ment 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 x 6 ft. in 1885 gave an appreciable crop