MAC KAY, QUEENSLAND, THE GREAT SUGAR threatens to take possession of large portion of Queens­ REGION. land, but the colonists are much more troubled about a jute-like weed, sidus retusa, I think. It covers (Written for Ceylon Observer.) whole plains and prevents the sheep getting at the M a c k a y , Queensland, 4th Sept. 1881. gra-s. The once much dreaded thistle (which grows On Tuesday morning, August 31st (the date, in 1606, only in good soil and opens it up) is nothing to this “ curse of Queensland.” Of the blue-blossomed of the discovery of Torres Stray's' for which I am duranta and the “ shoe-flower ” hibiscus they make making), we were roused at half past 3 a.m.(!) in fences here, and in gardens I have seen nates, mangoes, order to leave the “ Alexandra” steamer and get into coconuts, ficus bengahnsis, ficus rriigiosa (the bo-tree), the small “ Dugong." Our steamer, the big one, went poinciana regia and pines growing together. Some of off north and we had to wait not. only for the steamer the planters’ bungalows are beautiful. At one where bound south and take the passengers for Mackay, we met Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt and Mr. and Mrs. Romilly but also, after that, until the tide enabled the the verandah opens out on the river (Pioneer) “ Dugong" to go up the Pioneer river to the bank, and they told us that although a little low fever wharves at Mackay, a town which sugar has raised and ague occurs occasionally in the district the banks from nothing to rapidly increasing importance in ten of the rivers are the healthiest parts ! The climate, years. Before breakfast, however, we lauded on Flat Top after all, is a semi-tropical one, without frost, and Island, where there is a lighthouse and telegraph station. that it is favourable to human health the looks of Hence we telegraphed, had a glorious view of the Pioneer the people shew. We saw about a couple of hun­ river district, of the semi-circular mountain ranges of dreds of “ fair women and brave men ” at a ball given by sea and river and land, sunshine and clouds, for clouds Mr. and Mrs. Davidson (he a nephew of Davidson of were gathering which issued in a truly tropical rain­ Tulloch), and they all looked robust, although the fall during the night. It was welcome but transient, men were browned by the sun, to which all expose and not-a drop has fallen since, to our great comfort themselves with impunity. I went yesterday to buy as knockers-about, but to the regret of the planters a white cotton umbrella, and the shopman told me who have young cane in the ground. As soon as I there was absolutely no demand for men’s umbrellas. stepped on shore on the beautiful little islet (one We saw little children lying out bareheaded in the literally of thousands, through which our course has sun all day, and we were told that cases of sun­ run and will run) I was face to face with tropical stroke are unknown. The gentleman sugar planters, vegetation and much of it common to Ceylon. On like the ploughmen, go about in trousers and shirts,— the shi.re was the goat’s foot ipomea, and festooning coat and waistcoat generally dispensed with in the bushes the very convolvuli common near Colombo. working hours. At Air. Mackinnon’s estate yes­ The screw pine was abundant, and in the lighthouse- terday I saw the hospital for the Kanekas (South keeper’sgardenthere was a coco palm, vinca ro.-Y-rr,(socom­ Sea Island coolies), and it was empty. Of late mon in our Cinnamon Gardens), &c. There weie forms years there has been little sickness or mortality not familiar to me intermixed, however. Going along amongst these people, and they look well clad, well the banks of the Pioneer river, I could almost fancy fed, and well-to-do. Each, when he goes back, is myself on the Kelani or other Ceylon stream. H ibis­ sure to carry away a gun. This ought to strengthen cus tiliaceus most conspicuous, and the same trees as the tribes to which they belong, but the chiefs ob­ line the road from the Baidge of Boats to Hauwella ject to the withdrawal of the young males, and from festooned with the same species of creepers. But this cause and the islanders dying out I feel cert­ mixed with forms which 1 recognized were others new ain that ultimately, if not soon, Hindu cooly labour and interesting. Most conspicuous'is what the people must be resorted to. There is a sum of £600 per here call “ the palm,” or palma elegans or the Alex­ annum on the Queensland estimates for an immigra­ andra palm, or the cabbage palm. It resembles a tion agent, and I believe the necessary law has been thornless katu-kitul, or rather a very luxuriant areka passed, but the working men and others also are palm, with more of a tendency to bend. These palms strongly prejudiced against the introduction of im­ are iu masses everywhere, beside rivers or lagoons migrants other than whites. If they prevail Mackay and add much to the beauty of the scenery. The will never turn out, as it is capable of doing, 300,000 inflorescence and seeds are much like those of the tons of sugar instead of the 10,000 now produced. areka, only the seeds are much smaller, like wild W7e saw opposite Flat Top Island three schooners dates, and of a brilliant red as they ripen. This just arrived from Solomon Isles with “ boys ” and a palm would be beautiful and useful in Ceylon, so 1 got few women. I never felt so inclined to believe the Air. Charles Xlackinnon (brother to th eA rg u s proprietor) development-from-ape theory as when I saw the who drove me out to a grand sugar estate yesterday, Kanekas ranged on deck, although they were well which he has just purchased for £95,000, to get me dressed, in “ jolly” condition, and many of them some seeds. Also some of what he called “ quad- smoking pipes. Their bushy beads of hair were gener­ rongs ” or Queensland plums, and some ripe Queens­ ally dyed a bright yellow with lime or ashes, and land raspberries. This indigenous raspberry exactly in that rcpect they reminded us of the R imalis at resembles the cultivated “ rasp ” in flower and foliage, Aden. But their features are even more of the but the fruit is more like a strawberry, being almost negro type, and it seems to me they are the shortest round like a scarlet ihread button. Very pretty it is, race of human beings I have yet seen. At the sug- but the flower is not equal to the true thing. If we can gestion of Mr. Jaffrey, who is very largely interested grow it from the seed, however, cultivation might im­ in sugar, I spoke several sentences in Tamil to the prove it. “ coolies,” but they only grinned at me. When our Mackay (in 21° 10' south) has about the climate steamer left they gave us a loud cheer which went of those parts of Bengal where 75 inches of rain off into a yell, such as no doubt they utter when fall, with a far less severe hot season, and what attacking their enemies. They make good cart drivers, grows well here ought, I think, to do well in our hill but the ploughing on the sugar estates is done by country. All the way from Sydney hither the bougain white men, the proportion of an estate force being 20 villea has been blazing,—pink, magenta, and bright per cent white men to 80 per cent blacks. It is scarlet. So withthe bignonia" which the Tamil coolies certain that whites could not do the “ trashing,” cut­ call the tangapu or gold flower. On Sydney bay ting of I he canes, &c., or if they could the pursuit shores the lantana, chiefly the pink-blossomed, abounds, would not pay. For while the Kanekas get only £ 6 and on to this place we have seen it. Indeed it > per annum, with lodgings, rations and medical attend- 121 ance,* the wages of white men is 20s to 25s per got a most complete set of machinery for a new week, with lodging and rations. If the resources estate, The Palms, and amidst this machinery, and of tropical Queensland and Australia generally are to be no doubt to inaugurate the great mill, the ball was developed, Indian coolies must be introduced. It was given, to which Mr. Jeffray procured invitations for very amusing to see an experienced Kaneka drayman me and my companions. Nothing could exceed the pushing his “ new chum ” countrymen out of I he way kindness of the Davidsons. Mr. Davidson, the leader with an emphatic “ Get out of that, will you?!” of the sugar planters here, is a fine energetic fellow : As far as I could see the black labourers are treated I told him that the joke in the Highlands well and work heartily here. But more labour is when I was a boy was that Tulloch spent the wanted, so that instead of the “ trash,” withered money which his brother Henry Davidson, the leaves, &c , being removed from the field, it is often London merchant (father of our host), made. set on fire on dewy nights. The agents, one of a I heard Mr. Jeffray say that from one estate he French sugar machinery company, the other of an did not expect a shilling of return until he had spent English firm, who are travelling with me, did not £40,000; but then he looked for a minimum return approve of this and of other expedients, but good of 20 per cent. Mr. Mackinnon asked Mr. Paton sugar is turned out and it pays. Mr. Davidson, who yesterday what a set of best machinery to take in had experience in the West Indies, told me it «as a 2,000 tons of sugar per annum would be. The great thing here to have no prejudices to contend answer was £25,000, with 15 per cent added for freight. with. He said this pointing to a plough with three What with setting-up and all, I suppose the cost horses ploughing earth up to the rows of sugar. would be £30,000 to £35,000, so you will see that only He said if he ventured to substitute plough for hoe men of capital can set up large mills, and small ones in the W est Indies the negroes would say : ‘ ‘ Me have won’t pay so well. There is room, however, for men grow him sugar ! my father he grow sugar; my grand­ who only grow the cane and sell it. At Pioneer father he grow sugar. When you larn grow sugar?” estate, where I went yesterday with the purchaser, The agents for improved sugar machinery, by which Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Brandon, the banker, told me it is alleged a large additional percentage of sugar that Mr. Spiller, the pioneer sugar planter of the can he obtained, now say that Mr. Davidson himself is district, who in consequence of bad health had sold likewise prejudiced. But people have to be cautious. this magnificent estate for £95,000, began with £35, They have before them the “ dreadful example” of and gradually added to his machinery as be got on. Mr. Tooth (brother of the ritualist clergyman), who Mr. Jaffrey' having introduced me to Mr. Davidson, ruined himself by buying every new machine he the latter most kindly made out a map of the district, read of. Mr. Van de Velde, the agent of the Lille laid out three days’ drives, and gave us letters of in­ firm, tells me there is a machine for separating the troduction, four of us going. On the fourth day fibres of sugarcane before it is pressed between the (yesterday) Mackinnon drove me to and over his rollers, which ensures a large additional percentage of magnificent estate, and up the Pioneer till we came juice. The difficulty with the cane in its ordinary state to scenery like that on the Findliorn river. The is that it has a siliceous skin and knots a good deal visit to this district has been a most enjoyable one, like the bamboo (one cane is called the “ rose bam­ and as I telegraphed to Albany the success of sugar boo”), and it has, much of it, to be passed twice is certain and great. But there is only one experi­ under the rollers. Most of the estates, ranging ment with coffee about 15 miles off. That I cannot about 5,000 acres each,t have been made from manage to see, but I ’ve had a long talk with Mr. “ open forest ” land—park-like expanses of rich Costello, a candid, sensible Irishman, who said he alluvial land of a rich black colour, deposited by was not responsible for the over-sanguine statements the river but owing its origin to volcanic mountains. which appeared in the Mackay Standard an d w ere Others have been opened or are now opening on copied into the Observer. The result has been one what is strangely called ‘ ‘ scrub land, ” really what letter to the editor, Mr. Black, whom I have met, we would call forest in Ceylon. On such land the and another to Costello, from Ceylon. The latter cane will yield a first crop and six ratoon crops was from a Ceylon planter who proposed to come at without renewal. The canes are at first rank and once with his coolies. Costello advised him to come yield juice largely in proportion to sugar. The weight and see first. He tells me he will persevere, but of cane per acre decreases, but the percentage of the thing has never yet paid. He is troubled with saccharine matter increases as time goes on. That was borer" in the stems, and trees are dying from the the experience of a planter who had taken eight crops small fungus, so fatal in Maskeliy'a, etc. But the off the same land. Manuring is not entirely neglected, terrible expense is in weeding: six times a year at but most of the “ megass ” (exhausted cane) is used £1 per acre each time. Higher up on the mountains for fuel, with coal and wood. The latter is already and nearer the equator coffee may yet do well. But scarce, and firewood in Mackay is very expensive, i if any man brings coolies to the Mackay district and The average yield of cane is over a ton an acre, say is a wise man he will employ coolies and cash on up to 30 cwts , and 15 tons cane give 1 ton sugar. what is known to pay—sugar. It has had it troubles 1J ton per acre is a fair average, and the sugar can in the aspect of sugar and coffee estates. Some of be sold at Mackay for £22 10s per ton. Many small the Mackay sugar estates are on low hills, and I planters, who cannot afford the very expensive machine­ was much interested by travelling over a hard wood ry necessary for the manufacture of Sugar, sell eane railway of 3 miles extent on the Cedars estate which to the mill owners, at 11/ per ton on the field, the cost only ±'120 per mile. But instead of one expanse purchaser cutting and carting it to his mill. At a of perennial green as in the case of a coffee estate, large estate called Yengarie, in another district, a sugar plantation is, like a corn farm, in all stages the small growers crush their cane in common mills, of growth, from a few inches to a dozen feet high, and the juice, which is paid for by strength, goes 5 while whole fields are bare and lying fallow or being miles in pipes to the central factory. Mr. Van de ploughed. But most of the estates here are on Velde tells us that iu Belgium beet juice is thus perfectly flat land, and these, no doubt, are the cheapest conveyed for a distance of 45 miles ! Mr. Jeffray has to work. Ou one of the estates we saw “ the first locomotive in Mackay,” one of Fowler’s in connection * Passages both ways also paid, with his portable narrow-gauge railway. Most of the t But none fully cultivated. carriage is done in carts and drays, pulled by from J As are most other things, for little besides sugar one horse to six or eight, while eight pairs of bullocks is grown. in a dray are quite common. On a large sugar estate about a hundred horses require stabling, feed­ dom be utilized. There was a good-sized one in ing and attendance. The animals are fed on the tops Keppel Bay, on which a squatter resided, and there of cane passed through a chaff cutter, maize and are others of the larger islands which yield grass for molasses. It. is said the molasses so injure their cattle. Then in the north there are mountainous teeth that the horses do not last more than 6 years. islands—eminently Hinchinbrook Island, on which It is obvious therefore that machinery, even to steam probably coffee, cinchona and other tropical produce ploughs, is likely largely to supersede horse as well can be successfully cultivated. But generally there as human power on the big estates ranging up to is but little good soil on the islands or on the mount­ 15,000 acres. I suspect that Mr. Mackinnon will ain ranges. Granitic porphyry is too common, the not long delay the experiment of steam ploughing. trees are generally eucalypti whose leaves do not yield Horse ploughing, itself, is a great saving on hoe much humus, and the rains, though heavy enough in work. The soil is generally so deep as well as the north, fall generally in one half of the year, »o rich, that I suggested to Mr, Mackninon the prob­ drought distinguishing the other half. The compensa ability of a renewal of his soil by means of a steam tion is in fine elastic climate and minerals. There subsoil plough. Fallowing or expensive manuring is some fever in the tropical parts, but nothing to would thus be avoided or delayed. compare with that of Java, Ceylon and India. People Mackay, with its lack of chimneys, looks much like a ought to guard themselves more from exposure to town in Northern India, only the houses are all built of the sun than they do, however. wood with galvanized iron roofs. So all over Australia : We landed at Bowen and had a look at this fine town bark and logs, timber and sheet iron come first, and with grass-grown streets. It is one of a class pretty com­ brick and mortar, stone and ornamental iron work mon in Australia—towns which rise rapidly and then sud­ come subsequently, as wealth increases. Selection had denly go down again before a rival which attracts trade, been stopped here for a while, but is again allowed or because gold or other minerals give out. Bowen under new rules. Allotments are restricted to 1,280 has a fine port, being so superior to other places on acres (2 square miles), and the prices per acre, to be the coast, but Townsville is now the great and rising paid in ten annual instalments, are doubled, 15s. town of Northern Queensland. Bowen may recover per acre and 20s. according to position. Conditions importance when connected with the trans-continental as to residence (self or bailiff) are laid down, and railway which is projected to Point Parker on the a certain amount of improvement, by culture, house Gulf of Carpentaria. Landing at Townsville I was erection, etc. The conditions are still very easy for struck with the resemblance of the Bay (Cleveland bona-Jide settlers. But there is a good deal of eva­ Bay), to that of Naples, Captain Cook’s “ Magnetic sion and what is called “ dummyism, ” Mr. Mackin­ Island” standing for Sorrento. Castle Hill too, on non shewed me a place yesterday belonging to Mr. which villas are built, resembles Malabar Hill at Jaffrey, on which a so-called house of sheets of iron Bombay. For its age this is a wonderful place. was erected and a paddock enclosed. That was all! Like most Queensland towns as yet. the houses C o f f e e in Q u e e n s l a n d . are chiefly built of wood and iron, the quantity Monday, Sept. 5th, 1881. of galvanized iron used in Australia being enormous. The following is from Mr. Costello regarding his Of course, as wealth is accumulated and time ad­ diseased coffee :— vances, stone and brick take the place of wood. “ The Alexandra, Sept. 5th, 1881. The Queen’s Hotel, at which we stayed, is one of the “ D ear Sir ,—I send you per favor of Mr. Davidson nicest in Australia. There are long wide verandahs the specimens you asked me for, viz.—branch of a be ovv and in front of the second story, the upper healthy coffee tree, branch of a diseased tree, also the one being filled with bamboo lounging or smoking stem and roots of a tree that has died out. I would chairs. Facing the beach and bay, there is a fine breeze take it as a great favor if you give me you opinion and a beautiful view of the Bay, Magnetic Island, &r. of same;—Believe me to be, faithfully yours, It struck me that residence here for a time at the “ J . M. Costello.” best season might be good for consumptive and other I wrote him that the leaves had no sign of hemi- debilitated patients. The climate is a tropical one, leia vastatrix. Neither had a tree which I saw with but more like that of Northern India in the cold a good few red berries at Mr. King’s. That tree was season than anything else—only superior. Cases of not pro-ned, but grew native fashion, and as they have fever are not unknown, but they are mild. had nearly three years o drought a good many of While staying at the hotel, preparatory to starting the berr es were shrivelled. with Mr. Jeffray to the delta of the Burdekin river, de­ The stem shewed that his tree had died from the stined to be the scene of extensive sugar culture, I met a minute fungus, generated by damp. I asked him to Mr. Lyall who told me that the Herbert riverdistrict was let us know further about his experiments, but I sus­ the very queen of Queensland, andall the accounts I have pect that farther north (towards the equator) and heard and read agree as to its beauty and fertility. higher up the mountains will be the place for coffee, But while my fellow-voyager, Mr. Van de Velde, if labour can be got- went to the Herbert river, I went in a steamer pro­ vided by Mr. Jeffray to the delta of the Burdekin. Off the North Coast of Java, between Surabaya and On the beach at Townsville, which is hard enough Batavia, 28th September, 1881. to enable horses aud carriages to drive and ride on it, we I wrote you last from Mackay, or Sugaropolis, as found the goat-foot ipomea growing, but much more it ought to be called, being actually founded on sugar. sobust in the stems than ours in Colombo. A floating Our voyage from Mackay was a delightful one. over rubstance on the sea, coming from the great barrier reef, a calm sea, amidst “ summer isles of Eden,” and formed the subject of discussion in the newspapers when sheltered by “ the great barrier reef,” nature’s break­ we were there. It was popularly known by the out­ water, the workmen being the coral insects. “ W hit­ rageously absurd name of “ whale’s spawn,” but I sunday Passage,” through which we passed before think a writer was correct who identified it as the reaching Port Dennison and Bowen, is supposed by same vegetable grow'th which gives its name to the some to be more beautiful even than Sydney Cove. “ Red Sea.” The soil in the immediate neighbour­ There are literally thousands of islets scattered about hood of Townsville is not rich, but the place is the the shores of the Pacific along the western coast of centre of much mineral and pastoral enterprize, aud Queensland, but unless they contain mineral wealth, grand sugar lands are within easy reach. Mr. Jeffray which probably they do (for minerals, from coal to took me in his steamer, as I have indicated, to see gold and opal, seem to be everywhere), they 6an sel­ the rich delta of the Burdekin, a river which has a course of 700 miles and carries down fertile matter j such indeed as existed. But the rich deep black soil from volcanic and other formations. To get to our i was retentive of moisture, there were heavy dews, and destination we steamed back out of Cleveland Bay, | there are wonderful facilities for cheap irrigation. By rounded Cape Cleveland, and landed, after a night’s the way, a Frenchman, on hearing of an experiment steaming, on the banks of a creek between Cape in this direction, went about exclaiming : “ i)e sugar i Bowling Green aud Cape Upstart. A buggy and horses on de Burdekin vill nevare be, bekase Mr. Macmillan, were waiting for us, and we bowled away over coun­ he do arrogate.” But what Macmillan “ arrogates” try which in Ceylon would be considered impractic­ he will do. After years of hard work, in the course able. From swamp covered with saline grasses (which of which he has made his way (fighting it sometimes) cattle greedily devour and get fat on) we came to through thousands of miles of trackless forest and raised terraces of rich black soil, interspersed with scrub, he is as full of strength and energy as ever. creeks and lagoons. Most of the creeks aud lagoons And he is a thoroughly scientific man as well as being were bordered or covered with mangroves, red and otherwise qualified to be manager for the company of white—the red most. valuable as fuel for sugar mak­ which he, Graham and Jeffray are members. Mr. ing, as well as other purposes. I had five or six clays Graham is an Irishman, whom I had previously met driving and riding over this wonderful country; of i at a lodging-house in Sydney. There we had a long which we got a view from a range of curious sand­ 1 talk about the labour question, little thinking either hills. As we journeyed, through rich grasses, several i of us that we should again meet where the question feet high, or just starting after being burnt by the 1 was so practical and urgent a one. blacks to enable them to catch their game, we started i The sugarcane in Northern Queensland does not hundred^ of kangaroo and wallaby, which, after stand­ grow so much more luxuriantly than in Ceylon, ing up and staring at us, bounded d,way to stand | but the proportion of saccharine matter in the up and stare again. juice must be much greater. Eight per cent is a Of aquatic birds, pelicans, storks, ibises, geese, ducks, good result, but in an experiment at which I assisted laughing jackasses (the great kingfisher of Queensland we got from 10 to 11£ per cent. The intrument, has splendid plumage), we saw immense numbers. We (Beaum 6’s) was exactly on the principle of the lacto­ went on mangrove trees over a creek vvhich I sup­ meter : a glass tube graduated. The more watery the pose human beings had scarcely ever before visited, juice (which was pressed from pieces of caue in a for we could not frighten some beautiful Burdekin j vice aud received into a jug) the more the imtru- ducks which were on the mud below ua. The trees, 1 ment sank. Sugarcane has its troubles as well as • >ther than gums and wattles, were many of them j coffee. In 1875 the estates in the Mackay district familiar to me. Very common on the banks of creeks i were nearly snuffed out by a visitation of a fungus was the tree named after Leichavdt, which also grows | like red rust. But sugarcane can be uprooted and in Ceylon. It somewhat resembles what we call “ the j replanted and be ready for cutting in about 15 months, country almond ” in Ceylon, trees of which, by the I and there are about 100 kinds to select from. The way, were growing on the beach at Townsville, in­ I Bourbon which was so liable to the rust has been troduced, I was told. I saw n large lily, the fellow | superseded by the “ Rose bamboo” and other kinds: of that which grows on banks of rivers in Ceylon, and at present there is no pest of consequence. As with the the beautiful place of our good friends the Grahams coffee in Ceylon, so, probably, with sugar here, it will was called Liliesmere, from the abundance of water- be found that vast unbroken areas of one plant lilies, p nk, white, but specially blue on the lagoon present conditions favourable for plagues, insect and or rather lake beside which they reside. Here I was fungoid. I think I mentioned in writing from the delighted to see a splendid orchard of oranges, man- j Mackay district (named after a Scotch eea captain geos, &c., which, although only five years old, is , who is said to be still engaged in the Kaneka trade) already bearing heavily. The qufestion, ere long, will j that the average yield of sugar per acre is 1J t° n $ be whut to do with the oranges, mangoes, pineapples, I and as it takes on an average 15 tons of cane to produce bananas, &c., produced so abundantly in this soil and ! 1 ton of sugar, that u eans 2 2 £ tons of cane per acre. climate. The long spells of dry weather, it is certain, Much greater weight of cane is produced per acre greatly improve the flavour of the fruit. I never saw on new land redeemed from “ scrub” (that is forest), mango trees in Ceylon so loaded with fruit at five but the percentage of sugar is not so high. The per­ years old, and as for oranges, few are obtained in centage has been known to increase up to the 8 th year. Ceylon from trees under five years old. Around Mr. I think I wrote from the Mackay about the large num­ Graham’s house were specimens of numerous foreign ber of horses required to work a sugar estate. The trees and plants, including the cinnamon ofCe>lonand ploughmen are almost all white men, the proportion China, the tamarind, sisu, &c. But sugar, sugar, is on most estates being 20 per cent whites to 80 per the absorbing cry here, as much and as exclusively as cent blacks or “ coloured persons.” There are large coffee once was the cry in Ceylon. acres of available sugar lands to be had on any terms, Mr. Jeffray, who is the head of the agency firm of and persons who have not capital to set up a mill can Sloane & Co., of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and cultivate and sell cane to the manufacturers. I cannot Townsville, had come to “ the Burdekin” delta to now relate all the incidents of this most interesting sec an estate of about 20,000 acres of fat alluvial, journey to the grand delta of the Burdekin, some of w hich 1,000 acres are to be covered with parts of which, I believe, we were the first to explore, sugar in the veiy shortest period on record in the seeing as we went fine “ pockets” of land. On our annals <»f the enterprize. To effect this Mr. Macmillan journey back, which we made byroad (?) and rail, (formerly Government engineer and roadmaker, born we struck the banks of the river at several points in Mull and educated in the Inverness Academy) and admired its broad and in some places rocky bed, has got a steam plough, 4 ‘ sulky ” ploughs (on which lined with casuarinas and with scarlet and white a seat is prepared for the ploughman), and all kinds blossomed “ bottle-brush” trees. The scarlet blos­ of improved implements. It was a sight to see the somed ones gleamed out like ironwood trees when steam plough, drawn successively by two engines, nearly th- foliage is young. a quarter of a mile apart, tearing the virgin soil The German element will here rapidly merge into the and throwing up three furrows. But Mr. Macmillan j English, although the Germans do associate together and (who calls his place Ardmillan) was not satisfied. The I have their own newspapers, concerts, and so on. They steam power was sufficient for a six-furrow plough, j are an industrious and thrifty people, and the English and that he was intending to get. The only draw­ I workmen complain of them as “ living on the smell of an back to this grand place is possible prolonged drought, oiled r a g W h a t w ith cheap G erm an labour and cheaper Chinese and Kaneka, the case of the British work­ the swampy nature of the shore of the Gulf, from the man and labourer is no d uht often a hard one. But confluence of so many rivers there. On the vast his destiny, if he would but see it, is to direct labour swamps the true rice plant oryza sativa is said to be or to perform it by means of such fatigue-saving indigenous, and Mr. Armit describes millions of pigeons expedients as “ sulky” ploughs &c. I 11 returning, as feeding on the grain. Mr, Chester told us that Mr. Graham drove us 56 miles in grand style, over these pigeons, or other pigeons, flocks of which we some most difficult country. The last 35 miles to saw off the coast of Australia, came across from New Townsville was on a railway which is being pushed Guinea. From this great island we were only 70 to 90 on to the rich gold mines of Charters Toweis and to miles distant when we landed on Thursday I-land. Hughenden. It will ultimately join the trans­ continental line to the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is like M a l t a M e l o n s —A correspondent sends us six all the Queensland railways on the 3 feet 6 inches melon seeds received by him from Malta, and asks gauge, which answers fairly for this country and its us to give them a trial in Colombo. We shall do traffic, but ultimately I should think all the Austra­ so and report the result. lian Colonies will adopt the English gauge of 4' 8 £". G o l d . —The following statement of the approximate I noticed that, there was scarcely any ballast, and that export of gold from Australasia, shews how great has the sleepers (timber being plentiful) were laid very been the falling off in the Southern Colonies in the out­ close together. We had the hill ranges close by us put of the precious metal all the way, and we got back to Townsville a week 1865 ... £9,553,640 1873 ... £9,369,120 after leaving it, having seen much of interest. It was 1866 ... 9,618,442 1874 ... 7,662,925 very fortunate for me that Mr. Jeffray, so largely 1867 ... 8,783,489 1875 ... 6.949.516 interested in the sugar enterprize and so ready to 1868 ... 9 351,191 1876 ... 5,793,374 help me to see everything, was my fellow-passenger. 1869 ... 10,382,955 1877 ... 7,295,868 The ranges of mountains we skirted in sailing from 1870 ... 8,237,367 1878 ... 5,667,084 Townsville to Cooktown seem to me most likely to 1871 ... 7,605 898 1879 ... 2,403,302 be the scenes of coffee, cinchona and other tropical 1872 ... 7,597,021 cultivation : the Cardwell district, opposite which is Last year the export was larger than in 1879, but Hinchinbrook Island, the Bellenden K er ranges &c. We it fell far short of the £10,382,955 of eleven years could not land at Cooktown. and so I missed seeing previously.—Madras Mail. a town where the Chinese largely outnumber the Euro­ E n e m y o f L e d g e r ia n a : t h e “ Ku-uk.”—In Mr. peans. That is what is dreaded all over Australia, Moens’s report for 1879 on the Government cinchona but I think the dread a needless one. John China­ enterprize in Java he stated that half a bouw of man comes where he can get gold on the surface Ledgeriana at Rioen-Goeuoeng had been “ entirely to carry a way, but 1 have seen a notice of only one destroyed by the koe oek, the larva of a chafer, case where the Cel stials have boldly tackled a reef. which had chosen the fine rootlets in this plan’ation W hat with diamond drills, borers and other machinery, for its food.” We expressed regret in afoot note to my belief is that mining ere long will cease to be this statement that the scientific name of this insect a precarious pursuit, becoming steadily anU argely pro­ was not given. In Rigg’s Sundanese Dictionary we fitable. I do not thiuk so poorly of our race as to find the following explanation of the word :—“ K u-uk, suppose that it cannot assert a d retain its superiority a big full-grown onggret. Also the beetle which is often over the olive-skinned Mongolians as well as over found among old horse or buffaloe-dung : in this the black races of Australia and the Facile Isles. latter sen-e it is a geofrupes.” “ OnggrU, the grub of But the aid of the Hindu cooly is wanted in Northern th e L tg i, a cockchafer called Melolontha vulgaris. Queensland at least—where sugar can be cultivated The onggrSt lives in the ground, and it is a soft white without risk of frost, but with risk of fever (to some grub with sharp red jaws. It is one to two inches long extent) for the while man. and is very destructive to young plants, the bark Amongst our passengers from Townsville were a of the roots of which it feeds upon, and in the Mr. Chester, Police Magistrate of Thursday Island, humahs, or upland rice plantations, it sometimes nearly and a Mr. Elliott who was proceeding to complete destroys the whole crop by eating off the young and surveys of the recently discovered port at Point Parker tender roots of the paddy.” on the Gulf of Carpentaria. That port promises so P a p e r P l a t e s .— The latest application of paper is well that General f ielding and party are now sur­ the adoption of paper plates by some of the great veying a line for a trans-continental railway to it, in­ restaurants and cafes in Berlin. The innovation was stead of the one originally projected through South first introduced during the summer of last year by Australia to Port Darwin. The merits of this line to the adventurous landlord of a much frequented open- Queenslanders are that it will run entirely through air restaurant. Every customer who ordered bread their own territory while opening access to the Indian and butter, rolls, cakes, buns, or similar articles, Ocean. The South Australian Government have re­ had them served to him upon a little paper plate, solved to construct their line at the rate of £ 200,000 made of a light paper-mach6, adorned with a pretty per annum at the utmost, from revenue or bor­ border in relief and having at the first glance a great rowed money. This means ten years delay. The similarity to porcelain. Guests, waiters, and hosts Queensland Government on the other hand, have sanc­ were all pleased with the novelty ; it saved the waiters tioned the principle of paying a private company (who many a deduction from their wages on account of have employed General Fielding) by alternate blocks of breakages, which the deftest and cleverest can scarcely land on each side of the railway. It will thus be the avoid when he handles hundreds of pieces of crockery interest of such a company to introduce population during a single afternoon and evening. The paper to cultivate their lanes. The railway now finished plates were so cheap that the landlord did not care from Brisbane to Roma will be continued to the Gulf to assert his ownership over them, and his customers of Carpentaria on the one hand and to the junction were allowed to carry them away, like the pretty with the N. S. Wales lines on the other, the lines serviettes of thin paper used in so many restaurants from Rockhampton, Townsville, &c, being joined on in Holland. There was also a considerable saving of to the main line. The completion of such a compre­ the time lost and the chance of accident incurred in the hensive scheme will give an immense impetus to the cleansing of earthenware pottery. The success of the prosperity of every enterprize in Queensland. I am experiment has been so marked that the new species only giving the bare outlines of a magnificent scheme. of plates is likely to be introduced into a great num­ If a good port is settled, the only other objection is ber of restaurants.— The Paper World. 122 CINCHONA “ PUBESCENS” : IMPORTANT (including root bark) for succirubra trees, Mr. Peake INFORMATION. cannot be far wrong in counting one pound off or on We have been reading the very elaborate and valu­ for each year. As regards the crop to be got from able Report, just published, by Colonel Beddome on the stripping the stem between the 6th and 10th year, we Government Nilgiri plantations, in which he enters should be inclined to put it at an average of £ lb. fully on the question of the disputed “Pubescens,” per tree per annum, if a considerable area were taken and comes to the conclusion—in agreement more or less into account. Selected trees would no doubt give much with Mr. Cross—that this Cinchona is not a hybrid more. at all as supposed by Mr. Mclvor, not even a variety of Officinalis as surmised by Mr. Howard, but that it FROM ADAM'S PEAK TO MINNESOTA : is more nearly allied to Succirubra, and will, in reality, A C e y l o n P l a n t e r ’s E x p e r i e n c e i n t h e F a r W e s t . most likely turn out to be identical with C. Magnifolia. The question will shortly be set at rest, since Colonel Heron Lake, Jackson County, Minnesota, U.S.A. Beddome has sent dried specimens of both m agnifolia August 30th. Dear Sir,—I have been intending to let you know and the so-called Pubescens to be compared with the how we are getting on in this part of the world, typical specimens of the various species in Kew Herb­ and if you can find r>om, it may, perhaps, interest your arium. A( first trial shipment of “ Pubescens ” bark readers to hear of some of their Ceylon friends down has also been made by the Madras Government, the here. I le ft Ceylon in N ovem ber 1SS0, thoroughly disgusted, after six years’ work, with bad crops, 1 af report on which is now due and will be full of interest. disease and reduced screws, and after staying a few “ Magnifolia ” grown on the Nilgiris has given a favour­ months, in England, decided to try my luck in the able analysis, and so has “ Pubescens,” as shewn by great North-Whet, and accordingly sailed by the Mr. Howard. Colonel Beddome says of the latter (which “ Bothnia,” Cunard Line, in company wdth another Ceylon he believes to be a slight variation of the “ Magnifolia ” num. After being rolled about for about nine days, we species) that it is “ very strong growing, and will arrived in New York, and after a very short stay proceeded to St. Paul’s, the capital of Minnesota, where certainly yield far more bark in a given time than any we were forced to remain about two weeks, on account other,” and probably prove to be longer lived ; it will of the severe rains and the floods caused by the also grow very high up, flourishing vigorously above melting of the vast quantities of snow, and the lines 7,000 feet at Dodabetta. This is all good news for being curried away thereby. After nearly committing “ Teja ” and others who are cultivating “ Pubescens ” suicide several times, we at last were able to pro­ ceed to Heron Like, a small town 160 miles distant, or “ Magnifolia ” trees ; but Colonel Beddome fears that where mv friend’s partner had already purchased land a good many Ceylon planters got seed off Succirubra and built a good house. On arriving at Heron Lake, trees very like the “ Pubescens,” when they applied we found we had struck a temperance town, with a for the latter. There is a great deal of very valuable good hotel and bar but no liquor. Never shall I forget information in this Report extending over some 30 the feelings I experienced on driving out the four miles, the whole prairie under water, and slush up to the pages foolscap. axle-tree, and in very truth I agreed with the man who had told me his first impression of the locality CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN BORNEO. was that “ it was the last place commenced just before knocking off w ork on the evening of the sixth day, and Mr. Loyalty Peake writes to us from Sarawak:— that the Almighty had not thought of finishing it since.” “ I shall be much obliged, if you -will give me the On arriving at the mighty river Des Moines (usually following information :— a stream some 8 ft. wide), we found a stretch Average quantity of dry bark from up-"| 2 rg old of water about half a mile broad and had to get our rooted succirubra tree J * baggage and selves across in a punt by means of a q pole. On arriving, we found ourselves well repaid by the splendid accommodation provided us by Mr. K .’s house­ 33 33 >> 3 > 33 \K^ f> a 33 33 >' 33 33 [V 33 33 keeper, a nice American lady. Next day, we went and also annual quantity likely to be taken of renewed bark called on Mr. P., another Ceylon man who had purchased d ry from 6 years of age till 10 years. I am getting a nice farm, with some fine heavy timber ar uudhishouse. on very well with my nurseries and hope to have His habitation was better than many a S. D.’s bungalow, something worth showing in 18 months’ time.” but as he was living by himself in the house we It is very difficult to answer Mr. Peake’s enquiries: could hardly congratulate him on its appearance, though planters do not uproot or even coppice or strip succi­ he informed us be had been “ putting it to rights all the morning.” It consisted of two rooms, the outer rubra trees before they are 5 or 6 years old, and as to one being used as a store for Indian corn. The win­ ‘ average results,’ a great deal of experience will yet dows of the bedroom were, in some cases, ignorant have to be put together, before we can speak with of the existence of glass, and while conversing with the certainty. We should be inclined to put the average worthy proprietor a hen flew in and laid an egg in yield per tree for succirubra over a large clearing at his unmade bed. The colt took a stroll into the other room, and, having been satisfied with a good round from 4 lb. to 5 lb. of dry bark, at five years old. feed of corn retired. A wren had built its nest in a pair We know of 100 trees 14 years old which, when dug of trowsers bung behind the door, and was quite happy. up, gave over 16 lb. dry bark on an average (although In fact, everyone and everything seemed to be they had been coppiced twice before). Then six year on the most friendly footing. old succimbras (choice trees no doubt) have given 12 As spring advanced things began to look better, and the dead grass having been burnt off gave lb. dry bark each ; while in another case 4,000 trees 6 place to a rich green for miles round you. Having to 7 years old only gave 12,000 11). dry hark, or 3 lb. thoroughly investigated matters, I came to the each, but these were probably only coppiced. Taking conclusion that one might with care make money 5 lb. of dry bark as the standard at five years old and live happily here. So I invested in a piece of land conveniently situated with regard to Colonial Secretary’s Office, Colombo, 13th October 1881. the railway, and have since been joined by a friend, S ir ,—W ith reference to your letter of the 1st who intends taking a share with me. I can thoroughly instant, I am directed to transmit to you the enclosed recommend the country to young fellows of small capit­ copy of an extract from a letter from Mr. Thi=elton a l (say £ 1,000) and steady habits, and who are not Dyer.—I am. sir, your obedient servant, afraid to rough it a bit at first. I have a man to (Signed) Geo, T. M. O ’B r i e n , fo r Col. Secy. help in the farm work, aud his wife runs the house. A. Philip, Esq., Secretary, Planters’ Association. Society, as might be expected, is in a very primitive state. A dirty plonghboy (knows not the use of a fork and commences his attack on the butter by first (Extract referred, to.) cleaning his knife in his mouth), a shoeless and Dr. Trimen is undoubtedly corr ct in thinking that stockingless individual called a woman (who does not no attempt should he made to combine the duties of possess such an article as a comb), and a species of the assistant direc'or with those of a chemist. There vermin designated a child, make up the number can be no donbt that in the present state of the around the festive board. Dinner in this country is cinchona industry, the services of a chemist on the cooked in ten minutes and consumed in three-and- spot would be of great advantage to the plamers. Mr. a-half minutes. Another-one-and-half minute may be Karslake, one of the Directors of the Madulsima allowed for cleaning up, afier you have finished the Company, has communicated with Kew upon the sub­ meal that has been thrown at you about 12 o'clock. ject. But it was obviously impossible to give him These are, perhaps, disadvantages. On the other hand, any encouragement in the idea that this was a mat­ there is plenty of sport: duck, geese and prairie chicken ter in which the Ceylon Government could be ex­ abounding in this locality, and a decent shot may always pected to bear the expense. The Company have there­ during the season procure his five or six birds of an eve­ fore intimated their intention of sending out a chemist ning after work. Unbroken prairie land may be procured to receive a salary of £600 a year with a house and from the Railroad Company at §0 ( £ 1) V? acre, and free passage, aud Mr. Karslake has been put into improved farm land with buildings, a decent house, barn, communication with one of the leading officers of the and granary for about §10 (~~j per acre. We are Chemical Society in order to select a suitable person. mostly going in for stock-raising, for this line of I am mere particularly to mention this circumstance farming is more remunerative than grain, which re­ in order to show the rate at which the market value quires more hired labour, which is extremely expensive, of scientific services is estimated by private employers. a man hired by the month receiving from $'20 to $25 It is obvions, of course, that only men with large per month, and another dollar and a quartr for his capital can offer terms such as these, 'the members team. In harvest time, these figures rise considerably. of the Planters’ Association might, however, com­ There are now in this vicinity live Ceylon men, bine to employ a chemist for their joint asei-tance ; besides two previously in the O. B. C. Bank in Cal­ and Sir Joseph Hooker has already suggested that, cutta and Mauritius, and two or three other English­ if this were done, the Government might assist by men. We are getting along very well, and here one affording laboratory accommodation in the Colombo always has a home, with good sport and good health, M useum . and can always make a living at the worst of times, which is more than one can say of Ceylon. We SALE OF LEDGERIANA SEED IN COLOMBO. hope soon to see many friends from the old island This day (12th Oct.) Mr. Symons had another sale and England, and I hope you will let some of those of Java Ledgeriana seed with the following result :— 400 planters out of billets know that there is such a place as Heron Lake, and that with not less than E. R, £ 1,000, and a little discomfort perhaps, one can be very 5 boxes, each containing 2 gram 65 per box 325 jolly in this benighted country. 55 55 We will let you hear from time to time, and in some 54 270 future letter I will forward you an estimate of ex­ 5 52 260 penditure and returns. Meanwhile, with salaams, 3 »> a a 50 150 yours truly, D o t a l a . 3 „ 46 138 45 225 44 132 CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN CEYLON: H a a a 43 473 GOVERNMENT VS. PRIVATE ANALYTICAL 42 168 CHEMISTS. 3 ” ” ” 41 123 THE MADULSIMA COMPANY TO HAVE THEIR OWN CHEMIST. 6 II H 11 40 ,, 200 Kandy, 1st October 18S1. [The Secretary to the Planters’ Association of Ceylon 53 boxes. R2,519 sends us for publication “ copy of the correspondence on troy, and say the subject of the pronosed appointment of a Govern­ ment cinchona bark analyst at Hakjjala with a view and at an average of P.47'50 per two grams, it would to carry on experimental cultivation. ’] be R712'50 p er oz. troy. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Colombo. After the sale of Ledgeriana seed, the following S i r ,— I have the honor to invite the altention of lots of other cinchona seeds were sold to-day 3 | oz. Goverrimeut to the annexed copy of a resolution passed officinalis at R 6 per oz., 1J succirubra at R31 peroz. at a recent meeting of the Planters’ Association, and from the same Gardens. trust that it may receive the early and favorable con­ sideration of His Excellency the Governor.—I am, &c., T h e I n d ia n T e a C r o p .—T h e Kumaon correspondent (Signed) A. P h i l i p , Secretary. of th e Delhi Gazette writes :—“ The tea crop will, I be­ Resolution referred to :—“ That in view of the large lieve, be within the average, owing to the terrible smash­ area of land now planted with cinchona, and of the ing so many estates got from the hailstorms in May fact that the climate and soil in many parts of last. One in particular, about which I wrote at the Ceylon are well suited to its successful cultivation, time, standing rather high, has never recovered the Government be requested to appoint a bark analyst mauling it then got. '1 he expected outturn per acre at Hakgala, with a view to carry on experimental w as 2 J maund ; the actual outturn will not exceed cultivation.” If maund.” * CARDAMOM CUTIVATION ing of three more shoots, and take great care not to hack or injure the bulb in any way. is rapidly extending, and with good reason, in both 6 .—The part cut off for transplanting is not to be high and low country districts in Ceylon. Returns of planted deep, nor are the shoots to be cut. close on 400 lh. per acre of a crop which sells at 7.—Should the new shoots hang down, they are to from 5s to 8s per lb., must leave a margin of profit be tied together and a support given. 8 .—The plants to be regularly weeded. sufficient to induce a general rush into this most pro­ 9.—When the plant comes into bearing, all the fitable of new products. Cardamoms are among the racemes should be laid out above the fallen leaves and best-prized of spices in the world—far-famed as “ grains rubbish. of paradise ”—and they will always continue to be 1 0 .—In clearing wottee swamps (the wottee is a much valued. But even if the average price fell to 2s species of l&mboo which grows in clumps), a clump per lb., the cultivation will pay well. With care and of wottees to be left at intervals. 11.—The stem of the cardamom-plant is not to be under favourable circumstances, it is believed a crop heaped round with fallen leaves, mould, or rubbish. up to 600 lb. per acre can be gathered in our plant­ 12.—After the cardamoms have been picked, the ing districts in Ceylon. Hitherto the great cry has racemes that have borne to be removed, and old shoots been for “ bulbs,” and high prices have been paid for to be c u t off. these with considerable expense for transport, and 13.—The cardamoms to be planted early in the mon­ soon. trouble and uncertainty about the transplanting. But Mr. Elliot’s manager has acted on the above system it is now found that propagation can be made quite with a perfectly satisfactory result, but he adds :•— as readily, indeed, with better results from seed, which are from one-fourth to one-tenth the cost. Bulbs have The principal difference between this system and that pursued in Coorg seems to lie in the fact that •old as high as 25 rupees per 1,000; indeed, we have the underwood with us is burnt, while in the Coorg heard of an estate in Rakwana against which, includ­ account no mention of burning is made. With us, ing carriage, the cost of a thousand bulbs run up to too, some attempt is made to transplant, and till up nearly ninety rupees! Now, thanks to local enterprise the land regularly; while no such attempt seems to and careful experiments, germinated seed which can be have been made in Coorg. Then the method of pick­ ing seems to differ. The Coorgs seem to make a sent per post anywhere in small tin-boxes are available clean sweep at the outset, and at the same time re­ at no more than three rupees per 1,000! Here we move the racemes that have borne crop We pick have another illustration of the success which is likely the ripest seeds at first, and then go over the clear­ to attend the cultivation of new products in Ceylon ing a second time, when the remainder of the crop under European skill and enterprise. The Mysore native is removed, and the bearing racemes are then taken off. who had been ‘ cardamom planting ’ all his life smiled My manager in India, is decidedly of opinion that young plants are much to be preferred to removing (in scorn doubtless) over his master’s idea that seed bulbs from those that have been long growing. He could be got to supersede the clumsy and uncertain is also of opinion that, in removing a portion of the bulbs; but like so many of his countrymen he now bulb, as much should be removed as to give three feels he has learned something from “ master ” which or four shoots ; so that, in ca-e one should rot, neither he nor his fathers nor grandfathers seem to you would have the others to fail back on. Another reason for doing this is that the eyes on the bulb have known before. In one case the plants grown lie so close together that, if you tried to remove from seed have succeeded far more satisfactorily and only one, it is probable that the coolies would in­ rapidly than those grown from bulbs at ten times the jure several in cutting it cut, and you would, there­ expense. The plan adopted is to place the seed in fore, lose the mother-plant, and run every chance drills in the nursery bed, the said drills being simply of losing the one removed for transplantation. We have as yet made no attempt at manuring the drawn with the finger or scratched with a stick. The plants, as what little we have planted have borne young plants will soon be ready for the transplanter, little, and do not seem to require it. Nor have I while their removal to the clearing need not take place ever heard of an attempt being made to manure this until they are a good size and sufficiently hardy. plant otherwise than with the vegetable mould, or top soil of the jungle. There are, besides, consider­ In recently compiling the pamphlet “ All about Carda­ able difficulties in the way of manuring, on account moms,” we overlooked useful information given by one of the rugeed nature of the ground in these jungles, authority with special means of gaining experience, and the consequent difficulty of transporting manure namely, Mr. R. H. Elliot, “ the Mysore Planter,” who of any sort. Nor does it seem to me that a light has a long chapter on Cardamom-planting. It is chiefly seed like the cardamom can remove so much from based, however, on Mr. Ludlow’s “ Memorandum,” from the soil as to call for any other manure than the vegetable mould which can be so readily procured. which we ourselves quoted fully, but Mr. Elliot adds some results of practical experience. The following are According to Mr. Ludlow (who had gained his ex­ the rules observed by the natives of Coorg in carda­ perience as Assistant Conservator of Forests in Mysore), mom p la n tin g :— 1 the cardamom plant can “ be grown from seed, and admits of transplantation, but will not last long except 1.—Select land that is damp, and, if possible, with a stream or two running through it. in a thoroughly congenial soil.” As regards fruit-bear­ 2 .—In clearing for cardamoms, cut away the under­ ing, Mr. Ludlow says :— wood and fell a large tree here and there. One rhizome will often have over twenty stems, 3.—Burn the underwood when three parts dry, so and, as these die off, (and they seldom last longer that the burning may be as light as possible. than seven or eight years), fresh ones spring up to 4 —Pits to be dug a foot deep, and a foot and a supply their place. The fruit is occasionally borne half wide, and about three feet apart, and these to on the upper part of the stem, but this is extremely be carefully filled with top soil. rare, and I may mention that in Munzerabad I have 5.—In Cutting the bulb, take sufficient for the spring­ never seen or heard of an instance of this departure from the ordinary habit of the plant. When from thrives well here, and Messrs. Cockburn and Bowie8 one stem four racemes are thrown out, it is called successful planting of last season of both varietie by the natives the true or full crop ; if three only, are something to be proud of, especially the ten acr three-quarter crop ; if two, half crop; and if clearing of officinalis, without a failure and well-grown one only, quarter crop. One raceme will have from for its age. Above this model officinalis clearing, an eight to fourteen branches, and each branch from extension is in course of preparation by Mr. Bowles three to six pedioels. When the plant is grown for the coming season’s planting, and large nurseries under the most favourable conditions, these branches are ready with hardened plants of the same variety. are grown close together; when, however, the con­ We then enter Ahnie Mallie under an avenue of fine ditions are unfavourable, the racemes are long and grown succirubra trees measuring about two feet weak, and the branches far apart. in circumference and some of them 15 feet high, a And on this Mr. Elliot remarks :— magnificent growth and healthy trees. Passing It seems to me that one of the first things to be more nurseries and fields of coffee planted up with done towards improving cardamom cultivation is to both varieties, principally officinalis of last season, propagate the variety which produces seeds 011 th e and a portion of Verelle Pattannie also dotted with upper part of the stem. It is obvious that the yield cinchonas, Galoolla clearing is soon reached, an addition per acre can never be very great as long as we have to to 13 acres of cinchona succirubra, well spoken of as depend on the ordinary way in which the plant bears ; worth a visit. With the new clearing now being but if we can procure plants which will bear above roaded and drained for cinchona, Galoolla will make as well as below, the cultivation would at once be a good show at some future time. placed on a much more satisfactory footing. Another Battawatte possesses a handsome succirubra clearing advantage will be that a portion of the seeds wouln of 22 acres and Dooinoo fine specimens of trees measur­ not be so liable to the attacks of rats and vermid ing between 20 and 23 inches of fine growth. Mr. as they are at present. Mason intends planting his already valuable estate with 100,000 cinchonas, and Battawatte a similar We had lately sent to us by a resident in of Matale number amongst coffee. Coodadova has made giant a fine specimen of cardamom with the flower on the strides and was early in the field with sever >1 good upper part of the stem. varieties. Of course, the whole of this estate w'ill be Although we think it well to make these quotations planted, and the Company may be congratulated on from Mr. Elliot’s book to supplement the information possessing the services of an energetic, painstaking superintendent in Mr. W alter Stewart. already collated, yet it is evident that in India they A belt of jungle divides the above estate from Uva- are far behind us in respect of the cultivation of kelle, and here may be seen a fine field of succirubra ; cardamoms, since Mr. Ludlow states that only 28 lb. some of the oldest trees in the district, full grown of crop can be regularly got from an acre ! N 0 doubt and scattering seed broadcast. Some months ago, when this was from the spontaneous jungle growth, but unless I passed through this field, millions of seedlings were Coorg planters can now multiply this return by nearly springing up under the trees, clearly proving the suitability of both climate and soil for cinchona On twenty, they had better come to Ceylon and see how Uvakelle a small clearing is being lined and drained some hundreds of pounds’ weight of cardamoms can for the coming season This estate will probably be be raised per acre. entirely planted, judging from the supply of plants A very important point to the cultivator of this in the nurseries and under the trees, though I have not spice is the extent of the market available. It is but seen the nurseries lately. Mahadova and Auckland con­ tribute largely to the enterprize, both being included a spice, though an extremely useful one, after all. In in the Cinchona Company, whose operations will presently India and the East generally, it is universally used in be noticed, and full justice done. Auckland is well cooking. In Europe the consumption is small, save in worth a visit—prettily situated as the estate is, with Turkey, where it is said an almost unlimited field for its park-like patana lands and clumps of jungle, fine consumption prevails. No doubt this refers to all climate, elevation, and beautiful views. The cinchona here is a great success and does Mr. H. C. Plumridge Muhammadan countries from Turkey to India, and it considerable credit, considering that the estate was is therefore pretty evident that the cardamom planter not then part of the Company’s property, and cin­ in Ceylon need not be afraid of the price falling below chona culture in the district was in its infancy. his limit of profitable return for a good many years Shawlands can show some of the best varieties doing to come, even should cultivation extend to some thou­ well and planted in separate clearings: Ledgers, Emelina Calisaya, officinalis, pubescens, and fine-grown sands of acres in Ceylon. succirubra trees in the old clearing, extensive nur­ series of all varieties, and virgin soil to start their growth. Doonhcendekellie should grow' good samples, THE PROGRESS OF;CINCHONA CULTIVATION the soil and climate being well suited to the rapid growth IN THE DISTRICTS OF MADDLSIMA of many varieties of cinchona. Forest Hill grows succi­ AND HEWA ELIYA. rubra well, and there is a clearing being got ready for the coming season. Yaphami or Yapume estate (B y H . C o t t a m .) has extensive nurseries, and fine old trees bearing Rapid progress has been made in these ■ far-off seed of good quality. The whole of this estate will districts of the Central Province in the making of nur­ be eventually planted up, as also the other proper­ series and the planting out of cinchona of every variety ties of the same proprietor in this district, Dorapotha introduced into Ceylon from India and Java, from the and Quedgeley. So far, we have reviewed all the famous Ledgerianas of Messrs. Moens and Gammie down estates in upper Madulsima, all of which, without one to the hardy succirubra self-sown amongst the coffee. exception, are pushing forward the cinchona enterprize, No sooner does the visitor to Madulsima arrive in Banchory and Devenick included. the district than a fine growth of succirubra may be Before we dive into statistics and figures, from thousands seen above and below the road, filling up the vacancies to millions (!), we will take a stroll through Hewa Eliya and checking wash on steep ridges, and ravines and form­ district. Passing the neat little hospital under the inspec­ ing quite a new feature in the appearance of Amana- tion of Dr. Chellappah (who administers the precious bark dova estate, the grand entrance to Madulsima, Officinalis to fever-stricken patients, though they are comparatively 123 few in so healthy a district), we emerge from a belt great quantity is put down already with nurseries in of juugle dividing the districts into Wewebedde or reserve. Crossing another range, we enter tbe Uva Tavalampalassi, being near the outlet to Lunu- estate, a fine promising property both for its coffee gala, where a cart road was traced, once upon a (almost free from disease) and cinchona succirubra. time. Cinchona cultivation is progressing on this At some future time, we can speak of the suitabili­ esta'e; 100,000, including some valuable Emelinas, being ty of the land below this estate in the neighbour- put out and ready for planting during the coming hood of Bintenni tank, for the production of new season. products, but will confine this article to cinchona only. Dunedin, another of the Company’s estates is to he fully The first cinchona estate proper, that is, the first planted. Hitherto the variety planted here was succirubra, land devoted entirely to the cultivation of the bark, and roughly estimated at 275,000; there are other was The Park near Lunugala opened by Messrs. kinds including a few7 Ledgers. Pulteney and Ffanshaw. Another entire cinchona Ascending to a considerable height, we then reach estate called Seafield is situated near Yapame, and the far-famed Cocogalia, and the crack Ledger field, the famous Kehelwatte possesses one of the finest so often referred to in the columns of the Observer, nurseries of all kinds, including pubescens, and closely planted, and well covering the ground. The plan ted 10 acres succirubra, four acres officinalis and Ledger field c-.m be distinctfy seen a great distance off, a considerable quantity scattered amongst the coffee. beim/ of a brighter green foliage than the officinalis above Yaphame estate we mentioned before as producing it. This valuable aud handsome clearing contains forty good seed, there are also nine acres of succirubra thousand Ledgers, and, including the officinalis, 50 acres planted here. Kosgahadowa and Mausa and Lunuvissa at 5,000 plants per acre, gives us 250,000 of fine estates I did not visit, but they all contain a pro­ specimens of well-grown and best variety of valuable portion of cinchona and nurseries. Clifton and Mel­ cinchona. When passing through this unequalled field, I rose and other new estates down the Batticaloa could only see three plants dead in the quarterofa million! road near Lunugala : Medampitiya, Galboda, and The new clearings are now being drained and roaded Tillycairn near Passara. Hanipha estate has made for the reception of some 60,000 more Ledgerianas, making progress and a clearing is in course of preparation for one hundred thousand in all raised from Java and Indian this season. St. Mary’s estate might be called in seed, the old Ledgers being those of Mr. Moens, and Madulsima. All have cinchona growing more or less. those in the nursery raised from Mr. Gammie’s seed. Now to come to statistics. The following estates There seems little difference in appearance. In fact the are opening up clearings for Christmas planting aMe manager of this division of the Company's estates has Galoolla 50 acres of officinalis. succeeded in raising tine beds of Ledgersfrom cuttings ! Cocogalia 21 Ledgers & officinalis. In addition to the possession of a compact cinchona W evabedde 5 Calisayas. plantation, the whole of Cocogalia estate will be planted Foreet Hill 12 officinalis. with cinchona. At present, there are about half-a- Seafield 60 succirubra. million cinchonas in the lines of coffee doing remarkably Kehelwatte 46 pubescens and succ. well. H anipha 25 Condaminea. New F<-rest contains some 500,000, or half-a-million, Shaw lands 35 C alisayas &c. trees. Say Cocogalia and New Forest between them con­ tain over 1,200 000, many of which are already 24 inches 254 acres (E. & O. E.) in circumference, and officinalis raised from Abbotsford seed, fine, straight, symmetrical, smooth-harked, There may be a few more clearings including a handsome trees added to this some 750,000 (three- small one at Uvakelle and another at Amanadova, quarter of a million) plants in the nursery of valuable making over three hundred acres. Planted say kinds making a sum total of about 2,275,000 5,000 to the acre, equal to one and a half million, cinchona trees of varieties on Cocogalia, New Forest, a considerable help to the rough estimate of ten and Dunedin. Much may be learned by a visit to millions for Madulsima and Hewa Eliya. Now sup­ these clearings and nurseries. The modus operandi is posing ten thousand acres are brought into cultiv­ simply perfection ; well-made beds, shaded from the ation, in round numbers, (§> 1,000 cinchona plants aun, by substantial sheds ; the pricking out beds per acre, we arrive at ten millions. Therefore, con­ covered by ferns, and coolies employed repicking sidering that 5.000 per acre is the usual thing, the over, and referning, watering, and every care taken surplus 4,000 per acre over a large area make up to make the enterprize a success. for coffee not planted with cinchona. The next Now, allowing that tbe Cinchona Company alone thing to consider is the price or value per average possesses 4,000,000 of plants of all kinds by Christmas tree, according to age and soil and variety of bark well advanced, and plant out another two mil­ cultivated. We bear of 7 year old trees realizing the lions, making six millions; surely the rest of the enormous sum of R40 or £4 sterling. According to such district, which now possesses over two millions, can a calculation, forty millions sterling would be raised, put out from their extensive nurseries another two enough to make one’s hair stand on end to contemplate! millons, making up the round ten millions for the dis­ The question is what would be a fair average tricts of Madulsima and Hewa Eli)a, including the price. Let us say R5 or ten shillings per tree, and we Lunugala estates. Before leaving Hewa Eliya, we realize five millions of pounds sterling. Then descend must have a peep over the ridge, passing through to five shillings per average tree, and we get two Hewa Eliya, Elemane, and Rathkele estates. These millions, five hundred thousand pounds sterling; equi­ properties contain half-a-million cinchonas scattered valent to two shillings and sixpence per tree, one about : 35,000, 300,000, and 172,000 respectively, million, two hundred and fifty pounds sterling. W e must or a total of 507,000, including 8 acres under shade, draw the line at R1 ‘25 or half-a-crown for crown b ark , 4,000 Ledgers, and 160,000 in coffee on Rathkele and then we get £125 per acre or R 1,250—twice as good estate, where extensive fencing has been carried out a prospect for planters as coffee cultivation without leaf to keep cattle from intruding. disease. Through another belt of jungle, the bridle path, Two hundred thousand acres of cinchona in the obscured ir<>m the sun’s rays by gigantic keena trees, Central Province of Ceylon, containing at the rate of brings us out on to the vast undulating patana lands ten millions to every ten thousand acres or two hundred adjoining Roseberry estate, where one might almost millions of cinchona trees, valuing, say, only one rupee fancy one’sself on a sheep run in New South Wales. per tree or two hundred millions of rupees, or £20,COO,OOq Roseberry estate grows very fair succirubra, and a sterling, four times the value of one million cwt. . 0£ coffee at 100 shillings per cwt. !! Will our Govern­ their movements. Either residents or strangers have ment stand still with such a prospect and say no the opportunity of spending an agreeable day at Jo­ railway for the present ? Are the planters to wear hore in visiting the plantations we have described, themselves out first and spend all their money to and H. H. the Maharajah, who is an enthusiastic prove to the Government that cinchona will pay, planter, has always been kind enough to give those and that coffee will be improved by the rooting up who take an interest in such matters all the informa­ of I he cinchona, and tonic manure from falling tion and assistance in his power.—Straits Times. leaves? If the Chinese give up opium for cinchona, there will be little fear of glutting the market SALE OF CINCHONA BARK IN COLOMBO. with a population of 400,000,000 of Chinese. One thing they may do, and that is, set to work and Messrs. Robinson & Dunlop put up for public sale cultivate cinchona themselves, as the Yankees are try­ at their offices to-day (Oct. 20 th) the undermentioned ing tea in Georgias. Whatever price quinine stands lots of cinchona bark :— at, it will always he a drug in the market ! I have T. C. A.—1,232 lb. mixed officinalis and no personal interest in bringing to public notice the succirubra twigs and pieces. great progress making in the cultivation of cinchona, From full-grown trees in beyond wishing to cheer up desponding brother-plan- Dikoya district. Analysis ters in these hard days of leaf disease and low prices by Mr. Dixon shews 1'04 R. c. of coffee, and an obstructive policy displayed on the yield of sulphate of quinine... 0 27 part of the Ceylon Government in delaying railway lb. extension. Diagama—1,886 succirubra twigs ... 0 27 Passara, 30th September, 18s!. 88 ,, quills ... 0 35 366 ,, broken quills ... 0 49 158 ,, chips ... 0 33 103 „ dust ... I n - H. H. THE MAHARAJAH OF JOHORE’S TEA 252 officinalis dust ... ) AND COFFEE GARDENS. 421 ,, twigs ... 0 21 We would recommend all who take an interest in From three year old trees, grown at an elevation.of 5,000 feet in the Agrapatana. planting to drive over to Tanjong Putri, J chore, and lb. R . c. make an inspection of the tea and • coffee plantation K abragalla— 112 succirubra twigs and chips. 0 22 of H. II. the Maharajah of Johore. It will show 78 ,, root ... 0 56 those interested what can be done in these two pro­ 22 ,, quills ... 0 84 ducts, and enable them to form some estimate of what Avoca— 232 ,, twigs ... 0 15 the ordinary soil of the country in low lands is cap­ 40 ,, quills ... 0 25 able of producing. The plantation in question may 298 officinalis twigs ... 0 20 be termed an experimental one. It is within two or Gonavy— 132 „ twigs ... 0 10 three miles of the town, and there are about two Valladolid— acres of tea. and the same amount of coffee planted. 3,727 ,, stem pieces ... 0 54 The coffee is Liberian, and the trees are about two 332 ,, root ... 0 57 years old. The plants are six or eight feet high, and 201 ,, twigs ... 0 21 the branches cover a circle of about ten feet in From year old trees, Maskeliya. Analysis by Mr. diameter, They are one and all loaded with berries Symons gives yield sulphate of quinine 1T6. in different stages of ripeness. So covered with ber­ lb. R . c. ries are they that it will probably be necessary to Errol— 260 succirubra twigs ... 0 16 thin them, and it is somewhat surprising to learn 300 ,, root bark 0 81 that, although the ground has been used by gambier 284 ,, stem pieces .. 0 64 and pepper growers, no manure has been required for 204 ,, bark ... 0 58 the coffee. The tea has been planted quite recently, The above from three, to four year old trees, Dik­ and a portion of the plants have been cut about one oya district. month and show a wonderful growth of young leaves A grakande— which, as is pretty generally known, produce the lb. R . c. finest quality of tea. Various kinds of tea plants 557 succirubra bold twigs .. 1 have been planted together, but the bulk of the seeds 184 ,, quill and quil 10 29 came from the Indian tea countries, though all of the pieces ... ) plants seem equally healthy and strong. On the ground 56 ,, pieces and shav­ there is a shed for cooking and preparing the tea ings (from 4 to six leaves. The kiln dried tea is very similar to Assam, year old trees) ... 0 85 and the same leaves sun-dried give a decoction similar 170 ,, pieces (from 9 to the tea used by the Chinese. In both cases the year old trees) ... 1 5 flavour is an agreeable one, and should take well in 267 ,, (mossed) stem the local and home markets. The undoubted success shavings from 4 to of both tea and coffee so near our own door is truly 6 year old trees... 1 40 remarkable, and leads one to anticipate a possible 370 ,, (mossed stem prosperous future for the waste lands of our island chips from 9 year as well as Johore. Close to the plantation we have old trees 1 30 described, H. H. the Maharajah has taken in hand to The attendance was not so good as on previous clear a large patch of primfeval jungle of its under­ occasions, and, owing to the recent fall in Europe growth, leaving undisturbed the high forest trees. prices obtained were lower thau at last sales. Bid­ This is intended for cocoa which has been tried to a dings were fairly spirited. considerable extent in the open country, but it is thought that it may do better in the shade, as there the tree itself, as well as the subsoil, will be pro­ T r e e P l a n t in g is going on briskly in the Cape tected from the rays of the sun. It is interesting to Colony. Mr. W. Rogers, of the Bontebok, has ob­ see the Yakoons of the jungle working away heartily tained about thirty thousand young trees from the —felling the smaller trees, and they seem to be well Botanic Gardens, Grahamstown, for planting on his suited for the work—being muscular and active in farm ,—Cape Paper. CULTIVATION OF “ LEDGERIANA ” CIN­ Analysis of “ Yarrow” Calisaya Ledgeriana bark CHONA IN CEYLON. taken from four year old trees, growing at an elevation of 3,000 f e e t :— FOUR YEAR OLD TREES ON YARROW ESTATE, PUSSELLAWA, Crystallized Approximate YIELDING 9 06 PER CENT OF PURE QUININE.* S am ple. Pure Quinine. Sulphate of Value in London Q uinine. p e r lb . m S terlin g . We have already on two separate occasions re­ A*x 8-775 11-700 15s 7d ferred to the successful cultivation of the precious E* 4 605 6-140 8s 2d Ledgeriana on Yarrow estate, Pussellawa. • Mr. Thos. R*x 9-06 x 12-080 16s Id S*x 7-155 9-530 12s 8d Christie informed us how these trees were the result of V*x 7*885 10-513 14s a pinch of seed received from Mr. Mclvor, during his X*x 6*700 8-933 11s lOd visit to Ceylon, he (Mr. Mclvor) at the same time ex­ Y* 4-775 6-360 8s 5d pressing doubt as to the successful growth of the Z* 3575 4-766 6s 4d species which had comparatively failed under his care on T b o s e marked “ x ” contain but a trace of other the high and cold hillsides around Ootacamund. That a lk a lo id s . C. B. H . Sy m o n s. our Ceylon hills on the contrary are admirably Co lom bo, 18th Oc t . 1881. adapted at a medium elevation, and in select spots up to 4,500 feet or so, for the culture of Ledgerianas Remark of Mr. Symons referring to R* :—“ It is has now been satisfactorily demonstrated by the re­ really a splendid b-irk. The five marked “ x ” are all sult of experiments not only on Yarrow, but on fine types.” St. Andrew’s, Maskeliya, and under Mr. W. Smith’s Yarrow estate is situated in the district of Nilambe care in Lindula. The great success of the Yarrow and lies at the back of Pooprassie, adjoining Gal- trees was shewn by the analysis of bark giving loway-Knowe and Hanagalla estates, distant about 8 "4 per cent of quinine, valued up to 17s per lb. 12 miles from Gampola. In elevation the cultivated Since then the price of sulphate of quinine has area ranges from 2,500 feet to 3,400 feet. A well- fallen, and therefore although the highest valua­ known visiting agent has reported upon the estate tion in the accompanying analyses is 16s Id, it as follows :—“ The feature of the estate (Yarrow) is must be noted that the percentage of quinine 9 06 is now its Ledgeriana trees, and the analyses of bark very nearly the highest yet attained not only in Ceylon, which has been the talk of everyone for the last but, considering the age of the trees, we may say it is few days. There are 140 trees altogether, some first- equal to anything realized by Mr. Moens in Java. class, bnt all very good. I consider that for cin­ The detailed analyses given by Mr. Symons are chona the estate is especially well adapted. ” We as follows learn further that the trees are growing most vigor­ Analysis of “ Yarrow ” Calisaya Ledgeriana bark ously (of quite as rapid growth as the succirubras it taken from 3J year old trees, growing at an eleva­ is said and have a thicker and heavier bark ! tion of 2,500 feet:— and average from 15 to 20 feet in height. The Crystallized Approximate superintendent has about 10,000 seedlings of Ledg­ Sample. Pure Quinine. Sulphate of Value in London eriana coming on promisingly, and the majority of Quinine per lb. in Sterling. the trees are now heavily laden with seed crop. We do N o. 1 4-550 6-006 8s „ 2 4-680 0-200 8s 3d not regard the fact of the trees being laden with Analysis of “Yarrow” Calisaya Ledgeriana Bark taken seed at so early an age as a good sign : we should from four year old trees, growing at an elevation have preferred that they had fully matured with at of 3,000 feet :— least six or seven years’ growth, but still no doubt Crystallized Sulph. Approximate Value the seed, when compared with that of the less valuable Sample. Pure Quinine. of Quinine, in London per lb. species, will be very valuable. * At the same time, in Stg. careful selection will have to be made to secure A 4*850 6-466 7/6 B* 8.325 11-100 14/9 the best, for it is very striking to note the great C* 8-150 10-866 14/5 variation in the bark of different trees grown from D* 8-605x 11-473 15/3 the same “ pinch of seed.” For instance the seed E 4-085 6-446 7/3 F 5-725 7-633 10/2 gathered from the splendid tree marked “ R*x,” with G ' 8*485 11*313 15/1 9"06 of pure quinine, ought to be nearly three times H 7-285 9-713 12/11 the value of that taken from “ R,” the bark of I 6155 8-206 10/11 J 5-675 7-566 101 which only gives 3"455 of quinine. By careful selec­ K 7'750 10-333 13/9 tion guided by analysis, the proprietors of Yarrow, L 5’975 7-966 10/7 ought in a few years, to be able to shew trees M* 5*350 7-133 9/6 grown from the seed of “ R*x” yielding a con­ N 6475 8-633 11/5 O* 7175 9‘565 12/9 siderably increased percentage of quinine at the P 6-500 8-666 11/5 same age, until Mr. Moens’ maximum of 13 per Q 6*460 7*280 9/8 cent is beaten. (Mr. Wm. Smith’s maximum the R 3*455 4-606 6/1 S* 4-476 6-966 7/11 other day for trees 5J years old was 9"6 per cent) T* 7125 9*500 1 ^8 Calisaya “ Ledgeriana” is undoubtedly the species V* 5*360 7*133 9/6 for a large number of planters in Ceylon to turn V* 4*380 5-840 7/9 their attention to; but it may be asked if its w* 7-475 9-966 13/3 X* 4*025 6-366 7/1 cultivation becomes general and fairly successful, Y* 4310 6-746 7/7 what will become of the market. W ith the millions of Z * 4-480 5973 7/11 trees—a considerable number being ‘Ledgers’—about Those m arked contain but a trace of other Alkaloids which Mr. Cottam writes from Madulsima,all flourishing * In the table as it originally reached us, and exceedingly; with propagation by seed, suckers, and as we mentioned in a paragraph yesterday, the maxim­ grafts engaging attention in so many quarters, where is um given was 10 56 per cent., but this is a mis­ take as Mr. Symons explains :—“ I am very sorry * Seed of the Ledgers is too precious, we fear, for the to see my clerk has made a mistake in copying proprietors of Yarrow to try an experiment recom­ out one of the analyses. R* should be pure Q. mended by Colonel Beddome, of cutting off the pani­ 9'06 in place of 10'56. You will see that this is cles of flowers from trees flowering prematurely. It correct, as 9"06 + 3 02= 12"08, the proportion of should be tried though on two or three trees to note sulphate of quinine. 10 56 would give 14-08 % of the effect on the growth of the trees and on the quinine which is rather stiff, even for Yarrow.” virtue of the bark.— E d . it all to end ? It is of course difficult to say how the AUSTRALIAN FRUIT FOR ENGLAND. demand may respond, but one thing is certain : that (Journal of the Society of Arts.) it will be a long time before the fortunate possess­ I note with interest the information in the Jo u rn a l ors of “ Ledgeriana” trees can have any occasion to of 9tb inst., page 778, that we may expect fruits of complain of the cultivation of cinchona not being various kinds from Australia. No doubt apples, pears, remunerative. and oranges can and will be shipped to advantage thence to this country, because all these fruits ripen after being plucked ; but I think the writer in the Colonies and India is over sanguine as to first-class THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON AND grapes being able to stand the voyage, and to arrive CINCHONA CULTIVATION. in such good condition as to compete with home­ What is wanted is that the gentleman who is coming grown hot-house productions. Be that as it may, my experience of thirty years as a grape grower teaches out to take charge of the Hakgala Gardens should qualify me that grapes never ripen in the slightest degree himself before leaving England to analyse hark, so as to after being gathered, but merely whither and shrivel, be able to carry out experiments pro bono publico, and to &c. I think all grape growers are agreed on this turn the Government Cinchona Garden to some practical point. If I am wrong, I shall be glad to be corrected. account. We shall be told, that such time as Mr. Nock J a m e s F il d e s . 44, Spring-gardens, Manchester, 10th September, 1881. could give to analyses in London, if Government granted a Tlclay, would not suffice to enable him to qualify himself for the work. Here is the Madulsima Company D r . G il b e r t and Mr. Lawes have received, by the decree of the German Emperor, the gold medal o f getting out a special Chemist on £600 a year, and merit for agriculture, in recognition ot their services there are the doubts which “ scientists" have for some for the development of scientific agriculture.— time been inclined to cast on the local analyses made Athenaeum. by gentlemen who, a short time ago, were in complete L a n d O u t o f C u l t iv a t io n . —As a n exam ple o f ignorance of the process. But we have pointed out that land permanently thrown out of cultivation we may cite an instance of a large estate on the confines o f the work of local “ amateurs" (so-called) have been Hants and Wilts, and consisting of over 1,1‘0 j a res, substantiated more than once by the analyses of the which, after being let to a tenant for a number o f Messrs. Howard, and we may ask what great mystery years for £300 a year, was at last abondoned by him, can there be in the matter, when Mr. Gammie, a gentle­ and has for some time been without an occupier. man with precisely the same training as Mr. Nock, has The owner, determined to put it to some use, has now resolved to make a huge rabbit-warren of it, and not only qualified himself as Bark Analyst, but is doing for this purpose has turned out 1,200 rabbits to popu­ good work as a Manufacturing Chemist. Mr. Nock, it late it. Considering that of all animals, rabbits will be remembered, is specially recommended by Mr. are among the most prolific, and that they sell for Morris for his experience in cinchona culture; but what about Is apiece, the experiment will probably be a possible service can this gentleman render to the Go­ successful one, though whether the owner’s neighbours vernment (unless they mean to go in for growing bark will not before long consider they have just cause o f complaint against him in the too frequent visits o f to sell) or to the planters except he is able to set a these industrious borrowers remains to be seen.— L and. whole series of experiments agoing with different species, F i b r e s .—A Dikoya planter writes :—“ I think, if yon different modes of culture and of harvesting, for which, refer to my letter, you will find I said that the fibre at almost every turn, analyses will be indispensable? I sent you grew very freely in the poorest soil and not It is, we fear, too late now to telegraph to Mr. Nock present soil, as you have in the Observer. I am sorry that it is valued at such a low figure, as it grows very to spend a few months in London, in order to freely and is everlasting. The more it is cut the qualify as a Bark Analyist. If this cannot be done, better and thicker it will grow : a crop might be we would suggest that the Government utilize the services secured every year, but I have no doubt the fibre of then- Science Master, Mr. A. C. Dixon, to co-operate would be better for being kept longer. I think it better with Mr. Nock in his cinchona experiments. Mr. Dixon in every way than the aloe fibre and much stronger. I have prepared the aloe fibre years ago—I mean the has a special laboratory at his command, and would, we common green that we used to grow by the side have no doubt, take a personal interest in aiding Hakgala of ditches to keep buffaloes out of coffee, not the experiments with such analyses as Mr. Nock and Dr. Mexican slow-growing blue variety. This fibre can Trimen might require. If, in addition, Mr. Nock were be grown in lengths of ten or twelve feet, and I allowed to visit the different districts and take a note have no doubt I can send you some that length. of the results of planting experiments and experience, Perhaps I have made some mistake in the prepara­ tion. Certainly the fibre pulled off the living tree is we have no doubt that his work in cinchona alone twice as strong as the fibre that I have prepared would be of great value, even at this late horn-, to the by cutting the sticks, and burying them in mud by Ceylon planters. the side of a stream for twelve days and then w ashing. 1 consider this fibre far superior either to the best jute, or American green aloe, both of which I have repeatedly tried and prepared. The yield of U d a g a m a ( S o u t h e r n P r o v i n c e , C e y l o x ), Oct. Sth.— fibre is much larger in proportion also to any other Good planting weather. Showers every day with no.v fibre producing plant. If the Rhea * is the same and then a heavy burst for a short time. Liberian coffee, plant as the Dutch call ‘Rhami’ it will never do pepper, cardamoms and nutmegs 011 young estates in Oylon, for I have tried it repeatedly, but the making a good start Ceard rubber sown the first Rhami I have tried is not a grass." week in April now between nine and ten feet high and steady with all. Poochies do not trouble us much * The Rhea or Chinese grass-cloth plant, is B ahm eria and the small moose deer let us off easily. Cinchona nivea, a small shrubby plant about three or tour feet (Calisaya) six to eight inches high sown April 7th. high — E d . 124 ciation gave a prize for an essay on opening a new Arabian coffee estate (now not wanted, so some say); then for elaborate buildings which so some say was not required; To the E ditor of the Ceylon Observer. and then spent so much money on a sulphur and lime cure book before it was proved a success —I think that ALUM A CURE FOR WHITE ANTS ATTACKING the planters ought to reward me as the champion of COCO PALMS AND CACAO PLANTS. Arabian coffee who have proved beyond a doubt that Matale, 13th October. Arabian coffee even with leaf disease can and will Dear Sir,—I have been trying to grow coconuts pay handsome profits (if properly worked); at least for a long time, but have found that the greatest with a small outlay. Cocoa is doing first rate and I enen.y I had to contend with was whiteants. To trust next year to show both cocoa and coffee side prevent these destructive insects from attacking the by side (cocoa planted in 40 acres between coffee) young plants, I only knew of the sawdust of five giving good crops. This year the cocoa is giving the different kinds of woods, namely jak, sapu, del, first (maiden) crop; there are only some 20 0 trees in wavart-nne or javarenne and lunumadilla, but as full bearing this year, which are full of crop.—Yours the sawyers asked me f>0 cents a bushel for the truly, J. HOLLOWAY. sawdust, I found it too expensive, and so had to look about for something else. Seeing in your Directory CINCHONA CULTIVATION : that alum is a preventative of several noxious insects, _WHAT ISC. PUBESCENS (INDIAN VAR.)? I though* I would try it for whiteants. Nearly two months ago I put down about a dozen young D e a r S i r s ,— W hat are we in Ceylon cultivating under plants, and underneath and all round them I sprinkled the name of C. pubescens ? powdered alum (about one tablespoonful to ■ a plant), Mr. Cross, in his late report of the Indian Govern­ since which time I have not se< n a whiteaut near ment’s Nilgiri Cinchona Plantations, after shewing them, although in one or two places where I planted what are Condamineas, goes on to say ;—“ But that them I had previously lost several— this over a known as Pubescens, and speciaily claimed as a hybrids period of more than 5 years. I therefore conclude is a narrow leaved variety* of red bark from Soute that alum is a decided success. It is quite possible America.” The South American bark collectors called that powdered alum may also turn out to be a it “ Pata de Gallinazo ” in contradistinction to the preventative of grub. I mentioned my experiment large leaved or “ Teja” bark. So far well; the Nilgir, to Mr. E. Grigson, and he said he would give pubescqns, can be a red bark and yet be very value it a trial jfor grub. I have no doubt that if he does able, but here comes an anomaly. Howard in his do so and finds it succeed, he will let the public know “ Quinology de Pa von ” gives this variety called “ Pata through your columns. de Gallinazo” and calls it “ Nitide C. Peruviana” I may mention that I found the whiteants had and says its bark is comparatively useless in commerce. attacked a cacao plant. I therefore sprinkled a little Both Mr. Howard and Mr. Cross are authorities on owdered alum round it, and, as it was dry weather, cinchona. The latter doubtless saw this variety growing watered it once, immediately after applying the when collecting with Markham and would not be likely alum, and I am happy to say that the whiteants to make a mistake in identity. The question there­ have left it, and it is now flourishing. I give you fore remains, are we in Ceylon cultivating a com­ this in the hope that it may turn out of use to any paratively useless bark or not? Any information tending who have been pestered, as I have been, with white­ to clear up the above, will, I am sure, be gladly re­ ants. I fancy for grub about 2 lb. per acre would ceived by proprietors of C. pubescens and all cinchona be enough, and, as it is procurable in the bazars at planters. The best and most reassuring would be the from 19 to 25 cents per lb. (if a success) it would results of a sale of bark, if any Ceylon grown has be cheaper than collecting the beetles as at present.— reached the London market yet?—Yours faithfully, Yours faithfully, L. F. K. TEJA. P.S.—Mr. Ward may, perhaps, find that alum may [“ Teja ” cannot have the “ Cinchona Planters' Manu­ be useful in the cure of leaf disease. al ” by him—indispensable, it may be said to be, to all who wish to have the answers to such questions as the above. On page 43, he will read :— PLANTING OPERATIONS IN THE PANWILA “ G. pubescens, generally considered a cross between DISTRICT. officinalis and tuccirtihra, has a bark very rich in Maria, 14th October 1881. alkaloids. It has a stem free from lichens, grow’s D e a r S i r , —Will you allow me to thank those very luxuriantly, and renews its bark rapidly. Mr. gentlemen who visited this estate since my challenge Mclvor says of it:—' Up to the present time C. suc­ made last July: all have expressed themselves satis­ cirubra has produced in the same period of growth fied. more than twice as much stem bark as any other I would feel obliged for a visit from those gentlemen species we have in cultivation, and C. pubescens H ow ard* who visited this estate between July and November 1880, will produce nearly twice as much stem bark in the when I showed them some fields which were then same period of growth as C. succirubra.’ It is very bearing about 15 cwt per acre. Some then thought unlikely that such extremely sanguine hopes will be the trees would not be able to bear any crop this realized, but its robustness of growth seems undoubted. year; they (no doubt remembering the field) will be De Vrij got from a specimen of the bark of this agreeably surprized even this year to find a crop of hybrid 9 47 per cent of alkaloids, of which 5*728 was from 10 to 12 cwt. per acre and trees looking more pure quinine, sulphate of quinine being 7 637. From fit for another crop next year than they looked last another sample analysed by Howard, the return was year. 12 90 per cent of alkaloids, of which 6 94 was sul­ The weather for the last three months being very phate of quinine. A tree yielding such quantities of dry, our trees are somewhat feeling the want of rain; splendid bark is simply invaluable, but being a hybrid, some crop is lost at the end of branches and the beans plants raised from its seed are but little to be de­ of our first picking was rather small. But the coffee pended on as being true to type; indeed in some cases we are now gathering will be of larger size and as soon its bark is said to have been found altogether devoid as rain sets in the crop will ripen: that is from of alkaloid. The preceding analyses are undoubtedly February blossom. But cur crop from April blossom will not be ready to pick till the end of November * Mr. Howard does not wish his name to be con or middle of December. Whereas the Planters’ Asso­ nected with “ Pubescens.”—E d . exceptional ones, and no reliance should be placed in and threes, but in the north of India there must be them as fair indications of the value of pubescens bark. trees of one or more species on which the insect is The ordinary yield of quinine that may be confidently to be found in much greater abundance, because the expected is from 9'50 to 3 "50 per cent. Renewal of cocoons could not otherwise be collected in sufficient the bark is effected with great facility, the resulting quantity for manufacturing purposes. The tussur silk­ yield of quinine being from 3TO to 4'90 per cent. In worm has not hitherto been artificially reared, all the this, and in the large yield of thick bark, lies the ad­ tussur silk in use being obtained from wild cocoons vantage of cultivating this trees which is greatly in­ gathered in the jungles ; and before attempting the creased by a careful selection of stock trees. I have found domestication of this kind of silkworm as a com­ the seed of this hybrid very hardy and easy of mercial speculation, the species of tree on which it is germination, the young plants growing with the greatest found in the greatest abundance in a state of nature rapidity and should most strongly recommend its fur­ should be ascertained. ther cultivation, by cuttings, if possible. The eleva­ The subject seems to be, commercially speaking, tion at which pubescens grows is about the same as better worth investigating than some of the “ new th a t for succirubra, and probably extends higher. ’’ products ” that we read of ; but it must not be Hr. Mclvor may have been wrong in regarding his supposed that tussur silkworm can be used as Pubescens as a hybrid, indeed we are likely to have a substitute for true silk which is the produce of th e Bombyx mori or Sericaria mori as it is now named, the term discarded—but Howard’s analyses cannot be and in a country where mulberry leaves can be ob­ wrong. There is another C. pubescens, Vahl. (Arica tained at all seasons, it would, in the absence of bark) less well-known.—E d .] epidemic disease affecting the true silkworm, be of no practical use to cultivate plants for feeding the tussur species, unless it were for the purpose of utiliz­ SILK-GROWING IN CEYLON. ing soil too sterile for the growth of the mulberry Parate, Moratuwa, loth Oct. 1881. tree. I am using a common patana weed, and it answers better than any other plant that I have S ir , —With reference to your remarks on “Silk Grow­ tried for feedingthe tussur. ing in Ceylon ” in your impression of the 7lh, Dr. There is no doubt about the suitableness of this Vanderstraaten seems to have misunderstood what I country for the Sericaria mori or true silkworm, if told him about the domestication of the tussur silk­ the business be managed in a rational way ; but no worm. I said that I had not succeeded in rearing success is to be expected from attempts to feed the the tussur silkworm on growing trees in the open silkworm on the leaves of the lettuce tree or any­ air, because the caterpillars were always devoured by thing else but the mulberry leaf. Very many attempts birds, lizards, or ants ; but I did not say that the have been made to find substitutes for the mulberry tussur silkworm could not be domesticated, The tree for feeding the silkworm, and success has from nature of this insect renders it unsuitable for feeding time to time been reported, but the only useful result of on plucked leaves like the mulberry and castoroil all such experiments has been to confirm practical tree silk worms, but it can be kept on cut branches sericulturists in the belief that no subs'itute for the with their ends inserted in water to prevent the mulberry tree can ever be found. In countries where withering of the leaves, and I now have about three silk production is an established business it is not hundred tussur silkworms and about as many of the necessary that the sericulturist should be a mulberry atlas kind which I am keeping in that way for the planter, because mulberry leaves can be bought in purpose of sending the live chrysalides to London for any quantity required, but here it is of no use to trial in England by M r. Alfred Wailly ( Membre begin with silkworms without first making a mulberry de la Soci&tt d' Acclimatation de France). The eggs of plantation. It is also useless to send all the way to both species hatch too soon for transmission from this Hhina and Japan for silkworm eggs, at the risk of to England. I believe that any effectual method of being cheated with bad ones, when eggs of warranted protecting the silkworms from the numerous good quality can be bad by application to Rev. Father enemies to which they would in this country be Pal la of Galle. exposed, if they were on growing trees in the Three species of mulberry have already been natur­ open air, would be more troublesome and expensive alized in this country—the common sort (Morus indica), than the culture of the mulberry tree and domestic the white mulberry (M . alba), and the large-leafed management of the true silkworm. But by my plan Philippine Island species (Af. multicaulis). I find the of keeping the silkworms on cut branches or suckers last-mentioned the best for this climate, but, per­ inserted in water-pipes, it would be quite practicable haps, the white might be the best kind for the colder to produce cocoons in sufficient quantity for manufactur­ parts of the country. The common mulberry does ing purposes, and I shall be glad to show it to very well if it is constantly pruned so as to make anybody taking an interest in the matter, By coppic­ it produce tender shoots, but the leaves become rusty ing the trees, a constant supply of suckers could be and unfit for use if they are not plucked from the obtained,' and the only thing I am in doubt about is tree soon after their appearance.—Yours faithfully, the most suitable tree to cultivate for the purpose. ALEX. T. GEDDES. But that could be easily asertained by enquiry in the districts in which tussur cocoons are collected for manu­ A CURE FOR GRUB. facture. Though a species of bombyx may be polyphagous 16th O ctober 1881. in a state of nature, yet it does not follow that it D e a r S i r , —Will your correspondent, whose opinion has not got its own proper food plant on which it is you gave as a footnote to “ Moles ’’’s letter in your more at home than on any other. The atlas, for issue of the 11th, kindly give us his reasons for instance, is very polyphagous, and yet I know of no adopting the Government principle of quieta non tree except the Milnea Roxburghiana, on which the movere 1 Though I have not collected so many as cocoons or larvae are to be found in large numbers, nor two million cockchafers, I have seen enough of the have I successfully domesticated the atlas moth on any ravages of grub to convince me that planters unaided other tree for more than one generation, though I will be unable to apply a remedy, and until the grub have tried several other trees. There does not seem pest is overcome the disastrous effects of leaf-discase to be in this country any tree on which tussur cocoons or will be more and more apparent in the table of larvae are to be found in greater numbers than twos exports.—Yours faithfully, AUSPEX. CINCHONA PUBESCENS IN CEYLON AND j procured was greatly debilitated, or no care what­ INDIA. ever was taken of the moths when laying, for, in Wftlaha Valley, Oct. 20. some cases at any rate, the eggs have been hatching D e a r S i r , —Enclosed is a copy of analysis of some out at odd times during the last three months. This, pubescens cinchona bark, sent from an estate in this as another correspondent pointed out, is very objec­ valley, from about a dozen different trees, five years tionable, and leads to endless confusion. old. Do you think it good?—Yours truly, M. M. Mr. Geddes appears to think that the whole of the Colombo, Oct. 7th, 1881. island is suited to the cultivation of Bomhyx mori, Analysis of ------cinchona bark. but I think he is wrong. I do not know the average Crystallized sulphate of quinine 4 90 per cent. temperature of the hill ranges of China, whence the Gross value in the London market 6/3 per lb., insect originally came, but I should suppose it to be with Howard’s sulphate of quinine at 10s. per oz. much less than in our lowcountry. Father Falla’s [This result, equaj to 3 '6 8 per cent of quinine, for success (?) seems to show that the climate near Galle five year old trees, is very favourable indeed. We is too forcing, for his single-brooded moths have, in see that a bale of natural pubescens bark from the first year, produced two broods. Next year may Dodabetta sold in May last for 7s Id per lb., against produce three, with still further decreased vitality. 4s fid to 5s 9d, the price realized at the same time If the cultivation of the mulberry worm in this country for natural officinalis bark. The Dodabetta trees is to be successful, it will not be with the single- must have been 12 years old, but those from which brooded variety, but with multivoltine species. the bark was taken, were growing on poor soil and More attention might with advantage he paid to under unfavourable circumstances. No analysis of the the indigenous races, the tussar, &c., some of which bark is given in the papers before us.—Ed.] produce four or five broods in a year. The natural food of these seems to be the common oak, found generally on the patanas. I first met with A . P a ­ CINCHONA PLANTING ON THE “ KANNAN- pilla on this tree, but it feeds also on the wild DEVAN” MOUNTAINS, S. INDIA. sapota and on the Avocado pear. This is at an eleva­ Oct. 1881. tion of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. Of course, Sir,—In your reprint of my article in the Field, at lower elevations the food-plants will be different. at page 282 of the Tropical Agriculturist, you preface Mr. Geddes seems to infer, from his finding the the extract by a remark concerning the planting worms only in twos and threes, that the trees they advice therein given, which leaves me in doubt whether were feeding on were not the most suitable, but it you consider my information reliable or not. frequently happens that bad weather, birds, lizards, I should consider it a kindness if you would point and other plagues will reduce a batch of 800 to a out where, in your opinion, exception may be taken. dozen or less. The figures are taken from actuals so far as the For indoor cultivation, the oak is objectionable : estimated cost of opening goes, and the price of land its stems are stringy and not easily cut, and the is also a known fact. The price of opened land—i. e. leaves soon become crisp. just planted up—is, I think, fairly estimated ; and as The coppicing of the trees on which the worms to the results, I had no less an authority than that are fed is not to be recommended. The mulberry of M r. Crosse. worm, when young, prefers tender, succulent leaves, Please always remember that I wrote of condaminea but tbe tussar. atlas, and other worms of allied bark grown from Dodabetta seed, and that I reckoned species, refuse to eat immature leaves, so that suckers the prices to remain what they now are. would be of no use, even were the coppicing system No better counsel can be added than that given practicable on the trees the worms prefer.—Yours by you ; viz., to go to Kodakanel; take a cottage there faithfully, B. for six months ; and march across to Devikolum, and look well into matters before investing. COTTON CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE. STAPLEGROVE. Deyenewatte Estate, Passara, 18th October 1881. [We certainly regarded the letter in the Field as D e a r S i r , —In your issue of the 14th inst. you again presenting a too flattering account of the probable urge capitalists in Colombo to start a cotton mill. experience of a planter in the region referred to. Ceylon is certainly behind the aye, when Calcutta, Little was said of the difficulties of pioneering; nothing Madras, and Bombay are manufacturing their own of the immense liability to failures in new clearings of cloth from Indian (and Egyptian) cotton lint. Why should old King Cotton be left out of your cinchona. Does our correspondent know that cinchona list of new products ? It grows like a weed and bears clearings in Ceylon have been almost completely re­ well in hot, dry, weather, when coffee, cacao, and tea planted three times over ? Our advice was that any ' would be suffering from drought. Every cotton planter one thinking of an investment should spend, not six I must make up his mind to lose lint during wet months, but a year at least, on the spot, gathering j weather, though the seed would be still valuable as food for cattle or the engine. I wonder if the Ceylon experience.—Ed. ] Government, would give a bonu^ for the firs t ton of cotton passed through the first Colombo mill ? The seed arrived from Watson & Co. of Bombay SILK IN CEYLON. and from the manager of the Tuticoriu mills. The 21st October 1881. former was distributed by the undersigned to natives D e a r S i r ,— Mr . A. T. Geddes is quite right in his in the Dumbara Valley, and the latter case of seed remarks as to the mulberry being the most suitable rotted in the Batticaloa customhouse. food for Bomhyx mori : the plant is very easily grown, Meanwhile, we find Bombay working 43 mill, driving and its leaves keep fresh for a longer time than those 1,184,136 stinnies, and 12.586 looms, and paying 20 to of any other shrub. The sole aim of every sericult- 25 per cent on their paid-up capital. urist a' present should be to obtain a breed of worms Now, Mr. Editor, that your breakwater is nearly of a far healthier standard than those now in the ready for the reception of large vessels, there will be island. Even the eggs, so much recommended by no fear of wetting your bales of cotton, if the mill your correspondent, seem to have been of small prac­ is not ready in time and lowcountry planters are tical value: either the stock from which they were obliged to export to Bombay or Liverpool. The Chairman of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce all the more boxes of palam for the coolies to pick, valued my cotton grown in Dumbara at one shilling and all the more rupees to carry back to India. 1 hen and nine pence per pound; Mr. Blood had it valued would we all remember the well-known lines, and sing : by the brokers. 1 have about two cwt. or 224 lb. in “ H O W D O T H T H E L IT T L E B U SY B E E ,” &c. store, gathered from Deyenewatte bushes of the [We must ask Mr. Benton's opinion on the matter. same quality, and strong in staple, at your disposal. —Yours faithfully, HENRY COTTAM. —E d .]

PLANTING IN THE PANWILA DISTRICT. HOW TO CHECK COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE : SUP­ Maria, 20th Oct. 1881. PORT THE TREES UNDER CROP, AND MAKE D e a r S i r , —Glorious weather for ripening crop : PLANTATIONS (NOT WORN OR WASHED OUT) all hands picking. Parchment now is a fine sample, TO PA Y . a good, full, and large bean. It is a pleasure to go round the estate and see the trees with the ripe Lindula, 20th Oct. 1881. cherry and coolies bringing in their boxes. D e a r S i r , —Nearly three years ago, in addressing Kotmale is desponding. Coffee on this and Eria- you on the subject of leaf-disease, I stated my belief gastenna is bearing as well now as ever it did, that no economical or practical antidote would be in spite of leaf disease. During the dry season we discovered in our lime. So far, dire experience has applied proper manure carefully and. in proper time. proved I was not wrong. I deprecated then, as I do Estates are giving an average of from 4 to 6 cw t. now, the idea of trusting to scientists entirely to per acre, on an expenditure every year of from help us. R80 to R100 per acre. This pays, and although old king Agricultural chemists, from whom aid was expected, coffee may hang down his head on account of have not yet attained sufficient knowledge of their leaf disease and a disagreeable atmosphere, there science to enable them to prescribe antidotes for plant- is proof he still smiles on those who treat him ac­ pests. Surely the failure of Liebig and other eminent cording to his present requirements ; and beforelong he chemists to find a remedy for the potato and turnip will shake himself clear of the yellow fever, and be diseases bears me out here? Such a discovery would as sound again as ever, except where the fever lias have been of far more importance than any for “ leaf- been allowed to have its way without the necessary disease.” stimulant and disinfectant, and, in fact, been fed The dearly-bought experience of the practical ngricul- by improper application of artificial manures.—Yours lurist has more frequently been the means by which a cure truly, J. HOLLOWAY. has been effected ; the “ special letter” from your French correspondent in your issue of Friday last, notwith­ BEES AND COFFEE BLOSSOMS CAN IT BE ? standing. In the letter to which I refer, he alludes to the happy results attending the employment of sulphurate D e a r S i r , —Sir John Lubbock has recently made some very interesting statements with regard to “ bees,” of carbon for phylloxera on the grape vine. It may and probably we shall all now be more inclined to be so, but it is not the first time we have heard of believe that these industrious little creatures exercise the discovery of a cure for this disease, which, on no inconsiderable influence in our flower and fruit extensive trial, has proved to be “ no cure at all.” gardens. Can it be that, during late years, they have I place more confidence in the system mentioned vastly decreased in numbers in the hillcountry of by him of “ autumnal irrigation and rich spring Ceylon, and that this is one reason why our coffee manurings,” which it would appear, is designated the blos-oms| nowadays fail, in a great measure, to fruc­ Faucon system. Your correspondent might have given tify? If there is anything in this latter idea (which us some details. It is undoubtedly, however, a more has emanated quite recently from a discerning son frequent application of manure in smaller doses for of Mars), why not attempt to utilize bees in our long the purpose of affording a continuous supply of available and dreary up-hill battle with short crops? The food to a plant, which is drawing its sustenance from planting community is now in as well-nigh as dis- the soil nearly all the year round. pairing a state as was the monarch of the forest in For some time back I have been experimenting in this the well-known fable, and who knows but that, if we direction, hoping to, at least, mitigate the ravages of leaf- invoke their aid, our friends, the bees, will do us just disease, and so far, with great success. The experiments as important and timely a service in freeing us from will necessarily be incomplete until a year, at all events, our m-t work of troubles, as did the wee bit of a mouse has elapsed; but, I must say, judging from present appear­ for his friend the lion ? ances, I am looking forward with some confidence to the During the past twenty years, what thousands and result. Most of those interested have been, and doubtless thousands of acres of coffee have not taken the place still are, experimenting for the combatting of our common of an equal area of luxuriant forest and jungle re­ enemy, but I am encouraged to lay mine before you dolent, of perennial wild flowers ? Now, as every ore at this early stage recommended, as some such system knows fields of coffee burst into blossom only very is, by that eminent authority, Monsieur Fasteur. occasionally, and at such a time the question to be My own notion is that, if manure is applied in small answered to-day is: “ Where are the bees on such doses, so that the stimulant ingredient, which it occa-ions ?” If absent, why not make a provision for ought to contain would be asserting itself simultane­ them the whole year round, by planting up one per cent ously with the expected attack, it will carry the of the coffee with perennial flowering shrubs ? In due trees safely through. Should it be found that this time, introduce your army of bees (just as you now would entail a triple application per annum, a heavier do a herd of cattle in stal's for manuring purposes); outlay need not be incurred than by manuring once a carefully house them and so ensure their not beirg year with the ordinary dose, if the soil is in that disturbed by beast, bird, reptile or coohj. A million or condition by which it can be laid on broadcast and so of bees on an estate, in blossoming time, may yet raked in. Some years ago, farmers thought it suffici­ be found to be worth their weight in gold ! By-and- ent and economical, in manuring for green crops, bye, we would, perhaps, see a new industry started— to apply it in large doses, under the impression that kanganies rearing swarms of bees, or bringing them it w'nuld enrich the soil for several years, and the over from India, to be let out for hire for a season, succeeding crops require no application. Recent just as they now do gangs of coolies. It the ex­ experience has, however, proved it more beneficial periment worked well, they would probably hunt in for each crop to be manured, and in some instances couples, for the more bees on our estates would mean even two manurings in one season, where the growing 125 crop is fouud to be backward. There are several estates with surface soil all washed away, I may say reasons why frequent applications of manure are more that, in respect of such, I agree with him, coffee will effectual in producing good crops, the chief being, never again be king. Bravo “ Old Rag” for your that the noxious ingredients, which all soils contain, notice of your Kotmale correspondent’s letter !—J. S. have the power of rendering unavailable as plant food that which may have been applied in the most available form, thus depriving the plant of the full L ib e r ia n C o f f e e N o t R i p e n i n g . —We have received benefit of the application. It is well-known that all a sample of Liberian coffee cherries (dry and half- Ceylon soils are rich in a low compound of iron ripe) picked from some 8 trees in front of Eria- which has this peculiar power, more especially over gastenna bungalow, Panwila district. The plants phosphates, which are so essential to the well-being of were got out from Kew exactly five years ago. our coffee trees. Knowing this then, it follows that Hitherto the crop has all ripened, but this season, better results must accrue frem more frequent* manuring. although the trees look healthy, Mr. Holloway fears If it were possible to apply quicklime in large not more than five per cent will ripen. He adds ;— quail* ivh s, to neutralize the pernicious effect of the “ The trees have been manured with cattle dung, alumina and iron so abundant in our soil, there would pulp and lime, and stand under a fair amount of he less necessity for such frequent manuring. I there­ shade. Arabian coffee trees close by look well, and fore fe< I convinced that, if an improved method of are likely to ripen all their crop.” Perhaps the cult vatinn is adopted, the ravages of leaf-disease can elevation (1,800 feet?) is against the Liberian coffee ? be mitigated. It may be said, and with force too, C o f f e e S t i l l K i n g i n C e y l o n .—Who says coffee in ihat this is a matter of <£. S. D. which, in these days, Ceylon is rapidly going downhill, past recovery? Where- it is no easy matter to command! ever coffee has been properly cultivated and taken care If 1 am not occupying too much of j’our space, of on suitable land\ is it not still bearimr paying crops ? I want to have my say on a state of matters which, We are told of fidds in Dolosbage which are doing if not soon altered, must speedily bring ruin to the better this year than during any one of the past ten coffee enterprise of Ceylon, and it is one which you, season*. Again, we learn of coffee which was con­ with your wonted foresight, have been continually sidered useless and abandoned, being resuscitated and drawing attention to, viz. the comparative cessation of through cultivation brought to bear 5 to 6 cw ts. manuring operations. It cannot be denied that the steadily for several years. We admit the area ih wherewithal tor this purpose is but too frequently these cases is not large; but is it not one of the at the disposal of people who are not resident in the mistake of the past, putting too great an area on island, ignorant too of the first principles of good each plantation under one product. Ou the other husbandry, and who are only too pleased to act on hand, is it not a fact that coffee has had far less the advice of the professional visiting agents, which done for it ail over the country during the last three has »ail tended in one direction recently. In the years than at almost any previous period ? Not simply present depressed state of the bean, and the debit has there been less manuring, but the attention usu­ balances fast accumulating to huge dimensions, it ally given to ordinary or extra cultivation has been m ty be more pleasant for a mortgagee to hear, through concentrated on new products,—perhaps wisely, seeing th e prof* ssional visiting agent he has em ployed, th a t they offer on the whole greater promise, in the face of estate expenditure can be cut down to half that of leaf disease, but at the same time, it is not fair to former \ ears. It may tend to raise the V. A. in the neglect and yet simultaneously cry down “ coffee.” estimation of his principal, and so make future em­ Our chief staple is not dead or dying, and will be ployment in like cases sure, but I doubt if it is sound found still to respond to cultivation and liberal advice, either for borrower or lender. I hold it is not. treatm en t. Let ecmomy be the order of the day ; but nothing T e a C u l t iv a t io n is rapidly extending, we are glad c mid be a greater fallacy than to stop cultivation, to learn, in what is the Tea region of Ceylon pc** with the hope that one day leaf-disease will disappear, excellence,—Dolosbage, Ambegamuwa, Yakdessa and and tnanu ing operations again be undertaken with a Yatiyantota, as well as on the Western face of Adam’s prospect of good returns. Peak. Locally-produced seed is becoming available: Say what we may, this was one of the most- favourable that from the Horagalla trees being very fine. On blossoming seasons we could have wished for; and Windsor Forest, a set of Jackson’s improved patent what is the result ? No improvement on the previous machinery is in course of erection. The Tea-roller season, which was one of the worst. Given suitable —an admirably simple and suitable machine—is already soil, climate, aspect, and elevation, it is an axiom working, the result being that 2 or 3 coolies suffice that, if it be remunerative to cultivate without m anure, where 40 able-bodied men were formely required. th en with manure it will be more so ; and again, if land Mr. Hay never saw the equal of this new and im­ will not pay to cultivate with manure, then it most proved machine, in India. Jackson’s dying machine assuredly will not without it. is now being erected, and when the Windsor Forest Wi h the exception of grub and bad seasons, I con­ Tea house is complete, it will probably serve for the sider the professional V. A. and restive mortgagees produce of well nigh 1,000 acres of tea on planta­ are doing more to foster leaf-dieease than anything else. tions within a reasonable distance. The largest “break ” Let those of our professional Visiting Agents who have of tea—some 23,400 lb. —as yet prepared for one give them'elves up to insensately indiscriminate declama­ shipment from Ceylon has just, been sent to Colombo tion in tendering advice, speak out boldly that which by Mr. Hay from Windsor Forest, and will have early must be no longer concealed viz., that mortgagees, . despatch to the home market. There is no abate­ where it is in their power, must make a liberal ment of the sangume anticipations formed by pract­ allowance for manure as the only chance they will ical Indian planters of the success of our enterprise : have of recovering that already invested. Let the good seed of the right sort (Assam hybrid as a rule Observer peg away at railway extension, so that ready being best) to begin with and a fair start in culti- and cheap transport may be had, and coffee will yet vation, under experienced guidance especially for prun­ be emj eror.—I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, ing, gathering and preparing : and then all should JAMES SINCLAIR. be clear to a careful intelligent plante.\ Another P. S.—Your issue of Tuesday has just reached warning both to planters aud consumers is that tea me, in which a letter appears signed “ Post Tenebras should not be drunk under from 3 to 6 months after Lux,” and lest it may be taken for granted that 1 preparation. Is it not at present issued, sold aud drunk advocate the cultivation of worn-out estates, that is much within this period ? J a v a L e d g e r ia n a S e e d i n C e y l o n .—We are re­ j L i m e is not a general remedy for grub, and dig- minded that “ Mr. W. Smith of Mattakelly had I ging is too expensive for many estates to indulge in. his Ledgeriana eeed from Mr. A. M. Ferguson in Sept. \ But are we for these reasons to do nothing ? T he 1876, at the same time as Mr. Leechmau and Capt very least the Government could do would be to Bayley had theirs, and that they were the only persons | offer a large reward to any one who may discover in Ceylon who had Ledgeriana seed at that time and a cheap and effectual poison that at the same time they were also the first to receive it. This will be seen would not be injurious to the vegetation. But of this by Mr. Moens’s Report for 1876.” I have small hopes.—Cor. T e a i n N a t a l . —Another rival to India a s a tea C o f f e e a n d C h ic o r y . —In a long paper on “ The growing country has sprung up in Natal, where the j Skin and Complexion ” contributed to the Daily News, plant has been introduced, and is said to thrive better I by John L. Milton, Senior Surgeon of St. John’s than it does in tills country, while I he cost of cultiva­ j Hospital for the Skin, London, we find the following tion is much less. The flavour of the manufactured | paragraph, one part of which ought to be printed in leaf is said to be superior to China tea, and does not : letters of gold and a copy sent to every English possess the pungency that is peculiar to most Indian I household, at the expense of the Colombo Chamber teas.—Englishman. ! of Commerce :—The diet for any one who suffers at C r o s s F ertilisation o f W i i e a t .—Some successful j all from the skin must be good ; above all, the reader experiments have been lately made in America in tl e j should start with a substantial breakfast. Coffee, made cross fertilisation of wheat, a feat which has probably i from the freshly-roasted berry—ground at the time of never before been accomplished, and which, owing to 1 using, without any chicory (which is only to be regarded the peculiar structure of the flower, pr.sents great as a poison) is one of the first necessaries. No cumbrous difficulties. Ripe seeds have been obtained from the machines are wanted—such things only get foul; coffee plants operated on. but it remains to be seen whether is best made by simply pouring boiling water upon the new plants will combine the characteristics of the the ground berry, and putting the pot upon the fire two parent verities.—Ibid. to boil for a few minutes. If tea be preferred, it C o f f e e a n d N e w P r o d u c t s . —Mr. J. Holloway should be made with some variety of the pure old writes (too late to attend to his wish) :—“ On second China black, like the Lapsang Souchong. Hill tea consideration, please leave out of my letter from will not do for skin disease, especially when coupled ‘whereas the planters ; &c., up to ‘cocoa is doing with dispepsia ; some specimens are so loaded with firstrate.’ It was meant in chaff, but may not be starch that when boiling water is poured upon the taken so, and I wish for no P. A. prize. My whole leaves and allowed to stand for a few minutes it be­ desire is to make Coflea Arabica pry, as I am firmly ; comes like thin arrowroot. But even the best tea should convinced it will, in the end, hold its own among all never be allowed to draw ; from one to two minutes new products. I have, by careful watching and pro­ is 1 quite enough to extract all that is refreshing. per treatment, proved beyond a doubt that, in spite I n d i a -r u b b e r G a t h e r in g i n C o l u m b ia . —An in te r­ of leaf disease and other evils, it does yet pay where esting account is given of this process in a report properly cultivated. I plant all new products, but just issued by the United States Consul at Cartba- will not neglect “ the goose that lays the golden eggs.” gena. When the hunter has found a rubber-tree he “T e a -p l a n t in g i n C e y l o n . ”—An India tea-planter, first clears away a space from the roots, and then now in Ceylon, notices the pamphlet on tea cultivation moves on in search of others, returning to com­ and manufacture published at this office, as follows :— mence operations as soon as he has marked all the “ The essay seems complete enough in a general way, but trees in the vicinity. He first of all digs "a hole in might have been more concise in dealing with thedifferent the ground hard by, and then cuts in the tree a stages of manufacture. I am not in a position as yet to V-shaped incision with a machete, as high as he can offer an opinion on the ‘ selection of land,’ * plant­ reach. The milk is caught as it exndes and flows ing out’ &c., as I ’ve been only a few months in the into the hole. As soon as the flow from the cuts island, but my idea was an arrangement of ‘ notes has ceased the tree is chopped down, and the trunk on manufacture’ principally, beginning with ‘ prun­ raised from the ground by means of an improvised ing,’ and dealing with the different stages as they trestle. After placing large leaves to catch the sap, come in order. If the Ceylon teas are to take a promin­ gashes are cut throughout the entire length, and the ent position in the London market, much more at­ milk carefully collected. When it first exudes the tention must be given to the ‘ withering,’ * ferment­ sap is of the whiteness and consistence of cream, ing,’ and ‘ sorting’ stages, as the general complaint but it turns black on exposure to the air. When is that they want strength, although the flavor is all the hole is filled with rubber it is coagulated by that could be desired.” adding hard soap or the root of the mechvacan, II a r u t a l e . —A correspondent referring to this dis­ which have a most rapid action, and prevent the trict writes :—“ You gave me some Liberian coffee escape of the water that is always present in the seeds some months ago. I lost no time in sending j fresh sap. When coagulated sufficiently the rubber them to . Enclosed letter will shew the result. The | is carried on the backs of the hunters by bark estate is 4,000 to 5,000 feet elevation.” The extract j thongs to the banks of the river and floated down from the manager’s letter is as followe :—“ The Libe­ , on rafts. The annual destruction of rubber-trees in rian coffee seed lias altogether failed, notwith­ I Columbia is very great, and the industry must standing all the care bestowed on the nursery. Only ! soon disappear altogether, unless the Government about j of the seeds germinated and these only one j puts in force a law that already exists, which com- or two at a time, but these would die before throw­ I pels the hunters to tap the trees without cutting ing out the first pair of leaves and so on right i them down. If this law were strictly carried out through the nursery. The last plant died yesterday. I there would be a good opening for commercial 1 do not think it possible to raise a plant at this ! enterprise, for rubber-trees will grow from 8 to 10 elevation. Heavy rain fell here yesterday; though | inches in diameter in three or four years from seed. today has been fine : the monsoon is not far off, and , The trees require but little attention, and begin to I expect to be able to plant out cinchona at the : yield returns sooner than any other. Those that beginning of next week. The estate is looking well, ! yield the greatest amount of rubber flourish on the and the crop is beginning to shew up. I think I : banks of the Simu and Aslato rivers. The value of may safely say I never saw less leaf-disease on the the crude india-rubber imported into the States annually estate than now.” | is about §10,000,000. —London Times. - t ~ = C i n c h o n a C u l t u r e i n M a d r a s . —Colonel Beddome’s T e a E x p o r t t o A u s t r a l ia f r o m I n d ia a n d C e y ­ Report is the most elaborate and carefully complied, l o n :—F rom th e 1st to th e 8 th of the current month, yet drawn up on the Madras Government Cinchona Messrs. Watson and Co.’s Tea Report tells us that the Gardens. He has since, as our readers know, visited quantity of tea, exported from Calcutta to Australia Ceylon at tbe request of his Government, in order and New Zealand was 54,9001b., which, added to the to note the condition and progress of our local Cin­ 378,4911b. exported from the 1st of May to the 30th chona enterprise and any improved methods of culture September, gives a total of 433,391 lb. for this season. introduced. We fear Colonel Beddome was not greatly From the beginning of the year to the 27th Septem­ impressed by what he saw in Ceylon. We now learn ber, Ceylon has sent 303,9621b. to tbe Colonies, a that, before going on leave to England, Colonel Bed­ much larger proportion relative to the amount of tea dome has been ordered to complete his visits of in­ produced than was sent from India.—Englishman. spection by going to Darjeeling. We shall look wity T h e C e d a r s o f L e b a n o n . —The Vienna PolitiscJie interest for his reports on the Ceylon and Sikhim Correspondent says:—“ The once famous cedar forest plantations. of Lebanon, formerly so extensive, has dwindled down J a l a p . —Not long ago samples of jalap, grown on to the dimensions of a mere thicket, numbering the Nilgiris by Mr. Jamieson of the Government about 400 trees. To save it from complete destruc­ gardens there, were sent to some of the hospitals in tion and preserve it at least in its present extent* Madras for trial, and tbe reports show that the jalap Rustem Pasha, the Governor-General of the Lebanon, is likely to be largely u?ed in the hospitals in this has issued a special ordinance, containing a series of presidency, but that a little more care is necessary stringent regulations calculated to check, if not quite in the cultivation of the plant. Dr. Thompson, of to put a stop to, the vandalism and carelessness of th e 1st district, says that the jalap administered to most travellers. It is expressly forbidden to put up patients in his hospital had a pretty good effect tents or other kinds of shelter within the distric upon them ; Dr. Roberts of the 2nd district says that of the trees, or to light fires or to cook any pro the jalap is in every way an active and efficient pur­ visions in their vicinity. No one is allowed to* gative. The Surgeon of the 4th district says that the break off a bough or even a twig from the trees. jalap was found to be efficient. The medical officers It is forbidden to bring any beasts of burden, be of the General Hospital aud of the Penitentiary have they horses, mules, asses, or any kind of animal, not fully reported on the effects of the jalap, but within the district. Should oxen, sheep, goat, or there is no doubt that forthcoming reports will be as other pasturage cattle be found within the prescribed favorable as those sent in by the other officers. The limits, they will be irredeemably confiscated.”— Colonies Surgeon-General, with the Government of Madras, is and India. of opinion that, if jalap can be grown on the Nil­ giris at five or six annas per lb., it will be an econo­ T e a P l a n t in g i n A m e r ic a .—While our Indian Tea Planters are combining to force the products of their mical measure for supplies to be sent to all he medical stores in India—the cost of jalap powder plantations into the American market, an individual planter “ who has had fifteen years’ experience in supplied from England is Is 6 d per lb. If jalap can be grown on the Nilgiris at 8 annas per lb. we see India,” is trying to persuade the Americans that they can grow their own tea. Her Majesty’s Secretary of no reason why it should not be used in preference to English which, with exchange and other charges, Legation reports from Washington that the local Commissioner of Agriculture has, under the advice of o u ght t o 1 cost 14 annas per lb.— Madras Standard. a Mr. Jackson, the enterprising planter in question, Q u e e n s l a n d P i n e . —From a very interesting pamphlet selected a tract of land in Georgia for an experi­ by Mr. W alter Hill on the Queensland timber, we extract mental farm, on which the raising of tea on an the subjoined note concerning Araucaria Bidwillu, the extended scale will be carefully and thoroughly tried. Bunya Bunya Pine:—“ A noble tree inhabiting the Samples of the teas already produced by Mr. Jack­ scrubs in the district between Brisbane and the Burnett son have been sent to Thompson, Brothers, tea mer­ rivers. In the 20th parallel it grows thickly over a chants, in Mincing Lane, London, to be examined; portion of country in extent about thirty miles long and the reply received is that “ they represented teas and by twelve broad. The wood is not only very of a high type, the flavour, though not strong, being strong and good, but it is full of beautiful veins, remarkably fragrant. In appearance they resemble and capable of being polished and worked with the Indian tea, but the flavour is more like that of the greatest facility. The cones produced on the extreme finest Chinese black tea, or of the bill teas of India.” upper branches, with their apex downwards, are large, The importation of Virginian tobacco planters to measuring 9 to 12 inches in length, and 10 inches in Bengal is thus avenged. “ Can we afford to pay our diameter. On coming to maturity they readily shed labourers four times as much as they do in the East­ their seeds, which are 2 to 2 £ inches long by 1 inch ern countries V is the pertinent question which Mr. broad, sweet before being perfectly ripe, and after Jackson puts to himself and his Americans. “ Yes,” that resemble roasted chestnuts in taste. In accord­ replies the writer; but it is doubtful whether his ance with regulations issued by the government, the readers in India can agree with him. It is true that tree is not allowed to be cut down by those who one coloured man or negro is said to do the work are licensed to fell timber on the Crown lands, the of two average coolies ; but even then labour is twice frui's being used as food by the aborigines. The trees as expensive in Georgia as in Assam. Although, too, produce some cones every year, but the principal in some of the operations connected with tea plant­ harvest happens only every three years, when the ing, such as hoeing and weeding, manual labour is blacks assemble from all quarters to feast on it. The said to be cheapened by the use of the plough (at food seems to have a fattening effect upon them, which negroes are skilful)—a circumstance of which and they eat large quantities of it after roasting it Indian planters might learn to take advantage—yet at a fire. Contrary to their usual habits they some­ picking, which after all absorbs the greater part of times store up the Bunya nuts, hiding them in a water the hand labour required in the various processes of hole for a month or two. Here they germinate, and tea production, cannot be completed by a fewer num­ become offensive in taste to a white man’s palate, ber of hands in the one country than the other, for but are considered by the blacks to have then it is a process at which muscular strength does not acquired an improved flavour. The taste of the Bunya, tell. On the contrary, clever manipulation, which is when fresh, has been described as something between the point of the Indian coolies, is what is wanted far a chestnut and a raw potato.’’—Indian Forester. m ore.— Pioneer. JOHORE AND ITS PLANTING ENTERPRISE. at the foot of the hills, has been already occupied Some time ago we acknowledged the receipt from by the Chinese with their gambier plantations, and Mr. Garland of a plan of one of the planting divi­ it is a curious fact that, as in Ceylon, so in Johore, sions of the Joliore territory—Gnnong Pulai Johore—• where the native cultivator has ended, there the from which we compiled a list of estates blocked out, European colonist begins. Gambier borders with coffee the area cleared, and the names of proprietors. We and tea in Johore, just as the Kandyans’ terraced are now greatly indebted to the courtesy of Mr. E. paddy-fields run below the coffee-clearings in the hill- A. Watson (the energetic planting pioneer of Johore, country of Ceylon. For situation, .Joliore has splend­ as he may well be designated) for a series of finely id advantages in its proximity to the free port of executed surveys and plans of the remaining divisions Singapore with its great trade and capital; for, although of the Johore hill-country :—Gunong Panti Johore; hitherto the large mercantile houses of the Straits Gunong Batu Bahat Johore and Chapal Enas Bedira have taken little or no part in the planting enterprise, districts. These plans enable us to form a very good there can be no doubt that when they see the pro­ idea of the country in which, in the course of a dozen duce coming in from the plantations, the merchants years or so, there may be found between 30,000 and will manifest a good deal of interest in the work so 40,000 acres under cultivation with coffee, cinchona pluckily begun by Ceylon planters. Capital will then and tea. As most people know, the little island of not be wanting to develop the territory, -at an ac­ Sing -pore (27 x 14 miles) is situated at the Southern celerated rate. Labour has been one of the uncertain extremity of the Malayan Peninsula, from which it elements, but so far as contract and heavy work is is separated by a strait from three-fourths to a mile concerned, we think Johore is well off with its Chinese, wide. The territory of the Maharajah of Johore occu­ while arrangements are now being made for obtaining pies the Southern portion of this peninsula, and the Indian cooly labour, which is more suited for picking town of Johore itself is not more than a dozen miles crops and perhaps for weeding and pruning. Nothing from Singapore, there being the ferry and a drive can be more enlightened and encouraging than the at­ across the little island between the two. The extent titude of the Maharajah towards the planters. The of territory belonging to the Maharajah is not very land has not only been granted on exceptionally easy well defined, boundary disputes between himself and terms, but reversing the traditional policy of his his next neighbour on the peninsula (the Rajahs of Government (which is to tax the land occupied at Mnar and Pahang, who will have no white settlers) once) he is prepared to accept a small export duty having still to be settled, but, as we have said, it on the produce shipped, so making it very easy for the is not likely that the area available for planting pur­ coffee, tea and cinchona planter without much capital, poses will be found to exceed 50,000 acres. Further who will only feel the burden of Government when north on the western side of the peninsula we come he begins himself to derive a substantial return from to the other British divisions of the Straits territory, his investment, Malacca and Province Wellesley and the island of Referring to the several districts of Johore, so far Penang, and besides these we have the Settlements occupied, we find that ‘ Gunong Pulai ’ is the one under British protection with representative Resid­ next to Johore town on the North-west, the foot of ents, namely, Perak, Selangor, and Sungei Ujong. the hills being twenty miles or so from the town. There are several Ceylon colonists (including Mr- The range runs up to close on 2,000 feet, the forest­ Downall) interested in this portion of the peninsula; land being divided into some thirty blocks aggregating but we have yet to see plans of the land blocked 14,144 acres, of which about 11,000 acres have been out and apportioned, in order to form some idea of taken up by European proprietors. In this district its future prospects as a planting territory. Mr. Low, about 1,200 acres are now under cultivation, while the British Resident in charge of Perak, is evidently preparations are being made to clear a large additional an official of the right stamp, determined to do all area. A list of the estates and proprietors in this in his power to encourage tropical planting enterprise. division was given by us in the ObGovernment substances, a process of purification which cannot will for the present make such grants : — take place in the hermetically closed boxes in which “ 1. The grantee shall pay to the Government before he the tea ordinarily reaches Europe by the sea route. enters into possession of the land as purchase-money for This of course is only an opinion : we have heard the concession to be made to him the sum of £ , and improving the flavour of tea by keeping. A chest being his bid at public auction at the upset rate of 2s an of Indian tea that had accidentally got among the acre on the estimated acreage. lumber was lost sight of for ten years. Those who “ 2. The Government, while not requiring that a certain fixed amount of land be planted year by year, will look quaffed the beverage brewed from this tea declared for immediate steps being taken to establish the cultiva­ it exquisite. Indian tea planters, we fear, cannot tion of Cinchona upon the land after the purchase-money afford to wait for ten years to improve their teas, has been paid. The grantee must, however, undertake that aud this advice to keep their produce, is not likely at the end of five years from the date of payment, he shall to be accepted.—South of India Observer. have cleared and planted with Cinchona a total extent of not less than one-sixth of the quantity of land actually I n d ia n L a b o u r f o r F i j i . —Once more the Govern­ granted to him. ment of Fiji have decided upon importing Indian “ 3. No timber shall be felled except on land about to coolie labour for the planters. But this time there is be brought into cultivation. A certain quantity of timber this important distinction, that the Indian coolies are may however, be cut down on other portions of the land, not to be, so to say, forced upon the planters, as provided it is used solely in the erection of necessary they were originally, but are requisitioned for by the buildings on the land itself. planters themselves. All the same, whilst asking for ‘•4. The Government reserves the right to make public coolies the planters are angry and dissatisfied at the roads through the land to be granted without paying any necessity which makes them engage a class of labour, compensation except for the value of Cinchona or other which they have good reason to dislike. But it is a valuable trees actually destroyed in the conree of the work. “ 5. No land shall be cleared of forest within a distance case of coolie-labour or none at all for many of the of two chains from any spring or from the source or feeder plantations. As numerous requisitions have been sent of any stream, nor shall any land be cleared of forest in by the planters, there would seem to be every within three chains of the centre of any prominent ridge chance of our despatching a few hundreds of our surplus or dividing line of watershed without written permission millions of half-starved agricultural labourers to a land, from the Director of the Public Gardens and Plantations. which will be, for them, flowing with milk and honey. “ 6 . The land will be held by the grantee for the first It is to be hoped that on this occasion care will be five years on lease at a peppercorn rent If any of the taken to send none but men who are really agricul­ conditions herein mentioned be broken the Government tu ris ts ; and where there is so large a field to select may resume possession of the land without compensation from, it should not be difficult to get coolies of com­ of any kind, and the purchase money will be forfeited. paratively good physique. It is satisfactory to learn If the conditions be complied with a patent of the land wi 1 be given to the grantee at the end of five years free that the coffee plantations, which at one time seemed of urther cost, and the land will become hie in fee doomed owing to the leaf disease, are in a very flourish­ simple, subject only to the reservation above mentioned ing condition, and bid fair to increase largely in ex­ in the matter of roads. tent, and to prove amply remunerative. Recent ex­ 7. Questions th at may arise as to the efficiency ofperiences seem to show that the disease bas not there the cultivation established at any period, and as to the the same disastrous effect it has in Ceylon ; and not­ value of trees that might be destroynd in the construc­ withstanding that some estates were attacked, the tion of roads, and as to the extent of land necessarily quantity exported last year was fifteen times as much cleared, shall be decided by the Director of Public Gard­ as the quantity exported in 1879. The quantity of ens and Plantations. the berry is, morever, very well spoken of. On the “ 8. A diagram of the lot to be granted will be fur­ whole it would appear that in a few years’ time coffee- nished from the office of the Surveyor-General, but any expenses that may be incurred for surveying or running planting in Fiji will prove, perhaps, more remunerative the lines at the request of the grantee will be borne by than it*. Ceylon, and that planters, forgetting the the grantee. If the lines be run by the grantee a copy scurvy way in which they were treated by a former of the plan of the same should be sent to the office of Government, will be attracted to islands which con­ Director of Roads and Surveyor-General for examination tain large areas of incomparably fine coffee land—out “ y. Intending applicants for the grant of land on of the influence of the trade winds—that can be had these conditions should address themselves to the Director on very moderate terms, whilst there is in the neigh­ ef Roads, by whom all requisite informations will be bouring colonies a large and yearly increasing market a ffo rd e d — Gardeners" Ghronicle. for the berry. When Mr. Horne, the Director of the Mauritius botanical gardens and forests, visited Fiji, C o ir F i b r e . —At the Horvekelly Company’s sale of in 1878, he estimated that the export value of coffee coir fibre this afternoon the price realized was only from the islands would before long attain to a million R4 per cwt. and a half, or to two millions sterling,—Pioneer. COFFEE LEAF DISEASE : ME. MARSHALL doubt of the great value of the information now given WARD’S REPORT. by Mr. Ward. As Dr. Trimen says, the many ques­ Mr. Marshall Ward’s final and (so far as it goes) tions connected with the pest, which have been the exhaustive Report baa at length seen the light. Dr. subject of so much and varied discussion during past Trimen, it will be observed, is very severe on “blind, years, are now narrowed down to a very limited com­ empirical, haphazard experiments (so called).” He pass ; the life history is completely worked out, and would reject all notions of “ cures ” or “ specifics ” science has given the practical agriculturist all the aid and would adopt rather the old adage “ Prevention and information that can probably be expected from it. is better than cure,” but, unfortunately, neither he nor the Cryptogamist throws much, if any, new light LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL on the means of applying preventive checks. This BOTANIC GARDENS, FORWARDING A THIRD motto is, indeed, one that came up very early in the R E P O R T B Y M b . MARSHALL WARD, discussion on Coffee Leaf Disease, the veteran Mr. CRYPTOGAMIST. E. B. Tj tier using it, if we mistake not, some half- No. 29. Royal Botanic Gardens, dozen years ago, to enforce exactly the same lesson Peradi mya, 19th September 1881. of “ careful cultivation and judicious manuring,” which S i r , —I have the honour to forward to you a Third the Director of the Botanic Garden now seeks to apply, Report on Coffee Leaf Disease by Mr. Marshall W ard. In and which, indeed, has been repeated at intervals this he sums up the whole results of his investigation, ever since Leaf Disease first troubled the coffee in which has extended over more than twenty months. 1. Continuing in the steady course of direct ex­ 1869. It is because cultivation and manuring, as then periment and observation, and avoiding everything in practised, appeared to have no permanent effect in the way of conjecture or theory, the Cry p toga mist has checking the fungus that the aid of science was first now established the main facts of the true nature of called in, and now, so far as practical results are this parasitic disease beyond di.-pute. Briefly, they concerned, the great benefit planters will derive from are these. > eaf disease itself is purely local and in no sense constitutional; it is caused solely by the the thorough investigation which has just been com­ Hemileia. runs a short and definite course, and is so pleted is to learn that scientists are not able to do formidable from the cumulative effect of constant re­ anything for them :—that they must just help them­ petition. The whole direct damage done by Ihe fungus selves according to sound rules of cultivation, bearing to coffee is loss of leaves; other serious evils, however, in mind what is said about burying diseased leaves, and especially diminished crops, follow on from this. the planting of other trees among or alongside the Cleared of many erroneous observations and inferences, the ordinary life-history of H em ileia is now shown to coffee, well-dir. cted and well-timed pruning, more fre­ he of extreme simplicity, and the necessary conditions quent applications of manures in lighter quantities for, and exact duration of, each stase from spore to (according to Mr. Sinclair’s sound recommendation), spore again have been demonstrated wi h unfailing and the judcious use of caustic lime. Strangely enough and convincing frequency. It is not too much to say the only curative ingredients that Mr. Ward speaks of that as regards the structure, circumstances and habits of Heniilcia on the coffee-leaf we are now completely with approval are our old friends “ sulphur and lime ” informed ; and probably no fungus-pest has ever hi fore which Mr. D. Morris at the outset .recommended for received so prolonged and continuous an examination. the destruction of his “ filaments.” 2. This being so, I apprehend the stage to be now Among the most, important paragraphs in the arrived at when remedial measures may be intelligemly Report are those in which Mr. Ward discusses the considered, and blind, empirical and hap-hazan. ex­ periments (so-called) to be no longer justifiable. We bearing of well-timed “ Manuring” and “ Pruning ” in know that there is one sufficient cause of lcaf-disease counteracting the effects of leaf disease on crop. —the uredospore of Hemileia vastatrix, that this is We are rather surprised to find Mr. Ward giving produced only by a previous one, is carried freely special attention to the origin of Leaf Disease in by the wind, may retain its vitality for several weeks order to dispel so-called popular and erroneous notions. or months, and can germinate only in moisture. This th en is a vera causa, and, in accordance with We were not aware that Dr. Thwaites’ explanation the well-known medical aphorism, to remove this under this head at the very outset had ever been would he the true practice. Difficult and perhaps im­ seriously questioned, and one reason for assurance that possible as this may be under present circumstances, the fungus had not begun to feed on cultivated coffee Mr. Ward here urges several preventive measures previous to 1869, was that it had never come under acting in this way, and it is, in my opinion, the one which promises the best results to the practical and the notice of the late Director, while, when hemileia inventive capacity of coffee-plamers. Valuable guides, did appear, the rapidity with which it spread wherever also in the same direction, are found in the close a coffee brush grew afforded conclusive proof that it relations here clearly formulated between attacks of could not have troubled the coffee previously without disease and weather. The portion of the report being observed. Dr. Thwaites wrote so far back as devoted to this subject deserves careful study for its obvious practical bearings, especially as to the question June 1872, that he had discovered the fungus on the of the possibility of having the coffee-tree in the most native wild coffee plant, and the fact that it must have suitable condition for resisting the effects of the growth in the first instance passed from a jungle plant (prob­ of the pava-ite at. the seasons of its chief invasions. ably in the Madulsima forest) to the cultivated coffee, 3. Next to removing the cause come curative has since then been generally recognised, “ Cultivate measures. Mr. W ard has done well to insist strongly that highly and manure judiciously” was the burden of Dr. to find an agent that will kill Hemileia is not the most important or indeed a difficult thing to do. But he Thwaites’ recommendation in his first report on the has narrowed down the practically available chemical subject, and the lapse of a decade has not much im­ substances of this kind to a very few, and his ex­ proved on his remedy. Nevertheless, there can be no periments with them do not, in my opinion, lead 127 one to expect that it is in this direction that the into the life-history of Hemileia vastatrix, which I have principal relief is likely to be found. We may surely conducted during my stay in Ceylon. now well reject all notions of “ cures ” and specifics. You will see that the nature of the fungus, and “ Prevention is better than cure ” is an old adage, its causal relations with “ leaf-disease” on the coffee and with our new vantage ground of knowledg" of the in the island are satisfactorily determined, and that extremely short period during which it is possible to the knowledge now to hand, together with what has get at the parasite at all, the short life of each been put forward in my previous reports, leaves no individual Hemileia-plant, and the frequency and want doubts as to the bearing of the several points established of periodicity (in the almanac sense) in the attacks upon the general questions which have been raised. of the disease, it may well be doubted whether so So far as coffee is concerned, the life history and much benefit, is to be obtained by never-ending anatomy of Hemileia vastatrix may be considered com­ attempts to check each attack, as by a general com­ plete. The important periods occupied by the several bination to destroy spores and hinder their disper­ phases of its life history have also been ascertained, sion. I would particularly call attention to the and a considerable number of developmental periods experiments with lime and sulphur made by Mr. on the part of the coffee have been resolved and brought Anton at Harrow— in their careful accuracy models into correlation therewith. worthy of imitation of the mode in which such should I have, moreover, to call your attention to the be conducted—as illustrative of the temporary nature real connection between climate and leaf disease, which of the benefit obtained at so large an expense. is no longer to be looked upon as a vague expres­ 4. The only other course is by careful cultiva­ sion ; but which I have shown to be of exactly the tion, judicious manuring, and attention to the indivi­ same nature as the relations existing between any dual trees, so to improve the coffee as to enable it to other organism and its physical environment, and com­ endure the disease, produce fresh leaves, and bear parable to the equally important dependence of a larger crop; but Mr. Ward properly points coffee or any other plant upon climatic conditions. out that the benefit so obtained is not due to lessening I have attempted to place the essential details of in any degree leaf-disease ; the parasite indeed is the history of this fungus, and its true relations to likely to be increased rather than dim'nished. the coffee, &c., in the clearest form ; and have omitted 5. On the whole, I am convinced that the possession no fact which throws light on the difficulties ex­ of this clear and connected history of the disease of perienced in understanding so intricate a subject. the eoffee-leaf in Ceylon is a great gain, and has given Having shown that the individual fungus plant is us a largely increased chance of dealing with its derived from without, and injures tl e coffee by ravages. robbing it of food—on the manufacture of which a 6. As I have been requested by you to offer my opi­ large expenditure of energy had been employed—by nion as to the desirability or otherwise of the Crypto- occupying valuable space on the leaves, and by pro­ gamist’s appointment being continued over a third year, ducing profound disturbances in the functions of the I have, in concert with Mr; Ward himself, considered plant, I further proceed to the examination of the carefully the present position of the enquiry from all obvious consequences of such damage on a large scale points of view. I may say at once that Mr. Ward —the falling of leaves, blossom, and crop. looks upon the present report as final in its character, The distribution of the fungus has also occupied and does not anticipate that any discovery of practical much of my attention, and the fact that it is con­ value would result from further work at Hemileia. veyed from place to place by wind is now established Indeed the only point of any’ importance remaining by irrefutable evidence. Other important means of unsolved is the history of the second kind of spore to distribution are fully examined below, and the facts which attention was called in the last report. To that collected remove all difficulties in understanding the nothing can yet be added. From the purely scientific wide and rapid spread of the parasite by the quickly aspect of the enquiry, further information on germinating spores. I further proceed to show what this matter would doubtless be of considerable interest, occurs on large masses of coffee, as cultivated over but any practical bearing of the discovery af a second vast open areas in Ceylon ; and you will notice that host-plant for the fungus is rendered unimportant, the application of the preceding knowledge to the more since the ordinary mode of its direct dissemination by complex problems there presented enables one to explain the yellow uredospores has been so completely demon­ facts, or rather collections of facts, at first apparently strated. The Cryptogamist does not consider that difficult of explanation. One important point I would another year’s sojourn in C>ylon would be profitably especially direct your attention towards : what is spent either to the Colony or to himself in this search, known to the planters as an attack of leaf-disease, which would be possibly futile (since the discovery of followed by the fall of leaf, is not a simple matter, such a plant, if it exist here, is greatly a matter of but the combined or successive effects of several gen­ chance), or, if successful, offers so slight a probability erations of the fungus. of contributing to the main purpose of the enquiry. Much of my time has been devoted to experimental In this opinion I fully concur. I may add, however, research into the efficacy of certain substances in that though Mr. Ward may be no longer in Ceylon destroying the fungus, and the advantages and disad­ next year, we may perhaps have yet the benefit of vantages possessed by such of these as can be em­ some researches on the nutrition of plant-cells, com­ ployed will be indicated below. It will be seen, how- menced here in connection with coffee, but requiring ever, that the problem of combating this disease is for their completion work in the well-equipped labor­ not a mere matter of quantity of chemicals and their atories of Europe and facility of reference to living efficacy in killing the fungus ; in any scheme for miti­ authorities and published memoirs. This work, though gating the ravages- of the pest, provision must be not strictly any part of the leaf-disease enquiry, bids made for removing sources of re infection, and at the fair to be of special value to the growers of our same time keeping up the strength of the coffee tree. staple product.— I am, &c., H e n r y T r im e n , Moreover, whatever the application to the diseased Director, Royal Botanic Gardens. leaves, it is clear that its continued action can only be counted upon for a short time after each renewal. FROM MR. MARSHALL WARD'S REPORT. I have pointed out the importance of mannring and From H. Marshall Ward, Esq., to the Hon. the pruning, from the point of view suggested by the Colonial Secretary. above, and it seems necessary to call particular atten­ Sir,—I have the honour to present you with a tion to the value of whatever break-winds, or tracts further report ou the progress of the investigation of forest, or patana, &c., may separate estates from diseased areas. That the planting of other trees on S e c . I . — T h e L i f e -h is t o b y o f H e m il e ia V a sta k ix estates, and among tbe coffee, is an important aid to on C o f f e e . the same effect will, of course, be apparent. “ Leaf- disease ” appears to affect different estates in different § 1. The outcome of numerous observations in addi­ degress on account of variations in soil, climate, and tion to and in continuation of those referred to in other physical peculiarities ; but I would draw atten­ former reports, shows that the history of the fungus tion to the explanation of this. Careful cultivation which causes coffee leaf disease may be fairly stated and natural advantages of soil, climate, &c., enable thus. certain estates to stand forth prominently, as though An orange-coloured papillate spore, or granule of “ leaf-disease” did not affect them, or only to a slight “ rust,” taken from a patch on a diseased leaf and sown extent; while poor nutrition, the ravages of insects, in a drop of water on the lower surface of a healthy &c., have in other cases their effect as well as “ leaf- coffee leaf, soon germ inates— i. Badulla. On the 1st January, 1881, of completed leaves at this time was, therefore, three the coffee was luxuriant in wood and leaf, but during pairs to each twig. the last week in January “ a most virulent attack of During the hot weather which prevailed in March, leaf disease ” appeared, and a bad fall of leaf suc­ these leaves were all dark green, and healthy, and ceeded it. By the end of February it had “ passed scarcely a trace of H em ileia was to be found in the away,” and the coffee set to work to produce new leaves. gardens; the consequence was that each tree appeared By March 30th the “ estate had recovered.” The im­ fairly clothed with leaves, and though still somewhat provement went on through April and May up to June. thin, a dark green colour had come over the mass of A little H em ileia then showed itself, and during July coffee. and August a “ mild attack” made itself evident. During April and May the formation of buds and The last ten days in December, 1880, were “ especi­ leaves increased more rapidly in the growing weather; ally wet,” with mists and rain all day. January opened for although still very hot, a series of showery and with fine weather for most of the first fortnight, and then steamy periods alternated, and the trees formed foliage the wet weather returned for sixteen days. February and with corresponding activity. Up to this period—the end March were fine, hot, and marked by thunder-sliowers of May—no leaf could be said to be “ diseased” to every now' and again. The “ virulent attack ” which any extent, and, indeed, it was not common to meet came on during the last week in January would natur­ with a disease-spot at all. ally result from the success of spores germinated during It may be fairly stated, therefore, that during the December, and the fact of its “ passing away ” in period between January 1st and May 31st, the trees, February is in agreement with what I have established after a short period of rest or exhaustion resulting earlier—that the spores accumulated could not germinate from the late “ attack of leaf disease,” set to work in the dry weather. vigorously to produce leaves, and that during the interval, Another example may be taken from the extreme cast at first slowly and then more rapidly, they succeeded of Uva, where the worst “ attack of disease ” came on so far as to produce five or six pairs of clean, healthy in October and November. leaves along each free twig. From January 1st to May In August, 1880, the place was looking fresh and 1st, these trees would certainly have been pronounced green, and a little rain fell. September was very dry, “ free from disease ” in any estate report. and a “ very mild attack of leaf disease ” was experienced. But, unfortunately, the very weather which promoted October and November were wet, with a fine interval the growth of leaves during April, i. e., alternations of of about a week late in October. During November showery and hot periods, dewy mornings, Ac., also “ a very bad attack of leaf disease was experienced, and enabled a few straggling spores* of H em ileia to germin­ a larger fall of leaf than had been witnessed for years.” ate here and there on the leaves. Consequently, before At this period, too, much crop fell from the trees. the end of May a corresponding number of “ disease- This state of affairs continued into December, which spots ” had burst forth from the infected leaves, and was a very wet month. During January, 1881, (the the spores produced by these were being shaken oft’, and weather still wet) the dropping of crop continued from more or less shed on surrounding leaves. During the the trees still poor in foliage, but a diminution of first week in June a good many more spots, still isolated, disease was noticed. In February the weather became had made their appearance, and what would probably very dry, the remaining bad leaves dropped, and new be termed a “ mild attack of leaf disease” was notice­ ones commenced to form. This continued through the able. dry March, the new leaves being produced in weather Before following the course of events further, I would, when those spores which did get on to them could at the risk of repetition, call attention to the conditions not germinate. In April the coffee had recovered and which are found to rule the propagation of the fungus, was quite green and luxuriant. But the large masses and compare the facts with what occurred here. During of foliage had now been exposed to occasional access the hot dry weather of February and March, apart of spores for three months or so, and the first spell from the fact that very fe v leaves existed for the fungus of wet weather would be expected to cause their germina­ to attack, the want of moisture was of course inimical tion. This happened in May, the first 15 days of to the development of any spores accidentally conveyed which were wet, and the consequence was an outbreak of to the living leaves from the leaves lying on the ground, the rust in June. These illustrations, read in the light and the few odd spores left from the last attack on the of experiments and previous knowledge, show clearly end leaves no doubt remained dormant. In April, enough the nature of the disease and the manner of however, a single showery night and dewy morning, its dependence on climate, &c. probably followed by a steamy close day, might be suffici­ We are now in a position to inquire further into the ent to enable the spores near the stomata to send m atter of leaf disease, as it occurs on large areas of coffee their tubes into the leaf; once inside, as we know, they such as are found on estates and in open districts. are safe, and from what is taught by experiments, we should expect to see the “ disease spots ” fully developed S e c . II.—L e a f D is e a s e o x l a b g e m a sses o f C o f f e e . within about three weeks. That this actually occurred is evident from the gradual increase of spots during § 9. Perhaps the simplest example of what occurs May; each spot produced would then shed its spores on estates generally is afforded by what happened this around as the breeze shook the trees, and each spore year to a somewhat oblong patch of coffee trees, washed to the underside of the leaf is capable of at standing in a slightly isolated position at Peradeniya, once germinating, &c., as before. In tliis manner it is and on which I have kept close watch for the past 14 months. The wind of the S. W. monsoon blows through these trees along the longer axis of the group, and in * These spores may have been blown on to the leaves such a way that one tree at the end receives the wind from the leaves on the ground, or they may have per­ before the others. sisted through the hot dry weather. easy to explain the gradual accumulation of disease- bad. The weather cleared up after July 5th and re­ spots and spores during May and the first week ill mained fine and hot for a fortnight or so, and during June. That such is the explanation seems placed beyond that period a most disastrous outbreak of the orange- doubt by the following facts :— coloured rust occurred, especially during the second week (1.) During the first fortnight in May, observation in July. These facts are again closely in accordance with showed that the shaking of the branches had caused what should be expected from the experiments; the disease many spores to fall on the leaves, &c., round about; spots which came out on July 14th, for instance, would that some of these remained adherent cannot be doubted. be from spores which germinated about June 30th or a (2.) During the April and May showers it was easy day or two before ; those which appeared on July 7th, to see that rain falling on the upper side of a leaf from germinal tubes of June 21st or later, and so on. runs down to the point of the leaf, or along natural But still stronger evidence of these truths is afforded furrows to the edges, and that the drops of water there by what followed. On or about July 12th the air had formed often contain spores of H emileia. It is evidently become quite dry again, and up to July 30tli no rain in this manner that rains wash the spores to the edges fell; from the 15th to the 30tli, in fact, the air was so and lower surface of the leaf; once there, germination dry, and the winds (at intervals) so fresh, that probably is successful if the atmosphere remains moist for a no germination of spores could occur. Here, then, was sufficiently long time. a chance to test the accuracy of the preceding work, (3.) Examination of the leaves in May showed that and I may mention that it was just such a dry interval spores were present on the lower surfaces. Since the that had before given me the clue" to the facts. winds were not high, these probably reached their destina­ During these 15 days or so myriads of spores were tion in the manner described. formed and distributed by the wind. The rains came (4.) I have shown that moisture, a proper temper­ on again on August 1st, hut the air did not become ature, and oxygen are alone necessary for germination, very moist, and fine weather with dry winds intervened and that if this occurs on the lower surface of the during the first week. The number of spores which leaf the tubes enter and form mycelia in the intercell­ would germinate successfully during this week would ular spaces inside the leaf. An examination of the probably be few, because the air was probably at no time weather shows that just such conditions existed about nearly saturated for 24 consecutive hours, and the leaves the given periods as were required. were never wet for anything like so long a period; As I have shown, spores were present in some quantity those spores which did germinate, however, should pro­ on the leaves before the end of May, and before the 15tli duce risible disease-spots on or about August 15th to of June the trees were becoming badly diseased. The 20th. I happen to have a curious and conclusive proof last week in May was a wet one (after a fortnight or that such was the case. more of dry w indy weather), and the atmosphere damp A perfectly clean and healthy plant of Coff'ea Arabica, for some days; then again followed a short period of which had been sent to me in a wardian case with three warm, steamy, cloudy weather with brighter intervals. others from Samarang, Java, had been planted out That numerous spores were distributed in May, and germ­ direct from the case on August 1st amongst the badly inated in the interval between May 25th and June 1st, diseased coffee; it had been packed so that no injury there can be no doubt, and I have shown that if such accrued to it, and was altogether a satisfactory subject was the case, the resulting disease patches should begin for experiment. I planted it in the evening of the day to appear some 15 days or so later. And this actually on which it was unpacked, shook a few spores from a occurred; for on June 15th my notes run:—“All trees neighbouring diseased plant on to one leaf, and moist­ except the one at south-west end badly diseased with ened them with water; rain fell during the night, and “ pin-spots,” especially the lower branches. These lower the next day was wet up to the evening, hence the branches are sheltered and moist.” sowing was moist for about 24 hours at least. On It will thus be seen that the very close connection which August 18th there were one or two developing “ disease- exists between the parasite and its conditions of existence, spots ” quite risible to the naked eye, and on the 20th Ac., can be traced here, and it will also be seen that they were in full bearing. On August 7th, the rain this connection is no more mysterious than that between commenced in earnest, and was of a character exactly the life of any organism and its natural environment: suited for the germination of the spores—warm, steady, sow the spores of H em ileia on a proper nidus, and give drizzling, continuing for hours, and saturating the air them ah', water, and warmth, and they germinate and with moisture. This sort of weather continued to the flourish as do the seeds of coffee or any similar plant in 12tli, and two fine and still days followed; then another damp, warm, aerated soil. I wet period for a fortnight or so. The germination of the spores would be mainly effected between the 7th The stock of spores formed on the trees was already and 12tli, however, and according to my previous results, large, but after June 15th—20tli, an enormous increase a “ bad attack of leaf disease ” should be apparent occurred, and it is necessary to see the effect produced about August 30th to September 6 th. It is just immin­ shortly afterwards. The weather on and about the 20th ent, as I write this (September 2nd) there are pin- was hot and close, and every “ disease patch” was spots commencing to show on nearly every leaf.* manufacturing thousands of spores, the mycelia being § 10. From the sequence of events thus occurring abundantly fed by the now well filled leaves; windy on a small mass of coffee, more or less under control, periods had also occurred, and, partly by shaking the it is not difficult to infer what takes place on larger “ rust ” on to the same or lower leaves, partly by rub­ areas such as estates, or groups of estates ; but before bing leaves together, and partly by carrying the spores examining this it is necessary to understand clearly a bodily through the air, the wind had caused a very effectu­ number of complicating circumstances. al dissemination of these spores. June 26tli to 29th Certain portions of most estates are subject to con­ were wet days, and those successfully-located spores which ditions of a more extreme nature than I have yet con­ had not germinated already, no doubt did so now; at ; intervals, up to July otli, we had also wet weather. All | sidered. The ravines and hollows are in some cases never quite dry, and it becomes a serious question whe- along were short periods of driving high winds alternating j with steady south-west breezes. * On September 9th, these and numerous other disease- It is clear that the stock of spores accumulated from spots were spreading all over, and before September 30th the disease spots which commenced action on or about almost every leaf on the above plant was badly diseased. June 15th had everything in their favour during the The three other plants, however, which had been placed following three weeks, and it follows that during some in the N. E. verandah of my house, showed no trace of three weeks later a corresponding amount of mycelium H em ileia up to October 7th, (the date on which I add should be formed, and “ leaf disease” be proportionally this note). 129 tliet the germination of spores is ever prevented in wind are very successful in obtaining a footing, since these places ; continual evaporation from the water below at that height there is usually sufficient moisture cling­ keeps the foliage of the coffee moist, and, as such places ing about the coffee to enable them to germinate. Not generally possess very luxuriant and leafy trees, there is only so, but every puff of wind sends spores produced no lack of food for the fungus. The slightest shaking hereon over the ledge to the slopes above referred to; of the branches and leaves sheds spores around, and these slopes are continually becoming infected, therefore, such hollows become quiet centres of disease, whence from above, and I have little doubt that were the pla­ the wind periodically bursting in, further disseminates teau in forest instead of in coffee, these effects would the spores. A similar argument applies in different cease to a corresponding extent. degrees to flats where moisture is abundant from ex­ These examples may suffice to show how natural pecu­ cessive dews, &c. liarities of an estate affect its supply of disease-produc­ High and exposed ridges and faces are commonly ing spores; but I would refer to other physical features, badly diseased. This is partly because the wind con­ the action of which largely affect the question—in some veys spores very readily to such places, and partly on cases masking, in others intensifying the ravages of the account of the damp mists commonly enveloping them, ; pest. and afibrding the moisture necessary to germination. j The “ lie of the land,” as planters term it, is closely The fact that such regions are usually much washed, | connected with this, since so many other things are and therefore afford poor soil for the roots of the tree, ' implied by it; but it matters not how an estate is has no more direct bearing on the subject of leaf-disease, situated, so far as H em ileia is concerned, provided the than has the converse fact that the soil in flats and spores obtain access to the coffee and moisture to germ­ hollows is usually good. inate. An eastern aspect is often drier, less affected Other tilings being equal, there can be no doubt that by wind, and, from these and other causes, possesses a gently sloping sheltered estate, or portion of an estate, more luxuriant coffee than an estate facing the west; suffers less than an exposed one, and if a dry climate though in other cases the reverse holds good. But on is added to these advantages, the difference is even more going more closely into the matter, it occurs that a obvious. On the other hand, an estate through which drier climate may mean less wash, and therefore better the wind blows freely, and the rainfall and general soil, which, of course, eceteris paribus, implies more moisture of which is high, suffers more. The under­ luxuriant coffee; again, absence of wind entails obviojjs standing of these points is easy in the light of the other advantages when one looks on the damage done tb facts. coffee tom by cold, boisterous blasts, while beating rains § 11. And now, bearing in mind what are the con­ are well known to wash soil bodily away. ditions which rule an “ attack of leaf-disease,” I will Under such circumstances then, the natural advantages shortly examine one or two further illustrations, taken are all on the side of the coffee. Less H em ileia is from both sides of the coffee country. blown into the place, and there is less continued moisture My attention was drawn some months ago to a remark­ to favour its propagation, and therefore less chance of able case of outbreak of H em ileia rust on a fine field its spreading when once there ; while on the other hand, of coffee situated in the following manner:—The whole soluble and valuable constituents of the soil are more estate lies in an incomplete basin, open to the east, abundant, and the coffee is consequently more luxuriant, and sheltered by high forest-clad hills on the west, and shows the ravages of what disease there is less south, and north sides. A steep ascent through jungle evidently. enables one to arrive at the top of the estate from And this brings me to another and very important the south-west side, and from this eminence one looks point. It is commonly stated that strong, thick, luxuri­ suddenly over the coffee on to the lowcountry beyond. ant coffee suffers less than poor, thin trees with few The position of affairs was as follows: the coffee to the leaves, and it is asserted that this is because the weaker extreme east of the estate alone suffered from “ leaf- coffee is more “ susceptible to the disease ” than the disease,” and all the rest of the basin nestling under luxuriant trees—that the latter possess some mysterious the forest-clad sheltering heights, had been free from power of “ throwing oft’ the disease.” Facts, however, “ rust” until this year (this was in 1880). Could I are against any such view. explain the remarkable and sudden outburst of Hem ileia A densely clothed tree, from the fact that it is not on the south-west sheltered slopes? so easily penetrated by the wind, especially when sup­ During 1879 and 1880 much of the jungle had been ported by a number of others, may not become so much cleared on the other side of the ridge, and on riding “ diseased ” in a given time as a thinner one, every np to the estate one felt the force of the wind severely. leaf of which is reached by the wind-blown spores. I have little doubt that the destruction of this shelter­ Again, the dense leathery texture of a strong leaf de­ ing jungle, which had hitherto prevented the carrying pends on its tougher cell walls, and repletion with of spores (acting so to speak as a filter to the beating food, sap, &c., hence the mycelium may not make such wind), now enabled free passage of them, and the con­ apparent havoc with the tissues of its leaves in a given sequence was an outbreak of “ rust ” soon afterwards. time as it does in the thinner, softer leaf of the more Other instances of the same thing are not rare, and unfortunate tree; but there can be no doubt that the indeed w e must look upon the opening up of such large chief cause of the prevailing belief about luxuriant trees unbroken areas of more or less well prepared food to is that their ability to produce foliage more rapidly and the fungus as one of the chief causes of its lamentable abundantly, partially masks the effects of the fungus abundance. by maintaining a general dark hue. On an estate in quite another part of the country, The characters of the soil, again, are continually quoted I found the natural features and then' effects illustrated as having a direct effect on the fungus; but it will be in another manner ; the main fields of coffee lie on slopes seen from the above that, however much it may affect chiefly facing the east and north-east, and widely open the coffee, good or bad soil only indirectly affects the in those directions to the low-country. Stretching up­ fungus. It must be remembered that the mycelium of wards, and much broken in character, lay coffee estates H em ileia requires living material, already manufactured for several miles in a westerly direction ; the S. W. mon­ by the plant, for its chief food. Of course, in so far soon sweeps all these estates before arriving at a broad as rich or poor soil enables the coffee tree to make plateau, or slight hollow which is situated at the top this food, the mycelium present in the leaf is affected, of the slopes referred to, and then, passing over the edge, and flourishes well or ill. So with other peculiarities falls down these slopes to the low-country. Now this of soil, &e. A damp, ill-drained piece of land may plateau, notwithstanding that it possesses fine coffee, afford an advantageous position for the fungus spores, serves as a kind of reservoir of fungus spores, and for inasmuch as they there germinate readily; but it is less the following reasons ; the spores carried into it by the so for the mycelium when once established, because the nutrition of the coffee is affected by the sour sub-soil Pruning should of course be arranged with the same and other causes. object in view—to produce matured leaves during In this connection also come other complications. It those months when least wind and damp may be is common to find “ grub,” “ black bug,” and other expected. That some such object is kept in view by pests affecting coffee in damps, hollows, or any clay sub­ many planters would appear from the various kinds soils, and I sometimes hear such remarks as that H em i­ of pruning I have witnessed. A practical question of leia is worse where “ grub ” is, and vice versa. Care­ this kind must be decided by each superintendent ful comparisons prove, however, that no connection other on each different estate. The following hints may than an accidental one exists; the fungus may spread help to guide some, however. rapidly it is true on a field of coffee affected by “ grub,” The chief cause of the “ failure of blossom” and because the foliage being thin and easily stirred by the the “ dropping of crop” in all stages is the loss of wind, every facility for distribution and germination (such the leaves, suddenly, and at critical stages: i. e., a t places being usually xvet) occurs. But it is worthy of periods when the blossom or crop most requires the remark that a less vigorous mycelium is often found on food manufactured by the leaves. such coffee, and that if a type of the fungus were to The leaves fall so suddenly, and in such large be selected, it were best got from a tree unaffected by quantities, because the rapidly developing fungus is any other pest. quickly spread over a large area of succulent foliage § 12. I have now shortly examined the natural by the winds, at the time of the monsoon rains. peculiarities of soil, climate, A*c., so far as they need In so far as this large surface of young leaves can be considered in this connection, and it is of course be produced at a period earlier or later than that dur­ clear that numerous combinations of all degrees of these ing which the spores are being distributed by wind may occur. The same is true of that part of the work in such vast quantities, the trees will reap the benefit, on a coffee estate which is under control. since the disease cannot spread so rapidly, and the Manuring is clearly effectual to a large extent in leaves will enjoy better health, and consequently do masking the effects of “ leaf-disease,” but it is in no more work for the trees. way a cure for it, in the sense of diminishing the I fear this can only be effected by pruning and apply­ ravages of the fungus. Of every basket oi proper ing the manure at times when they will act less rapidly manure now placed at the roots of the coffee tree, than at present. It is clear that leaves are formed a certain proportion must be looked upon as serving more slowly from January to March than from Apr the mycelium of Hemileia for food, after undergoing to June, for instance (in the districts referred to); but the necessary transformations in the plant; neverthe­ the advantage gained by either having fewer leaves on less, as experience shows, it is necessary to applj the trees in May and June, or many hardened ones manure to enable the tree to produce and bear crop, would probably be a decided one. and it therefore becomes the more imperative to un­ I am, of course, also aware, that great difficulties derstand the conditions of its action. Manure is stand in the way of a modified system of cultivation; usually applied either early in the season—I speak not only difficulties with labour and estate routine, but particulaily of the districts to the south-west of Nuwara also with the seasons. But in so far as the above ends Eliya, &c.,—to produce and support blossom, or later, could be attained, I believe advantage would accrue, to “ carry the tree through crop,” as it is termed. and the manure would at least stand less chance of That both methods have their advantages is undeni­ being wasted as food for the fungus. able, and where possible both might be employed, Another point, already referred to in part, is shelter. were it not for the expense. Indeed, what practi­ There can be no question that coffee under artificial cally comes to this has occurred 011 a few estates, where shade is spared a large infliction of wind-blown spores, the early manuring has been followed up by applica­ and although such sheltered trees often tend to form tions of lime when the young crop is on the trees. foliage in excess of crop unless the season be hot and Now, from what has been said of H em ileia, and dry, it becomes an important question how far the its relations to the coffee, it is evident that one visitations of H em ileia could be checked by belts of desirable object in the cultivation of the tree is to trees or other shelter. It is matter for regret that such produce mature leaves as soon as possible, and to immense, unbroken areas of coffee exist without break keep them on the branches as long as possible. T he of any kind, and one can trace the swaying backwards difficulties to be contended against are as follows: and forwards of the spore-laden winds in consequence. if leaves are produced in April and May, they be­ A subject of some importance in this connection is the come attacked by the fungus while still young, and planting of other trees among the cofiee; this is of in August and September the ripening crop is too j course done to some extent in the case of Ceara rubber often left bare on the branches. On the other hand, I and Cinchonas, and although the success of the experi­ those leaves which were in bud in December are ment is not yet established in these cases, I would call matured and well hardened when the fungus spores attention to its general importance from the above point are blowing about, and have already enjoyed a much of view. longer lease of life than the others. The value of a broad acreage of patana or chena But, unfortunately, it is in April and May that land to the windward side of an estate is another the growing season is usually at its height in these illustration of the importance of any break in the on­ districts, and it is doubtful how far leaves could be ward career of windblown spores. Many planters have put on the trees at an earlier date, unless the recognised the fact that they do not get leaf disease w eather were very w et as in 18S0, w hen th e a d d i­ from the low-country patanas to windward, a fact worthy tional leaf was largely a" the expense of blossom. of remark in this connection. Nevertheless, I would urge those planters who have This being so, it should be the aim of all to see how the necessary climate to arrange matters so as to far the leaves can be kept on the trees by manure, produce their leaves as far as possible either earlier artificial treatment, and cultivation, 011 the one hand; or later than at present. The reasons why these and how far the sources of infection can be lessened by districts suffered from such a “ bad attack of leaf- the destruction of fallen leaves, and the prevention of disease” in July this year have already been detailed, and spore invasions carried by wind from without. To those it will be noticed that when the winds commenced, acquainted with the immense areas of open coffee under a large surface of young and succulent leaves were cultivation, and the difficulties of working steep and ready to receive the spores of Hemileia ; then followed broken land, the practical application of hints to this the rain, germination of spores, and finally the fall end are admittedly very difficult; nevertheless, in face of leaves as the fungus destroyed them. of the following facts, it must be insisted upon that one of the most important steps in combatting the inroads from, more leaves being present at the time, and more of Ilem ileia is the destruction of fallen diseased leaves time having been given for the storage of those food- as speedily as possible. materials which the young berries required. 1. A mature spore is capable of germination within I found also that the later blossom consisted mainly 24 hours of its removal from the parent mycelium. of finer flowers, better nourished and more vigorously 2. A leaf which falls while still green in parts may developed as a rule. Not only so, but on a given estate continue to shed spores for some hours after reaching there was more crop “ set ” on recently manured fields the ground. than on the fields which had received less liberal treat­ 3. Ripe, dry spores retain their vitality for several ment ; while comparisons over large areas convinced me weeks or even months. that the same held true for trees on good deep soil, as 4. Any of these spores blown from the ground on opposed (other things being equal) to trees giown under to the new flushes of leaves which become formed after poorer conditions. the “ general attack,” Ac., may become a new centre But the statement that without leaves the tree can­ of disease in two or three weeks after germination. not produce blossom and crop admits of more direct I now pass on to the subject of the amount and proof. In December, 1880, I stripped all the leaves from kind of damage done by leaf disease to coflee—a sub­ a tree on an estate in Hantane, and left it to recover ject already treated of at some length in former com­ as it could; the trees around proceeded to bear blossoms munications. as usual in January, February, and March, but this The Fall of Leaves, Flowers, and Crop. particular tree was unable to produce a flower, all its energies apparently having been required to replace the § 13. As I have already shown in a preceding report, leaves.* Here we see that the loss of leaves by the and as is generally held proved, the most obvious ordinary trees (caused by the November attack of leaf damage done to coffee by Ilemileia vastatrix is the disease) being made up in time to enable the trees to periodical destruction and premature fall of leaves which produce blossom, only reacted to the extent described it causes; if the leaves can only be kept on the trees above; but the second loss, following on the first, in for longer periods, the chief problem is solved. the example given, not only prevented the setting of Without insisting more in detail here upon the facts crop, but even prevented the tree from blossoming at before published and the additional proofs of the damage all. And so with other examples. done now laid before yon, I propose to examine a series It thus becomes clear that, in the cases referred to, of phenomena which at first appear extraordinary, but the blossoms produced at a time when the number which a little reflection shows to be naturally consequent and conditions of the leaves did not afford adequate for the most part on the foregoing. The blossom of nutrition, only partially succeeded in producing the the coffee tree appears chiefly during the early months required fruit ; while those blossoms which appeared of the year in the districts south-west of Nuwara Eliya,* later, and were better nourished, yielded more pro­ and this year an exceedingly promising series of blos­ mising results in proportion as they were better sup­ soms was produced on most of the estates. Part of this plied with food, Ac. blossom never came to anything beyond the stage of I have devoted much time to the examination of buds; another portion produced young fruit, but soon the extraordinary phenomena termed by the planters dropped off; while a small fraction furnished the crop “ failure of blossom,” and the following summarises the now ripening up to a greater or less extent. results arrived at. A certain proportion of incipient The following remarks apply more particularly to the flower-buds did not come to anything at all, but districts above indicated; but the facts apply equally to formed at most yellow, sickly-looking protuberances other parts of the country as well, making proper allow­ which snapped off at a touch; in other cases the ances for differences in climate, seasons, Ac. young buds opened slightly, and then “ rotted oft',” The trees, which were recovering from the late passing through shades of yellow and brown to black. “ attacks of leaf-disease” in December and January', These buds and young flowers were peculiarly brittle, had commenced to clothe themselues with foliage in and their cells were full of brilliant, waxy-looking, dense February and March, but were not generally luxuriant protoplasm; the consequence was they would break or before April; by force of habit, so to speak, the flower snap at a touch, and were in no way limp or shrivel­ buds became formed in the hot weather, and expanded led. In some eases the flower was more or less as more or less luxuriant blossoms on shoots which deformed, the style protruded, aud the corolla imper­ were still struggling to produce leaves to replace those fect, and such flowers often rot away at the centre. which had been lately lost.f That many of these early A large proportion of the flowers, however appar­ flowers buds and flowers were poorly nourished on the ently in all respects normal, became fertilized, lost still incompletely clothed shoots, is not surprising, and, the useless appendages, and in the ovary remained to in contrast with this, it appears that the March blos­ produce fruit; nevertheless the fructified ovary did not soms (which were generally better also), coining out on swell beyond an initial stage, but turned yellow and shoots already fairly well supplied with leaves, and dropped off while little bigger than a pin's head; or, rapidly forming new ones, were usually the successful in other examples, it remained stationary for three or ones. That this should be the case follows naturally four weeks, and then either dropped or proceeded to from the fact that the latter blossoms and resulting swell up. young fruit had more material to draw nourishment Another series of events may follow the normal fertilization and swelling of the ovaries of successful * In some parts of Uva and a few other places, the flowers, and render it by no means certain that the coflee blossoms nearly all the year round, a fact of fruit will be matured. Many young berries turn yellow great importance in several respects; the picking is and sickly when little larger than a pea, and are more expensive, but the trees are less exhausted by the detached with a mere touch; others acquire the normal distribution in time of their arduous task. One Uva size, and begin to turn orange and then shrivel up to planter tells me he has had 13 blossoms within 12 a rotten or “ light” brown mass. It thus appears that months. any estimates of the crops, founded on the amount of t A correspondent to a daily paper wrote in June blossom, Ac., were this year likely to prove fallacious; from Kotmale to the effect that splendid blossoms were and that such has been the cause is well known. general, but a large quantity of the February blossoms were destroyed, and similarly in March. Then two small * Similarly with 20 trees stripped in December, 1880, blossoms in January and one in April should have given and 40 stripped early sn January, 1881: on flowers were crop. His experience is also to the effect that manured borne by any of them though magnificent blossoms formed coffee did best. on all surrounding trees. But it should he noticed that the falling of crop, | Sue. III.—REMEDIAL MEASURES, when once it has begun to swell, depends on exactly j § 14. In considering the question of remedial meas- the same kind of poor nutrition that was referred to I ures it is necessary to apprehend clearly the nature of before; for it is essential to note that just at the the problem to be dealt with, and this is by no means season when the crop is commencing to swell rapidly a simple matter. It has become a popular error to before ripening, another series of H em ileia attacks suppose that the discovery of some chemical which will come 011—i.e., at a time when all that the plant can supply destroy the fungus is the chief aim of investigation ; in the way of elaborated food is required for the crop this is, however, the simplest of all the questions to 011 its branches, the fungus come at myriads of centres answer, and indeed 110 such chemical could be of a' v to rob it of this very material. Not only so, but by use so long as the following points remained undceiu- occupying space 011 the leaves, destroying their tissues, ed :— (1) W hen should the fungus be assailed ? and (2) and shortening their period of activity, it prevents How often would it be necessary to apply any external them from doing anything more for the tree; more­ remedy? But however cheap and easy the application over, the profound disturbance of physiological relations of any reagent may be, and however efficacious the which results affects the whole plant. chemicals used, it is clear that care must he exercised I have given details in an appendix note of the in treating such an organ as the leaf of a permanent observations chosen to illustrate the above remarks; plant like coffee so as at the same time to produce these may be compared with a sort of standard based in contact with it a continuous and readily diffused on comparative examinations. I estimate that an average body strong enough to kill the fungus without hurting “ cluster” of flowers (counting all the flowers produced the leaf or tree. during the year 011 both sides of the branch) contains Much of my time during the earlier portion of this 15 to 20 individuals, and that a good sample of year was employed in watching the effects of certain “ spike” or flowering twig supports 10 to 12 such chemicals 011 coffee and 011 the fungus, and numerous clusters. We may assume, therefore, that a fair spike experiments with all kinds of reagents have convinced lias 200 flowers on it in the season. me of tli * following facts. In devising any direct mode I gather from planters that 100 cherries per tree of attacking the fungus, some rapidly-provuced, fairly will give approximately one cwt. per acre, supposing soluble material must be employed, so as to be already the trees equal and at a common distance apart. 1 also 011 the leaves at a time when the spores are germinating. learn that less than 15,000 cherries till a bushel measure.* At this period the delicate tubes are easily destroyed Supposing the average coffee tree of 8-15 years old and offer hardly any resistance to weak caustic or to hear ten primaries, each of which supports five poisonous solutions; but they are formed so rapidly and secondaries, and that each of these fifty secondaries enter the stomata so quickly, that any application must produced only live such spikes as have been described he already 011 the spores when they emerge. No at­ above ; then we have each tree hearing 250 spikes of tempts to attack the internal mycelium have succeeded blossom. The startling conclusion is arrived at that in the slightest degree, and statements to the effect each such tree has about 50,000 individual flowers 011 that the mycelium was prevented from producing spores its branches in the season! It appears to have been by the absorption of reagents through the stem are a common event at one time for large fields of coffee not supported by the evidence. Unless the germinating to yield at the rate of 10 cwt. per acre, and such spore is destroyed before the tube enters the leaf, occurs in places now. If the above data are correct, nothing short of injury to the leaf need prevent the the trees would give 10 cwt. per acre if only l-50tli part mycelium from producing spores again as described. of the blossom came to maturity—i.e., if each tree A suggestion to bring about lateral absorption of ripened 1,000 cherries. Hence we are driven to conclude carbolic acid through the cambium of the tree, and in that less than 100th part of the blossom becomes some supposed manner to attack the fungus from within, ripe crop, as a rule. was met at the time with the necessary proofs of its I am convinced that in some cases where not more erroneous nature. It was, however, attempted on several than three cwt. per acre will be picked, the trees patches of coffee trees, with the results predicted— produced blossoms as large as the above. injury to the trees and 110 diminution of the disease It is of course true that no one could expect so large spots. a number of flowers each to produce ripe fruit; but The greatest difficulty of all in this connection is the present state of affairs is not due to a mere presented in the fact that the fungus spends nearly the crowding out of flowers or young fruit by successful whole of its active life in the tissues of the leaf. I 11 competitors in a fair struggle for existence. The tree common with other such parasites, its life is ap­ as a whole is poorly nourished from want of leaves, parently so arranged that ax .short a time ax possible and no sooner does it make arrangements to replace shall intfrvene between the icell-protected spore-condition this want than it is again denuded: that the visible and the safely ensconced mycelium. It is clearly a effects of the damage should appear in the flowers and condition of success, therefore, that the reagent be on fruit is in accord with experience elsewhere. the spore at germination. There is a concensus of opinion among planters that A second essential is that the whole of the spores the “ tree is weakened,” and that manuring enables it be destroyed, since I have shown how rapidly a single to “ set more crop.” I 11 the sense I have insisted upon, spore may reinfect a leaf, and its progeny spread 011 the tree may be considered “ weakened,” that is to say, to neighbouring trees. This important condition demands it is capable of supporting less crop ; but it still puts two properties on the part of the reagent used, (1) th a t forth immense energies periodically to replace the lost the chemical employed shall rapidly diffuse and reach leaves by new ones. That more blossom was success­ every comer of the plant, &c., and (2 ) that it shall be fully “ set” this year on manured coffee than 011 trees continuously evolved or persistent in its action. The poorer in food material, is therefore not to be wondered first of these conditions absolutely precludes the use of a t; just as little surprising is it, also, that coffee in any liquid, in the opinion of most planters, since the deep good soil in a drier climate, and which had been distribution of such cannot be carried out thoroughly less harassed by H em ileia, should produce good crops. without greater expenditure of labour and money than * I had a quarter of a bushel of cherries counted, and are forthcoming for the purpose. As to the second found 3,747 ; this would he nearly 15,000 to the bushel. condition, the difficulties are very great, since few’ sub­ In the Ceylon Directory, however, the number is given as stances or compounds can be suggested which will at 14,000, and this may be a better average. A planter who the same time readily diffuse and yet persistently carry counted the cherries in J bushel, found 1,828 : this gives a on the work required. Nevertheless, no substance is of little over 14,000 to the bushel. any use that will not act persistently, for we have seen that the rapidly-germinating spores are continually It is therefore evident that sulphur and lime, evolv­ being brought by the wind, and the tubes produced as ing sulphurous gases on the surface of the leaf, Ac., continually entering the stomata of the leaf during the comply with most of the requirements above commented rains, Ac. upon. Having decided upon the best reagent, and the time And here a fresh difficulty arises. To meet the re­ to apply it, it remains to examine another very im­ quirements of the case, the reagent must be soluble, portant point, viz., what is to be used as a measure and yet the time when it is most required to be active of success in the experiments ? is when the rains are continuously dissolving it , and In more or less preliminary trials with lime, or sul­ running off with it in solution to the ground. This phur and lime, I was much impressed with the fact being so, one must also be doubly careful in selecting that every one relied on the general impressions created nothing which (or products of which) may do harm to by simply viewing the coffee from time to time. This the tree on being washed into the soil around the roots. admits of too much chance of fallacious conclusions All the mineral or metallic poisons, such as salts of where a small difference may be of importance, and I copper, zinc, antimony, Ac., are therefore useless for accordingly tried to get rid of subjective sources of error the purpose, though fatal to the fungus. Either on by the following scheme. account of their prime cost, or danger and difficulty of Since the reagent, by destroying germinating spores, application, die., the following chemicals, though readily should give the leaves on which they were germinating killing the fungoid tubes, must also be placed out of a longer lease of life, so to speak, if the trees are equal account; acetic acid, osmic, cliromic, and other metallic in other respects, the treated specimens should possess acids ; bromine and iodine and compounds, hydrocyanic more leaves than those not treated : this being so, we and other organic acids of like nature.* This rapidly can decide whether any resulting darker shade is due brings the list of available reagents down to a limit, to an increase in the number of leaves or to some other and it appears clear that the possible chemical must change produced. If the leaves, however, remain longer be selected from among the following: sulphuric acid on the tree, that tree should drop less crop ; and hence and compounds of sulphur, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid j the second test. Other checks to the work will be noticed and compounds of chlorine and carbolic acid. Ammonic ! below. potassic, and sodie hydrates also kill the tubes A number of preliminary experiments with lime, sul­ effectually, as do strong solutions of common salt and phur and lime, carbolic acid, Ac., may be passed over other similar compounds. as not yielding sufficiently definite results, or not haring Nevertheless, very few of the above are available, since been performed at the proper time. Of my own numer­ most of them would have to be applied in a liquid ous preliminary trials, I shall only quote those which form, or are in other ways unsuited. Some compound throw direct light on the matter ; but I here take the which will continuously evolve an easily diffused, readily opportunity of thanking several gentlemen for the aid soluble gas, forming with the water on the leaves a afforded me, either by the practical application of my solution sufficiently strong to do the maximum of injury suggestions, or in giving me valuable hints derived from to the germinating spores, and the minimum of harm their former experiences. to the coffee leaf—the after-products of which are not The first experiment on Harrow Estate. injurious to the tree when washed to the roots—such § 15. Mr. Anton, of Pundaluoya, has been good enough is the desideratum. to give me the following account of an experiment car­ Carbolic acid is not sufficiently soluble and diffusible ried out by him on Harrow estate in 1879-80, and which for the purposes required, and its highly caustic and from the results obtained, he felt encouraged to repeat irritant characters make it a very dangerous reagent to during 1880-81. put on living coffee trees. Nevertheless, I shall refer to Sulphur and lime were applied on an area of coffee experiments where it has been largely used in a certain of a certain acreage from July 20th to August 12th, form. Its great cheapness of course commends it. 1879, and the results compared with what happened on Chlorine compounds are not available. The caustic another area of similar coffee. Both the treated and nature of “ chloride of lime ” brings about the destruc­ noil-treated fields were considered equal as regards soil, tion of the leaf tissues, while the passage of gaseous exposure, altitude, Ac., and both had been well manured chlorine, hydrochloric acid, and other allied compounds in May, 1878. At the time of application both areas into the stomata, is fatal to the tree. were badly rusted with H em ileia, and presented a good Considering all the facts, I find sulphurous and allied crop, which it was feared would not all be picked on acids the best and most available reagents yet suggested account of the known tendency shown by diseased trees for the destruction of the fungus on the coffee ; and of to drop crop. all the methods for procuring the destructive gases, there During October, 1879, to January, 1880, the crop was are none to equal that proposed some time Ago—the picked, and it was found that the sulphured coffee bore interactions of sulphur and freshly-burnt lime on the about 6 cwt. per acre, proportionally little light, while moist leaf—and for the following reasons:— the lion-treated area only gave 4 cwt. per acre and (1.) The mixture is slowly continuous in action for twice as much light. Mr. Anton suggested that the long time. difference was due to more leaves having been kept on (2.) The slowly-evolved gases distribute themselves the trees by the treatment, and it will be seerr that rapidly by diffusion. such was no doubt the case: the explanation of this (3.) The chief gases are very readily dissolved in may be deferred until the second experiment on Harrow water. has been described. (4.) The solution formed is strong enough to kill the The second experiment on Harrow' Estate. germinal tubes, but too weak to injure the leaf. (5.) The acid solution does not concentrate to a dan­ § 16. After the results obtained in 1879-80 it ap­ gerous strength, since it is continually being absorbed peared desirable to repeat the experiment of applying by portions of the lime, and the compounds become sulphur and lime to the coffee at a time when the rust further oxydized to neutral or nearly neutral salts. had already made its appearance. I undertook the task, therefore, of watching a second attempt, and of examin­ (6 .) Not only are the final products harmless to the tree, but the chief one (sulphate of lime) is a valuable ing the results as it proceeded. manure. A series of fields of coffee, covering 32 acres, and (7.) The mixture is simply and readily applied by forming an irregular oblong block, were selected for the coolies’ hands. experiment: on 24 acres were applied sulphur and lime in the proportion of 1 to 3. The mixture was thrown * I omit here all mention of many other expensive in by hand at the rate of about 4 oz. per tree. The bodies. ether eight acres remained untouched. This field of eight acres lies below the bungalow, and slopes chiefly I peared anywhere. On November 25th, however, another to the north-west; the sulphured fields lie south and outbreak of disease was apparent, though it did not east of the bungalow, and are somewhat broken by become bad. ravines and roads. O11 December 20th my notes run to this effect: “ I All the coflee was about 24 years old, and bore but am convinced that the sulphured patch looks darker.” little crop last year. The soil is somewhat loam-like, Before proceeding to give the details of the tests though not heavy, and numerous boulders and rocks— used to decide what had occurred, I propose to examine not calcareous—are interspersed among the trees. The the results of preliminary experiments, which help to higher parts are washed, and therefore possess rather throw light on the matter. poorer soil than the lower. The untreated coflee was, A number of coffee plants were sulphured in the on the whole, slightly better in point of position and nurseries in July, 1880, before planting out. These were soil than the bulk of that sulphured. j about one year old and had 110 primaries, and had been The climate is described as wet in the S. W. mon­ j pricked out from among the coffee in July, 1879. soon, but, considering the elevation (3,500 to 4,000 ft.) Another series of plants, put out in June, 1880, had hot, and especially so among the rocks. The weather not been sulphured before planting out. These were during the early part of 1880 was exceptionally wet, nearly two years old, and had three pairs of primaries and much blossom was lost. June, 1880, was tolerably i each: they had also been earned a short distance tine, but July decidedly wet. ; before planting, but had been placed in the field a The treatment of the coflee had been liberal, the 1 month earlier than the preceding. manuring commencing in December, 1878, and being I I 11 August, 1880, Mr. Anton drew7 my attention to completed in March, 1879. The application of the manure the fact that although the two-year-old stronger plants was made from below upwards, cattle manure, &c. (two j had been three months in the open, they possessed baskets per tree) and castor cake and bones (1£ lb. per i fewer leaves than the others, which were only one year tree) being the ingredients used. On this account, the j old and liad been planted out only two months, and he lower (unsulpliured) portion “ had a better early blos­ | attributed the difference to the effects of the sulphur, som set ” from being manured at an earlier date, and I believing that the treatment had kept a larger number consequently earned a little more crop at the time of j of leaves on the plants. the commencement of the experiment than the higher On counting 500 of the m m ilphured plants, we found parts of the sulphured area. When the experiment was the total number of leaves which they possessed was arranged (August, 1880) the position of affairs stood 2,544— i. e., an average of about five leaves each. An thus :—Crop advancing. Still some six or eight weeks ! equal number of sulphured plants gave 3,165, or an of S. W. wind to be expected (blowing over the un­ average of about six leaves each. sulphured coflee before reaching the treated fields) and From observations 011 carefully-sheltered plants grown 'occasional rains of course. from seed, and put out as above, I find that a healthy The objects of the experiment were: (1) to save one-year-old plant should have about 60 leaves, and a leaves, by preventing the entrance of germinal tubes, two-year-old probably more than 250. This being so, &c. ; (2 ) to see what proportion of leaf and crop ex­ | the difference betw7een the above plants is much larger isted after a certain period; (3) to see if the quality than appears at first sight, the sulphured plants pos­ and quantity of the “ cherry ” or “ parchment ” differed sessing six leaves out of a possible 60, or 10 per cent ; on the two areas. and the others only five in 250, or 2 per cent. The sulphuring was commenced 011 August 9th, but From the known properties of lime and sulphate of had to be suspended on account of wet weather; leaves lime, from analyses of coflee and coffee soils, and from sent to me on August 14tli demonstrated the destruct­ the experience of several planters who have used slaked ive effects at the time of this partial application. On and caustic lime alone on coffee lands, it is clear that August 18th the sulphuring was recommenced early in lime in general is a valuable soil ingredient to Ceylon the morning in my presence, and I spent two days coflee, and it becomes a question of some importance, examining the effects 011 leaves with which sulphur and how far the success of the Harrow experiment may lime had been in contact for a period varying from five have been due to the various actions of lime with re­ to forty hours. A strong and irritating odour proved spect to coffee and coffee soils. the presence of the sulphurous gases, and there was no room for doubt as to the destructive effects of the re­ Experiments demonstrate that the foliage of coffee becomes darker after caustic or partially slaked lime is agent on the various fungal filaments and on the spores added to the soil and forked in, and it is on record and germinal tubes of H em ileia. that decided benefit has resulted from using sulphur and The interval from August 20tli to August 30th was fine, and the penetrating gases made havoc with the ! lime amongst the manure applied to the roots of the fungus on all sides. Then came the rain, and from | tree. September 1st to September 12th very wet weather pre­ I now proceed to examine the Harrow experiment 011 vailed. There can be no doubt that the chief destructive j its merits, as an attempt to cope with leaf disease and effects of the sulphur were made evident before this, j obtain more crop. and that very little, if any, results in this direction The crop picked from the 24 acres (sulphured) on occurred later. the one hand, and that from the eight acres on the other, O11 September 12th Mr. Anton wrote to me to the were kept separate, and a return made showing: (1) effect that the “ disease ” was reappearing on spots here the actual quantity of ripe “ cherry” (fruit) obtained and there: this must have arisen from spores which from each; (2 ) the amount of “ parchment ” (pulped germinated at the end of August; whether from odd beans) which this gave; and (3) the proportion of spores which had been missed, or which had been blown “ light ” or bad beans yielded. on since, it is impossible to say. The 24 acres (sulphured) gave 1,168 bushels of ripe On September 27tli I again visited the coffee, and “ cherry,” or at the rate of 48£ bushels per acre ; the could detect little difference; everywhere was a fairly fruit from the eight acres (unsulphured) measured 291 filling crop, and picking proceeded rapidly. Microscopic bushels— i. e., at the rate of 36J bushels per acre. Hence observation demonstrated the presence of new7 fungal very nearly 12 bushels per acre more were obtained filaments and spores of H em ileia, <£c., 011 the leaves, from the sulphured area than from the other. The and it was plain that the coffee was “ re-infected.” “ outturn ” from the 1,168 bushels of sulphured coffee On November 19th the sulphured area looked darker was 548, or nearly 47 per cent; that of the 291 bushels than the other, and fewer trees could be detected which was 184, or nearly 63J per cent.; thus, the unsulphured were evidently suffering from crop. Little disease ap- coffee gave a better outturn. But the difference in “ light” coffee is most remarkable. The 1,168 bushels been smaller and the outturn worse, I should give my of sulphured coffee yielded 12J of “ light,” or nearly opinion against the sulphur and lime, but in the present 2-235 per cent; whereas the 291 bushels gave 9—i. Haputale, Balangoda, Badulla, Ac., at ravages of the mycelium, and falls long before it would various times. It appears to be a widely-spread plant, normally have done so ; not only by directly robbing therefore, but very few specimens as a rule occur to­ the tree of food prepared by the labours of the leaf, gether. During all this period I only met with the fungus in fruit once, though the yellowish spots and mycel­ but, further, by occupying space and shortening the ium occurred oftener. period of usefulness of the leaf, is the tree injured. In January last I commenced experimental sowings 3.—The loss of matter and functional disturbance with spores of Hemileia rastatrix from coffee on the brought about by these continued and periodical leaves of Canthium plants placed in pots, A'c. The ravages have for effect a diminished power to mature result was what I suspected—the germinal tubes blocked crop on the part of the coffee; and flower-buds, flowers, and berries fall because the nutritive relations between up the stomata, sent their branches into the leaf, and 1 commenced to form a normal mycelium in the inter­ the shoots, leaves, and flowers have become over­ cellular passages of the leaf, as in coffee. thrown. More crop is borne, as a rule, however, In August last, dining a journey from Madulsima, I where the trees contain more fo'xl material to support it. had the startling fortune to meet with a fair-sized shrub 4.—The spores of H em deia are carried by wind. of Canthium badly diseased, and of which the leaves Whether a spore travels a long distance in one were in some cases covered with rust.* The plant was journey, or whether it is swept along in successive 011 the roadside a few miles out of Badulla, in the leaps, it may be carried from one estate or district direction of Passara. Carefully collecting specimens, I to another. The shaking of the trees also dissemin­ proceeded to clear up what details I could on the fresli ates spores, and they are driven from fallen leaves mycelium, Ac. The mycelium and spore-bearing head to the trees. These spores, scattered on tbe foliage, are quite similar to that in coffee, the chief differences become washed down to the lower surface and germ­ being due to the denser structure, Ac., of the leaf in inate as before, provided tbe atmosphere, &c., be Canthium. The passages between the very small dense sufficiently moist. - cells, with thick ivalls and closely-packed contents, and 5.—No special predisposition on the part of the coffee is required for its infection, and 110 other * It is worth remarking that a pyrenomycetous fungus conditions are necessary to the spore than moisture and occ lining as a black crust 011 many of the leaves is j the presence of air, &c., as with any germinating seed. very similar to one common 011 coffee, and inteiferes ! G.—The spores are in such countless numbers, sadly with experimental sowings. germinate so rapidly, and some of them so easily escape the action of even the most" efficacious spores was made, kept moist for 24 to 48 hours, and remedies, that no good and lasting results can then (the damp cell having been removed) placed be obtained from external applications unless the in a carefully cleaned Wardian case, well lighted, sources of reinfection be removed. No attempts to sheltered, and kept at an average temperature of about combat the disease by passing ingredients into the 78° Far. In all cases the spores were found to germ­ tree have shown any trace of success : the mycelium inate in 24 hours, and the tubes had commenced cannot be attacked after it has entered the leaf. to block up the stomata within 48 hours. For all 7.—Diseased leaves should be collected and destroyed, examples, also, the following holds good : the “ dis­ and every means possible employed to prevent the ingress ease-spots” appeared on the leaf on which the sowing of winds. Cultivation should be directed to these ends, was made, and within the area of sowing, and no­ and the pruning and manuring, as far as possible, ar­ where else on the ptant. Moreover, no more “ disease” ranged so that large masses of young foliage are as appeared on the same plant, even after keeping it for seldom as possible exposed as' a surface of food mat­ several (six or eight) months, unless a fresh sowing erial for the spores at those times when they are was made and kept moist for 24 to 48 hours a ; before. most blown about, as at the bursts of the monsoons. These facts prove (1) that the “ disease-spots” and In cases where the disease is threatening to denude “ rust” result from the tubes and mycelium traced the trees of leaves at the critical period wh'n crop by the microscope from the spore, (2 ) that the fungus is ripening up, there can be little question of the use of corresponds in area with the disease spo% (3) that, lime, unless weightier considerations, based on the even if spores be present on the leaf, no “ disease” results of experience with that particular soil, forbid it. results, unless the conditions (moisture, &c.,)for germ­ 8 .—Manure can in no sense be properly looked ination be also present. Finally, taken in conjunc­ upon as a cure for the disease. In so far as it enables tion with the results of microscopic analysis, they a tree to clothe itself with dense foliage, the tree prove that the disease-spot is due to the action of an may be able to afford the sacrifice of a number of its organism derived from without; which passes through leaves to the fungus ; but the well-fed mycelium will definite changes, and has a limited term of life :— in such cases produce more spores in proportion, and b A r5 these may be the more readily distributed, and germ­ IE g inate 011 other leaves, and so the stock of fungus .5 60 bD be actually increased. Nevertheless, careful manuring K u .3 Tim e which spores during 7 weeks 7 weeks weeks weeks 8 weeks weeks produced. 10 11 10 is necessary for the production of crop without were con- 1 H O damage to the tree. ; tinuously 1 9.—The burning of fallen leaves, &c., is almost tnoQcccGcomacGGODTOaQao 0 universally condemned by planters as too dangerous. e8c6c5c8citic5C3e8c5e8c5 In cases where this cannot be done, it is better to ffi 0 ' S Time spot.”

bury the haves and primings than to leave them forming

“ “ disease HHHHHHHHHHrl o tossing about. In doing this, the layers of leaves occupied in b c ^ *=• and prunings (which may be mixed with weeds) ■§ +5 § should be carefully covered with caustic lime and earth and n >t disturbed for several months. The i © form. suggestion that the leaves might be placed under spores ate ate date on which ceased ceased to May May 1 Mar. 31 April April 1 April May 1 April 1 20 ti pigs and cattle affords a less safe alternative; but Approxim­ 1 w S 'S even this plan is much better than leaving them to W tP O N N O 0 be blown about the e-tates. The sooner the leaves W H H H W 0 0 or “ caused by alterations in the sap of the tree;” 011 it is, beyond all doubt, the results of the action of r©‘ r© S r© r© n© -© © bp bpH© ,-D a fungus derived from without, the spores of which first first seen.

spores spores were III were either imported into Ceylon (an improbable I ! Date 5 which J event) or came from the native jungles. In conclusion I beg to call your attention to cert­ ^ 1 9 I ain important details in the following appendix.I r© r©‘ fl r© r©’ r© *©‘ © ,-© § i) jj remain, &c., H. MARSHALL WARD, B.A., Camb., Date on appeared. which which spot Pdrideniya, September 1881. Cryptogamist. | ; g 'l j s NWHOKNHWHNt-OHCOC^CO'MH-^HHO (Mca O OS CO — APPENDIX. a i o o ©* ©*©’ ©*©©©©* bb © © sown. which tic 5 c5 o5 a5 a5 c8 c3 ©Pedc3 d ® eg ti A. Date on spores spores were © Ja b The following table summarizes shortly a number •**fl •** 3> bp g> 3Q, of experiments, selected from a large series, made to determine ( 1) the time occupied in the germimtion of a spore, (2 ; how soon afterwards the ‘ disease-spot” appears on the legf, (3) how long the mycelium may continue to produce spores. In each case a vigorous young plant was selected, which had been grown for some months in a sheltered situation, and was clean

Variety Variety of Coffee. iz; s - and healthy. On a recently-formed leaf a sowing of C.—Nakunaad D .— E .— F do. .—Java G .— H .— do. Indian do. B.— B.— do I.— Ceylon .. K.—Java1 132 A.— Jam aica L .— Ceylon M.— do B. safely assume that its work was chiefly devoted to the benefit of the tree The following table summarizes in a similar way the results of the observations made to determine (1) how long a time is occupied by the coffee plant «®M15«SXW50000 ate). Time in forming a complete pair of leaves, (2) at what during which which the “ “ disease” period they become attacked by the fungus, and (3) ivas visible approxim­f how long they survive the ravages of the pest. In all the specimens selected, there were several of the disease spots on each leaf; but, of course, no absolute

proximate). .a be remembered that a young leaf badly spotted falls fMOOOHHOSWlOO sooner than one affected in a less virulent degree. W OI CO OJ rH The following example will illustrate the mode of © d fl too Date Date on reading the columns. Taking the specimen F, the leaf fell. which which the P 1-3

6th, 1880, remained quiescent during forty days— 22 0 0 till October 16th—and then commenced to swell and 0 brown. nnfold its pair of leaves. In about a month’s time „ 22 Date Date on Dec. 22 July July 15 which which the Dec. Dec. 1 5 (November 15th) the leaves were completely formed spots were 9 § and in full activity, aud apparently clean and healthy. CO lO CO O ID CQ Cl "5 S"3 1-1 N CO CM CM - November 18th was the last date on which no trace of disease was visible to the naked eye; but it is badly O ® O - § - § "3 ffl ^ Date Date on 1 leaf leaf was “ rusted.” evident, from what is known of the periods in the which the fciPfc - i-a life-history of Hemileia, that the germinal tubes had Cl 00 O 00 CO 1C lO already entered the stomata, and formed mycelia, for CM i-l CM . 0 . 0 0 ill on November 23rd the yellow spots (“ pin-spots”) *5 > © b> S ’ ” -5

spores u o - - - <0 <3 noticed. were apparent, and had developed sports before De­ Date on were were first which which the O K Q % cember 5th. The formation of spores continued, and 1 = 1 the leaf was badly diseased with “ rust patches’’ OH $3^040*°° ° § a =< before December 22nd, when the spots were already -«j > ^ “ pin- old and turned brown. On January 1st, 1881, the spots” v o o - ► <§ *3 noticed. Date Date on were were first leaf had fallen, and an examination of the last two which the 0 ^ 4 S5 F=S A Ha 1 eolumns shows that, out of 2J months’ term of life, the COOlOlCOCOHlOCOO HiNCOHNHHOl Cl S j - g leaf was obviously pestered with the fungus half the Is* 5 time. Moreover, wo must recollect that nearly a -i-» "Si b +» S* b "5 b d quite clean. Mr3 a leaves o ~ ST o o o Shl2 3

appeared 2*8 © on on which month (October 16th to November 15ih) was occupied Last date O •5 "o ^ in bringing this leaf in full activity, and probably a s 2 OOOUOOION^HO COCOCOHHHCQWHH Q> fortnight must be added to the last column, during zd which time the mycelium was forming. How little of p. > -m > jh d $ .-*5 85 which leaves adult. o - - O V O <0 - ® .» may may be the total life and powers of such a leaf benefited the Date on oq o ps, 3 tree will be evident on comparing these results. considered 1 I o oot*oooHHOia The method adopted in arriving at these conclu­ CO CO rH 03 CM 1-4 i—1 A c§ p sions was to mark a given vigorous twig, and note ~S -t-» c3 Oe8.

had 6.0 tob-*3 rQ which the progress of the bud, fungus. &c., at intervals of begun. 5 -vosvv - - - 8 $ 3 of of leaves

unfolding <1 Goo<:op4

a few days. No other conclusions than those for which | Date on 1 the tables are designed are intended to be drawn : t-Cl^©©:OCl©©© N CQ H COW 03 CO CO CO e,g., in the example given, the date December 5th (in h a S I 'S Q the 6th column) does not mean that the first spore t = §* r l’g-i'S § = m < J o a O O h noticed. formed on that day ; but that, taking notes of the Date on which which the progress of events on December 5th, I found spores bud was first were already formed by the spots in some quantity, whereas they were not present when notes were taken c. some days earlier. An instructive series of observations were made to To take another example (K), we find a very differ­ obtain an answer to the question : how long will the ent series of events when no mycelium or only an leaf remain on the tree when not attacked by H em ileia, or when only one or two small and barren disease odd spot appears : here the bud of January 30th spots appear ? The methods adopted were the same began to unfold in February, and reached its full as before. development as a pair of leaves about March 10th. To take an example (C) we find that, on December Up to June 26th no signs of disease had appeared 20th, the leaf was adult, and in full working order. and we notice that the traces of spots noted on July It retained its green, bright colour until April 2nd, when a few faint yellowish cloudy patches were 6th never came to anything, as signified by “ 0" in observable. (These are the signs of approaching dis­ the column : the leaf fell on August 10th, after a solution.) total life of 21 weeks or so. In such a case, we may On April 25th the leaf had become yellow, like an autumnal leaf in Europe, and fell soon after, about On this branch, therefore, eight pairs of leaves were May 3rd, having done its work for the tree, but completely formed during the 12 months (August 1, having escaped the ravages of the mycelium H em ileia :— 1S80, to August 1, 1881), the period of slowest growth being September to February ; that of quickest growth, April to August. The pair of leaves which developed most rapidly was formed in June—July ; that which K em ileia spots, developed most slowly, in January—February :— a b s e n t or yellow . yellow . p re se n t. the le a f

re m a in e d Branch B. (Not Pruned). which which leaf Date on or considered leaf may be Date a b o u t the the leaf fell. began began to tu r n fully fully form ed. leaf was q u ite (approximate). Length of time Date on w hich Date on w h ich 1 about which A.—J u n e 26 Sep. 30 O ct. 1( O ct. 16 None. 16 w eeks. B.—Nov. 22 Feb. 15 Feb. 24 M ar. 1 16 „ C.—Dec. 20 April 2 April 25 M ay 3 N one. 20 „ w h ich W hole

Nov. 18 None. 17 visible.

D.—July 18Nov. 8Nov. 15 pied in b ec am e develop- opening Date on Date on a tta in e d began began to period of m m ent (ap­ which which b u d which b u d

18 „ leaves h a d „ 21 leaves had

E .—J u ly 16 „ 15 „• 20 + (approxim - Time occu­ Date a b o u t Date w hen full 8ize,&c. proximate).

F .—J a n . 2 A pril 25 M ay 1 M ay 8 None. 18 1 separated. O ct. 10 O ct. 16 N ov. 8 4 w eeks. 12 w eeks. * O ne m in u te sp o t o n F e b ru a ry 22. Nov. 1 J a n , 20 F eb. 25 44 174 4 4 small dull spots in November. F eb. 21 M arch 7 A p ril 25 9 N B.—These examples should be compared with ex­ M a rc h 7 M arch — M arch 30 A pril 30 74 M arch 30 A pril 14 A pril 20 M ay 2 24 44 „ amples G, I, and K, in the last table. It is to be A p ril 20 A p ril 25 M ay 1 M ay 30 44 5 noted that none of the small spots taken into account A pril 30 J u ly 6 J u ly 20 Aug. 8 5 6 here were either very vigorous or present for a long time before the leaf fell. It is also worth remark that B ranch C. ( Pruned Tree). 20—21 weeks is the longest period I have yet found a coffee leaf to persist on the trees in the open.

D- ate.) w hich W hole visible. becam e began to a tta in e d To determine, as far as possible, the rate of growth Date on full size. develop­ period of ment (ap ­ (approxim-, which b u d leaves had which which b u d Date a b o u t Date w hen Time occu- and other changes in leaf, buds, and leaves at Pdra- proximate). 1 1 leaves had1 separated. i Date on i 1 pied o in p en in g deniya, certain trees were selected in August 1880, J a n . 22 J a n 30 F eb. 10 F eb. 27 4 w eeks. 5 -weeks. and watched during the following twelve months, J a n . 31 F eb. 10 F eb. 24 M arch 14 44 „ 6 notes being made at short intervals as to the con­ F e b . 24 A pril 2 A p ril 15 M ay 1 4 5 A pril 10 M ay 8 4 ditions of the buds and leaves on twigs around which M ay 1 M ay 8 May 20 J u n e 20 6 w eeks. 7 coloured ribbons had been loosely tied. M ay 25 J u n e 15 J u n e 20 J u ly 15 4 7 „ The shortest time in which a pair of leaves was developed in my experiments was about four weeks, when the bud first exposed, on April 10th, became an adult pair of leaves by May 8th; and the longest E. period occupied by the same process was, excluding a The fact that the spores of Hem ileia are convey­ very abnormal example where 174 weeks were occu­ ed from place to place by wind has been abund­ pied in the process, 13 weelA, where a bud which fiist antly proved. I select the following as illustrations appeared free on October 29, did not begin to open of experiments equally successful in Badulla, Dimbula, until the following January, and its leaves were not and other districts besides those named. fully formed before February 27th. Clean slips of glass measuring 3 in. by 1 in., and During the very dry weather experienced in P6ra- therefore approximating the area of a coffee leaf of deniya from December to March, there is on the small size, were smeared evenly on one side with a whole much less activity displayed in the formation thin layer of pure glycerine, and exposed in various of leaf-buds and leaves than during the period from positions for various lengths of time, in such a man­ April to August, and this is in accordance with the ner that spores borne by the wind to the viscid general experience of planters on the Kandy side of surface would be retained, and afterwards detected Nuwara Eliya. Of course there are differences in the by microscopic examination. rate of development of leaves, dependent on circum­ stances other than the weather, since the time at The examples chosen for the following table illus­ which pruning, manuring, &c., are done affect these trate more or less the following conclusions : that and other phenomena; moreover, since the buds are (1) the spores are borne by wind in all parts of slower in development where winds or a general low country, (2) the more “ rust” present, the larger temperature prevails than where the air is quiet and the number of spores in the air. warm, it will be evident that elevation affects this as To illustrate further, No. 5 may be selected as re­ other processes of growth. The trees on which my markable. In P6rddeniya, on July 8th, 1881, the trees observations were made suffer much from leaf-disease, were much diseased and “ rust-patches” showing up and bear little crop, circumstances which must also be badly all over, the wind was very high, and blowing taken into account:— from the S.W. in heavy gusts. One of the slips of Branch A. (Tree not Pruned.) glass was placed vertically on end in a cleft bamboo and arranged so that the viscid surface faced the ® Mr-1 nearest coffee at a distance of 18 feet* The length of s 's ® 0- u 0 o S S g l . g-9 the bamboo was a little over 5 feet. After 12 hours’ J® rti c o 'c o ^ j "3.9 2-9 3 o 5 exposure the slip was examined, and 117 spores o f §.s a b, =8 ; m^ Hemileia found imbedded in the glycerine, together P 'S w S S'S §1 with small insects, insects’ eggs, spores of various Aug. 2 261 S ep t. elo ct. 16 7 w eeks. 104 w eeks. fungi, algse, and lichens, and pieces of sand, &e,, 6 Oct. 1C Oct. 29 Nov. 15 4 „ 12 blown in the same manner on to the trap set. Oct. 29 J a n . 1C Feb. 1 Feb. 27 7 „ 13 „ F eb. 1Feb. 20]March 29 8 „ Another proof of the same fact is afforded by my M arch 7 M arch 29 5 'A pril 25 4 7 „ finding numerous spores of Hem ileia entrapped in the A p ril 25 M ay 20 M ay 25'June 15; 34 „ 7 meshes of some canvas exposed amongst the coffee for 15 26 Ju ly 14 4 ,, 7 „ several months : there were spores in all stages of June 26 July 6 Ju ly 18 Aug. 1 3J „ 5 germination, as well as fresh and recently-blown this would take 7 men to the acre = R2'50 per specimens :— acre. But I only employed lads to do it, rated at 25 or 29 cents each. They' certainly can do the

V. sweeping more nimbly than men, hut for the holing, lining aud filling up, bigger men would have done quicker work; and in this case I am certain R2 slip.

ground. per acre would he ample. Then, again, if this field D isease. I s State of the Distance of Distance of

posure of the had not been in contract, I would have made the D is tric t. Method of ex­ W ind. glass slip from glass slip from eL 1 MI onth. 1 I No. i of if. spores found. I I coffee. sweeping work act for a weeding, and so saved R & kw ana ... A pril * § 4 feet 3 feet a 14 1 Rl oO par acre for this month." D ikoya M av 18 § 6 „ U b 8 1 3. M adulsim a.— “ The cost of removing the leaves Pundaluoya... „ 22 S lig h t 12 „ 12 2 prunings, &c., was as nearly as I can make out, Peradeniya... June 8 + H igh 12 „ I fla t 8 7 Do. J u ly 8 V ery high 18 „ 5 feet d 12 117 R6 per acre. You will have noticed that they Do. do. t do. 25 „ 4 „ d 12 21 were removed only to a short distance—on to the Do. July 9 do. 20 „ 4 „ d 2 8 grass fields adjacent.” Do. do. do. 12 „ d 2 13 t . 5 „ 4. M ataU .—“ My official estimate for weeding and * Very little “ rust” visible, t A few spots of “ rust ” here and there. sweeping combined for 12 months = about 111"25 t “ Rust” patches becoming very bad. per acre. I have done it 12 times a year for 8 $ Scarcely prcceptible. years It cost me more at first by from 50 to 75 I! 2 feet below coffeei cents an acre by contract. I do it now by estate % On the grass, e Flat on a rock. labour...... People who do not manure so much b Flat on rock in middle of a'stream. as we do might weed and sweep more cheaply.” c Flat on a charred log, d Vertical: the smeared side towards the coffee. H F. The following illustrations give some idea of the The following may serve to convey some idea of proportion between the numbers of successful and the enormous masses of fallen leaves w’hich are often unsuccessful flowers in the clusters up to May this left to blow about estates :— year.* They were obtained by counting the flowers (1) On a patch of 100 coffee trees, in the neighbour­ and young berries in the various clusters, and are ing of the Ramboda district, swept clean on January all taken from “ spikes’’ which appeared capable of 1st, 18S1, the quantity of leaves which fell from the producing much more than they actually bore : I trees during January and February was as follows :— estimate about 200 flowers to each “ spike" during They weighed 18 lb. (very dry). Since 2,092 went the season. to the pound, the experimenter estimated nearly The tables are not intended to prove by how milch 38,000 leaves in all. On the same patch, from March a tree is benefited by manure, hut to illustrate (1) 1st to April 31st, the weight was 19 lb., 1,290 leavos that a very large percentage of flowers become fert­ to the pound. The March and April showers cause ilized but do not ripen as crop, and (2) that more flushes of new leaves which are larger and heavier ; fertilized flowers on the whole arrive at the stage of at the same time fewer leaves fall in those months. green crop when the tree has been manured. It (2) In Madulsima, on a swept patch of 100 trees as must be remembered further that the 5th column above, there fell from 20th December, 18S0, to 20th does not refer to ripe crop: the trees had to pass January, 1881, 22 bushels of air-dried leaves fairly through a second attack of leaf-disease ere that heaped. stage, and it need only be said that a much larger (3) In Pundalu-oya the following observations were proportion ripens on manured than on neglected carefully carried out. All the leaves and prunings, trees, other things being equal. This proportion I which had fallen during the past ten or twelve have computed. mouths, on an oblong field of G acres, were collected In reading the results, the example No. 4, Table and heaped, and the cubic contents measured. It II., may he instanced :—A flowering shoot on a fine was estimated that more than 1,200 cubic feet of tree possessed nine double clusters of flowers ; of the leaves and prunings had been collected. 200 or so of flowers which are typically produced, On a swept, square area, measuring about one- we find that 131 were apparently fertilized, and tentl) of an acre (160 trees) and enclosed with commenced to swell as berries. Of these, however, cadjans, the leaves were allowed to fall for two 39 never came to anything beyond the size of a large months (February aud March), and 20 bushels of pinhead; the remaining 92, however, had swollen leaves were collected; during April and May there and (in April—May) become green crop about the fell 11 bushels on the same area. size of a large pea. The question, how many of these 92 will ripen up as mature crop, depends on the G- condition of the tree as regards leaves, and therefore, I have obtained, among others, the following estim­ on the degree of damage done to it by the forth­ ates as the cost of sweeping up fallen leaves, &c., coming attacks of Ih m ileia . From compari-ons with in answer to inquiries, aud as the result of experi­ other trees of the same age and condition, 1 hare ments actually tried. Each of the following para­ estimated that GO of the cherries may ripen. This graphs is quoted from the letter of an independent is certainly not below the number. observer : — Both the tables were compiled in April—May, and 1. K otm aU .—“ I have done 80 acres, which gives represent what occurred largely at that time in 1881:+ me a fair idea of what the cost should be, as in leaf-disease appeared in June, and became had in some eases the branches, &c., had to he carried as July and August, denuding most shoots of the mnch as 200 yards...... Thoroughly sweeping the majority of their leaves. This causes a further re­ ground and carrying branches and leaves to ravines duction by the dropping of the half ripe crop, or by or other suitable places for burning has, I find, cost its turning yellow and shrivelling up to “light” me 10 coolies per acre, which would be equal to brown and black masses. As far as I can ascertain, R3'50 per acre.” 2. Uda Pussellawa.—“ The cost [of sweeping up * The crop begins to ripen about August; picking leaves and burying them] is rather heavier than I concludes about December anticipated, as each man on an average did but 100 + The seventh and last columns were compiled in to 200 trees a day, the field being widely planted; September, after examining many trees. this will reduce the number given by from 75 to On September 13th,the branches were again examined, 25 per cent, according to the state of the coffee, &c :— and the following report made:—One of the branches I .— N ot M anured. has lost all its leaves, and is blackening at the tip. In a week or so more, I expect to see the ‘dying back’ reach the crop, which in its turn will also die and drop off. The other branch is not so bad as the one mentioned, though it is fa*t following suit.” I quote the following from a letter which I

M ay. received from one of the oldest and most experienced per per spike). fertilized. men in Ceylon, in answer to my enquiries :— tree tree selected .

G eneral type of “ I used to consider 10 to 12 berries from one eye Per cent of su c­ which which fell early, j cessful flowers in (double) on spike. posing 200 flow ers Probable of all per failures c e n t (sup­ Number of berries Number of clusters Number of flowers Number of berries: good—say 20 to 24 in the double cluster, but I have 1 1 swollen. | Probable[ number ripe i berries of | p ic k ed (calculated). | V ery t h i n ... 10 46 38 8 17 ^ ce n t. 4 9 8 ^ ce n t. seen a great many more. 12 berries—or 6 berries on V ery t h i n ... 8 2 99 each side of the branch—would now be very good. Poor & thin 9 10 5 97 It is thus we lose our crop now : a pretty regular 9 89 42 47 52 ^ ce n t. 24 88 blossom comes ou% and every one says : ‘ Now we Rather thin 10 92 50 42 45 20 90 T h in 9 82 71 11 13 8 96 shall get a crop but instead of having 6 to 12 berries Very poor... 10 46 43 3 7 2 99 in an eye* we have one, two aud three ...... I used to calculate that one measure of ripe cherries N.B.—The numbers in the 7th column are least reli­ from a tree would give fully 5 cwt. per acre, after able, having been calculated before all crop is ripe ; allowing ‘for ordinary vacancies.’ ” nevertheless, they are not too low for these and many other unmanured trees of 15 to 20 years in ordinary soii. At the same time, it will be noted that even four I. cherries per shoot would mean 1,000 per tree, if regular on trees with 250 shoots. This over the E x p e r i m e n t s have been made to answer several whole acreage would mean 10 cwt. per acre, if the questions put forth from time to time by planters regularity were kept up. What #iust be the ir­ and other gentlemen on the following points : — regularity where 2 cwt. or eo result! As already pointed 1. Can the germinal tubes enter the leaf from above? out, however, these tables are only for illustration ; no No attempts to infect a leaf from above have exact calculations can be based 011 the numbers without succeeded, and I never find the mycelium originat­ many more data. ing from tubes of the upper surface; that this is because the dense epidermis of the upper surface II.—Manured Coffee. protects the leaf, as is proved by the following experiments. Spores sown on a patch of the upper surface whence the epidermis was carefully removed with a sharp razor not only germinated, but com­ menced to enter the leaf at once. Again, spores sown on the viscid surface of the stigma of the flower sw ollen.

per per spike). readily germinate, and the tubes commence to enter cent of all No. of b erries Probable per ing ing 200 flow ers No. of c lu ste rs the tissues which are unprotected by epidermis. These G eneral type of (double) on spike. cessful flowers in ripe ripe berries pick- failures (suppos­

I I 1 No. of flowers I fertilized. | No. of which berries fell early . 1 : Per cent of su c­ [ Probable No. ! of ed (calculated). tubes soon die, however, and never arrive far down Very large & fine: th e style. no cro p la s t year 12 264 162 102(39^ cent. 70 74%* cent.* L u x u ria n t 11 171 87 84 49 „ 60 70 2. How do the spores reach the under surface of the Rather thin 10 102 56 46145 30 85 leaf? F in e tre e 9 131 39 92i70 60 70 If a coffee tree be watched when blown by a T h in 8 87 35 52'59 „ 30 85 „ Fine tree 11 133 32 10176 „ 70 75 steady high wind, a large portion of the leaves are T h in a u d poor ... 12 127 101 26 20 20 90 seen to be turned half round on the axis of the Luxuriant 14 184 119 65 35 ,, 50 75 leaf staik, and in a such a manner that the lower F in e tre e 10 118 82 36 30 „ 20 90 side of the leaf is beaten obliquely by the wind; A few further illustrations of the damage done if such a leaf be compared wdth the glass slip in are afforded by following figures. A gentleman in my experiments of July 8th and 9th, it will be the Kandy district counted the flowers which had evident that many spores may strike it, some of which set on two branches, and found as follows on March will stick to the epidermis, which is probably never 29th, 1881 :— quite dry. If one watches a tree in still, rainy Branch. No. No. Approximate weather, when the fine rain falls straight down on of double of flowers percentage if to the quiet leaves, the rain-water is seen to be shed clusters, fertilized. 200 flowers from the glossy upper surface of the leaf in small per spike. streams; still more careful examination demonstrates A ... 11 ... 108 54 that some of the water flows to the tip of the leaf B ... 11 ... 100 53 down the inclined mid-rib, while the rest flows to On counting the same clusters on June 14 follow­ the edges along the depressed channels formed by ing, the following were the numbers :—A had drop­ the sinuous curving of the lateral parts. These small ped all but 38. and B all but 52 of the berries, streamlets carry spores (which had been blown 011 which promised to mature. This was, of course, before to the upper surface) to the edges of the leaf; on the July attack of leaf-disease, ane a large reduction arriving there, many of them stick just under the always occurs then from leafless branches being unable edge by capillary attraction while the water drips away. to mature the nearly ripe cherries. This may be proved by supporting perfectly clean slips of glass in fine rainy weather in the position * Since 261 flowers were here actually fertilized, the per­ of a coffee leaf, and shaking a f w spores on its centage must be based on that number instead of 200 as upper surface. It also explains why so many of the with others. Here again, if the trees were regular, these disease spots appear first at the tips and edges of numbers would represent enormous crops ; but they are not; the leaves. hence the impossibility of estimating crops as is said to have been done formerly. However, the numbers fairly illustrate Various combinations of these circumstances of how the decrease occurs, as also that more cherries per cent ripen on manured coffee than on trees which have not been * I.e .—in the single cluster on one side of the twig; m a n u re d . 2 eyes — the “ doable cluster” referred to before. 133 wind and rain account largely for the distribution in the spring, on my return from winter exile. In of spores on the lower surface of the leaf ; but there every instance the wounds made healed readily during are other ways in which the spores obtain a proper the summer period of active growth. Now the trees area for mischief. In Wardian cases, where the plant operated on—Firs, Chestnuts, Birch, Sycamore—have is kept damp, and the lower surfaces of the leaves columnar shafts, like marble pillars, with scarcely any become wet, I tiiid the spores formed on a given spot perceptible scar left. This I have not found to be the simply wander by physical means on the film of case with trees operated on in the autumn, when growth water spread over the same leaf, and germinate on is all but suspended. But the fact which has princip­ another part of the same surface. So, too, oue may ally struck me is, that these trees, thus deprived of often observe that a vigorous “ rust spot” has dis­ their lower branches for 15 feet- from the ground, have tributed many of its spores immediately around itself, all shot up perpendicularly. No large branches have as well as 011 other leaves and plants rubbing against it. formed, only a mass of small branches, and the trees 3. Does Hemileia occur in the seed, or stem, or root, have all grown rapidly in height. It would seem as etc. t if all the branches that are destined to make timber branches come naturally from the lower part of the No. J find no trace of the mycelium in any other tree, and that once they are removed only small branches part of the plant than the leaf, and the comparison appear, the vitality of the tree centres in its trank, of seeds and pla' ts of West Indian as well as Javan and the tree grows upwards. Thus there are many and Indian coffees has convinced me that no traces Scotch Fir-, exposed nearly all round to the air and of Hemileia mycelium do occur elsewhere. The yellow sun, that have gone up perpendicularly like an arrow, steaks and marks on what is called “ diseased” or just as they do when planted closely together in a forest. “ bad” wood are evidences of poor nutrition, but The artificial removal of the lower branches for 15 feet there is no mycelium in the tissues. appeal's to have produced the same effect as the absence 4. Is a tree already diseased, more or less liable to of light and air produces in crowded forests—to have infection than a health tree; and are selected trees ran them up perpendicularly; above the amputated re­ able to resist the disease ? gion small branches have grown, and are gradually I find that the germinal tubes enter the green parts forming handsome trees. The Scotch Firs are becoming of a leaf already spotted with disease as they do any fine, tall, elegant ttees 50 or 00 feet high. The Birches other 1 a f; such leaves are neither more nor less liable and Beeches are assuming the same form, a vertical to infection. Not only do I find no support to the view one. The Spanish Chestnuts are ascending, and appear that certain trees resist disease ; but, after trying in­ likely to become handsome trees, although still rather fection experim nts with all kinds of coffee, it teems too globular. The Oaks alone seem rebellious; tine to that Ceylon varieties are no more liable to disease in their nature, they will spread. this sense than Indian or Javan and Jamaican. The practical fact that the elimination of tbe lower 5 W hy eh) the lower leaves on the branch usually become branches entirely modifies dho growth of Conifers and worse diseased at first ? other trees, running them up vertically even when fully The lower leaves are the older, and have been exposed to sun and light, is probably well known to foresters; but it is new to me, and probably will he longer exposed to serve a< a resting-place for any new to many of my readers. It is a valuable fact in chance sp res, blown through the air, or shaken fr rn landscape gardening, as it renders it possible to pre­ a higher part. In many cases, also, and especially serve many trees, destined to become handsome majestic in nurseries, &c., they are nearer the ground, more denizens of the shrubbery or park, which otherwise shaded, and hence moist for longer periods than would have to he sacrificed for the sake of the view. upper ones. The fact of their being older in many I may add that I have been clipping for some years caees explains also why they fall before the others; Cedars, Deodars, and Wellingtonias peripherically, in having already done much work, thy cannot long open situations, where they are fully exposed to light, support the fungus mycelium, if the latter is in any for want of space, with the same result. They have large quantity. not made any large inferior branches, but have ran up, forming handsome pyramidal columns. As the light and sun penetrated everywhere in my FORESTRY. shrubbery, the Heather has clothed the ground; I have (Gardeners' Chronicle, 24th September 1881.) had it clipped with the shears every autumn for the last five years, and now it entirely covers the soil with My residence at Weybridge abuts on the beautiful a swarth of Heather. Recently, when in flower, the property of Admiral Egerton, St. George's Hill. Through ground was one sheet of bloom, and the effect was very his kindness I have been in possession of about 2 acres good—the Heather with the tall trees rising out of it. of woodland for the last twelve years. This bit of —H enry B ennet, M.D., The Ferns, Weybridge. forest was formerly one mass of Spanish Chestnut Stumps, grown for coopers’ hoops, and interspersed with Scotch Eir, Birch, Beech, and Oak. The soil was sand NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND TREES. or gravel, with about 6 inches of peaty mould 011 the surface, and the interspaces were covered with Heath, (Field, 8th October 1881.) Calluna vulgaris, aud Erica Tetralix. I cleared the soil There are several trees which are not mentioned; of nearly all the stumps, planting specimen Conifers, but probably they do not grow in the Auckland dis­ and leaving some of the trees, all small, sowing Heather trict. About the chief of these is the koi-koi, which I seed in the vacancies made by the extraction of the think is one of the most beautiful of the native trees; roots. Wishing to allow the eye to range over my it grows to a large size; the tranks are often 6ft. in Shrubbery into the adjoining forest, and not wishing to diameter; it usually grows to the height of about 50ft. cut down the trees I had left, I met the difficulty by Its leaves are of a beautiful dark shining green, and cutting off all the branches 15 feet from the ground, are something similar in shape to a walnut leaf, but a proceeding which raised the most terrible opposition somewhat larger; it bears large clusters of berries, in my family circle. I was accused of destroying the somewhat like bunches of grapes, but they are not so trees, of turning them into mops or broomsticks. Such, thick, and arc about as large as the seed of a horse I must confess, appeared to be the result of my forest­ chesnut; when ripe they turn yellow, and have the ing for several years, but results have followed, in the appearance of small lemons. The seed is inside a sort conrse of time, to which I wish to draw attention. of pod, very similar to that of the sweetbriar, and of Firstly, the mutilation of the trees was carried out a bright red colour. The pod, as I have already men­ tioned, is of a bright yellow; they are, however, as it is perhaps one of the most common: it has a much bitter as gall, and quite unfit for eating; should a darker green than any other I have seen. The under stranger taste one, it is a long time before he can get side of the leaf is a silvery white, the flower is much rid of the flavour. The wood is of a deep red colour, smaller and less beautiful than those grown in gardens: somewhat like cedar; it spilts very readily, and is chiefly it bears a luscious fruit, which grows in large quantities ; used for fencing; it does not grow south of Cape Eg- the berries are just about the colour of a blackheart mont. Another tree of equal importance is the matai, cherry, and it leaves your lips and hands stained with a tree very similar to the white pine, or kahitea. the dye; soap and water, however, will quickly remove The wood, however, is more valuable; it is, like the all traces. It rarely exceeds 30 ft. in height; the trunk koi-koi, of a deep red, and lasts a great number of is often 3 ft. in thickness; the bark is similar in colour years. It is chiefly used in the construction of bridges to all other fuchsias, and the light-red trunks catch for beams; but it is seldom used for anything else, the eye of the traveller at once. except posts, as it is much too brittle. The tawa There are a few more trees worthy of mention, such (generally pronounced like tower) is common, I believe, as the whitewood (or mahoe). a tree about the size of through all the North and a great portion of the South the fuchsia, with light-green leaves and clusters of pur­ Island. There are two varieties of it—the white and ple beiries. Why it was called whitewood I can never the black; it is only used as firewood, as it very soon understand ; it is decidedly bright yellow. There is also decays, although it attains a large size. It has a leaf a birch, or, as the natives call it, “ waiwoki ” ; it only about 2in. in length, of a light-green colour, somewhat grows in swampy ground, and, I should say, belongs to like an almond in shape; it bears a purple berry, the myrtle family; it bears bright scarlet berries very something like a plum, but more oval, with each end much like the holly. They are much sought for by the pointed like a lady’s shuttle ; inside is a sort of kernel, juveniles; the wood is white, and is chiefly used for inclosed in a shell like the koraka. The berry is often fencing. The titoki, or tapitap, is frequently to be met eaten, particularly by the juvenile portion of the com­ with; its leaf somewhat resembles that of the elder, but munity ; it is very sweet, though sickly in taste. is of a darker green; it seldom grows more than 3 ft. The puketea, a large tree which grows in swampy in diameter; it hears a curious red berry, the stone places, is also very common. The fgliage is of a light- being on the outside; the w ood is light-coloured and green, and the leaf almost circular, and the edges are intensely tough and stringy, and is much used for shafts gagged like the teeth of a saw; it is a curious sort for carts and handles, for all sorts of implements. The of tree, which sends out large flanks or buttresses, and mairi is rather a rare tree; the wood lasts for very the roots run along the surface of the ground for a many years; it is mostly used for house blocks, and considerable distance, and, unless the traveller is ex­ not unfrequently for burning; it is intensely hard, and ceedingly careful, he is apt to receive an ugly fall, and the wrood is of a light-red colour; its leaves are much perhaps bark his shins, through tripping over them. like those of the willow in shape, but of a much darker The wood is of a dark green or brown 'colour, but is green, its branches spread out on all sides like an ash not much used; it rather inclined to be spongy, and tree, which give it a very stately look. The last of the sucks in any moisture very readily, winch causes it to list is a cypress, which grows only on the sides of the rot; it is very often hollow, and afiords a refuge for mountain ranges in great quantities, and is, of course, wild bees, which frequent the woods in large numbers, just as sombre-looking as most trees of the cypress and often as much as lewt. of honey is got from a family are. I believe that as yet it has not been used single tree, though I have heard of quite double that for any particular purpose. It splits very readily, and, quantity being got at times; they also inhabit the should, therefore, be easily worked. Strange to say, rata. I have heard it said that there was a tree grow­ the foliage seems only to grow on one side of the tree. ing in Devonsliire that for years baffled the botanists; Most of the New Zealand trees are medicinal. The but it was at last recognised, by a gentleman who had sap of the rata creeper will effectually stop the flowr of visited New Zealand, as the puketea. The miro is an­ blood from a wound. A small piece of puketea bark other tree that is common in some parts of the forest; will cure toothache; while the leaf of a shrub called it is also a species of pine, much resembling the matai, korimiko will prove a good antidote for slackness of but the foliage is of a very dark green. It bears a the howrels. Only two of the shrubs are known to be bright scarlet berry, not unlike a cherry; it is greedily poisonous, and those are the tulu already mentioned, devoured by the wild pigeons, but is not fit for human and the warangi or kangiora, of which there are two consumption; the wood is of a right red colour, and is species. The shrub only reaches the height of from 12 ft. very stringy, but is not used much except for firewood. to 14 ft.; it has large, heart-shaped leaves, the under­ The honeysuckle is also very common, and is one of side being quite white, and in the summer it bears large the tallest of the New Zealand forest trees. It often bunches of small bell-sliaped flowers, of a light huff reaches the height of 100ft.; it grows somewhat like a colour, which have a peculiar, though not unpleasant, poplar, but the leaves bear no resemblance to the former. smell. The leaf is exceedingly poisonous to either cattle The bark is about half an inch in thickness, but is not or horses—it has an intoxicating effect on the latter. used for any purpose, as it decays very rapidly. The I think I have mentioned all the New Zealand trees, wood is much used by cabinet makers; it is very hand­ with the exception of a few varieties of birch, and a some, with dark-red spots, so different to any other sort tree they call lacew’ood; they can scarcely be called of wood I have ever seen; the leaves are about six inches trees. The lacewrood is so called on account of the in length by about one in width ; it is of a dark rusty stringiness of the bark, which comes off in small strips, green; it bears a flower like the French honeysuckle, and is remarkably strong; the tree bears clusters of from which, I believe, it derives its name, (I have been snow-white blossoms, not unlike the orange, but they unable to obtain the native name), but it is entirely have no perfume like the former. The best timber next void of scent. It bears seed inclosed in pods, like a to the kauri is called kimu, or red pine; it grows very small bean ; when they become ripe they split open, and plentifully in the province of Taranaki, and in the neigh­ the seeds fall to the ground. The ngaio (nio) is another bourhood of Pelorus Sound in the northern part of the which is also common, but I believe it is almost use­ South Island; it grows to a very large size, hut what less ; it is a very handsome tree, with large light-green growrs in the latter place is not so good as the former, leaves with small light-coloured spots. On the upper by reason pf its rapid growth, and this is accounted for side the tops grow very evenly, and one would almost owing to the deep gorges in wiiich it grows, w'here, suppose that it had undergone the operation of being sheltered from all the prevailing winds, and no lack of trimmed; it bears a small berry of a pale purple colour, moisture, it springs up very quickly, and consequently with a stone inside: it is a little larger than a pea. there is not much substance in the wood. Millions of One of the most remarkable is a konini, or wild fuchsia; feet of this valuable timber are being wasted annually in the first-named place, owing to the difficulty of ship­ The efficacy of the febrifuge as a remedy appears to ping it. The kia-kia, or tawliera, which has already be very generally admitted by those who have tried it, been alluded to in your first report, there are two varieties and it can readily be understood that in the treatment of. There is little difference between them. One has of fever it would be efficacious as a medicine in pro­ white fingers, and the other dark brown or black. The portion to the cinchonidine and cinchonine of which it former is considered the best, but when the season is is chiefly composed. over the fingers decay; while on the dark-coloured species In regard to the other characters of the febrifuge, they continue to grow thicker and thicker till mid­ the papers now published confirm the opinion expressed winter, when they ripen, and the rough horny substance by Mr. Howard some time ago that it has a decidedly peels off, and a rich sort of pulp remains; it is very emetic property. It may, however, be assumed that it sweet, and many prefer it to the other fruit. They are would be an advantage if the objectionable portion of generally called pineapples in this form, though in reality the mixture could he separated from the useful alkal­ the kia-kia and it are one aud the same, only the other oids. In any case it is desirable from a medical point comes at a different season. of view that this portion of the product obtained from Indian red bark should be thoroughly investigated, for so long as the Sikkim febrifuge retains the objection­ INDIAN HOME-MADE QUININE. able emetic properties it cannot be regarded as fulfilling the benevolent intentions of the Government. In the (Pharmaceutical Journal, 10th September 1881.) papers which are published in continuation of the series The Indian Government has lately published a fur­ issued in 1878, there seems to be a general admission ther series of papers containing information respecting that the febrifuge is nauseous, and generally, in some the preparation obtained from the bark of cinchona trees degree, detrimental alike to Europeans and to native grown in India. This preparation, known by the name Indians. of “ Cinchona febrifuge,” consists of a mixture of the Dr. T. E. Charles remarks in his report that “ the alkaloids of cinchona bark together with some colouring “ miseries caused by Indian residence and illness are matter and other impurities. The object of introducing “ depressing enough in themselves, without being intensi- it into use was to provide a cheap substitute for the “ tied by nauseating agencies quite foreign to the thera- quinine sulphate manufactured in Europe, and it was “ peutic effect required.” considered that if a process of preparation were adopted In Mr. Moens’ report for 1879, on the Government by which the alkaloids associated with quinine in cin­ Cinchona Enterprise in India, there is a table of ana­ chona bark -were extracted together with the quinine, lyses of different samples of febrifuge, from which it instead of being separated from this alkaloid as in the appears that the proportion of the obnoxious amorphous ordinary manufacture, the object in view would be pro­ alkaloids does not amount to ten per cent, and that moted, inasmuch as the alkaloids associated with quinine therefore little material would be lost by the removal would be made available as medicinal agents with ad­ of them. vantage, and the cost of transporting raw material and The applicability of the febrifuge as a substitute for manufactured product to and from Europe might be saved. quinine appears therefore to be in a great degree de­ In the case of the produce of Indian-grown Cinchona pendent upon the possibility of effecting this separation. succirubra, the plan above mentioned seemed especially There is also the further question whether this can be desirable, because that bark contained but a small amount carried out at a sufficiently moderate cost. of quinine, and it was associated with such a large The relative cheapness of “ Cinchona febrifuge ” being proportion of other alkaloids as to be unsuitable for one of the chief advantages attending its use, it is im­ the purposes of the European quinine manufacturers, portant to consider such facts as we are in possession while the available quantity of this red bark was in of for elucidating this point. excess of the demand for other purposes. In the first place, it appears that for the purpose of For these several reasons the Government of India carrying out the manufacture of the “ Cinchona febri­ has directed special attention to the utilization of the fuge,” a quantity of dry succirubra bark, amounting to succirubra bark by the production of the article known 190,798 pounds, was made over to the Government as “ Cinchona febrifuge.” At the hospitals throughout Quinologist, and that the product obtained from that India and the various military stations, this preparation quantity of bark amounted to 3,750 pounds. This is has been used in the treatment of fever under conditions less than two per cent of the material operated upon, that provided for obtaining knowledge of its eftects and and so much less than what might be expected from for ascertaining how far it could be accepted as a trust­ the data available for judging as to the amount of worthy substitute for quinine. alkaloids in the Indian-grown red bark, that we must In the first series of reports upon this subject, issued conclude the extraction of the bark was very imperfect. in 1878, the views expressed were very conflicting, and In Mr. Moens’ report for the year 1879, this defective the influence of prejudice for and against the use of the character of the manufacturing process is still more “ febrifuge ” was often to be recognized not only in the forcibly pointed out by the statement, that in the ana­ unfavourable reports, but also in those which favoured lytical laboratory of the medical department the yield its use. One point, however, that was opposed to the of alkaloid obtained in that way was less than one-half introduction of the “ febrifuge ” seemed to be very gener­ what the bark contained. ally established, namely the nauseous character of the The bark used in making the febrifuge was valued at preparation, manifested by its rejection by the stomach sixpence per pound, and upon that basis the product in numerous instances. In some cases this effect was obtained was estimated to cost rather more than thirty- referrible to faulty administration, in others it may have three shillings per pound. For the sake of comparison been due to idiosyncrasy of the patients, but the more it may be useful to refer here to the cost of the pure likely explanation was the presence of the amorphous sulphates of cinchonidine and of cinchonine supplied to alkaloids commonly associated with quinine, and perhaps the Indian Government, and for this purpose we take some other impurities of like origin. the data furnished by Dr. Smith, Surgeon-General to Since that time improvements have been effected in the Acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras, the preparation of “ Cinchona febrifuge ” as it is earned showing that cinchonidine sulphate cost about thirty- out in India, and a superior preparation of the same four shillings per pound, and cinchonine sulphate about kind, manufactured in England, has been introduced ten shillings per pound. under the name of “ Quinetum.” It is therefore intellig­ Another point to be taken into account in judging of ible that in the series of reports now published, the the relative cost of the preparations used in the treat­ general tendency of the opinions expressed is somewhat ment of fever is the quantity of material required in more favourable. each case. The data given by Surgeon-General Cornish to the Madras Government show that the average owner at least $1-50 profit per annum. Being planted quantity of drug given in each case was for—- closely, the result per acre is about $500 profit. With Cinchonine sulphate .. .. 78-960 grains. a hundred acres carefully cultivated a man can have- Cinchonidine ,, .. .. 68-863 ,, his income of $50,000 without fear of frosts, freshets, Quinetum (Sikkim febrifuge) .. 107 135 „ drouth, or any of the uncertainties attending a northern According to these figures a pound of cinchonine sulph­ clim ate.”— Rio News. ate would cure eighty-five cases at a cost of ten shill­ ings, whilst a pound of the febrifuge would cure only sixty-five cases at a cost of thirty-two shillings, and a GUATEMALA INDIGO. pound of cinchonidine sulphate would cure a hundred The catalogue of objects exhibited by the republic of and one cases at a cost of less than thirty-four shillings. San Salvador at the Paris exhibition contained tin As regards relative cost, even at the time above re­ following contribution to the history of the cultivation ferred to, it appears, therefore, that the advantage was and preparation of indigo in that country: This species not in favour of the Indian-made febrifuge. Beyond that of indigo is known to American and European com­ it must also he remembered that owing to the increased merce as “ Guatemala indigo.” In Salvador jit is called supplies of cinchona bark from every quarter the price by the native name of “ Iiquilite,” and is considered of quinine is diminishing, while that of the febrifuge the most important agricultural crop of the entire remains much the same and will present a still more republic. The plant grows wild, but is cultivated in unfavourable relation to the cost of other alkaloids. properly prepared ground. Both the crops and the pro­ We have nothing to indicate that there is any prob­ duce vary according to the geological composition of the ability of the cost of the Indian-made febrifuge being soil. Thus at the base of the volcano of San Salvador reduced, for though the full amount of alkaloid is not the yield of dye is sometimes about half a pound per obtained by the process adopted, it is perhaps the best load of leaves, while at some distance from the sea, that could be employed on the spot, and its wastefulness thirteen or fourteen ounces arc obtained. Indigo is is an inevitable characteristic. grown over nearly the whole of Salvador, forming ex­ Mr. Howard’s opinion is unfavourable to the use of tensive fields and furnishing one of the most valuable mixed alkaloids, and he is unable to perceive any ad­ products to its agricultural industry. The localities in vantage that has arisen from their administration in that which the plants are grown are called “ manchones.” way. On the contrary he thinks the alternate use of The workmen, who are styled “ sacateros,” cut the the different alkaloids separately is attended with better plants with a small sickle, and make them up into results, since he has observed that when the constitu­ sheaves of from fifty to sixty pounds weight. The tion has become intolerant of quinine from long use, plants, after being cut, are thrown into vats filled with the change to sulphate of cinchonidine has been decidedly water; they are here allowed to soak for a period of advantageous. from twelve to seventeen hours, the time varying according to the temperature and quality of the water. When the liquid is in a state of fermentation the color­ PROFITS OF GRAPE CULTURE IN ing matter is drawn off into another vat, where it is CALIFORNIA. beaten or kept in motion by means of wooden wheels, and then the dye is precipitated by the sap contained The grape interest is expanding in every direction. in the bark of the “ tiliui late” of the “ plataniHo,” or It is not only in one section of the state that viticult­ of the “ cuaja tinto.” The first named bark is referred ure is receiving such marked attention, but everywhere, to as a species of Ionidium , the second to Ganna ind- both north and south. Thousands of acres are set out ica, while of the third no clew is given as to the with grape cuttings, and in three years’ time returns scientific name of the plant. All these plants have an can be had. Even at the present time, offers have been acid reaction. When once the dye is precipitated it is made in Fresno county to harvest the next grape crop, allowed to remain during the night, and the next day taking all the chances of possible failure or material it is boiled, filtered, pressed, and dried in the sun. deterioration into consideration, for the net guaranteed Each bale, or “ suron,” contains 150 pounds, and the sum of $150 per acre, the entire expense to be assumed different qualities or grades of the indigo are specified by the contractor, without takers in a single instance. by numbers—from four to six, ordinary quality, or The net profits of careful cultivation have been, in “ cortes,” from seven to nine, fine or superior, or seme instances', over $300 per acre. The wine, brandy, “ sobresalientes.’ and raisin interest, centre on this one branch of industry, The usual annual produce of indigo in Salvador which is at present in its infancy, and hast just emerged amounts to about 2,400,000 pounds, the annual exports from that heavy cloud that has been weighing it down being between 14,000 to 15,000 “ surons,” of 150 pounds for years.— R io Neu's. each, representing an approximate value of 1,721,378 piastres or dollars. The superior quality indigo is sold at the country fairs at about 8 reals per pound. In BANANA CULTIVATION IN COLOMBIA. the American and European markets the prices vary of With reference to the profits of some branches of course, according to the supply from other countries.— tropical agriculture Consul W. W. Randall—formerly vice- Scientific American. consul general at this port—writes as follows from Barranquilla, Colombia: HORTICULTURE IN ALGERIA. “ The banana is planted at a cost of 15c. each, in­ cluding the cost of and labor in clearing the land. It (Journal oj the Society of Arts, 7tli October 1881.) developes in eight months, and yields a bunch of bananas Mons. V. Ch. Joly has communicated a paper on this worth in your markets from $1 to $‘2. They can be subject to the Societe d’ Horticulture of Baris, of sold here at the ship’s side for 25c. per bunch. After which the following is an abstract :— the first crop the cost per year is tritiing and the returns The more we advance towards the north, the more sure. Fortunes have been and still can be gathered on we find the taste for horticulture developed, just in this simple product. Another important plant which the same proportion as were nature does least, neeessity yields an immense profit and appears to be but little will always render man active and industrious. known is the cocoa or chocolate plant. This plant Before speaking of the production of fruits, flowers, and attains maturity in this country in three years; the trees, I ought to mention the great question which crop on the fourth year returns the original investment. preoccupies Algeria, namely the wrater question ; without After this each plant can be counted on to yield the water, no vegetables, no animals, no colonisation is 134 possible. As there is no stream with a regular course, Mons. Simonnet, at Algiers, and Mons. Mercurin, at water is a question of life anil death; mere watering Cheregas, introduced into the country the planting and is of no use, it must he constant and through irriga­ distillation of odoriferous plants, since which time this tion. Rain falls only during four months consequently industry has prospered so much, that the geranium alone It is dry for the rest of the year, and this dryness covers more than 1,300 acres, and furnishes more than prevents the cultivation of quinine, coiiee, indigo and tea. j 6,000 kilogrammes of essence. The olive, suitably grafted The destruction of the forests has done here, as else- ■ and cultivated, will constitute an immense fortune for where, incalculable mischief, and the planting of trees the country if it is worked according to its nature: it is an urgent necessity. The E ucalyptus would render is thought that the region suitable for it could easily great sendee. In poor soil the family of the acacias furnish 700 to 800 millions of square feet, producing offers species which, besides furnishing firewood, would annually more than 300 millions of francs. give an industrial product of great value ; by judicious In conclusion, a few words may be mentioned about planting in from ten to fifteen years, the climate, now the most precious plant for Algeria, the vine, which very variable, would be rendered more equable, the alone is destined to renew the face of the colony. It springs would be increased, immense pasturages would is planted everywhere from Kabylie (which produces art be restored, and the native population now necessarily abundance of table grapes) to Morocco. And this is nomadic would become settled, and the European ele­ easily explained when we remember that at the end ment would be more constant. The ruins so fre­ of five years the cost of the ground, the planting and quently met with show that the country was at one expenses of cultivation is repaid, in addition to a re­ time populous, but the destruction of forests led to the venue of £20 to £30 the acre. The vines are planted in destruction of animal and vegetable life. The principal lines from 5 to 6J feet apart, to facilitate labour, and trees met with in the public gardens are the date, a road for carts is left around the plantations. Fortun­ Bourbon palm, the Sabal, the Chamarops, the Caryota, ately, no phylloxera has yet appeared, but the curse of the Areca supida, the bamboo, the banana, the Dracaena the vine in Algeria is the blue fly, which has to be draco, the yucca, the aloe, the A yare, besides the E u ­ knocked oft the vines, and burnt with lime or petroleum. calyptus, and the plane tree. These last two play a great The expense of carriage is the great drawback to the part in the plantations of new villages, where the prosperity of Algeria, and if this were lessened, it might engineers form broad boulevards, as they there form an become one of the richest colonies in the world. enclosure which rapidly protects the inhabitants against a torrid sun. The E ucalyptus especially is the tree of health for low and damp grounds, on account of its THE COFFEE AND SUGAR PRODUCING great power of evaporation, as well as for its resinous COUNTRIES. juices; it grows from six to ten feet in height in one year. The temperature and moisture should always be considered as from non-attention to these important CENTRAL AMERICA. factors great waste often occurs, thus the fruit trees (American Grocer, July 9th 1881.) of the temperate zone perish quickly in Algeria, while Nowhere has such an impulse been given to coffee the trees of the South of France, the almond, the planting since the great rise in October, 1871, as has jujube, pomegranate, fig, and medlar, ripen two months been the case in Central America, especially in Costa earlier than in France, and are of the first quality. Rica and Guatemala. Until now the principal centre of horticultural pro­ Costa Rica has for its president General Thomas duction has been Algiers and its suburbs. Everywhere Guardia, a mum of great energy and a good statesman, irrigation is applied, the water being raised by rough who rules the country as a sort of dictator. Guate­ homely instruments which labourers like, as they can mala is similarly governed by Lieutenant General Rusino make and mend them themselves. Near Algiers are Barrois, whose presidental office was last year prolonged the gardens of Madame Bossier, about 10 acres of which for another six years. Honduras’ president is Mr. A. are devoted to cultivation of flowers for the local market. Soto; Mr. Joacquin Zavala is the chief magistrate of At Boufarik, Madame Bossier has also about 18 acres Nicaragua, while that of San Salvador is Mr. B. of nurseries of fruit and fruit trees. At the same place Zaldivar y Lazo. Although there are at times bicker­ are the beautiful nurseries of Mons. Herrau, whose ings between the five republics, peace is upheld between orangeries are models of cultivation; the trees are planted them, and internally there is less revolution than in in lines at a distance of from 16 to 20 feet apart. Ir­ most other Spanish-Americaii republics. rigation takes place twice a month after the roots of the SIZE AND POPULATION. trees have been bared. Broad trenches are cut, and at square miles. population. a suitable time they are smoked and then recovered G uatem ala...... 30,836 1,190.751 after the irrigation. The cuttings are arranged so as to San Salvador...... 4,765 482,122 allow a broad space for the air and the sun. Besides N ic a ra g u a ...... 34,058 300,000 these orangeries, there are about 35 acres of vineyards, H onduras ...... 30,668 351,700 which produced in 1881, wine to the value of £1,000. Costa R ica...... 13,174 185,000 Not far off, at Blidah, are the superb orangeries of Mons. Franqois, jnn., who sent this year to France four million 113,501 2,509,876 oranges. There are at Blidah nearly 1,000 acres planted The respective capitals are:—Guatemala, 45,000 in­ as orangeries, and producing about £30 the acre, while habitants ; San Salvador, 16,000; Managua, 10,000; the expense of cultivation is only a seventh of that Tegucigalpa, 12,000, and San Jos6, 12,000. amount. Central America is volcanic and mountainous, with a Little has been done to assist nature in the cultivation most fertile soil, especially on the rich table lands, a of flowers in Algeria by man. Although the winters are deep black loam being highly favourable to coffee cul­ mild, hothouses are necessary for propagating and for tivation. Geographically their position between the two protecting certain plants from the heavy winter rains, oceans could hardly be better; the climate is generally or from the summer dust. At Algeria, in the flower healthy, labour is abundant and cheap without the market, there were to he seen some cut flowers, but necessity of procuring either negroes or coolies. A few or none in pots. The flowers to be seen in April large portion of the natives consists of pure Indians were our common ones, roses, geraniums, violets, helio­ and half breeds, quite amenable to field labour. The tropes, lilies, heartsease, and pinks. If flowers are little consequence of this happy state of affairs is that Cen­ cultivated in Algeria for private houses, they form a tral America progresses rapidly, both mentally and considerable industry for perfumery. Thirty years ago, materially, and that it has a great future, provided i keeps out of revolution, the usual bane of the coun­ and S. Francisco in particular have known how to tries originally settled by Spaniards. appreciate Costa Rica coffee since they became familiar Costa Eica’s finances are flourishing; the income in with it; hence it brings comparatively more there than 1880 was $2,802,279, the expenditure $3,460,597_, but elsewhere. New York, we are sorry to say, has not this included $1,255,961 paid for building the inter- yet learned to fully appreciate this excellent coffee, oceanic railway, $138,892 for other public works, and which is absolutely unsurpassed by any other sort. $173,585 paid Peru in settlement of a debt. This year The sorts coming nearest to it in point of outward the income will square the outlay; the foreign debt appearance and delicacy of flavour are Orizaba aud is $5,163,285, and the state owes some money at home, Cordova, from the famous Mexican volcanic region. but its assets are about twice its liabilities. The import All these coffees have a great future before them. last year was $2,669,861. The export through Punta While Java and Arabian coffees grow so well on the Arenas, $3,524,810, and through Lima, $211,142. The slopes of mountains, Costa Rica flourishes most in the export included 23,267,065 pounds of coffee, the balance incomparable black soil of the mountain plateaux of being India rubber and skins. that country, mid-way between the Pacific and the MARITIME MOVEMENT. A tlantic. sailing Railroad building is proceeding most actively in Cen­ steamers, vessels. tonnage. tral America, cheapening the transportation of the Entered at Punta Arenas.. 96 63 196,007 precious bean and infusing life everywhere. Sailed from ,, .. 95 59 188,163 Entered at Lima ...... 41 130 103,867 Sailed from ,, ...... 40 123 106,659 SUGAR: CONCRETE CONVERSION IN NATAL. Railways so far in operation, only about seventy-five For the first time in the history of the colony—for miles, but already of great value to the coffee planters. the first time we believe m South Africa, a successful Telegraphs, 395 miles. attempt has been made in Natal to convert concrete Guatemala’s income in 1877 was $4,503,523, and its into a serviceable marketable sugar. Such an event expenditure $4,428,298. The public debt in 1879 requires more than a psssing notice at our hands. The amounted to $5,369,529. The import in 1878 was Albergeni Sugar Works—situated as most of our planter $3,238,000, and the export $3,919,000; the latter readers know on a convenient site near the mouth of included $3,449,740 worth of coffee, the balance being the Umgeni, on the north bank of the river—were taken sugar, skins, cochineal and indigo. The arrivals at San over at the beginning of the year by Mr. Rudolph Jose in 1876 were 26 sailing vessels, while from three W’ilhelm, for the purpose we have indicated, to con­ to four steamers touch monthly at the Pacific ports. vert grey and low sugars as well as concrete into a Honduras is financially less favorably situated than very fair saleable sugar. The Albergeni Sugar Works the preceding republics, for it owes in England and were originally used as a crushing mill, but much of France together with some f.8,000,000 while the the machinery has been retained for the process used income in 1877-78 was only $533,469, against in expen­ in the conversion, while considerable new and expensive diture of $1,189,546. The liquor tax is, however, plant has been added. The buildings are lofty and roomy, producing larger amounts since 1877. The export and, as the supply of water is inexhaustible, they are amounted in 1880 to $1,305,000, the bulk being indigo, in every way suited for the carrying out of what is cattle, dyewoods and hides. The Atlantic ports are emphatically a new industry. We propose to give some Truxillo and Ornoa, and the Pacific port is Amapala. description of how this interesting work is now being There is a railroad of 37 miles from Puerto Cortez done at our own doors. It must be premised that the to San Pedro. Telegraphs there are 150 miles. labour of the converter here is more arduous, and calls Nicaragua.—The revenue of the country wuts $1,750,000 for more skill than is required of the operator in any in 1877, against $211,405 in 1858, showing a remark­ of the great centres at home, where the sugar is deprived able increase; the expenditure in 1877 was $2,235,000, to a large extent of the molasses. Here, in the concrete, and the foreign debt amounted in 1878 to $2,234,607. the manager of the Abergeni Sugar Works has to con­ FOREIGN TRADE MOVEMENT IN 1878. tend against molasses, syrups, and such vegetable matter import, export. as may happen to have found its way into the ugly Greytown...... $616,000 $595,000 stuff he has to make sugar out of. To proceed—the C orinto...... 347,000 575,000 concrete, being received into the mill from the estab­ San Juan del Sur ...... 33,000 138,000 lishments of the local planters who manufacture it, it C hinandega...... 9,000 27,000 is at once put into what is technically called the blow­ up. These vessels on an average are at home prepared $1,005,000 $1,335,000 to liquify about four tons of sugar at each charge. They The bulk of export consisted in India rubber, coffee, are fitted with a perforated false bottom placed above skins and fustic. There entered Corinto in 1876, 35 twelve inches from the true one, and each charge of vessels, and steamers touch at the various ports two concrete is melted to the consistency of 20 to 29 degrees to three times per month. Baurne. Steam is then freely admitted by a pipe 2J San Salvador.—The income of the republic has from inches in diameter between the two bottoms, and the $798,000 in 1869 gradually risen to $2,686,000 in 1878, sugar is melted to a heat of about 150 degrees Fah. the liquor monopoly yielding $749,000 alone. The The concrete, now reduced to a dirty black stream, is public debt increased from $1,830,000 in 1877 to run off in about half an hour to what are called tha $2,294,000 in 1878. bag filters. The arrangement is a purely mechanical one, import. export. and consists in passing the solution into the top of a 1878...... $2,500,000 $3,626,000 square cistern, and thence into twilled cotton bags eighteen 1877...... 2,586-000 3,956,000 inches in diameter and six or eight feet long. There Indigo and coffee were the two heaviest articles of are from 70 to 100 of these cloth cases, and they de­ export, the latter $1,800,000 worth; then came sugar pend from the shallow tank into which we have seen and tobacco. The entries in 1878 were 22 sailing the liquid flow. They are surrounded by the sides of vessels aud 82 steamers, with a joint tonnage of an iron box, so that the juice may be kept hot, and 163,232, also that steam may be introduced to keep up the tem­ Central America at present produces 33,000 tons of perature and clean out the bags. It should have been coffee, against 10,000 in 1868 and 3,000 tons in 1836. stated that each bag is also enclosed in a coarse sheath. This coffee, Costa Rica in particular, is very popular, The object of running the liquid into these filter bags both on account of its looks and its flavour. London is to remove all inherent insoluble matter, and the step is an important onee preparatory to passing the sugars tained at the works have been higlily satisfactory; and through the charcoal filters. To watch this process we when a new kiln, now on the way out, is erected, the have to perform certain gymnastic feats which require output will probably double itself. We wish Mr. Wil- extraordinary care, unless the acrobat wishes a bath in heim every success in his praiseworthy enterprise.— N atal boiling water. The liquor, still of a dark hue, is run ZIercury. to another cistern, whence it is pumped into large cast metal receivers, which in turn feed the charcoal filters. CINCHONA RED BARKS. The passage of the sugar through these is the part of (Pharmaceutical Journal, 3rd September, 1881.) the system which has most interest and novelty to the In a paper on “ Red Bark,” read before the British untravelled colonist. The charcoal filters are huge tanks Pharmaceutical Conference, Mr. John Eliot Howard of cylindrical form, and are composed of cast iron plates. adopted the distinction made by Professor Karsten be­ They are about seventeen feet deep and over five feet tween the genera Cinchona and Cincinehona, namely in diameter, and they are furnished with a perforated that in the former the capsules are dehiscent from the false bottom placed about three inches above the real apex and in the latter from the base, and described one, its removal permitting of thorough cleansing. The what was to be understood by the term “ red bark.” true base is of a conical shape, which allows all the Cinchona succirubra, the true species of the red bark, was liquor passing through the charcoal to be collected at so named by Pavon to denote the peculiarities of the juice. one point in the centre, and so be drawn off to the very Like other species, it exists under somewhat different dregs. The cistern is permanently closed on the top, forms (illustrated by specimens that were exhibited) and although there is at the bottom a man-liole door to the differences, though apparently trivial, are important permit the charcoal being withdrawn. The filters con­ to the cultivator for reasons that have been explained tain about five tons of the charcoal through which the in the ‘Nueva Quinologia,’ and on account of the relative melted sugar passes in precisely the same way as water preponderance of quinine or cinchonine and cinchonidine. is sometimes filtered through sand. The bone charcoal, Specimens of genuine red bark and of the more resinous in order to its continuous use, of course requires great sort which used to he imported from South America and nicety and cleanliness of treatment. In the meantime sold at a high price, though useless to the quinine the charcoal is imported, but we expect to see it manu­ manufacturer, were exhibited to illustrate the state of factured on the spot soon. It must be washed thoroughly, degeneration to wThich Mr. Howard predicts that the otherwise it would get impregnated with oxide of iron, truest red bark in India will arrive by age, and towards carbonate of lime and other substances which would, of which Mr. Broughton believed some advance was made course, have a deleterious effect on the sugar, making it during the continuance of his observations. Since that lose both its colour and weight. The material—which, time Mr. Howard has had the opportunity of examining to the superficial observer, has the appearance of fine coal specimens of much more mature bark carefully collected “ dross”—is therefore removed from the filter, washed by Mr. Cross at Ootacamund, and exhibiting the true with hot water for some hours, after which it gets a characteristics of genuine red hark. These samples con­ sousing for four hours in cold water. The charcoal on tained respectively 0'86 and 0 91 per cent, of quinine, being taken out of the filter is run up by an ingenious with 1*5 to 2 0 per cent, of cinchonidine, and 3*5 to hoist to the top of the kiln, where it goes through the 4*0 per cent, of cinchonine. In reporting upon these process of being rebumed and revivified. This kiln is barks to the Marquis of Harrington, Mr. Howard pointed composed of thirty pipes equally divided on each side out that they are most characteristic specimens, well of the fire, and these pipes are kept constantly at a good illustrating the mistake of the excessive cultiuation of heat. The charcoal passes through them, and is received C. succirubra, and that it is only by renewing that the into coolers without coming into contact with the air. bark of such trees can be made serviceable. Another These coolers are divided into two parts, and from the sample described as red bark is not from C. succirubra, under part a charge of charcoal is drawn every twenty but is the produce of a tree yielding juice that becomes minutes, thereby allowing only the same quantity to be only golden coloured, and identified by Cross as “ Pata put into the pipes at the top. It will be seen, there­ de Gallinazo.” That it is a much better sort for culti­ fore, that the kiln is so regulated that the operator, vation than the C. succirubra, with which it has been who is generally not a skilled man, cannot draw off confounded, is shown by its containing 2*25 per cent, more than a certain quantity of charcoal at a time. of quinine. The full information upon both these barks, Having watched how the charcoal is dealt with and which was published by Mr. Howard and sent out by made fit for its valuable purpose, let us return to wiiere the Government in 1862, has apparently been without we saw the sugar pumped from the cast metal receivers result, as these two species are still confounded under to go through the filters. It is led by pipes from the the name C. succirubra. There is also a third species bottom to a small square box, where the liquid is divided confounded under this head, the “ cucharia,” dr “ pig and run into receivers, whence it is drawn to the vacuum skin,” a sort of red bark, little valued formerly by reason pan as the operator requires. To sum up then:—The of its poor appearance; but in regard to contents in concrete is melted and passed through the bag-filter to alkaloid more valuable than the true red bark, as it con­ extract extraneous matter—a merely mechanical process. tains from 1*37 to 2*14 per cent, of quinine. The pro­ It then passes through the charcoal—a chemical pro­ pagation of so many millions of trees of what is called cess—to decolorise. The concrete is now liquified, and C. succirubra in India, in spite of the warnings and of its turn has come to be made into respectable sugar. the information gathered from the Spanish botanists, It is therefore taken back to the vacuum pau, to have strongly impresses Mr. Howard with the question whether the water which we have seen put into it taken out, the information he is now giving or may be able to and thus to have it crystallised. From the vacuum pan render hereafter, will be turned to any account, other­ it goes straight to the centrifugals, the syrup being wise than amongst those private cultivators who gladlj’ sent back to go through the process we have described, avail themselves of such assistance, and who will find as very little syrup is put out at the Abergeni Sugar eventually that they have done well to attend to the Works. We have now seen the huge lumps of dirty careful discrimination of species and forms of species by concrete, with all its impurities, sent through the mill cultivating only those most adapted to their purpose. and returning to bags waiting for it as perfectly clean, A paper by Mr. Holmes, raising the question which wholesome sugar. It only remains to be said that the kinds of cinchona bark should be used in pharmacy, boiling department is under the competent charge of pointed out that ihe kinds of barks now cultivated in Mr. Heims, and that the manager of the mill is Mr. Java, India, Ceylon and Jamaica, have been former years T. H. Wilson, who has had sixteen years’ experience a regular article of commerce, but are not recognized of his business on the Clyde. So far the results ob­ in the pharmacopoeias, and cannot therefore be used for pharmaceutical purposes, although the officinal hark of the thanks of the Conference were due to Mr. Howard South American origin is often comparatively worthless, for having brought this subject forward by the contribu­ and very rarely of good quality. Hr. Holmes suggested tion of his paper and the interesting illustrations by that cultivated cinchona bark should replace the barks which it was accompanied. Dr. Paul, being called upon now officinal, partly because the latter are often mixed by the President to offer some remarks upon the with false barks, and the bark of hybrid species is not subject, said no doubt it was a very general opinion unfrequently mixed with that of good quality, as it is that there was need of making some alteration as to the not to be distinguished by external characters except kind of bark that should be officinal in the Pharma­ by experts. Mr. Holmes pointed out that one variety copoeia. The only question seemed to be what kind of cinchona bark, that of C. succirubra, is easily obtainable or kinds of bark should be chosen for pharmaceutical in almost unlimited quantity, and of very good quality, purposes. He did not agree with the suggestion that owing to the circumstances that the tree grows at a American bark should be entirely superseded by that tower elevation, is very hardy, easily propagated, and of Indian growth, although the excellent qualities of cultivated over a much greater area than other kinds. Indian “ crown ” and red barks rendered then introduction Owing to the relatively small proportion of quinine that desirable. The Indian red bark was already coming largely it contains, as compared with the other alkaloids, it is into use on the Continent, and it, together with American not adapted for the requirements of quinine makers. quill ealisaya, would satisfy all requirements. For these reasons, Mr. Holmes is of opinion that, as already suggested by Professor Fluckiger, the bark of C. succirubra seems to be the most suitable for use in CAT-PROOF GARDEN FENCE. medicine and pharmacy. Mr. Holmes also suggested that purchasers should require from wholesale dealers a TO THE EDITOR OF THE “ AUSTRALASIAN.” a statement of the percentage of alkaloids in the barks S i r ,—In answer to “ Florist,” who, in your issue of supplied to them, in order that pharmaceutical prepara­ 27tli ult., wishes to know how cats may lie kept from tions, when made from bark thus guaranteed, should climbing over his paling fence into his garden, a sim­ be of satisfactory quality. As regards the strength of ple way is to nail on the outside of the fence, near the fluid extract, if made from the red bark according the top, a continuous strip of tin or iron about 9 in. to the British Pharmacopoeia, it would in all probability wide, to extend the whole length of the fence, and he deposit some of its active constituents, and it might be will find that this will effectually keep out cats, opos­ desirable to adopt the strength of the United States sums, et id i/enus omne. B u s h m a n . Pharmacopoeia, which is one-fourtli that of the British. Rockhampton, Sept. 6. Mr. Holmes considers that neither the decoction nor the infusion of cinchona bark possesses any advantage over the fluid extract and that it would be a boon both to FUNGUS HUNTING. the patient and the dispenser if these preparations could be superseded by it. As" regards the simple tincture, The town of Leeds has, within the last few days, which differs in strength according to the British, United been the gathering point of a large number of distin­ States, French and German pharmacopoeias, an equaliza­ guished mycologists, who met there for the purpose of tion, or at least an approach to uniformity, is desirable, carrying out a “ fungus foray” and obtaining a better and as regards the compound tincture, which contains, knowledge of the fungi of Yorkshire. The arrangements according to the British formula, saffron and cochineal, for this meeting were made by the Yorkshire Natural­ according to the German and five others, cinnamon and ists’ Union, and as the result of excursions to Harro­ gentian, it is desirable to consider whether these ingredi­ gate and Ripon, a collection of specimens was obtained, ents should he retained or not. which, together with contributions from other parts of Mr. W. de Neufville, in a paper upon the same sub­ the country, furnished material for an exhibition at the ject, took exception to the statement of Professor Mechanics’ Institute in Leeds that was both interest­ Fluckiger that flat ealisaya, or the yellow bark of the ing and instructive to those who visited it. British Pharmacopoeia, is more scantily and less regul­ In the afternoon of Saturday a lecture on Fungi was arly imported than hitherto. On the contrary, he asserts given by Mr. Plowright, of Lynn, in which he described that during the last few years the supply of this bark their structure and the mode of reproduction of spores. has so considerably increased that the drug trade has The application of fungi as articles of food was also not been capable of absorbing it. As regards the regul­ illustrated at the dinner in the evening, the soup being arity of importation, even during the late Peruvian war made from fungus, and the lamb cutlets served with the shipments of ealisaya bark have been, contrary to mushroom sauce, while at a later stage the members the assumption of Professor Fluckiger, more constant had an opportunity of experimenting on the digestive than those of barks from the northern districts of South properties of Fislulina hepatica, Helvella crispa and e America, the supply from which has sometimes failed Htjdnum repandum, which had been prepared according altogether, owing to the frequent drought of the Mag­ to the recipes in a monastic cookery-book three hundred dalena and other rivers. As opposed to the recom­ years old. mendation to supersede South American by Indian-grown In the course of the evening, Mr. J. Horsfall referred barks, Mr. de Neufville pointed out that the planting to one branch of mycology as having special interest and cultivation of cinchonas lias already been commenced for the medical profession, since it is highly probable in Bolivia and Peru and that the results have been very that the woolsorters’ disease, scarlet fever and other satisfactory, the produce of these plantations having diseases are of fungoid origin.— Pharmaceutical Journal. been sold for high prices in the London market during | the last two years. Mr. de Neufville also urged that if the flat ealisaya of American origin is to be aban­ THE COFFEE AND SUGAR PRODUCING doned, because it does not contain sufficient quinine, there is no reason why the American ealisaya quill bark COUNTRIES. should not take its place, since it is rich in quinine, C E Y L O N , contains a good proportion of other alkaloids, and is i-From the American Grocer.) easy to work. In the discussion that followed the reading of these Besides coft'ee the chief products of the island are three papers Mr. Wellcome suggested that, in view of coconut oil and pearls, the latter are fished around the difficulty attending the separation of the cinchona alkal­ Manaar Island, and are in beauty and value only sur­ oids, the percentage of total alkaloids should be taken passed by those of the Persian Gulf, the annual product as an index of the value of a bark. Mr. Brady said of these pearls being about £260,000. The island for­ 135 merly also furnished to the world’s trade a good deal met with great approbation there; but it happens that of ivory, but elephants are gradually becoming extinct in Europe where, with the exception of washed, very in the southwestern forests. little “ superior” and “ good Rio” goes, the discredit Coffee is and remains the chief product, and its yield of Brazilian coffee is in a great measure owing to that has increased as follows:— source. It is well known to all who are versed in the E xport.— tom . coffee trade that the higher class of consumers in a 1836'...... 3,015 large part of Em ope much appreciate our brands of 1846 ...... 8,695 “ superiors ” and “ good ” on account of their good 1851 .. : ...... 16,987 taste, so much so that a great portion passes as Java, 1856 ...... 22,310 Laguayra, Haiti, etc., whose agriculture, of much older 1861 ...... 29,695 existence, knew how to establish a reputation for the 1865 ...... 43,805 fine products which it brings to market. If we persisted 1867 ...... 41,862 only during a few years in improving and perfecting our 1878 ...... 31,600 coffee, we would in .our turn obtain the same renown, and the new producing countries would certainly in If since 1865-67 there have been years of less abund­ ant yield, this has been due to a disease of the tree their turn he obliged to make use of our name for the which attacks the leaves and affects the productiveness sale of their products. The quality of our coffees diverges of the plant. But for tills drawback production would in general form that of Rio, so much so that old Rio probably have gone on expanding all along, for none of merchants, perfect judges of the qualities there, do not the elements for its doing so are wanting: climate, understand the judicious classification of a Santos lot, soil, labor, capital, and an unrivalled geographical posi­ and, as their customers are different from our, they tion, especially since the Suez Canal is at the disposal generally ignore the exigences of the consumers of our of Ceylonese trade, and the large steamers from the qualities. It would, therefore, be desirable that in due extreme East on their way to Europe or America touch time the necessary' steps should be taken that the judging of coffees from the province of Sad Paulo be (lone by there. Barring the disturbing influence of occasional short competent persons. It should be a conjunction of planters, crop from some cause or another connected with the dealers and exporters from our province. plant itself, coffee cultivation in Ceylon has therefore a brilliant and secure future before it, there being no BRAZIL COFFEE EXPOSITION. apprehensions of interruptions of a political or servile nature, as they may happen elsewhere in the future in (Bio Neu-s, 15th August 1881.) coffee growing countries. The continued agitation of the coffee exposition project Ceylon’s production is important enough to require leaves no doubt as to its realization at no distant day; being taken into consideration in making estimates of but it resolves none of the doubts as to the practical the world’s annual coffee supply. results to be obtained through such an enterprise. The early appeals for aid in this industry, and all that is written and said in its favor now, are devoted chiefly COFFEE PROPAGANDA IN BRAZIL. to the imaginary necessity of enlarging present consum­ ing markets and opening up new ones. Among the (Diario de Santos, 7tli August 1881.) latter have been mentioned the vast empires of Russia The propaganda in favor of augmenting the actual and China. If this desire to extend and enlarge con­ zones and of obtaining new ones for the consumption of suming jmarkets be the chief object of these exposi­ Brazilian coflee, continues in the city of Rio de Janeiro. tions—and we have heard none other mentioned—then The government, the society “ Centro da Ijivonra e do why is it that they are to be held down here in Rio Commercio,” and the Commercial Association, each accord­ de Janeiro? Is it to be supposed that a coffee exposi­ ing to the extent of their powers, are endeavouring to tion at the Typograpliia Nacional, in this city, will assist this movement, it having already been resolved make the Russian acquainted with the good properties to open an exposition in the beginning of November of this beverage, or that it will make John Chinaman next. As we have said before, we have but little con­ discard his tea for Brazilian coffee ? Does any one fidence in the practical result of an exposition without think that a display of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro the express condition that the exhibitor of any sample coffee in this city will prove to EngBslnnen, French­ must declare the quantity he can supply and the time men, or Americans, that it is equal to Java, Mocha, within which he can do so, binding himself to make a or Laguayra? Is it anticipated that the coffee buyers contract of sale if there should be a buyer and at a price and coffee drinkers of the world are coming down here to be determined between the parties. Without this we to look at some parcels of samples ? And if no one believes shall always have pompous and luxurious samples with­ these things, then what is it all for? No one urges out any practical value. This exposition measure being the necessity of improving the quality of the product once resolved, the government should at least take the and lowering the cost of production; every one greatest possible advantage of it, installing a jury or seems to be possessed with the desire to find new con­ congress in which the elements of agriculture and com­ sumers. The increase of consumption must therefore be merce predominate; in short, an assembly of practical the main object! Now how is this to be effected by men who, without much pompous phraseology and an exposition in Rio de Janeiro? And how is it to be application of theories, should give their oirinion on im­ effected any where by the mere display of samples ? portant questions of economy which at present occupy What assurance is offered that the crop will correspond the attention of all, such as: the question of the sub­ accurately to the samples ? And if it does not, with stitution of agricultural lal or, the amplification of the whom rests the responsibility ? Besides, who can estim­ rural credit system, the question of export duties, and ate the supply corresponding to any particular sample, transportation tarifi's. There is no doubt that our pro­ and who can determine prices, as compared with other vince will take a conspicuous place in this exposition, coffees, for any future time ? And still further, will and it is highly desirable that her representation in the these samples, if sent abroad, represent general grades, jury be in harmony with her importance, for though or the product of certain planters? To be plain, the all the coffee will be Brazilian, yet it is certain that in whole scheme is visionary aud impracticable in the various points the position of our coffee production highest degree. If the object were to improve the pro­ diverges from that of Rio. Whereas the good qualities duct and lessen its cost, then there would be the best of Rio are perfectly known as such, and even preferred of reasons for holding annual competitive expositions. in the United Stated ours have up to this time not Or, if it were proposed to hold an international exposi­ tion at London or Paris, in which Brazilian coffee should explore at once. It is clear that the country would enter into competition with the coffees of other has made very little progress under the system now in countries, then there would be other good and sufficient operation, from which it can be logically deduced that reasons for giving it all support. But these purposes there is something wrong with it. If no progress can do not appear. The samples of the Brazilian product he made under it—if in reality there has been an actual are to exhibited in a Brazilian city where no other decline in certain localities and industries, is it not best coffee is used, and to Brazilian brokers and exporters i that some other system should be tried, even were there who already know all about it. And then, when the exposi­ j no proofs in existence as to its superiority? Can there tion is closed, the Brazilian people will go on drinking be any real progress in that unreasoning conservatism Brazilian coff ee, aud the Brazilian exporter will continue I which clings to antiquated methods and systems, and to export Brazilian coffee, just as before. On the other ' refuses to give a place to anything new1? Is this the side of the water, the foreign consumer will read in the enterprise and emulation which are to arouse the jealousy Times a four-line account of this exposition of coffee of Americans ? in Rio de Janeiro, and will continue sipping his fragrant The statements of our colleague regarding the system Mocha without the slightest idea of what it is all about. of grande lavoura in the United States, are wholly Some neatly labelled samples will be sent abroad to be mistaken. That system, as such, is unknown there. exhibited to a curious world by Brazilian consuls, but The nearest approach to it was in the Southern States as no one ever goes to a consulate when he can help during the existence of slavery, where large properties it, they will probably serve no other good purpose than were held and cultivated by methods not greatly dis­ to reduce the consul's household expenses. Unsatisfact­ similar to those employed here. The abolition of slavery, ory and disappointing as these results will be, they are however, broke down that rotten, old system, and- now just what may logically be expected from this present it is not uncommon to find freedmen owning and tilling crude and visionary scheme. In the main, the desire little plots of ground which once formed parts • of the to attain some beneficial result for the coffee producer great estates upon which they labored as claves. In from an exposition is praiseworthy in the highest the West—throughout the whole country in fact, the degree, and if rightly located and conducted these bene­ system employed is essentially that of small farming. fits will surely follow. In our opinion there are but Here and there are large estates which have been two bases upon which successful coffee expositions can acquired through the industry and good management be held—both international, and both competitive. The of a few individuals, but their proportion to the small one should be held in this city so that the Brazilian farms is about as one to five hundred. To small fanning planter may see the foreign product, test it, and learn is due the agricultural prosperity of the United States the methods of its cultivation and preparation for market. from which it may be inferred that it would result By this means he will learn just how his product beneficially here, that unjust laws have kept back the compares with those of other countries, and just where stream of European emigration to Brazil through which he must improve his product in order to enhance its this system of small farming could best be established, marketable properties. The other base is an inter­ and that the immediate policy of the country should be national exposition in some great commercial centre, as the employment of its present laboring element rather London or Paris, where the consumer may see all than its substitution, and consequent exclusion, by the these products, and test them. Both the producer and introduction of Chinese under contract. Were we to consumer must be educated, but that cannot be done discuss this question stiff further we should undertake by an exposition of Brazilian coffee in a Brazilian city. to prove that the needs of agriculture do not lie in A coffee-house for the free supply of the Brazilian the acquisition of cheap, senile laborers, but rather in beverage in London or Paris will do more to increase the acquisition of a higher grade of agriculturists, of the sale of this product, than all the domestic exposi­ better methods of cultivation, of the use of machinery, tions that can be held. of raising the standard of intelligence among the laborers, of the breaking up of the great estates, of the abolition of export taxes, and the reduction of transportation charges, and of a general and radical change in the THE CHINESE QUESTION IN BRAZIL. legislation of the country through which small farming (Rio Keics, loth August 1881.) is discouraged and European emigration is driven away. The question is a broader and deeper one than this In a country where slavery exists, and all social and j demand for labor would signify; it involves changes in industrial life is impregnated through and through with j the whole industrial and fiscal legislation of the country. the pernicious influences of that institution, the intro- ' Auction of a semi-servile race cannot be otherwise than | dangerous. Salvery is an institution which not only 1 works great injustice to the enslaved, hut it also degrades ; FRUIT-GROWING: DISBUDDING AND THINNING. aud debases the enslaver. No people who have been I trained to the employment of slave labor have ever (Australasian, 17th September 1881.) been able to easily take up the system of free labor, i In the interests of the grower any excess of blossoms and to employ it with justice to the laborer and profit j over the number required to produce the due amount to themselves. The nearest approximation to such a of crop is undesirable. The effect of blooming is, to a transformation was in the southern section of the United certain extent, a tax upon the strength of the tree, and States, hut the result there was obtained under economic when “ sheets” of bloom are produced, the powers of and political conditions which undoubtedly exist in no the tree are oftentimes so severely tried as to prevent other part of the world. It is through these pernicious any appreciable crop being earned; fruits are formed, influences of slavery that the free and slave laborer but they are seedless, and thus, when the process of have never been able to work side by side. The free­ stoning or pip-forming, as the case may be, should take man has a natural antipathy to companionship with place, the imperfect embryo fruit falls off, leaving the the slave, and the master does not know how to draw grower too frequently without a crop. In ordinary sea­ just distinctions between them. For this reason, primarily, sons, when the blooms are not ,so excessively abundant, the introduction of Chinese laborers at this time under the process of reducing the crop to proper dimensions any system of contracts, should not be permitted. may without injury be left until it has well set, so that With regard to the present systems of agriculture and the grower can see what he has to deal with. But when the relative value of the two systems known as the as in the present instance, the flowering is likely to ex­ grande lavoura and pequena lavoura, there is a vast ; haust the tree and preclude its yielding a fan- crop, an field for research which the Brazilian agriculturists extensive and severe pruning of the fruit spurs should be resorted to in the case of cherries, apples, pears, a heap of well-rotted manure, previously covered with and such other fruits as bear upon spurs, whilst peaches good soil. Pick off* the first flowers to allow the plant should not only be closely pinned, but should have then* to gain strength. Water plentifully, and place dry litter blossoms thinned by hand. The pruning of fruit spurs under the fruit; and shade the plants carefully. is a practice to which amateur pomologists are, not unnaturally, inclined to object. The desire to have heavy H e r b s . crops is, perhaps, not confined to growers of that class, These form an important item in domestic economy, but the more experienced growers for market have learned and can be easily cultivated in good ordinary garden to aim at the production of fine fruit, and, to that soil kept moderately moist. The cultivation is the same intent, to avoid heavy yields of small samples; this they as for Parsley. do partly by spur-pruning and partly by early-thinning K n o l K o h l (Brassica Caulo-rapa). after the crop is set. The powers of the tree are not This is a very valuable vegetable, and requires but so severely taxed in producing the fleshy portion of the little attention. Cultivate as for Cabbage. The roots fruit as in forming the seed. The fleshy envelope of should be ready six weeks or two months from the the peach, for example, is a mere mass of water; if time of sowing. the tree be well supplied with moisture, the weight of L e e k (Allium Pornnn). crop may be doubled or even trebled without injury to Leek should be sown earlier than Onion, as it is the tree, as the number of seeds would be no greater rather longer coming to maturity, and, as it should than before ; the flesh only would be increased in weight. always be transplanted, it is well to give as long a It is, therefore, expedient to thin off most of the sur­ time for growth as possible. When ready for trans­ plus peaches before stoning takes place, leaving only a planting, well water the soil, so as to allow the re­ small margin for the final thinning. moval of the plants without the loss of the fibrous The vork of disbudding is undertaken with the object roots. Plant out in rows 1 foot apart by 6 inches in (1) of conserving the growing powers of the tree, and the rows from plant to plant. Earth up from time to (2) of giving such a direction those powers as will improve time to blanch the root, and water liberally. the constitutional vigour of the branches that are in­ tended to form part of its permanent structure. When L e t t u c e (iMtuca sativa). the young shoots, or the more forward ones, are push­ Of Lettuces there are two classes, Cos and Cabbage, ing for wood, a selection should be made by the grower, and both are equally useful. The seed grows but who should rub off with his finger aud thumb the more slowly, and is so subject to the depredations of ants, forward of the shoots that will not be required. A that it is well to sow in pans and isolate them by week or ten days later a second disbudding may take placing them upon an empty flower-pot standing in place, and at a like interval the final touch may be another larger pan full of water. The soil should be given. By adopting this plan many wounds that would very light and friable. Plant out the seedlings, as soon otherwise be made at the winter pruning will be saved, as they have made their second pair of leaves, in light, and the liability to gumming be lessened. There should rich soil. Succession crops may be grown almost all be few shoots requiring entire removal in the winter, the year round. but the remainder will need the proper shortening. The M e l o n (Cucumis Melo). wood not having been crowded, as it is "when disbudding No fruit better deserves cultivation in tropical climates is not practised, is well ripened and healthy ; the foliage than the Melon. Sow middle of March in the spot is large, strong, and well developed; the fruit, too, if where it is to remain, as it cannot bear transplanting. the crop be not too heavy, is fine, highly-coloured, and Dig a trench 14 to 16 inches deep, and 2 feet wide, well-flavoured. Thus, both thinning and disbudding may and see that the soil is good and rich. Sow a double be regarded as essential to the successful cultivation of row of seeds in each trench. When the plants are a the peach and the nectarine in this country. foot high, train along the top of the trench, and let Disbudding is even more essential in the case of vines. the roots only come into close contact with water. Whatever system of pruning and training is adopted, a M u s t a r d (Sinapis alba a n d S. nigra). number of young shoots, whose presence would be in­ jurious, are sure to appeal’ on both the old wood and This requires so little cultivation, that directions are on the new. In disbudding vines there can be no diffi­ scarcely necessary. Sow at intervals, for salad, the culty, nor need the work be partially done, as we have whole of the cold season. The seed germinates in recommended in the case of peaches. Every shoot that two days. is not required either to form part of the vine or to M a i z e .—I n d ia n C o r n (Zea). carry a bunch of fruit during the current season may The unripe heads of Indian Com, when cooked, are be rubbed off at once. Under those two heads may be very delicious: boil in milk, afterwards roast and eat ranked ever)7 shoot that springs. A weak one may some­ with pepper, salt, and butter. Sow the beginning of times be left as the source of a stronger one the next rains in rows 1 foot apart, and the seed 8 inches year, or to till a vacancy on a trellis; such a shoot apart in the rows. would be a wood shoot proper. Vine shoots should not O n io n (Allium Cepa). be crowded, but each branch should have abundance of There are two principal classes of Onion. First, space to develope its leaves; then the wood will be the English varieties, which grow to a small size only, strong, well ripened, and if the soil be right, the vine but are excellent for tlieh’ keeping qualities; and will retain health. Mildew will, however, be liable to secondly, the Italian varieties, to be used especially for occur under certain conditions of soil and weather, early crops, and which grow usually to a very great against which provision cannot always be made. As in size. Of the English varieties we recommend Improved the case of rust in wheat, the visitation cannot always Reading, James’s Keeping, and Bedfordshire Champion. be guarded against; indeed, the development of mildew Of the Italian Onions the best are Giant Rocca, White on vines may be said to depend chiefly upon atmospheric Giant Tripoli, The Queen, &c. The middle of October conditions. is the best time for sowing, and this may be done either in drills or by sowing broadcast. In either case the VEGETABLES FOR THE TROPICS. young plants should be thinned out when well established, (From Sutton’s Tropical Garden Guide.) leaving them about 6 inches apart. A still better plan (Continued from page 4 7 1 J I is to sow in seed pans and transplant, as then the seed G o u r i> o r P u m p k i n (Cucurbita gourgera a n d C. Pepo). is protected to a great extent from the ravages of ants The cultivation of the Gourd is not only interesting | and other insects. During early growth water freely, but profitable. Sow about the middle of the rains on I but just before the commencement of the hot season it is well not only to cease watering, but to hasten cessions, the cultivation of cinchona by private enter­ ripening off by breaking down the tops. prise thereabouts, and is now, we are glad to believe, P a r s l e y (Petroselinum sativum). seeking to establish the industry systematically. The Sow any time after middle of September in gumlalis land we speak of lies at elevations of from 4,000 to protected from the heavy rain. The seed takes 10 days 6,500 feet; is without roads, but of fine quality: is dis­ to germinate. Transplant when the seedlings are 4 tant from Kingston two score miles, but possesses a inches high, about 1 foot apart, in the shade, and climate delightful alike to those who dread the cold of keep them well watered. a northern winter and those who dread the heat of tropical high noon. P e a s (Pisum sativum ). To anyone who thinks seriously of investing his capital The round varieties of Peas will generally be found in cinchona cultivation in Jamaica, but fears to venture, most suitable for cultivation in the tropics. There is we would point out that he will not be alone in the no occasion to manure the land heavily for Peas, but undertaking. We could name at this moment several it is important that it should be well dug, and that gentlemen, including His Excellency the Governor, who the Peas are not sown until the soil is well pulverised and I have devoted land and capital to it. In his last Report, tolerably dry after the rains. In England it is im­ Mr. D. Morris stated that large numbers of plants had portant to get as much sun as possible. Of course in been put out at Whitfield Hall, Radnor, and Clydesdale. hot countries this is not so, and therefore it is well to To this list, the names of many well-known high plant­ plant the rows much nearer together, say 30 inches ations between St. Catherine’s Peak on the west, and from row to row, instead of 4 or 5 feet as in England. Blue Mountains on the east, might be added, while the When Peas are sown late in the year for succession, cultivation of cinchona adapted to lower elevations is the ground will require watering twelve hours previous being prosecuted with vigour in Manchester. The de­ to sowing. If they do not show above ground a week mand for seeds and plants increases daily, and can after sowing, the earth should be gently removed, and hardly be met. This new industry brings into product­ if the Peas are found in a dirty, wet condition, un­ iveness regions which in many cases were unsuited for sprouted, another sowing should be made at once. coffee or provisions, and which wTere a burden on the Sometimes the outside shell of the Pea becomes so owner. We regard this departure as creditable not only harl that it is necessary to soak the seed in water for to the Government, but to the planters who have been some hours previous to sowing. When about 6 inches so often, so foolishly, and so freely accused of indiffer­ high it is desirable to stick the rows, after earthing up ence to their own best interests and to opportunities of on each side. It is of little use to sow later than unfamiliar profit. December. Estimating the gain which may accrue from new en­ P o t a t o S e e d (Solatium robustum). terprises is always a delicate affair. In the present case The expense incurred in the transport is so great, we will give the statements of authorities on the sub­ and the chance of failure so considerable, that it cannot ject in preference to opinions of our own, merely point­ be worth while to order out a large quantity of Potato ing out that many of our shrewd and experienced planters tubers from England, but it is far better to obtain seed have satisfied themselves as to the profit derivable from which has been raised from good sorts in England. cinchona, and have given evidence of the faith that is Potato seed is cheap, will travel safely by post, and a in them. In his valuable report, to which we have packet is sufficient to sow a large piece of ground. already referred, Mr. Morris describes how he found a R a d is h (Raphanus sativus). patch of cinchona officinalis which had long been deserted on Whitfield Hall Estate, and which was found hardy For Radishes, a shady spot should be selected. The and thriving. He says:— land should be light, and not recently manured. Do not think of sowing before October, and if rains are not “ As indicating the value of cinchona planting in the over it will be better to postpone it until the middle of Blue Mountains—taking these 379 trees which occupied the month. Sow either broadcast or in drills a foot an area of less than 120 square yards—it was estimated apart. In the latter case the seed should be covered that if they yielded on the average one pound of dry with about a quarter of an inch of mould, and the bark per tree (young trees at the Government Plant­ plants thinned out to 3 or 4 inches from row to row. ations yielded 1J pounds per tree), each tree would be Make sncccssional sowings every fortnight, and do not worth at least 5s.; this would give £94 15s. as the stint the supply of water. If the ground becomes caked value of 379 trees on an area of 120 square yards, one- and hard it should be loosened with a rake. fortieth of an acre. Under ordinary conditions it would not, however, be advisable to plant the trees so closely S p ix a c i i (Spinacia oleracea). as this, but the value of an acre of land planted with Sparrows are so fond of the seed and young plants trees even at one-half the above rate would amount to that unless the protection of a net is given the crop more than £1,890. Large as this sum may seem, it ap­ will probably bo lost. Sow in (hills, as soon as the rains peal's that with the precious Ledgeriana bark, grown by are over, in good rich soil in a shady place. The drills the Dutch in Java (a few plants of which have just should be 1 foot apart, and the plants in the drills 4 been introduced to Jamaica), the yield per acre, as quoted inches apart. by Mr. J. E. Howard, F.R.S., is estimated, from actual (T o be continued.) sales, at £2,000 per acre.” We will take in addition to the above, the statement made by Mr. Clements Markham, in his interesting and CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN JAMAICA. important monograph on “ Peruvian Bark.” In his chap­ The following appeared in the Kingston (Jamaica) ter on “ Financial Results,” he says “ Gleaner” and “ Tri-weekly Gleaner” of the 27th “ The result of the sales of bark from the Govern­ August 1881:— ment Cinchona Plantations on the Nilgiri Hills, in We publish to-day [see page 501 of the Tropical India, is that a sum of £173,046 has been realized. Agriculturist] the terms upon which the Government The total cost of the whole enterprise from the com­ of this Island, being desirous of encouraging the culti­ mencement, including interest, was £129,628 in 1876. vation of Cinchona, offers to make grants of public ! By the year 1879, allowing for charges during iuter- lauds to persons who will embark in the enterprise. veniug years, the sum to be debited against the enter­ The situation of the land is not mentioned, but we pre­ prise was only £38,942. In 1880 the whole capital ac- sume the extensive unopened tracts of forest on the j count had been paid oft with interest, and the plantations higher Blue Mountain slopes are referred to. The Go­ ; began to yield a clear annual profit. It is therefore true vernment has already encouraged, under favourable con- i of the Cinchona enterprise that as a mere commercial 136 speculation, it has paid off the whole outlay, including THE SUGAR AND TOBACCO INDUSTRIES OF introduction of the plants, cultivation, and interest; and has become a complete financial success.” 1881 IN JAVA. Mr. Markham also gives figures to show how private (Field, 15th October 1881.) enterprise in India and Ceylon is reaping the same re­ ward. For his remarks on this point, we must refer After three consecutive very bad years, it is satis­ our readers to his work. It is shown that while the factory to be able to report a most splendid sugar Government of India will in future have as much de­ harvest for the season 1881. In all probability, the mand as it can meet, in supplying cinchona febrifuge production of this year will surpass that of any season for the millions of India, the planters of Ceylon and known, in proof of which we have the most remark­ India, as well as of Java, find a ready and profitable able fact that the planters themselves confess they are demand for them hark in Europe. At the same time a contented; an admission that would scarcely be' made vast market for the bark is being found in China, where under any other conditions than those of unexpected until now opium has been the cheapest drug as a cure success. At the very lowest computation, the actual and preventive of fever, and where from 30 to 40 per production of 25 pel cent more than was calculated cent of the population use it, to them own ruin and to upon in April last. One great reason for this satis­ Fmgland’s disgrace. factory result is the glorious weather that has reigned The prices obtained for Jamaica hark should stimulate almost uninterruptedly throughout the grinding. In May to activity in planting cinchona. Mr. Markham, in his and early in June, a few days of ram made many sketch of Cinchona Cultivation in Jamaica, says that anxious, but the wet monsoon, that has during the C. officinalis does not thrive so well in this island, but past three years taken to usurping the place of the he speaks favourably of C. succirubra and C. calisaya. dry one, finally took itself off, and in many districts But the latest results furnished by sales of Jamaica not a drop of rain had fallen for nearly two months. “ grey ” barks, are proofs that officinalis grown here In Batavia, where they never see a pound of raw' sugar commands better prices than that of Ceylon: and last from one year’s end to the other, they are crying out week we had an opportunity of seeing how, as Mr. for rain; but it is better for them to frizzle for a Morris describes, the officinalis spreads in self-sown for­ month or two, than that the sugar industry should est patches at the highest elevations, thus exhibiting receive a blow. Had the present season been as bad great fitness for the soil and situation. The island has as its predecessor, the consequences would have been now, therefore, at least three kinds of cinchona well most serious. The population, both European and estaldished: officinalis, succirubra, and a good variety native, of the eastern half of Java, from Clicribon to called calisaya, but supposed to be a hybrid between the Bezuki (i.e., Java proper, as distinguished from Sunda), other two. Moreover, the ledgeriana, a variety of cali­ is so dependent on the sugar culture, that its success saya, introduced by Mr. Morns, is now growing well as of failure affects it most intimately. So heavy had been a plant, and seed of it has already been imported. Of the losses of the preceding seasons that many factories this ledgeriana, which Morris says fetches 17s. per lb. dared not risk the buying of new machinery, however at Amsterdam, Mr. Markbam writes:—“ These plants sorely they required it. The production of sugar during yield an extraordinarily large quantity of quinine, as the past four years has been as follows:—1877 (a tre­ much as 9'97 per cent. In this respect they are un­ mendously hot year), 4,091,570 piknls; 1878, 3,786,401 equalled.” With regard to the species known as succi­ ! pikuls; 1879, 3,851,692 piknls: 1880, 3,639,757 pilculs. rubra and yielding the “ red ” bark of commerce, a variety The difference between 1880 and 1877 is thus 451,813 which Mr. Morris recommends as being peculiarly suited ■ piknls, representing a value of more than half a million to so much of our land from 2,000 feet upwards, Mr. : sterling, and this in the face of wonderful improve- Markham writes that it yields a larger percentage of ; ments in machinery. However, this year will compens- febrifuge alkaloid than any other. As time rolls by, j ate for everything which will be good for everybody, other varieties again may be found to naturalise them­ for sugar planters are the most liberal class in Java, selves easily, “ the Blue Mountains of Jamaica * * * and have no idea of excluding others from the benefits being about the same distance from the equator on the of a good time. N orth side. (18’ N) as the calisaya forests are to the i A feature this year is the almost exclusive employ- south.” As the Government now offers land for cinchona, it l ment of steamers in place of sailing vessels for convey- is also ready to supply the seeds and plants. Seeds of | ing the produce to Europe. The fact becoming known the officinalis, for cultivation at elevations above 4,000 ! that the best sugar harvest would be late, some specnl- feet are supplied at 5s. an ounce; of succirubra, at eleva­ i ative ones thought to be the first in the market, and tions between 2,500 and 4,000 at 3s. An ounce is i chartered steamers. But the impartiality of the telegraph sufficient to produce 20,000 seedlings, which will plant soon equalised matters, and now every sugar port has five acres. Boxes of seedlings may be had at a guinea a quantity of steamers loading in it. Thus few, if any per box, and plants are obtainable at from 40s. to 60s. will reap the advantage of priority. per 1,000. j The tobacco harvest is unfortunately very easily dis- We hope to witness an early extension of cinchona i posed of in three words, viz., there is none. The sudden- cultivation by men who have capital and can await the | ness and completeness with which the tobacco industry first yield in the fourth or fifth year. The oppo rtunity i has vanished from the laud, so far as Europeans are now offered is excellent. It is possible that a market | concerned, is simply appalling. Bismarckian tariff tactics for the Jamaica bark will be found some day in the I have had a good deal to do with it—some will have it U. S. A., which consumes vast quantities of quinine, everything —but there is always a good market for good leaf, but for the present England takes all that can be shipped, and this is just what Java does not produce in any and at remunerative prices. The time cannot be far off quantity. For this the planters have to thank their when the masses of Jamaica will be provided by Govern­ i pernicious system of allowing the native to do all the ment with a cheap, effective febrifuge, now so greatly i planting, aud simply buying the produce at a fixed rate, needed. And leaving out of question the commercial in consideration of having made an advance. There and social advantages resulting from cinchona, it may are several tobacco planters in Java who make money, be fairly claimed that this tree, which once inspired the but these are all men who take the thing in their own prose of Madame de Geulis and the verse of La Fon­ hands. Things may improve, but that they will ever taine will, with its graceful stem, shining leaves, and ; wear the aspect they wore only a few years since, when clustering flowers, be an additional ornament to the ’ the term tobacco planter was synonymous with that of far-famed but neglected mountains of Jamaica. I Crcesns, is extremely doubtful. A C o f f e e M i l l took fire on the 30th ult. at Casa T e a a t N l t n i N o v g o r o d .—Of all the articles of trade Branca, San Paulo, and was destroyed, with about which come to court public favour in Nijni, the most 5,000 arrobas of coffee. The loss is estimated at important and valuable is tea, and, although the Moscow 40,000$. The mill belonged to the estate of the late merchants, by the excellence of their seafaring tea, Luciano Ribeiro da Silva.— B io News. chiefly imported from Odessa, have almost entirely driven PROGRESS OF THE T e a E n TERPRIZE IN M a DRAS PRESID­ from the market the Kiakhta, or caravan tea, still one- ENCY.— A return just published in • Madras shows that tenth of the enormous quantity of tea sold here is grown tea is grown in three districts of the presidency, namely in the north of China, and comes overland. I was curious in Madura, Malabar, and the Nilgiris. In the two first to compare the taste of some of the very bestofhofi named districts there are only five plantations, but on qualities, and was brought to the conclusion, confirmed the Nilgiris there are 79. The total average of land by the opinion of gentlemen interested in the sale of sea­ under tea is returned at 2,573 acres against 9,123 acres faring tea, that, although some of their own is more of land taken up ; the acreage of land with immature high-flavoured aud stronger, there is in the Kiakhta plants is returned at 1,705. The approximate yield of tea an exquisite delicacy arising from its exposure to tea of all the estates is returned at 649,460 lb., the the air during its 12 months’ journey in its loose and cost of cultivation varying from Rs. 50 to 200 per clumsy paper and sheepskin bundles, whsch rids it of acre.—Englishman. tannin and other gross substances, a process of purifica­ How to E x t e r m in a t e C o c k r o a c h e s .—I would recom­ tion which cannot be effected in the hermetically closed mend “ G-. H.” to get a pint of beer, and to heat it boxes it reaches Europe by the sea route; so that if in a saucepan, dissolving as much sugar in it as will seafaring tea, like portwine, easily commends itself to the sweeten it nicely. Then procure two or three common taste, and nerves of a strong, hardworking man. a dainty 1 lb. jelly cans, till them half full with the beer and refined lady would give preference to a cup oi' Kiakhta tea. sugar and stand them where the cockroaches are likely as she would to a glass of Chateau Yquem.— Times of India. to run. Put them down in the evening, and in the T i m b e r i n B r i t i s h C o l u m b ia .-—Though the agricult­ morning he will have from six to a dozen of the pests ural capabilities of British Columbia may not be so in each jar. The same mixture will do for two nights, great as other parts of Canada, its mines are doubtless when if desired the dose should be repeated. As the very rich, and from a recent report of Professor Daw­ jars are smooth outside, it is desirable to tie some son, of the Dominion Geological Survey, its forests are rough material round about them such as a bit of net­ of great importance. Many first-class mills have liven ting or shading material. I found this plan more effectual established in various parts of the country, and the than any poison I could procure.— T h o s . F r a s e r , The total annual product is stated to be about 200,000,000 Gardens, Gordon House, Isleworth.— Gardeners' Chronicle. feet, of which 25,000,000 feet is exported to other O r a n g e T r e e s i n P o t s .-—As the fruit is approaching countries, 25,000,000 feet used at home, and 150,000,000 the ripening stage, it is necessary not only to with­ feet sent to California. Professor Dawson estimates that hold manure water, but water of any kind must be 110,000,000 acres (or two-thirds of the whole province) given carefully, else the rapid swelling of the flint bursts are covered with timber. The Douglas Fir, or Oregon the skin and spoils it. If there are trees with ripe Pine, is the most valuable commercial tree. It fre­ fruit, they may be removed into a late vinery where quently exceeds 8 feet in diameter above the ground, Grapes are hanging. It is one of the good fruits of and rises to a height of from 200 to 300 feet, forming the Orange tree that it may be removed from a warm large and dark forests. The Western Hemlock and Red to a cool house, or vice versa t without any probability Cedar are the other important trees of the province, of constitutional derangement. The fruit may hang on both of which, the latter especially, grow to a great the trees until it is wanted, and when cutting it a few size. When the great plains of Canada become populous, leaves should also be cut with it. When the trees with the mines and forests of British Columbia should be of great ripe fruit can be moved in this way, it allows of the importance, and their produce ought to proride a large and right kind of treatment being given to those that may profitable traffic for the CanadiaiiPacificRailway.— I .Times. be bearing fruit not fully developed. The temperature C o f f e e L e a f D is e a s e in J av a .— The coffee leaf disease should be kept up to 65° or 70° at night, if the fruit during the past year has not only continued to spread is green.—F. D o u g l a s , Loxford.— Gardeners' Chronicle. in the plantations at the westward end of the Island J a l a p .—A note was read by Mr. T. Greenish, of Java, hut has also appeared in several gardens in on “ Some Samples of Jamaica-grown Jalap,-’ sent to the central region. As the subject in question is un­ the Curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical fortunately of interest to some of our colonies, the Society by Mr. D. Morris, Director of the Botanical notes furnished by her Majesty’s Consul in regard to Gardens of Jamaica. One sample consisted of small it may prove to he of some value. A commission was tubers and another of slices of larger ones, The slices appointed by the Government of Netherlands India to of the tubers had been (hied by artificial heat, and they investigate the origin1 of the disease, and their re­ bore evidence of having been heated while still moist. port tends to show that it is mostly met with on poor The tubers lost 17*3 per cent, of water between 220° or worked-out ground, and that the succession of wet and 225° F., the slices 14*1 per cent. The tubers con­ seasons has greatly spread the contagion; it is, how­ tained 8*27 i>er cent, of resin insoluble in ether (Mayer’s ever, hoped that a recurrence of iiorrnaally dry years “ convolvulin ”) and 0*86 of resin soluble in ether. The will cause a marked decrease in the percentage of trees sliced tubers contained 8-68 of insoluble resin and 1*21 attacked. The presence of the disease is in Java de­ of soluble resin, these amounts being in each case cal­ tected in two ways, viz.: either by the appearance of culated on the dry substance, shoving that Jamaica- light green spots on the upper side of the leaf, or by the grown jalap yields less resin than the average of good presence underneath of an orange-coloured kind of dust. Mexican jalap, and that it approaches more nearly to In plants severely attacked, the leaves turn black or that grown by Mr. Smith in the Botanical Gardens brown, and rapidly fall oft*. The chief Government of Trinity College, Dublin f P/mr;«. Journ., [2], vol. x., p. inspector in Java recommends the adoption of the fol­ 549J. Professor Tiehbome said he considered the growth lowing simple measures for the suppression of the disease. of large tubers of jalap to lie a mistake, as he had —1. The hoeing up of the ground surrounding the trees always found them to be deficient in resin. Mr. Young, beyond the spread of the branches to the depth of however, said that a Calcutta firm, in ordering jalap, abot six inches, leaving the clods turned up intact. had desired to be supplied with the largest obtainable 2. The construction of ditches, or holes about eighteen tubers. It may be remarked that the tubers examined inches deep between every intermediate row of plants, were the result of Mr. Hanbury’s introduction of jalap desturbing the earth dug out proportionately over the into Jamaica in 1862.—Pharmaceutical Journal. garden. 3. In regular gardens or wherever the con­ struction of ditches is impossible, the formation of holes A m e r ic a n M a iz e i n I n d ia .—Some very successful ex­ about eighteen inches in diameter at an interval of periments in the cultivation of a few of the best speciea every four trees, dispersing the turned-up earth amongst of American maize have been conducted this year in the the plants. 4. The careful manuring of the ground at Kulu district, by the Rev. Mr. M. Carleton, who, for the distance of about a foot from the stem of each tree, some years past, has been living there. Some splendid and covering the manure with [earth.— Colonies and specimens of stalks and cobs of the different descriptions India. of maize, and large quantity of seed, lmve been sent to the Olives.—From the Colonies and India comes the news Punjab Government and district officers, and the Lieuten­ that at the Botanic Gardens of Cape Town a bushel ant-Governor, as -a mark of his appreciation of the serv­ of olives has been gathered, and in consequence of this ices of Rev. Mr. Carleton, and to encourage him in his proof that this fruit can be grown at the Cape the efforts to improve and increase the food-supply of the Stellenbosch fanners have seriously resolved to under­ Province, has given him a grant of R500. The fol­ take olive-planting as a new branch of agricultural in­ lowing particulars regarding the experiments will interest dustry. It may be hoped, therefore, that this colony many of our readers. Mammoth Dent corn, a new may soon be able to supply olive oil as good or better variety, said to yield in America, under high cultivation, than that produced in Europe. Indeed there is little reason up to 130 bushels per acres. In Kulu under fairly why our extensive colonies should not supply all the good cultivation, a crop of nearly 100 bushels per acre drugs for which at present we are dependent on other lias been grown, and the Rev. Mr. Carleton considers countries. | that this description surpasses all that he lias ever in- Ipecac.—During the present month there have been ] troduced. Blunt's Field com : this variety was introduced vffered at the drug sales in London, 5 bales of false ! last year; it bears from four to six cobs per stalk, ipecacuanha (Ionidium Ipecacuanha), false star anise | and promises well. Western white com : the Rev. Mr. {illicium relirjiosum), and a large quantity of Indian dill j Carleton introduced^ this variety four years ago, and it seed (291 bags). The last is easily distinguished from j lias done remarkably well seemingly in this country. English dill seed by being more elongated and narrower, Longfellow's Field com : this variety comes from the more convex, of a paler colour, and slightly different extreme Northern States, especially New England, and odour. Ionidium can scarcely be confounded with ipe­ is regarded as one of the most prolific of all the cacuanha, on account of its dirty white colour, branched northern varieties. It ripens very early, taking only habit and freedom from transverse annular ridges. Mark­ about seventy days to grow. The crop of this class ing nuts (Semecarpus Anacardium) and the bitter seeded was unfortunately almost entirely destroyed by monkeys. cardamom, chiefly without the husk, were also offered.— We wish the reverend gentleman every success in his Phamnaceutical Journal. experiments, which hitherto have been conducted entirely Cuprea Bark.—In Messrs. Gehe’s report for September at bis own expense. The sample cobs of com grown some startling statistics are published respecting the by him would rather siu'prise some of our Indian agri­ “ cupreaM bark that has recently acquired such import­ culturists.— Civil and Military Gazette. ance as a source of quinine, which may well raise ✓ S c ie n c e a n d I n s e c t a n d F u n g u s P e s t s .—In 1842, Steen- doubts as to the uniform character of the product that strup published his celebrated work on the ‘ Alternation of will soon appear in the market under this name. A Generations,’ in which he showed that many species are correspondent, to whom this firm applied for information, represented by two perfectly distinct types or broods, states that the district in the province of Santander, differing in form, structure, and habit; that in one of Colombia, in which this bark was originally found, is them males are entirely wanting, and that the re­ now being worked by two companies, employing between production is effected by fission, or by buds, which, them seventeen hundred men. As each man is estimated however, are in some cases structurally indistinguishable to he able to collect 20 lb. of bark daily, or equal to 8£ from eggs. Steensirap’s illustrations were mainly taken lb. of dry bark, this number of men would be able to from marine or parasitic species, of very great interest, collect iu thirty days upwards of 400,000 lb. of dry bark, but not generally familiar, excepting to naturalists. It and enormous as this quantity may appear, the con­ lias since been shown that the common Bynips or Gallfly signments being sent in by the collectors appeared to is also a case in point. It had long been known that indicate that it would be exceeded. The original “ cu- in some genera belonging to this group, males are entirely preahark yielded about 2 per cent of quinine sulphate, wanting, and it has now been shown by Bassett, and and if this harvest were of equal quality it would repre­ more thoroughly by Adler, that some of these species sent more than 8,000 lb. of quinine sulphate. In con­ are double-brooded; the two broods haring been considered firmation of these statements it may be mentioned that as distinct genera. Thus an insect known as Neuroterus during the past week 8,000 serous of “ cuprea'’ bark lenticularis, of which females only occur, produces the were imported into London. The eflect of these enorm­ familiar oakspangles so common on the under sides of ous consignments upon the price of quinine is already oak leaves, from which emerge, not Neuroterus lenticul­ felt. Messrs. Gelie also mention having received from aris, but an insect hitherto considered as a distinct the Argentine Republic specimens of the bark, leaves, species, belonging even to a different genus, Spathe- fruit, etc., of a number of plants used in that country j gaster baccarum. In Spatliegaster both sexes occur; as popular remedies. Some of these possibly may become I they produce the currant-like galls found on oaks, and objects of inquiry, so they may he briefly mentioned from those galls Neuroterus is again developed. So also here. “ Durazuillo ” (Oestrum pseudoyuina, Mart. : Sola- the King Charles oak-apples produce a species known naceaj): leaves and root hark much used in fevers and as Tetras terminalis, which descends to the ground, and bowel complaints. “ Chucn ” (Xieremheryia hippomaniea, makes small galls on the roots of the oak. From these Miers : Solanacc;c): produces cold fever in animals eat­ emerge an insect known as Biorliiza aptera, which again ing it; and Zanthoxylum Coco (Rutaceie) used as a gives rise to the common oak-apple. It might seem that remedy for the effects of “ chucu.” “ Chanar” (Gourliea such inquiries as these could hardly have any practical decorticans, Gill.: Leguminoste): fruit used in disorders bearing. Yet it is not improbable that they may lead of chest and lungs; the bark used by midwives. Z izy- to very important results. For instance, it would appear phus Mistol, Griseb.: fruit a powerful diuretic. “ Pi- that the fluke which produces the rot in sheep, passes q u illin ” (Coudalia lineatat Griseb.: Rhanumceie) : used one phase of its existence in the black slug and we are as a laxative, especially for children. Celtis Tala, Gill. not without hopes that the researches, in which our (Urticaceie): infusion of leaves used in affections of the lamented friend Professor Rollestou was engaged at the chest. Martynia montevidiensis, Cham. (Gesncraceae) : tune of his death, which we all so much deplore, will seeds used iu affections of the eye. Prosopis Tintitaco (Leg- lead, if not to the extirpation, at any rate to the uminosic): fruit diuretic. “ Topns Aire ” (Comoositfe): diminution, of a pest from which our farmers have so used in alfections of the eye.—Pharmaceutical Journal grieviously sullered.—Pharmaceutical Journal. COFFEE LEAF FUNGUS: duced why vaccination diminishes the natural liabi­ lity to infection from smallpox. MIL MARSHALL WARD’S REPORT AND MR. The cause is too subtle—the fact remains. SCHROTTKY'S EXPERIMENTS WITH 6. Holding these views I proceeded to ascertain how far the presence or prevalence of certain chemic­ CARBOLIC ACID. als in the sap of the coffee tree could produce The following correspondence has been sent to us for conditions either favourable or unfavourable to the publication:— establishment of the fungus in the stoma of the From E u g e n e C . S c h r o t t k y , to t h e H on. t h e C o l o ­ leaf or to its development. To avoid any error in n i a l S e c r e t a r y , Colombo. mistaking the cause of any observed effect, I did not S i r , —In paragraph 20 of the Cryptogamist’s third choose to let these chemicals be absorbed by the roots report on Coffee Leaf Disease, lately published as a but caused their direct absorption into the sap of Session il Paper, reference is made to experiments with the tree laterally, through the cambium cells of the carbolic acid. stem. This novel idea, in correctness of principle 1. As the short account there deals chiefly with fully accepted by local experts in vegetable chemis­ experiments that have been carried on for the last try, was, I regret to say, greatly made use of by the year under my direction and by my advice, aud as it Cryptogamist to throw doubt upon the bena Jides of is in a great measure incorrect not only in its detailed my experiments. My proceedings were said to be statements but also in its general conclusions, I have opposed to all known laws of vegetable physiology, been asked to furnish you with an authoritative presumably because “ No one has succeeded in proving account of these experiments, so that it may be that either stem or leaf can absorb water through placed on record supplementary to paragraph 20 of the their corky or cuticular coverings to an appreciable said Report. I have now the honour to do so, in extent”; (so the Cryptogamist states in his letter to justice to myself aud in the interests of your go­ Mr. Talbot, 28th January 1881). vernment and the colony. My professional work It became a question as to who was more com­ as an agricultural chemist having before this come to petent to authoritatively decide this point. It was the notice of your government with some apprecia­ definitely settled by my experiments at Holbrook” tion (vide Colonial Secretary’s letter to me of the proving that such absorption in the case of the stem 4th November 1876), I trust I shall be considered can take place to an extent that I myself would have justified in thus officially addressing you. thought almost impossible. 2. In Ihe r6snm6 of my work, addressed to the 7. Details of the inoculation experiments, their re­ Planters’ Association, I brought my experiments under sults and the general conclusions they led to, you two distinctive heads, the 1st being attempts to will find in enclosure. render the condition of the sap of the coffee tree, to As the planting public have been fully informed some greater or less extent, unsuitable for the sup­ by me that even the most promising of these ex­ port and development of the fungus, the 2nd being periments, on account of the evanescent character of experiments with topically destructive applications the effects and the danger to the tree, held out no of suitable chemicals. hope to me that I might find practical means to mitig­ 3. In his remarks on the 1st set of experiments, ate the ravages of the disease by influencing the the Cryptogamist has persisted in giving the same condition of the tree, it is difficult to understand peculiar exposition of the principles on which I why the Cryptogamist thought il necessary to refer worked and of the object I had in view, as he had to it in his report. done previously in public print, and which on that 8. You will observe from enclosure that on seven occasion was corrected both by the press aud by different estates careful observation had established professional men, who styled this said exposition as that the main effect of inoculation with carbolic unfair. acid consisted in rendering the majority of pin-spots When I commenced these experiments, I con­ barren. As every pin-spot appears capable under tended that as there were on nearly every estate a favourable circumstances of producing 150,000 spores, certain number of individual trees which, year after I think I was justified in considering the effect of year, are known, practically speaking,- not to suffer the treatment in the light of a beneficial result and from leaf disease, while the surrounding ones are as an important step in the right direction. heavily affected (all external conditions being appar­ The Cryptogamist’s statement that “ examination on ently similar), and as on the other hand there are the spot convinced him that no temporary benefits other individual trees on which the disease exists in were secured,” entirely unsupported as it is, is almost a chronic state, which are scarcely ever free from puerile in face of the large testimony of both pract­ it, though all the rest of the estate may be ical and scientific observers to the contrary. unaffected by it, these facts, I argued, furnish indirect It was of couise quite within the Cryptogamist’s evidence that there are certain unknown conditions of province to show that we were wrong in our deductions the coffee tree which are either particularly favour­ as regards these experiments, but in order to make a able or unfavourable to the development of the dis- statement like the above justifiable, he ought to have e»se. supported it by overwhelming proof, shewing :— 4. The Cryptogamist has given us no explanation of 1st. Why the non-fruiting of the majority of pin- th ese established facts well known to every planter spots on the treated areas, considering that in ad­ (he conveniently ignores their existence), and the joining untreated areas this fruiting had freely taken above arguments must, therefore, be accepted as sound place during the same period of observation, could and compatible with our present knowledge of the not be considered “ a temporary benefit.” Or life history of the fungus. His statement that 2nd. To what other cause or causes this non-fruiting he has failed to obtain any evidence of a special of the fungus on treated areas could lie attributed. predisposition of the tree to the disease cannot, of 9. It is with some reluctance that I go into these course, be taken to do away with the fact that such lengthy details regarding experiments that have led predisposition exists on the part of individual trees. to no practical results in my hands, but my object 5. Such direct evidence as the Cryptogamist seems in thus shewing that nothing worthy of the name to require to confirm facts of practical observation of proof has been advanced by the Cryptogamist will, in my opinion, never be forthcoming with our against the principles and arguments which guided present chemical and microscopical means of research, me in these said experiments is—to leave the way open no more so than any direct evidence could be pro- for some more successful experiments in this direction. 137 Any one therefore, professing to have discovered circumstances for about 8 to 10 days after each applica­ a method or means by which the condition of the tion, that further, the powder touching by nature of sap of the coflee tree can be rendered more or less its distribution the different external forms of the unsuitable to the development of the fungus, should fungus either on the leaves or scattered elsewhere not be considered prima facie undeserving of en­ about the area, as well as the vapour given off by it, couragement and of a careful trial of his method. it will have a maximum effect when there are heavy 10. The Cryptogamist then passes on to refer to dews or slight showers after the application to supply the second set of my experiments based on what he the moisture necessary for (absolute) contact, and that is pleased to term “ sounder” principles. A sa mat­ I advised not less than two applications' following at ter of fact there are no principles at all involved in an interval of ten days. these experiments. The fungus is external to a large The spores and other forms of the fungus would extent, easily accessible, and it was merely a ques­ therefore be kept, by this said treatment, in an tion of empiric trial to decide what substance or atmosphere tainted with carbolic acid for a minimum of combination of substances would destroy it without twenty days; they would be subjected to the influence affecting injuriously the coffee Iree. of condensed moisture, such as dew, or of showers of Here, it may not be out of place to mention that rain, thus enabling the powder to establish contact the cryptogamist’s prima facie rejection of metallic where it touches the spores etc. and likewise dissolv­ poisons as likely to be injurious to the roots of the ing the vaporized carbolic acid and making it effectual trees is not justified, as the scil has a peculiar power where the powder does not actually touch the fungus. of decomposing the same and thus rendering them 13. Being fully aware of these statements on my insoluble and innocuous. I have only to point out part, the Cryptogamist now describes in the paragraph that metallic poisons are constantly used for similar under comment, an experiment setting forth that purposes with no ill effect to vegetation, singling out spores subjected to the action of an atmosphere con­ the successful battle with the Colorado beeile as an taining vaporized carbolic acid for 24 hours had illustrative example. germinated and that therefore as with other reagents For the destruction of Hemileia I have selected the germinal tubes will have to be attacked with a on the basis of comparative trials with a great num­ solution of the acid. This experiment has been wrongly ber of suitable substances, (among which sulphur and quoted by the Cryptogamist aud supplies no data lime,) carbolic acid as most suitable and efficient. bearing in any way on the merits of the carbolic acid The properties of carbolic acid, it seems necessary vaporization process, as recommended by me. to reiterate, are two fold. In its concentrated and uncombined form it is highly caustic and destroys The Cryptogamist omits to use the powder which I organic compounds by breaking up their tissue ; but or others would have gladly supplied him with, he in certain combined forms or in a highly dilut d keeps the spores only for 24 hours in contact with state its causticity ceases and then its second pro­ a carbolized atmosphere, and he fails to supply the perty, that of a most powerful antiseptic even in most condensed moisture necessary for contact. attenuated dilutions, comes alrne into play. In its 14. I fail to reconcile some of the Cryptogamist’s presence no fungoid forms of certain types can develop further statements regarding the action of the powder without more or less immediate collapse, and to this on the fungus. He says : “ It is true that where is due its great efficacy as a disinfectant which has water is in contact with the powder a solution is deservedly raised it in the estimation of the public, obtained sufficiently strong to kill germinal tubes, above other disinfectants, such as sulphurous acid, but the diffusion of this over the leaf is a very slow permanganate of potash, sulphate of iron, chloride of process ” and then further on—“ but such a solution lime, etc. In employing it against coffee leaf-disease is not produced in the way described in the experi­ 1 have relied entirely on this second property ; by ments at Gleneagles, Pallekelly, etc.” using it in a combined form, I have greatly reduced It ought surely not be necessary for me to point its causticity, and by binding it in the form of a out that nature is not sufficiently prejudiced to with­ dry powder have enabled the planter to further dilute hold dew and rain, which the Cryptogamist considers it with anything suitable and to apply it in the form affords sufficient moisture to form a solution in the of dust to the trees. case of the sulphur and lime treatment, so prominently The powder is much lighter and can be applied in brought forward by him. more perfect manner than the sulphur and lime mixture. 15. There remains now only for me to deal with 11. At an early stage of my experiments I had the Cryptogamist’s opinion “ that more might be done published a description of the main composition of with some modification of the powder, if it were not this powder. The Cryptogamist kindly corrects me for the fact that the accumulated powder and solution and states : “ an intimate mixture of fine clay powder are a source of danger at the roots.” This is illustrated containing 12 to 15 per cent, of carbolic acid is mixed by an experiment, shewing that a mixture of carbolic with lime.” acid powder and lime was sprinkled round the trees, I beg to hand you the following : — then watered for three weeks and that the results were disastrous to the trees. There are, however, no Colombo, 12th November 1881, details given as to whether the ordinary carbolic E. C. Schrottky, Esq., Colo.ribo. acid powder (which is a mixture of clay and acid) D e a r S i r ,—In reply to your enquiries we beg to state that we have prepared the carbolized powder sent for or the special prepared powder as used by me has use in vr.ur experiments against coffee leaf-disease on been employed ; the age and condition of the trees ‘Peradeniya,’ 1 Pallekelle,’ ‘ Gleneagles,’ ‘ Gangapitiya,’ and are not given, nor the quantity of powder used per other estates strictly in accordance with your instructions, tree, nor the amount of water per square foot which and that tbe same would be wrongly described as a has been consumed in watering these said trees for mixture of clay and carbolic acid,—no substances of the three weeks. In the absence of these details I cannot nature of clay entering into its preparation.—We are dear further comment upon this experiment. sirs, yours faithfully, L e w i s B r o w n & Co. Suffice it to say that my experiments either on It makes of course some difference whethere mare small or large areas have yielded sufficient evidence mechanical mixture of clay and carbolic acid or a to enable me to state that there is neither now nor chemical compound of the same is employed. has there been at any previous stage the slightest 12. You will find in enclosure my statements to reason to think that the carbolized powder in the way the effect that the powder, as used by me, parts slowly and manner in which its use has been recommended with its carbolic acid in the form of vapour, that by me, has affected or is likely to affect the trees this said vapour is distinctly noticeable under ordinary injuriously through its being washed down to the roots. The nature of carbolic acid, an essential organic | observed that the fall of leaf had been less at that compound, makes an accumulation thereof in the soil, ! period than on surrounding estates and a careful impossible. j investigation was made. Leaving out details the 16. In connection with this subject the Crypto- manager writes :—“ The foregoing figures on analysis gamist says or is made to say by the printer: “(The j show that Gleneagles had lost per tree 11 leaves effects of even a diluted solution of carbolic acid at ! from disease and from 16 to 17 leaves due to other the roots are disastrous, though in the case of a large j causes; while an adjoining estatej— E . C. S.] had strong tree they be to a certain extent masked by lost per tree 82 leaves from disease, and 10 leaves other changes. But observations on whole estates from other causes. The above figures I purpose veri­ prove the same.” There is some error in this last fying some 3 weeks or one month after the next appli­ statement. No such observations have been made. cation, but they are in the present instance as cor re,; 17. I have, of course, not entered upon these ex­ as any can be, and we have satisfied our.-elves that periments without fully considering the possible effect nowhere on other portions of the estate was there a of the treatment in all its bearings and our present greater fall of leaf than on the fields selected for chemical knowledge of the properties of carbolic acid investigation. I think, therefore, there can be little in combined and uncombined forms justifies my saying doubt that if the vaporisation has not entirely eradi­ that used as recommended by me, the danger to the cated leaf disease it has prevented to a very great trees of accumululion of the said powder in the soil j extent a heavy fall of leaf.” apprehended by the Cryptogamist, is groundless. ! II. 18. As practically of more value than the above ! A neighbouring planter having seen Gleneagles remarks I have the honor to append to this the result before the treatment and having taken part in the so far of the carbolized powder treatment on two inspection writes to Messrs. Whittall & Co. 24th estates. I have selected these two estates from among June 1881:—“ 1 have been in the l-abit of seeing four on which my advice not to operate on less the coffee in the field above the road to Gleneagles than 100 acres has been taken, as sufficiently repre­ bungalow from time to time during the last year and sentative to illustrate what success and what failure ! I have often observed that this particular field was has resulted so far, if we take as a measure the I one of the parts most subject to leaf disease on Glen­ extent to which the treatment has succeeded in keeping I eagles or on the adjoining estates. Six weeks ago the area practically free from leaf-disease. j it was suffering from a very 1 ad attack and when I You will observe that even in the case of what 1 went up with Mr. Schrottky on the day of treatment, I style a failure, important beneficial results have I called his attention to the fact that here leaf dis­ been obtained and must be attributed to the mitiga- ! ease was to be found in its most acute form. I can tion of the disease by the treatment; but these are now say that this field at least seems to have been collateral benefits apart from the main question and cured by the vaporization, for I have never seen it fo r may for the present be left out of cotint. the last 12 months more free from leaf disease than I stated nearly six months ago in my resum i th a t it is at present. Begarding the comparative fall of the degree of success will depend on how and when th e leaf on estate and on Gh neagles I can only add applications are given. Experience has enabled me my sorrowful testimony that I was a witness to the now to emphasize this statement. Full details will investigation. The fact is patent that more leaves be given by me in due time, when the planting public and those mostly diseased have fallen on the untreated will rouse itself to action. In the meanwhile I may area than on parts treated by Mr. Schrottky’s method. ’ say that I can only direct and advise : the success of the treatment, if success there is to be, rests with III. the planter; and if therefore estates that have passed Mr. J. Whittall writes to Mr. Schrottky, 20th successfully through the periodical south-west monsoon September 1881:—“ I was over Gleneagles estate attack of the disease get equally well through the last week and it certainly compares favourably in north-east monsoon attack, the planting community appearance with ------, ------, and other properties will owe a debt of gratitude to those of its mem­ around ; at the same time there is no doubt it has bers who, other circums'ances as time of application also suffered badly from leaf disease.” etc., being most favourable, have successfully battled IV. the disea-e by possessing to an eminent degree the Mr. Schrottky’s report to Messrs. Whittall ft Co., two qualities, essentially necessary for a work of this j after the south-west monsoon attack of the disease k in d viz :— p a t i e n c e and perseverance . had passed away—20th October 1881 :—“ I find, gener­ The subject matter of this communication being of j ally speaking, but little leaf disease present in a considerable general interest, I have taken the liberty j vigorous, growing condition. There are sufficient of sending copies thereof to the Chamber of Commerce, I remains, however, to show that in parts of the estate the Planters’ Association and Ihe Press, for their ! the S. W. monsoon attack must have been a pretty information.—I have the honor to be, sir, your most severe one, though even now sufficient data are avail­ obedient servant, j able to prove, on comparison, that it has not been as E u g e n e C. S c h r o t t k y , j severe as on neighbouring estates, Technical and Agricultural Chemist, etc. ' “ Broadly speaking, 1 cannot say that Ihe treatment Colombo, 16th November 1881. | here has kept the disease in bounds as much as it has done, so far, on other estates, and though the weak­ APPENDIX A. | ness of the trees, where grub is prevalent, had no doubt a great deal to do with the sever­ Failure of the Carbolized Powder Treatment at Cleneagles \ ity of the attack in some parts, [ cannot, con­ Estate, Agrapatana. sidering the nature and habit of the fungus, attrib­ 1st application in May. Management changed end ute the but partial success here of the treat­ of May. Present manager writes to Messrs. W hitts 11 ment to the presence of grub. I am of opinion ft Co., June 20th, 1881 :—“ To the naked eye M r. that even with grub we can stamp leaf disease out, Schrottky’s treatment has had a very marked effect if only the treatment is systematically carried out. on the fungus...I calculate that from 70 to 75 % of j Unfortunately the change of managership and the the fungus has been destroyed; and though disco- ; continuous rain after the new manager had taken loured in places, the leaves still appear to perform | charge has stood in the way of my instructions being their functions and do not fall when the tree is ! strictly carried out here. These were originally to shaken, as in the case of diseased leaves. ” It was give three applications at about ten days’ interval; so that whatever disease may linger on through the first I. application would die out during the followin' two Extract from the visiting agent's report to Messrs. applications, before it had time to regain vigour, fruit Whittall & Co., 2th April 1881 :—“ The coffee is not and re-infect the estate. looking well, most of the wood has been spoilt with “ The three applications were given here on the 13th leaf disease.” May, 23rd June and 30th July respectively, that is II. as about five weeks’ interval, this being sufficient time for whatever percentage of the fungus had escaped First application of the carbolized powder on 21st one application, to regain vigour, fruit and spread a A pril. thonsand-fold, before the other application followed. About ten days after application: “ I examined This experience, of course, enables me now to say some of the leaves that had a bad attack on them the treatment must be carried out at a certain time (before treatment) and it appeared, as if the lime and and with a certain system and at no other tim e and carbolic was killing or eating up the fungus, and left in no other manner. This much as regards the actual the diseased patch with the same appearance, as if prevalence of the disease past and present.—The next the leaf disease insect had been feeding and sucking question we had to consider was, what has been the effect out the spores. But some seem still to have escaped." of the treatment on the trees generally ? It is with Extract from estate report to Messrs. W hittall & Co by regard to this question that we have come to a con­ 30th April 1881. L. B. v o n D o n o p . clusion which, under the circumstances, must be con­ III. sidered a most important and satisfactory one. On my very first round through the estate the manager drew “ I met Mr. Sehrottky this morning at Gungapitiya my attention to the blackening and dying back of and we examined together the r.-sults of the treatment the branches of the tr-es (due, as has been proved now, here. He considers them most satisfactory', and so far almost exclusively to the effect of leaf disease), and he as the experiment has gone, I most • certainly agree stated that this had taken place at Gleneagles to no­ w ith him . thing like the extent it had done in surrounding estates, “ In exposed places such as along roads and ridges and that a neighbouring planter observed first this trees were found very badly affected, but this it difference and pointed it out to him, the manager. appears is cm-eil by the powder [or rather its vapour,— We have verified this important fact, not only by E. C. S.] being blown away from there, as inside for general observation and comparison, but also in detail every twelve leaves affected, only on one could a living by counting the dead branches on the different fungus be found. The rest of the leaves hud a black description1* of trees ‘in the worst bit of that part of spot, where the fungus had been established. On those Gleneagles which has suffered most from grub and where the dis.-ase had only commenced, a dried up pale leaf-disease combined’ and compared result by counting yellow mark was observable but in both cases (which the dead branches on trees in similar, untreated fields. I consider most important), the leaves appeared healthy We counted on treated fields on Gleneagles on and performing their functions.” Extract from a letter average bad trees 35 primaries and secondaries that to Messrs. Whittall & Co., by L. B. v o n D o n o p . had died back. On average fair trees, an average of 31st May 1881. 9 dead branches only. At one untreated field we IV. counted on average bad trees 69 dead branches, on average fair trees, 60 dead branches, at another un­ “ The estate may be said to be free of leaf disease, treated field on average bad trees, we counted 117 dead but occasionally two or three trees are found to be branches, on average fa ir trees 78 dead branches ; as diseased ; these trees and also tho-e surrounding them the average fair trees constitute quite 75 per cent of are at once well powdered with the preparation, so as the trees in the fields we compared, Gleneagles to try and prevent it going any further.” Extract stands with regard to the dead branches on these from manager’s letter to Messrs. W hittall & Co., 11th trees as 9 to 60 at one field .and as 9 to 78 at the Septem ber. other field.’’ V. The manager, in forwarding this report, adds in a Extract from the Visiting Agent’s Report, 28th letter to the firm—21st Oct. 1881 “ The figures as regards the dying back of the branches are correct September 1881. and nowhere here have we the same extent of bare- “ Since I was last here the coffee has improved looking coffee as there is on the estates named by very much in appearance, most of it is now looking Mr. Sehrottky.” luxuriant and vigorous We scarcely saw a sign of leaf disease.” The field on Gleneagles above referred to had been manured six weeks before this "examination, and VI. the question came to be considered whether this non- ' ‘ Mr. Sehrottky arrived here this morning and we dying back of the branches might not have to be had a look round the estate. As I pointed out to ascribed to the effect of the manure. But as this Messrs. W hittall and Young on the 28th ultimo, there dying back is the work of some months, there is a little disease on the flat that adjoins the river is no room for doubt left that the benefit must be and also on two or three small patches where there is ascribed to the carbolized powder treatment.—B. C. S. heavy crop. It does not seem to have spread, and Main results :—A mitigation of the attack ; leaf dis­ the rest of the coffee may be said to be free from ease worse in adjoining estates ; collateral benefits, leaf disease. In looking back at old reports I find such as, comparatively speaking, diminished fall of that leaf disease has usually been very bad during leaves and corresponding reduction in the dying back the month of October and at tbe present time I know of branches, but failure of the main object to keep that there is a great deal of disease in the district.” leaf disease practically out of a given area. The Manager’s letter to Messrs- W hittall & Co., 10th October 1881. Success so far of the Carbolized Powder Treatment VII. at Oangapitiya Estate, Dumbara Valley. “ The trees are again beginning to throw out new The history of the estate : Rather old coffee, generally wood and the estate may be said to be practically regarded as a nest of leaf disease, reporting very free from disease.’’ Extract from manager’s letter to bad attacks twice a year, in October and January. i Mr. Sehrottky, 3rd November 1881. A CURE FOR HEMILEIA VASTATRIX? get that leaf disease has now been ravaging our coffee MR. SCHROTTKY’S EXPERIMENTS WITH for over eleven years. A decrease in the virulence of CARBOLIC ACID.* the pest, therefore, may be now confidently expected. “ There are more things in heaven ami earth than And even those who doubt the cycle theory must admit are dreamt of in our philosophy,” and amongst the ap­ that pests of a like nature, the coffee bug for instance, parently insoluble mysteries seems destined to remain have abated into comparative innocuonsness with “ effluxi­ the sudden development and rapid spread of the coffee on of time.” But, while looking for relief to ‘'time the leaf fungus in 1869. It was known that the climate healer,” judicious cultivators will not neglect any one of of Ceylon, combining almost constant moisture with the lessons which them own experience and the observa­ tropic heat, was specially favourable to the growth of tions of scientists have taught. We can understand those low forms of vegetation known to naturalists as some feeling of despairing impatience, when planters are fungi, but amongst some sixteen hundred species de­ ] told that manure they must, although with the know- scribed by Thwaites, Berkeley and other cryptogamists, i ledge that much of the manure they apply will go to not a trace of that ultimately named Hemileia vastatrix I feed the parasite instead of the plant. Culture, prun- had been discovered, until it suddenly appeared and \ ing, and application of remedies, too, must be so at­ rapidly overspread the whole expanse of cultivated coffee tended to as to induce the tree to put on and mature about twelve years ago. The new fungus was equally its foliage in advance of the period when the winds of a surprise to cryptogamists and coffee planters, and i the monsoons blow the spores on to the leaves, while Berkeley’s instincts guided him aright when he added [ the moisture of the monsoons favours the rapid germina­ to the name of this fungoid pest the same qualifying tion of such spores. The better grown the leaves on term which had previously been applied to the insect | a tree are, the better able they will be to resist the destroyer of the grape vine : vastatrix. E ach in its way ; insidious fungus. It will be gratifying to Mr. D. Morris shews how powerful for destruction very minute and i and his friends to be assured that the effect of Mr. apparently contemptible natural agencies may be. The j Marshall Ward’s extended experiments and careful re- fungus which has inflicted such terrible injury on a ; search is to confirm the value of a combination of caustic great enterprise in Ceylon and Southern India, which ; lime and sulphur, resulting in the production of sulphur­ has appeared in Sumatra and Java, and even in that ous acid gas, as a remedy for the fungus. It would far isle of the Pacific, Fiji, seems to confine itself to be “ a perfect cure,4’ if we could only apply it to every coffee. Mr. Ward has mentioned another plant on which existing spore, for certain it is that every spore which the fungus has been found, but we believe that plant sulphurous acid gas reaches, it destroys. The limit to is closely allied to the coffees. As the doctrine of spon­ total destruction is the physical impossibility of the taneous generation is out of court, we seem confined j universal application; while even such partial applica- to the conclusion (originally arrived at by Dr. Thwaites), j tions as are known to be beneficial to such areas as that up to 1869 the fungus existed on the indigenous I can be reached are limited by considerations of finance. coffees in our jungles, but in a low and latent form. | The idea that trees treated with lime and sulphur, and What cause or combination of causes, in the shape of I so cleared of leaf disease, become in their last state atmospheric or other influences, gave the fungus such ! worse than in them first seems due to the fact that a virulent activity in 1869, is, as we have said, still a i tree freed from the debilitating fungus is enabled to mystery unsolved. But all the evil effects which Mr. put on a large crop of foliage, and if that foliage is Ward attributes to wind (the worst of the triad of j not itself protected by the application of the remedy, planters’ foes: “ wind, wash, and weeds ”) may justify j the appearance of the tree when re-infected is bad iu pro- the guess that the opening up of large expanses for : portion to the number of leaves it carries. To be effectu- coffee culture favoured the rush of wind into such spaces, I al iu keeping fields of coffee or whole plantations free the moving air first passing over forest containing trees | from fungus and its debilitating effects, the envelope of infected with the fungus and carrying the spores on ; sulphurous acid gas must be kept up by frequent appliea- its wings. This is what the wind does now in career­ j tions of limi ani sulphur, at shortly succeeding inter­ ing over fields and plantations of coffee, and perhaps vals. The effect of 11 the interactions of sulphur and the most important lesson to be derived from the | freshly burnt lime on the moist leaf ” are thus enumer- elaborate reports of Mr. Marshall Ward is the necessity of i a cd in Mr. Marshall Ward’s latest—we are sorry to providing for our coffee fields that shelter of which it ! believe his last— R e p o rt:— was a mistake ever wholly to deprive them. We are j (1) The mixture is slowly continuous in action for a familiar enough with the difficulties, objections, and rea­ I long time. (2) The slowly-evolved gases distribute themselves sons which led orthodox planters to leave nothing on I rspidly by diffusion. then plantations but coffee. Of course the extensive | (3) The chief gases are very readily dissolved in water, cultivation of cinchonas on coilee estates has to some i (4) The solution formed is strong enough to kill the extent remedied the mistake which was made. But cin­ ge minal tubes, but too weak to injure the leaf. (5) The acid .solution does not concentrate to a danger­ chonas themselves require shelter, and vast numbers either ous strength, since it is con'inually beinr absorbed die out or are cut down or rooted up year by year. i by portions (4 the lime, and the compounds be.ome The time, therefore, seems to have arrived for lining off ; further oxydized to neutral or nearly neutral salts, (6) Not only are the final products harmless to the tree, plantations into moderately sized squares by means of but the chief one (sulphate of lime) is a valuable the rapidly growing eucalypti and acacias of Australia, manure. trees which combine rapidity of growth with a good (7) The mixture is simply and readily applied by coolies' quality of timber at a comparatively easy stage of growth. hands. Those who believe in the doctrine of cycles will not for- The merits of sulphur and lime being thus so great, * See Mr. Sehrottky’s letter on page 545. i it is unfortunate that the cost of purchase carnage and 138 application of these substances should be so great as to like clay, or injurious to the soil, as Mr. Ward mis­ be practically prohibitory, not only as regards frequently takenly imagined, is positively beneficial to the soil as repeated treatment, but even with respect to one applica­ a fertilizer. tion in a year. The cost of experiments ably con­ Steering clear of the controversy between the scientists ducted by the late Mr. Anton on Harrow estate ranged —one eminent as a mycologist while the other has the from E20 to R47 per acre, an average of R33-50, or no small advantage of being an experienced chemist— say £3. One thorough application of lime and sulphur, we have thus endeavoured fairly to represent the main costing £3, destroys, according to Mr. Sclirottky, only results of experiments conducted by Messrs. Marshall 40 per cent of the fungus existing on the trees. To be Ward and Schrottky. Gratitude is due to each for fully effectual the application should be repeated twice valuable additions to our stock of knowledge in regard again at short intervals, so that the cost would be raised to a painfully interesting question. Mr. Schrottky, how­ to £9 an acre. Now what Mr. Sclirottky professes to ever, claims for his carbolic acid powder superior qualities prove, in the correspondence which appeal's in today’s of cheapness and effectiveness, which, we submit, demand issue, is, that carbolic acid, in the form in which he attention not only from planters, who are so deeply applies it, while not open to the objections stated by Mr. interested, but from the Government to which Mr. Ward, either as regards destruction of tissue or injury Schrottky’s paper is directly addressed. Before Mr. to soil, is effectual in destroying, by one thorough applica­ Marshall Ward leaves the island, we trust that he, in tion, 70 per cent of the fungus at a cost of only R5 conjunction with Drs. Trimen and Thwaiies, and per­ to R7 per acre, say an average of R6, or less than one- haps some other naturalists or men of science, may be sixth the cost of lime and sulphur. Three applications requested to aid a committee appointed by the Planters’ of carbolic acid powder would cost only R18, and Mr. Association, in thoroughly testing by a complete set Schrottky, as we understand him, insists on three applica­ of experiments the correctness or otherwise of tbe effects tions at intervals of ten days to ensure perfect success, which Mr. Schrottky claims for carbolic acid powder as the area operated on not being less than 100 acres. We prepared for him. The preparation being very different have gone over the whole question in conversation with to that which Mr. Marshall Ward, under a natural enough Mr. Schrottky, and lie seems confident of his position. misapprehension, condemned, there can he nothing incon­ Injection of the acid into the cambium of the plant, sistent in his taking part in the proposed enquiry. he admits to have been in his hands a failure, while he But, if all that Mr. Storek of Fiji alleges can be docs not abandon the principle involved. But for applica­ substantiated, then a perfect cure for Ilemileia vastatrix tions of his powder, repeated as indicated, he claims has been already discovered in that island of the south perfect success. And we understand him to claim for to which we sent the coffee fungus with the coflee seed. his application an effect which Mr. Ward has denounced We in Ceylon are not too proud to receive good in as impossible. The Government Cryptogamist insists return for evil, and we shall look with very deep interest that nothing (short of the destruction of the leaf, of for the advent of Mr. Storck, who thus writes to the course) can destroy the fungus once it is lodged in the F iji T im es:— intercellular tissue. Mr. Schrottky contends that his S i r ,—In contiuation of former publications on the subject remedy prevents fructification in such cases: the im­ of coffee leaf-disease, I wish to communicate another short paper with a view of dispelling certain incorrect portance of which fact may be estimated from this impressions held by the general public, and which are other, that out of one stoma may come 150.000 spores. even shared by experienced planters, who might have As we understand Mr. Schrottky, the effect of his remedy . been expected to know better. The most widely dis­ on the affected leaf is that not one of the possible seminated and at the same time most discouraging belief with coffee planters, consists in the erroneous notions on 150,000 spores lives to emerge. All this he says his the term of life enjoyed by the units of the fungus, experiments have proved, and, if he is correct in his facts which is in reality very short. Leaving on one side all and deductions, we need not dwell on the importance of microscopical and physiological speculations, we may con­ sider the red rust appearing on the under side of a the issue. In the course of a long conversation, in which diseased coffee leaf as a mass of seeds, which practically our enquiries were very searching, Mr. Schrottky revealed speaking, partake more or less of the nature of any to us the composition of his powder. He did not enjoin other seedling. secrecy, but we do not feel at liberty without his per­ It is a fact sufficiently well established by scientific men, and other close observers of nature, that Hemileia Vastat­ mission to publish the constituents of the powder, almost rix lives and preys upon no others but the coffee plant, impalpahly fine, which he employs. It is prepared ex­ just as Botrytis Infestans confines itself 4o the potato, pressly for him by Calvert’s firm, and we may say that j and Oidium Tuckerii to the grape vine. Of the number­ less spores of the coffee fungus, thousands of millions alight the absorbing substance is not clay, while the proportion upon uncongenial bodies, whether organic or inorganic, of acid is far less than that contained in the common there germinate and perish for want of congenial food preparation which Messrs. Lewis Brown & Co., Calvert’s and shelter. Comparatively few only reach the under side agents, advertise as “ 15 per cent powder.” This means of a coffee leaf, and finally succeed in finding their way through by means of their germs into the cuticle of the that 15 per cent of carbolic acid, which is in the nature leaf and there establishing a new root-stalk or mycelium. of an alcohol, is in this case mixed with clay. When the Were the natural propagation of the fungus not so pre­ acid goes off in the form of gas, which it gradually will carious, no coffee plant could live where it is once habilit­ when exposed, the inert clay will remain, and, obviously, ated. The spores are said by scientists to germinate within from one (?) to seventeen days, and this space its effect on coffee soil would be almost nil. In the case practically determines the extreme age of a spore under of Mr. Schrottky’s powder, the acid is not only far less natural conditions. A great deal has been made of the in proportion to the solid matter than 15 per cent (so circumstance of spores of the fungus having been kept and their vitality preserved in letters, that means be­ that while fatal to the fungus it does not destroy leaf tween dry paper, for two years, and which is quie tissues) but the residuum, instead of being merely inert likely. The spores of ferns, especially similar to those of fungi and other crytogamous plants, have been known clean them. He had also a smaller manual machine to germinate when kept under similar conditions between costing only £60, but unsuitable for a regular factory. the sheets of an herbarium after more than twenty years ; 4. Laberie and Bertliet’s machine crushed the stems, but the same spore under natural conditions, within the which were kept constantly wetted ; the fibre was then influence of the moisture and temperature of their native steeped in a bleaching liquor and an alkaline liquor. soil and atmosphere, must within a certain time germin­ ate and take root or else perish. 5. J. Cameron abandoned the machines described in When, some eighteen months ago, a certain area of his specification, and brought a hand implement. coffee plantation was destroyed, there were a number of 6. C. F. Amery broke the stems in a crushing machine, stumps left in the ground. They were stumps of old boiled them in an alkaline solution, and again passed coffee trees mostly, sluggish in vegetation, and slow to them through the breaking machine. produce new growth; they all made a start after a while 7. C. E. Blechynden steamed the stems, peeled them and grew up free of disease, and coutinue so to this day. by hand, and then beat them by hand with mallets. This plainly shows that before the new vegetation had The reports of the experts upon all the samples turni d formed sufficiently to afford a home for the disease, the out by the competitors concur in placing them far below fungus had actually died out for want of food. the fibre imported into England from China, -which is Based upon the above mentioned facts and my own valued at £50 a ton. The most favourably received observations, I started my several experiments, and I samples were Nagoua’s, described as containing “ some claim to be the first to have reduced the treatment of Hemileia Vastatrix to a rational system, the pursuit of good fibre, and fairly marketable,” and valued at £26 which has so well rewarded me with unqualified success. a ton; and three lots from Cameron priced at £15, £18, I would rather now deal with the coffee fungus than with and £11 a ton respectively. One of Cameron’s samples a bad weed. was approved of as being the best as far as freedom An attack of leaf-disease lasts from seven to ten weeks, from bark was concerned; but the fibre was broken and nor would the treatment of it last longer, provided there tangled, would never give so large a yield of silver as was no chance of re-infection from outside of the area Nagoua’s, and the silver would not be so long. The treated. brokers say that none of the sanmles are nearly up to But unless the treatment becomes general and simultane­ the requirements. Nagoua’s is the only one which ous throughout the country, both in the plantations of could be used for China -grass purposes, and this would white proprietors and the nurseries and patches planted only sell freely in a market bare of the regular article. by the natives, it will have of necessity to be permanent, Accordingly, the prizes originally offered will not be for which my method is eminently adapted. Should how­ awarded, but certain of the competitors are recom­ ever the Colonial Government adopt my treatment with a view to making its application general, I would under­ mended for smaller grants. The lesser value placed take to stamp the disease out iu this country as com­ upon Vander Ploeg’s fibre is attributed to the fact that pletely as if it had never been here. Kill all the spores he aimed at producing it in a finished state fit for the as fast they form and what must be the result ? Once more spinner, and not to the inability of his machines* to let me assure your readers that size and numbers of areas compete with Nagoua’s and Cameron’s. It is also re­ to be treated makes not the least difference to me. I marked that Cameron’s process is but an improvement undertake to cure, and keep clean for ever after, any or upon native methods current in India, and such as is all of them, at moderate cost.—I am, etc., applied in many of the Indian gaols for extracting aloe J a c o b P. S t o r c k . fibre; it can be employed upon green or dry, short or Upper Rewa, Sept. 9th, 1881. long stems, but would hardly be applicable on a planta­ It will be seen that Mr. Storck is ready to extirpate tion where many acres had to be cleared quickly. the disease from the island. If the larger design is not Therefore the recommendations are 5,000 rupees each to Nagoua and Vander Ploeg, and 1,000 to Cameron. encouraged, then he says ho can “ undertake to cure, and The committee conclude that, from the low valuation keep clean forever after, any or all [areas of whatever put upon the samples produced at the competition, it size], at moderate cost.” If any man—whether his name does not seem probable that the Indian product will is Schrottky or Storck—can fulfil the promise so expressed, yet be able to compete with the Chinese. But if the he will go down to posterity as the greatest benefactor plant can be grown in the moist climate and rich soil of the coffee enterprise and of coffee planters in the of parts of Burma, Upper Assam, and eastern and Oriental and Austral portions of the world; for the northern Bengal, with oidy the ordinary care required for a rather superior crop, it may possibly succeed effects of the coffee pests have to be gauged not merely commercially. Until this has been satisfactorily proved, by ruined fortunes but by blighted lives and broken hearts. and a real need has arisen for effective modes of treatment, the Government has no intention of renewing CHINA GRASS DRESSING MACHINES. the offer of prizes ; and will content itself with maintaining some acres of the plant under cultivation, for supplying B y C. G. W a r x f o r d L o c k . roots to intending growers. (-Journal of the Society of Arts, 21st October 1881.) Thus, even after much experience has been gained in I have just received from the Agricultural Depart­ the matter, and with every incentive to success, the ment of the Indian Government a report on the trials machinists of Europe are compelled to confess their of the China grass machines,* which was intended for complete inability to match the manual work of the incorporation in the article on “ Fibrous Substances ” Chinese. It may be incidentally remarked that out of in Spons* “ Encyclopaedia.” It has arrived too late for the seven competitors, no less than four departed from this purpose, but will probably interest readers of the their proposed plans, these four including all the English. Journal. This fact seems to indicate an imperfect previous The seven competing processes may be thus briefly acquaintance with the material to be treated, and d escribed:— amounts to an acknowledgment at the eleventh hour 1. J. P. Vander Ploeg’s appliances consisted of a crush­ that they had been working in the wrong direction. ing and a scutching machine: he cleaned the fibre finally This may probably help to account for their backward­ by boiling it in a prepared liquor. ness. On the other hand, of the remaining three, two 2. J. Nagoua used a combined crushing and scutching (the Frenchmen) have presumably not neglected to ex­ machine, adaptable to both operations. perim ent upon the plant "which is under cultivation in 3. R. H. Collyer boiled the stems first in water with the south of France, and they are in fact already well a very little soda, then passed them through a machine known among Continental textile machinists. The which broke them up, and again through the same to moral of this is the necessity for further experiment * See page 179 of the T . A.— E d . on the part of English machinists. generally looked healthy, and I do not think more had gone bad than the usual percentage resulting from natural causes. Near the bungalow I was shown a few trees of vigorous coffee, which I was told had been treated (The Editor of the “ Tropical Agriculturist Six times with the mixture during the last ten months. On these I found abundant healthy leaf disease. On LEAF DISEASE IN LOWER MAT ALE. the other hand, I found one redeeming promising point-. Lower Matole, 20th Nov. 1881. There seemed to be no fresh fall of the leaf, and, con­ sidering the comparative less vigour of the trees, one D e a r S i r ,— During December and January last, the coffee hereabout suffered very much from a severe and would have expected to find a very considerable fall. prolonged attack of leaf disease. The ground became Still, it does not follow, that this absence of fall is a thickly covered with fallen leaf, the denuded branches result1 of the Sehrottky treatment. The time for the blackened and died oft, while a very fine blossom, which fall then may not have yet come, or it may be retarded had previously seemed to have set well in the most by some unknown natural cause, or it may have taken favourable weather, also blackened and died off. In place some time ago. Nevertheless, there is the fact, and fact, on my return after a few days’ absence, the coffee Mr. Sehrottky is entitled to make the most of it. If at a looked as if a fire had passed over it. In this forcing small cost we can only manage to prolong the attach­ climate, however, the coffee with a good pruning quickly ment of the leaf, the benefit would be enormous, and recovered, and though the crop is moderate and late, would give promise of hope for something further. But, yet till the other day I have never since seen any so far as the warding off of the disease, his system, I appreciable leaf disease, while the trees have been better fear, is practically a failure. and more largely clothed with leaf and wood than I have I think it was this gentleman who reminded us that known them to be for many years back. A few days one fact was better than a dozen theories. Let him ago, however, I noticed leaf disease rather bad hero then come up and study these facts, instead of wasting and there in all stages, while in parts there had been a his jim e theorizing on paper to Government. I wish rather heavy fall of leaf, particularly on trees that had him every success, partly for my own interests, and cropped well. I may mention that the latter part of partly because he has worked away at the practical the S.W. and the early part of the N.E. monsoons have part, and mainly at his own expense. Whereas, at the been very showery, but that the coffee is very little country’s expense, Mr. Ward has laboured diligently for exposed to the wind of either monsoon: of the latter the scientific world. Any practical suggestions made by monsoon there has as yet been hardly a breath. The him have been little more than a re-warming of the soil is good, the coffee well cultivated, and is quite an recommendations of others. Shortly after his arrival he average for lowcountrv, the elevation being from 1,200 told me, that, if he found he could do the planters no good, he would pack up and be gone. ’T is a‘ pity that to 1,500 feet. Returning home yesterday morning, I thought I would he only found out this sorry result, just as his tenn pass through an estate in the neighbourhood which I of engagement was about to expire. As he is if any­ knew had been systematically “ schrottkied,” just to com­ thing more confident and dogmatic than Mr. Morris was, pare notes. This estate is in all respects very similar it is to be hoped that his “ life history,” when he is to this, though perhaps not so well cultivated as regards gone, will not also be found wanting; but when one thinks weeding and pruning, but under Mr. Schrottky's direc­ of host plants and the imperfectly followed up class tions, the whole of its coffee was treated with his pow­ of spore, one feels not merely practically unbenefited, der. Later on I understand this was done a second but also scientifically doubtful.—Yours truly, time, and that, besides, any trees showing signs of disease A. G. K. BORRON. had one or two other applications. Mr. Ward may per­ haps be interested in hearing that early in the year the fallen coftee leaves were carefully collected and burned J a m a ic a . — T he Gleaner complains that the export all over the estate. I would just further add that tins of walking-sticks threatens the extinction of the pi­ property, like my own, is well surrounded with chenas mento, from which such canes are cut, the negroes and paddy-fields, with the exception maybe of a few s ealing them from the pimento walks. The island still small coffee gardens. escapes the yellow fever now racing in other West As I approached the estate, I perceived a very fine Indian Colonies. Sir Anthony Musgrave has contra­ coral plant clearing, but, on passing through it, I dis­ dicted a report that he would be immediately succeed- covered this was merely shade and shelter for chocolate I ed in the Governorship by Sir Henry Irving. The and Liberian of all ages, from three years downwards. ! port of Havana (Cuba) has been declared infected.— I was sorry to notice a little leaf disease both in the Colonies and India. pin-spot and germinating stages on several of the Libe­ rian plants, and some rather bad on a few younger speci­ T e a F a r m .— T he American Groeer speaks as follows mens. As I reached the store, I observed a large pile of an experimental tea farm started by the United of empty barrels, which I concluded had brought up the States Government :—'The Commissioner of Agricul­ mixture. Round about I saw a good deal of very vigor­ ture, Hon. W. G. LeDuc, has recently leased for ous looking coffee, which, after careful examination, twenty years two hundred acres of land to be used seemed to be practically free from disease. As, how­ as an experimental tea farm It is situated at Sum­ ever, I have such patches on my own unschrottkied merville, c'. C., twenty-two miles north-w st of Char­ place, I determined to advance, and I very quickly came leston on the line of railway running from Charleston upon coffee with the fell disease in all its glory, in all j to Augusta. Lands were first examined in Florida its stages, quite as bad as anything I have. And yet j in the vicinity of Jacksonville and along the St. this coffee had been several times treated with Mr. : John’s River as far as Pahttka. Tea plants that had Schrottky's mixture, the last as late as last month or been furnished by the D partment were found grow­ early in this, and the foliage was even yet largely covered ing in a thrifty manner. The farm in South Caro­ with the mixture. The pest seemed chiefly in the fruit­ lina is to be placed in charge of an expert whose ing stage, and the spores appeared to be remarkably ! experience was acquired in tea cultivation in India. healthy and well-coloured. One little collection of spores The Commissioner is firm in the belief that tea cul­ had several particles of the mixture right on the top ture can be made a profitable industry in the United of them, so that apparently the filament had grown Stat s. There would be a better chance for success right out of a stoma and fruited, quite unaffected by were the enterprise not dependent upon the whims the little pile of mixture over or near. The pin-spots of Congress.”—Produce Markets Review. SotrLSpcmdenoe. WHAT IS GOOD PARCHMENT COFFEE ? October 26th, 1881. To the E ditor of the Ceylo?i Observer. D e a r S i r , —I have often noticed that coffee dealers, as well as some merchants, prefer the white parch­ SALT FROM THE NIPA PALM. ment coffee to the reddish parchment. Old experienced Colombo, 21st Oct. 1SS1. hands will not be guided by that as a test for good D e a r S i r ,—In recent numbers of the Tropical Agri­ parchment. The cherry, when half ripe, will give the culturist, Messrs. W. Ferguson and M. Cochran gave whitest parchment; but the bean is not heavy, and interesting descriptions of the production of lime very often not full, whereas the reddish parchment from the kumbuk tree. The following extracts regard­ is a sign that the cherry was very ripe on the trc > ing the manufacture of salt from Ihe nipa palm before being plucked: the bean is full, heavy and may also, perhaps, be deemed worthy of insertion.— good in colour. There is. however, a discoloured Yours, KAROLY FURDO. parchment, more of a greyish colour, which has been too long allowed in fermenting cisterns, or in heaps, “ On the left bank (of the R. Abai Borneo), there are and has a musty smell. It is difficult to say how two small branches, Gading and Paka Paka, inhab­ it may turn out.—Yours truly, PARCHMENT. ited, the Data (chief) said, by some villager of Ida’an. There appear to be but few people living on this river, or rather saltwater creek. Three very ENEMIES OF CEARA RUBBER SEED. small hamlets, containing altogether about thirty Allagalla, Kadugannawa. houses, were all I saw. There are numerous sheds D e a r S i r , —I can add another enemy to the Ceaia for making salt, which appears to be the principal rubber seed. I have my Gear a seed, which have industry of the Bajus. The manufacture is conducted been previously dipped in kerosme oil, planted in as follows :—Great heaps of the root of the nipa bamboo pots in my store. One morning, 1 noticed two palm, that always grows in salt or brackish water, or three seeds had been removed. On that evening I are collected and burnt; the residue is swept up examined the pots again, and saw that every pot con­ and thrown into half-filled pans, where the ashes tained its seed. The next morning, on ex imination and small particles of wood are separated and the I found 21 seeds had disappeared. On a closer water boiled ; a coarse bitter salt is the result. It examination, I found in one or two pots the foot print is not disagreeable after a little use, and I much of a rat, and, a short distance from where the pots prefer it to the common article brought from Siam, were, the husks of eight or ten seeds broken into and generally sold in these countries. The natives small pieces. I think that there can be no doubt that of the north seldom use the imported salt, except the rats carried away the seeds.—Yours faithfully, for preserving fish, whereas towards Sarawak, the Wm A. F. MURRAY. Siamese is rapidly taking the place of that procured P.S.—If a lighted lantern is hung over the pots all from the nipa palms.” night, the rats will keep at a distance. “ The nipa palm is indeed a blessing to the natives ; as we have seen they make a salt from the ashes BEES AND COFFEE BLOSSOMS. of the root; they extract a coarse sugar from the stem : they cover in their houses with the leaf: from the S ir ,—I t is to be hoped that any of your upcountry last also they manufacture the mat called kejang, readers, who may have experienced visits of swarms with which they form the walls of their houses, and of bees to their coffee estates during blossoming time, the best awning in the world for boats, perfectly will not hesitate to attempt to throw some light upon water-tight, and well-adapted to keep out the rays the question mooted by one of your correspondents, of the sun. The cigars are rolled up in the fine who seems to attribute our successive short crops to inner leaf, and a native could doubtless tell of a the yearly decreasing swarms of bees, brought about dozen other uses to which it is put. In ascending by the denudation of forests, and the introduction rivers, there is nearly always deep water near the nipa, of wide expanses of coffee plantations, which burst but shallow near the mangrove.” into flower only very occasionally. “ The banks of the Kabataun, except near the In addition to the suggested planting up of one entrance, were entirely of mangrove swamp, until we per cent of never-ceasing flowering shrubs (intended arrived within a short distance of the scattered vil­ as a playground, in turn, for the different hives of lage of Menggatal, but from our boat we could see bees, until the bursting ot" the big coffee blossoms, the sloping hills that rose almost immediately when the whole army would simultaneously be set behind the belt of mangrove. The first buildings we free and sent to the front), I consider it would be saw -were those in which the natives were making necessary to plant up, say, five per cent of the acreage salt. I have already described the process pursued with Coorg, Mysore, Neilgberry, Liberian, Jamaica, in the Abai, but here it was somewhat different, as or even Brazilian coffee trees. These would, no doubt, they burnt the roots of the mangrove with those of blossom at the same time as the originally planted the nipa palm, as well as wood collected on the sea- trees, which, from their interminable in-and-in treatm en t, beach, and therefore impregnated with salt. In one have arrived at their present almost unfru itfu l stage. place, I noticed a heap, perhaps fifteen feet in height, The bees would assist quickly to distribute the new sheltered by a rough covering of palm-leaves, and and invigorating pollen, and help to bring us back once several men were about checking all attempts a rain nearer to the much-wishedfor of the flames to burst through by throwing salt­ ROUND MILLION, water over the pile. This, doubtless, renders the [One scientific authority says “ Bees certainly help process much more productive. In one very large shed, they had a kind of rough furnace, where they burnt to fertilize coffee blossom, but there are other agencies the wood : and suspended around were many baskets in at work to bring about the same thing, if tbe flower which the rough remains of the tire are placed, and is healthy.” But an old Kelebokka planter remarks : — the whole soaked in water, and stirred about till the salt “ Bees are all nonsense for coffee estates, as each is supposed to have been extracted from the charcoal coffee blossom contains all the organs of fructification and ashes. The liquid is then boiled, as at Abai, within itself. It is quite possible that a bee might in large iron pans purchased from the Chinese.”— carry the pollen of a healthy tree to a weakly one Life in the Forests of the Far East, by Spencer St. John, and so improve the seed, but it is just as likely that —E d .] f . r .g . s . f . e . s . j vol. I. pp. 233, 287. (1862.) the order of things might be reversed.” 139 COFFER CULTIVATION AND MANURIJNG. have much risk of ruining their properties, if they No. I. do not apply it, I must join issue with him on his Kotmale, 28tli Out. 1881. statement that “ this was one of the most favourable blossoming seasons we could have wished for.” I take Dkar 8ir,—The ligurea you append in your foot­ it for granted that, like myself, he is referring mainly note to my letter of the 6th only convince me of the to Dimbula. If so, facts are stubborn things. I chal­ absolute inu'ility of promiscuous manuring, and show lenge him to deny any of those I no* beg to lay at a glance that coffee was not kept up by manures before you. to any appreciable extent ; contrariwise rather. I note As a rule, the blossom bursts in Dimbula aud that 224.000 cwt. manures came upcouiitry in 1874, Kotmale some two days earlier than in Lindula aud and that the crop of the following season, that end­ the Agras. On one of our early blossoms, Dimbula ing 30th Sept., 1875, was the largest ever gathered, and Kotmale had a good show all round, and a little that, in fact which most nearly approaclu-d the round later the rain came just when it was wanted to set million, viz., 968,694 cwt. In the years under notice the blossom. In Lindula and the Agras, it fell the the young districts were mostly just being planted, day the blossom burst, and ruined the bulk of it. and thousands of acres of coffee there contributed Another blossom set well on Carlabeck, but not on to the crop of 1877-76, which, notwithstanding that Langdale, i or lower down the valley, simply because estates had all the advantages derivable from 548,000 Carlabeck, being nearer the ridge dividing us from c vt. manures sent up from Colombo only reached U va, got rain ju s t in thei, nick of tim e, w hile it did a total of 620,292 cwt. I hope I may be disap­ not fall on Langdale, nor lower down, i notlier blos­ pointed <>f my fears. Certainly just now everything som set well on Langdale and Carlabeck, but not much is couleur de rose. Even here it is possible to get a lower down, as rain fell on the upper places where whole bushel picking no.v and again. Should this needed, and did not fall much lower down. promising state of affairs continue, and tho crop of These facts are inexplicable on the theory that the 1881-82 equal or exceed that of last season, then, season was good, and the fault lies only in the want sir, «e mns: conclude that, all the treatment coffee of manure. In the first case, many unmanured places, requires is to be let alone, or, at l-ast, to be not so but otherwise in good heart, set the blossom better hacked about md cut up with knife, mamoty and than on manured places farther up. In the second, fork, as in past years. That planters, as a body, do the better manured estates of the two named did not not anticipat- such luck as non-decreasing crops, set its blossoms as well as the other which got the their general thick-planting of cinchonas in the coffee rain. In the third case, wTi:h much the same rainfall, adequately proves ; aud your papers of next year will, on all healthy coffee the blossom eet much the same in such happy event as suggested, bristle with letters on both places, but I have no doubt the manured on the question of which to stick to, which to abandon. coffee will stand its crop best.—Yours faithfully, Perhaps that old judgment of Solomon may settle the matter. E . H E E L IS . Mr. Holloway's experiments are of great interest. Perhaps Ins soil is somewhat better (more soil-y) and his climate less unsuitable, where such good results 28th October 1881. are obtained. Would Mr. Holloway guarantee such D f , a r S i r , —There is nothing like muck, and w'ere our good returns as Maria and Eriagastenne give him soil in that mucli-to-be desired condition where a heavier from any young estate, say in Dimbula or Dikoya, outlay need not be incurred by frequent applications given tha he had the charge of such estate, and full of infinitesimal doses than by manuring once a year discretion allowed him in that position ? with the ordinary dose, one would be prepared to admit As for Mr. Sinclair's perpetual petty-manuring there was something to be done. Coffee estates were, scheme, as he says, the cost is enough to prevent its however, unfortunately cast in a different mould to general adoption on trial. The first proposition of flower gardens, and the excessive cost would there­ the axiom he adduces (in the last paragraph but fore alone be sufficient to condemn the whole theory, one of his letter) is a, most fallacious one for promis­ even if labor were so abundantly plentiful as to enable cuous mannrers as it stands. I would amend it thus : one to manure the whole of an estate once a fortnight. “ if it be remunerative to cultivate (i.e. to grow coffee) Experiments on the bungalow field or some such without manure, then with manure,” containing those favored spot are most unreliable. I neither believe in coffee plant foods in which the soil is more or less nor advocate the present low diet our seedy friend deficient, “ it will be more so.”— “ Manure” is a vague is being subjected to, as if to test how little he can term.—Your statistical croaker, pull through on, but one must cut his coat accord­ POST TENEBRAS LUX. ing to his cloth, Where manuring can be indulged [We need only remark : there are not a few old in, let it be done rationally and as economically as coffee estates in the country which have uniformly possible, and all such clever, expensive experiments year by year, witli scarcely an exception, even to the left to those who can afford them. We have got so present time, given a paying return, and this is at­ | accustomed to bad seasons that we can listen quite tributed simply to judicious systematic ‘ manuring. ’ i resignedly to a thunderstorm on the top of our best It is au ‘axiom’ with not a few' agents and pro­ j blossom, and before crop is over even forget all about prietors now, “ no manure ; no crop”—(that is, crop I it! What is a worn-out estate ? “ One with surface to cover expenditure). That manuring of recent soil all «ashed away. Q. E. D. ! This is also some­ years does not give the same results as in olden thing new, but don’t you believe it, for there are times, and also that a great deal of money is often many estates in some of the older districts with as wasted in manure, may be very true, but that does fertile subsoil a couple of feet below the surface as not affect the general question of the value, nay, many estates higher up ever had on it.—Yours truly, the necessity for liberal cultivation in the present SCEPTIC. d a y .— E d .] COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE. N o. II. D e a r S i r ,—May I, through the medium of your Langdale, Lindula, 27th Oct. 1881, columns, ask Mr. Marshall Ward if he has ever suc­ D k a r S i r , — While fully agreeing with Mr. Sinclair, ceeded in producing Ilemileia vastatrix by the contact that coffee can, as a rule, only be made to pay now- of a diseased leaf with a perfectly healthy plant ? a-days by means of manure, and that those interested Also, if the disease was so propagated, if the healthy plant was wholly affected by the disease or only , very neatly by Mr. Zoyza who has charge. My locally affected, that is only when the healthy plant 1 object in writing is not to describe the gardens, but had been brought in contact with the diseased leaf ? j to draw attention to the fact that from 150 to 200 A gentleman told me ivcently in Dikoya that he i thousand Liberian coffee plants are likely to be wasted, had fastened a leaf rich with the so-called spores I There are this number, I believe, in the nursery beds, back to back with a leaf of a tree free from disease and the price per 1,000 is put down in the list at without the latter being in any way affected. Can | R30! Private individuals are advertizing Liberian it be that the gentleman in India is after all cor­ j coffee plants at from 111 2'50 to R15 per 1,000, and rect, that the orange dust is the excreta, and that I yet, in gardens opened for the purpose of introducing the disease is to be looked for in the filaments of and distributing new products, the price is simply the mycelium only? The filaments would, I should i prohibitory to the natives. I do not know what steps, think, be conveyed by the wind from place to place if any, have been taken by the Government Agents as readily, if not more easily, than the spore dust. of the Western, North-Western, Central, and Southern INQUIRER. Provinces (Eastern, North-Central, and Northern, I con­ P. S.—It may be asked : what is the object of this sider too dry) to introduce the cultivation of this inquiry ? Well, simply this, that, if the red dust is plant amongst the villagers. Like all Easterns, the innocent, any hope for remedy must be the destruc­ Ceylonese are very conservative, and slow in adopting tion of the mycelium, and not merely that of the any new thing. It is therefore incumbent upon the affected leaves. Mr. Morris, I think, found the ground authorities to use a little effoit in endeavouri< g to shew under diseased trees, as also the stems and branches the people the advantages they will derive from grow­ of the trees, covered with mycelium. ing Liberian coffee to replace the Arabian, which has P. P. S.—Inquiries have adduced the fact that far ! died out altogether in the villages of many districts. fewer bees have been seen of late years about ! Coffee was the stay of the villager. From it he the estates than formerly, due probably to the I purchased clothes, saltfish and other commodities des'ruction of forests. ■ that he needed, and had a few rupees to put by. [Mr. Mare hall Ward affouls an answer, in his Report I Now numbers of them can hardly get one meal per to our correspondent’s enquiry, as follows:— | day to eat. Some years ago, it was a difficult “ How long a period is required, and what conditions | thing to get Sinhalese to do any work but by are necessary for the germination of the papillate spore ? ! contract. Now, let it only be known that labor is “ I find that a spore of H em ileia is capable of germ­ ; wanted, and you are inundated with men and boys ination immediately after its complete formation on I at from 25 to 33 cents per day; and, in some districts, the disease spot, and that in 12 to 24 hours after its gangs of women go regularly to weed and do other removal from the ‘ rust ’ patch to a healthy leaf works on estates : shewing plainly the poverty of the it may throw out its germinal tube : the conditions pcopL. No doubt bad seasons for paddy and dry necessary for this aie the presence of water, oxygen, grin a have had a good deal to do with this state of and a sufficiently high temperature. If the mature spores i matters, but it is greatly aggravated by their having be gathered dry and kept dry and cool for some time, I nothing to fall back upon. To return from this digres­ no change occurs during that time ; nevertheless, spores sion. A large number of the Liberian coffee plants thus kept for six weeks in a closely-stopped dry tube in the Henaratgoda gardens are almost too large for germinated. In close covered cells, again, where the transplanting with success, and very shortly will parts were sealed with wax, I have sometimes found simply be of no use : it seems a great, pity that this germination delayed, or even altogether prevented. should be. The gist of this letter is to suggest that Funlly, in cases where coffee on flats has become Government, through the different agencies, should chilled or ‘frosted’ by excessive radiation, the spores (imitating the example of that enterprizing native gen­ of Hemileia may be found destroyed in large numbers. tleman, Mr. J. P. William) distribute gratis all the “ The >um total of observations indicates that germina­ Liberian coffee plants they have, as, even if they tion occurs most rapidly in a warm, damp, steamy reduce the price, I do not think they will get pur­ atmosphere on the surface of vigorous young leaves. chasers,—at any rate, for any appreciable number, Under these favourable circumstances, germination is as there seems very little demand for them just now. commonly completed and the tubes have begun to enter No time should be lost, as there is only about one the stomata within 48 hours from the moment of sowing. month more of this monsoon in which it will be “ Germination—i.e., the swelling of the spore, and safe to plant. If my suggestion is adopted, the natives protrusion of one or more germinal tubes—may ap­ to whom they may be given should be strongly parently take place anywhere and on any surface, impressed with the necessity of planting in the open, and provided the necessary conditions of moisture, &c., are shading well till thoroughly rooted. When once estab­ fulfilled ; and it is a fact that myriads of tbe spores lished, the plants cannot have too much sun. If planted germinate on substances other than a coffee leaf, only amongst jak, kekuna, coconuts &c., as was the custom to shrivel up and die at the completion of the process. to do with Arabian coffee, their labor will be in vain, Experiments already quoted in previous reports show as they will grow up like areka palms, and hardly that this is true for glass slips, and I have demonstrated , fruit at all. the same for cloth, soil, and rocks on estates, &c. But, perhaps, Dr. Trimen may have an idea that, if “ Where germination occurs on a living coffee-leaf, there is no sale just now for the plants, there may be however, the tube does not thus die, but enters a by- md-bye for stumps. The sooner this idea is got stoma, and forms the mycelium as described above.” rid of the better. Liberian coffee stum ps ivill not grow. —E d . I had heard this before but did not believe it, and so risked 3,000 very fine large plants to test it. The plants were pulled and stumped one evening, and GOVERNMENT GARDENS IN CEYLON. planted out next day in most favorable weather— WHY NOT ISSUE LIBERIAN COFFEE, COCOA, AND such weather as Arabian coffee stumps would have CINCHONA PLANTS FREE TO THE VILLAGERS WHO SHOW reveled in—and the result has made me a wiser man.

THEIR EAGERNESS TO CULTIVATE BY STEALING PLANTS ? In three months more than half had died, and the rest simply existed, witli here and there one or two THE CULTIVATION OF LIBERIAN COFFEE. | that seemed likely to do well. At Kalutara I was 29th October 1S81. I shewn portions of a field two years old, that had been D e a r S i r , —I visited the Henaratgoda Gardens a j planted wiih svehers, and a small straggling bush that short time back. They are worth seeing, and are kept 1 had grown from a prim a ry. In the face of these facts, it seems rash to say that stumps will not grow ; hut it for you. Far better to throw away £10 than £1,000. if the evidence on this head were collected I am Then the rainfall should be a t least 70 inches a rear sure it would beor me out in my assertion. It would and pretty evenly distributed ; places with protracted at least be risky for any one to try them on a large drought, or that only get one monsoon, should be scale. avoided. The distances apart should be S feet by If conservatism is inherent in the East, it certainly 7 feet, and in poor soils even 7£ x ; closer than seems capable of infecting Governments and indivi­ this I would not recommend. All other matters are duals naturalized in it; and for illustrations of this we pretty much the same as in the planting of Arabian need not travel from home. I will say nothing of our coffee. W ith decent soil, a fair rainfall, and proper alti­ island Governmeut: its tendencies are only too notice­ tude, Liberian coffee cannot be a failure. The crop cert­ able. And what of our planting community ? Are we ainly does take a long time to ripen (13 to 14 not saturated with it, moving in the same old grooves months as far as has been ascertained), but it may ripen till dire necessity compelled us to step out? We are within the year, when it settles into our seasons and quick to see apathy in natives. How was it with loses its native habits. Has it been certainly ascert­ ourselves where cinchona was brought to our notice? ained how’ many months the berries take to ripen Those who emancipated themselves from old ideas in Liberia?—Yours, &c., W. J. are now reaping that reward, whilst others have now repented, amended their ways, and live in hopes that COFFEE LEAF DISEASE: THE CARBOLIZED they may not be too late. Nor is it any better with Liberian coffee and cocoa. IIow slowly their cultiva- j POWDER. TREATMENT AND MR. WARD’S tion extends. It surely cannot be for want of money, I REPORT. as we were assured a short time ago that, for sound in- ! Agrapatana, 30th October 1881. vestments, there was plenty in the country. Now, few D e a r S i r , —Averse though I am to a discussion, at will assert that cocoa is not a paying product, and there this stage, of mere opinions as to the merit of is plenty of land suited for its growth, if people would the carbolic acid treatment recommended by me (in only look for it. There was a rush, a few years ago, face of actual practical results), there are a few re­ to plant Liberian coffee, but since then its cultivation marks on that subject, in Mr. Ward’s final report, has not appreciably extended. W hy is this ? Is it want which have attracted my attention and which deserve of confidence, and, if if so, wliat has caused it ? Some some notice at my hands. Mr. Ward, though ad­ of these causes are I think, very plain : the pioneers of mitting carbolic acid amoug the available reagents or this coffee knew very little about it, and hence, to chemicals which might be used for the destruction their cost, made some mistakes. To begin with the of generating spores, is of opinion that this acid is trees: they were planted 10 feet squat e, giving about 400 scarcely sufficiently soluble and diffusible for that pur­ trees to an acre ; some few even planting wider. To pose. cover the expenditure, these 400 trees would have Now, considering that carbolic acid is readily soluble had to give very large crops indeed, and possibly they in about 60 parts of w’ater, and that a solution of m a y yet do this and leave a fair profit. less than one per cent strength suffices to destroy Experience has since shown that about 800 trees the spores w’hether germinating or not; considering per acre can be grown w’itbout crowding, thus doubling that the method I have devised of its application the crops without much increasing the expenditure. admits of its being diffused to a perfection unap­ Perhaps it is not generally known that 1,000 cherries, proachable by the sulphur and lime mixture ; at 800 trees to the acre, yield 8 cw t; and, as trees and lastly considering that the vapour of carbolic acid topped at 5 to 6 feet, giving from 2,000 to 5,000 given out by the powder is perceptible for nearly a cherries, are not uncommon, surely the calculation of fortnight after each application, I submit that Mr. a yield of 1,000 cherries per tree isvery moderate ; and Ward’s opinion, as above quoted, is not based on I am confident this can be considerably exceeded by a sufficient evidence to carry weight. proper application of manure. Another cause no The carbolized powder, as used by me, comes strictly doubt is the fact that laud has been opened and within the “ compounds which” (to quote from Mr. planted with Liberian coffee that would have been Ward’s report) “ will continuously evolve and easily better left in jungle. This is a mistake that has diffuse a readily soluble gas, forming with the water been made by others as well as growers of low- on the leaves a solution sufficiently strong to do the country produce, as it was common enough for men maximum of injury to the germinating spores, and of sense in other respects to attend sales and bid the minimum of harm to the coffee leaf—the after­ for land that they knew no more about than the products of which are not injurious to the tree w’hen babe unborn. This “ buying a pig in a poke” has washed to the roots.” Mr. Ward, though admitting caused grief to many, and will still, I fear, in that a certain benefit may be derived from the carb­ times to come. This, however, should not be laid at olic acid treatment (if done at the proper time), has the door of the coflee, for it will no more grow expressed himself privately to the effect that the on bad soil than will its elder brother Arabian, though acreage treated under my advice would probable suffer Liberian will force its roots through soil, and obtain after the first rain, from the carbolic acid being nourishment from it where its more tender brother washed into the ground. This opinion results have would starve, An advantage that the grower of Li­ proved completely unfounded. The areas, on the berian coffee has is that he can, in all the sheltered contrary, have considerably improved after every rain­ portions of his estate, grow' cocoa, without at all fall, and our experience extends to 11 months. I am injuring his coffee. The difficulty of pulping is almost completely at variance with Mr. Ward regarding his got over, and no doubt Messrs. Walker & Co. will statements that the mycelium cannot be attacked soon perfect what they have already advanced so far. after it has entered the leaf.” As regards a market for this coffee, I am not com­ I have seen proof to the contrary, which not petent to speak ; yet there can scarcely be a doubt only satisfied me and the planters who worked with me, that for many years to come America will take all but also one of our oldest aud most respected authorities we can produce, and by them other markets are on the subject. sure to open up. My advice to intending lowcountry One of the results of the carbolic acid treatment planters is this : do not buy your land hap-hazard to which I attached great importance w'as that it but ascertain for yourselves that the land is really prevented the mycelium of the m ajority of pinspots, worth planting, and if you cannot do this for your­ on leaves marked for observation, from fructifying, and selves pay some competent and reliable person to do caused them to die and dry up—so far as the brown­ ing of a pinspot without fructification may be termed Mr. Marshall W ard’s report is interesting, but it so. In adjoining untreated fields, the pinspots on the fails to give us that complete information on the marked area were found to have fruited freely dur­ life-history of the fungus, which the Colony had some ing the same period of observation. In several cases, right to expect. A CRITIC. the marked leaves were kept under observation for more than six weeks. COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE AND MR. WARD’S There is no special knowledge of Mycology required INVESTIGATION. to distinguish when spores are thrown out by the 2nd Nov. 1881. fungus and when not. I am open to correction. D e a r S i r , —In your issue of the «3lst ult., you 1 am, again, at variance with Mr. Ward regarding drew attention to Mr. Ward’s statement that “ the his statement that nn predisposition is required to infect disease is quite compatible with and indeed prefers a coffee tree. How does he account for individual trees healthy and luxuriant trees.” This statement is opposed being comparatively free from it, though surrounded by to facts. The disease prefers sickly trees, and on these thousands of badly diseased trees), and I differ with it luxuriates and spreads in a manner which shows him in considering manure only so much additional that on or in such trees it finds its true home and nourishment for the fungus. I have never seen a well conditions most favourable to its development. manured tree so badly diseased as an unmanured one. You also bring prominently to notice that, accord- The fungus, though perhaps it germinates and establishes ing to Mr. W ard’s observations, 24 hour J soak ng ram itself as freely, does not spread or fructify as much is required to give the fungus a fair start, and that on manured as on utmianured coffee, one or two it rules supreme during moist, rainy weather. If this kinds of manure excepted. This is well-known to is the case, how are the attacks of the disease to be every experienced planter. accounted for that occur, in " some districts, during I am afraid, however, I shall transgress on your space, 4ry weather, and which (the attacks), according to the were I to write more, and you will perhaps say, observation of experienced planters, are apparently cui bonum f I close therefore aud remain, yours originated by and accompany the advent o' high dry faithfully, EUGENE C. SCHROTTKY. w inds ? Mr. Ward’s conclusions as to the atmosphere circum­ stances which favour the development of the fungus are, I think, perfectly correct, as far as the uredo- COFFEE-LKAF DISEASE : MR. WARD’S REPORT. spore is concerned. How important, therefore, to find 1st November 1881. out wbat form of the fungus originates the disease attacks during dry weather ; how important, therefore D e a e S i r , —Dr. Trimen’s introductory letter to Mr. Marshall Ward’s last report is remarkable in more to find out what becom s of the products of the second than one respect, and invites criticism. Surely the kind of spore—a subject to which I endeavoured to worthy Director, when saying that “ probably no draw your attention in my letter of yesterday fungus-pest has ever receiv-d so prolonged and con­ A C R IT IC . tinuous an examination,” inadvertently omitted to say that the thoroughness and completeness or the informa­ HOW TO CULTIVATE COFFEE AND FIGHT tion stands scarcely in proportion to it. For, beyond “ LEAF DISEASE ” correcting Mr. Morris in his filament theory, the D e a r S i r , —I am glad to see, from your issue of present report adds little to the researches of the 25th inst., that Mr. James Sinclair is experimenting Rev. It. Abbay and Dr. Thwaites, as far as the life- in Lindula to mitigate leaf disease and get trees to liistory of the fungus, pure and simple, is concerned. give crops. I can assure him lie is on the right track : The Colony had a right to expect the whole life- manuring in small doses where necessary is one point. history from a cryptogamist specially employed The kind of manure required is, however, the greatest and selected for the work. Other mycologists point, and we cannot depend nn the analysis of soil have had no difficulty in describing the life-history to guide us. If our soil is deficient in potash, it will of other members of the same family and have not do to put pure potash to the tree, but we mu-t put discovered the respective second host plants. T)r. the material out of which potash is made, and let. the Trimen assumes a great responsibility in saying that roots do the rest. In all cases, mix woodash with the discovery of the second host plant of Hemileia your bones and lime with your poonac before applying. vastatrix is unimportant. To say that, in his opinion, Apply no patent manure without some cattle or good it really did not matter whether anything was known compost being thoroughly mixed with it. In high aud about the history of the second kind of spore, or not, wet districts, lay your roots bare in the hot weather ; is au ill-chosen apology for Mr. Marshall Ward apply your manure, cover over the soil, then stamp the having failed to follow it up. soil so that it gets hard and does not allow too much The proportion of teleuto-spores to uredo-spores* moisture to get to the roots. In the lowcountry, cut produced by each disease' spot, is formidable enough holes in the wet weather, apply y< mr manjnre, cover w ith to make the discovery of the second host p’ant one soil the hole half full, and put leaves, maim, or rub­ of the greatest importance to the coffee industry of bish on top, or fork in both districts in what manure Ceylon. It will probably make little difference to you give above the tree. You cannot use too much estates which are chronically suffering from this pest woodash and lime while leaf-disease hangs about. and are never free from it. There the uredo-spores Since the l»te rains, my disinfectants have again driven play no doubt the most important part in originating leaf disease o u t of m y coffee w here afl'ect- d. T nis each successive attack ; but as regards estates that suffer time it settled close to on a native man’s tree garden periodically, say once a year, there is every reason I where del, jak, and a lot of other trees bad lost to believe that the attack is chiefly, if not entirely, j their leaves and the branches dying off as well as some * originated by the products of the second kind of spore. I of the trees are dying.The planter must trust to his eye Tbere is no evidence produced by Mr. Ward to show j to detect when, where, how and what manure or disin- that the uredo-spores can lie dormant through heat and I fectant to apply, by the appearance of the coffee. In dew and rain for, say, nine months, nor does our know­ some cases it is necessary to make holes below the ledge of the life-history of other members of the same trees (get from Walker & Co., one like Holloway’s family justify h i any w ay the assumption that the Earth Auger) to let the earth damp escape and then discovery of the second host plant would be unim­ throw’ a little gas lime into the hole or sulphur aud portant to the coffee industry. lime and leave the hole open. Knife-prune early and 140 hand-prune twice besides. Wherever you see leaf dis­ number. For my own part, I would rather have my ease coming mix 1 of woodash and 1 of country estate unraanured than manured haphazard and with­ unslacked lime and throw freely both over and under out nny judgment ; for unscientific manuring has, I the tree. In all case?, the fight must be fought by believe, done as much as anything to put coffee into the superintendent who is on the spot. One practical such a condition that it succumbs to leaf-disease, and man in each district can do more than all the visit­ the Colombo agents are naturally distrustful when ing agetVs, who, no doubt, are all good men, but are they find that certain applications of manure are at­ not on the spot. J. H. tended with negative, or, perhaps, positive evil results. Mr. Marshall Ward’s report is calculated to be of great practical benefit to those who will study it care­ A HORTICULTURIST’S ENQUIRY. fully and follow his suggestions, and I may add that Down South. his deductions seem to be borne out by and to explain the results of my own experiments, and probably those D e a r S i r ,—I shall feel thankful to your subscriber! to many others, who will, I hope, give us the benefit of who have flower gardens for their experience as to the fheir experience.—Yours faithfully, CULTIVATOR. m ost succe-sful way of propagating rose-trees by plant­ [ We certainly do not sympathize with any in­ ing their -lips or cuttings. I have tried several methods discriminate attack on Visiting Agents. But does not to gain my end, but they have invariably resulted in our correspondent’s argument seem to tell against failure— much so that I am unable to replace the the present system by which a planter who has gained tea-roses I have at present (by fresh ones), which are his experience, perhaps in one or two adjacent dis­ dying out, being old. tricts, is made Visitor of Estates and adviser of pro­ I am a'are that in the Central Province and Mora- prietors whose interests are scattered over the whole wak Koralethey are grown without much cave or effort, hill-country from Matale to Badulla ? If it were pos­ but this is due to the m;ld climate of those places, sible, we would prefer to see the experience and abil­ which gardeners down south cannot unhappily boast ity of Visiting Agents utilized more particularly in of.—Yours faithfully, TEA-ROSE. tho1 .. 30 „ 30 and the first part of which, published in pamphlet 8 „ „ ., 29 ,,232 form, has been sent us by the author. This part 4 „ ,, „ 28 ,,1 1 2 treats of phosphorus from a hygienic point of view 1 „ „ „ 27 27 only, the agricultural question being left for the second 3 „ „ „ 26 „ 78 part. Mr. Macmillan shows how important an element 6 „ ,, ,, 25 ,,150 phosphates are in the human system, and the necessity 6 „ !> ,, 24 ,,144 for supplying the daily loss, an entirely vegetable 1 ,, ”, 23 „ 23 diet being a mistake, even in hot climates. J he dis- . covery of phosphorus is related, and the relative 33 „ R891 I values of different articles of diet are set forth. A j table is given showing the amount of phosphates in Average 27 rupees per box of 2 grammes or 31 grains: | 100 grains of the brain of the calf, and the brain and about half the price obtained at the former sale, i spinal marrow of the ox, respectively. Mr. Macmillan no doubt, owing to the full analysis being given. , then says :—“ Sideby side with these facts the much C i n c h o n a o n t h e S h e v a r o y s :—Dr. Shortt writes 1 lauded oyster, as a phosphorus-yielding food, fades into to the Madras Horticultural Society from Yercaud:— comparative insignificance. The oyster yields under “Cinchona hitherto on these hills has been simply as one per cent of phosphates : whereas from the figures an experiment: one or more trees only were to be above given, the brain of the calf furnishes over five per seen on a few estates. Of the different varieties, the cent, and that of the ox, nearly three. With the cinchona succirubra thrive well here, and this variety exception of salm onroe, which contains 50 per is best suited to these hills. Efforts are now being cent of a highly phophorized albuminoid body called mads by a few planters to extend cinchona cultiva­ nuclein, there is no food stuff of modern times that tion, aud on my estate self-sown seeds of this variety approaches ihe brain of the calf and the ox, as a source were found growing in the vicinity of the parent of available organised phosphates. Trout yields over two plants, and the trees are so extremely prolific in their per cent of phosphates and therefore ranks higher than seed productions that I have been able to collect and the oyster. The flesh of oxen, swine, aud that of the distribute the seeds freely. The difficulty of getting roe, pigeon, and chicken, contain fractional percentages the seeds to germinate is rather trying, as the process as compared with the results from brain just mentioned.” requires much care aud attention, more especially The value of phosphorus as a brain-fond and an en- without the aid of a propagating house. Of the cinchona richer of the blood is then shown, aud Mr. Macmillan trees on my estate one seems a hybrid, and on send­ then gives the following formula of a preparation de­ ing specimens of the flowers aud leaves to Mr. Jamie­ vised by him at the request of the Drug Committee son, the Superintendent of the Government Gardens, of the Victoria hospital for children, London, to Ootaeamunc!, that gentleman recognized itas one which, take the place of the well-known “ chemical food ” in he says, has been named Cinchona Lanosa. This plant which sugar forms an ingredient which is sometimes also seeds very freely and largely.”— Madras Standard. objectionable :— Liberian Coffee Pulper. —Supply is generally soon ready for demand, and Messrs. J. Walker & Co. G rains in are generally well to the fore in supplying the planter 100 minims. with any appliance necessary for the cultivation of Ferrous Hypophosphite ..Feo PHa O.j + 6 H 2O 2 -77 nevr products, whether it be transplanters, bark Calcium do ...CasPHaOg 3‘5 shavers, or a Liberian coffee pulper. For some time Sodium do ...Na H 2 P 02 + H 2O 3 5 past the latter has been exercising the inventive Magnesium do •••Mg PH 2 O2 + O H 2O 1 ’99 faculties of Messrs. Walker’s staff, the result being Hypophosphorus Acid ...H 3 P 02 1 *61* a machine which Messrs. Walker guarantee will do 1 Water ...... 80 58 its work to the satisfaction of the Liberian coffee , planter. Y'esterday we had the privilege of watching ! 100-00 atrial of it in pulping some‘Liberian’from Kalutara. The j coffee was put into a machine with a grooved cylinder j One fluid drachm being equal to :— and circular sieve working underneaib. Here it ras I Ferrous Hypophosphite...V 6 j crushed between the cylinder and breast and the i skins separated from the beans in fhe sieve. The Calciun do ...2' ( 6 ’7 grains of the skins were then put into another machine, which j • Sodium do ...2‘ I mixed salts. Magnesium do ...IT ) threw them out at the back, aud any beans which j had not been separated in the first machine were i This preparation is now largely used by London thrown out in front. There was no damage done to ! physicians, the vehicle for its administration being the coffee. It is intended to have the two machines ; Hungarian Carlowitz or British raisin wine, the combined as one. We congratulate the makers on former of which contains 2 per mille of iron phos­ their success. phate and both having very little alcohol. B.OBM HORTULAN.E ON SOILS. and carbon compounds of the manure with the aluminic base, and thus digested at first the incongruous factors (Gardeners' Chronicle, 24th September 1881.) into a uniform whole. And then* work was a lasting (Continued from page 476.) one, whereas the crumbling powder which the winter’s The fundamental difference between live and dead frost leaves, if it be the work of frost alone, is soon soils, as alluded to in the last article, entails many other battered back again by the rains of spring into a cakey secondary differences, and of these perhaps the most lump; the clay once worked up into “ live ” soil can important are what we may speak of as physical differ­ never go back to its native stiffness. ences. I do not overlook the influence of pronounced The case of sand is somewhat different, since the chemical characters of soil, such as those which dis­ silica of sand does not lend itself so readily as the tinguish clay from sand or chalk, but I feel sure that alumina of clay to chemical transformation ; to convert many results attributed to the chemical nature of a soil pure sand into a wholesome soil some distinct “ body” are in reality due to physical features, induced, it may must be added in mass. But here, too, the subtle in­ be, or favoured by this or that particular chemical con­ fluence of ferments may be seen. If you mix pure sand stitution, and not the direct consequence of the pre­ with pure clay, even though you pour into it abund­ sence of this or that chemical substance. But over and antly solutions of ammonia and all necessary salts, the above chemical constitution, to which I will return result will be simply an indescribable medley fit for no presently, every gardener will admit that the physical man’s land—a muddle, which after a while will resolve characters of a soil are of prime importance. These itself back again into clay and sand. Work into the may be roughly classed under three heads—cohesion, same mixture an adequate supply of organic stuff, either which determines whether the soil be stiff, or friable itself holding ferments or serving as material with which and loose ; moisture ; and behaviour towards radiant heat, ferments can work, be it stable manure, peat, or leaf- according to which the soil is spoken of as warm or mould, and in a short time clay and sand will be blended cold. into a profitable nutritious mould. In respect of cohesion, extremes are seen in the stiff Everywhere, indeed, we may see the same thing, the clay which the mattock can cut out hi almost perfect hidden slow subterranean work of fermentative organic cubes, and the light sand which is in danger of being matters, aided by rain, sun, and frost, converting the blown away by every gale of wind. Each of these, too tenacious, or the too fugitive native sterile dead viewed from the simple physical point of view, has its earth into porous and yet consistent fertile live soil. advantages: the stiff clay affords anchorage for stout And this medium soil is assuredly the best for most, if and long thong-like roots, the loose sand favours the not for all plants. I do not pretend to understand the wanderings of tiny thread-like rootlets. And though it mystery why some plants love a light and others a cannot be denied that the nature of some plants leads heavy soil, but there are reasons for thinking that the them to flourish best in a stiff soil, while others refuse long stretching roots, which are almost characteristic of to grow in other than a loose one, the soil which is the latter class, serve rather for anchorage or for the most satisfactory for the gardener, the one which he gathering in of adequate moisture than for the seizure can clothe most abundantly with the choicest and most of actual food. At all events, these long, bare, wliip- varied flowers, is a “ mean ” soil, one which is neither like roots are accompanied by masses of matted fibrous stiff nor loose, or, to speak more truly, which is at the rootlets, which, running into the generous superficial same time both stiff and loose. This indeed is recog­ mould, seem specially adapted for assisting the plant nised in the usual directions of gardening books, where to obtain more copious nourishment. And whenever such we are told to lighten the stiff soils, and to give body rootlets are present, access to a rich, friable, lively to the light ones ; but—and this is the point to which earth is sure to bring healthy foliage and an abundant I wish to call attention—it does not seem always kept bloom. in sight, that the most suitable degree of cohesion, the Important as is this attribute of live earth, whereby condition of soil which is tenacious without being lumpy its spongy yet firm nature affords the best bed for the and caked, which is porous, and yet lies undisturbed continual spreading of the tender, tiny rootlets, still by the fiercest winds, is one of the most precious attrib­ more important perhaps are the relations of the same utes of “ live” soil, is one of the results of the fer­ thoroughly digested soil to moisture. If there be one ment actions of which I have spoken. thing which is above all others the gardener’s one anxious Many of us, I suppose, have taken in hand a patch care, it is to see that the plants shall have enough, and of dead stiff uncompromising clay. Sticky, buttery, not more than enough, water. Out-of-doors we are clammy all the winter, baked to a hard, rough, brick­ lifted with hope or filled with despair according as the like cake in the summer drought, it was at first our rain falls at the right time and in proper measure. In despair. As, however, season after season we dug into the greenhouse the one question which repeats itself in it a good body of rich farmyard manure and turned it worrying fashion day after day is—“ Shall I pflve this over and over, it changed its nature, and mellowed into plant more water or no?” The ignorant, clumsy gard­ a rich “ live ” loam. That change was not merely the ener is known at once by his manner of watering, and result of a mingling of the particles of decayed straw where mistakes in soil, or pots, or pruning have killed and dung with the particles of the merely divided but their thousands, mistakes with the watering-can have otherwise unaltered clay—was not merely due to the killed their tens of thousands. “ Let me have day by addition of ammonia, potash, phosphates, sulphates, and day just as much water as I need, so that I am never the like, to the alumina basis of the clay—was not dry and never water-logged! ” cries nearly every grow­ wrought alone by the burrowing rodent action of the ing plant, and in hundreds of glasshouses throughout numberless rootlets of the plants we from tune to time the land many a wretched flower is being baked when grew in it—it was not solely brought about by the it should be moist, and drenched 'when it should be cleaving might of winter’s frosts, which split the ragged barely damp. One feature of “live” earth is that it lmnps into crumbling powder ; it was not the work of does its best to remedy the fitfulness of outdoor wea­ each of these, of all these alone, though every one in ther and the errors of indoor ignorance. This is very turn helped. More potent than any of them, though clearly shown by a valuable experiment of Lawes and working with and through each of them, was the action Gilbert. These gentlemen laid down a series of parallel of the ferments, of which the stable-yard manure was deep drains in a long sloping field, at the bottom of at once the source and seed-bed. These attacked the wliich each drain opened into a reservoir, so that the stiffness of the clay at its very source, altering the amount of water passing along each drain could be chemical combinations on which the molecular stiffness measured. Part of the field was either left alone or hung deep; these not only mixed but united the salts treated with saline matters only; part was well dressed 141 with rich farmyard manure. When the outflow of the in our gardens show we have almost enough—but definite several drains came to be measured, it was found that experimental inquiries. In the presence of so much though the same rain had fallen over the whole field, difficulty and doubt I dare not trust myself to do more far less water escaped by the pipes which drained the than touch on a few general aspects of the matter.— thorougldy manured plot than by the others. That is D i e t e s . to say, the manured land, the live soil, absorbed and (To be continued.) retained within itself, for the benefit of the plants which grew on it, far more water than did the more dead soil. This, indeed, is perhaps after all the chief and the most valuable characteristic of cultivated live soil; CINCHONA CULTIVATION ON THE by virtue of the changes of which I have spoken taking place in it, it acquires the property of retaining—of GOVERNMENT PLANTATIONS, NILGIRIS. holding in some sort of combination—a large amount of The Government have passed the following order on water. Of the exact nature of that combination—of Colonel Beddome’s Report (which we shall give hereafter) the exact manner in which the water is held—we can­ and other papers containing valuable information on not at present say anything very definite, but the com­ several points relating to cinchona cultivation:— bination is of such a kind that while the plants can “ The papers recorded above contain valuable informa­ take up the water as they need it, the soil itself can­ tion on the several points discussed relative to cinchona not be said to be wet. When heavy showers fall on cultivation. The series commences with the inspection dead soil, the water which does not roll off the hard report on the Government Plantations, which Colonel solid surface rapidly soaks through, carrying, dissolved Beddome was directed to prepare on assuming charge in it, as much precious soluble matter as it can take of the Plantations. Next in order come the Conservator’s up, and in a short time, under a hot summer sun, the remarks upon Mr. Cross’s recent interesting account of earth is once more baked and dry. When the same Ins impressions on visiting the different locations on the showers fall on cultivated, ferment-holding, spongy live hills where cinchona is grown under Government super­ soil, at first almost every drop is taken up and stored intendence. This is followed by Mr. Cross’s remarks on away amid the manifold compounds present; it is only the most appropriate elevation for the cultivation of the when its sponginess is satiated, when more water would Cinchona Calisaya var. Ledgeriana, and his observations become injurious to the plants, that it trickles away upon Mr. Howard’s analysis of samples of bark selected below. And live soil thus adequately wet remains for and sent home by him during the spring. Finally, a long time moist, giving up with great unwillingness though not latest in point of date, come Colonel Bed­ apparently to evaporating forces that which is easily dome’s remarks upon the results of recent cinchona wrung from it by the action of the roots. Naturally sales. The Governor in Council proceeds to remark the thicker such a layer of fertile live soil the greater briefly on some of the more salient points brought to is the reservoir of available water, and the wise gardener notice. He observes that, on the whole, the Conservator’s who desires to grow flowers whose demands for water report is favourable as regards the progress made since are imperious will plant them in ground in which the Captain Campbell Walker’s detailed examination in 1878. depth of cultivated live soil is measured, not by a few The appendices to Colonel Beddome’s report furnish inches, but by 2 or even more feet. In such a bed, particulars of the number and variety of trees existing secure of their water supply, plants will gather benefit in 1878 and at the present date. Taking the plantations only from the warm rays of a summer sun, which would in the order in which they are dealt with, it is soon scorch them to death in shallower soil. observed that, while the bulk of plants at Naduvatam Lastly, it is worthy of note that just as all ferment- are of the succirubra variety, it is the Conservator’s wrought decompositions tend to generate blackness, all opinion that all of this kind, which have been planted on the particoloured objects of Nature being reduced by- grass land, should be uprooted and replaced by Officinalis decay to a dull dark mass, so all soil darkens as it or Pubescens. He states that, though the elevation of becomes cultivated and live—the red loam, the bluish Naduvatam is too high for succirubras, still it pays well clay or the wliitey chalk, all in time become changed to grow it on shola soil there. Mr. Cross, it is noted, into blackened mould. And this very change of colour bears testimony to the quality of the soil in the Nadu­ is in itself 110 mean advantage. When we remember vatam ravine which appeared equal “ in fertility to the that a black surface absorbs more heat than a light lower slopes of Chimborazo, the native habitat of the one this becomes evident. In those happy days when red bark ” and he remarks upon the growth and develop­ a bright summer sun shines upon us we ourselves throw ment of the plants which excelled even those he had aside the black hat, or hide its blackness with a white seen growing in South America. With reference, how­ puggaree; but what we fear, the plant delights in, and ever, to the inferiority of the red hark for the purposes to it the presence of black earth round its roots is a of the quinine manufacturer, he appears to deprecate wholesome stimulus to more luxuriant growth. A dark any extension of its cultivation. Colonel Beddome points, soil is a warm soil; it takes up and gives to the plant however, to other reasons why this variety may be ex­ the rays of heat which a lighter surface wastes, reflect­ pected to hold its own. On the whole, it seems to ing back into the air. So potent is this influence of Government that it is unnecessary to devote much further absorbed warmth that a white barren patch of cold attention to this species and that the proposals advocated chalky ground may be made at once in a measure fert­ by the Conservator for replacing it in certain localities ile by the mere admixture of some black material of may be carried out. The information furnished as to little or no manurial value. And it is an incidental the mistake made in attempting to propagate the advantage of proper cultivation that while aiming at calisaya varieties anywhere on the Nilgiri plateau leads other things it tends to make the land of darker hue, the Government to consider favourably the recommenda­ and thus to increase its power of absorbing warmth. tion in which Colonel Beddome and Mr. Cross concur, Such, then, are in outline some of the beneficial phys­ as to the opening up, at an elevation of from 3,000 to ical changes which are wrought in the ground, as by 4,000 feet, of a small plantation where these “ yellow means of subtle transformations erode dead earth is con­ barks ’’ as well as “ grey barks ” may be tried with fair verted into active live soil. prospect of success. The proposal is that the Forest But over and above, indeed causative of, these phys­ Department at Nilambur should clear part of a shola in ical features, are countless changes which we may speak the “ Silent Valley ” for this purpose and for experiments of as chemical. The subject is full of intricate prob- with rubber trees and the ipecacuanha. The Conserv ator ems, to solve which we need, as in so many other will prepare an estimate of probable cost and will take the ases, not so much empiric trials—for of these the gaps necessary preliminary steps to carry out his suggestions. Adverting to the great number of casualties in the Hooker Darjeeling to see the Cinchona Plantations there com­ estate, and the suggestion to abandon the lower portion mends itself to the Governor in Council. The Govern­ of the Wood plantation, the Conservator will report ment of Bengal will be addressed on the subject. The separately and in detail on the question of retaining remarks which Mr. Cross and the Conservator of Forests these estates after consulting the correspondence which have recorded upon Mr. Howard's recent analysis of has already taken place on the subject. The state of samples of cinchona bark collected by Mr. Cross will the Dodabetta plantation is pronounced promising by the be forwarded to the Secretary of State with reference Conservator and Mr. Cross, though they do not agree to his recent despatch. on the question of terracing, which Mr. Cross thinks The first point to be noticed here is the extraordin­ unnecessary. The eradication of the bracken fern, which ary difference of opinion as to the extent to which the is stated to be robbing the soil of its goodness, will Uritusinria species of cinchona condaminea has been doubtless be taken in hand without delay. Mr. Cross propagated. Colonel Beddome re-iterates the statement, noticed the fact that in this locality especially the plants which will be found at paragraph 40 of his detailed at the beginning were placed far too wide apart. From report, that there are but a thousand of this kind in Colonel Beddome’s report it appears that the same the Dodabetta plantation and a few only at Naduvatam. mistake has been made elsewhere. The subject will Mr. Howard must therefore have been misinformed, and, doubtless receive attention in the full memorandum of as it is clear, that all the samples of Crown bark sent instructions which the Conservator intends to prepare for home by Mr. Cross were of the ordinary Officinalis, it the use of the officers in charge of the plantations: a is important that Mr. Howard should be made aware copy of this should lie furnished for the information of of this fact and “ Uritusinga” was not sent at all. No Government. The Government are not prepared at pres­ trace of the trees said to have been planted by Mr. ent to express any decided opinion 011 the merits of Mclvor prior to 1875 can be found in the Government barking as contrasted with the coppicing system. The Plantations. The analysis made by Dr. Paul of this latter has had but small trial as yet, and the present species in 1879 shows the following results:— report shows that the coppicing carried out in 187!) Percentage amount of resulted in failure to a large extent in consequence of Samples. tire lateness of the season. There is no necessity at % present to coppice any more blocks, but the Conservator 0§ n-:3 5 ■§ s will, of course, take care to coppice isolated trees which 1^ may show signs of decay. As to the method to be 0 ine.

observed in coppicing, it is observed that, while Colonel dine. Quinine. Quinidine. Chinchoni- Beddome does not agree with Mr. Cross, he alludes to Chinclion- suggestions for trying three different systems of coppic­ Natural .. .. 1-20 1-50 0-18 o-io 1-62 ing, one of which appears identical with that advocated Mossed .. . .2 1 3 2-00 0-47 0*20 3 0 0 by Mr. Cross. However, the plan finally adopted under Renewed .3-40 1-48 0*14 0*20 4-58 the instructions of Government is now stated to be on It is desirable that further specimens of this species the whole the best. should be forwarded for analysis and the Conservator Some information is given as to the results, so far will issue the necessary instructions. The difference as the trees are concerned, of the plan of harvesting which he notices in the analysis of the Pitayo bark in the bark by scraping, reported to have been carried out 1879 and 1881 renders it probable that the yield of on a small scale ill 1879-80. A large proportion of alkaloids in the Uritusinga will also be greater now the some 5,000 succirubras at Naduvatam failed to renew, trees are older. Samples of the Pubescens and Magnifolia and Colonel Beddome is inclined to think that the (Mr. Cross’s Pata de Gallinaz) should also be trans­ system is likely to be more trying to trees generally mitted to England for analysis, as well as specimens than partial barking in alternate strips. No losses occured of bark of different sorts harvested by the scraping at Dodabetta, where a similar experiment was made. process—as suggested by Mr. Cross. The Government The question requires more study, and experiments agree with Colonel Beddome that the extended propaga­ Should be carefully prosecuted. The Conservator will re­ tion of Pitayo is desirable. The necessary steps should port when the first consignment of scraped bark was be taken to this end. The Conservator will report further despatched to England. The result of the sale should on the calisaya specimen transmitted by Mr. Cross. The noted, as already directed in G. O. 4th March 1881, Conservator’s suggestion to employ a competent Chemical Ho. 398, paragraph 7. The Conservator enters at con­ Analyzer at Ootaeamund will be referred to the Secretary siderable length into the history of the “ Pubescens ” of State for decision. By paragraph 27, G. O., 24th variety, which has, until lately, been looked upon as a February 1879, No. 463, it was settled that reference hybrid. It is clearly shown, however, to be a distinct could be made, if necessary, to “ an European Chemist plant known in South-America as the “ Pata de Gal- of repute.” The proposal to dry bark by the heat of the linaz,” and is a narrow leaved variety of the red bark. sun as an experiment is approved and should be reported There appears every probability of this species proving upon in due course. It is observed that, when the hardy and valuable. The first specimens sent home (in attempt w7as made in 1878 to dry bark by natural heat, December last) have lately been sold, and the prices Dr. Ogg, who carried out the trial at Coimbatore sug- realized were 7s Id per lt> for natural Pubescens and I gested that a short exposure daily to the morning sun 5s for renewed ditto. The Conservator is anxious for I would probably ensure the perfect desiccation of the more information as to these particular bales; but it seems hardly likely that they can be followed at this bark. The Conservator’s remarks in paragraphs 14 and 15 date, and the only way will be to draw special atten- | of his letter, No. 498 A., will be brought to the notice tion to the next consignment. The Conservator will, ; of the Secretary of State and the thanks of the Govern­ in due course, specify the iirfonnatiou which he requires : or in Council will at the same time be tendered to to be obtained. | the Messrs. Howard for their careful analysis and inter­ I 11 forwarding to the Secretary of State the dried | specimens referred to in paragraph 140 of the Conserv­ esting report. ator’s Report, for the purpose of comparison with the various species in the Kew Herbarium, attention will ! SILK IN CHINA. he solicited to Colonel Beddome's request that the “ Magni- (North-China Herald, 16th Sept. 1881.) folia" and “ Pubescens” may be specially examined. The Government agree with the Conservator that it is The publication in one year of the reports of silk culture unnecessary at present to attempt hybridization in the and manufactures in China, and the report on opium plantations. Colonel Beddome’s proposal to proceed to consumption, by the Inspector-General of Customs, merit the thanks of all who are interested in this part of Some attempts of the same kind have already been the world. We quite believe that the former gave all made with fair success, but the opportunities of intro­ the information procurable by the various Commissioners, ducing his series to the notice of the people, possessed and that every care was taken in the preparation of by the Inspector-General, gives him extraordinary advant­ the papers. Perhaps it is doubtful if such an amount of ages. That they will be fully used, and a great ex­ •actual' knowledge of their famous silks was ever before tension of knowledge among the Chinese follow, is certain. placed within the attainment of the Chinese themselves. Much of the credit for this will be due and given to It is certain that nothing so complete was ever before Mr. Hart, who among the pressing claims of his offices offered to foreigners. And though the report on opium has found time to initiate works which will have a is of less importance, it is valuable as giving trustworthy very great effect for good on the Chinese character. estimates, which may help fair-minded people to sober We suppose it must be taken for granted that Westerns conclusions on a subject, in the discussion of which know more of the Chinese than the Chinese know of much heat is evolved by those who attack, and those them. But at the s.ime time, we should confess, honestly, who defend, the use of and trade in opium. To those that our knowledge of the deeper and best parts of the who are not connected with the trade of China, and native character is very superficial. Even in judging of whose interest in the country and the people springs their ordinary traits we believe we are often mistaken, from higher motives than commerce can supply, these and th a t the real Chinam an who deals -with us, or two reports are very valuable. They give accurate infor­ transacts our business, is quite different from the idea mation in two important matters ; one closely connected that we have formed of them. Some, at least, of these wiili the industry of a large pari of the Empire, and mistakes on our part, will disappear with increased the other, the indulgence, or it may be the vice, of a knowledge of the people. Whatever errors in judging large portion of its inhabitants. And it is a great tiling the Chinese we may have made, we may be sure are 111 these times to get information on which one may light compared to the blunders they have fallen into, thoroughly rely. It too often happens that the works or adopted, about us and our works. The task of of authors and compilers offer everything to the public enlightening their minds will be made easier by its except perfectly trustworthy information. In certain cases, being undertaken by a branch of the administration of this is not to be wondered at, for there are many things their country, and it was a wise thought of the Inspector- in all countries which lie beyond the observation of the General to commence the work. We bust, and indeed shrewdest travellers or strangers, and which can only we may say we believe, that the result will be in the be supplied by haring the special knowledge afforded highest degree satisfactory to himself and all whom he by official life. Anyone, therefore, in the position of may associate with him in the labur. the Inspector-General of Customs, who makes public the veritable facts regarding any parts of the lives of the people, and their affairs, confers a boon upon INDIAN DYES. all who take an interest in them. We hope that further (Pioneer, 14th September 1881.) reports will follow those that have been published this year. There are a sufficiency of subjects connected with The vivid colouring imparted to fabrics of various the Chinese with which we wish to be made acquainted. kinds by the natives of India, has probably been remarked And, as we believe in the progress of the Empire aud by every European visitor to the country since the days the people, we are sure that, when those subjects which of Alexander the Great. The partiality of the native are in existence at present have been exhausted, others mind for bright colours has been made the basis of will be ready for treatment by the general staff of the many pictures in the style of Mr. Val. Prinsep, and Customs. If we compare those parts of China with which the text of many verbal descriptions after the manner we are familiar, with the same parts twenty years since, of Thomas Moore. But a really practical view of the we must own that great improvements as well as great subject -was not taken until so late as the year 1875, changes have taken place in the mental attitude towards when Mr. Thomas Wardle, an experienced English silk foreign ways of the inhabitants. The advance has been dyer, wrote to the then Secretary cf State for India, slow, but it has been steady and considerable. And the suggesting that the properties of Indian dye-stuffs should next twenty years arc likely to show a great increase be investigated, and the resulting information thrown in the speed of this nation’s progress, with, we hope, open to the public. He pointed out that—India being proportionably beneficial results to the country, and to probably the largest dye-stuff-producing country in the the world. If any old resident who went home, say a world—our natural superiority in this respect only needed quarter of a century ago, were to publish a faitliful cultivation to distance all commercial competition by description of the Chinese with whom lie came in con­ other less favoured nations. Government acted on the tact, we should find that the portion of the race whom hint, and steps were quickly taken to collect the requisite we met in business, have advanced beyond those immedi­ 1 information. Great delay and some incompleteness has ately before them as much as we have advanced been naturally caused by want of time and knowledge beyond those who lived in England three-quarters of a on the part of the reporting officers. Such particulars, century ago, when steamships, railways, and telegraphs however, as have come to hand have been duly collated were not. And as the Chinese are just beginning to and worked up into a Memorandum of some hundred run their race of improvement, the next twenty years and fifty pages by Mr. L. Liotard, of the Agricultural may bring them almost abreast of many Western nations. Department. This Memorandum is valuable and in­ We hope that the Customs department will, by the teresting, not only from the commercial importance of publication of such special reports as those which have [ the subject-matter and the hitherto inaccessible nature lately been given, distribute full information as to the ' of the information it furnishes, but as a substantive effects of the changes, and the development of the resources contribution to a most sensible series in course of of the people and the country, which they bring about. publication on the natural industrial products of the These will be invaluable, not only at the time, but long Empire. There are two points to be considered in the afterwards, and the Inspector-General may feel sure, modus operandi of the dyer. First comes the preparation that, if he engages in the work, he will be heartily of the dye-stuff itself; secondly, that of the mordant. The thanked by all who desire the extension of knowledge. majority of the colours yielded by Indian dye-stuffs are We understand that Mr. Hart is now getting a series produced from plants and extracted either from the root, of science primers translated into Chinese. These will stem, bark, flower, 01* fruit. Insect formations such as doubtless be distributed over the Empire, and we are those created by the two species of the Coccus insect, certain will be in great request. This is a ready and Coccus lacca (lac) and Coccus cacti (cochineal) also excellent way of making the Chinese acquainted with the furnish dye-stuffs ; and thirdly, there are various dyes of process and results of Western science and thought. mineral origin. Of aniline dyes produced in Europe, and largely imported into this country, we shall speak report by Mr. Buck, on the method adopted in the separately. As to mordants, perhaps, it will be as well North-West Provinces. Mr. Buck, it may be mentioned, before going further to explain this simple, but most evidently prosecuted the enquiry into the nature of dye- important, term. A mordant is, strictly speaking, a stuffs, and the methods of applying them, with charac­ substance used by dyers to fix their dyes, and render teristic energy and throughness ; and his correspondence them immovable by washing. But by rather an unhappy on the subject is, perhaps, the most valuable portion of looseness of expression, the term is also applied to Mr. Liotard’s Memorandum. But as his description of substances which, when used in connection with a dye- calico-printing in the North-West-Provinces is rather stuff, have the property of brightening the colour, or long, we may quote a simpler example of the preparation of altering its shade. For example, cream of tartar of material used for holiday petticoats, especially in is called a mordant, becuse it is used to brighten the marriage festivities. It is called karilia, and shows whiV red communicated to silk and wool by chloride of tin. prints on a blue ground. The material, being English It seems a pity that the suggestion of Bertliollet to longclotli cut into pieces of six yards each, is first given distinguish this latter class of mordants by the name over to the washerman, who deprives it of the strarch of alterants is not generally adopted. The principal by washing it in clear water. The next step is to prepare mordants, in the strict sense of the word, that are a reSist-paste of limer gum, pulse, flour, and water. used in England, are alum and metallic oxides, particularly This is is stamped on the cloth by means of a mould, of tin. The natives of India, Mr. Liotard tells us, use the impression while still wet being sprinkled over with catechu—which is the juice of trees of the acacia wheat flour, to increase the resistance to the subsequently tribe—galls formed 011 the pistachio-nut tree, the rind applied blue dye. The cloth now passes into the hand of the promegranate, tamarisk galls, and mvrobolams of a rangrcz or dyer in plain colours, who dips it in or the nuts of a genus of trees known as Termenalia. indigo, thus dyeing it blue except in those places previously Mr. Liotard divides that part of his Memorandum printed with resist-paste. Washing, and beating smooth which relates to actual process of dyeing, under two with clubs, complete the process. The cost of dyeing heads, namely, simple 01* single colours, such as red, 20 pieces, that is to say, 120 yards of longcloth, is R3-7. yellow, blue, and black; and compound colours, such We now come to the influence exercised in India by as purple, green, and orange. Brown, it may be men­ the importation of aniline or plienylamine dyes, derived tioned, may be considered as either a simple or compound by distillation from coal-tar. This subject is of the utmost colour, being producible by a single dye-stuff or by a importance in connection with Indian dyes, as it in­ mixture varying according to the shade required. The volves to a serious extent the possibility, that the use first of the simple colours treated by Mr. Liotard is of the latter may become actually extinct. As far as red. There are twelve sources mentioned in the Memor­ one can gather from the reports collected bv Mr. Liotard, andum as yielding dye-stuffs for red and its various the aniline dyes seem almost everywhere ousting dyes shades. Of these the Carthamus tinctorins, the Coccus of local production. As Mr. Hutchins writes, reporting lacca, and Coccus cacti seem to be the most important. for Mysore, “ supposing, for instance, a man wants a The first is sometimes known as the bastard saffron, handful of scarlet yarn to continue his design, it is and yields saftiower or earthamin, used both as a dye produced in three minutes ; a pinch of the cheap glit­ and as the basis of rouge. The second is an insect tering powder and a little hot water in a brass saucer which forms round the bark of various trees a resinous is all that is required. By the old method it would incrustation called lac. From this lac is obtainable have taken him three days and involved dirt and a both shell-lac and lac-dye. The Coccus cacti is the tedious process.” The statistics relating to the use of cochineal insect, the dried body of which produces splendid aniline dyes in India during the last five years, show an and well-known red, crimson, and scarlet dyes. It has average annual importation to the value of about been calculated that 70,000 insects go to a pound weight. R4,00,000. The actual figures for 1879-80 are 115,90,791. Over 1,100 tons were imported into Great Britain in As regards the sources of importation, the United 1850, which argues an extensive mortality amongst cochi­ Kingdom is credited with haring sent to India aniline neals. Of yellow dyes, amotta and turmeric appear the dyes to the value of R4,51,394. Italy, France, and b%;t known. Amotta is made from the pulp enveloping Austria come next. The Sraits Settlements and Turkey the seeds of a small evergreen. It is imported into in Asia export to the value of about R4,000 between England, and is used to colour butter and cheese. The them ; while a small quantity comes from other countries Chinese also used to employ it to dye the original not named. Of the whole amount, very roughly speaking, nankeen. Turmeric is the rhizome, root-stock, bulb, or Bombay takes three-fifths, Bengal one-fifth, the remaining tuber of another small plant; and is well-known not fifth being divided between British Burmali, Madras, only as a dye-stuff, but as a bitter and tonic, and a and Sind; British Bmmali taking about fifteen times condiment in curries. Blue dye is, of course, produced as much as the two last put together. from indigo. Black dye can be obtained from the juice But in spite of the popularity of aniline dyes, their of the cashew-nut without any addition, but is more employment—setting aside all questions of taste—is open often derived from a combination such as myrabolams (one to one very radical objection, namely, that of great part), alum (two parts), a I (four parts), and sulphate of instability. Looking at the superiority, 011 this point, iron (five parts). Pomegranate rind, with iron filings, of Indian dyes, as well as at the necessity for pro­ is also used to produce a black dye. tecting the commercial interests connected with them, In connection with each of Ids notices of the simple Government have not only acted in a politic, but also colour dyes, Mr. Liotard gives collated descriptions of in a most natural, manner by remitting the export the methods practised in various localities for applying duties on Indian dyes, and allowing aniline dyes to the dyes firstly to silk, then to cotton threads and cotton remain under an import duty of 5 per cent. Mr. Liotard cloths, lastly to wool and woollen fabrics. The same thinks that all it seems absolutely desirable for Govern­ plan is adopted in treating of compound colours, which ment, to do, further, for the present, is to continue the care­ are, as already mentioned, produced by combining the ful production of lac and extend the systematic collection dye-stuff above described as yielding simple colours. A of myrabolams. The rest must be left to private enterprise. final section of the chapter on compound colours is Government, by calling for reports from numerous quarters, devoted to colours such as brown, grey, drab, dove- has done—what it would take an individual a lifetime grey, &c., obtained from a mixture of black and other to do—in a few years. It has produced a work of colours. But the practical information given on this reference showing the existence of many dye-stuffs of head, particularly as regards silk dyeing, is scanty. which, probably, English dyers have hitherto been com­ Is reference to the modem Indian practice of calico- pletely ignorant. By describing the processes adopted printing, Mr. Liotard quotes a lengthy and exhaustive in various parts of the country, it has shown what are 142 the failings of Indian dyers, and how, particularly as mails between Papeete and San Francisco, which depart regards mordants and improved fabrics, these failings alternately from San Francisco for Tahiti on the 1st, may be met and overcome. Private knowledge, private and from Papeete for San Francisco on the 12th of energy, private captial, and, let us hope, private profit each month. Those which leave San Francisco touch should complete the work which Government has begun. at the marquesas, those that clear from Papeete sail It will surely he a good day for Indian trade when directly to San Francisco. The cargoes canned by these fabrics steeped in fugitive aniline dyes shall cease to vessels from San Francisco, consist of a great variety “ Mock the air with colours idly spread,” of articles—flour, bread, rice, wine, provisions of all and the beautiful bright hues imparted by turmeric, descriptions, furniture, carnages, American stuffs, lumber, safflower, and the rest shall be blended by European etc. The return cargoes are made up principally' of tiste, and rendered really permanent by the application oranges, coconuts, lime juice and vanilla, for the of scientific principles under the auspices of European art. markets of San Francisco, and cotton, pearl shells and pearls, in transit for the markets of Europe. The soil of Tahiti is of great fertility—its principal TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED productions are cotton; equalling 11 Sea Island cotton”— STATES. sugar, to the production of which the climate is ex­ ceptionally favourable, and which is noted for its fine T h e preliminary report of the Census Department on appearance and its great similarity to New Orleans this branch of industry shows an apparent increase in sugar, and the coconut, which dried is, under the name production of 80 per cent, which exaggerates the real coprah, despatched to the great European markets. There advance in tobacco cultivation, as the preceding census is obtained from it an abundant oil, excellent for the crop was a small one, and the fear of taxation may manufacture of various qualities of soap. It is to be h ive operated to prevent a full census of tobacco in regretted that coprah, which Tahiti and most of the 1870. The crop in 1880 was one of medium production, islands of the Archipelago produce in great quantity, not in excess of the present requirements of home con­ should not find a regular market in San Francisco, as sumption and exportation. Fifteen of the States produce it would be a very convenient means of exchange, and more than 09 per cent of the tobacco of the United there is no doubt that if it could be utilized with profit States, though it is grown, more or less, in 22 other in California, this alone would give rise to a considerable States ard six territories. The following is the yield of trade between Papeete and San Francisco. This would the seven leading States in tobacco cultivation:— render profitable the establishment of a line of steamers Pounds —so desirable—between Tahiti and San Francisco. If, State. Acreage. Pounds. per acre. as we all hope, the idea of this line of steamers is Kentucky .. 226,127 .. 171,121,134 .. 756 about to become an accomplished fact, not only would Virginia .. 139,423 .. 80,099,838 .. 573 the two points of arrival and departure secure great Pennsylvania. 27,567 .. 36,957,772 .. 1,340 commercial advantages, but Tahiti would, without doubt, Ohio .. .. 34,679 .. 34,725,405 .. 1,001 become one of the favorite places of resort for a great Tennessee .. 41,532 .. 29,365,052 .. 707 number of the people of the Pacific Coast, who would North Carolina 57,215 .. 29,936,448 .. 471 travel over an ocean, which is almost always magnificent Maryland .. 38,174 .. 26,082,147 .. 683 in its aspect, in less than 20 days. The climate of While these States, together with Wisconsin, Connecticut, Tahiti is one of the healthiest and most agreeable in and New York, have all increased then1 cultivation, some the whole world. The soil, traversed by a great number of them, such as Pennsylvania, to a market degree, of living streams of an extreme purity, produces in others, such as Massachusetts, West Virginia, Indiana, abundance, and without cultivation, the orange, the citron, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee, have retrograded. The a great variety of bananas, ananas, bread fruit, besides average yield per acre is 731 lb. The variation in a large number of other delicious fruits. The Isle of rate of yield, from 1,599 lb. in Massachusetts to 471 Tahiti, which was rightly named by the first European lbs. in North Carolina, is due in differing degree to the who touched there as the new Cythera, is a veritable use or neglect of fertilisers, the habit of growth of terrestrial paradise. * different varieties, and the vicissitudes of the season. In There is no doubt, adds the editor, that a great trade Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ne w York, Pennsylvania, and will grow up in the future between San Francisco and Wisconsin, the seed-leaf varieties are mainly grown and these Islands, and it is our belief that San Francisco high fertilisation practised, always resulting in heavy merchants should cultivate and foster this trade, and crops. In Ohio, the yield is above the average, the that they should take an interest in the development Ohio seed-leaf being extensively cultivated in the Miami of the Islands. The area is given at 450 square miles, valley, while the Burley, a vigorous grower of less pro­ or 288,000 acres ; small, it is true, but under a tropical ductive character, is almost exclusively cultivated in the sun capable of producing out of all proportion to its Ohio river counties. Kentucky, producing many grades of extent.— American Exporter. cutting and shipping tobaccos upon an exhausted soil of original fertility, makes an average yield. The low yield in North Carolina is due to the production of the fashionable PERIODICITY OF RAINY AND DRY YEARS. yellow “ bright” grade used for plug wrappers, grown on a M. de Parville has published in the Journal des 1)chats a poor soil with low fertilisation, sufficient to stimulate early paper on the temperature of the present year, which at Paris growth, hut not enonglito prevent early maturing.— B ritish lias risen to a height exceeding all previous authentic re­ 'Mail. cords. On July 5tli, at the Observatory in the Park of St. Maur, the Centigrade thermometer registered 35"6 degrees, and on July 15tli, 37'8 degrees. The highest temperature TAHITI AND SAN FRANCISCO TRADE. previously recorded during the present century wras 3 6’76 In an article on Tahiti and the Society Islands, by degrees on July 31st, 1803. Higher temperatures have J. Pinet, and translated for the San Francisco Journal been recorded, hut their authenticity has been questioned. of Commerce, he dwells particularly on the trade with Thus, Cassini has recorded 40 degrees for August 17th, San Francisco. He says :— 1701 ; but it is believed that the true temperature was only The greater part of the merchandise consumed in the 36'85 degrees. So, also, the temperatures set down by country comes from San Francisco. Of a great number Messier of 39 degrees in 1763, and 40 degrees in 1765, are of vessels engaged in the transportation of this mer­ attributed to errors of observation, and should be corrected chandise, there are three carrying about 350 tons each to 36'6 and 37'5 degrees respectively. M. de Parville passes subsidized by the local government for carrying the on to ask whether the dryness of the present summer could have been foreseen, and he answers in the affirmative. soils are shown by the following analyses :— Having referred to the influence of solar action on the Diluvial. Alluvial. atmosphere, he says :—“ A very long series of observations Water ...... 15-20 19-50 has also shown that the moon, which passes ever)' month Fat ...... 16-21 17-94 from one hemisphere to the other, influences the direction Protein ...... 28-63 25-94 of the great atmospheric currents. The changes in those Non-nitrogenous extractive m atter.. 30-84 33-16 currents, in consequence of the prevailing moisture or dry­ Fibre ...... 4"38 4-45 ness, are intimately connected with the relative position for Mineral matter ...... 4-74 8-82 the time being of the sun and moon. The distance of the The straw or haulm of the plant is practically worthless moon from the equator—that is, the inclination of the for neat cattle, but the husks and leaves, mixed with mashed moon’s path to the plane of the equator—varies every year, food, or even alone, are readily eaten. It has also been passing from a m axim um to a m inimum limit; and the found that the chopped beans, soaked for 12 hours in water meteorological character of a series of years appears to he containing a little salt, are greedily taken by cattle, and that mainly dependent upon the change of inclination when few pass through undigested. those extreme limits have been touched. Observations According to M. Roman, a French savant, the cultivation prove that the rainy years, the cold winters, and hot sum­ of the soja or soya, has of late years been largely developed mers return periodically, and coincide with certain declina­ in Austria-Hungary, Italy, and parts of France. This plant tions of the moon. In our latitudes the rainy years occur is extensively cultivated by the Chinese, who make a cheese when the moon’s declination has touched its extreme limits and various dishes from its fruit. When roasted the seeds of 28, 20, or 18 degrees respectively. They are separated form an excellent substitute for coffee, and altogether M. from each other usually by periods of about three years and Roman thinks that the plant will pay better than the then six years. The following table traces backwards this potato. At present the retail price of the soja beaus is connection between the rainy years and the moon’s declina­ sixpence per pound, but as the plant becomes more exten­ tion :— sively cultivated, they will no doubt be reduced in price.— Greatest declination Greatest declination British Masl. Rainy of moon. Rainy of moon year. Deg. year. Deg. E n e m i e s o f C e a k a ' R u b b e r S e e d . —A Matale East '1879 .. .. 26 1819 .. . . 28 planter writes :—“I have just had my attention 1876 .. .. 28 1816 .. .. 26 drawn to the fact that lizards eat up Ceard rubber 1872 .. . . 26 1810 .. .. 18 seeds ; and this notwithstanding the fact that they had 1866 .. ..18 1804 .. .. 26 been dipped in kerosine oil before planting. The seeds 1859 .. .. 26 1800 .. .. 28 were most neatly dug out of their restingplaces and 1856 .. . . 28 1798 .. .. 26 apparently not devoured on the spot. It seems to be 1853 .. . . 26 1792 .. . . 18 the common green lizard that does the damage.” 1848 .. . . 18 1787 .. . . 26 C u l t i v a t i o n o f t h e D m D i v i P l a n t . — A corre­ 1836 .. . . 26 1785 .. .. 28 spondent writes :—This plant, which grows in many 1828 .. . . 18 1783 .. .. 26 of the outlying villages of Madras, and has been up 1821 .. .. 26 to date uncared for, is now found to be a valuable The severe winters as a rule coincide, at least within a article for tanning purposes. Large quantities of the year, with the same declinations:—1879, 1875, 1871, 1867, pods these plants yield are being shipped to Europe, 1859, 1857, 1853, 1846, 1837, 1835,1830, 1829,1822,1819, and in fact many persons have begun to pay some 1818, 1815,1812,1809,1804, 1801, 1798, 1792, 1788,1785, attention to the cultivation of this plant. A consign­ 1782. The dry summers come naturally in the middle of m en t of 88 bags of dried fruits from this plant was the period which divides two wet year's, thus—1874, 1869, shipped to England by the “ Duke of Buckingham,” 1863, 1857, 1854, 1849, 1842, 1832, 1825. Applying the 173 trees of the Divi Divi in full bearing which rule which this experience suggests to the summer of 1881 would take an acre of land is supposed to yield fifty Vjp find that the next rvet year ought to coincide with the cwt of pods, which are valued in London at £37-10; declination of 18 degrees, therefore, with the year 1884, as and as the cultivation and care costs literally nothing the last was 1879 with the declination of 26 degrees. Con­ after the trees are once in bearing, it is found to be sequently the dry summers should come about the middle of a most profitable crop.— Madras Mail. the intervening period between those two y..ars—that is, T e a a s i t o u g h t t o b e d r u n k .— During the pre­ they should be 1881 and 1882. It might therefore have sent season there is a public want of a really whole­ been foreseen that, beginning with 1880, we were proceed­ some temperance drink. What do our readers say ing towards a maximum of dryness.”— B ritish M ail. to a teacocktail ? The following is given, in an ex­ change as an extract from the “Diary of a Hunter” by the late Col. Irly, one of the first Englishmen who ever visited the Karakorum Pass :—“Now took THE SOY BEAN, A NEW FEEDING STUFF. place a very curious and important operation—the brewing tbe real tea—not the “make-believe” as the Mr. Wamford Lock has drawn attention to the soy bean Marchioness styled the choice liquors she concocted of China and Japan, Glycine soja (Soja hispida}, suffici­ for Dick Swiveller. The tea being immersed, a ladle ently familiar as the source of the eastern sauce of that of ghee is put in, and four or five table-spoons of name, and affording a valuable oil (bean oil), which is the salt added : then much stirring and mixing takes subject of an article in the new “ Industrial Encyclopaedia.” place, a curious implement being used to froth the It is attracting considerable attention among Continental beverage, like what in the navy in my younger days agriculturists, and has recently been experimented on with —perhaps, the very name now forgotten—was called, regard te its value as a food for milch cows and fat cattle. a “swizzle-stick,” which, by rapid revolution bet­ As a forcing food for milch cows, the soy bean is superior to ween the hands, aerated the grog in the tumbler, grains; for fat cattle, it is less adapted, and ranks second giving it a pleasant sparkling appearance and fresh­ to grains. ness of flavour. Many a time I applied it in my The plant can be cultivated in Central and Eastern first voyage from England to Hobart Town, via Can­ Europe, and similar localities, especially in unfavourable ada, instructed by the veteran purser, Tucker; and years, when other crops are backward. For growth as a a by 110 means contemptible beverage it made in field crop it is recommended to be sown in rows 18 in. apart tropical latitudes at eight bells. Well, the tea well mix­ in the middle of May. ed, and frothed, and repeatedly tasted, was ladled out The qualities of the beans grown in diluvial and alluvial to the anxious party, and much relished .”—China Mail PROGRESS AT THE STRAITS. there would be the direct advantage to both British and Native interests, by increasing trade, and en­ “ The present Governor of the Straits Settlements suring that the resources of the country are not solely (Sir Frederick Weld)”—writes an ex-Ceylon planter— as at present, dependent upon its mineral wealth ; in “ appears to be a very enterpvizing and progressive the third, there would resault the abolition of the officer, and he has the interests of this colony most growing practice of introducing such labour under no decidedly at heart.” The present mail-uews from recognised regulations or authority : and in the fourth, there would be thrown open large remunerative employ­ Singapore confirms this opinion in a very practical ment and room for settlement, in a field every way way. Sir Frederick Weld has just started on a tour eminently suited to their habits and constitutions, to of inspection intending to explore portions of the numbers of the labourers of a country already greatly British Settlements at Malacca and Klang, which overstocked, aud which is periodically visited by famine had never before been visited by British officers. to a most lamentable extent. He is well seconded at Perak by Mr. Low, to From the Resident of Perak to the Colonial Secretary, S. S. whom (with his chief) will now belong the honour In 1879, the disease which has been so injurious of getting the Secretary of State to alter a decision to the coffee plant, in Ceylon, caused Almost a panic twice expressed against Cooly Immigration into amongst the planters of that Colony : many of them these semi-Brilish Settlements. visited Perak and other parts of the Malayan Pen­ insula, and applications were made to this Govern­ I n d i a n I m m i g r a t i o n . ment for about 35,000 acres of forest land, on which From the dispatch of Governor Weld to the Secretary it was proposed to commence the cultivation of » f State. coffee, cinchona, &o. Singapore, 5th May 1881. All the skilled gentlemen who examined the country Mr. Low has set out in clear language how essential declared that Perak, from the extent and elevations it is, in opening out the excellent agricultural lauds of of its mountain ranges which reach to 8 ,0 0 0 f e e t; Perak, that Indian labour should be introduced, and from the quality of its soil; from the facilities of he points out that, unless such labour is procurable, access by its very numerous rivers and creeks ; that State must rely on its tin deposits for any develop­ from its absence of destructive winds; and from its ment that must take place. He states that the Indian neighbourhood to a British Colony ; had every facility' Immigrants can be as effectually protected in Perak as which could be required for the successful cultiva­ in Province Wellesley or Ceylon, and he explains that tion of all tropical agricultural products. for the administration of justice, there are British Having some knowledge myself of such matters, Magistrates at eight stations, and that Police are I am able confidently to assure His Excellency that quartered in twenty-five different localities. He reports none of these advantages were over-estimated, and the that the Government has power to carry out all ne­ gentlemen from Ceylon, who saw the padi crops at cessary regulations, and he adds that it may be fully Krian, were astonished at the productiveness of the trusted, under the supervision of the Governor of soil, which gives, year after year, without manure these Settlements, to enforce any regulations that may and with little cultivation, an average of 800 to be made. The statements in the Resident’s letter 1,000 gantangs per orlong, and reaches, in good will, I feel confident, have great weight with H. M.’s seasons, to as much as 1,900, being an increase of Government, They come from a very' experienced 250 to 300 fold on tbe seed sown. and trustworthy official, who has proved himself to The only drawbacks to Perak, as a field of in­ be a most competent administrator, and I have not vestment for British enterprise, were that it was the slightest hesitation—personally acquainted as I am not British territory, and that free immigration of with the country and its administration—in support­ coolies from India was not permitted. ing those statements, and confirming them in the most The planters from Ceylon did not seem to think authentic manner possible. so much of the first of these difficulties as the There is, too, abundance of British capital forthcom­ British merchants of the Straits Settlements, and I ing, so far as I can learn to open uj> these fertile states, do not think it would have deterred them from the but on every occasion of an application fora grant of land adventure, but the question of labour was of far more being made, the experienced planter points out the gravity, and all concerned were sanguine that, con­ necessity of obtaining Indian labourers before any real sidering the vapid progress of this State towards com­ work can be done with the view of making any consider­ plete security and settlement, Her Majesty’s Govern­ able investment. Certain grants of land have been ment would assist in the solution of this difficulty. taken up in each of the Protected States, and in Johore, I have no special knowledge of the present condi­ still but comparatively little progress has been made tion of the other States of the Peninsula, but I fear owing especially to the existing uncertainty of the action that, in this matter, the interests of Perak may have of H. M.’s Government on this question. And I think suffered from having been considered in connection that there can be very little doubt, but that if the final with Johore, the circumstances of which are very decision is adverse to the course which I am advocating, different and by no means so favourable to the health those who are now prepared to embark to a large extent of the labourer, and the attainment of the object in planting in the Native States will be driven elsewhere in view. and that the attempts made by this Government to At the present moment, two gentlemen of enter­ introduce a large system of agricultural undertakings in prise and capital have settled from Ceylon in the the Native States, which would tend to the direct advant­ Slim liver, and have cleared about 159 acres of land; age of those States and to British interests, will receive another from Province Wellesley has commenced an a great blow aud heavy discouragement, and the solid estate in the Throng district; above 120 acres have improvement of the country be indefinitely’ postponed. been cleared by two gentlemen on the eastern face On every ground, therefore, I am of opinion, that of the range of mountains, half way between the it would be advisable and expedient that Indian Immi­ port of Matang and Kwala Kangsa, and the Govern­ gration should be permitted, under regulation, to the ment experimental plantation is in the same neigh­ Native States and also to Johore, In the first place, bourhood with nurseries at Kwala Kangsa. there would be the advantage of opening up magni­ In the Krian district four or five thousand acre ficent country, already proved to be eminently suited of land have been taken up, and sugar cultivatios or plantations of almost all kinds; in the second, commenced by influential members of the Chinese Community of Penang, and, at the Bindings river, ment can be obtained, no longer withhold my sane- an agreement has recently been entered into for tion to it. re-opening a portion of the sugar estate commenced Immigration into the Native State must be subject by 'i'r. Tooth. to the same regulations and conditions as those which Other gentlemen are only waiting .the solution of are in force in the Straits Settlements. the labour difficulty at once to commence similar It would be desirable that the Immigran'e should, undertakings on an extensive scale. in tiie first instance, be employed near the station of For a tropical climate, P 6rak is far more healthy a Magistrate, if that be practicable, so that the than either Borneo or Ceylon, the low lands in both system may be started under close supervision. of which extensive islands are everywhere subject There can be no doubt that Tamil coolies will bo to fevers of more or less severity. employed to great advantage on the Perak mounta u In Perak, where good proof of the climate is ac­ cessible from the Chinese population scattered over ranges. the entire country, fever and other sickness were We are sorry to receive bad news from Johore: the almost unknown, until the recent attack of Beriberi large clearing of the Comp-ny of that name, opened broke out amongst the miners, whose numbers had under Mr. Watson’s auspices, at an elevation of largely increased in 1880. about 700 feet above sea-level has been condemned Two spots only are recorded in which fever was for Coffea Arabica, all hough it is deemed suitable for proved to be endemic, the one being the neighbour­ hood of the Pass through the hills on the road to Liberian coffee, cocoa and, perhaps, tea. Mr. Dobree’s Kwala Kangsa, and the other having been detected on report was so adverse that the Directors decided to opening the estates at Slim, which was done on land plant no more ordinary coffee at this elevation if, of about the same elevation as that of the Pass, indeed, they do not abandon what has already bien namely from 400 to 500 feet. The plantation of Messrs. put out. A planting correspondent writes to us as Schultze and Wray, situated 1,500 Let above the Pass, follows about the future prospects :— and that of the Government at 3,250 and of another of the same elevation, have been entirely free from “■ Planting progresses fairly. Labor is now plentiful, sickness, although about one hundred aud fifty men but, as compared with Ceylon, John Chinaman requires. have been employed on each of them during several rather too much (Untong) gain to expect planting to months past. pay handsomely—unless in such a matter as cocoa The Malay population, which in all, numbers about or Liberian coffee, where a fourth or one-eighth of the 56,632, has never been accustomed to regular labour, abor is sufficient, compared with Coffea Arabica. I or to work for wages. A marked improvement in find in “ Cocoa as Grown in Trinidad and How to them is visible, and by bringing to bear npon them, Plant in Ceylon, ” 20 men might work a plantation through their chiefs and in accordance with the usages of 200 acres, whereas the same acreage of Coffea of the country, gentle pressure in the way of requiring, Arabica would require from 160 to 200 coolies per day. for their own good, a certain amount of cultivation, I guess our elevation is rather unsnited to Coffea A rab- I have no doubt that time will turn them into an ca, unless one were accustomed to find it growing agricultural race similar to the Javanese, but they are luxuriantly in the Bintenna country, from the foot not sufficiently numerous, nor can we hope sufficiently of the Haputale range to that of Gongala. Our soil, to change their habits to calculate on them as regular from 600 feet down to sea level, is perfection in most labourers to supply the steady industry necessary for cases : of course, there are parts with a clay subsoil, an area of cultivation such as it has been my hope but that is by no means frequently fouud. I fully be­ might be established in Perak under the auspices of lieve that Ceylon cannot fully compete with it. However, Her Majesty’s Government. we have our chenas in the form of abandoned Gam­ Every range of mountains, and these run nearly all bier clearings over a great part of the lowcouutrv. parallel to each other and the sea coast, contains These are not quite so washed out as the most of valuable veins of the ore, which, having for ages been Ceylon chenas; as they are much fatter and the acted upon by atmospheric influences, have formed grass is allowed to grow, being only cut down twice rich and easily accessible deposits at their bases. or three times a year, and allowed to decay Each valley is traversed by a river sufficient, when on the ground, which tends to enrich the soil cleared out, for all purposes of transport, so that considerably in my opinion. I believe these clearings with diminished cost of production, I have no fear would pay handsomely yet in tea or even Liberian that Perak will be able to compete in the market coffee, although virgin soil might be more profitable with any country in the world at whatever price in the end. If a steamy atmosphere is suited for many years to come, but it will be with the to cocoa, I say Johore is the place to try : we have greatest sorrow that I shall receive from His Excellency a constant rainfall, scarcely ever exceeding four days a conclusive intimation that this beautiful and fertile dry on end ; hence our steamy atmosphere. These country, with a Government and people ready to rains are not thunder showers of great violence sacrifice its prejudices and even its interests to sup­ as in Ceylon; frequently gentle showers for hours on end port Her Majesty’s Colony, and anxious to invite the in the lowcountry ; heavy dew every night.- Liberian influx of British enterprise and capital and to do its coffee must, I think, find a suitable home here, and duty by them, is prevented, by fears which, I believe, its success is already almost certain. ’T is only necess­ to rest on insufficient information, from increasing its ary to visit the plantation of His Highness the resources, improving the circumstances of its immi­ Maharajah, to find that the new products we hear of grant”, and adding to the wealth, industry and com­ so often are receiving attention in Johore. This merce of its own and of Her Majesty’s subjects. Liberian coffee referred to, planted by His Highness, I have, &c., is a perfect picture of excellence ; i t ’s now a little over two years planted; the trees are from 6 to 8 feet H u g h L o w , in height, bearing heavily and giving excellent blos­ Resident. soms all the while, and the beautiful dark green Lord Kimberley gave way after this, saying on the foliage seems unfading under any circumstances, even 12th A ugust last :— though considerable pickings are being got every few Mr. Low’s arguments have convinced me that the days. There are. I believe, several other patches doing experiment may be safely tried on a limited scale. equally well in the vicinity of Johore. Tea! Who has I will therefore, if the consent of the Indian Govern- not read that several well-prepared samples by a p ro- 143 fessional fetched the tip-top prices of the London set in persistently and the spores not only are not market, in January last? Who will then be sur­ active, but they run the risk of destruction through prised to know that already there are thousands of a variety of agencies, not the least being a series of acres being taken up for tea, and men on the spot fu n g o id enemies! Hence the great advantage of the to commence operations. Any one who will have lasted a cupful of Johore tea before it comis the Uva districts right along from Namunakulikele in con'act with spurious imitations, ■ will surely to Idulgashena and from Lunugala co within hail never forget to take care of his dollars until of Pedrotalagala ; for, be it noted that at least 24 he has got in tr's own few acres. Land is cheap hours’ soaking rain is, according to Mr. Ward’s aud every encouragement is held ont to intend­ observations, required to give the leaf fungus a fair ing investors. I understand His Highness has ordered a steam plough from England to facilitate planting start. A mere passing shower will not do it; isol­ in the lowcountry. ated thunder-showers, from which so many parts of “ Pepper mult not be unnoticed—a molt profitable Uva derive great benefit, are not sufficient, and as and sure investment, proved to be a great success here. for the night dews on which the coffee in the It is a beautiful sight, a pepper plantation, each vine Principality is often dependent for weeks and months clinging to the upright stem. They are beautifully cultivated in every case ; they are allowed to grow together, it is of the smallest possible consequence to 9 ami 10 feet high On entering any of these, to the ubiquitous spores, which want good heavy John Chinaman meets you, and if he knows enough showers to enable them to spring into maturity and Malay, he says: ‘ Tabby Tuan ’ as a Tamil would and absolute virulence. Here then is consolation as give his salaam to durai. If you go into further con­ well as moat valuable information from the “ Scient­ versation, John is found generally wanting, and goes .ff with ‘ Qua Quvah ’ or such unintelligible lan­ ist” for the planters in Uva, and indeed in other guage only known to himself : yet withal, he’s comparatively dry districts, and they must hence­ a very good fellow, an energetic workman, perfectly forward remember that the rain they often long honest if you look well after him, civil if you don’t for is not the unmitigated blessing they have been giv him occasion to be otherwise. What do you wont to regard it. But perhaps even more import­ think of cardamoms down here ? I have seen them in a wild state in Ceylon at 4,000 feet: how do they ant is it to recall the fact which Mr. Ward and Dr. do at 400 or less ?” Trimen repeat and emphasize with all the assurance The Johore pioneers cannot do better than give a fair of matured conviction that the hemileia in no way trial to all new, as well as old products. affects the vitality or bealthfulness of the coffee tree save throgh the leaves. . The absence of the same display of feeding rootless as in days of oldj COFFEE LEAF DISEASE IN CEYLON. the dying back of wood, the non-ripening of crop We feel that injustice is likely to be done to have all been regarded as indubitable signs that the the Government Cryptogamist by criticism based on coffee-tree was dying beyond recovery—that the dis­ isolated extracts from his recent Report. Mr. Marshall ease had entered the sap and marrow of the tree Ward will no doubt desire that it ought to be read and that the periodical dropping of leaves w’as merely and commented on as a whole. There are important a further and external indication of its ravages- facts which are apt to escape the attention on a Now Mr. Ward will not admit this for one moment. first and cursory perusal. For instance, the immuni­ The disease is confined entirely to the yellow pin- ty of the Uva principality as compared with the spots on the leaves and it is quite compatible with, districts on this side of Nuwara Eliya from the indeed the fungus prefers, healthy and luxuriant same number of attacks, and the often rapid re­ trees, and it is only as repeated and persistent petition of attacks of the fungus. This immunity attacks, fostered by continuously wet weather, denude Mr. Ward shows is ow-ing to the comparatively dry the tree of its leafage that it begins to suffer and Uva climate. Haputale, for instance, has pre-emin­ manifest indications which have been accepted as ently the rich soil and fine cover of leaf in which independent evidence of internal disease. There is Hemileia vastatrix is ready to revel, and when con­ encouragement in this to continue the battle with tinuously wet weather sets in there—rarely enough— the pest with tbe additional light which this in­ the conditions are all fulfilled for a bumper (vir­ vestigation has thrown on its mode of working. In ulent) crop of the fungus, such as has often been gathering and burying fallen leaves, in the judicious noticed. But the rainy weather is soon over and use of caustic lime, in timely pruning and careful the succeeding crop or sporess, blown hither and manuring, the planter may be able to do much to thither, fall upon evil times. In the normally dry combat and cheat his great enemy even in districts weather they are unable to enter the stomata of the where the rainfall will continue to bring forward leaves, or to fructify in the absence of the moisture successive crops of fungus-spores. which is their very life and consequently they perish by thousands and millions miserably, in many cases “THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST!” : through the operations of other and lower fungi ; COFFEE PLANTING IN THE PHILIPPINES. so true it is that Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em, T he Agriculturist is likely, as a London correspond­ And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum. ent hinted in our Saturday’s issue, to bring Ceylon plant­ ing (and pubbshing) enterprise into wider notice than it So long as moist rainy weather prevails, the Hemileia has ever yet obtained. We have received compliment­ vastatrix rules supreme, passing through its life- ary letters and support from places so far apart as history in three weeks and luxriating wherever there Jamaica and Borneo or still farther to the South-east, is a cotTee leaf to feed on, b u t le t d ry w eath er Queensland, and from Calcutta to Natal. A felt want by colonists scattered far and wide has been met and it Handsome well made evenish black leaf pekoe tips must be our endeavour to make the publication great strength and character with rich heavy in­ worthy of the steadily increasing support which we fusion Fine mixer. ' 1 3£ts Darjeeling pekoe souchong 401b. comes from a gentleman who adds the following Well made wiry blackish grey even leaf full bodied rather singular postscript :—“ I would be very grate­ brisk ripe malty pekoe flavor Fine tea to drink ful for a hint as to where one may find the best alone. is 2 id land for coffee culture. I am about to purchase a 18 half-chests Darjeeling souchong 451b. Evenly curled greyish black well made leaf delicate rich tract in the Philippines, but think that soil is not full infusion wi h great strength Fine tea to adapted to the growth of coffee.” We cannot doubt drink alone. Is 3£d that soil of volcanic origin is to be fonnd in the 20 half-chests Assam pekoe souchong 451b. Extra Philippines well suited for coffee, and if our corre­ fine even twisted black leaf pekoe tips pungent and spondent can make his selection at a auitable eleva­ strong rich very full brisk flavor. Powerful tea. Is 3d. tion say from 2,500 to 3,500 feet above sea-level, 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 451b. provided the rainfall is well distributed with an Greyish black neat well twisted leaf telling in- average of about 100 inches per annum, we do not usion strong and pungent with great body Rich doubt that, so far as soil and climate are con­ mixer. l s 3d. cerned, coffee in the Philippines should do as well as 9 half-chests Darjeeling broken tea 441b. Brown- i sh black open and loosely twisted le^f rich delic­ in any other part of the world. ate ripe brisk pekoe flavor. Fine mix^r. Is ljd . 22 half-chests Darjeeling Terai pekoe souchong 391b. Well made greyish black evenish leaf full SALE OF TEA IN MELBOURNE. flavored thick heavy rich infusionDelicious tea. ls 2d. (From our Correspondent.) 28 half-chests Assam souchong 451b. Neat closely curled blackish crisp leaf strong rather pungent Thursday, 6th October, 1881 :—Ex S. S. “ Cathay,” from thick heavy liquor Is ljd, 25 half chests Assam broken pekoe souchong 401b. Calcutta, choice Indian Teas, 1,304 half-chests from the Very neat greyish black small leaf strong rasping celebrated districts of Assam, Cachar, : Daijeeling, Chitta­ brisk pungent liquor Fine mixer- Is ljd, gong and ICangra Valley. Greig and Murray will sell by 50 half-chests Daijeeling pekoe souchong 401b. auction, at their rooms on Thursday 6th October, at Bold brownish even curled crisp leaf rich full half-past two o’clock. Under instruetioa from Messrs. malty delicate pekoe’flavor, Delicious tea. Is 2£d. 89 half-chests Assam pekoe souchong 401b. Extra James Henty & Co., agents for the Calcutta Tea Syndicate, fine well curled and twisted leaf with pekoe end in connection with the Government of India. rich heavy very fruity malty flavor [Heavy liquor. Is 2d. INDIAN TEA. 36 half-chests Darjeeling pekoe 451b. Choicest well made perfect loaf full orange tips drawn a mag­ Ex S. S. “ Cathay,” from Calcutta. Per lb. in bond. nificent infusion rich fragrant and delicate Most 6 hall-chests As>am pekoe souchong 441b. (each delicious tea 2s 2d. 2 tins.) Greyish black bold even curled leaf few 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 451b. E xtra ends rasping pungent heavy infusion Is 6d. fine well curled greyish black leaf rasping telling 20 half-chea-ts Cachar pekoe 441b. (each 2 tins) liquor very pungent and strong. Rich mixer. Is 3d. Evenly curled and twisted greyish black leaf high 55 halt-chcsts Cachar broken pekoe souchong burnt brisk and very flavory Is. 4£d, 441b. Greyish black even curled crisp leaf namuna 9 half-chests Darjeeling souchong 451b. rather kind pungent rasping telling choice infusion large boldish black even leaf rich fragrant deli­ Powerful mixer. Is Id. cate malty flavor Is 3d. 20 half.chests Assam broken souchong 451b. 30 half-chests Assam broken souchong 391b. Small neat greyish black open leaf briskly fired Blackish brown rather open and loosely twisted deep rich flavory. Thick liquor. Is Ojd. leaf pungent and strong full ripe pekoe flavor 54 half-chests Daijeeling pekoe souchong 45 lb. B^ine Mixer. Is 0£d. E\enly curled greyish black hard crisp leaf Frag­ 16 half-chests Darjeeling peokoe 451b. Choicest rant delicate rich full telling liquor. Delicious tea. ls l£d. neat wiry even black perfect leaf full of tips a 30 lialf-chests Assam pekoe 40lb. Very hand­ grand tea drawing a pleasant fragrant telling some even wiry greyish leaf full of pekoe tips a infusion The finest Darjeeling of the season. 2s 5£d. perfect liquor wonderful strength with great body 50 half-chsts Kangra Valley pekoe 401b. Black and delicacy. Most powerful mixer. Is 9d. boldish fairly curled leaf peokoe tips very flavory 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe 4olb. Closely twisted richly fired ripe pekoe flavor. Pleasant tea- Is Id. greyish black even leaf few tips strong full rich 50 half-chetss Cachar pekoe 401b. Handsome wiry ripe pekoe flavor, t-ine liquor. l s 3£d. very even blackish leaf pekoe tips choice rich telling 12 half-chests Assam peko1 souchong 441b, liquor very strong heavy flavor. Finest Cachar. Is 7d. Bather large but closely twisted greyish black leaf 23 half-chests Assam broken souchong 501b. Neat pekoe tips little pungent and strong full brisk small very even greyish Hack leaf Namuna kind flavor Bich mixer ls l£d, immense strength pungency and grip Powerful mixer. Is 0|d, 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 411b. 50 half-chests Darjeeling pekoe souchong 40lb. Greyish black well twisted and curled strong full Boldish greyish fairly curled and twisted leaf ripe brisk pekoe kind. Useful tea. ls l£d. fragrant delicate rich pleasant flavored tea Fine 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 421b. Even tea to drink alone. Is Ifd. blackish round and fairly curled leaf strong full 8 half-chests Darjeeling Terai pekoe 501b. flavor pekoe ki"d. Thick liquor. ls Id. 11 do do do 381b. 20 half-chests Chittagong pekoe souchong 601b. Choicest wiry neat perfect leaf full orange tips Superior well made greyish leaf few tips namuna ricli ripe brisk fulljpekoe flavored delicious tea. Is lid kind pungent rasping liquor with fine character 70 half-chests Assam pekoe souchong 351b and flavor. Powerful tea, ls 3d. 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 401b. Grey­ upon might not be selected for similar experiments, and ish black well curled crisp leaf strong full ripe it would be worth while, we think, for Government to rich flavory. Good tea to drink alone. Is 2d. invite opinion as to other promising spots. Gigantic 40 half-chests Cachar pekoe [sonchong 391b, difficulties, r.o doubt, will have to be encountered and Bather large boldish black even leaf pungent and overcome, just as was the case at Darjeeling, but un­ full brisk pekoe kind. Strong tea. Is ljd. flagging preseverance, and botanical knowledge will be 50 half-chests Cachar pekoe souchong 351b. Greyish black even wiry leaf rich ripe full strong equal to the attempt. British Sikkim seemed at one pekoe flavor. Fine mixer. Is l£d. time to be a very discouraging field, but that opinion has since been reversed by the successful naturalisation of the C. Succirubra, C. Officinalis and C. Calisaya. A CEYLON PLANTER IN MANITOBA. These are by far the most valuable of all the cincho­ A correspondent writes:—“ I send herewith copy nas, and if they can be got to flourish at suitable heights of a portion of a letter received this morning from a in Northern India, we see no reason why they should friend of mine, formerly a Ceylon planter, lately not be equally successful on certain other equally settled in Manitoba, as the publication of it may favored spots in other parts of India. It is almost im­ prove interesting to some of your readers. ” possible to estimate aright the universal benefits which Portion of letter referred to :— will be conferred upon the inhabitants of marshy and “ I arrived by rail a$ Emerson on the 5th of August, malarial districts, when quinine and its allied alkaloids and am living with my brother here. He has a good are brought within easy reach of the poorest in the land. two-storied house, and a farm of six hundred and Quiniaina is in no whit inferior to quinine itself, as most forty acres—about 120 in crop, and 60jhead|of cattle. of your readers are aware, and being less costly it could Altogether he is doing well, but farming does not pay be brought within every one’s reach. The extension very well here as yet, as there is so much public of the growth of so valuable a febrifuge ought to com­ work going on, in the way of railways &c., that mend itself to Government, and I trust to hear that a labour keeps very dear—8s. 4d. a day and board, commission is appointed to report upon the eligibility in harvest time ! My own land is about three miles of other spots besides those that are already known as from here, and I expect to be able to work it from cinchona-yielding districts.—Cinchona.— M adras Tim es. here, if I can get a good man as overseer. I have G40 acres at present, 100 acres ploughed, and will be cropped next year. I am in treaty to buy another SALE OF CINCHONA BARK. 640 acres adjoining it. Messrs. Robinson & Dunlop put up for public “ I believe that one cannot well go wrong in buying sale, attheir offices to*dayNov. 4th the undermentioned country-land here, as it is now worth 15s. to £1 per lots of cinchona bark :— acre, and, as far as I can see, must be worth £5, at least, in a few years ; so that, if one can make a living lb. R. c. off it meantime, he is not doing badly. We are East Holyrood—428 succirubra twigs sold for ... 0 30 twelve miles from Emerson, which is situated where 275 ,, stem quill ... 0 80 the Red River crosses the State’s boundary, and our 606 ,, ,, broken 0 90 nearest railway station is only six miles from my 55 ,, ,, renewed ) * land. 660 „ „ „ | 1 Oo “ The life here is one of ease compared to Ceylon, From 5 to 6 year old trees, elevation 4,000 feet, but there are occasional spurts of hard mauual work, Dimbula district. as, when threshing, for instance. The general living is Analysis dated 31st October, by Mr. M. Cochran, less comfortable than in Ceylon, as servants are of the parcel of 660 lb. renewed : stem quill shews :— expensive.” total alkaloids ...... 4"80 sulphate quinine... 2"21 driage ... 12’38 E. c. NEW CINCHONA PLANTATIONS. XVaverley—1,0001b. officinalis stem shavings 1 60 From trees 5 year old, elevation 5,000 feet, Agra- About five and t irty years ago little was known I patana. Analysis, dated 2nd November, by Mr. M. of Darjeeling beyond the fact that it was a pleasant | Cochran, shews :—total alkaloids ... 4"86 hill station, romantically situated and highly favorable | sulphate quinine ... 3 '03 to the renovation of health. At the period we quote, ! driage ...... 12"88 the man would have been suspected as a monomaniac who spoke of its capabilities for the cultivation of tea 1 Though the quantity offered was small, the at- and cinchona, but it was not till that prince of utilita­ ; tendance of regular buyers was good, and biddings rian botanists, Dr. Royle, suggested the possibility of | spirited, especially for the renewed succirubra and naturalising the most useful varieties of the cinchonas officinalis shavings, shewing that, for good sized lots of British India, that Darjeeling came to occupy the posi­ of really good quality, there is a locally a good tion it does now as a tea and cinchona-producing dis­ sale. trict. Knowing so much of the South American cin­ chona forests, he was led by an exhaustive comparison O s t r i c h F e a t h e r s . —The French Consul at Tripoli of the flora and climates of the Darjeeling, Cossiah and notices the remarkable increase in the quantity of Neilgherry Hills to come to the conclusion that, with ostrich feathers despatched thence to France last year. the usual precautions, they could be got to produce the The total value is estimated at nearly' 5,500,000f., bark now so eagerly look d for and prized everywhere. against less than 3,500,000f. in the previous year. It is now upwards of thirty years since Dr. Boyle gave Tuis increase is mainly attributed to the fall in the expression to his belief of the capabilities of Darjeeling price, co.,sequent upon the arrival in England of great as a cinchona-producing field, but the question was sub­ quantities of feathers from the Cape of Good Hope. sequently taken up by other experienced botanists, Doc­ In England it is remarked that the Cape specimens tor Anderson among the rest, with the happy effect of are preferred, as being perfectly white and full feath­ inducing the Government to undertake experiments on ered, and lending themselves easily to those harmoni­ a scale commensurate with the importance of the under­ ous tints of colour in vogue nowadays. In Paris,, taking. It is not to relate how and through what several North African feathers seem to be held in less disfavour- stages ciuchona-cultivation passed as an experiment that and hence strenuous efforts are being made to acclim we make our present obervations, but to ask whether atise ostriches from Tripoli in Algeria.—British Trade other localities besides those we had already entered Journal.