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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889. 
INSECT PESTS. 
It appears from a recently-published report that 
{or years past a destructive disease has been causing 
havoc, though in varying degree, in the best coffee- 
growing district in the Brazilian province of Rio. 
But the insect plague, dire as its effeots have been, 
has been more merciful there than in Ceylon and 
Java ; and in Ceylon, indeed, coffee is losing its 
pride of place as the chief export in consequence 
of the competition of tea and cinchona. In- 
vestigations lately conducted by competent men 
of science, both in Brazil and in Java, tend 
now to give considerable support to the hypo- 
thesis that the two complaints — namely, the 
leaf disease in the great British Indian and 
Indian Isles and the root disease in Don Pedro's 
empire — are oaused by one and the same thing 
— that is to say, by a small cocoon belonging 
to the group of " Nematoids," that devours the 
root. This worm is also said to be akin to that 
which destroys the beetroot. To ascertain scien- 
tifically the cause of maladies is the first stage 
towards grappling with them successfully, and 
hence it may be hoped that before Jong effectual 
measures may be taken against the coffee leaf and 
root diseases, and against that noxious little worm, 
which seems to deserve a place in the same cate- 
gory with the dreaded Hessian fly, the Colorado 
beetle, and the phylloxera. — London Times. 
<y 
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A COLONY. 
(From The Loudon Times, June 8th.) 
We shall look for the appearance at no distant 
date of an interesting volume about the little known 
British settlement on the Gambia. Its title will, 
perhaps, be " How I made the most of my Colony," 
and its author most probably Acting-Administrator 
Carter. In the June number of that depository of 
curious lore, the Kew Bulletin, there is an account 
of what he has done in singularly trying cir- 
cumstances to benefit a languishing colony. Of 
small extent, the Gambia settlement produces few 
commodities in much demand elsewhere. Hitherto 
the ground nut has been the staple product of the 
country. Exported to Europe, it is there made to 
yield a useful oil. But it is no longer so saleable 
as it was. America and Russia produce so much 
mineral oil that under the stress of this new 
competitor the sole important industry of the 
Gambia bids fair to become extinct. In such cir- 
cumstances most Governors would resign them- 
selves to this condition of things as inevitable and 
incurable. It is not their business, they would 
argue, to make industry flourish ; they have done 
enough if they let things take their course, good 
or bad. 
But Mr. Carter entertains other ideas of his duty, 
and it is interesting to notice the experiment 
which he has been making for the weal of the 
settlement. Adjoining the Government-house at 
Bathurst were three and three quarter acres of waste, 
ironically styled a garden. The annual estimates 
provided for two labourers to keep it in order, with 
the result that it was a wilderness of rank grass, 
the refuge of alligators, snakes, and all unclean 
things. Mr. Carter used his horse allowance in 
providing four labourers. He was then discharging 
the duties of the Superintendent of Police, and he 
devoted to the same public object the horse allow- 
ance appertaining to that office, whioh enabled 
him to set six men at work on this waste. The 
real interest of his enterprise is the fact that he 
sought to make the ground thus cleared a place for 
carrying out experiments as to troes and plants 
economically useful. He found that the rubber- 
producing tree, the Ceara rubber, was well suited 
for the barren, intractable soil of the Gambia. In 
1884 a large collection of plants likely to be accli- 
matized was sent out from Kew ; and that which 
seemed best adapted for the trying climate was the 
Ceara rubber tree. The seedlings grew vigorously ; 
the slips flourished equally. The great drawback was 
the want of good water ; for in Bathurst there is no 
well which is not brackish. The rainfall is excep- 
tionally small. Though 500 miles to the southward 
of the Gambia it is sometimes over 200 inches, 
in the Gambia the rainfall is rarely more than 50 
inches, and for eight months in the year drought 
reigns. Botanical authorities seem to be sanguine 
that the rubber tree will thrive even in these un- 
promising circumstances. But, as the Director of 
Kew Gardens points out, the yield of rubber by 
each tree is trifling; several thousands would be 
required to produce for commerce an appreciable 
quantity of rubber. To infuse life and prosperity 
into the colony, and to make its people active 
producers and customers, other products are necess- 
ary; and Mr. Thiselton Dyer suggests that the 
cultivation of coconut, maize, cotton, and the 
fibre plants grown in the Bahamas, might be prac 
ticable. Mr. Carter showed what might be done in 
a climate which Europeans regard as an excuse for 
unvaried indolence ; as to all action in which it is 
enough to say, as of the Reign of Terror, "I lived," 
" I started a garden in the Military Hospital com- 
pound, which produced most of the English salads 
and vegetables in great perfection, and which, I 
am glad to say, is still in full vigour. It was part 
of my plan to show that an English gentleman was 
not too proud or too indolent to work with his 
hands, for in the early morning and evening I 
prepared most of the beds myself, and trained a 
man in the proper method of working the system 
to advantage. ... In spite of the brackish waters 
I have grown strawberries equal to the ordinary 
growths in England, and although the natural soil 
is the worst imaginable for the successful culti- 
vation of roses, yet with judicious management I 
possess vigorous plants." So much for the miracles 
which energy may at all times work even in a desert 
or a Government-House garden in the tropics. 
But without similar miracles, unfortunately, 
all are agreed that in the Gambia and so many 
other settlements nothing can be done. Our great 
colonies situated in temperate climes flourish 
lustily without aid or incentive. They quickly at- 
tain and in the end far surpass all that their 
founders ever dreamt of. But there are sad laggards 
in the march — settlements which are always pro- 
mising better things, and always proving disappoint- 
ments. Their industries never thrive. Emigrants 
to them are always sighing for home. Their crops 
are always blighted, Locusts seek them out, 
droughts infallibly scorch them. They vary stag- 
nation only with an earthquake or a volcanic 
eruption. Their imports, closely examined, are 
seen to consist chiefly of munitions and luxuries 
for the garrison. The Gambia is one of those 
unfortunates, our Colonial poor relations, the in- 
curables which are always under the care of the 
Colonial Office. Perhaps nothing can be done to 
mitigate their lot. "It is certain," says Mr. Carter, 
" that nothing can be done without the initia- 
tive of the Government," and it is not quite 
certain that much can be accomplised, where 
nature is at once so tyrannous and churlish 
and man so lethargic, with such initiative. But 
it would be interesting to see what would be the 
result of vigorous administration in some of our 
small African and West Indian settlements. Mr. 
Carter has got from the public funds by dint of 
much entreaty a contribution of £300 to oarry out 
