Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore / With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter

by Robert H. Elliot

The Attí (Ficus glomerata) was with me once a favourite tree, and is generally considered to be a good one, as it affords a cool and desirable shade. As a young tree it is admirable, but as it ages the foliage becomes poor and scanty, and the tree has a tendency to run too much to thick bole, and thick branches, which are poorly supplied with smaller branches and foliage. When about thirty years old, I have generally found this tree to be a poor shader, but it can be much improved by severe pruning, or rather lopping. When thinning out shade on this estate about twenty years ago, a twelve year old tree had every branch removed preparatory to cutting down, but by some accident the tree was left standing, and the stumps of the branches threw out fresh shoots, and the tree is now flourishing, and has a comparatively wide spread of branches and fair amount of foliage. It is evident, then, that pruning heavily will cause the tree to throw out new and vigorous shoots, but as this is a troublesome and expensive work, and as attí is certainly liable to the defect above alluded to, and is, besides, not a wide-spreading tree, it is evidently not so desirable as any of the first five I have named. Attí can be grown from cuttings, but these must not be large ones, i.e., they should be thinner than those commonly used when planting cuttings of the various fig trees recommended at the beginning of the section on shade.

The Noga (so called from its being much used to make bullock yokes from) or Nogurigay (Cedrela Microcarpa) is a favourite tree to plant for shade, as it is a quick grower, and cattle do not eat it, and it has been extensively planted in Mysore and Coorg. The shade is fairly good, but the tree is not a wide spreader. Then it has one very great objection owing to its being so peculiarly liable, when about thirty years old, to be severely attacked, and often killed, by parasites, and as it is so liable to be attacked, and therefore supplies a large quantity of parasite seed, the tree is the means of spreading these parasites to other shade trees. I have found that if you even remove every branch that is attacked, and quite below each parasite, the parasite will spring out again, and even more vigorously than before. In short, I found it impossible to contend with the parasites, and am ordering the removal of all Nogurigays from my plantations. I may add here that when jack is lopped in order to remove parasites, they do not spring out again in the same way. My head duffadar informs me that the reason why Nogurigays are so liable to parasites is on account of the rough, deeply-fissured bark, which retains the parasite seeds dropped by birds, whereas smooth-barked trees, like the first five named, of course do not retain them, and hence you rarely see parasites on smooth-barked trees. Another objection to this tree is that, from its shedding its leaves in the monsoon, and not growing them again till we are liable to have hot bursts of sun, you may have a thoroughly saturated soil exposed to a hot sun, which of course has the effect of rapidly hardening the soil. A neighbouring planter tells me that he finds the Noga tree liable to attacks from parasites at even ten years old, and that he therefore regards the tree as a temporary shade, i.e., as a shade to be removed after other more desirable trees are ready to take their place.

Since writing this chapter I have again paid particular attention to this tree, and have been struck with the fact that, for some unknown reason, some trees of this variety seem to be much more liable to attacks of parasites than others, while some escape altogether. But it is quite clear to me that, generally speaking, this tree is not to be relied on, and I have, therefore, no hesitation in advising planters who have relied on it as a permanent shade to at once put down trees of the desirable kind first given with the view of gradually removing the Nogurigays.

Mullee Geruguttee. A very thick, tall tree with large buttresses. Coffee thrives well under this tree, but it is not a wide spreader, and, when old, the foliage becomes poor. It is evident that a tree of great thickness which is not a wide spreader, takes up an immense deal of room in proportion to the shade that it yields, and this tree is therefore not so desirable as any of the first five species I have given as being the most desirable trees.

Howligay (Acrocarpus Flaxinifolia). This tree has been largely planted in Mysore for shade, but no one speaks well of it now. We have some on my estate upwards of thirty years old, and the foliage is poor and scanty. The trees, too, shoot up to a great height, and spread but little. By topping at a certain height, this defect may be remedied to some extent, but in order to get an efficient shade from this tree you would require to plant it thickly, and would thus have a large proportion of stems and roots in the land. This tree, though not injurious to coffee, is certainly very undesirable as compared with the first-named kinds I have given. Some years ago two of these trees died on my property, and all the coffee died around them.

Hessan (Artocarpus Hirsuta). Though said to be injurious in poor and shallow soil, coffee thrives under it in good land, but it has a tendency everywhere to run to stem, and therefore affords poor shade. An occasional tree branches out, and affords fair, and in some cases, even good shade, but, as a rule, this is not a desirable tree. It spreads little and thus gives but a poor return for the space taken up by its stem and roots.

Nairul (Eugenia Jambolana). This is a good shade tree. Coffee thrives well under it, and wherever it exists, or may have sprung up accidentally in the plantation, it should be preserved, but it is not, I consider, a desirable tree to plant, as it is a slow grower and not a wide spreader.

Wartee. This is a tree we have always preserved, but it is a slow growing tree, not at all a wide spreader, and the leaf deposit from it is not of a valuable quality, and it is, therefore, not a desirable tree to plant.

Gwoddan (Dolichos fabaeformis). Coffee thrives well under this tree, but it has a great profusion of very hard fruits or seeds about the size of a small plum, and these, when falling from a high tree, injure the coffee berries, as may be readily supposed; the tree, too, is not a wide spreader. It is, therefore, not a desirable tree to plant.

I may mention here that I have recently obtained a supply of seed of Albizzia Moluccana, which is the tree most approved of for shading coffee in the Island of Java, and I am informed by the superintendent of the Agri-Horticultural Society's Gardens, Madras (from whom I obtained the seed), that one of their correspondents who tried it some years ago reports that, "It grows rapidly, and is of great utility in putting a field of coffee under a light shade such as coffee likes," and that, "in four years the Albizzia Moluccana, planted thirty feet apart, will cover the coffee trees." The leaves close during the night, thus giving the coffee plants the benefit of the moonlight and dew more freely. Each ounce of the seed contains roughly 1,200 seeds, which, with ordinary care, should give 1,000 plants, and which, when planted out thirty feet apart, should shade twenty acres.