74 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1891. 
operationa, be adds irrigation onse or tnioe a week, 
which being impracticable on most of onr Ceylon 
fields, don’t snit us. 
Many minor errors may be forgiven to an author 
who takes such high grounii, on the most important 
operations to the enoormt planter. “ Keep your soil 
well broken, and ketp putting manure into it," has 
been for yaara the oft-repeated advice of oho Ceylon 
planter : perhaps a voice from afar may have more 
power for fnriherieg tho improved method. 
We have only two species of bccllo that attacks 
tho coconut tree in Ceylon. The iuruminiya, a 
large black one (not figured in this book), 
breeds in dung-heaps and in accumnlstions 
of deoaying vegetable matter. It outs into llie cabbage 
and feeds on the tender undeveloped leaves, the effects 
of which are cut and ragged leaves in after life. It 
does not breed in the tree but merely dines and departs. 
Few trees in a plaotation entirely escape, and some 
that are much to their taste, are kept in a chronic 
state 0 ! disreputable roggodness. The other is the 
rod beetle, kamlapanuica (ealing worm) of the Sinha. 
lese. The dangerous time with this foe, is from the 
time, the stem shows above ground, till it begins to 
flower. It haa a strong frontal horn, with which it 
can enlarge to its purpose any ora'ik or wound on the 
stem, but it cannot peiu trate the ripe rind. The rapid 
•zpansinn of the stem in a quick-growing tree often 
splits the base of a leaf ; and in the crack so produced 
the young grub livee on tiie substanoe of tho leaf till 
strong enough to gnaw its way into the stem. Split 
leaves should therefore be carefully removed ss soon 
as notioed; but all whole ones should bo allowed to 
remain on the stem till they rot, the danger of ro- 
moving them being breakiug the surface of the stem 
or exposing it before it is snfliaently hardened. When 
the grub is detected iu a tree, the safest way 
of dealing with it is to root it out, out it into chips 
and collect and destroy the insects in all their stages. 
Fortunately the whole oolouy stick to oiio tree, as 
long as it stands, and the whole fimily, someiinirs 
amounting to 150, can bn disposed of at once The 
grand precaution is never to trim the leaves within 
three feet of the stem i nine-tenths of the trees des- 
troyed by this insect, on Ceylon plantations, have been 
due to wounds inflioted on the stems in trimming 
off dead leaves. 
Motbs. — 18 feet is the length of the leaf of a mature 
thriving tree. 
The raannrial elements moat needed, in coeonnt, as 
in most other cnltivationa, are nitrates and phosphates 
in few cases need any others be specially provided, 
ks tliev are in combination in all manures. 
I think a basket of dung more scientifio treatment 
for a oeoonnt tree than a pounding with a paddy pestle. 
In Ceylon the coconnts are gathered six times in the, 
year; the Jan.-Peh. crop being the smallest, and 
June- July the largest 
Two plants from ononnt is notan uncommon event, 
and three are sometimes to be seen, but a single nut 
here has thrown out no loss than five. About 20 years 
ago a nursery plant was shown at an Agri-Horticultural 
exhibition injColombo, with flowev on it. 
In parts of our lowcountry, where more than 100 
inches of rain falls, in the yeer, tho trees carry fine 
full beads of loaves, but bear comparatively small crops, 
so that too much moisture is rather worse than too 
much drought. I suppose, that in a saturated soil, 
the soluble plant food is too much dilutrd fur fruit 
forming. 
THE MODEllN PLANTER. 
In an article under this head a writer in the Olobe 
says “ The word still calls to the mind's eye a v.-ry 
sun-burned gentleman in a white jean auit, wil ii a 
Panama hat on bis head, a whip in bis hand, strong 
language ou his lip, and a oombativo assortment of cold 
drinks and fiery seasoning under his waistcoat; a man 
who is Tory to tho backbone in his upboldiug of old 
notions and manners aud customs, violent in his 
prejadioei, prodigal in bis expenditure and lavish 
in his hospitality and the limit of whose ideas is 
defined by the bonndariea of his own island. Bnt 
this accepted portrait is no more true to life than are 
the stage sailor, or the stage countryman; or the 
mother-in-law in fiction, or the hero of the penny dread- 
ful, for, although many an Bast or West Indian planter 
leads as solitary a life as did his predeoeasora in the pre- 
steam ago, he ba.s moved with the times in every 
respect. But for his snnbst and his easy costnme he 
might be anyth'ng or anywhere but what or where ha 
is. He is not even bronzed by the sun— not bslf so 
bronzed ns his globe-trotting visitor, or as many a 
young BDglishman after a cricket season or a summer 
oD the river, for the very suffioient reason that when he 
does go out into the sun, which is only at certain times 
of tho day, he protects bim-elf with broad hat, dark 
spectacles, and nmhrells. He is usually temperate and 
as oftaii as not an abstainer, although, for hU own good 
in Buoh a eliinate, rarely a teetotaller, and would as 
soon think of laying hie whip across tho back of a 
negro as of sitting down to a steady consumption of 
heavy viands washed down by draiigblauf heady, fiery 
liquids at the end of a day’s work according to the 
traditional “ good old " enatom although he follows 
tradition iu sakiiig bis visitor what be will take to 
drink. Solitary his life often is, be it amidst the tea 
lands of Assam or the osne pieces and cocoa plantations 
of tho West Indies. He may have to ride twenty-five 
miles fur a doctor and to depend upon the transport on 
the beads of negroes for tho ueceHsaries and luxuries of 
life. His society is simply that of neighbouring planters 
which may mean that from week's end to week’s end 
lie never sees a white face. But he is by iio means 
a solitary man, for not only does be surround himself 
with IIS many refinements as possible, not only docs 
every mail keep him iu constant toncli with the Old 
Country, but as often as not he simply lives on his 
estate during the ' crop mouths,' and spends the 
remainder of the year at home, and is therefore a 
very distinct aud different being from the planter of 
Tom Cringle's ora, who made bis estate his world, 
Ki d re garded a return to the land of his birth as 
tho remotest of oon'ingencies.’’ 
Tho writer might have added that those planters 
who “ spend tho remainder of the year at home ’’ 
are few and far between, and may be regarded as 
the favourites of fortune, 'dlie proprietor ol a very 
prosperous tea or sugar estate may indulge in this 
form of luxury, but on the majority of lea gardens 
aud sugar estates the resident manager is a hard 
working man, very much on the spot, and his boli- 
daya are not by any moans at brief intervals. 
Old times are indeed gone. The pay is not what 
it was, the nature of tho work is chsnged, the res- 
posibility is greater, and, if the planter is not also 
proprietor, be has to keep a sharp look ont on bis 
estimates and bis year’s working, or bo will be speedily 
called to acconnt. The romance of a planter's life — 
if there ever were much — is now reduced to a mattsr- 
of-fsct ezislonce, tempered by tennis, the lati st aud 
most economic maebinory, and the Mincing Line 
markets,— /T- “”4 (7. Mail, 
4 - 
THE MACjARONI OF COMMERCE. 
Macaroni and the kindred preparations have 
come to rank among the important food products. 
This article consisted originally of bits of paste 
aud cheese pressed or squeezed into balls. The 
name is now applied to a paste which is manu- 
faotured from tho " semoule” of wheat or wheat 
meal. It covers many of tho Italian pastes which 
are used (or food in ono shape or another, but 
to Aroetioaiis the form beat known and most 
commonly found on the tabic is that of wheaten pipes 
varying from a quarter of an inch to an inch diameter. 
Spaghetti and vermicelli are classed under the same 
general head, as are also the infinite variety of 
tiny fanciful forms which have become such an 
adjunct in the preparation of soups. 
