August 25, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
161 
from the original purchaser. For twenty-five years at least this 
valley yielded excellent crops of Coffee on an average, notwithstanding 
the unscientific and wasteful system that was adopted throughout the 
whole of that period, so deep and fertile was the soil worked upon and 
so favourable the climate. But a time came at last when the Coffee tree 
began to show signs of loss of vigour and the want of something more 
in the way of support than merely the natural food to be found in the 
soil of the valley. The taking of larger crops of Coffee than the trees 
could well support, the absence of systematic cultivation, and the varied 
and haphazard style of pruning adopted told their tale at last, and 
aroused the proprietors of the several properties to a sense of the 
absolute necessity of employing men trained in the art and practice of 
horticulture, and the adoption of measures having for their object a 
more rational system of cultivation, with a view to retrieving their fast- 
decaying fortunes. But all this was found to be too late ; the evil had 
taken too deep a hold to be eradicated, with the consequence that, 
notwithstanding the expenditure of vast amounts of money and well- 
directed energy, the Coffee properties in the once-famous valley have for 
a number of years been gradually decreasing in yield of berry and 
value, tili at the present time considerable tracts of land, once covered 
with a mantle of magnificent Coffee bushes, have been planted with Tea 
and Chinchona. 
It would be difficult to exaggerate the financial benefits that might 
have accrued to the proprietors of this particular portion of the Coffee 
districts of South India, if, from the first opening of the plantations, 
they had procured the services of well trained gardeners from England, 
say men of a certain age and experience, as superintendents, and younger 
men to work under them. This common-sense view of the matter, 
however, does not appear to have occurred to them, and men were 
engaged to perform the work of planting, and subsequent so-called 
cultivation, utterly ignorant of the first principles of agriculture or 
horticulture. My first visit to the Valley was about the year 1864, on 
my way to Ootacamund. I stayed a few days in the neighbourhood 
with a friend, and had a good opportunity afforded me of visiting the 
different estates, and of seeing the various modes of pruning and culti¬ 
vation being carried out at that time. 1 found that the late Mr. Auch- 
terlony had then, as general manager of his properties, an ex-captain of 
a Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company's ship, with his fifth officer 
as an assistant, whilst the resident superintendents of the different 
plantations included not a single gardener or person in the slightest 
degree trained to, or in the possession in the faintest degree, of 
any kind of knowledge relating to the cultivation of the land. 
These last individuals were made up of clerks, sailors, carpenters, 
ex-army officers and sergeants, doctors, and others of various professions. 
These men seemed to adopt styles of pruning and cultivation according to 
their various fancies, and not from any general rules 6et down by the 
manager. It was no surprise, therefore, to find one plantation so pruned 
as to appear, from a little distance, very much like a brown grass hill, 
so ruthlessly were the unfortunate Coffee trees deprived of their 
branches, whilst on an adjoining estate the wood left on the trees pro¬ 
duced a tangled mass to the entire exclusion of light and air. Some had 
the ground dug between the rows of trees to a depth of 6 or 8 inches 
during the height of the dry season, destroying innumerable fibrous 
roots in the process of turning over the huge clods, whilst others dis- 
torbed not the soil from one year’s end to another. Some buried the 
weeds in pits dug between the lines of the Coffee plants several times a 
year as they they were hoed up, whilst others never buried them at all, 
but left them on the surface of the ground to die. Some disbudded, or 
handled, as it was called, heavily during the rains, whilst others handled 
not at all, but performed the one yearly act of pruning with the knife 
during the dry season. Some there were who placed bone and other 
artificial manures at the rate of a half cocoa-nut-shellful to each plant 
close around its stem, whilst others placed it further out, or where the 
feeders of the Coffee tree would be more likely to find it, and thus the 
work went on with the frequent change of superintendents introducing 
new systems, if they deserved the name, till, as I have already said, the 
trees began to tire of such treatment, grow sickly, and eventually give up 
bearing to a considerable extent. In a letter from a friend dated 
January of this year, I am informed that the crop of Coffee just picked 
from the 4000 acres in the hands of the Auchterlony family only 
amounted to 350 tons, or If cwt. per acre ; so that allowing the moderate 
sum of 30,000r8. or £3000 on account of working expenses for the year, 
and 21,000rs., or £2100, for value of crop, this leaves a deficit of 9000rs., 
or £900 on the year’s labour, and there seems to be no probability of the 
planter in this valley ever being able to reverse this state of things in 
the future, no matter how high and liberal the cultivation may be that 
is adopted, seeing that the Hemileia vastatrix, or leaf disease, is now 
added to the long list of evils to which the unfortunate Coffee shrub has 
been subjected.— Planter. 
THE DEVON ROSERIES, TORQUAY. 
No rosarian w r ould, and no visitor should leave Torquay without a 
call on Messrs. Curtis & Sanford. In a place where the Eucalyptus 
smiles at the winter, and tree Myrtles in full flower are now adorning 
the houses, Roses might naturally expect a good time. No one can have 
judged at the National Rose Show without being aware that the largest 
growers would find the Devon Roseries dangerous rivals, but I was hardly 
prepared for the extent to which Roses are cultivated. The nurseries 
cover about twenty acres, of which twelve acres are always fully occupied, 
while eight are more or less resting with other crops, or taken up with 
standard seedling Briars or Manetti stocks. 
With 3 feet of rich red loam—everything is “ red ” about here, rocks, 
roads, sands, soil, and cows into the bargain—but with such soil in a 
sheltered valley, trenched two spits deep, and forked at bottom, and 
then heavily manured, how can Roses avoid flourishing? The rows of 
last year’s budding were magnificent in size and height, though, like 
everywhere else, this year afflicted with mildew. Mr. Chesterfield, the 
very intelligent head of the Rose department, informed me that it came 
on suddenly, about the middle of J uly, up to which the promise had been 
magnificent. The rows of Madame G. Luizet looked especially uncomfort¬ 
able, more than kept in countenance by Her Majesty, whom I have also 
proved this year to be a martyr to mildew. It is not considered here a 
free bloomer. The Bride, especially under glass, is very highly thought 
of, but the new Roses in general do not excite much admiration. 
Clara Cochet is not much liked. 
One result of this hot season has been an extra amount of well- 
ripened seed pods. Should the firm, as they hope, be successful in 
seedlings, we may see more than one new Devoniensis a gold medallist 
at the National.—A. C. 
A correspondent writing from Hampton, Middlesex, states that 
on the morning of the 15th inst. 4° of frost were registered there, 
Vegetable Marrows and Scarlet Runners being cut in a remark¬ 
able manner ; and he notices as a strange coincidence, tropical heat and 
nipping frost in the same week. 
_ Vegetable Trials at Chiswick— At a meeting of the 
Fruit and Vegetable Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
Chiswick, on the 12th inst—present : Mr. Peter Barr in the chair, 
Messrs. Roberts, Saltmarsb, and the Secretary—the Committee ex¬ 
amined the collections of Onions, Potatoes, and Tomatoes growing in 
the garden. Amongst Onions, Rousham Park Hero and Anglo White 
Spanish from Mr. Deverill, and Sandy Prize from Mr. Laxton, were 
selected as excellent stocks of the White Spanish Onion that should be 
tried again next year, and White Queen (Carter) was commended as a 
very true stock. Potatoes—fourteen sorts were selected and cooked ; 
none of them was considered equal in quality to existing kinds. Of 
Tomatoes, of which eighty-seven samples were grown in pots, the fol¬ 
lowing were considered worthy of three marks each—viz., Horsford s 
Prelude (Horsford and Pringle), medium-sized smooth red, a very free 
bearer ; Livingston’s Perfection (Farquhar, Veitch), large, smooth 
round, red, very free ; President Cleveland (Farquhar), large, round, 
smooth, handsome ; Ham Green Favourite (Crocker), very large, smooth, 
round, early, and prolific ; No. 1 (Watkins & Simpson), large, round, 
smooth, very free ; No. 3 (Watkins & Simpson), medium-sized, round¬ 
ish, sometimes oblong, smoothyed, producing large clusters, a remarkably 
free cropper. 
_Frost in Surrey.—A correspondent informs us that the first 
frost of the season occurred in the district of Kingston-on-Thames on the 
morning of Monday, the 13th inst., when the hedgerows and ditches 
were quite white with rime, and in some places 2° of frost were 
registered. 
_ On Wednesday the 17th inst., a violent thunderstorm accom¬ 
panied by strong and vivid lightning, visited Wimbledon and neighbour - 
hood. The rain was preceded by a terrific hailstorm, which did much 
damage to vegetation. At Kingston there was a perfect deluge of rain, 
but towards Teddington, Twickenham, and Hounslow it was not so 
heavy. The rains will do an immense amount of good to the country at 
large. 
_ Our readers will regret to hear of the death of Mr. Archi¬ 
bald Fowler, of Castle Kennedy, N.B., gardener to the Earl of Stair. 
This occurred suddenly on the night of the 14th inst., when Mr. Fowler 
appeared to be in his usual state of health. He was born in 1816, and 
was consequently seventy-one years of age, having been forty-seven 
years gardener at Castle Kennedy. 
_Bulbs for the London Parks.—W e are requested to 
announce that Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Public Works have 
accepted the tender of Messrs. James Carter & Co. of High Holborn, 
