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THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST. [June 2, 1902. 
WILD COFFEE IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
AN APl'ARRNT HYBRID. 
Beyond the LiTiambo on the ahrres of the Sin- 
kuru gro;vs a very wild interestinu kind of Coffei- 
ti-ee^ v"!uch 's ppp ireatly uew. li. exists aNo, it is 
■ lid, in abas d ill ': on the left bank of the Loinaui, 
weat of the Gandn, It is a amaU tree thi'eo t"'i five 
yards high with br.iLichps eprcading out of'-'U .■. r 
the streams with fine leaves l:irj;nr than those of lii'^ 
Liberiaii Coifee, and small floweiB, ::-maUer th m ihoso 
of the Arabian variety. The berries are of medium bilj, 
the seeds lather small and regular and have a veiy 
delicate aroma. C-jffea of this kiud that had been 
gathered towards Gandu tastes excelleDt, This coif e 
is =aid to abound in the woods on the left bank of the 
Loniani, and is even cultivated in certain villages. 
This variety has been cultivated, first by the Arabs, and 
then by M. Gillain at Lusambo station, where tlioie is 
about five hundred trees. la the same plantation there 
were some Liberian coffee trees planted at the same 
time, but which liad not developed so well aa this wild 
kind- Tbis is attributed to the nature of the 
soil of Lusambo : a silioious earth, rich in ve;etable 
soil for twenty or thirty centimetres down. In such 
land one must give np Liberian in favour of the 
new kind, accListomed to grow on the sandy soils 
so common in the basins of the upper Kassai, 
Sankuru and the Lomani. This coffee seems to have 
a great fntnre before it, especially after the southern 
portion of the great forests is opened up to cul- 
tivation. 
ANOTHER VARIETY. 
In an island of the Lualaba, above Wabundu, 
grows, in a wild state, a kind of coffee much like 
the Arabian. It is also found opposite C ;qailhatville 
and on the banks of the Ueile and the Ubaugi. It 
forms a shrub 6 to 18 feet high, with narrow leaves, 
small elongated beans, rather small berries of rather 
irregular shape owing to there being often three 
harries in a bean. The colour of the berry is grey, 
and there is so little aroma that many berries are 
required to produce a fair cup of cofiee. 
A TRUE LIBERIAN. 
At Wanie Kukula, there is in the forest another 
kind of wild coffee whose reputation has ho longer to 
be made : Liberian coffee living in_ the forest under 
the shade of great trees. There are trees in flower 
31) to 40 feet high, the trunks of which measured'15 
to 2.5 centimetres in diameter 3 feet from the ground. 
They bore branches only at the summit of the stems, 
which is explained by the struggle for light of the 
denizens of the forest. The seeds are a little smaller 
than those of the cultivated Liberian trees. In every 
pjint the wild and the cultivated Lilierinn resemble 
one another, and in a plantation of 5 to G hundred 
trees near by it was not possible to distinguish them. 
The trees belonged to some Arab Chiefs to whom the 
Commandant Lothaire had advised as to the cultivation 
of wild coffee and had given seeds of the cultivated 
variety. 
THREE DISTINCT KINDS. 
We must note then the existence, in their wild 
state, of three different kinds of cofl'ee in the Congo 
State, and two of those have a great economic im- 
portance. For if equatorial Africa is the home of 
these precious plants, there is no doubt that they may 
bo oiiilivated there with success. To satisfy oneself, 
it is suilieient to visit the plantations of Wabuudii, 
Rnd ospecifJly those of Stanley Falls At the latter 
.Station, 400 trees were planted in 1890 on the recent 
depo.sits of the left bank of the river. Thsy are very 
fino arid covered with berries ; one of these trees was 
photographed after it had been stripped. The fruits 
v/(iit;hed 21 kilog, (17 lb.) which correspords to about 
3 kilo, of colfte (7 lb.) After the Arab campaign, 
coffee planting was resumed vigorously under the 
direction of M Horn. Last year there were more than 
r),.'jOO plantf! over a year old and growing vigorously. — 
Madrat Mo.il, April 20. 
MR JOHN HUGHR.S AND BASIC 
SUE'ERPHOSPHATE. 
Basic superphosphate is a manure pre- 
pared by mixing saperphosph.ite with slaked 
lime, and is distincLiv alk.aline, combining 
t'u! solubility of superpho.spliate with the 
alk.'iline nature of slag- It is particularly 
;'.d;ipied for clayey, gravelly, sandy, grani- 
tic, or peaty soils, and in general for all 
soils having less than 1 per cent of lime. 
It is in the form of a dry powder easily 
tipptied. AccfU'ding to the inventor, Mr. 
.John Hughes, it is intended to take an in- 
termediate position between sl.ig and super- 
phosphate, and results in the field last 
reason confirm those of the laboratory. — 
Globe, April 18. 
♦ ■ 
THE CULTIVATION OF TEA I>i 
LOWER BURMA 
ha? disappeared. The late D . Mountjoy cultivated 
it successfully in the Akyab district for many 
years. He coninieneed in 1862 and gained a prize 
for the excellent quality of his tea at tlie Calcutta 
Agricultural Exhibitioii in liSti.S Gl. In 1876-77 tiie 
outtiu'n of tea in the Akyab ili.strict amounted 
to 25,S74 lb. Accoring to the Riagooii Times no 
tea has been grown in Lower Burma for some 
time past, though the returns for Upper Burma 
lasc year show 249 acres under tea in the Katiia 
district, and 1,167 acres in the Upper Cliindwia 
— Indian Planters Gazette, April 28. 
« 
Growing ToMATOE-s. - Most Growers ot toma- 
toes for sale or export aim at producing very large 
snioo'h fruit. That the smooth variety is pre- 
ferred to the wrinkle kind is evident from the fact 
that the public, a rule, do not care for the latter 
and that a better price can be obtained for the 
former. But abnormally large tomatoes are a 
mistake. As a general rule, the public prefer a 
moderate size. The housewife does not like 
getting two or three fruits to the lb. 
because there is often much wasted in the large 
sizes. From 2 to 3 inches in diameter is quite 
large enough, and such tomatoes will always 
comaiand a better ptice than the very large ones, 
which are more useful to the cook for •' fancy 
work" than for general x>^y\ios,Qi.— Queensland 
Acirir.ulturtd Journal for March. 
Pests and Uiseask-s.— Caterpill.ars, shigs, flies, 
locusts, birds, worms, scale insects, fungoid diseases 
of various sorts, will all attack your garden iu 
their turn, and they must be destroyed as soon as 
they appear, or there will be very little pocket- 
money. What is the best way of fighting ihem 
all? [n a small garden you can do a great deal 
by picking off the caterpillars, but the slugs 
(vaginula particularly) are night intruders, and 
these may be destroyifid by the use of the powder 
of tobacco refuse. A dusting of this is fatal to 
them. Then there are sprays which will destroy 
both insect parasites and fungous diseases. 
Wli lie oil soap, 1 lb to 2 gallons of warm water, 
applied when cold, is an excellent spray. Paris 
green and Bordeaux mixture will also help. If 
taken in time most of thf enemies of the vegetable 
giu'.len can be destroyed by proper appliance?. 
Study the writings of scientific vegetable gardeners, 
and make use of the lemedies suggested by them 
and you will fi'id tint you will be snccessful with 
your garden, and still liave plenty ot time to do 
clioies on the farm. — Queensland Agricultural 
Journal for March, 
