August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



103 



I do not see that the fungus hns extended to 

 many fresh plants during the month, and those 

 that have it chronic are neither better nor worse. 

 There is, however, much difference in its effect on 

 the different castes. There are certain varieties, every 

 plant of which takes the pest early on -every leaf ■ 

 and drops them regularly. Some get covered with 

 pinspots, without seeming to catch much harm; the 

 leaves do not fall, the plants [Hower freely and rip- j 

 en their crop, as if nothing were the matter. A 

 third class get a few pinspots, which never get be- 

 yond a few, and seem to have no effect of any kind: 

 and a few of the noblest castes repel it entirely, if 

 I may judge from their standing for years in the ! 

 midst of trees covered with the fungus without con- ! 

 tracting a spot. I 



It seems as if it would take years, added to the ! 

 years of battle already past, to thoroughly establish 

 cocoa here. On some spots defeat has been acknow- j 

 ledged, and the attempt may yet be ab.indoned on 

 others, but I am gradually getting tlie trees out of 

 danger from the enemies of their early youth. My 

 largest tree, now nearly three years old, has been ' 

 flowering tor more than twelve months, but only once, 

 about ^ix months ago, did it attempt to form a few 

 pods, which it dropped before they took form. I 

 have, however, noticed, within the last two days, a 

 better promise on'less promising trees, so far as sizegoes.* | 



I carried out my idea of planting pepper vines, to : 

 run on the rocks, but few or none of them have siruck, 

 so 1 must try again. 



The rupee's worth of vanilla cuttings I put down, 

 six weeks ago, are getting on, and I would put down 

 more, if 1 did not grudge a cent an inch for a 

 plant that grows so freely. 



I know not on what Ipriuciple Dr. Trimen re- 

 gulates his tariff of prices for plants. If it were 

 the commercial principle, the prices would come 

 and go, as supply failed to hit the exact balance 

 of demand ; if it were the principle of encouraging 

 experimental cultivation, prices would be according 

 to the rarity of the plant, or the difficulty of 

 producing it. The prices of plants rare and precious 

 may be fairly fixed, by any one having a mono- 

 poly, at the very highest that will secure custom- 

 ers ; they have a right to make hay while the 

 sun shines, but it is not business-like to go on 

 charging, or offering for sale rather, at 25c. what 

 outside producers offer at 5o., and surely the 

 Government Gardens can find little custom for 

 plants that have become weeds at many centres, a,nd 

 may be had in any quantity for the trouble of taking 



away a rupee for a cooly load of cassava sticks, 



for "instance, when its cultivators are only too thankful 

 to those who will take them. As for vanilla cut- 

 tings (tliat led me into this digression), wen- there 

 any market for them, which there is not, a fortune 

 might be made out of a few hundred plants, by 

 selUng cuttings at one cent, instead jof |eightand-a-half. 

 I have no« about 300 cardamom plants rtady fur 

 the field. I think I now know enough of the habits of 

 this plant in infancy to make a better job of the 

 next lot of seed I get. 



We have had the true old form of monsoon weather 

 since the 6th instant, and it still continues. 



I am feeling the disadvantage of a public road 

 through the property. Above fifty plants have heen 

 stolen out of the fiehl after planting. 



House of Representatives a few days ago, and it was 

 unanimously adopitd : — 



-ffcso/wrf:— That the Commissioner of Agriculture be 

 requested to inform this House whether any portion of 

 the United States is adapted to the growth of cinchona. 



Mr. Randall snid : The suljject is an important 

 one, and I desire to call to it the attention of those 

 who are interested in the growth of this tree in the 

 United States. I have been more directly moved to 

 submit the resolution by a letter, which I hold in 

 my hand, from Professor Alfred L. Kennedy, of the 

 Polytechnic College, Philadelphia." The letter is as 

 follows : — 

 "Polytechnic College, Philadelphia, April 20th, 1882. 



"My Dear Sir, —You are doubtless fully aware that 

 the plantations of cinchona or Peruvian bark, 

 from which the world derives its supply of quinia, 

 are in jeopardy, and that Holland and England have, 

 with a wise forecast, already provided against prob- 

 able contingencies, by establishing in their Asiatic 

 possessions planta'ious of the tree. It is so evidently 

 the duty of our country to imitate this example, that 

 I beg to suggest the passage by Congress of a resolution 

 requesting the Secretary of tiie Interior to institute 

 full and careful inquiry, and report to Congress whether 

 any part of the public domain is adapted to the 

 growth of the cinchona, with the view of having that 

 portion reserved from sale until Congress take action 

 on the report. 



" Tlie tree grows well up in the slopes of the Andes, 

 in a rare and temperate atmosphere. Its cultivation 

 in Asia has already afforded a bark yielding a higher 

 percentage of the active principle than the bark im- 

 ported from Peru. There should be no opposition to 

 a resolution of this kind, and, although you are, 1 

 know, very much occupied, I trust that you will find 

 time to prepare and present it at an early day. 



Very truly your friend, Alfeed L. Kennedy." 

 — Oil and Driuj Neirx, 



[We do not believe that cinchona, any more than tea, 

 can be cultivated profitably within the United States. — 

 Ed.] 



CULTIVATION OF CINCHONA IN THE 



UNITED STATES, 

 lion. S. J. Randall presented the following in the 



* It does not seem desirable that the trees should mat- 

 ure fruitj until fully four years old.— Ed. 



COFFEE AND TEA LEAF-DISEASE. 

 Our attention has been specially called from Cal- 

 cutta, to the following article on " Leaf Disease " 

 in the Statesman. Briefly it may be said that the 

 writer falls back on the old theory of our chemists 

 — Messrs. Dixon, Schrottky and others — that the 

 disease attributed to hemileia vastatrix is much more 

 deepseated than the leaf, that the poison in fact is 

 to be found in the blood, the sap of the tree, and 

 that the remedy must have a renov.ating power far 

 beyond any topical application. But against this view, 

 once a lavorite with many of the planters themselves, 

 we have the results of the investigations by Thwaites, 

 Abbay, Morris, Ward and Trimen, all dead against 

 the sap-disease theory, and we have the fact that 

 Mr. Schrottky although he began with inoculation was 

 fain to revert to topical applications after the example of 

 Morris and more lately Storck. Nor can the cause of the 

 disease given by the Statesman writer be accepted 

 without dispute. The artificial culture and especially 

 the pruning of the coffee tree was a matter of 

 fully thirty years' standing in Ceylon before the 

 leaf-fungus made its apijearance. As we mentioned 

 yesterday, Mr. R. B. Tytler introduced the practice 

 of coffee pruning from Jamaica before 1840, and the 

 first appearance of the hemileia was in 18Gi), and that 

 not in an old district where the coffee had been arti- 



