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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885. 



valuable and novel information to give to the public, the 

 result of personal ohservrrtinn, he ought io be refused 

 Publication unless he is prepared to put his name to his 

 Statements. This would not stop any real contributions to 

 knowledge, but would induce a good many hasty individuals 

 to pause before committin(» themselves. " It is a fact 

 that few men can observe accurately and report 

 truthfully: it requires training and self-discipline 

 and much patience. How strange a characteristic, too, in 

 the inaccurate (so-called "practical") man, is that in- 

 stinctive dislike to the strict methods and well-grounded 

 results of true observation. Such people are very numerous ; 

 like heretics they cannot be argued wiih, but only prayed for !" 

 And so our correspondent will pray for "the five 

 wits " of "Oberon," that they may be enlightened so that 

 he may cease to confound animal organisms with 

 vegetaljl?. But as regards ourselves : ours is not a 

 purely scientific organ, but a popular journal, in 

 which even non-scientific and anti-scientific corre- 

 spondents must be allowed to have their fling. 

 "Oberon" 's writings and others likethem may perchance 

 afford men like our scientific correspondent a hint 

 which, followed up, mii^ht lead to valuable scientific 

 discovery. " Puck" is a person of considerable in- 

 telligence, but he and others like him distrust the 

 scientific conclusions because unfortunately they leave 

 so little hope of a remedy. They, therefore, catch 

 at every straw and swallow such chaff as " Oberon" 's. 

 —Ed.] 



EoSE Cultivation in Colombo.- — Cultivators of 

 roses, and especially, those who would fain follow 

 in their footsteps, will read with pleasure and 

 profit, the letter in which Mr. A. Whvte of Kandy 

 gives so much practical information on pigos 170-180. 



Bogs. — I notice in the June number of the Tropin)! jlpri- 

 ciiUiirist at pages 908 and 909 an article ou " Green Bugs and 

 Coffee " and learn that an old acquaintance of mine, a 

 little speckled bug, has been paying Mr. Downall's estate, 

 Monerakande, one of its periodical visits. I first came 

 across this hug on Kahagalla estate during the crop season 

 of 1860 to 18(>1 in very large numbers, the coolies bringing 

 them in with the " palam " or cherry in thousands. See- 

 ing several cherries perforatei with a little round hole 

 near the stalk part, and henring from the coolies of the 

 depredations of this bug to their paddy crops on the Coast 

 of India, where it was well-known as the " velama- 

 poochie " or harvest bug (as I iuterpret it), I collected a 

 number of the bugs and perforated cherries and sent them 

 to the late Mr. Alex. Brown, who again sent them to Mr. 

 Nietner, whose report I got, and, as far as I can re- 

 collect, Mr. Nietner said the insect belonged to the same 

 family as the green fetid hug, and that its procreative 

 powers were not very great and that we need not he 

 alarmed at the harm it would do, or to the same extent 

 as we used to be at the ravages of the "black bug "in 

 the days of old. I think you will find a brief notice of 

 the speckled bug above alluded to in" Nietner's Enemies 

 of the Coffee Tree. " The coolies said, at some seasons ou 

 the Coa.st of India, this bug covered their paddy fields 

 and destroyed their crops by sucking the iuices from the 

 young paddy before the grain began to harden, and that 

 they were obliged to abandon their fields in consequence. 

 I watched this " droughty " bug at work ou the young 

 coffee berries : he first cut a little round hole through the 

 skin Bnd tender parchment and then with a proboscis-like 

 sucker abstracted the juicy delicate matter which forms 

 the bean and thus satisfying both hunger and thirst at 

 the same time, much as the Sinhalese do with a " kurumba" 

 or drinking coconut. The strangest part of it was that the 

 operated on tender coffee berry did not lose its vitality, 

 but continued to form skin and parchment and ripen as 

 if nothing had occured in its int'^rnal arrangement ; the 

 operated on side was always empty and I had to put 

 down 2 or 3 per cent of the crop to c.r/rn light coffee 

 from this cause. The following season this bug was no- 

 where, and although I have come across the little wretch 

 in after years I never heard of its depredations to any 

 great extent: its visits must be like those of angels "few 

 and far between." Mr. Dowuall will perhaps be glad to 

 know this. J, A. 



Abyssinian Coffee, we see it stated in an article on 

 the trade of the Red Sea ports, is principally sent to 

 Djeddah and Upper Esypt, it is not, however of first- 

 rate quality, but, at the same time, it has a special 

 aroma ; it is sold at 16 dollars per canatro of 113 rottoli. 



The Red '• Shoeflgwer," so common in Col- 

 ombo, is greatly admired by all visitors from 

 Britain or Australia. In India, the natives call this 

 scarlet hibiscus Suryamani, the jewel of the surt. 

 The tree so common in the streets of Colombo, and 

 everywhere around, TItespesia populnea, popularly 

 called " the tulip tree " from its beautiful blossoms, 

 is known to the Sinhalese as Swi/a, the tree of the 

 sun. Michcelia Champac, on the other hand, is Sapu, 

 the fiower of light. The Hindus call the blue " morn- 

 ing glory " Suryakanli, sunshine. Those who originally 

 gave such names were possessed of the poetical instinct. 



Enejiie-) op Te.\ Cultivation in India. — In going 

 over the reports of various Indian Companies, we 

 find that in two cases aetious loss is attributed 

 to mosquito blight [helopeltii) and green fly, pesta 

 from which we cannot hope to be always exempt. 

 But certainly estates in Ceylon are not likely to suffer 

 as one of the properties belonging to the Eastern 

 Assam Company suffered in 1884. Owing to 

 a terrible outbreak of cholera, which is in- 

 digenous in Assam, but only rarely visits Ceylon, 

 the costly labour force had been so reduced that 

 only a small quantity of tea was made, costing Is l|d 

 per lb. and selling at only 8Jd. 



Gold in Borneo. — The Segami Gold field is thus 

 referred to in the North Borneo Herald received today. — 

 The result to date of the Gold ^Yorking on the Segama 

 River may be considered as fully establishing the fact that 

 it will yield a profit to those who may desire to follow 

 the search. When Mr. Walker the Connnissioner of Lands 

 returned he left behind him a party consisting of two boats 

 and sis men who had co-operated with him in his investig- 

 ations. These men worked in the bed of the river until the 

 rains caused such a rise that they were forced to give up. 

 The last day the water was breast high and each time the 

 men dipped to fill their little scoop (a coconut shell) they 

 disappeared bodily in the water ! The total gold for six 

 days working was say 3 oz .- dwt : 4 grs : The best day's 

 work was 80 grs : to the one pan. The highest return to 

 one pan in one day previously recorded had been 45 grs : 

 and this had been taken from near the same place, viz : 

 below Pulo Kawak, but Mr. Walker is of opinion that a 

 greater weight was probably got when river working for 

 two days above the Suugei Bilang. Mr. Walker's investig- 

 ations were necessarily of a tentative nature. The attempt 

 to find workable beds of gold in the Sungei Bilang, the 

 tributarv of the Segama River where gold was first an- 

 nounced proved a failure. The gold in that stream is less 

 wiirn than any gold since obtained, and the party found it 

 in the top of conglomerate, but on blasting the rock failed 

 to find it inside. The existence of quartz in tiie bed of 

 the stream and the fact that some of the gold is attached 

 to nunute pieces of quartz, points to that rock as the poss- 

 ible matrix both for the gold in the tributary and the main 

 river. The production of gold in appreciable quantity has 

 caused much interest. The natives ou the river say that 

 they will search for gold which previously they have not 

 done, with the exception of the oue man i?augeran Kahar, 

 who with the Hadji Daud and Sulaman announced its exist- 

 ence. The Chinese .and Mala^-s of Sandakan are both 

 arranging parties to go up the river when the fine weather 

 sets in; and we trust they will be formed of experienced 

 men so as to contain the first element of success. The next 

 imi^ortant point is proper working machines and tools. 

 One Australian Chinaman has brought a plan of a 

 cradle which the Commissioner of Lands is having made, 

 but it would be well to get the latest information on these 

 points from the best sources. Of the existence of other 

 metals Mr. Walker is of opinion he found no trace, unless 

 the cbemit-al examination of the specimens brought down 

 should jn-ove the contrary. Specimens of so-called Cinnabar 

 and Tin were daily found when washing, but on examination 

 were rejected as worthless. 



