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THE "TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884 , 



entirely thrown off at certain periods of the year. If 

 6hade is ess ntial, then very important is what Mr. 

 Hollo »ay says about the croton, which yields a com- 

 mercial product, gives shade and prevents the approach 

 of insects. Rather too much seems to us to have 

 been made of the fact that nurseries were badly 

 affected. Iu nurseries the plants are unnaturally 

 crowded together. At Buitenzorg we saw mature 

 Liberian coffee trees almost free from the leaf 

 fungus, while the under sides of the leaves of nursery- 

 plants looked as if they had been electro-plated with 

 copper. Then it is important to know that a dust- 

 ing of wood ashes cured the nursery-plants. Ashes 

 might do good to the older trees, if obtainable in 

 quantity. Mr. Ross had shaded and unshaded coffee 

 free from disease, while Mr. Vollar had no diseases 

 except on exposed ridges. Disease seems to come 

 and go with equal suddenness, which would favour 

 the idea of atmospherical influences, unless insects or 

 fungi cau be caught in flagrante, delicto, and evidence 

 against either is as yet wautiug. If the conditions 

 present are poverty of soil and abundance of wind, 

 while shelter and shade are absent, then, of coarse, 

 disease followed by fatal results is to be expected. 

 Local causes are evidently at the root of much of 

 the disease which has caused alarm and led to ex- 

 aggerated reports. No plant can be largely cultivated 

 which is not liable to visitations of pest and disease, 

 and cacao certainly seems a delicate plant. But we 

 see no reason to suppose, from the evidence hitherto 

 adduced, that the disease which in this abnormal 

 season has attacked cacao in the lowcountry of Cey- 

 lon is destined to be other than temporary and 

 evanescent. 



CACAO DISEASE IN CEYLON. 

 The following discussion to the subject of caoao 

 disease in Ceylon took place at a general meeting of 

 the Planters' Association of Ceylon on June 28th : — ■ 



The Hon. J. L. Shand: —I should like to refer, 

 Mr. Chairman, to a matter which has given me a 

 great deal of anxiety lately. It is not on our programme 

 today but it is a matter of such very serious im- 

 port, and especially as very exaggerated reports have 

 gone about, that I think no time should be lost in bring- 

 ing it forward. I refer to that fell disease which has 

 attacked the cacao trees throughout the country. I see 

 gen thinen here who are interested, the most interested, 

 in cacao ; and from what I have beard these reports 

 have not only been very much exaggerated but in 

 many cases are almost entirely without foundation, 

 and I shall be very glad indeed if some of those 

 gentlemen who are interested iu cacao can tell us 

 something reassuring wLich shall go forth as a part 

 of our proceedings, and which will, I think, bave good 

 effect throughout the country. 



The Chairman called on Mr. A'ollar, as one of the 

 largest cacao-growers present, to say a few words 

 on the subject. 



Mr. Vollar said he would only say that he had heard 

 very strong remarks about a large quantity of the 

 Dumbura cacao dying out, but he had got 1,000 acre3 

 under his charge at present, and out of that he had 

 only about 1,000 trees affected with fly, and those 

 parts which were effected was where no shade existed. 

 He found that a good deal of the damage which was 

 done to cacao by the fly was on unshaded land ; and 

 be thought, that, where land had been opened where 

 there was no shade, the ravages of the fly were far 

 more severe. On his estate he had only about 1,000 

 trees affected altogether, so that there was practically 

 none. In Duuibara there was one estate which waa 

 very badly attacked which was said to be by fly, 



but he h rdly thought it was. He thought there 

 were other causes than fly to which it would be at- 

 tributed : the land was poor, the soil was dry and it 

 w:<s greatly affected by the wind, and they could 

 never get cacao to grow where land was 

 poor and the soil shallow. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Jardine said he had not had much experience 

 of other districts but round about Polgahawela and 

 Kurunegala and in those districts he was bound to 

 say that some estates recently have been very badly 

 attacked by something, a. fly or an insect of some 

 kind. Mr. Vollu'had said that unshaded estates suf- 

 fered m<>st. Well most of the estates in that district 

 happened to be without shade, and it was possible 

 this want of shade had something to do with it. 

 Another thing which he thought must be taken 

 into consideration was the unusual season we had 

 had this year. We have had a very long and pro- 

 tracted drought and we had not had our usual mon- 

 soon rams, which bad made cacao suffer aud had 

 weakened the trees, and it is because the trees have 

 lost their stamina that the disease has appeared so 

 virulently. He had seen the disease before as far 

 back as 1881 : he remembered a patch of 20 acres 

 which was as badly attached as any placa now. He 

 thought at that time th.it that cacao was doomed 

 and would never recover; but he was glad to say that 

 in a few months the trees recovered, were reclothed 

 with new wood, and for three years they gave very 

 good crops. (Applause.) This .year again that Held has 

 suffered more than any other portion of the estate, 

 so that there might be some local causes at work. 

 It was quite possible that particular localities are 

 liable to this attack than others, but the bulk of 

 the estates really have suffered very little indeed. 

 On another estate he had under his charge, there 

 waB an open portion of the estate where fly 

 seems to be regularly domiciled all the year round; 

 the rest of the estate is very free, and it is seldom 

 that young shoots are attacked. He must however 

 say that he thought this disease was one that might be 

 serious. He did not say that at present it was 

 going to cause the destruction of their cacao, far 

 from it, he thought the contrary; but at thesametime 

 it was a serious thing, and one of which they ought to 

 6nd out the real cause. At present they were rather 

 in the dark as to what fly caused the mischief. He 

 had collected ten or twelve different kinds of insects 

 that attacked the cacao, others attack the leaf; some 

 are sap-suckers, some of them most formidable-looking 

 creatures which would extract the sap, not only of 

 the very young wood, but even of the old wood ; but 

 these were so few in number he could not attribute 

 to them the sudden cause — it was a most sudden 

 thing — the sudden destruction which comes over young 

 cacao branches. They saw that today these trees were 

 putting forth young leaves and young branches, and 

 two days afterwards they looked as though a blast 

 of fire had passed over them. A few insects could not 

 do that ; they must be in very, very large numbers, 

 and they could not find these insects. For months, 

 perhaps, three or four young flushes of wood come out, 

 tbey set all right and there is no more change; then 

 suddenly they learned that all the young flushes and 

 the young wood had been destroyed somehow. The 

 trees of course naturally recovered, but these repeated 

 attacks must weaken them. He certainly could not 

 find out what fly it was ; it seemed to be some min- 

 ute insect which came iu vast numbers, or they could 

 uot go over an estate of 200 acres in one night and 

 d< stray all the young tender shoots ; where the.-e in- 

 sects got to, was « hat puzzled him. He certainly did 

 not say that the disease was going to kill out these 

 cacao, far from it, it is only in certain spots that it 

 is very bad, but at the same time it must cause to 

 all who are connected with cacao, a great deal of 



