6?6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April t, 1890 
the burrows, and decomposition as a consequence 
quickly sets in on its walls. Under the microscope, 
the fluid contents of anv cell which has had its con- 
taining sac broken by the passage of the caterpillar 
is seen to be teeming with bacterial life of many 
kinds. Carefully detaching a sac adjoining one that 
had been broken by a caterpillar, but which was in 
itself quite perfect, and miscroscopically examining its 
contained fluid, there appeared many bacteria, the 
most frequent form being masses of cocci ; many other 
forms were present, but in smaller numbers. An oval 
saccharomyces was very plentiful in the injured cells, 
and is the probable cause of the acid fermentation 
which takes place in them. It was not present in the 
adjoining unbroken ones. Presumably the smaller forms 
only can pass from cell to cell through the connecting ves- 
sels. It is probably to this secondary attack of micro- 
organisms that the premature ripening and falling of 
the fruit may be ascribed, more than to the actual 
injury done by the caterpillars themselves ; other in. 
sects taking advantage of the holes made by the 
caterpillars through the rind can enter the fruit 
and lay their eggs in the pith and nulp, with the re- 
sult that large rotten patches spread from the entrance 
and exit holes. These insects are two or three species 
of flies, and a small brown beetle, all of which are 
attracted by any decaying fruit. 
Preventive Measures. 
The life history of the pomeloe moth shows that 
there is only one period of its existence when there 
is any hope of destroying it in useful numbers, and 
that is when it is in the caterpillar stage inside the 
fruit. The eggs are small, and so like the oil cells 
on which they are laid, that without a lens it is 
difficult to see them; in the pupa state, which is 
passed beneath the ground, they are well out of 
reach, and in the perfect stage, being strictly noctur- 
nal and very inconspicuous, there would be little 
chance of doing anv good. The only suggestion that 
I can make is to destroy all fruit that is seen to 
be inhabited by the caterpillars, or which falls from 
the trees. The destruction of the fruit which falls 
is of importance, not only as a means of killing the 
insects contained in it, but also as preventing its 
servin? for the rearing of another brood. As the eggs 
seem to be laid only on the fruit itself, it would 
appear that if the young fruits are put into bags, 
that they would have a chance of arriving at matu- 
rity. I am inclinedto think that the wild species of 
citrus, known by the native name of limau kerbau, 
and which is apparently nearly allied to the pomeloe, 
citrus decumafia; is the natural food of these cater- 
pillars, as it is a fairly common tree in the jungles 
of some parts of Perak. 
L. Wbay, Jun., Curator, Perah Museum. 
Kew " Bulletin." — The Kew Bulletin for February 
contains much useful information on the sugar pro- 
duction of the world, in a paper bv R. Giffen, Esq., 
l.l.d., Assistant Secretary, Board of Trade, presented 
to Parliament in May of last year, and issued to the 
Dublin in June. There are also articles on the Manu- 
facture of Qninine in India, the use of Maqui Berries 
for Colouring Wine, Vine Culture in Tunis, Phylloxera 
in Victoria, and the Botanical Exploration of Cuba. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. Feb. 8th. 
Eucalyptus Globulus Seeding. — So far as we know, 
the fruiting of Eucalyptus globulus in the open air in 
these islands is extremely rare ; but we have received 
lately some well-develoned seed-vessels of the plant 
from Mr. Roberts, gardener at Tan-y-bwlch. North 
Wales These were gathered from trees which were 
raised from seeds sown in March. 1882, planted out in 
the following May, and have remained unprotected 
,. v ,, r sinre. They are now statelv trees. That these 
rather -tender trees stand nnt-of-doors and bear fruit 
Fnpaku much for tbr mildness of the climate of the 
district ; )i which they prow ; but there are manv other 
I lacpfi in Rfiuth-west Fjturland and Wales, and in Ireland 
where an equally mild climate prevails, and where 
Eucalyptus globulus and E. cocr.ifera mav be planted 
with safety.— Gardeners' Chronicle, Feb. 8fch. 
COFFEE IN NATAL. 
Report. — To His Excellency Charles Bullen Hugh 
Mitchell, Esquire, Lieutenant-Oolonel late Royal 
Marines, Companion of the Most Distinguished Order 
of St. Michael and St. George, Administrator of the 
Government in and over the Colony of Natal, Vice- 
Admiral of the same, and Supreme Chief over the 
Native Population. 
May it Please Youk Excellency, — We the under- 
signed Commissioners appointed by His Excellency the 
late lamented Sir George Pomerov-Oolley, by Com- 
mission, dated the 25th January. 1881, instructing us 
to enquire into the causes which have led to the 
failure of Coffee Cultivation in the Colony, and to 
report whether, in the opinion of the Commissioners, 
those causes are such as to render the Cultivation com- 
mercially unremunerative ; and to make such suggestions 
for the removal of adverse causes, or for the ameliora- 
tion of the conditions under which the Coffee planting 
interest bas hitherto failed of success, have now the 
honour to report to Your Excellency that we at once 
proceeded to fulfil the terms of the Commission by 
addressing a number of questions to all persons who 
had been engaged in the 'eultivatioa, with a view of 
ascertaining to what extent unanimity of opinion 
existed on the various questions involved. To these 
enauiries, replies were received in almost every in stanoe, 
and in many cases great care bad beer, taken to afford 
us the fullest information, for which we have to thank 
the writers. We then held many meetings for the 
purpose of comparing and discussing the evidence, and 
afterwards made a tour of inspection to the principal 
plantations at present in work with the view of veri- 
fying, by personal observation, the statements made, 
and of forming a correct judgment of the present con- 
dition of the industry. 
After'full and careful enquiry,'we have now the honour 
to lay before your Excellency a statement of the 
conclusions arrived at. In seeking for the causes 
contributing to failure, they are found to be so many 
and so various, that it can scarcely be isaid that they 
are precisely the same in any two instances ; and it is 
necessary to bear in mind the facts that, almost without 
exception, those who first planted, did so without any 
previous experience in this or any other country, and 
that the plant bas only been grown to any extent on 
the North of the Umgeni River. 
In the returns given in the Colonial Blue Books, the 
growth of the Coffee industry should be clearly shown, 
as well as its decadence. The return for 1879 includes 
two large estates of the Natal Land and Colonization 
Company, which together represent two-thirds of the 
whole, and in the 1880 return is a large average of 
abandoned Coffee, off which a little was picked, as is 
stated by the Field Cornet of Ward No. 3, Victoria 
County, who says : " With respect to the increase of 
503 acres in 1880, I wish particularly to note, that this 
does not represent a real increase to this extent in the 
cultivation, inasmuch as the bulk of it is represented 
by old and abandoned fields, which were thought un- 
worthy to be returned in 1879, but which bore a crop of 
more or less value in 1880." 
The evidence tends to show that trees which came 
into bearing prior to 1872 produced paying crops in a 
great majority of cases. Many persons were induced 
by the success attained before this date to increase 
their plantations to such an extent that, in some in- 
stances, pecuniary difficulties resulted, and the planters 
were compelled to sell their crops, and it was found that 
in consequence of a combination among buyers, they 
could not obtain more than £15 per ton, which was very 
much less than the price expected, and at which the 
syndicate afterwards s->'d. This was a crushing blow 
to manv, and the trees having, as a rule, borne heavily 
that season, what was to be expected and seems to be 
the universal experience in all coffee-growing countries, 
happened, viz., that a heavy crop was followed by a 
light one. Then came the time of such scarcitv of labour 
aud hieh rates of wages, caused by the opening up of 
the Diamond Fields, that His Excellency Sir Benjamin 
C. C Pine ordered out natives to harvest the e-ops, 
and the Coffee suffered most severely, it being a plant 
which, under the method of cultivation which was at 
