XXXI 



cliaicoal tree, and reiulers the stem so weak by its tunnelling that it is apt to be 

 broken by the wind. In the monsoon, too, the rain enters by the exterior opening, 

 gets to the heart of the tree and causes it to rot. The larva may be killed by passing 

 a flexible wire into its burrow, and after this the hole should be closed with a soft 

 wooden peg. 



" There is not a tree in our forests but is liable when dead to the attacks of boring 

 insects, and many in the living state, more especially if sickly, show traces of their 

 depredations. As regards the coffee-plant, any diminution of vigour in it, no matter 

 what the cause, renders it liable to the ravages of the borer, aud the larva does not 

 iind a suitable field in a vigorous and absolutely healthy plant. There seems no 

 reason to doubt, therefore, that one cause of the great prevalence of the borer of late 

 years has been a general want of vigour in the plants. At the same time it must be 

 stated that a vast majority of the trees that have died full of the borer's tunnels would, 

 but for its ravages, have lived and might have been restored to a more healthy slate. 

 The causes that produced this sickly condition were various, and some of them must 

 have been very general, seeing that ihe borer has prevailed over such an extent of 

 country. Not only in the actual coffee districts, but in places at a considerable 

 distance from them — such as Hassan and Hoonsoor — I have found the borer present 

 in coffee trees; occurrences that point to the reduction of vigour having been Ciiused 

 in part by some climatic influence. From this and other facts I also infer, that the 

 borer beetle is a widely distributed insect, and indigenous to the country, as the 

 distance of the stations of Hoonsoor and Hassan from estates-infested with the borer, 

 and the open nature of the intervening country, preclude the idea of its having been 

 able to wing its way from the latter to the former. I cannot believe either that the 

 ova of this beetle could have been carried so far by man's or any natural agency. 

 Concluding then that the borer beetle belongs to the insect Fauna of Southern India, 

 and is widely distributed, it can hardly be expected that it will ever disappear, and 

 although more favourable seasons aud change of mode of cultivation may render coffee 

 in general less liable to, or proof against, its attacks, still it will ever be ready to prey 

 upon and destroy sickly plants. During a recent visit to the gardens on the Baba- 

 Booden, in which coffee was first cultivated in Southern India, I was informed by the 

 planter Ghaus Sha-Kliadry that ' he had known the borer there for thirty years.' On 

 an estate in Nugui-, too, in 1860, or eight years ago, no less than 60,000 plants were 

 destroyed by the borer. These facts also go to prove that the insect is an old and 

 permanent resident in the coffee districts of the Peninsula. When at Ghaus Sha- 

 Khadry's plantations I saw coffee-plants growing in shade, seventy years old, and quite 

 health/, and was told that about twelve years ago there were plots of cofi'ee in the 

 open, the trees in which were one hundi-ed years old. These have all since gradually 

 died out, and the owner attributes their death to extreme age, drought and borer. He 

 says that for twelve years back the seasons have gradually been getting drier and 

 hotter, until at the present time the climate is such as to render it impossible to grow 

 coffee trees in the open in that part of the country: there is much collateral evidence 

 to support this statement regarding gradual deterioration of climate all along these 

 Western Ghauts. 



" I have visited the chief estates in Munzerabad, and a few of the oldest and most 

 interesting in Nugur. In both these districts, all the planters I have seen are of 

 opinion that coffee must in that quarter be cultivated under shade, trees in the open 



