ii COFFEE 105 



cultivated plant that has so many enemies, both animal and 

 vegetable, as the coffee tree. In Ceylon, the cultivation of The CeyLn 

 coffee was practically ruined some years ago by a fungoid, 

 or vegetable blight which attacked the leaves, and which 

 was found to be incurable. In Dominica, as we have seen, The white 

 an insect blight called the "white fly" killed out nearly all " fly ' 

 the trees at the early part of this century ; the same blight 

 is now in Brazil, and it is doing harm to the coffee cultiva- 



I tion there ; it may be said to exist also in Jamaica and other 

 of the West Indian Islands, but it does not commit there 



j the depredations it did in Dominica. The mealy bug, a The mealy 

 curious insect like a flake of snow, does much harm in some 

 places, but it can be got rid of by planting pine apples be- 

 tween the coffee, as the bug is very fond of the plant and 

 will quit the coffee trees for them. In some countries much The borer, 

 damage is done to the trees by a beetle called " the borer," 

 because it bores holes in the stem or root of the tree and 

 thus often causes its death, but these insects can be searched 

 for and killed. Scale and shell insects sometimes appear on Scale blight, 

 the trees ; they are little white or brown scales applied to 

 the bark of the tree or the epidermis of the leaf ; their ex- 

 crement is often in the form of honey-dew, which is after- 

 wards attacked by a black fungus, like soot. This is often 

 found covering the leaves, and usually associated with ants. Associated 

 The scale blight can easily be got rid of by washing the 

 plant with soap and water, and most other insect blights can 

 be killed by syringing, or watering the trees with soap-water ? Insecticides, 

 to which a very small quantity of kerosene oil has been 

 added, the whole being thoroughly stirred up. Care must 



| be taken not to put in too much of the kerosene oil, or it will 

 kill the trees. In the case of all blights, it will probably be v ^ e e akly 

 found that the trees are weakly on account of bad cultiva- 

 tion, an exhausted soil, or perhaps unsuitability of climate. 

 Now the first thing to be done is to endeavour to restore the 

 vigour of the trees by proper tillage, careful weeding, and 

 judicious manuring, and very frequently these are the only 



