February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



617 



DOES HEMILEIA FASTATBIX NOT AFFECT 

 THE COFFEE BEAN ? 

 South Travauooro, l'2th December 1S8'2 



Sir, — la the December number of the Tropical 

 Agrkulliirist your eorresiioudent "W.," iu his letter 

 on "What Ails Our Coffee Trees:" No. 7, says, 

 when comparing IlemUfia to Pei enospora: — "The worst 

 possible attack of Hemiliia, when the affeotcil leaves 

 have been cast off, leaves the trees absolutely free 

 from disease, with all their essential, permanent organs 

 intact and vigorous, and the fruit, they l>enr continues 

 to he the very finest in the market." The italics are mine. 

 Now, if this is the case and leal-disease does not in 

 any way atfect the permanent organs, and leaves the 

 fruit in the very finest condition, will your correspond- 

 ent " W." kindly explain how it is that coffee, after 

 being badly attacked with leaf-disease, rarely ripens 

 and develops its crop properly, even should the affected 

 leaves fall off a month or three weeks before picking 

 commences and new leaves begin t) form during crop, 

 showing according to " W." that the trees are then free 

 from disease? Will "W" also aoeount for the jooj; or 

 growth that is to be found on the beau^ of badly 

 diseased trees, if it is not caused by Hemikia ? These 

 wart be/Ills, as I may call them, have always been at- 

 tributed by me to Hemileia, though I cannot say that 

 I have ever given the subject any careful study and 

 may too readily have .attnbut'd to leat-disease what 

 can be accounted for by other causes. 



That this form of wart on the bean must seriously 

 affect the quality of our coffee can Ije seen at a glance, 

 as all beans so iiffeeted must neces-sarily go into triage 

 when being garbled at the coast, and to it can be 

 ascribed much 3f the so-called badly-cured and marked 

 beans that one hears so much of nowadays, for when 

 the superintendent in charge of the garbling sees a 

 quantity of marked beans he naturally puts them 

 down to pulper-damaged. 



Tlie wart on the beans herewith sent seems to be quite 

 a different form of disease from the black spot that may 

 be seen on freshly picketl and pulped coffee, the greater 

 quantity of the coffee so affected being light and float- 

 ing on the water when turned into the washing-cistern; 

 but luarl i<f«HS generally come out with the parchment. 

 The black spot seems attributable to excessive damp, 

 being very general this year and also in 1S77, both 

 of which seasons have been exceptionally wet, whereas 

 the wart seems to come yearly on most estates and 

 so affects the leai-diseased coffee only or rather those 

 trees that are most badly attacked with Hemileia, as 

 all trees seem to be attacked more or less. To so great 

 an extent is the wart noticeable this season on the 

 bean3 of the estate I superintend and some others 

 adjoining it, that, should the passer-by casually pick 

 and esamine a few berries, he is sure to find one or 

 moi'e of the beans so attacked; and so new and peculiar 

 did the disease appear to H. H. the Maha Raja, who 

 noticed it on some beans picked whilst on the way 

 to the Mutakuli Vyal sanitarium, that His Highness 

 instituted enquiries as to its cause. 



Should this form of riiseased bean be not aftrihut.able 

 to Hemileia, I feel sure that your coirespoudf nt "W." 

 would be doing a good act to planters in South Trav- 

 ancore, if not elsewhere, by devoting a letter to the 

 subject, and trying to find out the cause of another 

 disease that ails our coffee trees in their most v.alua- 

 ble (and so essential) if not in their most vital, part. 



D. O. N. 



[We referred the sample of coffee which accompanied 

 this letter to "W. " who expresses the opinion very 

 confidently that the warts in question are not the effect 

 of hemileia. He is rather inclined to think they arise 

 from the puncture of an insect when the bean is very 

 tender. " W." reminds us of the enquiry set on font 

 a few years ago which shewed that the av rage quality 

 of the Csylou bean had not deteriorated since hemilna 



made its appearance, nor had the proportion of triaga 

 increased. Ho believes this holds good still. — Ed.] 



CULTURE OF THE GRAPE VINE. 



16th December 1882. 

 Sir, — I shall not follow in the steps of your corres- 

 ponder, t "A. B. C." in trying to trace how and when the 

 vine was introduced into Ceylon, &c., but try and give 

 what I bebeve is wanted, jiractical hints of how lo grow 

 it. First then, as to situation, for wliicli choose an east- 

 ern position with light arable soil, with no shade 

 particularly from the morning sun. When it once begins 

 growing its growth is very rapid, if the superfluous 

 wood 13 taken off ocouvionally, and carefully trained 

 ou the trelli«, or paudal, see sketch enclosed, which 

 would not cist anything near R80 at Kandy. 



Supposing the vine old enough to bei.r, the tirst 

 thing to do is to manure it, of which I shall treat 

 later on; the second to prune, the time for which 

 will vary a little according to district; but that any 

 one can determine by closely watching the budding 

 of other fruii-bearing trees. The time in Kandy will 

 I believe be the latter end of April and October. 

 To the pruning more than any other thing will a 

 vine bear. Give it situation or treat it how you like 

 if n.t pro|jerly pruned, it will never bear as it, should! 

 The mode I have adopted is to keep a sufficient num- 

 ber of branches properly trained on trellis. At prun- 

 ing time take off every leaf and twig as clo.se as 

 possible to the joint without hurting it. This, as al- 

 ready stated, should be at the end of April and October 

 or about three weeks before other fruit trees are in 

 full blossom, which will be a safe guide in all dis- 

 tricts. 



1 have stated that the first thing was manuring 

 Now, of this there are different modes. "A. B. C." for 

 instance, gives cow dung, and as the best put in after the 

 roots have been laid bare for some days. Now I do not 

 believe in baring the roots. It is a question if the 

 earth should be dug near the root at all, which I am 

 inclined to doubt ; but, if dug, animal matter, such as 

 dead dogs, &c., is by far the best, put in at the time of 

 pruning or a few days b 'fore, (but not by the cart 

 load ; that would I suspect be rather too forcing) 

 care being taken not to dig near the roots so as to 

 hurt them. The system here of exposing the roots 

 is for the purpose of wintering ; this may be necessary 

 in the north, though I douhr it, but most certainly 

 is not in Kandy, neither is water as a rule, except 

 there is an exceptionally dry season or used in mulch- 

 ing. If any one who haa a vine will take the 

 trouble to notice, it they will find that as soon as the 

 vine has given a crop the leaves turn yellow and re- 

 main so until again pruned, when new life seems at 

 once put into it, as in two or three weeks from prun- 

 ing it will be decked iu gi-een and blossom. But the 



best method of manuring— certainly the simplest is 



what is termed mulching, for which see article in 

 Observer of the •2nd inst. taken from the Gardener's 

 Chronich', to which I would merely add that where 

 sewage cannot be had, use cook or slaughterhouse re- 

 fuse ; the last is preferable, which must be regulated 

 according to the rainfall with a pairiar" [.log] 

 thrown in now and then, but not too near the roots. 

 It the 8i)il is light, so that the mulching can freely 

 penetrate and slaughter-house refuse is used for the 

 oimsture, diggin>; need not be resorted to 



Since writing the above I have seen the second 

 art;icle by "A. B C'and in conclusion would beg to 

 point out in reference to pruning, that who ever the good 

 Fa'her (iardiner may have been, m)u will notice a re- 

 semblance hetw- en his method and mine. The .systim 

 I have seen adopted by native* (aad I have known 



