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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i 1887. 
AN ENEMY OF COFFEE. 
Coonoor, July 9th, 1887. 
Dear Sie, — By this mail I send you a small tin 
box containing what is to us a new insect, adhering 
to coffee and fig leaves. 
Could you kindly name them ; and info rm me 
if they are themselves injurious to coffee, or are 
allied to injurious insects? — Yours truly, AV. E. J. 
[A mealy bug belonging to the family Coccidae 
(scale insect). — S.G.] 
TEA VAN COEE , — STILL TO THE FOEE ! 
Pisgah, Trevandum, 13th July 1887. 
Dear Sir, — I appear before you, and (if you 
please) through you, before the world, to ask for 
a little attention to the interests of the planters 
in Travancore. Though few in number, and located 
in a place which looks small at one extremity 
of the map of India, they are of too great im- 
portance to allow the busy affairs of this world 
to pass on without asserting their share of in- 
fluence in them. True it is that for some years 
past they have not done themselves justice in 
keeping their doings before the public ; and thus 
they have deprived the reading world in general, 
and yourself, Mr. Editor, in particular, of all the 
benefits which might have been received by the 
report of things here. 
I therefore feel bound to assure all concerned, 
that the planting enterprise in Travancore has not 
dropped out of the world. It is admitted that 
there has been depression here as elsewhere : but 
it can also be asserted that there is much worth 
knowing, and that the planters in Travancore 
are making up to the determination of showing 
that they can well hold up their heads among 
the larger numbers of their brethren, wherever and 
whatever they may be. 
I hope soon to be able to present to you for 
publication a good statistical account of the estates 
in Travancore, and the work on them : and I 
write this letter as merely introductory. 
In this country, as in Ceylon, tea is taking 
the place of coffee ; and I have an extract be- 
fore me which gives good reason to hope that 
success awaits the cultivation of tea in Travancore. 
In Messrs. Wilson, Smithett & Co.'s circular, May 
1887, they say : "A small shipment of unassorted 
Travancore from Seafield estate offered this week 
showed most excellent quality and strength ; and 
realized the full price of Is. 7d. per lb. The teas 
from this district will undoubtedly become popular, 
if due regard is paid to manufacture ; they possess 
a flavour very similar to that of Ceylon tea, which 
is often combined with the strength of Assam." 
I may add that tea from Conmudi estate realized 
about Is. 4d. in the London market. Au revoir. — 
Yours faithfully, JOHN COX, Chairman, 
Travancore Planters' Association. 
[We shall be very glad to publish the promised 
information about a district in which Ceylon planters 
have ever taken a deep interest (since the days 
when the Grants and the Frasers sought fresh 
fields in Southern India. Has our correspondent 
noticed that Mr. Berry White in his Jubilee 
Lecture on tea declared the Travancore soil to be 
superior to that of Ceylon. — Ed.] 
Coffee in Java. — It will be seen from the 
Netherlands Indian news quoted from the Straits 
Times in another column that the Government 
coffee crop in Java is estimated at only half a 
million piculs for this year, the cause of this 
decrease being leaf disease. We hope that the 
Dutch planters will not be misled by the statement 
of a French journal quoted by the Deli Courant 
as to the immunity of Liberian coffee from hemileia : 
experience in Ceylon has not borne this out. 
Prospects of the Jote Chop in Bengal. —The re- 
port to the end of June 1887 is as follows: — 
"On the whole, so far as can be judged of at preeent, 
it may be said that the area sown this year is about 
ten per cent, above that of last year; and taking 
into consideration the facts that the area sown is 
above the normal and that the deficient outturn 
caused by floods in some districts will be counter- 
balanced by the bumper yield in others, it may 
be expected that the total outturn will be a full 
average. Much will, however, depend on the distrib- 
ution of rainfall in the latter half of July and be 
ginning of August." 
Coca and Cinchona. — Eecently Dr. H. H. 
Eusby gave an interesting account before the Aca- 
demy of Sciences of a trip across the Continent 
of South America. He was sent out by a pro- 
minent drug firm to make a special study of coca 
and cinchona. He landed on the west coast at 
Arica in Chili, crossed the Andes on foot to La 
Paz reaching the head waters of the Madeira Eiver, 
down which he floated until he met the Amazon, 
which carried him to the coast. He was absent 
two years, during one of which he was supposed 
to have been lost, as no word was heard from him. 
He had a tough time of it with the natives. The 
scientific world, however, has been the gainer. Dr. 
Eusby brought back 60,000 specimens of plants, a 
large number of which are new to science ; several 
thousands specimens of birds and larger animals. 
Among his discoveries was a new specimen of fish 
which has regular teeth, set in sockets, is carni- 
vorous in its habits and regularly masticates its 
food. Another species kills its prey by a blow or 
stab of its pectoral fin, which is connected with 
a poison sack. Columbia College has given Prof. 
Eusby a room for the preparation and classification 
of his collection which work will require several 
years. — American Grocer, June 8th, 
" The Young Tfa Planter's Companion. " — 
The literature of tea planting and manufacture is 
becoming abundant. The latest addition to the 
Bibliography of Tea is " The Young Tea Planter's 
Companion, a Practical Treatise on the Manage- 
ment of a Tea Garden in Assam." The author is 
Mr. F. T. E. Deas, nephew of the Lord of Session 
of the same name, to whom the work is dedicated. 
Although prepared for the latitude and local cir- 
cumstances of Assam and laying down the rule 
that all pruning should be finished in January, if 
possible, there is much in the little book which 
is of general interest and usefulness. It is pub- 
lished for the benefit of "supernumerary as- 
sistants " suddenly raised to the charge of a garden 
and who have had little chance of working out 
estimates, &c. Amongst the matter are full instruc- 
tions regarding buildings, illustrated by drawings. 
We notice that there is a special appendix devoted to 
praise of Greig's " XL all " tea machinery, which 
has long been to us as puzzling a problem as the 
Sphinx, Prose passes into poetry in the engin- 
eer's own description of his machines, 
" With his hair on end, 
At his own wonders wondering," 
and now Mr. Deas says they work sweetly, bu 
where ? We have never seen one at work or 
heard of it in Ceylon, except in a mysterious re- 
ference to Messrs. Brown & Co. The machines 
are exceedingly cheap, and if they are equal to the de- 
scriptions given of them, why did Messrs. Davies & Co., 
Messrs. Brown & Co., and the maker never succeed in 
introducing them to Ceylon factories ? We may 
notice Mr. Deas' book further when we have 
had time to go oyer the varied contents. 
