194 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
the flood by introducing new varieties of coffee, and 
whar. was known as L b rian coffee was planted. The 
Liberiau variety has a much larger bean than the Arabica, 
but it has a bitter taste. The experiment was a failure, 
as the Liberian trees showed the disease just as badly 
as the Arabica. 
When the disease was at its height in Ceylon the 
Java people and the Brazilians denied that they were 
afflicted at all, and they induced the dealers in Europe 
and this country to believe them. They either did not 
know the symptoms of the disease they had, or they 
had some ulterior motive in denying it. They have con- 
tinued to strenuously deny the existence of the disease 
on their plantations up to a very recent date, and they 
have been supported by many of the dealers ; but their 
game, for whatever purpose they played it, is played 
out, and it is now a universally acknowledged fact that 
the disease is everywhere, and that it shows no signs 
whatever of abating its virulence, and that, moreover, 
it is as bad in Brazil and Java as it is and has been for 
years in Oeylon. 
A few years ago a syndicate was formed among 
some New York men, prominent among whom were 
Jay Gould and ex-Senator Dorsey, for the purpose of 
acquiring a large tract of land in New Mexico and 
opening it up with coffee, which will no doubt 
grow there. The writer was consulted as a pract- 
ical planter as to the feasibility of the project, 
and he gave it as his opinion, and he is of 
the same opinion still, that as a speculation 
it would never grow to pay. In the first place, as 
long as the hemileia lasts, and it will probably last for 
ever, you could never obtain healthy plants, and in 
the next place to grow coffee profitably you must have 
an abundant supply of cheap labour. This was what 
favoured Ceylon, as she had an inexhaustible supply 
of cheap labour to draw from the neighbouring con- 
tinent of India, and planters could hire all the men 
they required at an average of 15 cents per man per 
diem and 12 cents for women. 
In New Mexico all the labour would have to be im- 
ported at great cost. Then there is not sufficient work 
to keep all hands employed during the entire year. 
It is only in crop time that you can work a full 
frrce. The coffee berry may ripen up in a single 
night and acres become "blood red." If it is not 
at once picked it becomes " dead-ripe " and drops 
to the ground, where it is lost. What will be the 
end of all this is hard to tell. The writer's opinion, 
and, as has been said, he has had experience of the 
disease from the outset, is that in course of time it 
will eventually kill coffee entirely. — Chicago Morning 
News, June 7th. 
[Coffee diseases are numerous and virulent in Brazil, 
but we have no evidence that hemileia vastatrix las 
as yet reached the Western Continent. — Ed.] 
♦ 
HEMILEIA VASTATEIX. 
Dr. A. G. Bourne, Professor of Biology in the 
Tre idency College, sends us the following interesting 
communication on the subject of Hemileia vastatrix: — 
Sir, — "Novice," in your issues of the 26th ultimo, 
and 9th instant, has dealt with a subject which is 
not only of immeasurable importance to the coffee 
planter, but is one which possesses great interest 
) or the biologist. It is a subject upon which it is as 
important to have the opinion — based upon a series 
of careful experiments of a trained biologist — as it 
is to have that of a chemist upon the operations car- 
ried on by bleachers or dyers. The Ceylon Govern- 
ment recognised this, and Mr. Morris, and subsequ- 
ently Mr. Marshall Ward, were appointed to invest- 
igate the matter. This they did and after a prolonged 
and very careful enquiry communicated certain 
results, which are all embodied in Mr. Marshall Ward's 
final report to I lie Ceylon Government [Colombo, 
■Sessional Taper XVII., '18811. I think it is hardly 
possible that your correspondent has not seen this 
report but his letters shew a startling disregard of 
its contents 
[ would not for a moment lose sight of the fact 
Hi it is one ilnng to try certain experiments in a 
laboratory and quite another to repeat the same on a 
plantation. But Mr. Ward did more than record his 
laboratory experiments, he pointed out the possible 
application of the facts he had ascertained, and until 
all the planters of any one district have united to- 
gether and given his suggestions a fair trial, I main- 
tain that they have not used the advantages offered 
to them. Your correspondent does not distinguish 
between the disease and the organism which causes 
it. The organism is a fungus. Hemileia vastatrix, the 
spores of this fungus, fall upon the leaf and the fila- 
ments growing from them pass through the stomata 
on the under surface and ramify in the substance 
of the leaf, and until this occurs there is no "dis- 
organised appearance," there is, in short no disease. 
A healthy leaf on a healthy plant is just as liable to be 
attacked as any other. The leaf, after being badly 
attacked falls off, and when many leaves are thus 
lost the plant, with its limited leaf area, cannot meet 
the demand of the fruit or seed. A bush which has 
been attacked cannot therefore bear as much fruit as 
a healthy plant, and so long as there are not enough 
leaves no amount of manure, as your correspondent 
says, will do any good unless it is assimilated, but it 
will help to form new leaves, and so enable the bush 
to assimilate more of it. If the leaves are attacked 
by the fungus they will fall off whether the bush 
grows in the shade or in the sun. It may be ad- 
vpntageous to grow coffee under shade for other reasons, 
but there is nothing to shew that shade, by virtue 
of its retarding the metabolic functions of the leaf, 
has any effect upon the parasitic fungus. What is 
wanted is tojprevent the spores of the Hemileia vnxta- 
trix from getting at the leaf at all. The spores are 
blown on to the leaves by the wind either from other 
infected estates or from some other plant (at present 
we are in the dark as to what plant this is) which 
serves as a host for the fungus in a wild state. All 
shelter belts from wind then are likely to prevent the 
disease spreading. Cinchona grown among the coffee 
is probably useful in this respect. Further, where the 
disease is actually prevalent the diseased leaves (on 
which new spores are being rapidly formed) must be 
gathered as soon as they fall and carried in carefully 
closed (so that the wind may not scatter the spores) 
vessels to some place where they can be buried, to- 
gether with the weeds growing among the infected 
coffee aud the prunings, caustic lime being thrown 
over them and all left undisturbed for several months, 
until the spores shall have perished. Manure is no 
cure when the bushes are attacked, the fungus uses the 
manure, and thrives upon it just as much as the plant; 
it does, however, enable the tree to put forth new 
leaves and so to better afford the sacrifice of the 
attacked leaves. The fungus seems most easily to 
penetrate the young leaves, and Mr. Ward has- made 
suggestions which might prove valuable as to the poss- 
ibility of manuring and pruning so as to arrange that 
large masses of young foliage are not present when 
either monsoon bursts, as it is then that the spores 
seem to be specially carried long, distances. If " An- 
other Novice," whose letter appeared in your issue of 
the 9th instaut, has not read Mr. Ward's report I would 
strongly advise him to do so. — Madras Mail. 
[Dr. Bourne's article is a favourable contrast to the 
pedantic array of learned verbiage in the letters he 
notices. But the Professor errs in supposing that the 
planters in Ceylon did not, individually and in com- 
bination, do all that men could do. But all was in 
vain aud apparently all will be in vain, until the fungus 
and coffee disappear together. — Ed.] 
THE BBAZIL COFFEE CBOP 
for the year ended June 1887 is thus noticed by 
the Rio Neios; — 
The coffee-crop year just ^finished must have been 
extremely favourable to the planter, and the speculat- 
ive movement, so largely participated in by parties 
here, must have left a handsome sum to the credit 
of Rio, even after deducting the considerable losses 
made in June. July opened with prices of Ordinary 
1st at 5$750 per urroba and exchange 20 15s 16d 
