THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1889, 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING EEPORT. 
THE WEATHER — THE MOORMAN ON THE PROWL — RISE OF 
PRICES IN CINCHONA — SHORT TEA ESTIMATES AND 
" SUPPRESSED VITALITY " — COTTON NOT IN SUCH A 
BAD PLIGHT AS WAS REPORTED — PLENTIFUL LABOUR 
October 31st. 
If for many months past we have been having 
more than our share of dulness and damp, it 
would seem now as if it were being made up to us 
by the exceeding brightness of the present weather. 
Although the wind is from the S.-W. — the feeling 
in the air is wholly N.-E., as chilly in the shade 
and as hot in the sun as if it were January. I 
don't know whether it is the weather or the crop, 
but cacao seems to look a little shabby ; coffee 
more so ; while cinchona and tea are flourishing. 
The slight rise in the price of bark, — which has 
since been lost, alas ! — set the Moorman on the 
prowl ; but as none of them had muoh speculation 
in their souls, their offers for what was in store 
were not very spirited, six cents a pound being the 
highest they were inclined to go. This bark bad been 
harvested from dying trees, and had been subjected 
to a rude kind of testing, that of mastication in 
the mouth of a Moorman 1 A good bitter flavour 
is in high esteem with these traders ; and I am told 
that jungle barks which possess this quality have 
a value among Moormen ! And yet what could 
we do without these pushing fellows ? They are 
ready to bid for almost anything, and although it 
is not much they offer for out-of-the-way things, 
still they have always the pluok to offer some- 
thing, and risk the hard coin. 
BUck coffee — strippings and such like — has a 
singular attraction for the Moorman, and as this 
valuable article g^ts more and more scarce, its 
attractions increase. If you are known to have a 
few bushels in your possession, you have your 
bungalow besieged ; would-be buyers follow you to the 
most inaccessible parts of the estate : you find them 
at the store, where they have waited for hours : they 
meet you in town ; stop you on the road, and 
some of them are prepared to offer twelve-and-a- 
half cents a bushel over anybody else. The best 
price I have heard for husk of a fair quality is 
R5 a bushel, which is a respectable price, especially 
when you add twelve-and-a-half cents to it. 
Are the growers of Cinchona about to share in 
the general rise of prices? Certainly that product 
has been " sair hauden doon" for a long time, 
and those who have stuck to it deserve an innings. 
I hear that the shipments between this and the 
end of the year are not expected to amount to 
much, and that when the home trade realize 
this there will be more competition, and prices 
will rise. It is confidently expected that 1890 
will see a very much better market for bark, 
than there has been for a very long time 
past. If thiB forecast of the knowing ones turns 
out true, Ceylon will benefit. 
Tea estimates in some districts are very short, and 
many whose year ends with December will have no 
chance whatever to recover lost grouad. Everybody 
say3 it was the cold wind that did it, which lasted 
so long. One man, writing to his home proprietor and 
dwelling on the retarding effects of the weather, 
said that although things were backward, and the 
flush scanty and slow, yet the trees were full of 
" suppressed vitality," and wanted, of course, only 
the smile of a genial sun to change the condition 
of things. But the wet cloudy weather continued 
week after week, and so did the " suppressed vita- 
lity," and the short returns. After a bit the pro- 
prietor at home getting wearied be:;an to inquire if 
nothing could or had been dono to liberate the vita- 
lity which to his cost had been suppressed so long! 
"Suppressed vitality" was as good a ason for there 
poor returns as could be given, and very fittingly 
described the appearance of healthy trees which 
were worried by cold winds. Of course it is per- 
haps not quite equal in origiaality to the " virgin 
subsoil," which was untouched by taproot ; or 
the " abnormal activity underground," which was 
made to explain the slow growth above : but as 
a decent kind of planter's reason for non-success, 
and with more than the usual modiourn of hope 
in it, " suppressed vitality" deserves currency. 
Cotton, which w-vs said to have been ruined by 
the abnormally wet season we have just passed 
through, is not in quite such a bad plight as was 
reported : a picking is being got, where before there 
seemed little hope of any return. The change 
in the weather has been the salvatioa of this 
new product. 
Labour is plentiful, and more and more Sinhalese 
turn up for emp oyment. They want a lot of 
training however, ere they come to see that for a 
fair day's wage ; a fair day's work should be given, 
but that too will come in time. 
Peppercorn. 
INDIAN AND CEYLON INSECT PESTS. 
To the Trustees of the Indian Museum (Cal- 
cutta) we are indebted for the first part of very 
valuable "Notes on Insect Pests," edited by Mr. 
Cotes and copiously illustrated. In a prefatory 
notice it i3 stated that 
The parts of the serial will by published from time to 
time as material-* accumulate. Communications are 
invited ; they should be addressed to the editor Indian 
Museum Notes, Calcutta. 
Correspondence connected with Economic Entomo- 
logy should be accompanied by specimens of the insects 
to which reference is made. Caterpillars, grubs, aud 
other soft-bodied insects cm be seat in alcohol ; chry- 
salids and cocoons, alive, and packed lightly in leaves 
or grass ; other insects, dried aud pinned or wrapped 
iu soft paper. Live insects should be seat when 
there is a reasonable probability of their surviving 
the journey. Caterpillars, grubs, and other immature 
insects can often be only approximately determined ; 
they should therefore, where possible, be accompanied 
by specimens of tha mature insects into which they 
transform ; when, however, this is not possible, they 
should still be sent, as they can always be determined 
approximately, and uncertainty must necessarily arise 
iu discussing insects when actual reference to the 
specimens cannot be made 
The first description is by Mr. E. T. Atkinson, 
b a., c.s., ci.e., and deals with an insect which is 
only too well known in Ceylon, as an enemy of 
rice grains equivalent to the blood-sucking fungus 
in the case of coffee leaves. We quote as follows :-— 
The Rice Sapper {Leptocorisa acuta). 
Plate 1, fi:j. 1 ; a, enlarge ! , b. natural size. 
In 1886, some specimens of an insect, belonging to 
the order Rhynchota aud section Heteroptera, were 
received frrm Mr. J. Lee- Warner, of Tiuuevelly, aud 
were found to have considerably injured the autumn 
rice. Thoy were identified with Leptocorisa acuta,, 
Thunb., a wide-spceadiu<r species found all over the 
east on rice. In the North-Western Proviuces (G-o- 
r.tkhpur) Caota-Nagpur and Assam, this insect is known 
as gandhi, and in Assam attacks especially the ahu 
rice. Iu Tiunevelly it is called the munju vandu, or 
rice-juice sucker or sapper. There is every reason to 
believe that the numerous references which are given 
below all belong to one and the same species or its local 
varieties. This species is represented iu South America 
