October i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



3 2 7 



From Nawalapitiya comes the report of another 

 tea gardeu, which has harvested 7001b. per acre, and 

 the pruning well advanced. Altogether, when one 

 hears of these splendid results, the question upper- 

 most in the miud is : why is this industry only now 

 in itB infancy ? [When a Dimbula patriarch siid to 

 us, "How blind we have all been!" we felt we 

 could scarcely be included ; for, the moment we were 

 in a position to cultivate, we tried tea on a pretty- 

 good scale. — En.] 



There is a new rubber-tapper now in the field, 

 which is said to be highly successful. It has solved 

 the difficulty of collecting the sap free from all im- 

 purities, is simple and easily worked. Samples of the 

 rubber it has collected have gone home for valuation 

 and report. By and by, the public will have the bene- 

 fit of the new tool, if it turns out the success which its 

 designer confidently anticipates. From all I can learn, 

 it is yet likely to render rubber culture remunerative 

 if it be grown in large areas. 



Bug and black fungus are, I think, at present a more 

 serious evil than leaf-disease. It is simply awful. I 

 was bearing of an estate with a considerable extent 

 of Liherian coffee — perhaps 100 acres or so — the man- 

 ager of which has received instructions to cut the 

 Liberian all down, owing to the terrible hold these 

 plagues have upon it. Let us hope the heavy rains 

 of the north-east monsoon will do somethiug towards 

 their removal, for the grip they have is a very strong 

 one, and in some of the affected patches, whose area 

 increases, alas ! rather than diminishes, they could not 

 be worse. 



The north-east rains are already in. Last night the 

 thunder was growling in that quarter, and this after- 

 noon there was more of it, with gathering rain-clouds 

 which in time crept high enough to give us a small 

 benefit. Our attitude towards this visitant is like that 

 of the ajsthetic maiden listening to the recitation of 

 verses by a poet of her own school, as once depicted 

 in Punch, and her intense cry is ours, for "more, 

 and more and more." 



In these days of Government-doctored coolies and 

 medical inspectors, the pharmacopoeia of the planter 

 has shrunk in propoition almost to his diminished 

 revenues. In some cases it has all but reached the 

 vanishing point. There is still abroad however a 

 strong belief in cistor oil, and to that as a "cure-all" 

 many of us cling. Whether it be administered 

 to the patient in a glass, a coconut shell, or direct 

 from the bottle or gallon tin, is neither here nor 

 there. Its presence in the planter's office, surrounded 

 by a beggarly display of empty medicine bottles, is 

 as pathetic a sight as the last heirloom of a fallen 

 family, for it is ibe link which unites us to a pro- 

 sperous pat. In that golden age, one never dreamt 

 of a " cure-all," drugs were plentiful, whereas now 

 we cannot afford them. 



A planter wlio had run down in this way was visited 

 by an ailing cooly. The cooly had been to the Coast 

 for some time, had returned, and came to the bungalow 

 t'> be cured of an ailment, which he indefinitely de- 

 scribed by "sogam illai." His master — kind-hearted 

 soul — retired, produced his one unfailing remedy, and 

 was about to administer it, when the Tamil, with the 

 recollections of the late past Hashing through his 

 mind, and which broke into voiceless speech in the 

 expression of his face, said with a deprecatory wave 

 of the hand, "Is it the castor oil, my master ! It is 

 unnecessary." Then be sadly retired. 



When that planter told that tale to me, the recol- 

 lection of the inflections of voice, the alteration of ex- 

 pression, and the whole surroundings — which can't he 

 put upon paper although it can he acted — brought tears 

 into his eyes as well as into mine. It wasabsuidly 

 comic. Pepper Corn. 



DR. TRIMEN ON HELOPELTIS ANTON/I. 

 What with their involuntary education in the life 

 history of Hemileia wstatrix, the planters of Ceylon 

 ought to know something of the mysteries of myco- 

 logy ; while their knowledge of entomology ought 

 to be much more complete, from their experience of 

 brown or black bug, cockchafer beetles and their 

 grubs, brown and white, aud in these latter days 

 thrips, red spider, aud though last not least of 

 insect pests, Helopeltis Antonii. Amongst the Faume 

 of the island, the coffee rat is better known on 

 coffee estates than loved, exoept by Ramasami. 

 who loves the rodents to the extent of eating them, 

 Dr. Trimen's report which we publish today re- 

 veals a good deal of the life history of Helopeltis 

 Antonii, but it seems evident that the aid of 

 the magnesium light aud powerful microscopes 

 could be well called into requisition for the capture 

 of the "immature" but destructive "cusses" at 

 night. For, Dr. Trimen's only remedy is one which 

 can be formulated as '' Catch them and kill them." 

 We should add after what we saw on Mr. Kerk- 

 hoven's tea estate in Java, "Give them to the dogs 

 to eat." The remedy now recommended differs only in one 

 respect from that of the old Scotch doctor for the killing 

 of fleas. He gave a phial full of a mixture calculated to 

 kill the insects, and to the question " How is it to be 

 applied?" answered "Catch them by the neck and pour 

 it down their throats." Dr. Trimen's prescription ie 

 simpler, being limited to the mechanical operation 

 and dispensing with the physic-al. We sincerely trust 

 the catching and killing process may be successful 

 in banishing from our midst what seems to be a 

 recent introduction. The pestiferous insect has done 

 mischief enough on cacao, but it would be a far more seri- 

 ous calamity, were it to attack aud injure our tea as 

 it has done in Java and India. 



Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, 9th September 1SS1 



No. 43. 

 The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Colombo. 



Sir,— With reference to my letter No. 33 of 21st June 

 laBt and in further reply to your No. 50 of 18th June, I 

 have the honor to inform you that I h >ve made an ex- 

 amination into the nature of the insect-pest affecting' cacao 

 on the estates referred to in your letter. 



1. I may say at once that the enquiry has satisfied mo 

 thai rue brief remarks I ventured to make on this "blieht" 

 in my last Annual Report (pp. 12-13) are correct. So far 

 as my observations have gone at present, I am of opinion 

 that the only insect which seriously damages cacao in the 

 manner under consideration is the Behpeltii Antonii. 



2. Cacao is indeed subject to the attacks of a large 

 number of •lifferent insects,, and appears especially attract- 

 ive t" those of the large groups of sucking insects known 

 to entomlogists as Hemiptera and Womoptera, and includ- 

 ing besides the usually larger insects known as true bugs 

 I 1 ' «t &«■) the Oereopida or Leaf Hoppers, the Aphides 

 or Plant lice and the Gooeidm or Scale Bugs. AV of these 

 tribes contribute species which suck the juices of the cacao 

 tree, but I have no reason to believe that serious injury 

 is effected by anyone of them. In the case, however, of 

 a large increase iu numbers of any, they might become 

 formidable, and this appears to have happened to some 

 extent on one estate, where multitudes of a minute but re- 

 markable species of Thrips i closely allied to the Hemiptera) 

 have done seme damage to adult leaves checking their 

 nutrition by numen us inuti pn ictures and the di- charge 

 of their copious brown excreta, and so causir /. them to 

 shrivel ami fall before their time. 



