October i, 1888.J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
271 
Correspondence. 
To the Editor. 
CACAO AND ITS ENEMIES: 
Kandy, 4th Sept.* 1888. 
Deab Sir, — In your issuo of August 29th appears 
a letter signed " Pottinger," accusing your corre- 
spondent, "Peppercorn," of want of experience upon 
the subject of cacao, thus inferentially denying 
tho truth of his statements re that product. The 
letter which seems to have aroused "Pottinger" 's 
ire montions that a new pest is attacking the 
young cacao pods by biting round the stalks and 
so causing the pods to wither and fall. This 
insect whose ravages " Pepperoorn" correctly 
describes is the girdler (Oncider.es cingulalus). Pro- 
fessor Haldeman in the Pennsylvania Farm Journal 
says : — " This insect was first described by Say in the 
Journal of Vie Academy of Natural Sciences in 
1825, and its habits were discovered by us and 
published in our ' Materials towards a History of 
the Coleoptera Longicornia of the|United States, 1837.' 
In our walks through the forest our attention 
was frequently drawn to the branches and main 
shoots of young hickory trees, which were girdled 
with a derp notch in such a manner as to induce 
an observer to believe that the object in view was 
to kill the branch beyond the notch, and, extra- 
ordinary as it may appear, this is actually the 
fact, an.l tho operator is an insect whose instinct 
was implanted by the Almighty power who created 
it, and under such circumstances that it could 
never have been acquired as a habit. The effect 
of girdling is unknown to the insect, whose life 
is too short to foresee the necessities of its pro- 
geny during the succeeding season." 
Duncan, the well-known geologist and naturalist, 
writing of tho girdling propensities of the Oncideres, 
says :— " Now what is tho reason that the beetle 
should cut away the branch ? If it is that which 
i.; usually considered to be true by naturalists, it 
is a moat wonderful instance of superior instinct. 
It id supposed that tho branch is cut off in order 
to prevent an unusual supply of sap flowing into 
it, or with a viow of diminishing the amount of 
Bp circulating generally in the branch. Were 
tho incision not made through the bark and the flow 
of the sap not checked tho larvm would suffer from 
too groat abundance of liquid in their immediate 
neighbourhood ; and tho diminution of the sap is 
necessary for the perfection of the metamorphoses." 
I have carefully examined several pods thus treated 
by thin insect, but havo not been able to find larvio 
in any of them. Sullice it to say that it is one more 
onomy of tho cacao, and, from tho amount of pods re- 
cently destroyed here, an enemy to bo feared. " Pott- 
inger " says :— " Let anyone visit at this present any 
properly -constituted cacao estate, and see the enormous 
crop, remembering also tho fearful droughts which 
have been undergone." I havo just roturnod from a trip 
in other cacao districts and I find that, liko here, 
they havo had any amount of blossom, but that 
very littlo has set and that the trees look so sickly 
ana yollow that it is an open question how much 
of that already set will come to maturity, and that 
there is every likelihood of crops being exceedingly 
short this year. 
As for tho concluding paragraph of " Pottinger " 's 
letter, that thero is absolutely nothing in Ceylon 
(and vary few things elsewhere) worthy oven to touch 
the latohct of tho shoos of caeao, he can hardly 
expoct that to bo taken seriously. Tho facts of tho 
' .ipp.'iir to ii-, follow:: Prior to ism the 
onoiio trin grew luxuriantly and judging from tiros 
already in bearing 5 ewt. per acre aoomod a fair 
and wodurato ostiuiato of crop to bo expeotod in the 
Oth year. In 1881 however a disease attacked the 
cacao tree, several estates went out very quickly 
and the surviving estates assumed a very shuck ap- 
pearance. This was attributed by some to the 
drought of that year, but the fact remains that the 
trees havo never rocovered their earlier look, nor 
have they given anything approaching tho 5 cwt. 
we so confidently expected. Let any one look at the 
exports of cacao for the last four years, and he will 
see that 2 cwt. per acre is not realized. 
My opinion is that, grown in good soil, well shaded 
and sheltered, from 1.} to 2h cwt. per acre may bo 
expected from cacao in tho 7th year, which would 
certainly leave a margin of profit, but nothing to 
warrant " Pottinger" 's extravagant eulogy.— I am, 
sir, yours truly, CACAO PLANTER. 
P. S.—l enclose my card. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN DIMBULA. 
Henfold, Lindula, 12th Sept. 1888. 
Dear Sir, — In sending you figures I did not pretend 
to have had my cinchona trees counted, and I know 
that many in this district did what I did, viz., sent 
a statement of what I thought I had, and tho 
wish I fear was father to the thought. I am now 
sure that I greatly overestimated, and yet Hen- 
fold is a show cinchona estate. Again how many 
deaths have occurred since the return was sent to 
you? And no planting to speak of has been done 
for years, and self-sown plants come to nothing ! 
And how many estates since then have been almost 
cleared of cinchona, and some of those places that 
had the most? Kindly inform me the date of the 
last return made to you, and oblige, yours truly, 
GEO. BECK. 
P.S. — I fear from what Mr. Mackwood tells 
me, — he has just left me, — that it is a borer that 
attacks my Toona trees. They are not the hard 
red Toona. We have them also, and they are not 
attacked. 
[Our cinchona returns were generally dated this 
year from March onwards. We are, however, about 
to tako steps to have certain districts checked, 
and we trust planters will do all they can to aid 
us. — It is interesting to learn that in Mr. Beck's 
case the insects have discriminated and confined 
their attention to the white toons. Those we are 
cultivating and recommending are the red variety. 
Dr. Trimen's communication shows that even these 
can be attacked, but that the attacks are of little 
consequence, as tho boring is confined to the tender 
branchlets, the trunk and large branches not being 
touched. Wo take it for granted that even tho 
white toons have the borers only on the tender 
shoots? So long as that is the case, the effects 
will only alter the character of the foliage, and 
Dr. Trimen does not believe the insects will atta jk 
our cultivated plants. — En.] 
BORERS IN CF.DEELA TOONA. 
Kintyre, 15th September 1888. 
Sir,— On this estate every toon tree was attacked 
when about 15 to 18 months old, although thoy 
wore only planted hore and there through tho 
estate. The grubs grow to about 1 inch long at 
largest, and each tree contained from 3 to 20 of 
them. I coppiced every trco below the grub holes, 
and burnt tho grubs, but in three months' time, 
when tho coppicod trocs threw out now shoots, 
the grubs camo back at onco in swarms, so I re- 
luctantly rootcl out and burnt all the trees. The 
grubrt were of a white color, with red hnir on thoiu 
whon they grew to a largo si/.o, tho smaller ones hav- 
ing littlo if any hair observable 
