. Beside this 
we have in this district hundreds of wild pigs 
that find shelter in the surrounding jungle, and 
no fence and no watching can protect the cassava 
field from them. VVe have lost one-halt of 
our crops from this cause, and though we kill 
one occasionally, it makes no impiessionon their 
numbers, or audacity ; and though porcupines 
cannot so successfully negotiate the fences, tbey 
are quite as destructive as the pigs, when they 
get in, and do not confine their operations to 
cassava, but attack everything. 
No one, who pays for the labour, can gain profit 
by the sale of cassava, the highest price to be 
obtained being one cent, per pound ; so that unless 
other uses can be found for it, it had better be 
left alone. Our first field we sold at the above 
price, and lost by it, and would have avoided in 
future, but that our enemies prefer it to nioie 
valuable crops that they would otherwise attack. 
We, therefore, fed our cattle, aud poultry with what 
pigs left of our second field. For the cattle we 
cut It into convenient pieces, which they devour 
greedily, aud thrive on. For the poultry it is 
masheri up in the paddy pounder, and a trough full 
placed at their discretion every morning. It was 
only six months ago that we began to breed fowls, 
in that time they have increased ten-fold ; a 
rather mixed . lot, but that may be improved by 
selection. Beside what they can pick up in a 
wide range, they have been fed almost exclusively 
with cassava ; local value one cent, per cent. 
We propose to add pigs to our live-stock, when 
we succeed in securing a good breed. 
W. B. L. 
♦ 
COTTON-GROVYING WITHIN THE EMPIRE 
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "TIMES."] 
Sir, — For three or four years back I have been 
working to point out to the British people the 
absolute necessity of increased production of 
cotton, because, owing to the increased demand for 
cotton in America— which demand is rapidly grow* 
ing — Lancashire will have to go without cotton as 
far as getting it from America is concerned. The 
remedy that I have been advocating all the time 
is to grow your cotton in British territory— the 
West Indies, West Africa, India, and Egypt — and 
benefit those territories, benefit the people who are 
