28 



'The statement referred to above that the destruction of the 

 coflfee in Ceylon was due to a scale insect was rather startling to 

 me, as I had been taught that the coffee industry was destroyed 

 by the leaf fungus Hcnnlcia z'asfafrix. Some two years ago I 

 had the pleasure of meeting in this city Dr. J. G. Willis, Direc- 

 tor of the Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon, and as I had 

 just been appointed Chief of the Division of Insular Stations, I 

 was anxious to learn from him all that I could relating to tropical 

 agriculture. Dr. Willis was quite definite in the statement that 

 the destruction of the coft'ee in Ceylon was due to the leaf rust, 

 and urged upon me the necessity of a rigid quarantine in Hawaii 

 and Porto Rico agamst the disease. Similar directions were given 

 me by Sir Daniel JMorris, formerly at Ceylon, and now Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture for the British West Indies. 



•'In order to confirm or dispel the idea that I had formed, I 

 have been looking over some of the treatises in the library that 

 relate to tropical ao-riculture, and I find they practically all agree 

 that the destruction of the coft'ee industry in Ceylon was due to 

 the leaf rust, as mentioned above. 



''Willis, in Flowering Plants and Ferns, Vol. 2, p. 93, says of 

 coffee: 'The plant is subject to the attack of many insects and 

 fungi, one of the latter (Heinileia vastatrix) was the cause of 

 the ruin of the coffee industry of Ceylon.' 



"Simonds, in Tropical Agriculture, 1889, mentions various in- 

 sect pests of coffee, but calls particular attention to the destruc- 

 tion caused by Heinileia vastatrix. 



"Nichols, in Tropical Agriculture, 1892, p. 105, says: Tn Cey- 

 lon the cultivation of coffee was practically ruined some years 

 ago by a fungoid or vegetable blight which was found to be in- 

 curable.' Further he says: Tnsect enemies can be kept in con- 

 trol by cultural methods and the use of insecticides, principally 

 kerosene emulsion.' 



"Semler, in Die Tropische Agrikultur, 2d ed., 1897, describes at 

 length Hciiulcia vastatrix as the greatest enemy of coffee culture, 

 and calls especial attention to the destruction caused in Ceylon. 



■'Robert Wallace, in Indian Agriculture, says: 'The coffee in- 

 dustry in Ceylon was destroyed by the blight H. vastatrix/ 



"Dybowski, in Traite pratique de cultures tropicales (1902), 

 calls attention to the coffee leaf rust as the most serious enemy of 

 coff'ee. In a similar v/ay a number of others refer to the subject. 



