378 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[November i, 1883, 



tried on a small scale and with success. Then, there 

 is the Citrus estate which was sold for a few 

 hundred jjounds, and the present proprietors of it will 

 not pai-t with it for as many thousands, since they 

 tried («» cultivatiou on it aud saw its results. 



Travelling to and from Galle is now vcru chcajy, and 

 the Government Agent there will no doubt be ready 

 to give every information required about Crown laud 

 available for sale. — Yours truly, X. X. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES IN PLANTS. 



Deak Sra,— Mr. G. F. Halliley has thrown out a chal- 

 lenge to the world in your issue of 2nd instant, on the 

 subject of contagious diseases in plants, and, if you will 

 permit me, I shall point out some apparent errors in his 

 argument. He first alludes to smut, mildew and rust, as 

 being one and the same thing. Now, smut is caused by 

 a fungus called Vredo scyetmn, mildrw by another called 

 Piicciiiia gramitiis, and rust by a third Trickohasis ruhiyo 

 vera. These three are fairly confined to wheats and grasses. 

 But there ai-e other forms of funi/i like smut peculiar to 

 other species of plant, life, such as varieties of Vstilago, 

 Tilletia, ijr., and other mildews having their own special 

 prey, different varieties of Piiccinia, Cgsto^ms, Erysiphe, &c., 

 which are only too numerous. 



Balfour and Brown, both authors of manuals of botany, 

 state that diseases which are due to parasitic fungi are 

 propagated by contagion. The mould that appears on 

 boots is Aspergillus glciucus and sometimes a Poiicillium. 

 These two are of the Hyphomycttes order, whilst the 

 others mentioned above that attack plant life are of the 

 Cou iomycetes order. 



Next, as to the probability of all other plants and trees 

 on an estate getting Hemileia vastatrix if it was contagious. 

 The human race and the different orders of animals have 

 their .special contagious diseases, though occasionally we 

 hear of one order of mammalia contracting a disease from 

 another. 



The same holds good with plants. Different orders have 

 different diseases, and occasionally we hear of the detec- 

 tion of one order transmitting a disease to another. That 

 the ditfereuce between orders of plants is as great as 

 that which exists between orders of animals may be de- 

 diiced by the difficulty, indeed almost impossibility, to 

 produce true hybrids in the proper sense of the term. 

 —Yours faithfully, SPOKE. 



BEES AND LEAF-DISEASE. 



Sir, — Now, aa regards bees, it 's many a day siree 

 I S.-IW one ; and if tea is to be cultivated high and 

 low, above and below the coflee zone of tievation, 

 the part of the country where they arc most wanted 

 will soon be adirdy cleared of them. This, un- 

 doubtedly, is aniisfortuue for coffee, and it is difficult 

 to see how it can be avoided, unless planters take 

 the Bishop's advice to his poor parishoners — to " Icuep 

 bees, kniihies.'' A planter was faying, the otlu r day, he 

 remembered hearing dozens of swarms in a day rush like 

 a high-wiud over I is head many a day, yetrs ago 

 in BaduUa, aud that after the leaf-diseate had fixed 

 itself on the Madulsima coffee. It 's in vain to look 

 for the cause or origin of leaf.disease in any of those 

 things. Neither absence of bees, extended cultivation, 

 deterioration of seed, manure, nor any other ynefs 

 that has been made, had anything to do with its ad- 

 vent. It appeared first on young (three-year-old) 

 vigorous ciifltc, in a new district wheie there was, 

 at the time, far more standing forest than coflee fields : 

 in fact, the ettiitcs were merely tni.ill clearings in vast 

 tracts of surrounding forests, full of bees then, and 

 for some years after.* Not cidy was the coffee in 

 isolated patches, but the district itself was severed 

 from all other districts by miles of country not under 

 any sort of cultivation. The disease revelled for a whole 

 y<ar in that place, before it fomid its vag into the part 

 of the country where the conclitions vere dijj'envt. This 



» N. £.—S^, 



disposes of the question of its origin. Its attacks 

 have been singularly benign, and it is a question 

 whether it ever directly killed a single tree. In- 

 directly to its oijeration must be attributed most 

 if not all our troublee— there can be no doubt. 

 The leaves fell just when the trees wanted 

 them most; the vigor of the roots then gave way; 

 and Mr. Grub, who had always existed before, found 

 ill this to him new condition of the roots a more 

 digestible food, upon which he at once fastened, 

 fattened and throve. They came funk on the part 

 of ^ the planter, and funk on the part of tho 

 capitalist ; new jiroJucts and neglected cultiv- 

 ation followed, and it 's a matter of sui-prife that 

 the coffee on a vast number of estates is ,-vlive at 

 all. At present the condition of the roots is the 

 most alarming symptom, and that not from grub so 

 much as from "incipient defunction" in response to 

 the condition of the parts above ground. As loug as 

 it is a scientitio truth that bees are good and necess- 

 ary fettilizeis, so long must their absence from our 

 blossoming fields be deplored. Other insects and the 

 wind and telf-ferlilization effect wonders, as witness 

 the many patches of heavy-bearing trees in the almost 

 entire absence of beej ; still their re-entry on the 

 scene, in their old myriads, would be a great bless- 

 ing. Assuredly, the came of our troubles is above 

 ground : the effect unfortunately (which becomes a 

 new and nmre alarming cause) is now below ground. 

 Where the roots have died back, it is uselees manur- 

 ing between every four trees, or where the roots 

 cannot now reach it, which is the case chiefly in neglected 

 cofl'ee._ It gives one the blues to read the report of 

 the Dimlula Committee, and I question if its pub- 

 licity will do any good. It only serves to show there 

 is no mystery, in coffee cultivation, and aud by its 

 contradictions, to prove that each must iiud out for him- 

 self what is best for is pahhcmi. 



AN OLD COFFEE STUMP. 



Thompson'.s Patent Tea Rolling Machine : tub 

 "Challence" — is advertised in the Indian Tea 6'a. 

 zelte, and there is a heading for " prices in Calcutta." 

 but, although Messrs. J. Binning & Co., as agents, 

 are pro) artd to register orders, no prites are given. 

 There are many testimonials, one of which we quote : 

 —" Tho facility with which your small machine makes 

 up with a good twist about 12 seers of very ordinary 

 leaf iu 20 minutes, with only two men to work it, 

 leads me to believe that you have hit ou what will 

 prob.ably turn out to be the best principle for a 

 rolling machine that has yet been brought out. I 

 fully expfct your machiue to be a success, — one great 

 recommendation being its low price. — H. VV. C'kak:ie, 

 Memagcr, Gielle Tea Company, Limited." — Not only 

 r.re no prices given, but the testimonials are undated, 

 A>'Y Plough which enables the Indiau agricultur- 

 ist to more iC'ulily t»ist the cow's tail possesses 

 obvious advantages, aud we therefore observe without 

 surprise, from a Note Mr. E. C. Buck publishes, that 

 the Kaisar or Swedish single-stilt being far ahead of 

 its rivals in this reepect has come into very general 

 use. What the cow thinks must of course be mere 

 matter of conjeclure ; but we fancy that in Burma 

 where Hedge treats his cattle to the gentler guidance 

 of rope-reins or a kmg bamboo that animal has rather 

 a pull over the ox of British India. The Behea sugar- 

 mill is also spoken of by Mr. Buck as the great success 

 of agricultural Bengal where its use is now widespread 

 and well established ; while iu Bombay a light win- 

 nower for cleaning corn and pulses is gladly taken by 

 the natives on loan. In Bombay however we have no 

 doubt the native would cheerfully accept anything at 

 all on these teims from a plough to a piano; but 

 whether he is a punctual restorer of goods hut is not 

 set forth hy Mr. tucit,— /"iwe**', October l»t. 



