I’HE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIS  I'. 
[Sept.  2,  1895. 
188 
l)eaviiig.  Mr.  Wright  and  his  partner  Mr. 
liingley  believe  inteaand  have  alreaily  a Jackson's 
Roller  and  a hig  Sirocco  availalile,  while  o.'t  niannds 
of  selected  seed  sent  fiom  Ceylon  have  been  su|iple- 
mentetl  by  some  very  line  “As.sani”  purchased  on  ihe 
spot — showing  that  Java  planters  and  merchants 
have  begun  to  imimrt  the  best  Indian  seed 
freely.  evidently  “Wangiwatte”  ami  many 
more  Java  pro|jerties  are  going  to  be  gra<lually 
turneil  into  tea  idautations.  I'he  climate  and 
soil  are  all  that  can  be  desired  ; the 
labour  fairly  ]ilentiful — lazy  but  cheaper 
than  ill  Ceylon.  As  for  transport  Mr?  Wright 
travelled  from  Ratavia  by  rail  lUO  miles  to 
within  lU  miles  of  the  projierty  and  then  had 
t-i  riile.  All  jiroduce  is  carried  on  i)ingocs  for 
these  ten  mile.S  by  the  Jaianese  who  contract 
for  this  work  and  like  it  ; but  a cart  road  is 
talked  of,  before  the  present  I’rivate  Company 
is  turned  into  a I’ublic  one  about  two  years 
hence.  We  do  not  know  what  the  Sharchohlers 
of  the  tipper  Maskeliya  and  other  local  Te.a 
Companies  will  say'  to  our  friend’s  enterprise  in 
thus  j ioneering  a Tea  industry  in  a new  division 
of  Ja\a  ; but  there  is  this  to  be  said  that  Mr. 
Wright  had  this  Java  jiroperty  in  a manner 
placed  before  him  three  years  ago  in  England, 
and  something  had  to  be  done  with  it.  hie  is 
full  of  faith  in  what  tea  at  3,000  to  4,000 
feet  will  do  in  Java.  Hitherto  the  6 to  8 
million  lb.  jier  annum  of  Java  teas  have 
been  produced  in  the  low-country  and  from 
poor  “ jfit.”  Now  the  era  is  api)roaching  of 
high-grown  fine  teas  from  superior  bushes  and 
the  result  will  be  an  increasing  and  serious  rivalry 
to  India  and  Ceylon. 
As  for  climate,  we  can  vouch  for  Mr.  M'right 
l eturning  in  capital  health  and  spirits  only  a 
little  bit  troubled  by  his  fellow  planters  in  Ceylon 
not  taking  u])  the  local  Labour  (Question  (with 
reference  to  ne.xt  Spring’s  ditliculties,  .and  the  e.\- 
tended  Irrig.ation  Works  in  Southern  India)  a 
little  more  seriously  and  practically. 

THE  CASTLEKEAGH  TEA  COMPANY 
OF  CEYLON,  LIMITED. 
The  Directors  of  this  Comp.any  have  declared 
an  ad  interim,  diviilend  of  7 per  cent  in  res])ect 
of  the  half-year  ended  30th  June.  The  crop 
pros[»ects  are  e.xceedingly  good,  the  estim.ate  of  tea 
tor  the  whole  year  beiTig  nearly  secured  in  the  lirst 
h.alf  of  the  y-ear.  Tins  shouhl  l>e  good  news  not 
only  for  the  sh.areholders,  but  for  Mr.  L.  H.  Kelly 
ami  Mr.  Win.  M.ackenzie  who  came  in  for  a gre.at 
lot  of  criticism  last  year,  a good  de.al  of  it,  as 
it  would  now  appe.ar,  of  an  unjust  ch.aracter. 
The  unfortunate  sh.areholders  who  sold  out  at 
RG.")  or  anything  below  par  .some  months  back, 
are  to  be  pitied.  The  sh.ares  .are  worth  now 
fully  Rl-lU. 
COFFEE  PLANTING  IN  SERDANG,  SUMA- 
TRA:—NO  IX. 
(From  an  ex-Crylon  Planter.  ) 
I see  that  some  one  in  Kandy  ft.'.  O.  15th  June) 
has  had  his  nerves  shaken  by  tlie  shiillncss  of  my 
cock-a-doodle-doo-.  Tell  him  to  let  his  hair  grow 
quietly  and  knock  off  whisky,  which  is  bad  for  nerves. 
At  the  tame  time  I am  glad  to  learn  from  him  that 
“ Libeiiaii  ColTce  in  Ceylon  is  not  eclipsed.”  Neverthe- 
less I would  ho  cc.uld  see  things  hero  for  himself. 
1 stated  bcfoie  Unit  H V.  in  Sumatra  was  present, 
but  liad  to  lie  songlit  for  : and  this  is  the  case.  Dr. 
I’linun  in  bis  i epoi  t fm  IS'.U  (7'.  .1.  Aiiril  Irt'.lo)  says, 
••  No  doubt  JJbenan  i olice  sufl'cis  severely  from  leaf 
disease,  but  with  liberal  treatment  and  abundant 
manure  it  crops  well.  ” 
I have  seen  most  of  the 
bIHEHI..\N  COFFEE 
growing  on  the  East  Coast  of  Sumatra;  and  can 
safely  say  that  it  does  not  suffer  from  leaf-disease 
The  suitability  or  the  extra  fatness  of  the  soil  i r 
in  my  opinion,  the  reason  for  this.  And  further,  my 
cock-a-doodle-doo  does  not  extend  to  all  of  the  land 
that  I have  seen  in  this  country.  Regarding  pur- 
chase of  seed,  I was  talking  a few  days  ago  to  another 
ex-Ceylon  planter  who  recently  imported  some  Libe- 
rian seed  from  Ceylon,  one  reason  being  tliat  it  was 
cheaper  than  local  seed.  With  respect  to  disease,  he 
said  certainly  it  was  prevalent  in  Ceylon,  at  the  same 
time  agreeing  with  my  views  as  to  its  non-prevalence 
here.  He  further  said  that  he  had  put  his  Ceylon 
nurseries  far  apart  from  those  planted  with  local 
seed,  for  fear  of  sickness.  I have  not  seen  my 
friend's  nurseries  : but  I hope  to  bear  the  result. 
However,  I am  not  afraid  for  the  Ceylon  seed  : and 
to  show  the  nervous  man  of  Kandv  that  I am  not 
crowing  Sumatra  against  the  world  I give  the  fol- 
lowing facts.  One  of  the  finest  fields  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood is  grown  from  seed  from  an  estate  in 
Singapore  w'hich  always  suffered  more  or  less  severely 
from  11.  V.  though  manured  up  to  the  neck.  The  coffee 
here,  which  has  had  no  manure,  shows  no  sign  of  sick- 
ness  : which  looks  as  if  seed  even  from  sickly  trees 
may  do  well,  when  planted  in  more  suitable  soil. 
.\s  promised,  I visited 
THE  GENIUS  OF  THE  TAF-KOOTS. 
He  was  a tobacco  planter  who  took  up  coffee  : but 
knoA’ing  naught  about  the  planting  thereof,  jammed 
his  plants  in  anyhow : and  was  horrified  to  be  told 
by  a Java  coffee  man  that  all  his  tap-roots  were 
turned,  and  his  labour  wasted.  Having  exhausted  all 
the  language  at  his  command  (ho  is  not  much 
of  a linguist  but  a fine  langungcist)  he  set  to 
work.  His  bushes  at  this  time  were  considerably 
over  a year  old.  He  bored  down  the  root  on  one 
side  until  he  came  to  the  first  kink.  Just  above 
this  he  cut  clean  through  the  root  with  a pair  of 
strong  garden  scissors  : and  again  3 or  4 inches  below, 
leaving  the  bottom  part  of  the  root  to  rot  in  the 
ground.  Then  covering  up  the  hole,  he  tied  the 
offending  menrber  to  the  lowest  primary,  so  that  he 
should  know  his  man  again. 
We  saw  this  operation  in  process:  but  my  friend 
and  I wished  to  see  results.  So  we  were  taken  to 
the  coffee  which  had  been  first  experimented  on, 
some  four  months  previous  to  our  visit.  Boring  down, 
as  before,  we  came  to  where  the  tap-root  had  been 
cut,  and  there  found  a strong  healthy  sucker,  going 
straight;  and  well-established  in  the  ground.  The 
coffee  was  in  perfect  health ; though  our  host  to  d 
us  that  for  some  weeks  after  the  operation  it  lost 
colour ; the  rich  dark  green  returning  after  the 
subsidiary  taji-root  had  made  itself  felt.  The  man 
himself  was  a perfect  poet,  both  for  fluency  and  force 
of  language. 
^ 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
A CoKiiEsi’ONDENT  Whites  fkom  South-East  Wy- 
NAAi) ; — “ We  are  having  a very  heavj’  monsoon.  During 
the  past  throe  days  the  average  daily  rainfall  has 
been  2'55  inches  and  we  are  about  12  inches  about  the 
average  to  date  for  the  year.  Coffee  generally  looks 
very  promissing,  but  would  be  the  better  for  a little 
sunshine,  which  1 think  we  must  soon  liave,  as  the 
wind  has  shifted  a little  during  the  past  21  hours,  and 
there  was  some  thunder  yesterday.— J/.  JIail. 
COFKKE  IN  Gi:i!M.\n  Ea.st  Akhica.— The  Ger- 
man newspaper  JJaa  Echo  says  that  Dr.  Riehanl 
Himlorf  ot  Ruhroit,  well-known  for  his  activity 
in  NVilhelnislaiul,  German  Fast  .(Vfriea,  and  Ger- 
man South  Africa,  and  now  in  the  service  of  the 
TJeuts(:h-Ostafrika7mchcn  Gesellschaft,  will  shortly 
jnoceed  by  way  of  ('ey Ion  and  Java  to  East 
Africa,  and  that  he  will  arrange  to  visit 
plantations  of  coffee  in  Ceylon  and  Ja\a,  where 
he  formerly  stayed  for  some  time,  in  order  to 
aciinaint  himself  with  the  cnltiiution  of  Imiiic.al 
jdants.  He  will  also  emleai'onr  to  procme  skilled 
laborers.  The  coffee  plant.ati<»n  at  Usanibara  w:is 
laid  out  by  him  some  years  ago. 
