green bug in ceylon §1 



Future Prospects of the Pest. 



The study of the green bug in Mysore has now 

 reached a stage when a forecast of its possible course in 

 the State may be hazarded with some justification. It 

 was impossible to do it when the pest first appeared, as 

 the experience in other parts of the world was too varied 

 to predict with any degree of certainty its reaction to its 

 new environment. The condition of coffee cultivation 

 differs greatly in various parts of the world. It is grown 

 at high elevations and at low, near the sea and away from 

 it, in the open and under shade and there is a consider- 

 able variation in the cultural methods employed. The 

 virulence of the pest has varied with these conditions. 



The pest itself has exhibited an almost unique 

 adaptability. As has already been shown, the popular 

 name, green bug, now stands for a number of distinct 

 species which are no longer true to the original descrip- 

 tion of Grreen and which may have been produced as a 

 result of different environments. With the diversity in 

 the natural conditions under which coffee is grown and 

 in the methods of cultivation on the one hand and with 

 the great adaptability of the scale on the other, it is 

 impossible to predict what the course of the pest may be 

 in any new area attacked. 



The sinister reputation of green bug is largely due 

 to its history in Ceylon. It is, therefore, necessary to 

 understand precisely the share the scale had in the destruc- 

 tion of coffee in that island. The collapse of the industry 

 was due to several factors of which the scale was only 

 one. In his article on Coffee Leaf Disease, the Eev. R. 

 Abbey^ wrote, " The present year (1878) is the most dis- 

 appointing the coffee industry has known, the average yield 

 according to Ceylon statistics being below 2 cwt. per 

 acre." He gives figures which show a progressive de- 

 crease in the yield of coffee per acre from 4'28 in the 

 triennium ending with 1868 to 2"98 cwt. per acre in the 

 one ending with 1877. He states that the reduction in 

 the yield was directly due to the leaf disease but may be 



* Observations on Hemileia vastatrix, the so-called Cofifee Leaf 

 Disease, by the Eev. R. Abbey, M.A., F.G.S., Fellow of Wadham College, 

 Oxford, Journal Linnean Society, December, 1878 ; cited from Obser- 

 vations on the Natural History of the Enemies of the Cofifee Tree in 

 Ceylon, by J. Neitner, revised by S. Green. 



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