April z, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



849 



PLANTING ON THE HILLS OP CEYLON. 

 LiNDULA, March 23rcl. 

 Weeds on Plantations. 

 As the theories of Mr. Halliley iiDtl those who agree 

 with him in favour of weeds are merely matter of 

 opinion, we who are sceptics can safely smile at what 

 we do not admit. We are placed in a difi'erent position 

 when Mr. Hulliley asserts that he had personal ex- 

 purienoe of the existence of Hemileia vastatrix on 

 cultivated coffee, first in December 1863, or 54 years 

 previously to the date (May 1S09) usually assigned 

 to its first appearance in Oeylou ; and .Tgain in 1866. I 

 do not for a moment suppose tliat Mr. Halliley -aouM 

 assert that of the truth of which lie was not perfectly 

 satislipd ; but he like other human beings is liable to 

 error in the observations he makes and the conclusions 

 he dravvs. If, in Pecember 1863, HimVeia vastatrix 

 existed on coffee between Gampola and Nawalapitiya, 

 and that in so a virnlent a form as to cover Mr. 

 Halliley 's coat and sleeves with the yellow dust of 

 its spores, thi'n several queetinns arise : — The late 

 Dr. Triwait<"s, C.M.G., was then livijig in the island, 

 and not only on the qui-vivc to convey to Messrs. 

 Berkeley and Broome specimens of all the Ceylon 

 fuugi, but as much alive then as he was in 186'9 to 

 the duty of informing the Governnient and warniiig 

 the pbmters of Ceylon of the appearance of a new 

 enemy of the great industry of the Culony. The 

 Ohserotr was also as ready to piiblieh information on 

 such an important mattrr as it is now. But we have 

 never heard that Mr. Halbley or anyone else com- 

 municated on the subject either with the Director 

 of the Botanic Gardens or with the press. If 

 the disease existed as described in 1863 and in 

 1866, and of course iu the intervening years, how 

 can we account for its comparatively latent character 

 seeing the rapiiliiy and virulence with which 

 it spread over the whole coffee cultivation of Ceylon, 

 when first noticed by science and recognized by the 

 great body of planters in 1869, appearing almost 

 simultaneously (wliere equally with Ceylou it had 

 never been authentically noticed before) in Sontliern 

 India, Sumatra, Java, the Straits and practicully the 

 whole eastern world? Mr. George Wall was in 1863 

 and in 1SU6 as much interested in coffee as he was 

 in 1869, and at least as keenly observant as he is 

 now ; but we are not aware that, although, like every- 

 body else, he noticed yellow leaves on shuck trees, 

 he ever saw or made sign of having seen before 1869 

 the fatal dust which covered Mr. Halliley 's coat and 

 sleeves aa he asserts in 1863. As Mr. Halliley is a 

 six-footer, does it not stem curious that it was on 

 his coat and sleeves he specially observed the yellow 

 powder? Maybe not have passed under trees other 

 than coffee, affected by a fungus other than that which 

 is peculiar to coffee ? And seeing that Mr. Halliley 

 attributes the present unfortunate condition of our 

 coffee mainly to want of Lirge applications of fertiliz- 

 ing matter, how i oes he account for his treatment 

 of "shuck "coffee with pulp, ashes and charcoal caus- 

 ing it to develop as bad a dose of leaf-disease as ever 

 he h.id .seen, from which, however, the coffee recovered 

 in a very short time, the disease, apparently, not 

 spreading even to immtdmtely adjiiiiiing cofl'ee 1 There 

 may have been a bad leaf-disease in 1S63 and again, 

 in 1866, but, with all ib-ference to Mr, llallilev, we 

 are not satisfied that it was the leaf-disease which, 

 since its sudden and rapid development in 1869, bus 

 proved so fat.al to the interests of coffee iilaiters in 

 Ceylon and India, and which ia telling with disastrous 

 eO'ect, also, in many portions of Java -.nd the Eastern 

 Archipelago generally: which indeed threatens the whole 

 coffee CHltivation of the globe. 



COMPENSATION OF DEW FOB ABSENCE OF BAIN. 



What is the theory as to the extent to which 

 dew compensates for the absence of rain ? and what 

 about the proportion of ammonia in each ? My 

 inclination is rather to believe that dew is freer 

 from chemical constituents than rain, clearer, 

 colder and less beneficial to vegetation ? Whether 

 " blobs " of dew do not sometimes help to blister 

 leaves by_ concentrating the sun's rays, burning glass 

 fashion, is also a question on which I should like to 

 have the opinions of experts. 



THE DYINO-OFF OF CINCHONA.S. 



1 had been asked to go and see and have a talk about ciu- 

 chonas, and just before sitting down to record a few of 

 the impressions left by this visit I received from Ma'urata 

 a letter which I place here, only premising that 1 

 evidently failed to make my correspondent understand 

 that the dying-off and uprootal of cincliouas of which 

 I wrote was on the ground of a neighbour, who, I 

 had hoped, would escape experience which hitdpnviously 

 been ours on Abbotsford. At present our cinchonas 

 are singularly healthy, cases of the hlistenmi canker 

 being few and far between and root-canker equally 

 rare. The new and anomalous gum leaf disease 

 seems, with the occurrence of genial weather, to have 

 abandoned eucalypts and cinchonas, and is now only 

 apparent in the shape of white round spots and patches 

 of discolouration on some of the older tea leaves 

 "Tilings like this we know must be" in all cultural 

 operations, and while we cease to be dismayed at their 

 occurrence let us welcome all information in the di- 

 rection of remedial measures. 



SHAVING OFF CANKEBED CINCHONA BARK. 



Our friend writes : — 



" Maturata, 26tli March 1883 

 "By the Observer of 22nd inst. I am sorry to learn 

 you are, Uke myseU, suffeiing very severely fi-om canker 

 among your cinchonas* and arc about to root them out. 

 As the following experiments may be of .service to you' 

 I have much pleasure in placing them at your disposal' 

 Should you deem them worthy of attention I shall be 

 glad to hear what success they have with you. 



" A year ago the idea sta-uck me from seeing a succii'ubra 

 tree on the roadside with the top broken off, where it 

 was cankered, sending out fi-esh shoots, one of which had 

 attained some six inches in height. TMs set me to work 

 on a few young succirubra trees suffei-ing from stem canker 

 off which I shaved the diseased as also a portion of the 

 healthy bark, all round the part affected. When I 

 left, two months after, the ti'ees were looking healthy 

 but had done little towards renewing their bark ; since then 

 I have had no opportunity of seeing or hearing about them. 

 "In Sept. last, finding root canker spreacUug here, I set 

 to work on three trees ; unfortunately, by mistake at 

 (Ufferent times, these trees have been cut down by ' my 

 eooUes: the last was brought in three weeks ago. My treat- 

 ment of it and its appearance up to the time it was coppiced 

 was as follows : — I began by shaving out all the diseased 

 bark abovegi'ound ; the ti'ee stood ft'om 10 to 12 feet hjo-h' the 

 branches, -with the exception of a few near the top were 

 dead or dying, and the leaves sick or xinhealthy. The 

 bark at the ground was diseased three parts round the ti-ee 

 and ran upwards in strips, the longest exteudino- to a 

 height of M feet ; this I shaved oil and a portion" of the 

 healthy baric adjoining it ; finding the disease had, in some 

 places, eaten right into the tree I shaved until I came to 

 healthy wood, taking, in one place, quite a sisteenth of 

 an inch out. HaWng shaved the remaining healthy bark 

 with the exception of a naiTOw strip which 1 left the 

 dying branches were cut off Jind the tree left. In the 

 course of a few weeks most of the leaves fell Gradu- 

 ally new leaves began to appear, the shaved barks to re- 

 new, and when the tree was coppiced there was a fail- 

 flush of new leaf, also one or two shoots springing from 

 the stool, which, dming the past three weeks, have made 

 gi-eat strides, and are now strong and healthy. Althoun-h 

 my experunents have in neither e.ise had, fi-om personal 



* No : see explanation prefixed. 



