226 THE ENEMIES OF COFFEE :—WHITE GRUB. 
converse of the proposition by giving the bad eminence: 
either to root fungus or root grubs. Is it not the fact 
that trees are just as much ‘‘shuck” and crops as sadly 
short in districts where hemileia vastatrix ALONE is de-. 
structively and debilitatingly prevalent, asin districts, 
where the triad of plagues,—leaf fungus, root fungus 
aad white grub—is rampant or at least regnant? We 
shall be all glad to hear what Mr. Dixon has to say as. 
to the origin of the evil days on which the coffee bush 
has fallen. As Dr. Parr said of the origin of abstract 
evil in the universe, we may safely assume ‘‘ there: 
was no good about it.” A still more important question 
to be answered is, ‘‘ What is the remedy?” or ‘‘What 
are the remedies?’ Almost everything has been tried 
(in isolated experiments), from the mineral oils of Phil-. 
adelphia to the sulphur of Sicily, from the lime of the 
coral reef of the ocean to that of the dolomitic 
mountain rocks. What are we to persevere with or in 
what direction is the treatment to be changed? This 
we know, that the prominent symptom of the patient 
is debility, and that the prominent cause isan EXTERNAL. 
affection. Tonics are good, but they alone are not 
usually supposed to be sufficient to cure irritating skin 
disease. 
I asked planters at the Dimbula meeting if they 
agreed with Mr. Grigson as to the injury inflicted 
not only directly by the grubs but indirectly by the 
frequent digging rendered necessary by the presence and 
ravages of the insects, and they replied that they did so. 
agree. Now if sourness of soil and the presence of 
fungi had been the main sources of mischief, how came. 
frequent digging to do harm instead of good? If alse. 
the soil is permeated by fungi and has always been 
so permeated, how came it that estates in Dimbula, 
notably Maria, gave, grand crops while fungi, the ene- 
mies alone, were present, but commenced a career of 
decadence the moment the planter’s friends and the 
enewnies of the fungi, viz., the grubs, made their ap- 
pearance? If itis affirmed that the sourness and the 
presence of destructive fungi did not originally exist,” 
but have supervened on cultivation which included 
drainage of the soil as well as manuring, then I can 
only say that my commonsense is shocked and offended, 
and that I refuse to believe the statement until proof 
irrefragable is adduced. As to deep tillage, —tillage 
indeed which can scarcely be called deep,—see what 
so shrewd and experienced a planter as Mr. James 
Taylor wrote to the editor of the Indian Tea Gazette. | 
Mr. Taylor hoed some of his tea Indian fashion, only 15. 
inches deep, with the result of killing a good propor- 
