December i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



523 



severely,* the robust tea plant has been but slightly 

 affected. If, as seems to be the case, neither insect 

 nor fnngal origin for the new disease can be traced' 

 we are surely justitied in our suggestion of the possible 

 excess of salts 0/ some hind, in tlie copious and persistent 

 rains of the past south-west monsoon, as the probable 

 cause of the evil. If we are right, we may hojje for the 

 disappearance of the disease with the return of normal 

 seasons. 



The immunity from the disease of the vegetation 

 on the east side of the island, if such immunity is a 

 fact, would be i|Uite consistent with our theory of mis- 

 chief caused by a continued salt-storm from the south- 

 west. 



Sodium chloride in excess would quite account for the 

 leaf aflfection, but the well known antiseptic properties 

 of common saltmay, to some, present a dithculty iUitracing 

 the branch and stem canker to the same agent. But 

 some of the other salts may be the cause of mischief, 

 or the cankering action may be set up in the branches 

 and stems in sympathy with and as a consequence of 

 the diseased, dying and dead condition of the leaves. 



We may, in conclusion say, that except in very bad 

 cases, cinchona trees, with us, have been saved by cop- 

 picing them well below the cankered portions. Topical 

 applications, in the shape of lime, sulphur or carbolic 

 acid we have not tried, the effects on coffee leaf-disease 

 not having been sufficiently encouraging. 



THE NEW PEST AND THE EUCALYPTS. 



We place below the letter which led to Dr. Tri- 

 man's recent visit to Abbotsford, and following it is 

 the resulting report to the Government ; — 



Colombo, 19th October, 1SS2. 

 The Hon. the Colonial Secretary , 



Sir, — I have the honor to request consideration by 

 His Excellency the Governor of the suggestion, in a 

 letter from my son, who is Resident Manager of 

 Abbotsford Estate, Dimbula, that Dr. Trimen aliould 

 visit the place in order to investigate and report on 

 a disease which has developed with fatal effect on 

 Australian Eucalypti giown for purposes of shelter, 

 and which disease has spread to cinchona trees 

 with equally disastrous consequences. If Dr. Trimen 

 is unable personally to make the enquh-y, he might 

 perhaps depute Jlr. Nock from Hakgalla. In either 

 case the hospitality of Abbotsford bungalow would 

 be extended, and my son would aid the enquiry to 

 the utmost. 



The following extract from a letter from my ?on 

 will shew that the suggestion of a visit from Dr. 

 Trimen was made by Dr. Duke, on the occasion of a 

 visit to Abbotsford : — 



'■ He came round with me to see the disease and he's 

 a-vrfuUy alarmed about it. He says that we'll be in- 

 curring a very heavy responsibility if we don 't cut 

 our gums down at once and warn other people. He 

 says Dr. Triiaen ought to be sent by Government to 

 report on it. He tliinks 90 per cent too low an estimate 

 for the dead gums : he would almost say 100 per cent. 

 I am sorry to say the young cinchonas are rapidly suc- 

 cumbing, after trying hard to shake it off. I feel that 

 I am getting callous, as no one will take serious notice 

 of the disease. Dr. Duke said he thought, like every 

 one else, that we were making too much of it ; but 

 now he declared we have not warned people enough." 



As practically the whole of the many thousands of 

 gimi trees, which coat me large sums of money to 

 introduce and cultivate, as shelter trees, — (thus fol- 



* In the case of the cinchonas themselves, immimity 

 from the disease has been in proportion to relative ro- 

 bustness. The delicate Ledgerianas suffered most of all ; 

 then came officinalis ; while succirubras were but sUghtly 

 affected and the strong hybrids scarcely at all. 



lowing the advice I have, as journalist, earnestly pressed 

 on the planters, especially the cinchona planters), — 

 are dead, while the cinchona trees infected by them 

 are dying, His Excellency the Governor will see that 

 no prospect of personal benefit to myself is likely to 

 arise from a visit from Dr. Trimen or his assistant. 

 The question to be settled is whether the planters 

 of Ceylon, at any rate those whoso estates are situ- 

 ated at high altitudes and exposed to the south-west 

 monsoon rains, should not be warned to eradicate the 

 gum trees growing on theii- estates, with as much 

 earnestness as they were formerly advised to cultiv- 

 ate them. I have given my son orders to eradicate 

 every tree and burn every twig and leaf, having long 

 struggled against what gives me much pain for other 

 reasons than the pecuniary loss. But I naturally 

 shrink from the responsibility of advising other 

 planters to follow my example, uuless assured that 

 such advice is the best that could be given. 



A grntleman in charge of an estate iii Dimbula 

 at a lower level by 1,000 feet than mme, wrote some 

 time ago to ask my advice about tliis gum tree 

 disease which had appeared on his trees and its prob- 

 able effects on adjacent cinchonas. Diseased gum 

 leaves have also been sent from an estate in the 

 district of Dikoya and inspected by Mr. Staniforth 

 Green, to whom 1 have repeatedly submitted speci- 

 mens from Abbotsford ; but in no case has that 

 gentleman an^ more than myself or my sou been 

 able to trace signs of either insect or fungic origin, 

 although the late Dr. Thwaites when 1 first sent 

 him leaves (about 4 years ago) spotted as if with 

 smallpox (the spots gradually extending so as to 

 involve the whole leaf), urged me me to look out 

 for a bug. But during the four or five yeais exist- 

 ence and the recent rapid and fatal deveiopemeut of 

 the disease, no insects have been noticed at Abbots- 

 ford by night or by day. I have reason to believe 

 that this disease on gum leaves and spreading from 

 them to cinchonas, is far more prevalent than the 

 reliciuce of planters would seem to indicate. Keti- 

 ceuce in the matter is easily accounted for by the 

 fact that but few are in a position to be able, with- 

 out the dread of injurious cunsequeiices to their pe- 

 cuniar^' interests, openly to slate the existence of a 

 pest which 16 calculated to ah»rm mortgagees or 

 agents, regarding the value oi estates as securities. 

 But the judicious and discriminate removal of gum 

 trees, as advised by a responsible official scientist, 

 might be the best means ot preserving the value of 

 estates on which cinchonas are planted. 



I have spoken of cinchonas as specially suffering 

 from ihie disease, which first made its appearance 

 on the Australian gums, but which unlike hrmileia 

 vastatrix in the case of coffee is not coufiued to one 

 plant or species of plants, for tea bushes, roses, 

 Australian acacias, and ornamental trees of many 

 species grown in more or less proximity to 

 affected gums, have been injured and sometimes fatally 

 infected. In some respects, therefore, this gum leaf 

 disease, whatever it may turn out to be, is even more 

 formidable than the coffee leaf fungus. 



The disease is said not to exist in Nuwara Eliya 

 and its neighbourhood at altitudes considerably above 

 Abbotsford. Of course an impoitant object of the en. 

 quiry made by Dr. Trimen or his assistani, if the 

 Governor agrees with me that enquiry is necessary 

 and urgent, should be the conditions of soils, ex- 

 posure, rainfall, etc., which appear to secure exemp- 

 tion from as well as those wuich seem to involve 

 special liability to tthe disease. Abbotsford runs from 

 4,ti50 to 0,100 feet above sea level, and the shelter 

 trees which have now been killed (in a season ab- 

 normally and persistently wet) by an ob^cHre and 

 apparently new disease, were specially needed as 

 shelter from strong winds, and heavy rains. But 



