38^ 



THE tMPlCAL AaHieULTUKlST. [Dtc. j, 1886. 



•MHS 



COFFEE PESTS— FUNGI. 



Coffee plauters are just now bewildered bj' an old 

 disease in a new shape, which is likely, if not im- 

 mediately checked, to cause much loss in crops, and 

 some indeed look upon its destructive results as a 

 graver calamity than bug, borer, kc. 'We allude to 

 the disease known as leaf rot, of which there are 

 several forms recognised — as black rot, mildew, &c., 

 ice, caused undoubtedly by a superabundance of young 

 wood (requiring handling off) and excessive moisture. 

 These, however, are easily remedied by opening out 

 the centres as soon as possible, and sickling the weeds 

 which at this time of the year grow apace and shut 

 out the light and air. But the disease is assuming 

 quite another phase, and it is rather difficult to assign 

 any reason for its appearance. We are inclined to 

 the belief that it is a severe kind of funyi the spores 

 of which enter the epidermis or bark, and cause 

 disease in the first instance in the leaves which after, 

 wards extends to the fruit-bearing portion of the tree 

 as well as the fruit, all of which in course of time 

 or near the close of the rainy season, drop off. The 

 fungus acts by feeding on the juices of the plants, 

 preventing the elaboration of the sap, obstructing the 

 admission of air and the emission of transpired fluids. 

 The limbs of the trees being thus overcharged with mois- 

 ture, ultimately rot, while every source of nutriment 

 is cut off from the half developed berries, which also 

 rot and fall off. 



There may, however, be another cause, which is 

 necessary for the spread of funrji, occasioned by the 

 roots, in which maj' be traced the want of corres- 

 pondence between absorption and transpiration and a 

 consequent stagnation and decomposition of the juices. 



An estate which suffered considerably last season 

 in this respect, was at once take in hand by the 

 energetic Superintendent, by pruning back the trees 

 to their primaries, removing all moss and lichens from 

 their stems, renovating and manuring, which treat- 

 mentwithin a month (September) directed the nutri- 

 tive matters in the directions of the increase and 

 development of subterraneous as well as aerial branches : 

 the result is astonishing and shows that nothing but 

 careful and high cultivation is necessary to bring the 

 trees to a healthy state. 



But in South "Wynaad we learn that the disease 

 is making great havoc, having assumed the form of 

 an epidemic, and the planters scarcely know how 

 to control it. "We have adduced the above for their 

 information, as we think it well worthy of imitation. 

 Our opinion inclines us to the conviction that the 

 sudden change their estates have undergone this year, 

 from long and extreme drought and heat to sudden 

 and excessive rainfall and moisture, — which we hear 

 in Yythery alone has amounted to over 150 inches 

 since May — has produced the phenomena. The drought 

 must have brought the trees to such a low state of 

 exhaustion, the spring showers having failed, or they 

 might have gradually recovered with steady and 

 moderate showers, and thus have regained strength 

 and vigour for the monsoon. Thus when the rains did set 

 in, they came on with a force and copiousness not 

 known before ; the trees being sickly were unable to 

 benefit by it, and they became diseased in the manner 

 described. The subject threatens to become one of 

 very grave importance, so tve trust planters will come 

 forward with their views and opinions and see what 

 can be done to put a stop to and evil which easily 

 grows. — yUgiri Expresn. — [This black rot has always 

 been more prevalent in Southern India than in Oeylon, 

 but it seems now to have appeared in a form of in- 

 tense virulence. Alas poor coffee ! — Ed,] 



A Rival to Dk. Hewett. — The Moniteur des Pro- 

 duits Cliimiques is informed that Professor Fischer, of 

 Munich, after an extended research on the nature and 

 properties of quinine, has discovered that a substance 

 may be extracted from coal-tar which exercises on the 

 human organism an action identical with that of quinine. 

 The substance appears in the shape of a white crj st- 

 alline powder. Administered in cases of fever it has 

 the effect of rapidly loweriug the temperature, and its 

 efficacjr in this respect ie stated to be so remarkable 



as to permit the use of ice to be dispensed with ; in 

 the stomach the wonderful powder assimilates with even 

 greater facility than does quinine.— t'/it mist audJJrumist 

 [We wait for " more light."— Ed.] 



Tea. in J.vp.w. — A dispute has arisen between 

 Messrs. Mourilyan Heimann & Co. and the Mitsui 

 Bussan Kaisha, as to the rejection of a (luantity 

 of tea which the former firm alleges is not up to 

 sample. As the result of correspondence between 

 the buyers of the tea in question and the Yoko- 

 hama Tea Brokers' Association, a meeting of 

 foreign tea buyers was held on Wednesday, at 

 which it was resolved to appoint a committee to 

 act with Japanese delegates in the arbitration of 

 disputes between foreigners and Japanese. A com- 

 mittee of three was elected to bring the queution 

 before the Japanese brokers. A slight decrease has 

 taken place in the volume of tea transactions, 

 prices ruling firm all round. There must be heavy 

 losses upon Japanese teas this year. Their selling 

 price in New York was never before so low. It is 

 strange that while the price of Chinese and Japanese 

 teas shows a steady tendency to decline in Western 

 markets, that of Indian and Ceylon teas goe.=! 

 slowly but surely upwards. This fact, taken in 

 conjunction with the largely increased production 

 of India and Ceylon, seems to indicate that Japan 

 and China may one day or other be completely 

 ousted from their monopoly of the fragrant staple. 

 Perhaps we should Hmit the prediction to China, 

 for Japan has the good fortune to possess the entref 

 of the United States markets, where black tea is 

 not popular.— <7a/K</t Wteldy Mail, Oct. •2nd. 



Artu-icial Quinine,— Messrs. Brookes and Green, 

 of 25, Mincing Laue London, state in a recent IMarkei 

 Eeport : — " No sooner does the ' silly season ' 

 est in than the daily press astonishes its reader.'; 

 by announcements of ' remarkable discoveries ' which 

 are to ' revolutionise ' either this or that particular in- 

 dustry. Last autumn a London journal published the 

 startling intelligence that the present sugar industry — 

 beet as well as cane— waste be annihilated by the won- 

 derful returns of sugar which it claimed could be ob- 

 tained from the mahwa or mowi-a tree of Hindostau. As 

 was pointed out shortly afterwards, this was nothing 

 but a Munchausen story, since the flowers in question 

 contain ouly 1-04 of saccharine matter, and even that 

 small quantity is fit for nothing but brewing and distil- 

 ling purposes. We believe it was the same morning 

 journal that reproduced the American hoax of the new 

 species of cotton tree with pods weighing each from 2 

 to 3 lb., by which the cotton trade was to be 'revolu- 

 tionised.' This year the same newspaper brings for- 

 ward a ' remarkable discovery' of the artificial mode 

 of making quinine, which will, we are seriously told, 

 bring down the price of that drug to something like od 

 per oz. We are also told that this important discovery 

 ' was made by the accidental breaking of a medicine 

 bottle.' But, as we are well aware that all great dis- 

 coveries are usually the result of accident, this need 

 not surprise any one. The really extraordinary part of 

 the story is that good quinine ' can now be manufac- 

 tured without limit by a very simple process from an 

 article which can always be got in abundance in any 

 pirt of the world.' In order to round oflt the story, it 

 should have been stated that the artificially-made drug 

 h.d been administered in cases of fever with the most 

 satisfactory results ; but to this extreme the inventor, 

 doubtless with a discreet retrard for his patients, appears 

 not to have gone. We have the best authority for 

 stating that the announcement that an eminent firm of 

 manufacturing chemists has expressed itself favourably 

 with regard to the alleged discovery is entirely false. 

 It has yet to to be proved that anyone has really suc- 

 ceeded in producing so complex a body as quiniue 

 synthetically; and it is extremely improbable that even 

 if produced at all, it could be made at any very low 

 price. Before such statements are accepted and pub- 

 lished by any newspaper it would be strongly advisable 

 to have certain evidence of tbeir correctness. "—jiatfma 



