3* 
-r'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, tfut,* 1, 1887, 
to save their remaining trees, if possible, from 
the ravages of the green bug. An effort should 
be made to tempt some leading Europ- 
ean scientist to visit our island with this ob- 
ject. A guarantee fund should be at once started 
and an offer made to pay the scientist's travelling 
expenses and in addition the further sum of two 
thousand pounds if he could show us how to con- 
quer our latest and deadliest enemy without in- 
juring our trees. If a cure could not be found, 
the proportion to be paid by each proprietor would 
be so small as not to be worth consideration. 
Even if five thousand pounds were offered for a 
cure it would be a good investment. A pound an 
acre would, I suppose, cover even this seemingly 
large sum. On these lines I am prepared to 
guarantee TWO HUNDBED POUNDS. 
P.S. — The price of Ceylon coffee must surely 
shortly further advance and very considerably. The 
latest quotation wired from London is reported to 
be 104/, against in May 1885 61/; against in May 
1886 63/. This is simply ridiculous 1 Even Java 
coffee has, in the past twelve months, risen from 
25 oents to 57 cents, and during the past two years 
Bio coffee has about trebled itself in value. After 
writing the above I hear that Rio coffee has made 
a still further advance at New York. 
Further extract from E. & B.'s Circular 18th 
November 1886. 
"Coffee (the circular commenced thus) : — " It has 
been truly remarked that during the past ten to 
fifteen years, three different epochs in the history of 
coffee, stand out far from the other in an exception- 
ally plain manner 
" 1st. The epoch of underproduction, when good 
average Santos ranged from 100 to 143 francs. 
" 2nd. The epoch of balanced production and con- 
sumption, when good average Santos ranged from 
70 to 100 francs.' 
" 3rd. The epoch of overproduction, when good 
average Santos ranged from 40 to 60 francs. 
Well, as regards the above, we are a long way yet 
from 148 francs. 
COFFEE: ABOUT GEEEN BUG: PEACTICAL 
SUGGESTIONS. 
Upcountry. 
Deak Sir, — Green bug is a familiar name in the 
ears of most of us planters now, but I am afraid 
that few of us can speak of this pest with that 
amount of authority we should like. 
Discussion generally gives some of us new ideas, 
and I feel sure that your columns will be open to 
me that I may set the b \\\ rolling with a few 
observations : — 
1. In Harris's " Insects Injurious to Vegetation " 
we get a few remarks on the life history of the 
family Coccadse, to which I believe our green bug 
belongs :— 
"Early in the spring the barklice are found 
apparently torpid sticking by their flattened 
inferior surface closely to the bark ...... A little 
later on the body is more swelled, and on carefully 
raising it with a knife, numerous oblong eggs will 
be discovered beneath it and the insect appears 
dried up and dead, and only its outer skin remains, 
which forms a convex cover to its future progeny. 
Under this protecting shield the young are hatched 
and on the approach of warm weather, make their 
escape at the lower end of the shield which is 
either slightly elevated or notched at this part. 
They then move with considerable activity and 
disperse themselves over the young shoots or leaves." 
I will not take up your space further with quot- 
ations from Dr. Harris than to say that according 
to him the female having once taken up her pos 
ition remains stationary , that these pests sometime 
breed two or three times a year, and that it is prob- 
able that the insects of the last brood pair in the 
autumn after which the males die but the females 
survive and lay their eggs in the following spring. 
Now I consider these remarks of the very greatest 
interest to us, for I consider that they apply very 
closely to our green bug. 
For the last 15 months I have been watching 
green bug, and I would like to give you my ex- 
periences. Green bug first made its appearance 
here, or at least was first seen here, last March, a 
year ago. It spread a little but did not do much 
harm till July and August when it showed itself 
all over the place. 
In September and October it decreased and did 
not make its appearance in an active form till this 
February-March : it has gone on steadily since. 
Now from these premises I would draw the following 
conclusions, that it was brought here last March 
either by wind, coolies' clothes, or perhaps even on 
transport sacks. That it bred slightly for 3 months 
afterwards until in July when the second brood 
came out and nothing having been done to check 
it, it had increased and multiplied. Our cold wea- 
ther begins in October, so that this last brood of 
August did not breed till February and March this 
year, and as the cold weather kills off numbers of 
them, we are not having it so badly as we shall 
have it in July when the second brood commence work. 
Now for a few suggestions in the way of fight- 
ing the enemy : 
Firstly. — The more coolies work in affected parts, 
and go to the unaffected parts afterwards, the 
more the disease will spread, as I have no doubt 
it can be easily carried from one tree to another. 
Secondly. — I have very little faith in applying 
remedies now, as the insects swarm all over the 
tree, and it is impossible to apply any remedy 
so as to kill every insect. Of course you can check 
them but you cannot exterminate them. 
Thirdly. — There is no doubt that the right time to 
attack them is when there are fewest of them, 
This is in winter. If we prune all affected trees 
heavily during the wet weather, there is no doubt 
that numbers of females would be killed and so 
vast numbers of future generations destroyed. 
If this were first done and a careful inspection 
held at the beginning of the fine weather and 
remedies applied, I have little doubt that green 
bug could be very largely kept under. 
Lime and kerosine do undoubtedly kill off 
the pest. The only piece of coffee I have alright 
this year which was b?dly affected last year, is 
a field under our " Gap." The monsoon mist was 
constantly going over the gap and I have no 
doubt that it was too much for Mrs. Green-bus:- 
Trusting you will tbink this worthy of an ins er« 
tion in your paper, I am, dear sir, yours truly, 
A. K. U. 
PLANTS AND GEUBS. ~ 
Watagama, 28th May 1887. 
Dear Sie, — Under separate cover I am sending 
you portions of the root and stem of a tea plant, 
and shall be obliged if you will find out whether 
the grub that has hollowed out the root and stem 
so neatly is something new or something already 
well-known to you, though now turning its at- 
tention to tea. I could not find any outlet or 
hole by which the grub had got into the plant. 
— Yours very truly, N. 
[Dr. Trimen, to whom we referred, writes : — 
" Peradeniya, 4th June. — Without examining the 
borer, and your correspondent sends no specimen, 
it is <.f course quite impossible to say if it be 
new or old. But the tunnel in the wood is quite 
like the work of the larva of the moth (Zeuzcra) which 
attacks coffee and many other shrubs."— Ed.J 
