APRiL I, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
made to you by the residents of every district where th e 
disease was once present, or whether you received them 
at second hand. Assurances such as you refer to must 
be received with caution, for people very often when 
speaking only for themselves pretend to hold a brief for 
others as well. Writing somewhere in March last year 
ycur veteran correspondent from Hapitigam Korale 
gave you a description of the disease as observed 
by him, "on (he two to six year old plants now 
sufferiDg, the whole of the leaves, in some cases 
even tothehalf developed centre shoot, areaffected, and 
the dark specks appear not only on the leaflet 
but on the leaf-s'em itself," a pretty minute descrip- 
tion of the disease tbat. Writing later on and after 
rain fell he says, "the coconuts have taken a frfsh 
start. Many of those that suffer from- the disease 
have developed centre leaves without a speck, but we 
must not holloa till we are out of the wood." And yet 
when the now historical deputation waited ou you, Mr. 
Wright is reported by you to have said "throughout 
the Hapitigam Korale there is no appearance of any 
disease." Mr. Wught'ft statement, if correctly re- 
poited, and he has never contradicted it, is iu direct 
opposition to that of your Hapitigam Korale corres- 
pondent. It is clear that on that occasion Mr, Wright 
spoke only for himself, though he appeared to represent 
tbe whole of the Korale he is resident in unlossW. B. L. 
be credited with a very vivid imagination iu describing 
what was non-exi;tent. 
As last year so this year, the disease made its appear- 
ance in October-November, and during the hour or so 
that Dr. Trimen spent in going round the estate from 
which I write, I was able to show him that trees ou 
adjoiuiug estates were affected as well as those on this 
I am of a very sceptical turn of mind and refuse to 
believe that as regards tbe disease this district is an 
exception, till I have personally satisfied myself as to 
the truth of it. Last year I travelled pretty freely and 
found the disease present wherever I went. I would 
fain hope that your surmise that the coconut leaf- 
disease Jike that of the cinchona and gum is due to 
chemical causf s is correct. — Truly yours, B. 
[" B." should now give up groaning over the 
past, and take a brighter view of the present and 
future : at least our accounts from most coconut 
dislrictsare most cheering.— Ed. T. A.} 
" TEA IN THE UNITED STATES." 
Sip , — Referring to your paras under this heading, 
in your issue of the 3rd and 4th instant, I cannot 
reconcile the figures with those given to us by the 
eminent tea tabulating firm of Messrs. Gow, Wilson 
& Stanton. According to this firm's last anoual 
(colored) circular, I find it stated that the " annual 
average consumption of tea in English pounds " in 
the United States to be as follows : — 
1883-84 874 millions 
1885 66J „ 
1886 .. .-. .. 79 . „ 
1887 87J „ 
1888 84 ,, 
Your figures tell us that "the value of tea im- 
ported (into the U. S.) has gone down " as follows 
for 11 monthB in each year ; — 
1881 13,000,000 dollars 
1880 -. 14,179-000 „ 
1889 10,658,000 „ 
Say roughly for 12 months in eaoh of the above 
years : — 
1884 14 million dollars 
1686 15 „ 
1889 12 „ 
So that in 1884 and 1886 the value of the tea im- 
orted imo the U. S. was apparently 16 oents and 19 
ents per lb. respectively, or say, roughly, in English 
monoy 73d and 9d per lb. only. 
If my figures for value ore deduced correctly 
we must certainly not expect the people of the U. 
States to buy our fine teas until they have become 
eduoated up to thoin, Mr, Bineo ought, be 
this time, to be able to fell us if it is true 
that about 8d per lb. represents the average whole- 
sale price in America: if so it is astoundingly low 
seeing that no duty on tea is levied there ! and 
if in 1889 there were again, as in 1888, 84 mil- 
lion of lb. imported and at a cost of 12 million 
dollars only, then the value per lb. was in 1889 
only about 14 cents, or say about Cfd per lb.! 
It is very evident from the fact of the people 
of the U. S. now paying almost double the value 
for the coffee they drink compared to what they 
did in 1884, that they only require to have the right 
kind of tea placed before them to buy it greedily: 
any way money apparently seems to be no obstacle. 
Like the people of England they are doubtless 
rapidly refusing to drink the cheap and nasty teas 
now being sent to them by China and Japan ; and 
when they can get pure Ceylon tea at a moderate 
price and icnow how to brew it, we may expect to see 
the consumption go up by leaps and bounds. Mr. 
B. E. Bineo should hurry up and never mind 
OOLONGS. 
[To which we add that Mr. Bineo should try 
and get at the millions among European emi- 
grants, regular tea drinkers, who have passed into 
the United States since 1859 say, and who should 
still know good tea when they sea .and try it. — 
Ed. T. A.] 
THE GAME PRESERVATION MOVEMENT. 
Outstation, March 1st. 
Sib, — In running over the list of persons who bave 
joined the Game Breservation Association, I was very 
much surprised' to find that only three Oivil Servants 
have given their support to the object in view; end 
tnat not a single native sportsman (of whom thrre 
are very many in the island) has apparently been 
asked to co-operate. I fully believe that if the latter 
had been approached on the subject, very many, who 
hold the same views on the subject of sport, as 
European sportsmen, would, I doubt not, have 
gladly worked shoulder to shou'der with those who 
originated the movement. I tn'y trust that my view 
as regards the exclusion of native sportsmen is not 
correct. 
I daresay it will be some months before we can 
expect a special legislative enactment to be passed 
on the lines suggested by the Association, or on 
the basis of the very able Report laid before the 
Legislative Council by the Commission headed by 
Major-General Lennox. In the meanwhile, it is 
hoped tbat those Oivil Servants who hold office 
in such well-known game centres as Anuradha- 
pnra, Mannar, Jaffca, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Ham- 
baulota, Matara, Tangalla, Puttalam, Chilaw, Kurune- 
galn, and Yavuniyauvilankulam will see that the existing 
law (though very defective in some respects) is enforced 
and that their petty headmen do not connive with 
the native sportsmen of their villages in the extinc- 
tion of one of the sources of the food supply of 
the Colony. It is, I believe, not generally known 
that tbe Government Agent or Assistant Agent of 
each Broviuce or District holds every month a kind 
of durbar of all the headmen under him when ques- 
tions of irrigation, forest preservation, crime &c. are 
discussed. Would it be out of place if these Civil 
Servants would make it a point, on such occasions, 
to impress ou the minds of their headmen the pressing 
necessity of observing a close time and enforcing 
the clauses of the existing Game Preservation 
Ordinance? This might bo done till a more satisfactoiy 
ordinance is passed by our Legislature. I believe it 
will be best for the Association to communicate with 
all the Civil Servants iu the island, asking them 
to form branch associations in their districts. These 
might hold their meetings a fortnight or so betore 
tbe mi eting of the parent Association, and the re- 
solutions p.issed by them might be forwarded for 
consideration and discussion at the general meeting 
to be held at Nuwara Eliya. — Yours faithfully, 
NIMKOD. 
