TKDIA.V COFEEE-LEAE DISEASE. 459 



a general opinion) that the disease was imported from Ceylon or 

 Chickmoogloor, the latter being a Coffee-district of Mysore, which 

 is only about sixty miles distant from the plantations of Coorg. 



J. Cameeon. 



" Benlomond Estate, Amutty, S. Coorg, 

 23 December, 1880. 



" .... So much has been written about leaf-disease by scien- 

 tific men who have made it a special study, that any remarks 

 of mine will, I fear, be of little use, and can hardly be ori- 

 ginal, as the subject has occupied so much attention in Ceylon 

 that it may be fairly said to be exhausted. Some two years ago 

 the Government sent Mr. Harman to the coffee-districts to in- 

 vestigate and, if possible, suggest a remedy for the coffee-leaf 

 disease. The time at his command was far too short to enable 

 him to do more than merely glance at the various places he visited- 

 so that the only practical result was a lot of money spent, and we 

 poor planters told to adopt a better system of cultivation and go 

 in for experiments in culture and manuring. This is easily said ; 

 but when labour is such a difficult problem to solve, we have to run 

 as much as possible in the beaten track, so that no money may be 

 wasted ; and when superintendents have to give an account of 

 every ' pie ' they spend to absent proprietors, they do not care to 

 attempt any new mode. Resident proprietors again, as a rule, 

 say they cannot afford to spend money on experiments, it being all 

 they can do to get sufficient coolies to cultivate in the usual 

 routine. 



" Badly cultivated fields, or those impoverished by want of culti- 

 vation and manure, are particularly liable to disease ; and in these 

 fields the disease first shows itself on a tree of coarse growth whose 

 branches have an upward turn, and foliage of a paler colour ; 

 these are well known in Coorg as ' chicks,' a name given to them 

 on the supposition that they were originally introduced to Coorg 

 from Chickmoogloor in Nuggur. "Whether this supposition is 

 correct, I cannot say ; but I know that planters in that district 

 are very willing to pay a long price for Coorg seed, which is a 

 proof that the Mysore trees are inferior to Coorg. Could we 

 thoroughly weed out these chick -trees, we would have less cause 

 to dread any of the ailments coffee sutlers from. 



" I see leaf-disease attack plants at all stages of their growth 

 when in the nursery with their first pair of leaves, and subse- 



