io6 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



Is this disease common in the plantation ? And is it 

 believed to do much injury to the trees, or to reduce 

 the amount of crop, or affect its quality, and have any 

 successful attempts been made to get rid of this 

 disease, or to mitigate its injuriousness ? 



A. Last year some of the trees on different planta- 

 tions were affected with what was said to be the 

 disease — Hemileia vastatrix. The leaves of the trees 

 turned yellow (although want of cultivation will cause 

 the same phenomenon) ; there was a tendency in 

 some of the upper branches to decay, and dry up the: 

 berries before they could ripen. This may have 

 happened before, but we observed it only last year.. 

 Occasionally the bark of a tree will decay, partially or 

 wholly — when wholly it causes the death of the tree.. 

 Occasionally a borer will attack a tree. We have as 

 yet observed nothing that would cause serious losses 

 in coffee growing in Liberia ; we rather think that the 

 yellow appearance in some of the trees was owing to^ 

 the want of cultivation. Some of the trees supposed 

 to be diseased were as full of berries as the other trees.. 



An interesting summary, the results of inquiries, 

 generally on coffee disease, will be found in Annual 

 Report for 1877 on the Royal Gardens at Kew. As. 

 regards these inquiries, set on foot through the: 

 Colonial Office at the suggestion of the Director of 

 the Royal Gardens in February, 1874, on the subject 

 of the causes of coffee-leaf and tree diseases, it may 

 be well to embody here the Report, dated the year; 



