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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



The EAifncALL on the Serka do Mar above Sao 

 Pa0LO, the district iu which the Santos coffee is grown, 

 is copious, as will he seen from the following figures ; — 



1S73 ... 131-4 inches. 187S ... 145-3 inches 



It will bn <:fcn that for the five years ended 1877 

 the range was from 121 inches to 157, the average 

 being about 140. In the past four years the seasons 

 have been very irregular. Only 73 inches in 1879 

 must have meant drought, while the reaction to 160 

 and 168 led, as we know, to serious railway .slips. 

 The average for the four years is neai-ly 137 inches. 

 The average for the nine years is somewhat under 

 139 inches : a good rainfall for coffee. 



How COFFEE was KILLED OUT IN DoMiNiCA 40 years 

 ago is of intere.st to Ceylon planters, but the notice 

 given at the time by the local Coiirant was not very 

 full -.— 



The first intimation of the presence of a blight on the 

 coffee plantations that we find in the public records of the 

 country, is contained in a speech of the Governor of the 

 island. Sir J. Murray Macgregor, to the legislature on March 

 3rd, 1836. His Excellency says that the effects of the late 

 tempest— the hurricane of 1«34 — are "aggravated in many 

 instances by the ravages of the white fly, and it is anxiously 

 to be hoped that some plan for the adoption of the legis- 

 lature may be devised with the view of assisting the sufferers 

 and accomplishing the destruction of the insect that so mis- 

 chievously infests the coffee plantations. 



" The medical gentlemen of the island are about to 

 investigate this subject, and it is impossible to doubt the dis- 

 position of your House to afford every practicable encourage- 

 ment to BO laudable an undertaking.' 



Notwithstanding this strong recommendation, nothing 

 seems to have been done, and the following extract from a 

 Dominica paper of 1837 will show the extent of the calamity 

 which overtook the island: — "It appears that the exportation 

 of coffee for the twelve years preceding the hiu-ricane of 

 1834 averaged 1,400,000 pounds, aud has diminished from 

 2,177,558 to 396,315 pounds; add to this that the exportation 

 of the present year is not expected to exceed 200,000 pounds! 

 A brief account of this frightful failure of one of our staple 

 productions cannot prove uninteresting. About the middle 

 of 1833 it was first observed ou a few ijropevties that the 

 leaves of the coffee trees were attacked by a very minute 

 insect, and that in a short period of time the leaves attacked, 

 withered and fell off — this, which was denominated the coffee 

 bUght, soon spread through the other estates, and so rapid 

 was its progress that the crop of 1834 would have shown a 

 very sensible diminution had not the hurricane of that year, 

 by sweeping off the entire product of the trees, rendered 

 any calculation of the effect of the blight impossible. Some 

 idea may be entertained of the apprehensions of the planters 

 ou this head from the fact that many of the most respectable 

 among them would have beeu reconciled to the entire loss of 

 their crops and to the total destruction of Large patches of 

 their cultivation, had the hurricane also effected the de- 

 struction of the pest they so much dreaded. For a few mouths 

 after that event there was no appearance of the blight, but 

 no soouer had the trees recovered from the severe shock they 

 had sustained and put forth fresh vegetation, than the 

 formidable foe reappeared with the new leaves, aud has since 

 continued its ravages until there scarcely remains a single 

 coffee estate in the'^ Island on which one half of the trees are 

 not already dead, aud the remainder so enfeebled as hardly 

 able to bring to maturity the little fruit they put forth. 

 This insect does not confine itself to the grown-up trees, the 

 youngest plants in the um-sery are equally subject to its 

 attack, even to the very cotyledons as they appear above the 

 siu-face of the earth." 



As our readers are aware, the ouly connection of an 

 insect with leaf-disease is a beneficial one— an insect fecdmg 

 on the fimgus. "We know the ravages of one insect plague, 

 —the "bug" or scale insect; but happily we know no- 

 thing and we may be spared the knowledge of the " ravag- 

 es of a white fly." It is just pos.sible though that the 

 white fly was a mere accompaniment of a fungoid bugnt. 



Natal Cotton. — The following opinions of experienced 

 persons iu England on Natal-grown cotton have been ob- 

 tained by the Union Steamship Company, and handed to 

 us for publication : — No. 1 is very clean, of good coloiu-, 

 and of fine staple, but the staple is short and weak aud 

 rather irregular. It is not suitable for higher counts than 

 30s. weft. I should value it at 5Jd. today, aud would 

 give tbat price for it, but not more. No. 2 is worth iu 

 the market fully fd. per lb. less; it is of worse colour, 

 and weaker and more kregular iu staple. The above sam- 

 ples seem inferior in staple to those last sent. — A'atal , 

 Mermry. 



Tea.— The following account of tl™ "powder tea" of 

 Japan may be interesting to oa'r readers; — "The 

 same plant as that which yields the ordinary familiar 

 teas of conunerce produces this, only the shrubs selected 

 are old, and must for the purpose have been sub- 

 jected to a system of very copious manuring to the 

 extent of ten applications per annum. The plucked 

 leaves are for a few seconds exposed to a current of 

 steam, dried by spreading out on a mat, and afterwards 

 subjected to a similar round of manipulation as other 

 tea, the finished product be^ng immediately enclosed 

 in air-tight metal jars. When required for consump- 

 tion the necessary quantity for the party is withdrawn, 

 slowly reduced to powder in a handmill, and for 

 every individual a quarter of an ounce is removed on 

 the tip of a feather to the cup, into which boiling 

 water is poured. The mixture is now agitated with a 

 wooden whisk, in the manner adopted with a cup of 

 cocoa, until a drooping head of froth hangs over the . 

 vessel, when the fragrant nectar-like fluid is absorbed nj 

 aoordtng to the inacy."— Indigo Planter's Gazelle. ,, ,1 



Insects Visiting Flowers. — The scientific writings 

 of Darwin, Lubbock, and Hermann Muller re- 

 lative to the part played by insects in iheir oft- 

 recurring visits to flowers have of late years at- 

 tracted much attention. The subject, in fact, has 

 created a taste for observation, and an incentive 

 has beeu given to watch the frequency of visits of 

 various species to certain fllowers and especially the 

 insect's choice of coloured flowers. While the mere 

 registering of visits may seem comparatively simple, 

 the reason why insects show a preference to alight 

 upon flowers of a certain colour, or on certain species 

 of plants, is a much more complicated proMem than 

 at first it would appear. Two papers re;>d at the 

 last meeting of the Linnean Society (March 1st) — :i> 

 one by Mr. A. W. Bennett, " On the Constancy of 

 Insects in their Visits to Flowers," aud the other by Mr. 

 R. M. Christy "On the Methodic Habits of Insects 

 when visiting Flowers "—show that a strict watch 

 and ward is being kept on the movements of thu busy 

 bee and its kindred. Mr. Bennett states that butterflies 

 show but little constancy in their visits, citing a few 

 instances only to the contrary ; but according to him, to 

 a certain extent, they seem to have a choice in colour. 

 The Dipteria exhibit greater constancy, though by no 

 means absolute. The apidas, especially the hive-bie, 



manifest still greater constancy From these ilita ho 



infers that the ratio of increase is in proportion to 

 the part performed by the insects in their carrying 

 pollen from flower to flower. Mr. Christy records in 

 detail the movemenis of 76 insects, chiefly bees, when 

 engaged in visiting 2,400 flowers. He tabulates the 

 same, and concludes therefrom that insects, notably 

 the bees, decidedly and with intent, coufine their 

 successive visits to the same species of flower Ac- 

 cording lo him also, butterflies generally wander simless 

 in their flight, yet some species, including the frilil- 

 laries. are fairly methodical in habit. He beli-ves that 

 it is not by colour alone that insects are guided from one 

 flower to another of the eame species, and he suggests 

 that the sense of smell may be brought into play. 

 Bees, he .avers, have but poor sight for long distances, 

 but see well atabort diataucea.— Athe9umm, March 17tli. 



