THE LIFE OF AN ESTATE 



COFFEA 



ARABICA 



Diseased 



itil it had been established in Ceylon in such force as to defy all subsequent 

 forts at extermination. It usually decreases during both very wet and very dry 

 ither. The most hopeful method of dealing with it, as also with all other scale 

 acts, is through their natural enemies. The larva of certain ladybird beetles 

 (/,,/ ( i .rs . ;, i ,,,<i<itn for brown bug, and wrMMimm i-otttniiatu* for white 

 I, UK) live on them, and a minute chalcid wasp breeds within the body of the mature 

 - . ii in. So also a parasite fungus (<>j*/iiopoHiiMi !< *ii<) kills these insects 

 liv living on their bodies. 



7. Qrub. The larvae of the moth A {/rot is upsilnn, Rott. ; Ind. Mus. Qrub. 

 lotes, ii., 161 ; iii., 21 ; Watt and Mann, Pests and Blights of the Tea Plant, 



)3, 220-3 ; Maxwell-Lefroy, Memoirs, Dept. Agri. Ind., 1907, i., 169. 

 le Cutworm, Black Grub or Ringer are very destructive to the seedlings 

 coffee, as much as 26 per cent, being often found destroyed by this 

 jt. It seems to have been specially destructive in Mysore 

 The larvae of the cockchafer, Lachnoxtrrmi /n'n</uis. Walk., often 

 lo much damage by eating the roots of the young coffee plants. [Cf. Ind. 

 Notes, ii., 149 ; Watt and Mann, I.e. 167-9.] 



8. Other Insects that occasionally attack the coffee may be here enumerated : 

 i-fiiiicN iivHti-nt'tHr. Nietner, a weevil that eats the leaves * !* if t>i<in, Cramer, 



moth that defoliates the bushes ; Xaromi ctumpermi, Walker ; .Hun Im tiii< ,i . 

 timer; Kuprnetin ri >-y n n<-iilii . Walk.; Trlehlti fjclffttn, Feld.; *. //< i i.,,,i ,,/i,, 

 Men, Feld. ; Kplthfrta coffeariu, Feld. ; Bounnla l<-i-i>Mti(/inriit, Feld., and 

 . .'.fyltinirnriti. Feld.; Tortrijc eoffearia, Feld. ; Capnu coffeuria. Nietner [cf. Ind. 

 ttu. Notes, V., 187], and Grtifllaria coffei foil vlla, Motsch. (recalling KlncMntit 

 , G.M.. in Jardin, I.e. 258-9 and pi.), are all moths reported to have been 

 sionally met with on coffee in Ceylon. So also A.ntitoiny*n i-offae, Nietner, 

 the coffee-leaf borer ; xtaehia, yeoinetrtea, Motsch., a species of miynritatu that 

 ttacks the coffee -cherries ; .4j>iu* r<ffew, Nietner, the coffee-louse (parasitised by 

 i UN ft nut mi I*) ; and .4 !!* foffew. Nietner, the coffee-mite. So far as 

 ently known, none of these pests have given any cause for anxiety to the 

 idian planters. 



9. Other Pests. Locusts, Weevils, Rats, Squirrels, Monkeys and Jackals 

 ften do much injury the animals mentioned being very fond of the ripe 



srries. 



Life of the Estate. The late Mr. William Pringle very rightly observed 

 lat "no matter how healthy a coffee tree may be, no matter how 

 irefully pruned, handled, tended and nourished, its life will end sooner 



later. Under favourable conditions, the tree may live for fifty or sixty >* Coffee 

 rears ; as a rule, it will seldom last thirty. It will, under favourable con- 

 litions, be in full bearing in the fifth or sixth year, and may go on for twenty 

 i twenty-five years giving paying crops. Many trees are exhausted in ten 

 fifteen years by unskilful treatment, borer, and attacks of Hem- He in 

 ri-jc, etc., and must make room for anew generation. If the vacancies 

 in be successfully supplied and the plants developed in a healthy and 

 jorous manner, there is no reason why an estate should be limited as 

 age. If we can so arrange matters as to have a continual succession 

 young plants coming on and developing into healthy trees to replace 

 lose taken out, a coffee estate may be considered as a permanent invest- 

 lent. In suitable localities efficiently drained and manured this can be 

 >ne : and an estate may be considered to be working under the best 

 sible conditions of perpetuation where from 4 to 5 per cent, of vacancies 

 occur every year that are successfully supplied. It is upon the success of 

 the supplying that the life of the estate depends, and practical planters 

 consider this question one of the first importance in Southern India. It 

 is only when supplies cannot be got to grow that there is a necessity to 

 abandon the estate. With many aspects and under some conditions the 

 plants cannot be raised, except at a ruinous cost." 



387 



