THE 
Vol. XI. 
COLOMBO, AUGUST ’ist, 1891. 
[No 2. 
COFFEE [AKD TEA] SOILS AXD MAXUKES. 
OPFEE in Goorg seoma to 
)\ave far bettar roaiated 
the deadly influenoe of 
lUmileia vaatatrix than has 
been the case in moat parts 
of Ceylon, judging from the 
fact that Mcaara. Matbeson , 
Qjieonaidered it worth their while to employ a special 1 
Agrioultural Ghemiat and to inour very large 
expenditure in proseouting experiments in the 
direotion of reriving an industry which with us in 
Ooylon seems absolutely dying out, in this the 
twenty-firat year ainoe the fungus waa first 
obaerved in the eastern outlying range of ^ 
Madulairaa. By arrangement with Mr. Pringle, 
the obemist in question, wo eommenoe today the ; 
publioation of a seriea of papers he has prepared ! 
as the reaulta of his inTestigationa and experiments, j 
Tha detailed and interesting information afforded ^ 
in the paper we publish today may be useful to } 
the owners of suoh ooHee as still survives in 
Ceylon, whether the oultivation of Arabian coffee 
18 ever resumed here, on a largo scale or not, and in 
any case tea and cinchona planters cannot but bene, 
fit ; for we may take it for granted that, whatever, 
in the shape of manure at least, is good 
for eoffee, is equally good for the other products, 
especially tea. We have been in the habit of 
saying that a leaf-yielding plant like tea must 
be less exhaustive of the fertile constituents of 
a soil, than a fruit-yielding plant, like coffee. 
But let our readers mark the large proportion 
of plant food taken up by the twigs and leaves 
of the coffee tree, as shown by Mr. Pringle, 
heating also in mind that the tea plant, 
besides being snbjeoted to an almost inoes. 
»ant plucking process, is periodically pruned 
«tat a more severe fashion than that applied 
0 oo 0 ee. It being certain, therefore, that, even 
more in Geylon than in Goorg, tha deoom. 
posing felspar and mica fairly keep up the 
supplies of potash, tea requires as liberal phos- 
phatio and nitrogenous applieations as oo 0 oe does. 
In tea cultivation as formerly in oo 0 eo, the con- 
clusion generally acted on in Geylon is, that the 
best all round manure is a mixture of finely 
ground or steamed bones and while castor cake. 
If some superphosphate can be added so much 
the better. The bones supply the great element lot 
phosphorio aoid, with some ammonia ; the cake 
is rich in nitrogen, and contains a little potash, 
supplleB tbo soil with organic matter in the best po^ 
sible conditions Mr# Pringle seems to prefer nah 
to oil cake; and no doubt pure Ush excellent 
manure, better oven for tea, we should say, than 
for coffee, but it is probably more evanescent m 
its f fleets than castor cake and does not act to 
such an extent meohanioally on the soil by 
of organic matter, which, in the case of the 
cake, does not at once decompose. Con- 
sidering the merits attributed to sb^e in 
South India coffee culture, surprise will bo felt 
at Mr. Pringle's conclusions in an unfavouraMe 
sense. Iheroisa difference, however, between the 
dry climate of Mysore aud the moist climate of 
Coorg, and between the light shade olFiciu glomerata 
and the dense canopy of the foliage of the jak tree ? 
In Ceylon, long before the fungus rendered every 
other question subordinate to one which with us 
was even more than equivalent to phylloxera in 
vine culture, we had come to the conclusion that 
where coffee required shade it would bo un- 
profitable to grow it. From some experience wo 
arc inclined to believe that tea is far more tolerant 
of shade, both as regards flushing and flavour of 
flush ; and that the liberal planting of BheUcr, 
timber and fuel trees can be carried 
estate, not only without injury but with 
to the main product grown. Wo should like to 
hear experts on this point, and the modified shade as 
well as the fertilizing effects of the growth of 
green plants amongst out tea, in order to carry 
down into the soil nitrogen derived from the air. 
Is there any danger of fungua from the deoom- 
poeition of greenstuff? We are here reminded of 
Mr. Pringle’s suggestive idea that a soil may get 
*' sick " of one unvarying produot, and it MO.y be 
a question whether this was not one cause of the 
predisposition of our coffee tree to the altaoks of 
the tuDgua, and whether the same danger has not 
to be guarded agaiust in the ease of tea, grown, as 
it often is, in wide unbroken expansea 
Lima applied in moderate quantity oooasionally 
(after other manures have had time to dissolve 
and bo assimilated by tha tree roots) oanuol but 
be of value in averting sUoh a conMqaence, 
besides it? action in loosening the soil, the latter 
a prooesa whioh is less neoesaary in the culture 
of tee than of coffee. Tea also floariahes in soils 
where aliurainous and ferrugiuona constituents 
are in greater proportion^ than waa desirable 
for coffee. It Mr. Pringle is correct in showing 
that a substance so moist, heavy and balky as oattle 
manure costa generally in produotion more than it 
is worth,' espeoially if it naa to be carried any 
