of Southern India . 119 



fruiting, plants on estates which have been five or more 

 years in existence, have, as a rule, a very sickly look, 

 and, under the present system of culture, must have 

 speedily disappointed the hopes of their proprietors, 

 although the Borer had never made its appearance. On 

 most estates, too, the system of pruning is improper, and 

 has been the chief cause in inducing a disease called rot. 

 This distemper makes its appearance during the rains, 

 when the plants are saturated with moisture, and attacks 

 the leaves, many of which turn black and fall off. When- 

 ever the leaves drop, the berries near their insertion also 

 fall down, and, in this way, as much as one or one and a 

 half bushel per acre of crop may be lost. The imme- 

 diate cause of the disease seems to be the overcrowding 

 of the branches, which prevents the necessary exposure 

 of the leaves, &c., to light and air, and so retards per- 

 spiration, assimilation, and the due ripening of wood in 

 the stem and primaries. In some plants affected with 

 rot, I have found the centres of the stems in a state of 

 decay, brought on, no doubt, by the complete stagnation 

 of the circulation. The quantity of weeds ' allowed to 

 grow on some estates is also most prejudicial to the 

 coffee, and the practice of piling them round the base of 

 the stem when uprooted, highly objectionable. Every 

 English gardener knows how much the gooseberry bushes 

 in a neglected garden suffer from caterpillar, and there 

 is every reason to suppose that a foul coffee estate is 

 equally inviting to the Borer. These sevei-al causes, 

 then, have greatly lowered the vital powers of the coffee- 

 plant in Coorg, and helped to render it a ready and easy 

 prey to the Borer. 



Other depressing agencies arose in the droughts of 

 past years, which not only acted most detrimentally on 

 the coffee, but also appear to have produced a peculiar 

 state of the atmosphere, highly favourable for the deve- 

 lopment of its insect enemies. Throughout the whole of 

 Western Mysore and Coorg, the abundance of wood- 

 destroying insects has, during the past year, been such 

 as to attract general notice, and plants of all kinds, from 

 the jack to the bamboo, seem to have suffered from 

 their ravages. The common opinion is that their appear- 

 ance in such numbers is an effect of the drought, and 

 this would seem to be the correct one, as there was no 

 other general appreciable cause in operation, and because 

 the explanation is consistent with established facts re- 

 garding the influence of atmospheric conditions on insect 



