October I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



237 



furnish the illustration in proof of that hypothesis. 

 We are told to look back through history in orler 

 to realize how cuch a hypothesis has been applicable 

 in the case of diseases attacking man and so to 

 furnish ourselves with data for conclusions respect- 

 ing the somewhat analogous life of plants. The 

 sweating iickness, which, peculiar to England and 

 not spreading to the continent of Europe, broke out 

 as the results of the gathering of camps during the 

 memorable Wars of the Roses, appearing during 

 several successive years in a modified form, soon 

 ceased its visitations altogether, never — so far as 

 can be foreseen — to return. History furnishes many 

 other instances proving that diseases arising fnm 

 special causes cease to be operative or to possess 

 the power of ]">ropagatioii when those causes are 

 withdrawn. A< with human, so with plant life. 

 The planters of Ceylon are now credited with re- 

 moving the reproach which probably indicated — 

 what we ourselves have always regariled as — the 

 primary cause of the outbre. k of coffee leaf-disease, 

 namely, the de.-otion to a single cultivation of vast 

 areas of disforested country. Our planters are to 

 be comforted by the hope therefore that fresh genus 

 are not likely to be evolved, and that the propag- 

 ation of tlie disease will receive no aid by a renewal 

 of first causes. 



But, independently of that fact, scientists at hom» 

 — according to our informant— hold to the opinion 

 that nature at 1 ist accommodates herself to the con- 

 ditions under which she has to work by a process 

 of iuoculatioD, so to speak, which provides in suc- 

 cessive generations of plant life its own source of 

 protection again.->t disease. It, in fact, becomes 

 adapted to it, absorbs a certain element of the 

 disease itself, and so becomes fitted by a partial 

 assimilation to resist the overpowering attack which 

 at first destroyed its vitality. The accounts lately 

 received from Uva are regarded as stronglj bearing 

 out the view thus adopted by a large number of 

 qualiHed men in Eng'and. The accounts from 

 BailuUa estates especially seem to furnish absent 

 proprietors with evidence that in spite of an ap- 

 parently most violent outbreak of leaf-disease in the 

 early spring, yet the coffee trees subjected to it in 

 that district iiave parted with neither leaf nor berry, 

 but are rapidly bringing the litter to a maturity, 

 which gratified the expectations of crops largely 

 reminding them of the days of former prosperity 

 when the HfmiUia v.istntrix was unknown in Ceylon. 



If there be anything in this theory of inocul.^ 

 ation — and, as we have said, home scientists think 

 they have much evidence in support of it — we mght 

 perhaps accept it as afT'irding some ground for hope 

 that the worst days of misfortune for coffee are 

 over, and that the prediction of those who have 

 always held to i^uch a hope are in a fair way for 

 realization. But there nill then remain the ejues- 

 tioQ as to whether the course of inoculation de- 

 scribsd may not have so ii jured the quality of the 

 Ceylon coffee-berry as permanently and seriously to 

 affect the high reputation it has heretofore enjoyed 

 in all the markets of the «orld. Only time can 

 satisfy critics on this point : but as the quality of 

 the potato growth of England has returned to and 

 even surpassed its earlier normal standard, we are 

 taught to look for a similar rehabilitation in the 

 case of cur own once famous product ! 



Nevertheless, we cannot forget that there must 

 he a wide dff rence between the favorite tuber 

 with its annual cropping and planting and our 

 perennial coffee tree : the former affords opportun- 

 ities for varying seed and modes of cultivation 

 which are entirely wanting in the case ofthc latter. 

 Unfortunately, too, for the theory of home scientiits, 

 leaf-disease at this moment is raging in some districts 



or, at any rate, on some estates as vigorously as in 

 days goce by ; and in other places, a worse enemy 

 in the shape of black bug has appeared, no doubt, 

 on account of the enfeebled condition of trees re- 

 peatedly attacked by Hemileia vasiatrlx. On the 

 other hand, it will be interesting to watch whether 

 iu Uva, free as it is of bug, a change for the better 

 in coffee generally has been inaugurated with the 

 experience of the piesent season. 



PLANTKRS AND MIDDLEMEN. 



The Miidraf! ^^ail hns the followfug timely remarks 

 on asijl.ject often discussed in Ceylon. One difficulty 

 in ('oing away with midJlemeu is the extent to 

 which they inlUi nee the supply of capital to planters. 

 Mr. Go.schen iu speaking at Mauciiester described 

 the way iu which the cotton trade used to be cou- 

 ducte ' ; — 



A New Orleans man consigned his cotton to New 

 York ; the New York hou.se consigned it to Liverpool ; 

 Liverpool to London, London to Hamburg, and Hamburg 

 sold it to Chemnitz in Saxony or some other spinners. 

 But now the Chemnitz spinner goes direct to New Orle- 

 ans ; the agent visits him there, and a number of inter- 

 mediate profits and commissions are swept away." Now 

 ruutati^ iitutaiidh, this description of an obsolete way of 

 doing business, which American Saxons have found un- 

 workable in these days of narrow margins, and keen 

 competition, apjjlies very closely to what is still going on 

 iu our midst. Indian planters have so long supposed 

 themselves unable to sell their [M-oduce without the in- 

 tervention of middlemen, that it may bo diJiicult to per- 

 suade them that they are mistaken ; but it is at least 

 possible to show that they ought at least to make an 

 effort to secure better arrangements. 



To take au instance with which many of our readers 

 are familiar,— the "account sales " furnished to planters 

 — we find that the London charges amount to rather 

 more than 12 percent, of the price realised by the coffee 

 when sold. It we omit freight, and marine insurance — 

 at 2^ per cent, by the way — these charges amount to 

 four shillings per hundredweight. It is not necessary 

 for our purpose' to criticise these charges in detail, though 

 it might be argued that with English banks discounting 

 at IJ per cent. 4 per cent is rather a high " intcre'st to 

 buyers," and that with steamers at Bombay competing 

 for freight at sixteen shillings, forty-seveu and sixpence 

 per ton is rather an extravagant rate from Malabar. 

 The charges are, however, made by a firm of undoubted 

 respectability, and are, we presume, merely what is 

 customary. A coirespondeut recently informed us that 

 " colory " coffee is usually bought for export, and as the 

 coffee we are writing about came under this description, 

 we may suppose that after its sale, it was reshipped to 

 some continental port, again incurring all the charges for 

 fire and marine insurance, brokernge, commission, dock 

 dues and freight. As none of those were less than in 

 the former instance, we may at least add another six 

 shillings per hundredweight, or £10 per ton iu all, which 

 has, quite unnecessarily to our mind, gone into the 

 pockets of the London brokers and merchants. Why, 

 we may ask, are growers and consumers to be taxed 

 for the support of these sentlemen ? Why cannot plant- 

 ers follow the example of the cotton growers referred to 

 above, and deal direct with the continental consumer? 

 Mincing Lane is a great institutiou, but the planter does 

 not exist solely for its benefit ; aud Mincing Lane cert- 

 ainly does not exist for his. 



The foregoing facts are enough to give our planting 

 readers considerable food for reHcction, but they only 

 deal with part of the subject, and we next have to deal 

 with an equally important point, namely, the astounding 

 discrepancy between the wholesale and retail price of 

 tropical produce. The shipment of the coffee with which 

 we are dealing fetched an average price of 56 shillings a 

 hini'lredweiglit ; au examination of any London co- 

 operative store-list will show that, even whtTC ready 

 money prices arc charged, coffee is priced at from one 

 .shilling to one .shilling and six-pence a pound, nor has 

 the recent fall iu jirices affected the sum paid by the 



