No- 4.] Mynchota. 183 



The clay soils are of a brown hue, and are usually composed of tine 

 clay and from ten to fifteen per cent, of the oxide of iron, with some 

 proportion of sand. These soils are arid, and during the rains absorb 

 much water, drying up to the depth of two or three feet immediately 

 afterwards, and also becoming heated. Here the tea-shrubs do not 

 thrive except in moist seasons. 



From 1869 to 1873, the shrubs in the humus soils were always 

 affected by blight, which first attacked the leaves and the best-developed 

 shrubs in the best parts of the garden, also the shrubs in the alluvial 

 portion lying at the base of or between the hills. The shrubs in the red 

 soils were at first free from blight, but they were also attacked when the 

 fine leaves on the shrubs in the humus soils had been destroyed. Several 

 experiments were then undertaken in order to ascertain the cause. 

 Where the humus was thin or absent, the roots of the shrubs were top- 

 dressed with good earth, which led to a new flush that was again attacked 

 and destroyed by the blight. A very fertile part of the plantation was 

 dug to a depth of 18 inches and thoroughly cleaned ; in another place, 

 furrows to the same depth were made and filled with branches of other 

 trees ; again, another patch was drained ; in another sticks smeared with 

 tar and oleum cornu cervi foetidum were placed amongst the shrubs ; tar 

 was also put in the ground ; but none of these experiments proved suc- 

 cessful. Large quantities of calcium stiff uratum were also placed ou the 

 ground, and in another part freshly-made phosphates, but the rust did 

 not dimiuish. Fumigation with sulphur burned to windward only re- 

 sulted in the destruction of the leaves reached by it ; whilst fumigation by 

 burning bad-smelling wood and leaves to windward had no influence at 

 all. Pruning only gave temporary relief, and when potatoes were planted 

 in the neighbourhood of affected shrubs, they also blackened and died. 

 Picking off the insects as they appear has been recommended and 

 tried. When it is considered that if only 

 moderately bad there are ten to twenty insects 

 on each bush, and if very bad thirty to forty, and the shrubs are planted 

 6' x 3', the number of insects to an acre— and therefore the numbers in 

 a considerable garden — will preclude recourse being had to this procedure 

 on an extensive scale. The insects are most injurious in the larval state, 

 even when they are of miser oscopic dimensions, and when disturbed, 

 however slightly, drop through the bush to the ground, where it would 

 be useless to follow them. Picking would therefore be too expensive 

 and unsatisfactory, as only partially clearing the bushes. In this con- 

 nection Dr. Aleyboom recommends the early plucking of tips and tender 

 leaves, so as to diminish the food-supply of the insects, which, as already 

 noted, attack those parts first. Another suggestion that cannot be 

 recommended is to place bird -limed strings or light cotton bags smeared 

 with some similar sticky substance in the affected areas. 



