828 
THf TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, iSgi^ 
also aid the explanation of the course of the increised 
amount of nitrogen which other crops acquire, when 
they are grown in association, or in alternation, with 
Leguniinosse. Lastly, it will help to explain the source 
of part of the accumulated comhined nitrogen within 
our soils, and the comparative slow exhaustion of their 
stores of it, by cropping, drainage, and in other ways. 
— Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE REDIVIVUS. 
The abandonment of so large a portion of the 
coffee cultivation of Ceylon, India and Java has left 
Brazil and other states in South America to stand 
almost alone in supplying the consuming markets of 
the world. At the present moment stocks in Europe 
are unprecedently low, and the visible supply for 
the future is altogether inadequate for ordinary con- 
sumption. Under such circumstances it is not to 
be wondered at that the value of coffee is very much 
enhanced, and that certain qualities which a few 
years ago were considered of little value have taken 
the place of the better kinds, whilst these latter 
have risen in price above all precedent, Liberian 
coffee, which used to fetch some R25 per cwt. less 
than coffee Arabica, has now touched 100s, and at- 
tention is naturally drawn to its cultivation. Li- 
berian coffee was first introduced into Ceylon and 
grown more as a curiosity than anything else ; but, 
as leaf-disease began to affect the estates worse and 
worse every year, great hopes were entertained that 
the new and sturdy variety was destined to revive 
the fortunes of the planters. From one cause or 
another Liberian coffee did not turn out a success 
at first— in fact, too much was expected of it. It 
■vvas planted in unsuitable soils and unpropitious 
climates ; it was slow of growth ; the crop would 
not ripen ; when it did ripen it wouldn’t pulp ; and 
when it was eventually cleaned and sent to market 
it fetched a very low price compared with the ordin- 
ary produce of the estates. Finally it was found 
that the Liberian trees were quite as badly affected 
by leaf-disease and green bug as the other variety— 
indeed, it has been thought by some that green bug 
was introduced into Ceylon with the Liberian plants. 
The great disaster which overv/helmed our planters 
finally put an end to most of the experiments in 
planting Liberian coffee ; and the cultivation, though 
a little is still in existence, wa,s practically aban- 
doned. In the meantime, however, Ceylon planters 
had taken the plant with them to the Straits 
Hettlements, and commencement was made in J ohore; 
the cultivation being afterwards extended to Sungei 
Ujong, Selangor, and Perak. Just at the time when 
the demand for coffee has so largely increased, these 
estates are coming into bearing and showing large 
profits, and it has been asserted that certain proper- 
ties belonging to Messrs. Hill and Rathbone are 
bearing at the rate of 8 cwts. to 11 cwts, per acre. 
These figures, appearing some s[x or seven months 
ago in the Straits papers, were promptly challenged 
by one or more old resident planters, but the proprie- 
tors succeeded in proving that they were correct. If 
was however expiained that these crops were ob- 
tained by the help of manure, and though, as re- 
regards statistics, there was no necessity to go 
further into the matter. Messrs. Hill and Rathbone 
went out of their way to show how fully they were justi- 
fied in manuring such young coffee in order to take 
tlie greatest possible advantage of the high prices 
at jiresent ruling in the home markets. We quote 
particulars of crops and acreage of four of the 
))roperties. Of the two states in Sungei Ujong we 
personally know nothing ; but wo have been told 
that they are really magnificent little properties, and, 
II.H the two total only 110 acres, it can easily bo 
understood they can be kept in first-rate order and 
made to bear almost anything. Welds Hill estate 
and Hatu Cave estate we have seen for ourselves. 
Welds Hill is within a eoiiplo of miles of the town 
of Kuala Jmmpur, and is a very fine little property, 
f.ike the others it has hfien manured; hut, liaving 
been idanted too close, the trees have hardly got 
fair j/lav. 'I'he outturn of H cwt. an acre is certainly 
very good, but, from the appearauee of the estate, 
it should be capable of better thiims unless of course 
the trees are too crowded. The Batu Cave estate 
is a mere garden at the foot of immense rugged 
limestone rocks. The soil is magnificent highly 
charged with lime, and can be made to bear any- 
thing, being only 11 acres in extent. In less favour- 
able localities in Ceylon, and under adverse circum- 
stances of labor and climate, we have seen 24 cwt. 
an acre taken off a field of 16 acres. There are 
several planters who have elected to take compara- 
tively inferior land in the neighborhood of Kuala 
Lumpur, and are planting it up avowedly with the 
intention of manuring and taking advantage, not 
only of the high prices, but of the facilities afforded 
them by the railway froniKuala Lumpur to the coast. 
Had they chosen they could have gone further in- 
land and taken up better soil. These crops then 
which seem, and in reality are, so large, have been 
to a great extent produced by the help of manure, 
whilst the trees are very young, and consequently 
must not be taken as the standard from which to 
calculate what Liberian coffee will do in the ordinary 
soil of the country and with ordinary cultivation. 
The greater number of estates now in Johore 
would shew very poor returns ; in fact, some of 
them have been extremely disappointing. The 
soil undoubtedly is very poor ; and, wherever plan- 
tations are made on better soil, the result which 
might confidently be looked forward to would be 
better than those of the old Johore estates, whilst 
a similar liberal outlay would no doubt produce 
similar results to those from the estates in Selangor 
and Sungei Ujong.— Local “Times” 
Prunes in California, — There is money in prunes 
perhaps more than in any other fruit, except oranges 
Last season a ten-acre plot in Pomona (Cal.) 
brought a gross return of £1,583 or nearly £166 
per acre. The market for dried prunes is the 
surest of all. The demand is not likely to be 
reached for the next 20 years . — Mildura Cultivator. 
The Ceylon Tea Fund Committee is still 
busy O'er many things; Agencies and exhibition 
not being the least of its objects of attention. 
We cannot see how the business in hand can per- 
mit of ariy reduction of subscription at least this 
year ; but we suppose the Fund is not to be continued 
for ever or beyond a certain date; for, the day is 
surely coming when the virtues of Ceylon tea will 
be fully understood from the Arctic to the An- 
tartio pole ai d from China to Peru ; and then th§ 
Kandy Committee will sing “ We have got no 
work to do.” 
A Rich DiepovEitit of opals of a finer quality 
than those of Mexico is just reported from Moscow 
in the State of Washington, U.S., dose to the 
Idaho Railway. They were found by some labourers 
while digging a well in a wheat field, the mother 
rock being a basalt wacke. Opal is an amorphous 
hydrated silica, and is deposited from water. The 
finest specimens of the gem or precious opal ceme 
from Hungary, but those of Mexico are very fine. 
The fire opal of Eimapau, in Mexico, is transparent 
and of a deep red, being coloured by oxide of iron. 
Small veins of opal have been found in several 
parts of the United States.— E. Mail, Maroh 26. 
Vines. — Among the curiosities of the California 
grape region is a vineyard that may well be called 
the smallest in the world as regards the number 
of vines, for it has but one vino. This is a most 
remarkable one, however, for its branches extend 
over a space of 12,000 feet, the cane being a foot 
in diameter. This extraordinary vine is over seventy 
years old, and was grown from an old Mission 
cutting by a Mexican woman. It has borne grapes 
every year since it was two years old, and is good 
now, they say, for six tons of grapes a year. 
Clusters weighing seven pounds have been picked 
from this ancient relic of the Mission days. — 
Mildura Cultivator, 
