96 COFFEE. 



Mr. Schrotty, in a lateip commumcation, saya : 



" I think it would be utterly f utiie to hope that any endeavors 

 to eradicate leaf disease' could succeed so far as to enable Ceylon 

 coffee-planters to sweep the fungus out of the island, to be seen 

 no more. We have evidence to show that the fungus was in ex- 

 istence and feeding on coffee-leaves long before it was first brought 

 to prominent public notice in 1869, and probably this same fun- 

 gus, though perhaps not quite in the same form, could have been 

 found in the island centuries before the first coffee-plant was in- 

 troduced. But what reasonably can be expected is, that the rav- 

 ages of this pest can be reduced by man to such an extent as to 

 enable him to cultivate coffee with profit. 



"A careful investigation of the subject, taking into considera- 

 tion what has been done in the case of other blights, has led me, 

 and can, in my opinion, only lead to one conclusion, and that is: 

 that, though an attack of coffee-leaf disease leaves behind its mark 

 upon the tree, increasing in effect with every successive attack, 

 and though a peculiar condition of the sap seems to be necessary 

 to its establishing a firm hold over the tree, it is essentially an 

 external and easily accessible enemy, and can be successfully bat- 

 tled with. And to the question, why it has not been successfully 

 battled with as yet, there can only be one answer, and that is>: 

 "We have not tried enough." 



In June, 1880, a report was made to the Hon. the Colonial 

 Secretary, Director of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, by Mr. H. 

 Marshal Ward, the government cryptogamist, from which we ex- 

 tract the conclusions which were the result of this gentleman's 

 investigations : 



" In conclusion, I feel justified in drawing these inferences 

 from what has been seen so far. Derived from some source 

 purely external, a fungoid organism finds ita way into the pas- 

 sages between the cells of the leaf ; here it has a term of exist- 

 ence shown to the observer by the origin and spread of the yel- 

 low ' disease spots,' caused by the changes in consistence and 

 color of the leaf contents at those places. 



"The outbreak of the yellow 'rust' from the leaf -passages, 

 through the stomata, takes place when I3ie leaf begins to fail in 

 supplying sap. Such an explanation is in accordance with all the 



