412 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



Two gentlemen, representing the Australian Borneo 

 Company, have been prospecting for land, and have, 

 I believe, taken up 100,000 acreJ. They are, or were 

 when list I was with them, loud in their praises o? 

 the Borneo climate ; the only damoer to their feel- 

 ings appeared to be the leeches. Sugar is the prio- 

 cipal product they intend planting. 



1 have just returned from a trip to our south- 

 eastern boundary, at which place I he Governor hoisted 

 the Company's flag. This boundary is disputed by 

 the Dutch authorities, it having been granted to 

 them by a native chief ; but we maintain the country 

 did not belong to the chief, so lie could not give it. 



The noise of the eruption in the Strait- of Sunda 

 ■was plainly heard all over Borneo ; the natives inland 

 who murdered poor Witti were under the impression, 

 when they heard the noise, that we were coming to 

 attack them from Che east aud west coast, and 

 bolted away from their villages. 



H. AI. S. "Magpie" has been here some time sun 

 veying our coast, and now leaves for the Straits of 

 Sunda. 



Surveyors are very busy, and will be so for 

 some time to come. Messrs. Oarland & Co. hive ex- 

 tensive contracts, which are being rapidly carried out 

 by Mr. Abrahamson. More Government surveyors are, 

 I believe, on their way from Ceylon, alth 'Ugh 1 should 

 have thought we had nearly cleared you out. 



Mr. Wait has prod'eded to Silam to take up the 

 appointment of medical officer at that station. 



On (lit an e.\; Cej'lou planter now in the Straits is 

 coming here to commence operations on a large grant 

 of land ; if such is the case, I coltaniplate banding 

 my pen over to him. — Tours faithfully, 



L. B. VON DONOP. 



AN ENEMY OF CARDAMOMS. 



Gainpola, 12th Oct. 1SS3. 



Dear Sib, — Some time back, I saw a letter in the 

 Oh'njn'er about a poochie that gets inside cardamom 

 pods and eats the seeds, but your correspondent had 

 not been able to find any of tl:em. I now send 

 you one in the pod as it was found. — Yours faith 

 fully, ' CARDAMOMS. 



[Enclosed was a small caterjjillar, which arrived 

 too much decayed to identify. Wire- worms have also 

 been found in cardamom pods. — Ed.] 



OHAPvACTER OF THE COFFEE FLOWEH. 



15th October 1883. 

 Dear Sik, — I have not by any means overlooked the 

 fact that a healthy coffee blossom is a perfect flower, as 

 a flower is said to be perfect or complete when it con- 

 sists of four distinct portions, two of which are non- 

 essential, whilst the other two are indispensable, \nz., 

 calvx and corolla, and stamens aud pistil ; but I must 

 dissent to Mr. HalUley's assertion that perfect flowers 

 are also cleistogamic. There are about sixty known 

 genera that produce flowers of this class, about half of 

 which also produce ordinary flowers, and cleistogamous 

 . flowers are confined chiefly, and perhaps exclusively, to 

 herbaceous plants. That coffee blossom has on several 

 occasions set without the flower having expanded cannot 

 be denied, but this apparent anomaly can be explained 

 by pel en having been deposited on the stigma whilst 

 the anthers brushed past in the act of falling with the 

 withered corolla. I do not think Mr. Halli'ley has any 

 grounds for saying that a weakly child will turn out a strong 

 hejilthy man if properly matured : if he had used the word 

 viir/lit instead of it:)ll it would have been better, for, if 

 the weakness be constitutiomd, the probability is against 

 the development of strength. Lastly, both Blue Mountain 

 and Liberian coffees were exotics, and were introduced at 

 a time wheu the atmosphere was siraj)ly overladen with 

 disease spores, and the wonder to my mind would bo the 

 exemption of a new uuacclimatizcd plant from the 

 liability of infection witha disease so prevalent amongst 



members of its own genera. The larger variety was no 

 doubt enablecl to withstand it longer by reason of its 

 greater robuetuess, and thicker integument of its foliage. 

 If tlio new varieties could have beeu kept free from 

 contam'.nation until they were acclimatized, I beUeve their 

 introduction would have been attentled with success. — 

 Yours faithfully, SWADDY. 



KOTAGHEBRY TEA :. " POUCHIE FLU.SHES " AND 

 THE REMEDY. 



Kandy, Oct. 1.5th 1883. 

 Dear Sir,— In " S. W. H." 's letter headed " Kotagherry 

 Tea," which you took over from the Indit/o Planten' Gazette, in 

 your issue of the 13th instant, he complains of the small 

 out-turn of crop, caused partly by the long continuance 

 of the " pouchie flushes." He puts the question : — " Do 



the planters in Assam suffer from the same complamt, 



a small worm which sous (?) up the young flush and utterly 

 destroys it for plucking?" What is meaut I think must 

 be, a small worm which seies up the yoimg leaves of the 

 flush, aud no doubt the mistake lays with that armoying 



imp, the printers' d 1. 



The worm referred to must be the larva of one or more 

 species of ToW/wirfir (Leach), leaf -rolling moths, and it would 

 be of importance to know, if the Ceylon tea planters are suffer- 

 ing, or are likely to suifer to any exteut, f rom the ravages of 

 these little pests. You are, doubtless, familiar with the 

 habits of these knowing insects, which roll up the leaves 

 of plants with their silken threads, and thus form for 

 themselves a house or teut of security, and on a portion of 

 which they feed, until they assume the pupa stage of their 

 existence. Just examine your rose-bushes any morning, 

 and you wiU likely find them at work. Catch hold of one 

 of the ro)led-up leaves, and the cunning little occupant 

 will remain perfectly quiet until you begin to break 

 into his house, when out he jumps, and drops to the 

 ground like a shot, or remains suspended in the air by his 

 almost invisible silken thread. 



In my little tottam I have no tea, and I never thought of ex- 

 amining tea bushes for the leaf-rollers yet. I have 

 suffered from their ravages, *hough to no great extent, and 

 have principally in the case of the Okro and o"ther members of 

 the Hibiscus f.amily, the Eoseand the Capsicum. I have, how- 

 ever, loug known the cure for these pests. It is simple, 

 and attended with no expense. No sulphur and lime — not 

 even carbolic acid — is wanted. It is nature's antidote, the 

 best aud most efficacious in all such cases. 



You know the nimble little Tador bird well, — he 's not 

 shy. In the early morning, you can hear the ring of his 

 metalUc note all over j'onr gardeu-compound. Watch him 

 for a little, and you will see him, and perhaps Mrs. 

 Tailor and the little Tailors, flirting iheir tails with delight, 

 aud examming every leaf of the roses aud other shrubs. 

 The leaf-rottei- is at work'. .See the little warbler how 

 he S'luints in, first i at one seed of the roUed-up 

 leaf, then at the other ; but poochie is not to be thus 

 caught ! Up hops little snips on the stalk of the leaf, aud, 

 with a nig of his long sharp bill, sends it straight into the 

 middle of the house of the leaf-roller, which bolts, and is ■ 

 hotted instantly ! 



The tailor bird is but one of the many feathered enemies 

 of the leaf-rollers and other destructive larva). All the other 

 warblers, thrushes, robins, bush-creepers aud fly-catchers, 

 destroy vast numbers of them, and are first-class gardeners. 

 Even the cheeky sparrow, though dead-nuts on seeds and 

 lettuces, does a deal more good than harm. 



In my own garden, I suffered seriously from the larvaj of 

 the Lejyidopteru, until I managed in various ways to en- 

 courage the settlement in the ueighboiu-hood of several 

 families of warblers, ant-thrushes and bush-creepers. Now 

 the wretched varments do me comparatively little damage, 

 being devoured almost as soon as they put in an appearance. 

 I assure you it is very phasing, to watch the little hirds ex- 

 amining leaf after leaf, and I wage constant war against all 

 their naturjil enemies. Loug before old Sol has ilispelled 

 the dewy mists ot morning, and while the sparkling dew- 

 (h'Ops stillcJing to the drooping fronds of the L'r.".ceful weep- 

 ing bamboo, my little feathered friends ai-e hard at work, 

 and cUvour the caterpillars by the hundred, ere theij 

 morning meal is ended. When wo consider for a moment 

 hte extraordinary speedy powers of digestion possessed by 



