In the case of a neglected plantation the trees are sure to be covered with moss and rough dead bark, and it is of great importance to remove this at once, and rub the trees down thoroughly.
When manuring, always leave here and there, and at some convenient point or edge of a road, a short block of coffee un-manured, perhaps about twelve trees, and next to that a similar block with double the dose of manure applied to the field, and note the results. In order to have the effects of the different systems of manuring under constant observation experiments with different manurial mixtures can be best conducted at places where four roads meet. I need hardly say that in the observation of results, nothing should be left to memory, but the planter, the moment he has observed any result, should on the spot write it in his note book. The experiments of most importance are the following:—(1) As to the manure best calculated to bring on vacancy plants rapidly in old and worn soil. (2) To determine the value of potash as manure. (3) To determine the best time of year for manuring. (4) To determine how far it pays to manure little and often, as compared with manuring seldom but in large quantities. (5) How far the value of bones is due to their lime, and how far to the phosphoric acid they contain; and (6) how far it would pay to top dress old soil with earth taken from the adjacent, grass lands. Such are some of the many experiments that might usefully be tried. It would also be useful to experiment as regards native manurial practices. For instance, the growers of Areca nut palms, and pepper vines, make a mixture of Kemmannu, or red, or rather pink hued soil, which looks like recently-decomposed rock, black earth, and sheep dung, and apply the compost to their palms and pepper-vines, and it would be interesting to try such composts in the case of coffee. It would also be interesting to experiment with ordinary good soil taken from the grass lands. I am informed by a native farmer that the terraces on which ragi is grown, are occasionally dressed with such soil, and that the manurial effect of it lasts for two years, but no doubt the effect is much increased by the physical effect caused by the addition of the soil. The more I have studied these subjects the more am I convinced that the most, economical way of keeping up coffee land from a physical and chemical point of view is one of the many secrets yet to be discovered, and I would strongly urge planters to experiment. There is a common saying amongst farmers and planters that they cannot afford to make experiments. This is merely the refuge of the indolent and the ignorant. Experiments may, of course, be made on such a scale as to be hazardous or even ruinous, but they can be made in such a way as to be neither the one nor the other.
[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.
CHAPTER XIII.
NURSERIES.
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, and vice 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 of the 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 to fall 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.