No. 2. 3 $oU». 119 



naturally hesitated to risk expenditure upon manuring or cultivation in any form. 

 Within my own very limited experience I have found that manure (either cattle or 

 artificial) has been of use only where the trees have not quickly succumbed to the 

 effects of the bug. On poor soil the trees seem to be permanently injured upon the 

 first appearance of the pest, and manure entirely fails to revive them. But where the 

 symptoms have been more gradual, manure seems to have a sustaining effect, and to 

 assist tbe tree to bear the heavy tax imposed upon it. 



" Lopping off the lower primaries naturally throws a greater amount of sap into the 

 remaining branches, and is generally followed by a decided improvement in the ap- 

 pearance of the coffee. 



" Will trees badly attached by the Bug, eventually throw it off and survive ? — It 

 is difficult to obtain reliable information upon this question ; but there seems to be no 

 doubt that in some few cases the pest has disappeared from once badly-infested coffee. 



"I have been told of an estate in Ma'tale' that was reported to have been absolutely 

 killed out by the bug ; but when my informant himself visited this place early in 

 1885, he found one stretch of fine fresh foliage from end to end, and no bug on any 

 part of it. 



" A similar case has recently occurred within my own observation. A field of coffee, 

 wbich was very badly infested with bug last year (1885), is now (November 1886) 

 entirely free from the pest. I have carefully and extensively examined the coffee in 

 this field, and have been unable to find a living specimen of the insect in any stage. 

 The change has but recently taken place, the remains of the black fungus being still 

 present. It is too early yet to say whether the coffee will recover its former vigour* 

 but its present condition leads me to hope that it will do so. 



" A planter writes from Badulla : — ' Green Bug has spread in some places, but has 

 nearly disappeared from others which were originally attacked, leaving the trees un- 

 healthy and black, but slowly recovering themselves.' 



" The possibility of recovery in such cases will probably depend upon the amount o£ 

 cultivation bestowed upon the coffee for the few years previous to the attack, and upon 

 the nature of the soil in which the trees are situated. Many estates upon which there 

 is said to have been no recovery, even in appearance, had been practically abandoned 

 for several years previous to the advent of the bug. 



" During some months each year the bug appears to remain dormant. The insect 

 in all its stages is still present, but not in such extraordinary numbers ; nor does it 

 spread much at such times. Many of the insects die off and become enveloped in a 

 white mould. This state generally occurs during very_ wet weather. Its period of 

 activity appears to be dependent in some degree upon the amount of rainfall. I have 

 noticed that the insect itself chiefly spreads during dry weather, though its extension 

 is often not apparent until the first period of wet weather, as it is not till then that 

 the fungus makes its appearance. 



"Proposed Remedies. — A number of remedies have been confidently recommended. 

 In some cases their application is quite impracticable ; in many others, whatever may 

 have been tbe result with the old bug, they have absolutely no effect upon the new 

 Green Bug. 



" One of the commonest and simplest of these so-called remedies is Mana grass. 

 But I have been unable to note the slighest good effect from its application, either as 

 a thatch upon the branches, bound round the stem, or spread upon the ground. 



"I have found dry caustic lime equally useless as an insecticide, though its 

 secondary effect as a soil- fertiliser may be sometimes evident by an improvement in 

 the appearance of the coffee. 



" The same remarks will apply to the use of wood ashes. 



