COFFEE BUG AND COFFEE MILDEW. O 



1843, when Captain Robertson first observed it on a few coffee 

 bushes on his estate called Lapallagalla, This estate, together 

 with a few otiiers, is situated immediately on the western boun- 

 dary of the great central mountain range overlooking the country 

 of the Four Korles, and the tract is known by the name of the 

 Muruta district. Since then the pest has been gradually pro- 

 gressing eastwards through the Dolisbagie, Ambegamoa, Kot- 

 malee, Pusilava, Deltotte, Hunisgiria, and Knuckles districts ; 

 but haA'ing only appeared \\ithin the last two years in the latter 

 places, its ravages have not yet reached to the same extent in 

 them as in the former ones. 



"The cause of the first appearance of the 'scale' on coffee 

 bushes I found to be variously accounted for. Captain Robert- 

 son's neighbours attribute its first introduction to the island to 

 his having imported it on some Mocha coffee plants that he 

 brought from Bombay. The superintendent of one of the estates 

 near to Captain Robertson's having first seen it on some vigorous 

 plants near the Coolie lines, ascribed its production to the rich 

 manure supplied by the Coolies. Others, such as Mr. An- 

 struther, believe it to be spontaneous in its origin, and that bad 

 planting, allowing water to accumulate about the roots of the 

 plant, has been the original cause of its production. 



" During my recent excursion it was ascertained that the 

 coffee coccus now exists very abundantly on many otlier sorts of 

 trees, giving them the same appearance and producing the same 

 effect on them. Thus I have observed it on the lime, the guava, 

 the myrtle, the rose, Careya arborea, and Vitex Negundo, the 

 two last common roadside trees. It seems, however, very certain 

 that until within the last five years it has not been known to 

 attack the cofi'ee plant. In most of the districts that I have just 

 visited the coffee trees of the villagers were found to be quite as 

 much affected as tiiose in plantations. In the botanic garden at 

 Peradenia there is scarcely a tree that is not infested to a degree. 

 It is, therefore, scarcely possible not to believe that, had the 

 insect been in existence in Ceylon previous to the present epi- 

 demic, its effects should not have been observed at one period or 

 another on the native coftfee. 



"If, as Mr. Anstruther supposes, the nature of the soil and 

 bad planting have anything to do with its origin. Captain Ro- 

 bertson's estate of Lapallagalla is one of the most likely I have 

 seen in Ceylon to have given birth to it, or, if not that, at least 

 to have aftbrded it an excellent field on which to begin its 

 ravages. The soil of it, as well as of nearly all the surrounding 

 estates, is of a stiff clayey nature, and consequently, the holes 

 that were dug for the young plants must have acted like pots 

 without outlets to contain the moisture that drained into them 



