December i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



521 



found that the yield is not far short of lower districts, 

 and the lower cost of manufacture in many instances 

 counterbalances any short flushes. The aroma in manu- 

 factured teas at high elevations is far superior in 

 almost all cases. 



I most certainly think, in a good many places at 

 high elevations in Ceylon, tea of a wrong kind has 

 been planted at an elevation of 5,000 to G.OOO feet and 

 upwards. A fair hybrid China is what will most 

 undoubtedly thrive and well too. Most estates are go- 

 ing in heavily for the Assam variety and at hitrh eleva- 

 tions : this is a fallacy and one that will by experieuce 

 and practice prove a mistake. A good class of China 

 (of which there are a large variety) put out at any 

 thing over 5 000 feet and pruned heavily at the proper 

 time, will give a very fair amount of flushes, and where 

 care is taken in the picking a much finer tea tlian 

 Assam hybrid will do; the percentage of orange tips 

 and Pekoe larger. 



A correspondent of the local Times of the 29th 

 ("R. M.") speaks of the blunders early committed 

 by a good many men at Ceylon and mentions as an 

 instance, "the ma" of Abbotsford."* What, may I 

 ask, are the class of plants put out on that estate find 

 what the elevation? Or even take "Oliphant estate?" 

 If I remember rightly, Assam hybrid was tried on 

 both these estates. If I am correct, would not a 

 China variety have done better? (I simply a»k the 

 question and do not for a moment say that these 

 estates are not doing well). In advocating for Ceylon 

 as a tea district, 1 speak with confidence, and there 

 is not a sh.%dow of a doubt that it will l.e one of the 

 leading districts in the East. "Unity is power" and 

 what is wanted to make it so is that, in every instance 

 where good has succeeded, it should be m.ide known 

 through the medium of one of the local papers. The 

 parent Association should call for essays on tea, and 

 let it be essays open to every one, a member or not. 

 What can be better than the results already derived 

 from tea cultivation in Ceylon ? The yields in almost 

 all instances have been good ; the teas, taking inex- 

 perience and disadvantages, very fair indeed, and the 

 report from tastera at home very creditable. A large 

 number of planters have at first had failures in nurseries 

 which was expected, but since the last few years better 

 prospects have turned up, and tea is being cxtendid in 

 almost every district. The future, I say, for Ceylon, is 

 still before it, jmd tea will take a widespread name 

 with care and proper treatment 



AN ASSAM TEA PLANTER. 



THE GUM [EUCALYPTUS) DIS3ASE : ITS 

 PROBABLE SALINE ORIGIN? 

 We received from Government a copy of Dr. Trimen's 

 report on the new or rather newly developed disease, 

 on Wednesday, but the pressure on our columns 

 has been so great, that we had to defer the cor- 

 respondence until today. It will be found on our 

 last page. Much as we anticipated, would be the 

 case, Dr. Trimen is, it will be seen, unable to trace 

 the affection to either insect or to parasitic fungus. 

 He describes tlie appearance of the leaf spots as 

 exactly resembling the punctures of tree-bugs, but 

 he must use the word " punctures " in a restricted 

 sense, for there were and are no holes in the leaves 

 such as result from the attacks of insects, certainly 

 from attacks hy HdopeltinAntoiiii, the Indian "tea-bug." 

 Ho believes the disease to be an affection common al- 

 ways on leaves of jungle and other trees, aggi-avated 

 this year by excessive wet and, perhaps, by unfavourable 

 conditions of soil and drainage [Abbotsford is well 



» This is the first we have heard of the impertinent per. 

 sonality. — Ed. 



drained, but the subsoil is no doubt in some places stiff', 

 and the trees most affected are on high and exposed 

 places. But the disease has appeared badly on 

 places lower in elevation and witliout reference to 

 condition of soil.] Dr. Trimen cannot adopt the 

 belief which the Proprietor and the Manager felt 

 compelled to receive and which they retain, that 

 trees to leeward of gums are directly infected ; 

 he does not regard gums as the source of the 

 disease, although they are naturally, considering 

 their origin, badly affected, and he decidedly 

 answers ''No" to the important question which 

 we were specially anxious to have answ-ered and 

 settled "Will it be right to advise the extirpation 

 of all gum trees." Our readers will be as much 

 pleased as we are with this decision. It is clearly 

 Dr. Trimen's opinion, and we see no reason to dis- 

 sent from it, that if there had been no eucalypts 

 in the country, the disease would have developed 

 on cinchona and other plants, all the same, as 

 the result of the abnormally wet season we have 

 experienced. Individual planters must, however, ob- 

 serve and judge for themselves, whether blue gums 

 are not specially liable to the disease and whether, 

 when virulently affected, they are not agents of in- 

 fection to cinchonas and other plants in their neigh- 

 bourhood, especially if such plants be situated to lee 

 of the gums in the South West Monsoon. Our ex- 

 perience of about four years leads to the affirmative 

 conclusion. 



Our readers will not be surprized to learn that Dr. 

 Trimen does not commit himself to the recommend- 

 ation of any curative treatment, topical or otherwise. 

 There is only the inference to be drawn from the 

 reference to possibly deficient drainage and its effects 

 on the roots of the trees, which he was not able to 

 investigate. 



Observation on Abbotsford led so invariably to the 

 result of tracing the commencement of this disease 

 to the gums, tlie aifection (if not the infection as 

 we have felt justified in concluding, subsequently 

 spreading to cinchonas on the lee side,) that we 

 naturally adopted the name of "gum leaf-disease." 

 Dr. Trimen objects to this and even to leaf-disease, 

 which has locally been appropriated to tlie coffee 

 fungus. A name must, therefore, be invented : ' ' the 

 wet canker " or something better. Coftec, which has 

 its own special leaf-disease, has not, probably for 

 that very reason, been attacked by the new afl'ec- 

 tion ; and although the mature leaves of the tea 

 trees have suffered, somewhat, we have seen no signs 

 of canker in the stems or branches. One curious 

 characteristic of the disease and which seems to shut 

 oiit the idea of insect origin, is that mature leaves 

 only are attacked and not the tender "flush." 



We repeat, that we see no reason to question Dr. 

 Trimen's conclusion that the disease would have de- 

 veloped even if no Eucalypts had been cultivated. 

 But apart from experience at Abbotsford of the special 

 vii'ulence of the disease on gums and the apparent 

 spread of the poison (whatever its nature) to leeward 

 there is the case of the vegetable gardens near St. 

 Andrew's Hotel Nuwara Eliya. A gentleman who 

 had seen it, year after year, yielding fine ci-ops of 

 vegetf-bles, found, during a recent visit, cabbages, 

 peas, beets, &c., all Involved in one common ruin. 

 "What is the matter?" he asked of the proprietor. 

 " I cannot possibly conceive" was the reply. "The 

 vegetables never suffered like this before. " The visitor 

 raised his eyes and saw leaf-diseased gimi trees to the 

 weather side of the garden. The idea of infection 

 may, possibly, be baseless, but what are we to say 

 to such a fact, especiallj' in view of the other 

 fact that the disease has not yef reached the " Lover's 

 Leap " and places east of Nuwara Eliya ? We shall 

 anxiously watch the effects of the north-east monsoon 



