[54]I am now so satisfied with the capacity of these soils to keep themselves cool, that I am applying them as a top dressing to land deficient in shade and dry ridges. Since writing the above, I have ascertained from my manager the interesting fact that about seven weeks after putting down the red earth, newly grown white roots were found to be running all through this earth, though no rain had fallen from the time of the application of the soil up to the time the growth of the rootlets was observed. The adjacent land, to which virgin forest top soil had been applied, had no such growth of new rootlets, nor had any of the adjacent land, to which no top dressings had been applied. The red earth had evidently the power of taking in sufficient moisture from the atmosphere to stimulate a growth of young roots. The red earth was applied on February 20th, and no rain fell till April 7th. This growth of new rootlets, I may add, was also observed in another part of the plantation to which, a top dressing of the red earth had been applied.
[54]I am now so satisfied with the capacity of these soils to keep themselves cool, that I am applying them as a top dressing to land deficient in shade and dry ridges. Since writing the above, I have ascertained from my manager the interesting fact that about seven weeks after putting down the red earth, newly grown white roots were found to be running all through this earth, though no rain had fallen from the time of the application of the soil up to the time the growth of the rootlets was observed. The adjacent land, to which virgin forest top soil had been applied, had no such growth of new rootlets, nor had any of the adjacent land, to which no top dressings had been applied. The red earth had evidently the power of taking in sufficient moisture from the atmosphere to stimulate a growth of young roots. The red earth was applied on February 20th, and no rain fell till April 7th. This growth of new rootlets, I may add, was also observed in another part of the plantation to which, a top dressing of the red earth had been applied.
[55]The full analyses of these leaves and twigs are given in the Appendix to Dr. Voelcker's work, "The Improvement of Indian Agriculture," which contains other analyses of interest to the planter. This important work should, I may repeat, be in the hands of all those interested in tropical cultivations.
[55]The full analyses of these leaves and twigs are given in the Appendix to Dr. Voelcker's work, "The Improvement of Indian Agriculture," which contains other analyses of interest to the planter. This important work should, I may repeat, be in the hands of all those interested in tropical cultivations.
Since the introduction of the Coorg plant, it has been customary for Mysore planters to send annually to Coorg for seed, and they have always endeavoured to obtain it from the best coffee grown on the best land, and, as the results from this practice have been very satisfactory, it may seem that no better course could be suggested. But till all courses are tried it is certainly open to doubt whether this is the best, and I am now experimenting with seeds produced not from the richest, but from the poorest and most exposed portion of a Coorg estate (but of course neither so poor nor exposed as to be incapable of producing strong, healthy trees and sound seed), and I think it probable that seed from such trees will produce hardier plants than can be produced from seed gathered in rich and sheltered situations. As regards the climate from which the seed should be produced, one well-known planter, Mr. Edwin Hunt, writing in the "Madras Mail," Feb. 27th, 1891, says that he attaches the greatest importance to change of seed irrespective of the poorness or richness of the soil on which it has been raised, and thinks change of climate does as much as change of soil, and has for some years found it advantageous to procure seed from the wettest climate for the driest climate, andvice versa. I have had no experience on this point as regards coffee, but it may be interesting and useful from a shade-planting point of view, to note here that I have found that seeds ofthe jack tree from the dry plains of the interior produce plants which grow much more rapidly in the wet coffee districts than plants do which have been raised from local seed, and this naturally raises a question, I am now experimenting on,i.e., as to whether we should not procure coffee-seed from trees grown in the dry plains of the interior where the rainfall is less than half of that of our driest coffee districts. I may here note that coffee can be grown in low-lying sheltered land as far east as Bangalore if the coffee is irrigated. I was shown in 1891 coffee that looked well, and had borne well, in Mr. Meenakshia's gardens, some miles from Bangalore. One hundred and seventy trees planted 6 × 6 ft. in 1885 gave an appreciable crop in 1889, and in 1890 3 cwt. of clean coffee, or at the rate of upwards of a ton an acre. When I saw the trees in July, 1891, they were looking well, and had a fair crop on them. There was no shade except a bushy tree here and there. The proprietor, encouraged by his success, had been extending his cultivation. In the same garden I also saw cardamom plants about seven feet high and in blossom; these had been planted eighteen months previously. There were also some vines, grown from plants imported from Caubul, which produced large fine white grapes.
It is of course very important to select a good site for the nursery, and a ready command of water is essential, as it is both costly and unsatisfactory to carry to the beds even a short distance, and the aspect should, if possible, be northerly, as in that case very little shading is required if the ground is on a slope, as, if a line of trees is left at the head of the slope, a large amount of lateral shade will be thrown on to the beds. Next to a northern an eastern aspect, if the land is low-lying, with a hill or sloping land rising rather abruptly behind it, is by no means a bad situation, as the sun will be entirely off the land early in the afternoon. Should the planter unfortunately have tofall back on a southern aspect, this may be aided by leaving forest trees rather thickly on the western side of the nurseries so as to shield it from the afternoon sun, or a line of casuarinas may be planted on the west, and also on the southern side, so as to cast lateral shade on the nursery. A western aspect is to be deprecated, in consequence of the scorching heat of the afternoon sun.
There is a common idea, which I myself once shared, that it is always best to have your nursery on new land, but this is really not at all necessary if you renew your land by carting on to it top soil from the jungle, or even a mixture of any fresh soil that has not been trampled upon, and which has been mixed with cattle manure and some bone-meal. I consider it most important to retain the same site for the nursery, because, by growing casuarinas to cast lateral shade on it, you can ultimately dispense with shading the nursery, as these trees run up quickly, and attain a great height. The light, too, comes readily through them, so that their lateral shade is most desirable, and lateral shade, it must be remembered, allows the plants to benefit by the dew fall. I may add that the height to which the trees grow enables the planter to grow them at such a distance from the beds as to be practically unable to reach them with their roots.
As regards the best time for putting down the seed, opinions and practice have varied considerably, but it is now generally admitted that seed put down at Christmas, which will give plants with ten leaves on them in June (the planting season) are the most suitable for new clearings. Seed put down in September or October will give fine sturdy plants with one or two pairs of branches, and these are considered to be the most suitable for vacancies in old land. In order to do full justice to the last-named plants, they should, three months before planting out, be transplanted into small circular baskets, about the size of a small flowerpot, and with wide spaces between the wickerwork. These baskets should be filled with a mixture of dried cattle dung and good soil; they should then be placed on the surface of the bed and touching each other, and, when the plants are put out, they should be put down with the basket, which will then be quite filled with a mass of fibrous roots all ready to extend themselves into the surrounding land. When this course is pursued the plant receives no check, and its rapid growth is insured. If this method is not adopted in the case of replanting old land, or filling up vacancies amongst old coffee, many plants are sure to perish, and the survivors will make but poor progress. But in the case of virgin soil this course, though obviously a safe one, and freeing the planters from all anxiety as to a failure in the rains, may be dispensed with. Where baskets are expensive, or difficult to procure, pieces of worn out gunny bags answer the purpose fairly well, and I have seen them used on the Nilgiri hills.
The pits for vacancy plants should be dug shortly after the monsoon, and filled in soon after being dug, when the soil is quite dry, with a mixture of jungle top soil, bone-meal, and ordinary soil, or old, well dried cattle manure mixed with some fine bone-meal and ordinary soil. I have never used the nitrate of potash for manuring vacancy plants, but it has been used in Coorg with good effect, as may be readily understood by anyone who has had any experience of that valuable manure.
In conclusion, I may say that if the planter is not prepared to take all the steps necessary to insure the growth of vacancy plants in old land, he had far better not put down any at all, as he will find it to be a mere waste of money and labour, which is often more precious than money.
As regards the important point of topping, there are considerable differences of opinion. I am in favour of shorttopping, because the coffee thus more quickly and completely covers the ground, and the trees are more easily pruned and handled, and some planters top at from three to three and a half feet. Others again prefer four feet, and some four feet and a half, while I know of a planter who prefers a greater height, and cuts off the lower branches of his trees so as to turn them into an umbrella shape. The last practice I thought a very strange one once, but taking rot and leaf disease into consideration, I am by no means sure that, for our shade coffee, it is not the best, and at any rate feel quite sure that, as the lower branches in the case of highly topped trees soon become poor and thin, the practice of high topping, and removing some of the lower branches, is one to be decidedly recommended, and I am now adopting it on my estate. For, in the case of our shade plantation, if the coffee is short and thickly planted, so as to closely cover the ground, there is necessarily a great want of ventilation, and, when this is the case, rot must, from the great dampness of the ground, have a tendency to increase in the monsoon, while from there being no room for the passage of air underneath the trees, the spores of the leaf disease will be preserved from being dried up and killed during the season of strong and parching winds. But quite independently of these reasons, it seems to me that the souring of the land owing to excessive saturation would be much lessened were there free ventilation under the coffee trees. And, taking all these points into consideration, I am now letting up all my short topped trees, which is easily done by letting a sucker grow from the head of the tree, and topping it when it reaches the required height. In places which are exposed, or fairly exposed, to wind, short topping would not be attended with such disadvantages, as in the case of the land in more sheltered situations, but for all sheltered situations it certainly seems to me that, with reference tothe limitation of rot, leaf disease and the souring of the land, the trees should be topped at not less than four feet and a half.
The trees should not be topped until after the blossom comes out, as the result of topping at an earlier period would be to cause the trees to throw out a heavy crop on the primary branches, and more suckers, and so cause more trouble and expense in handling. It should be remembered, too, that in the case of all young plants if, before the first blossom, you cut the top, you check the growth of the roots. When topping, remove one of the topmost pair of branches as, if both are left, a split in the top of the stem is liable to occur. Should waiting until after the bursting of the blossom cause the tree to grow so high as to be affected by wind, the top may be pinched off by hand, and the tree afterwards topped at the proper height. This is often necessary in the case of shaded coffee, which is, of course, liable to be drawn up.
I have said that the evil of topping before blossom is, that a heavy crop is thereby thrown out on the primary branches, and I know of nothing more injurious to the young tree, or more certain to throw it out of shape, as the branch shrinks, and the tendency then is for the strongest secondary branch to take the lead. A judicious and full-pursed planter, it is true, would either remove the whole of the maiden crop, or at least from the three upper pairs of primaries, but the crop of the fourth year is apt to find a young planter with empty pockets, and he may not be able to afford the sacrifice; but he should in any case remove the immature berries, or blossom buds, from the greenwood of the primary branches, and if he refrains from topping before blossom, his trees may stand their maiden crop fairly well. But if the maiden crop threatens to be a heavy one it should certainly be lessened, as the following year there would be little crop, and much growthof superfluous wood, and an over heavy crop the succeeding year, and so on continuously. The trees would thus be thrown into the habit of giving heavy alternate crops, which is most injurious to the plant which, like all other fruit-yielding plants, should be worked so as to give even, moderate crops every year. But is it not evident that a heavy crop followed by a small crop and much superfluous growth must be extremely bad? for the trees thus produce an over heavy crop of berries one year, and an exhaustive crop of shoots and suckers during the next, and thus call for an extra expenditure of labour.
It is very important, by what is called handling, to keep the tree clear of shoots within six inches of the stem, and to remove all cross shoots and suckers and thin out superfluous wood as soon as possible. For we must constantly keep in mind that a given weight of leaves is as exhaustive to the tree as a given weight of berries. Prompt handling, and the removal of suckers, is also very necessary for the free ventilation of the tree, and especially during the monsoon months. I would call particular attention to the bearing that judicious and timely handling has on rot and leaf disease, as these are both much encouraged if the tree, at the beginning of the monsoon, has much immature foliage. We should handle them (and prune too, as is subsequently pointed out) so as to meet the monsoon as much as possible with well ripened leaves, and this can obviously be best done by preserving all the September and October shoots we can, and removing all the February shoots that the tree can spare. In connection with this subject, I would strongly advise planters to study Mr. Marshall Ward's third Report on leaf disease in Ceylon, to which I have elsewhere referred, and would particularly call attention to what he urges as to the advisability of giving every leaf that is to be preserved as long a life as possible, in order that it may feed the tree forthe greatest possible length of time.
In our climate, anything approaching to heavy pruning is regarded as an abomination, and the general opinion is now in favour of shortening back long drooping primaries, removing cross shoots and wood that is not likely to bear anything more, and thinning out overgrowths of new wood. The most luxuriantly wooded part of the plantation should be pruned first, and the sticky coffee last, because, in the first place, it is important to stop the growth of superfluous wood as soon as possible, and in the second case, time will be given to the sticky coffee to throw out new shoots, so that the pruner can see exactly where to apply the knife, which is often a matter of difficulty, if he is dealing with trees quite exhausted from bearing a heavy crop, or from the land being insufficiently manured. It is very important to pare closely off the spikes left after cutting off a secondary branch, so that the bark may heal over the junction of the branch with the parent branch, as, if this is not done, the free circulation of the sap is checked. It runs up the branches, and, of course, cannot readily get on when it meets with a spike of wood sticking out of the branch. This spike or stump may be green or half or quite dead, but whatever state it is in the free circulation of the sap will be checked, and the quantity of sap in circulation for the benefit of the main branch will be lessened.
The time for pruning trees is obviously of great importance. Our present practice is to prune as soon after the crop as possible, and no doubt this follows the rule as regards all fruit tree culture, which is, that the trees, from the time of blossoming till up to the picking of the crop, should not be interfered with. But pruning at that time causes the tree to throw out much young wood which in the beginning of the monsoon is in an immature state, and, as Mr. Ward has pointed out (videp. 389), this succulentfoliage is a good breeding ground for leaf disease. Mr. Brooke Mockett, too (videp. 401), has pointed out that leaf disease is worst in the case of trees which have been heavily pruned, and obviously because the heavier the pruning the greater the supply of succulent foliage. Such succulent foliage, too, is liable to be rotted away in the drenching rains of the south-west monsoon. So that, taking all the points into consideration, it is obvious that pruning should be so managed as to increase mature foliage, and, as much as possible, limit the amount of succulent foliage, at the beginning of the monsoon. How this object is to be attained it is difficult to see, but we can certainly do something towards attaining it by very light pruning; and I would suggest here that planters should make experiments both in pruning and manuring, with the view of growing the young wood earlier in the season. And I would suggest that planters might set aside say an acre, and leave the trees untouched at the usual pruning season, and confine their pruning to removing useless wood at the end of the monsoon. This, I surmise, would have the effect of throwing out new wood then, which would be mature at the beginning of the monsoon. Such experimental plots should not be manured after crop, but should be manured immediately after the monsoon. It certainly seems to me that, if we could both manure and prune at the end of the monsoon, we should attain, as far as it can be attained, the production of mature wood and leaves at the beginning of the monsoon.
Some planters, when pruning, remove moss and rub down the trees at the same time, but this, I am sure, can be done more cheaply and effectually as a separate work.
The removal of moss and rough bark, and generally cleaning and rubbing down the trees is a work of very great importance, and should be carried out once every two or three years. The injury arising from moss is toowell known to call for any remark, but the reason why the removal of rough bark, and especially rough bark at the head of the tree, and at the junction of the topmost branches with the stem is of such importance is, that it is in the crevices of the rough bark that the Borer fly lays its eggs. When thus removing the moss and rough bark, the eggs may often be destroyed, and in the absence of rough bark to shelter them, it is probable that the insect would probably not lay the eggs at all, or that, if it did, they would either become addled, or fall to the ground. I may add here that we have found a piece of square tin the best thing for scraping down the trees, and that the hair-like fibre of the sago palm is an excellent thing for rubbing down the stems.
Though moss thrives best in damp situations, and on northern aspects, it sometimes exists on open and eastern aspects, and, when the latter is the case, the moss is certainly due to poverty of soil, and in such cases, in addition to scraping the trees thoroughly, an application of top soil mixed with lime, or bonedust, should be applied to the land. I may add that I have seen trees on a dry knoll, and with no shade over head, covered with moss, and this was no doubt owing to poverty of soil, which caused the bark to be in an unhealthy condition, and therefore a suitable home for the growth and spread of moss.
Digging and working the soil in order to keep it in an open condition is of great importance, because, to use for the second or third time the words of Sir John Lawes, "it is the physical condition of the soil, its permeability to roots, its capacity for absorbing and radiating heat, and for absorbing and retaining water, that is more important than its strictly speaking chemical condition." In other words, a moderately fertile soil, if maintained in fine physical condition, will give better results than a rich one which is in a hardened state. But to keep the soil in goodcondition, and yet comply with the fruit cultivators' chief axiom that, "from the time of blossom till the crop is ripe the roots should not be disturbed," is a matter of great difficulty—I might almost indeed say an impossibility. For, from the trampling of the people in their passage up and down the lines, and the dash of the rain, the soil becomes exceedingly hard immediately after, or at least very shortly after the rain. Here, then, the planter finds himself between the devil and the deep sea. Is he to leave his soil in a hardened state from the beginning of November to the end of January, or perhaps the middle of February, or is he to violate the axiom which tells him not to disturb the roots till after the crop is ripened? And here I think the condition of things is such that he should come to a compromise, and dig up at the end of the monsoon a space of about 2 to 2½ feet up the centre of the lines, which, being the part always walked upon, is necessarily liable to be puddled and hardened, and then, after crop-picking is finished, lightly dig, or pick over and stir, the remainder of the soil, breaking, of course, all clods at the same time. By such a process we should prevent the central portion drying up and cracking, and aerate laterally the rest of the soil, and at the same time do as little damage as possible to the roots. I need hardly say that it is of great importance to begin with all those places where the soil is most hardened, as, should the planter not be able, from shortness of labour, to complete his digging before crop, he will at least have dug those places most urgently in need of cultivation. If the soil of the estate is pretty even in character, the hottest aspects will of course harden soonest, and should be dug first, but it may so happen that a hot aspect may have a soil of a loose and open character, while a north aspect might have a soil of stiff character, and here the planter must alter the rule so as to suit his particularcase.
For digging, or rather loosening the soil at the end of the monsoon, my experience is that the four-pronged Assam fork is the best tool, and that for the light picking over of the whole of the soil after crop a light two-pronged digger is best. This last tool is shaped like a mamoty, but with two prongs rather widely set apart instead of the broad blade of the mamoty. It being very light, it can easily be turned in the hand, so that clods may be broken with the back of the tool, and it can be used by women, which of course is of great advantage for pushing forward the work.
Renovation pits, as they are called, were once regarded as an excellent means of deeply stirring the soil, but, of recent years, have fallen out of favour with many planters, and I think justly so. These pits, or rather trenches, are dug in the spaces between four trees, and are generally about fifteen inches in depth, as many in width, and about ten feet long. Weeds and rubbish were thrown into them, and when they were filled with these, and soil washed into them, the pits were abandoned and another set opened. I am now satisfied that these pits did much damage by the sub-soil—which is often of an undesirable quality, and always, of course, more liable to run together and harden than the original top soil—being thrown on to the surface of the land. In fact, they did the same damage that the steam plough has often done at home in unskilful hands,i.e., turned a fine loose surface soil into one of an inferior character. Then the sides and edges of the pits harden and crack, and this of course adds to the heat of the plantation. But renovation pits may be put to an excellent use if employed in their character of water-holes, as they are called by the natives, and whenever land is liable to wash, they are of great service, and, though but small portions of our shaded plantations are ever liable to wash, a line ofrenovation pits should always be put on the lower sides of roads to catch the water that runs off them, and thus cause it to soak gradually into the soil. When renovation pits are used as water-holes no new ones should be opened, but the old pit should be cleaned out and its contents scattered on the surface of the land, not between the rows of coffee, as the soil would at once run into the renovation pits below, but around the stems of the coffee trees and in the lines. I have found that renovation pits, or water-holes, are of great value as water conservators, and wherever it is necessary to increase the supply of water for a tank, deep water-holes—say from 3 to 4 feet in depth and width—should be dug around the upper sides of the tank, and the rain water conducted into them by small channels. We have found, on my property, such an appreciable effect from even a moderate amount of such holes, that I am now largely increasing their number. A friend of mine has also found a similar effect in connection with his tank, though, I may mention, he had made the pits in connection with his coffee, and not with the view of increasing the water supply in his tank. I believe that this method of increasing the water supply would be well worth the attention of Government in connection with its numerous tanks.
The reader will remember that I have recommended applications of jungle top soil and other soil, and it should be remembered that such applications will, by rendering the soil more open, much lighten the work of digging, and this is a point that should be carefully estimated when calculating the expense of dressing the land with fresh soil.
Though coffee in Mysore is liable to two diseases, and to the attack of one insect, these, when the cultivation is good, and the shade suitable in kind and degree, are not likely to cause any uneasiness in the minds of the planters. But it is, of course, necessary to go carefully into the whole subject of these diseases and the insect attack, in order to bring out fully the steps that should be taken so to cultivate and shade the coffee as to render these evils as innocuous as possible, and I have therefore, in addition to my own knowledge, taken pains specially to procure from two planters of long practical experience their views. The views, I may say, of Mr. Graham Anderson as regards leaf disease are particularly valuable, as he has paid much attention to the subject.
Leaf disease is the common name given to the attack ofHemeleïa Vastatrix, a fungoid plant which distributes its spores in the form of a yellow powder. These alight on the leaves of coffee, and in weather favourable to the fungus, will germinate in about a day, and the fungoid plant then roots itself between the walls of the leaves. After the plant has completed its growth, which it generally does in about three weeks, more spores are produced to fly away with the wind, or be scattered by the movements of the coolies amongst the coffee, and thus the disease spreads. A great deal, of course, has been written about it, and those who desire more particular informationmay refer to Mr. Marshall Ward's report on coffee loaf disease in Ceylon. It is sufficient to say here that when the attack is severe the tree is deprived of its leaves, or of a large number of them; that much injury to the crop results; and that both the tree and the soil are heavily taxed in replacing the foliage that has been destroyed.
Leaf disease has probably existed[56]in Mysore as long as coffee has, but was, from the small amount of it, so entirely unnoticed, that, when I wrote my chapter on coffee in the "Experiences of a Planter," more than twenty-two years ago, I had never heard of it, nor, I am sure, had any of my neighbours. A trick, however, I once played on Mr. Graham Anderson's cousin about thirty years ago, enables me to trace it backwards so far with certainty. On coming through his plantation on one occasion, I picked oft a very large yellow coffee leaf, and placed it below the first of several plates with the aid of which he was helping his visitors. When the servant lifted the first plate, there was the leaf, and I said to my friend, "There are your golden prospects." Many years afterwards Mr. Graham Anderson recalled the incident to my memory, and said, "That was the leaf disease." But it was not till leaf disease appeared in Ceylon in a severe form that our attention was called to the subject, and since then leaf disease has undoubtedly increased, and, in the opinion of one of the two experienced planters I have consulted, has caused much loss directly and indirectly, while the other informs me it has caused much loss on some estates. But I confess my own observation causes great doubts in my own mind as to whether the losses ofleaves which planters attribute to leaf disease are entirely owing to that cause, and I was much struck with what Mr. Reilly, of Hillgrove Estate, Coonoor, said to me on the subject; and when we were discussing leaf disease in general, he observed that it was often said to be the cause of leaves falling off, when their doing so was really owing to an over heavy crop of coffee. Then with our dry east winds many leaves become yellow and fall off, and some become so because they have been injured by the pickers, others from rot, and others from old age, and all these leaf losses are commonly put down to leaf disease, so that, taking all these points into consideration, I find myself quite unable to determine, even approximately, the amount of loss arising fromHemeleïa Vastatrix.
But of one thing, however, I do feel absolutely certain, and that is, that when the land is well cultivated, manured, and judiciously shaded with good caste trees, leaf disease may be reduced to such a degree that we need not trouble ourselves about it, and I feel equally sure that the most important of all the agents for controlling and limiting the disease is the shade of good caste trees. And as to the effect of shade uponHemeleïa Vastatrix, I made particular inquiries when visiting estates in 1891 on the slopes of the Nilgiris, and conversing with planters on the subject. One manager went so far as to say that there was no leaf disease under the shade trees. Mr. Reilly, of Hillgrove Estate, said there was much less leaf disease under the shade trees. Another planter of great experience told me that leaf disease begins on the coffee in the open, and then spreads into even the finest trees under shade, but that those are affected in less degree. "In the end," he said, "You see the estate all yellow, but with green patches of coffee under the shade trees." In short, I found that all the planters I consulted were agreed in saying that there was but a small amount of leaf disease under theshade trees. The estates on the Nilgiri slopes have been originally all in the open, but latterly shade has been encouraged on some estates, but not to a degree which in Mysore would be called shade. However, the shade was quite sufficient, as we have seen, to illustrate the important fact that shade can control leaf disease. And as shade can control leaf disease, I need hardly say that it is of the utmost importance (just as it is as regards Borer), to carefully fill up at once all spots where shade is deficient, because this deficiency encourages leaf disease, and forms a breeding ground for spores to fly into the surrounding coffee. Open spots here and there may not strike one at first sight as being of much importance, but if they are all added together, the planter will see that they will amount to a considerable area of land, and quite sufficient, at any rate, to inoculate his plantation with leaf disease.
The reader will observe that I have said that leaf disease may be reduced within practically speaking harmless limits if the coffee is judiciously shaded with good caste shade trees, and I would call particular attention to the term good caste trees, because bad caste shade trees will not control leaf disease. On the contrary, Mr. Graham Anderson informs me that he has seen worse leaf disease under a dense covering of bad shade trees than he has in the open, and he also informs me that, though shade is the backbone of our success in Mysore, he has had more misfortune from all causes when his estate was under the heavy shade of bad caste trees than he has ever had since, though many places are not yet properly covered with the good kind of shade trees which he had planted to take the place of the bad ones he had removed. I am much indebted to Mr. Graham Anderson for information on the subject of leaf disease, and he has been kind enough to enumerate the following conditions under which leaf disease is liable to occur in the cases of good soils undergood shade:
"In the case of good soils under good shade trees," writes Mr. Graham Anderson, "leaf disease is liable to occur under the following circumstances, or at the following times:
"1. From the soil being saturated at some critical period of growth, particularly just when secondary growth commences in September.
"2. During the time when the plants are maturing a heavy crop.
"3. After the plants have been exhausted by ripening a heavy crop.
"4. After heavy weeds—particularly if late in the season.
"5. After a heavy digging where roots have been cut.
"6. After pruning without manure having been applied, or from want of digging.[57]
"7. Even after manuring when the trees have large succulent roots in an immature condition—generally a sign that fibrous surface roots are deficient, and that large, deep-feeding roots are present in excess.
"8. After large quantities of green or rotting weeds have been deeply buried, or large quantities of acid, unrotted, or forcing manures have been applied.
"Leaf disease is also liable to occur:
"1. In poor gravelly soils, and on land which has caked in the hot weather, or become unmanageable during rain.
"2. On land where ill-balanced manurial preparations have been used.
"3. In soils suffering from a deficiency of the available supply of phosphates and alkalies.
"4. Under unsuitable shade trees."
Now it is to be observed that these are preventable causes, or aggravations of leaf disease, and, if carefully attended to, the planter will have little to apprehend from leaf disease. Mr. Anderson, in his communication to me, lays, and very rightly, particular stress on the maintenance of the physical condition of the land and its state of fertility. And it is satisfactory to find that he is exactly confirmed by Mr. H. Marshall Ward in his third report (dated 1881) on coffee leaf disease in Ceylon, and he points out (p. 3) that "Leaf disease appears to affect different estates in different degrees on account of varieties in soil, climate, and other physical peculiarities."
"But," he continues, "I would draw particular attention to this. Careful cultivation and natural advantages of soil, climate, etc., enable certain estates to stand forth prominently, as though leaf disease did not affect them, or only to a slight extent, while poor nutrition, the ravages of insects, etc., have in other cases their effects as well as leaf disease." Or, in other words, he states that, as was suggested to me by Mr. Reilly—a planter of long experience near Coonoor on the Nilgiris—that much loss of leaves, which has been attributed to leaf disease, is often due to other causes.
Mr. Brooke Mockett—one of the planters previously alluded to—informs me that "Leaf disease is certainly worst (1) on trees that are cropping heavily, (2) on trees that have been severely pruned (heavy pruning being ruination in my opinion), (3) on plants under bad caste shade trees (these plants it seems to cripple), and (4) on plants in the open."
It is worthy of note that the Coorg plant is not nearly so liable to attacks of leaf disease as the original Mysore Chick plant. I have seen a tall plant of the latter variety heavily attacked, while a Coorg plant partly under it was only slightly attacked on the side next the Chick plant,and hardly at all on the side not under the Chick plant. I observe, too, from the Planting Correspondent's Notes in the "Madras Mail" of January 30th, 1892, that the same thing has been observed in Coorg, and that occasional Mysore plants, which had by some accident found their way into the Coorg coffee, got the disease first, and that it then spread into the surrounding coffee.
It should be borne in mind that leaf disease does not kill the tree, but only injures it, and diminishes its powers by depriving it of much of its foliage, so that there is nothing alarming in leaf disease when it is controlled by good management of the tree, and good shade, cultivation of the soil, and manuring; and the only case I can hear of where anything like permanent injury has occurred, is where the disease has existed under the shade of bad caste trees. But it is far otherwise with the justly dreaded Borer insect, which, however, can, as we shall see, be effectively controlled by good shade. To the attacks of this insect I now propose to direct the attention of the reader.
The too well-known coffee Borer is a beetle, about as large as a horsefly, which lays its eggs in any convenient crevice, and generally, it is supposed, near the head of the tree, in the bark, or wood of the coffee tree. After the larvæ are hatched they at once burrow their way into the tree, where they live on the dead matter of the inner or heart-wood of the stem, and there they reside from, it is supposed, three to five months, till their transformation into winged beetles. Then they bore their way out of the tree, and fly away to carry on their mischievous work. This insect has been declared to be, by Mr. John Keast Lord, "a beetle of the second family of the Coleoptera Cerambycidæ, and to be closely allied to a somewhat common species known as the wasp-beetle (Clytus avietis), which usually undergoes its changes in old dry palings."And in a collection made by M. Chevrolat in Southern India, and now in the British Museum (at least it was so in 1867, when Mr. Lord investigated the point), a specimen was found, to which the name ofXylotrechus quadrupeswas attached. This Borer, like the leaf disease, has probably always attacked coffee, but the earliest probable notice of it is to be found in Mr. Stokes's Report on the Nuggur Division of Mysore, in about 1835, where he observes that coffee trees in dry seasons often wither and snap off suddenly at the root. The cause, or probable cause of this he does not state, but there can be little doubt that the Borer had attacked the trees alluded to. Since then the Borer seems to have attracted little or no attention till towards the end of 1866, but about that time, and during the three following years, an alarming attack of Borer took place, and inflicted immense injury on plantations, and there can be no doubt that this was in a great measure owing partly to insufficient shade, and partly to bad caste shade trees, accompanied by dry, hot seasons, which were favourable to the hatching of the eggs of this destructive insect. But since then much attention has been paid to shade, both as to quantity and kind, and the Borer may now be regarded as an insect which can with certainty be held in check if the land is properly shaded with good caste trees. And I say good caste trees, because bad caste trees encourage Borers, and Mr. Graham Anderson, who has had a very large and disagreeable experience of the effects of bad caste trees, informs me that he has "seen worse Borer under densebadcaste shade than in open places in good soil on northern slopes." "Some bad shade trees," he continues, in his communication to me on the subject, "keep the coffee in a debilitated state. They allow it to be parched up in the dry weather, and they smother it in the monsoon. They rob it of moisture and manure with their myriads of surface-feeding roots, and prevent dew andlight showers benefiting the plant. I do not fear Borer under well-regulated shade of approved descriptions. Renovation pits left open in the hot weather, large clod-digging in a light soil even under fair shade, weeds left standing in dry weather; all these, by increasing evaporation, tend to cause increase of damage from Borer. A hard caked surface, or a compact, undug soil is equally bad. Rubbing and cleaning the stems is a valuable operation, because it removes rough bark in which eggs may be deposited, and contributes to the health of the tree. The prompt removal and burning of all affected trees, properly arranged shade of selected varieties, frequent light stirring of the surface soil, having well arranged shoots distributed all over the coffee trees, not opening the centre of the trees too much, and keeping the trees succulent and vigorous by culture and manure, may be at present classed among the best remedies for the Borer pest." In other words, he would say that the Borer loves dry wood. Keep your coffee tree green and succulent and well shaded, and you have little to fear from it.
I have also obtained the opinion of Mr. Brooke Mockett, who informs me that "Borer is certainly as destructive under bad caste trees as in the open." "Borer," he continues, in his communication to me on the subject, "is always much worse in land where there has been a burn than in unburnt land. It is also bad in rocky and stony places. In good soil, where there has been no burn, I have never had Borer severely, even though for a time there has been no shade whatever. I do not fear Borer now that such an excellent system of shade raising has been discovered. Rubbing stems once in about three years I look upon as of great use."
I too have had great experience of Borer, and agree with what my friends have written on the subject, with the exception of what Mr. Graham Anderson has said as tothe advisability of promptly removing and burning all bored trees. This I am aware is the common practice, but I have never carried it out on my property, and yet, though the trees were riddled with Borer in the great Borer years, and I have had since then a fair proportion of it on some part of my property, I believe that no estate has less Borer now. Instead of removing the bored trees I removed the Borer itself with the aid of the shade of good caste trees, and especially, I believe, by paying strict attention to what I have particularly enforced in my shade section—the prompt filling up of every spot in the plantation that called for more shade. For it is in such spots that the Borer first locates itself, and then it spreads to other dried up trees in the plantation. There is little use, I think, in removing the affected trees. You must remove the cause of their being affected, because, if you do not, thesoundtrees that are insufficiently shaded will in time be affected: and then it must be remembered that the Borer is a winged insect which, as long as you leave suitable ground for it, will be sure to make its appearance. Out of curiosity I lately cut down and carefully examined a coffee tree which I could see, from the appearance of the bark, had once been heavily bored, but which I felt certain had no Borer now, nor any recent attack of it. The tree I found, after a careful dissection, had not a sign of Borer present in it, nor any sign of a recent attack, and yet in years gone by it had been heavily attacked and bored literally from end to end of the stem. The explanation was that the land had formerly not been sufficiently shaded, while now the shade is ample. The Borers had then left the trees, and their descendants had either not thought it worth while to lay any eggs on them, or the eggs had, from the lowered temperature caused by the shade, become addled. Many years ago I remember cutting down a fine coffee tree, when the round gimlet-made looking hole through which theinsect makes its escape was plainly to be seen, when I found that a single Borer had drilled a hole down a part of the centre of the tree, then passed into the fly state and left the tree. It was a fine succulent and nourishing tree, and would, in all probability, have not again been attacked. To remove, then, all attacked trees, as some planters do, seems to me to be a great waste. To do so will not prevent other Borers arriving from some quarter or other to continue the deadly work; but shade, if it does not prevent their arrival, either prevents the insect from laying its eggs, from instinctively feeling that the ground is unsuitable for their being hatched, or causes the eggs to become addled. But whatever the cause may be, it is certain that succulent trees in well shaded land will not suffer from Borer, while it is equally certain that coffee trees in a dried up state, and with either insufficient shade, or shade of bad caste trees over them, are certain to be attacked by Borer again and again, and will eventually be killed.
I turn, lastly, to the consideration of a disease in coffee which is popularly known by the name of rot, and scientifically aspellicularia koleroga, a fungoid plant which crawls over the leaves and seals up their breathing pores, till at last the leaf dies, as man does, from want of breath. On one of my estates we have had a considerable experience of it, and, whatever may cause rot, I feel sure that what aggravates it, and causes it to be very injurious, is the want of free circulation of air over the land, and through the coffee trees; and I am the more convinced of this because we have found rot worse in the open, and where there was little undecayed vegetable matter present in the soil, than in rather thick shade with abundance of undecayed vegetable matter on the surface. But in the latter case the land is on a rather high ridge exposed to the constant winds of the south-west monsoon, while in the former case the land was in a hollow under a hill whichlies between it and the west—a hollow completely sheltered from the wind. And it is in such sheltered spots that we find rot worse, and quite independently of the presence or absence of shade or of vegetable matter lying on the land. To check rot, then, the free circulation of air is necessary both over the land and through the plant. Much may be done in the first case by judiciously opening channels for air through the shade trees so as to admit a free circulation of air into hollows, and much in the latter by freely handling out the centres of the trees which, in the monsoon, and especially in hollows, are apt to grow a superabundance of young wood, which chokes up the centre of the tree and thus hinders the free circulation of air. The soil, too, is often excessively saturated in these hollows, and, where this is the case, the land should be surface drained. Though I have not as yet adopted the plan of sweeping up and putting into the manure heap, or burying with a little lime added, the numerous dead leaves that are apt to drift into hollows, I feel sure that either of these plans would be attended with advantage, by lessening damp, and allowing a free circulation of air over the land. I am confident, I may add here, that the removal of the lower branches of the coffee trees, branches which in any case bear hardly anything in well-shaded land, would be of great advantage in lessening the damp in the plantation, and so diminishing the causes that promote rot.
With reference to rot, it is of great importance to thin out young wood as early as possible, so that, when the rot season arrives, the trees may have a moderate amount of well-matured young wood, with fully-developed hardened leaves, instead of a largo number of small succulent shoots covered with succulent leaves, which are very apt to be rotted bodily away. And the importance of this is equally great with reference to leaf disease, and Mr. Ward, in his "Report" (p. 15), points out that pruning andmanuring should be so timed that the tree may have, at the beginning of the wet weather, mature wood and leaves, and the whole of his observations on this head point to the conclusion that manuring ought to be carried out at the close of the monsoon, and that pruning, which encourages the growth of much young wood, should be limited as much as possible to the removal of utterly useless, worn-out wood. Under the head of pruning and handling, the reader will find some remarks with reference to the important subject of the best time for pruning so as to limit rot and leaf disease.
I am glad to say that I have no other pests to chronicle as regard Mysore estates, but as estates on the Nilgiris sometimes suffer from green-bugs, I give the following treatment, which was discovered, and has been effectually used by Mr. Reilly of Hill Grove Estate, Coonoor, who has kindly permitted me to publish the recipe.
For every 30 or 35 gallons of water take a bundle of wild merang (Leucas zeylanicaor (Kanarese) Thumba Soppu) plants about two feet in diameter, and, after removing the roots, boil it for about four or five hours, and let it cool all night, and in the morning apply the decoction to the coffee trees affected, with the aid of a garden syringe. The trees should be well syringed, and it is advisable to give the tree a second application. The refuse of the boiled plant should be scattered on the ground around the stem of the tree.
This prescription might probably be useful in the case of garden plants or shrubs which have been attacked by insects.