November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



349 



S^or^sponilonoe. 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer, 



ME. STORCK AND HIS CURE FOR COFFEE 

 DISEASE. 

 Belmont Estate, Eewa River, llthAug. 1S83. 



Dear Sik, — The I'mal report of the Committee ap- 

 pointed to inspect the carbolic acid treatment for 

 leaf-disease on Claverton, Dikoya, has just reached 

 me, but, as to their decision ou the practical value 

 of results, I beg to differ with the gentlemen signing 

 the report. 



First of all, the adventitious effects of the dusting, 

 which process u Mr. Schrottky's own, are credited 

 with a good deal more than they deserve, seeing 

 that the projector himself only claims efficacy for one 

 dusting for 16 days at the outside, and that thus 

 the two dustings only cover one month out of the 

 five. Directly after the cessation of the action of the 

 substance used, reiufcetion and propagation of the 

 fungus from the adjoinini; fields would go on as before. 

 I h.ive denounced direct applications from the very 

 beginning as laborious, expensive, and under the in- 

 llnence of the weather always uncertain and therefore 

 unreli.able and hopeless. 



The Committee further state that "this treatment 

 was after 10 days supplemented by what Mr. Schrottky 

 calls /ti's permanent system of evaporization." (Tlie 

 italics are mine ) It seems strange to me, that although 

 Mr. Schrottky never thouglit lit to piiljlicly acknow- 

 ledge it, no one notices it tiiat what he represents as 

 /(is permanent system Is in reality mine in every part- 

 ?cular except the immutal)ility of the substance con- 

 tained in the vesseli", which, if further impregnnted 

 with carbolic acid, would immediately become fluid 

 or semifluid and make it identic.il with my own 

 earlier invention. Mr. Schrottky had no conception 

 of a permanent treatment before the appearance of 

 my several papers on the subject as his various abort- 

 ive efforts show previously to adopting mine, to (as 

 he ingenuously terms it) " supplement Ais dusting pro- 

 cess." My permanent system once propcrli/ estab- 

 lished, requires no supplementary dustings. 



The Committee again state that " .an abnormally 

 heavy fall of leaf took place which had apparently 

 no connection with leaf-dise.ase, but favoring the 

 belief that tome change had come over the 

 wood itself; that (perhaps from the weakening 

 through disease) ''trees are unable to carry their leaves 

 to maturity as should be the case with naturally 

 healthy coffee." How near the truth ; and still how 

 disappointing the final deductions drawn : the fact 

 being that the new and improved wood c:irried its 

 leaves longer than under the influence of the ever- 

 recurring attacks of dise.ase, which made the fall of 

 leaf taking place long after the denudation of adjoin- 

 ing fields all the more lemarkable. The wood had 

 been nourished into improvement by the disease frte 

 leaves, but then the exhausted leaves were pushed off 

 to make room for a stronger and still more lasting 

 coat, provided the treatment which caused the first 

 improvement were continued. Ami now we have what 

 in the estimation of the gentlemen of the Committee 

 seems to be the most import.a:it part, viz, "ap- 

 pearance of wood with reference to the setting of bloe- 

 som." Here we have a body of gentlemen who from 

 their calling may be presumed to have some insight 

 into the nature and working of plant-life, but who 

 after an active treatment of only five months expect 

 to find an improvement in the si'tliny of crop forsooth — 

 on a field which in all pi'oljability has suffered from 

 the ravages of the fungns ever since it was planted, 

 i.e., for from 7 to 10 years. Now, if every vestige 

 45 



of //. K. was to disappear tomorrow from some cause 

 artificial or natural, no man having witnessed the 

 effects of the fungus, and claiming no more than the 

 most superficial knowledge of plant-life could expect 

 a practical, that means in this case, commercial, im- 

 provement of the kind at least for some time to come. 

 The age of wonders is past, and not even the Creator 

 of all things, who has in His infinite wisdom subjected 

 the well-being of all his creatures, creeping or growing, 

 to wholesome rules could encroach thfreou or set aside 

 the most insignificant one of them. I have in a pre- 

 vious paper stated that "when your trees have once 

 recovered far enough under my treatment to keep their 

 leaves and the tide has turned, nature herself will, 

 combined with ordinary care, helpyiur trees to recover 

 farther than they declined." But it h.-is never rntered 

 my boldest fancies to expect them to resume all their un- 

 impaired natural functions .it the end of a few months, 

 of freedom from disease except, perhaps, quite young 

 fields which have only suffered for a limited time. Nor 

 could the setting of blossom or its absence be con- 

 sidered an infallible test of the value of the treatment 

 against fungus, since, as every planti-r knows, it at all 

 times more or less dep.mds upon extraneous conditions. 

 It is like expecting a man just recovering from a long 

 and exhausting illness, to resume his ollicc-ohair or 

 his hoe, as the case may be, the day after his doctor 

 has pronounced him convalescent, the very time when 

 rest and attention to physical wants are most import- 

 ant to ensure final recovery. 



'l"he gentlemen of the Commitlcc then proceed to 

 state that " apparent results of the experiment must 

 still be very much matter of opinion," and that "it must 

 be admitted that the coffee treated h.as been unusually 

 free from disease," and that " the treatment has to 

 some extent been efficacious ;" but they ai'e uncertain 

 whether the effects noticed were those of the dust- 

 ings " killing the spores above the ground." Where 

 else?) "Mr. Schrotlky's permanent ti-ealmeut' (tne 

 italics are mine) " or a pnre matter of accident. With 

 regard to the evaporizalior of carbolic gas having 

 proved a failure elsewhere, such au assertion can only 

 be made assuming the trials with it to have been 

 strictly in accordance with my directions, which to 

 my knowledge none of them were. One gentleman 

 employs vessels of the jam-tin pattern, ot scarcely 

 mote than half the evaporating surf.ace I have from the 

 first insisted upon ; and another makes a certain number 

 of vessels, just sufficient to cover one acre, do for tico. 



In the fac> of all this and the above report of the 

 Committee, I now and here claim that the /net 0/ a 

 good and sufficient remedij is established and the con- 

 ditions of award falfilled by the results of the experi- 

 ment on Claverton ; and that the gentlemen of the 

 Committee in speaking of practical results should have 

 said commercial results, which are dependent on the 

 value of the former. Morever, I maintain that there 

 has not yet been a sustained genuine effort made by 

 any planter or body of planters to thorouj^hly and 

 impartially test my system or Mr Schrottky's. I 

 would really like to know what the planters of Ceylon 

 expect — magic? I have noue for tiiem. But unless 

 they either faithfully carry out what I have sug- 

 gested to them, or loarn to think for themselves, 

 their glorious industry is doomed. The deathdmell 

 rang when one of their number found sporepatches on the 

 smooth, hard, dense epidermis of green-growing ber- 

 ries, surely the 1 ist stage towards and plain indication 

 of the ultimate physical exhaustion of the very species 

 in your islaud. Nor need you console yourselves with 

 the idle hope that some fine morning you may wake 

 and find the fell fungus gone. The -disease of the 

 potato in Europe, of far greater importance in the 

 economy of the human race than your staple product, 

 has now defied every effort of savant and husband- 

 man for nearly forty years. 



