Borers, Leaf Disease. 271 



prevention at least, may be accomplished by careful 

 and judicious cultivation. 



Leaf disease. Since the first edition of this work 

 appeared, yet another scourge has been added to 

 the planter's already formidable list of troubles. 

 The leaf disease seems first to have been observed 

 in Ceylon in 1869, in the Madoolsema district, 

 though it did not cause much alarm until later. In 

 S. India its appearance began to attract notice 

 about the close of 1871, though, as is often the 

 case, some persons subsequently came forward to 

 show that they had been acquainted with the blight 

 for many years previously. 1 The Ceylon Observer, 

 moreover, states that the disease has been known in 

 Brazil for many years past. 



By the year 1875 whole districts in Ceylon and 

 S. India had become devastated by " leaf disease," 

 and the Ceylon planters, thoroughly alarmed, 

 brought the subject under the notice of Govern- 

 ment, who at once took steps to have it investi- 

 gated. A list of questions was drawn up by Mr. 

 Thwaites, of the Kandy Botanical Gardens, and 

 circulated among the planters ; as also through the 



1 Mr. W. G. Me Ivor, Superintendent of the Government 

 Cinchona Plantations on the Neilgherries, reports, "The 

 disease at Hoolicul and Kartairy has been observed for up- 

 wards of twenty-six years, but only developed to an alarming 

 extent within the last two years, when it has spread more or 

 less over the whole extent under cultivation." 



