July r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



exposed, to the spores at those times when they are most 

 blown about." 



2. Supposing, however, that the spores cannot be pre- 

 vented from reaching the trees, it is still possible to kill the 

 former as well as the filaments which issue from them on 

 germination in the very brief interval before those filaments 

 plunge into the leaves and become inaccessible to treat- 

 ment- This is the principle of the sulphur-lime remedy 

 studied by Jlr. Morris. The difficulty, however, is that though 

 the sulpiiur-lime treatment does its work very effectually; 

 the benefit is only transitory as the trees are apt to 

 speedily become reinforced. Mr. AVard is nevertheless of 

 opinion that the apphcation of a mixture of sulphur and lime, 

 or of lime alone, may be useful in cases where the disease 

 is threatening to denude the trees of leaves at the critical 

 period " when the crop is ripening." 



The action of sulphur and lime as far as they go are 

 perfectly satisfactory. Nothing, therefore, appears likely to 

 be gained by experimenting on the action of other sub- 

 stances .such as mixtures containing Carbolic Acid. The 

 principle of treatment is in every case identical. One sub- 

 stance may relatively be more or less active than another 

 but none can remedy the difficulty that having killed one 

 crop of the fimgus the plantation is still open to fresh 

 infection. 



• 3. The plantations should be closely watched in order 

 to see if iudivndual plants show less tendency than others 

 to succumb to the ravages of the hemiUia. By sedul- 

 ously sowing the seed and selecting from the progeny of 

 these, a race comparatively resistant to the attacks of the 

 hemileia might eventually be established. 



I think that this statement will enable the Secretary of 

 State to judge how little probability there is of the pro- 

 posed reward being of the smallest real use. None is certainly 

 required to enforce the common-sense suggestion to pro- 

 tect the coffee plants from spore-laden winds. On the other 

 hand its existence by exciting vagne expectations would 

 paralyze the planters in using to the best advantage the 

 practical suggestions already put before them. When the 

 spores have reached the coffee plants, we already possess a 

 means of killing them. That method of treatment has, it 

 is true, disappointed ^expectations for reasons already ex- 

 plained. As far however as it goes it is not likely to be im- 

 proved upon. When the fungus has once plunged into the 

 leaves nothmt: can arrest their destruction abort of kdling 

 the coft'ei plant itself. 



Supposin<4, notwithstanding, that the Secretary of State 

 were disposed to approve the reward as a matter of 

 policy, antl the more so as tliere is a minimum of prob- 

 ability of its ever being earned, the administrative diffic- 

 ulties which would immediately arise is connection with 

 it are of the gravest kind. The action of the French Go- 

 vernment is a case in point. A large reward has been 

 oPTered for some years for a means of destroying the 

 Phylloxera which is rav'L,Mng the vines of VVestern 

 Europe. The result has been that while in 1873 alone 

 334 persons claimed it, a member of the Commission to 

 whom the claims were referred sumited up the result as 

 follows ;— 



" La perspective offerte par ce prix semhle d'avoir eu 

 jusqu' ici d' autre rdsiiltat que d' 6garer des imaginations 

 impressionables, de mettre eu mouvement des appetits 

 vul'jaires, et non "le susciter des travaux s^rieux entre- 

 pris par des savants on des agricidteu s exerces et com- 

 petents. Le conconrs onvers, a ete un embarras et n'a exerce 

 aucune influence utile."* 



Similar evils would undoubtedly ensue in Cevlon. 

 And there is the further difficulty that the thankless 

 labor of Bift,ing the more or less impossible schemes 

 which would be sent m would not, :as in Paris, fall upon 

 a body of men removed by the status of European re- 

 putation friui any possible impeachment of aiiverse crit- 

 icism, but would have to be borne by two or three Colonial 

 Officials already sufficiently occupied and whose lives would 

 be made a burden to them by the proverbial contentiousness 



*The prospect offered by this prize seems to have 

 hitherto had no result bnt that of misleading impression- 

 able imagin.ations, of exciting vulgjir greed, and not of 

 arousing serious labors, undertaken by scieutiSc men or 

 practical and competent agriculturists. The open compet- 

 ition has been an embarrassment, and has not exercised 

 any useful influence — Ed. 



and wrong-liea ledni'ss of person.s believin? themselves the 

 possessors ofan inventive faculty. Sir J-^seph Hooker is 

 therefore unhesitatingly of opinion that the profi0f>ed re- 

 ward is unlikely to lead to results of any pu:.)lio utility, 

 while it will certainly c u.se a groat deal of embarrass- 

 ing and unneces-'ary labor. 



As to the proposal that the Government should give 

 aid to persons wishing to make experiments, it is open 

 to such obvious ohiections thatitis really unnecessary to 

 state them. If the planting community agree amongst 

 themselves that any experiments of a particular kind are 

 desirable, the proper course would bo tli.it they should 

 carry them out by mutual arrangement and co-oporation. 



I am &c., 

 (Signed) W J. Thiselton Dveb, 

 John Bramston Esq., 



Colonial Office. 



TEA IN INDIA AND CHINA: THE QUES, 

 TION OF NATURAL HYBRIDIZING. 



Assam was between the years 1815 and 1824 oc- 

 cupied by the Burmese, who committed the foulest 

 atrocities to the almost depopulation of the country 

 — indeed, the surviving natives stated that the 

 Burmese, when finally driven out by the British, carried 

 away with tliem the youth of the country, so that 

 only the aged and feeble were left. To this cause 

 the Assamese themselves attribute the sparseness of 

 the population and the feeble character of the indi- 

 viduals. Inveterate addiction to opium eating, in- 

 duced no doubt by the prevalence of jungle fever, 

 must, however, be at the root of much of the apathy 

 of the Assamese. They are, in truth, almost as much 

 savages as the predatory tribes around them : the Abors, 

 the Garos, the Nagasand other tribes, who must either 

 prove amenable to the influences of Christian civiliz- 

 ation, or be improved off the face of the earth which 

 they do little more than cumber. The British might 

 have long bad the problem to solve, as to what was 

 to be done with the densely forested, damp, rich- 

 soiled valley of the Brahmaputra, but that about 

 half a century ago attention began to be directed to 

 an indigenous tea plant, which Dr. Wallich, from 

 the large size of the leaves and blossoms, took for a 

 new camellia. Of course, our readers are aware that 

 the tea plant really is a camellia, but the camellias 

 so famous for their flowers are not those that yield 

 the leaves which, when infused, result in " the cup 

 that cheers but not inebriates." Curiously enough, 

 the first result of the discovery that a species of tea 

 grew in the jungles of Assam was not to induce 

 efforts to cultivate that particular plant, but to lead 

 Government to send Mr. Fortune on a mission to 

 China, to collect and bring seeds of what were be 

 lieved to be the better species of teas, which it 

 was hoped and believed could be cultivated where a 

 tea grew naturally. Some writers on Indian tea, 

 Col. Money amongst them, we believe, regard th9 

 introduction 6f the infeiior China teas as a mis- 

 fortune, but all experience and the general voice is 

 in favour of the view taken by Mr. Baildon in his re- 

 cently published work on "The Tea Industry in India," 

 that it was well the plants were thus brought into con- 

 tact, the result being a hybrid far superior to either 

 parent. But, while this hybrid was being developsd, 

 the cultivation of the Chiuese kinds extended from 

 Assam to the Kangra Valley, Kumaon and tbe Dehra 



