508 MANUAL OF THE NILAQIRI DISTRICT. 



OH. XXVIII. about six years ago and threatens to prove as lasting and 

 CoFFKE damaging as the oidium in the vine, for which disease, according 



Cultivation, to all accounts, there has been found no cure, save digging 

 up the vines and planting fresh ones. Hemeleia vastatrix 

 seems to have spread simultaneously all over the coflFee-growing 

 countries of the world, and it attacks even the hardy Liberian 

 variety which has been lately introduced into India and 

 Ceylon. Startled by the general outcry of alarm, the Home 

 Government, at the instigation of the Ceylon authorities, directed 

 the Collectors of the various coffee-growing districts to circulate a 

 series of questions drawn up by Mr. C H. K. Thwaites, Director 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Peridinya and Hakgalla, 

 amongst the planters, the replies to which were to be tabulated 

 and sent to England for the consideration of some of the best 

 horticultural authorities. As the outcome of the enquiry, a 

 pamphlet has lately been largely distributed amongst the 

 planters — Mr. Cooke's Report on Diseased Leaves. Mr. Cooke 

 has come to the conclusions, 1st, that the ravages of the 

 Hemeleia vastatrix are not to be compared to those of the 

 leaf-rot ; 2nd, that the planters should all simultaneously sponge 

 the leaves of the affected trees with a solution of Condy's fluid. 

 In my opinion and that of most planters with whom I have 

 conversed on the subject, the leaf-disease has done more harm 

 than all the other plagues combined, and it remains to be seen if 

 the coffee will ever entirely throw it off or recover from its effects. 

 As far as I can see, the disease is now at any rate in the sap of the 

 tree,^ and probably some application to the roots of sulphur, 

 carbolic acid, petroleum or chunam may be found of use. The 

 leaf-disease must by this time unfortunately be well known to all 

 coffee planters, and its appearances are as follows : — The leaves 

 present first of all a spotted appearance, and in due time are 

 covered on the under surface with a golden rust, and finally shrink 

 and drop off, leaving the tree quite bare ; in many instances the 

 fruit is also affected. A large percentage of the berries grow till 

 they are nearly full sized and then drop off, and if examined 

 are found to contain nothing. Some even grow to full size and 

 ripen, but when pulped are found quite empty. Some planters 

 thought this was a new disease and invented the term " shank ]" 



' In a report to the Planters' Association, Ceylon, in 1879, Mr. Daniel Morris, 

 Assistant Dii-ector, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, recommends, as the most 

 eificacious remedy, flowers of sulphur mixed with unslaked coral lime, in the pro- 

 portion of 1 of sulphur to 3 of lime ; the mixture to be applied to the plant and to 

 the soil. The disease is an external parasite — an organic fungoid gi-owth — and not 

 diffused in the juices of the coffee plant. In districts (Ceylon) affected by the 

 south-west monsoon, it is generally present during December and the early 

 months of the year as an external parasite in the form of long filamentona 

 threads, which cover every part of the bark and leaves. — Ed. 



