CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.
In 1824, Sir Edward Barnes and Sir George Bird commenced coffee-planting
in Ceylon on a large scale. Others followed gradually, but the real rush
for land dates from 1833. There are now 250,000 acres owned by
coffee-planters, of which 100,000 are cleared and cultivated.
In Ceylon coffee succeeds best at an elevation from 1200 to 4800 feet;
the quantity, generally speaking, lessening, but the quality improving
with the elevation. By the natives a little of inferior description is
grown in the low country. In 1855 there were about 150 estates belonging
to Europeans, comprising 30,000 acres of cultivated ground, to which
considerable additions have since been made. 400,000 cwt. was exported
in 1853, and 783,393 cwt. in 1863.
The railroad forming from Colombo to Kandy, and the opening up of new
roads, have rendered more land accessible, and the large clearances made
in the forest at the high elevations will probably so improve the
climate of those localities that a still further addition to the
available land will be obtained. It is, therefore, not too much to
expect the export, which in the last five years has on the average
exceeded 630,000 cwt. per annum, will in less than a quarter of a
century be more than doubled. In the fourteen years ending with 1862,
Ceylon has sent into the markets of the world the following quantity of
coffee:
cwts. £
Plantation 4,625,995 of the value of 11,310,518
Native growth 1,945,623 “ 3,492,290
--------- ----------
6,571,618 14,802,808
Elevation must ever be an important consideration; though we have no
doubt that by the use of manures coffee might be made to do well and
bear to a limited extent at the level of the sea in Ceylon. We believe
this to be, however, so completely artificial, that it will never again
be tried whilst land is available from 1500 feet and upwards of
elevation, where the plant grows vigorously without more than ordinary
care being bestowed. The general effect of elevation may be described
very shortly; the lower ranges, with fair soil, produce the heaviest
crops and the soonest after planting, whilst the plantations on higher
elevations produce smaller crops, but a finer quality of produce, and
take a longer time to come into full bearing. There are many
circumstances which go to produce climate, besides differences of
elevation. On a plantation formed in a large district of forest yet
uncleared, the climate will be colder and more moist than when the
formation of other estates has cleared away the forest around it. The
proximity of a high mountain peak, or being situated on the shoulder of
a mountain which towers to a great elevation above the level of the
plantation, will also produce more cold and wet than if the garden were
opened on a lower range and to the full height of such a position. Plate
4, for instance, shows such a locality in the view of Konda-galla
estate, near Neura-ellia, Ceylon. At low elevations long continued dry
weather is more frequent than on the higher ranges, inasmuch as the
clouds are frequently broken by the distant hills before they reach; and
when there is no rain about, estates on the higher ranges are less
parched, and atmospherically enjoy a moisture of which the lower hills
are destitute. Still these various conditions are only advantageous or
hurtful under varying circumstances; high elevation, cold and wet, and
low elevation, heat, and drought, are alike unfavourable as prevailing
characteristics; it is their due and seasonable admixture
[Illustration: Plate 4.--Konda-galla Estate, near Neura-ellia,
Ceylon.]
which is found most favourable to the profitable production of the
coffee-plant. Perhaps the least favourable localities are those high
positions where the natural vegetation is of the alpine character; in
such positions the plant will only struggle for an existence; it
therefore follows that the land selected should be well under these
extreme elevations.
Soil of all kinds has had its advocates, and in turn been condemned by
all. Depth and freeness are perhaps its most favourable states; dark
black mould is always good; but wherever there is sufficiency of depth
found beneath a virgin forest, at the proper elevation and climate,
coffee has come on successfully. The land which has by general opinion
been condemned as unfit for continued production is that covered with
small jungle after the original forest has been cut down, and the land
made to produce a rich crop for the natives. Perhaps it may be the
exposure of the soil to the sun, and exhaustion by the large weeds which
it produces, which are so injurious to it. The modern system of manuring
is rapidly equalising the value of all soils, though deep lands on a
limestone bottom, or strewed with granite boulders, are always
considered highly favourable for coffee cultivation. The proximity of
land to roads is a point of great importance in its selection, both as
directly and indirectly affecting the outlay in forming a plantation,
and probably for a long time determining the large item of expense under
the head of transport of produce.
Felling and clearing, as the name implies, is cutting down the jungle
and burning it off, so as to leave the land clear for planting. It is
conducted as follows. Beginning from the lower part of the land and
working upwards, the undergrowth, or small jungle, is cut down with
catties or bill-hooks, leaving the forest trees free and open for the
labours of the axemen. Likewise beginning from the lowest part of the
field, the labourers, generally village Singhalese, who are extremely
expert at this work, cut the trees nearly through by notches at the
lower and upper sides, gradually retiring up the hill, until a tree of
larger dimensions is cut, and being sent down, crashes all the others
beneath it. When this is cleverly managed, several acres will often be
opened to the daylight at one time; much, however, depends upon the
steepness of the ascent and the heaviness of the forest. On the highest
elevations the trees are smallest, and come down lightest, and on the
lower elevations it may frequently happen that for acres and acres the
trees are of that immense size that every log has required four men to
cut it from the stump. Not unfrequently some of these trees have such
projecting roots that the axemen have to erect stages around them to
reach the ordinary trunk, which will each give employment for six hours
to four men to cut through. After the trees have been felled, the
lopping has to be attended to; this is to cut off all the tops and
branches, and in some cases to cut the trunks across, so that the mass
cut down may lay compactly and dry, as upon this depends much of the
success of the burning, and, therefore, the economy of the operation.
Small or light forest is often the most expensive to lop, from the
lifeless fall of the trees, and the comparatively greater quantity of
head and branch; whereas tall and heavy forest trees fly as it were
under the axe from the stump, and in falling break themselves and all
beneath them; in this manner some heavy forests cost less to clear than
a lighter growth. The clearing having been left from six weeks to about
two months, according to the weather, is fired, which is done generally
by setting fire to it chiefly at _the lower ends_ in several places; by
this means the fire is soon connected, and burning in the dryest or
first cut down portions, unites in a sweeping flame, rushes up the hill,
destroying all before it; such is the power of the flame from below,
that when the burning is successful the part last cut, probably many
acres, and yet lying green upon the ground, is consumed with the rest.
After the flame has passed away, nothing should be seen but the smoking
black logs of the large trees, which, wherever they cross each other and
do not lay upon the ground, require to be cut across and brought down.
If the operation has been successfully managed, the land is now in
readiness for the next operation--_Lining_, or staking out the positions
of the intended plants. This is performed in many ways, but it is
essential to have it done well, that the plants should make perfect
lines across the ground to be planted, in order to maintain regularity
in the plantation work, and give the best possible appearance to the
field; therefore no expense necessary to ensure its correct and
workmanlike performance should be grudged. The simplest method is by
means of a line, with marks placed at equal distances for the spaces
between the plants up the hill. This carried by men at each end, who
respectively measure a distance with a rod for that purpose from the
last peg, and holding the line taught from end to end; boys following
with pegs ready cut put them in at the marks on the line. This method is
likely to lead to inaccuracy on a large feature, in consequence of the
irregularity of the ground, and from the small inaccuracies accumulating
in the measurement between each laying down of the line. A better way is
to lay out a feature in squares of the line, and these into parallels
across the feature, and then drop the line between each peg on the
parallels, putting in the remaining pegs by the marks on the line. Some
planters have an excellent plan of laying down a number of lines up and
down the hill at measured distances, and then two men with a shorter
line measure distances upwards on the two outside lines, and peg-men put
in their sticks at the points where the lines cross each other. We have
seen some plantations laid out by the use of the theodolite, but this is
not an instrument to be found on many estates. The object to be gained
in lining is to carry the plants in straight lines parallel to each
other, at the same bearing over the whole estate, and to make them cross
each other at right angles; by this means lines will be formed four
ways, at the two right angles and at the two diagonals. When this has
been successfully achieved, there is, under any circumstances, a
workmanlike character about the plantation; vacancies in the planting
are more easily detected, the arrangements for weeding, picking,
pruning, and manuring are made without confusion. Diagonal lines across
the features of land are said to be best, inasmuch as the stems of the
trees by this arrangement offer somewhat more resistance to the washing
down of soil by the rains.
Much argument has been held as to the proper distances at which
coffee-trees should be planted; and in visiting the various districts it
will be seen that all distances and all forms have been resorted to. The
result of this extended experiment has produced a very general opinion
in favour of close planting; that is, 6 feet by 6 feet, or 5 feet by 6
feet, or 4 feet 9 inches by 5 feet. The reasons in favour of close
planting are these, that the extra number of plants to the acre is
followed in the first two crops at least by a proportionate increase of
crop. By close planting weeds are hindered from growing, and, what is of
more consequence still, the ground is sooner covered by the growing
plants, and therefore protected from the sun, exposure to which is found
to impoverish more than anything else the surface soil, from which the
plant chiefly seeks its nourishment. With an average good soil, and
careful handling of the trees and manuring, it is found that
closely-planted coffee may be made to continue to bear highly; that is,
in proportion to the extra number of plants to the acre. Close planting
is serviceable in enabling the plants to outlive the effect of exposure
to high winds, which in some places are most destructive. The next
proceeding is _holing_ (which, as its name implies, is to make holes in
preparation for planting the coffee, at the distances staked out by the
lining). As coffee is planted in a virgin soil, which cannot be cleared
of roots, rocks, and logs, for the operation of the plough, and were it
cleared of these the disturbance of the soil would probably cause it to
be carried away by the heavy rains; holes have to be made, and the
larger these are, the nearer the approach is to that movement of the
soil, which in general sets at liberty its fertilising properties. Holes
are made from 18 inches to 2 feet every way, into which before planting
the surface soil is scraped with a hoe. It is customary to contract for
this work, which I believe is generally performed now with a sort of
crowbar having a spud blade at one end; with these the roots of trees
are cut through and rocks and stones taken out, the loosened soil being
removed with the hand or with a cocoa-nut shell. This tool is furnished
to the Singhalese because they prefer to sit down and work leisurely,
but where men can be employed at day-wages, and provided with mattocks
to break the soil and cut out the roots and stones, and hoes to clear
out the loosened earth, the same work may be far more economically
performed, inasmuch as the labourers being on their feet give not only
their arms, but their whole body, to the exertion, and have not to raise
themselves from a sitting position between each hole they have to make.