9 



countries. In the first pluce the seasons are entirely different, here are no distinctly wet or dry season* 

 but on the whole the seasons are uniform. Again, Liberian coflee has alone proved successful here and 

 the damuge wrought by the disease is much less with this species than with Arabian coffee. From 

 latest advices, however, we gather that the Arabian coffee in Java seems to be dying down, and slowly 

 but steadily succumbing to the disease. If so, it is much to be feared that Arabian coffee will ere long 

 be absent from our markets, as Java produces the largest quantity next to Brazil, and the unsettled 

 condition of the latter country will probably, for the next few years, produce a distinct falling off in 

 the supply. 



Another distinction is in the soil upon which the coffee here has to be grown. Java is a volcanic 

 region and volcanic soil is far more suitable for cultivation of coflee, as well as for several other cul- 

 tures, than the so-called laterite of which the greater part of the Peninsula consists. 



At the same time any light thrown upon the habits and requirements of the fungus is of great 

 value, and Dr. Burck's suggestions and observations seem to me to possess, even for the cultivation of 

 Liberian coffee here, a great deal of value and importance. All who have seen a view of the coffee 

 fields in Ceylon, must have noticed the entire absence of any hedges or jungle breaking up the enor- 

 mous tracts of coffee cultivation. The ground is, it is true, very undulating and hilty, but there is no 

 attempt made to separate the fields at all by hedges. The whole country is open to the sweep of the 

 prevailing wind to carry the fuugus spores from end to end of the island, and, indeed, the undulating 

 nature of the ground is in favour of the spread of the disease. Professor Marshall Ward, when he 

 was investigating the disease in Ce)'lon, pointed out this very thing, and urged the formation of hedges. 

 It is not probable that this simple method would have so far arrested the disease as to save the now 

 ruined cultivation in Ceylon, but it would, doubtless, have lessened the violence and rapidity of the 

 attack, and gnen some chance of combating the diseuse, by breaking up the whole iuto more manage- 

 able plots. It must be remembered that it is very rare to find any one species of plant growing in 

 masses together unmixed with any other in a natural state. The effect is somewhat like that of herd- 

 ing many animals of one kind together in the same space. However, for crops such as coffee it is 

 essential to do this. They require to be grown under unnatural conditions but as this is unavoidable, 

 it is still possible to break up the plantation at least to a small extent by having belts of jungle, here 

 and there, run::ing through the plantations. The quantity of coffeo lost by not putting these belts 

 under cultivation is trifling compared with the advantage to be derived from them. These belts will 

 arrest the spread of fungus spores, and blight. They will also be of signal use in attracting the insec- 

 tivorous birds which will aid to keep down the insects which injure the coffee, and they will also be 

 useful as supplies of sticks, poles, &c. required from time to time in the plantations. It is of course 

 possible that monkeys and musangs will resort to these jungle patches, and sally forth at night to de- 

 vour the coffee, but they are tolerably easily kept down in small woods and it is usually when there is 

 extensive forest near the plantation that they are so injurious. Where the jungle has been destroyed, 

 and where there are no bushes to make screens, I would suggest the planting of such trees as, Adcnan- 

 thera pavonine/, Saman, Tcmbusu Erylhriitas, Jacktrees, etc., in thick rows, so as to break up the plan- 

 tations. Nor would I restrict the use of jungle belts to the cultivation of coffee only. With all crops 

 cultivated on a large scale here, I think it would be advisable to break up the plantations, if possible. 

 It may be that with some cultivation no enemy worth considering is yet known, but no plant is entirely 

 free from enemies either fungal or insectal, and although it may seem strange to say that a small jungle 

 belt can and will azt as a defence against strong winged insects, yet such is the case, for the insects 

 when they rise in the air high enough to clear the jungle, are very liable to be borne far away over the 

 plantation, and if even they do invade the plantation they come but a few at a time and can be easily 

 dealt with. The peculiarities of insect attacks on crops here must, however, be treated of at some future 

 time. 



But with respect to Dr. Burck's treatment with the sulphuric acid and scissors, and also the tobacco 

 water treatment. At present the disease in the Straits does not seem to be sufficiently destructive to 

 require such elaborate attacks upon it. For although it is very difficult to find a tree entirely free from 

 attack, )et the Liberian coffee, unless a weak plant, seems capable of resisting any ordinary outbreak. 

 Nevertheless, we may expect, should the cultivation of coffee ever become very extensive, to find, as 

 years go on, the disease becoming in time virulent, and this is the more likely as the soil in which we 

 have to culiivate coffee is immensely poorer than that of Java. 



Dr Burck, it appears, does not attribute much of the virulence of the disease to poverty of soil, yet 

 I have doubts as to whether this may not have played a great part in the ruinous catastrophe of Ceylon. 

 For a long period the same land had been under coffee. There was no rotation of crops, which indeed 

 is impracticable for the most part with any crops except those of annuals or biennials. This constant 

 growth of the same species of plant on the same soil, cannot but remove a large portion of the most 

 valuable salts, and the plants must get gradually weaker, nor does there seem to beany reason to doubt 

 but that weakly plants are more liable to succumb to disease, whether auimal or vegetable, than healthy 

 ones. There is abundant evidence of this throughout both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Of course 

 thoroughly healthy plants may also be attacked, but they have a much better chance to throw off the 

 disease. 



I do not think Arabian coffee can ever be successfully cultivated in the Straits Settlements It 

 seems here to be very liable to produce " brush," that is to say, abnormal flowers, with minute, green, 

 irregular sepals and petals, no stamens, and the pistal very small and apparently effete. I imagine this 

 is due to the permanent dampness of the climite, and absence of any period of rest from growth. It 

 appears to be a preliminary stage of what is known as phyllody of the flowers, i. c, conversion of the part 

 of the flower into leaves, instead of reproductive organs. This is common here also in certain orchids as, 

 Phalwrtopsiti Schilleriana, which produces bulbs and leaves on the flower spike instead of flowers 



