Nov.  2,  1896.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
333 
We  have  the  two  borers  here — one  the  Zeuzera 
coffee  red  borer  from  the  larva  of  a white  motli 
with  steel-blue  spots  common  in  the  Uva  district 
of  Cey'on.  This  does  not  do  so  much  damage  as 
the  other,  produced  from  the  larv:e  of  the  longi- 
corn  beetle,  the  Indian  white  borer.  They  are 
very  numerous  and  destructive,  especially  when 
the  soil  is  of  a deep  chocolate  or  black  loam  rich 
in  humus.  They  begin  to  hatch  about  March 
and  assume  the  chrysalis  form  about  July  and 
August.  For  the  last  four  months  I have  had 
a few  boys  catching  the  borers,  and  they  some- 
times bring  in  20  to  30  per  diem  besides  what  they 
kill  in  the  trees  by  means  of  a small  wire 
pushed  into  the  hole  where  the  borer  enters  the 
tree  ; they  are  worst  on  coffee  3 and  4 years  old. 
The  black  and  white  grub  from  the  cock- 
chafer beetles  are  not  so  numerous  as  I have 
seen  them  in  Ceyion,  although  common  enough. 
Crickets  and  locusts  of  various  kinds  are  about 
the  onlj  other  enemies  our  coffee  has,  but  they 
don’t  seem  to  do  much  harm  excej)t  to  young 
plants  by  cutting  them  down'during  the  dry  .season. 
Black  and  white  bug  are  both  to  be  seen 
upon  orange,  soursop  and  guava  trees  at  times, 
and  I have  seen  an  occasional  coffee  tree  with 
bug;  but  it  does  seem  to  cast  or  spread,  probably  due 
to  the  ever  present  ladybird  beetle  of  which 
we  have  two  or  three  specimens. 
Nyassaland  planters  are  going  crazy  about 
shade  for  coffee,  and  it  is  being  e.xperimented  with 
by  several.  My  observations  don’t  support  thetheory 
that  shade  is  required  for  coffee  liere,  specially 
having  forest  trees  on  a new  clearing  as  some 
are  doing.  AVe  have  some  very  good  indigenous 
forest  trees  suitable  (deep  feeders  that  don’t 
seem  to  hurt  coffee)  such  as  mahogany,  malombwi, 
and  some  of  the  Albizzia  family,  locally  named 
kalatta,  sopa,  aquaranyana,  and  chickwani  : the 
latter  four  have  feathery  leaves  which  close  up 
at  night,  and  are  very  deep  feeders,  nevertheless 
they  should  all  be  felled  when  a clearing  is 
being  made  for  coffee,  and  young  plants  (to 
whatever  kind  is  thought  suitable  by  those  who 
want  shade,  planted  out  at  regular  intervals,  or 
a set  distance  apart  after  coffee  is  a year  or  so 
old,  as  youn"  coffee  jdants  certainly  hang  back 
when  planted  under  standing  forest  shade  of  any 
kind. 
I am  not  a believer  in  shade,  at  least  in 
Mlanji,  with  our  rainfall  well  distributed  at  an 
elevation  of  from  200  to  300  ft. 
Our  two  driest  months  are  October  and  November, 
and  I have  never  known  less  than  1 or  2 in.  of  rain, 
or  the  thermometer  rise  more  than  96°,  and  that  only 
for  one  or  two  days  just  before  the  break  of 
our  rainy  season  towards  the  end  of  November. 
I have  never  seen  healthy  coffee  dropping  or 
lo.sing  its  leaves  here  from  drought,  as  I have 
seen  in  Lower  Matale  and  elsewhere  in  Ceylon. 
Further  my  observations  go  to  prove  that  shaded 
coffee  here  does  not  make  wood,  nor  does  it  crop 
so  well  as  that  in  the  open.  I can  understand 
going  in  for  shade  where  coffee  gives  little  of 
no  crop  without  it.  Shade  is  in  any  climate 
undoubtedly  beneficial,  as  an  agent  for  manuring 
by  means  of  the  leaves  which  are  continually 
falling,  and  helps  to  replace  the  ingredients 
removed  from  the  soil  by  the  coffee  tree  ; but  as 
I have  said  suitable  shade  must  be  selected. 
Coffee  is  not,  however,  such  an  exhausting  crop 
that  it  cannot  be  grown  without  manuring 
on  almost  any  kind  of  for  cut  soil  for  at  least  for 
8 years. 
i remember  seeing  some  very  line  coffee  under 
shade  of  the  small  wild  fig  tree  Ficus  indica 
in  Lower  Matale  ; but  I was  told  that  the  coffee 
gathered  from  it  was  very  little,  compared  with 
the  rest  of  the  estate.  The  unshaded  coffee  never 
looked  so  vigorous  and  green  : it  cropped  well,  while 
the  shaded  coffee  did  not  do,  altliough  it  cer- 
tainly promised  to  last  much  longer. 
I took  charge  of  an  estate  once  which  was 
one  cover  of  jak  trees  planted  as  shade  ; the 
place  had  not  given  a decent  crop  for  years  ; so 
I set  to  work  and  lopped  the  jaks  to  a ton, 
giving  the  coffee  a good  ])runing.  The  result 
was  double  the  crop  next  year.  Although  jak 
is  considered  good  shade  for  coffee  by  most  low- 
country  Ceylon  jilanters,  I never  thought  so  ; 
At  all  events  jaks  should  be  thinned  out  of 
all  the  leaves  and  smaller  branches  or  twigs 
once  a year  and  buried  as  a green  manure, 
to  make  it  worthy  of  the  name  of  a shade  tree 
for  any  plant  growing  on  the  same  ground. 
Weeding  in  Nyassaland  is  not  so  serious 
an  item  of  expenditure  as  in  Ceylon.  Although 
we  hear  some  familiar  friends  here  such  as  the 
Spanish  needle  and  white  weed.  They  are  not 
troublesome  except  during  the  rainy  season 
from  November  to  April,  during  which  time 
the  growth  of  everything  is  marvellou®. 
Some  discu.ssion  has  taken  place  lately  in  one 
planting  paper  as  to  whether  coffee  will  oris  pay- 
ing in  Nyassaland — the  outcome  of  a letter 
written  by  Mr.  Simpson,  a Chirimo  and  MUnji 
trader,  who  apparently  has  made  some  mistake  in 
his  mode  of  cultivation  the  same  as  some  of  his 
neighbours.  In  fact  the  three  oldest  est,ates  in 
Mlanji  have  not  got  fairplay  to  my  persot  al 
knowledge,  Mr.  Simpson  included,  because  they 
were  allowed  to  grow  up  to  and  6 ft.  high,  then 
hacked  down  before  blossoming,  and  in  some 
instances  with  croj)s  set  on  the  upjier  branches, 
where  the  sap  naturally  flows  to,  impoverishing 
the  lower  primaries,  that  couhl  hardly  be  expected 
to  blossom  again.  The  trees  were  allowed  to  nourish 
magnificent  suckers,  2 and  3 feet  high,  to  be 
again  cut  or  pruned  off  : under  such  circumstan- 
ces how  could  coffee  yield  good  crops  ? 
A Ceylon  planter  asked  a gentleman,  African 
plante",  why  he  let  his  coffee  grow  up  like  blue 
gums,  especially  when  his  estate  was  wind- 
blown. His  reply  was  : “the  more  wood  and  bigger 
tree  gave  more  crops.  After  being  persuaded  that 
he  was  mistaken,  a general  stampede  of  knife- 
men  were  seen  rushing  to  attack  the  coffee  trees, 
and  down  they  went  to  2i  ft.  I am  sure  any 
experienced  coffee  planter  will  agree  with  me 
that  it  would  be  better  to  allow  estates  to  grow 
as  native  coffee  than  subject  them  to  such  treat- 
ment. 
Another  cause  of  jioor  crops  such  as  Mr.  Simp- 
son records  is  owing  to  planting  up  old  native 
gardens.  Only  a few  years  old  chena  land,  which 
Ceylon  men  of  experience  know,  only  yields  one 
or  two  crops,  then  struggles  for  existence,  un- 
less manured.  This  is  the  case  with  the  gene- 
rality of  lands,  although  some  fine  coffee  yielding 
good  crops  is  to  be  found  on  alluvial  deposits 
without  manure. 
To  sum  up  with,  I have  just  finished.  Gather- 
ing a 5 cwt.  per  acre  crop  from  a field  3 
years  old,  which  was  virgin  forest,  but  unfortu- 
nately the  acreage  is  small,  the  trees  look  as  if 
they  had  borne  no  crop,  and  I expect  at  least  6 
or  7 cwt.  next  year. 
Nyassaland  planters  are  mostly  a hard-headed, 
stubborn  lot  of  men,  above  talking  the  advice 
of  anyljody.  Consequently  their  experience  is 
dearly  bought  : in  fact  they  are  a ^necf  Iot| 
