8 PESTS OP COFFEE 



established and the fact intimated in a letter by the 

 Superintendent, which was published in the Planters' 

 Chronicle of the date given above. As a matter of fact, 

 the scale had been observed in Bangalore two years before 

 its introduction into Mudgere in 1911. It was taken in 

 the extensions in Bangalore as early as 1909, and it is quite 

 probable that it was in existence here much earlier. 

 Though the infection of the coffee estates may thus, with 

 a fair degree of certainty, be traced to Bangalore, it was 

 believed at the time of the first outbreak that the im- 

 mediate source of infection was the Indian bottle gourd 

 Lagjenaria vulgaris, grown in the villages of the "low 

 country".' The evidence in support of this theory was the 

 testimony of the coolies, who said they had seen the plant 

 attacked by the scale. It was supposed that the remains 

 of the vegetables purchased from the local market were 

 thrown on the manure heaps from which they were trans- 

 ferred to the estate along with the manure. The fact that 

 a couple of infected estates had emloyed temporary coolies 

 from the " low country " appeared to support the theory. 



A second theory was that the bug had been carried on 

 manure bags sent from a firm who have large curing 

 works at Coimbatore to deal with coffee coming, for the 

 most part, from infected estates in the Nilgiris. It was 

 stated that most of the estates supplied with manure by 

 the firm were infected. The firm protested that the 

 manure works and curing yards were a mile apart and 

 pointed out that the estate in which the pest was first 

 noticed had not purchased manure from them at all. The 

 theory now took another form. The pest was not brought 

 over from Coimbatore but along with infected green fodder 

 collected during transit by the cartmen at the halting places 

 en route. 



The theories that the infestation of coffee estates had 

 occurred from the " low country "'either through manure or 

 through fodder were not probable ones. The only obser- 

 vations in support of them were those made by coolies 

 who could certainly not be trusted to recognise correctly 

 the green bug which, as is well know^n, has a strong re- 

 semblance to the mealy bug found all over the State on 

 many garden plants. Both of these theories left unex- 

 plained the simultaneous and even wider infection of Coorg 



* By " low country " is meant the plains of Mysore lying to the 

 East of the coffee area. 



