442 
fME tROPICAL AGftlCULTUftlST. [January i, 1889. 
concluded that the elected members, representing 
the different Parishes, will, by that time, have 
ascertained the wishes of their constituents, and 
oohie fully prepared to legislate on such an important 
subject. 
. In Kingston a new Council has been elected, and 
Mr. Jackson, a lawyer, has been chosen as Mayor. 
Let us hope the change will be for the better, and 
that the most important matters of proper drainage 
and sewerage of the town, and the building of a ship- 
quay and dock, will be taken in hand. To show how 
little public spirit and patriotism there is in Jamaica, 
the fact that not half of those who had votes to elect 
members of Council took the trouble to come and 
vote, and also that many suitable men who were 
elected refused to serve, speaks for itself. 
We are to have an ' assistant" Bishop, as our 
present Bishop, Dr. Enos Nuttall, is far from strong, 
and very much overworked. The Venerable Aroh- 
deacon C. F. Donet, si. a., of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, was unanimously chosen by the Synod 
and went home by the last packet to be ordained. 
W. S. 
COFFEE AND GEEEN BUG : 
A SYMPOSIUM OF PLANTING AUTHORITIES : A VARIETY 
OF OPINIONS. 
A well-known Udapussellawa planter put a ques- 
tion to us some weeks ago which we scarcely felt 
competent to answer. We accordingly asked the 
opinion of a number of visiting agents and residential 
estate managers in different districts still having 
to do with coffee ; and the result, though soarcely 
so encouraging as we had hoped, is worthy of being 
put on record at this period of our planting history. 
Our friend originally wrote to us : — 
" Do you think, reasoning from analogy, there is a 
probability of this green bug coming to an end, after 
it has run a course of a certain number of 
generations ? 
" That is my belief : Can you support it in any way ? 
It does not kill cultivated coffee, and when estates 
are half in tea, they could afford to wait until the 
evil had past its worst and was on the decline. 
" Any sane man can see that coffee will soon be 
worth its weight in gold." 
On this a well known Visiting Agent remarks : — 
"The att ack of green bug this year in Dikoya and Mas- 
keliya is not so general and not so virulent as last sea- 
son. In Dimbula also it is less prevalent, and in the old 
districts, the little coffee left is comparatively freeofit. 
The above iacts certainly favour the assumption that 
the pest is on the decline, although it appears to me ra- 
ther premature to jump to conclusions. Green bug has 
killed cultivated coffee." 
Another "V. A." and resident Manager sends us a 
long letter on the subject as follows : — 
" WILL GREEN BUG LEAVE US? 
ANALOGOUSLY considered. 
" Km, — I have soon the note for your paper iu which 
a well-kuown Udapunsellawa planter inquires whether 
there ia any likelihood of the green bug, which at- 
tacks coffee, coming to an end? 
"I believe the worst pests which trouble modern agri- 
culture, indeed I may say trouble mankind, are those 
which I shall call 'exotic,' and that there may be 
no waut of clearness iu what I mean I will give a 
few illustrations. Ageratum and lautaua are both 
exotics, also that widespread wild and very beauti- 
ful sunflower or marigold that may now be seen 
growing alongside our leads throughout the length 
and breadth of the Central Province. The plague 
which ravaged Europe eomo centuries ago, and which 
appears now to have died out, and the cholera are 
both of the aame nature : .they having arisen 
in the east and travelled westward. These 
are all governed by the same general laws and 
struggle for their existence in much the same manner 
as we do ourselves and our cultivated plants; but I 
must return to my exotic theory. 
" It is generally well known now that in South America, 
from whence we obtain vanilla, there is an insect 
provided with the means of fertilizing the flowers, 
while here in Ceylon there are no insects so provided ; 
consequently only those mature here which by means 
of wind and other indirect causes are for tuitously ferti- 
lized. All this goes to show how necessary is the condition 
of our surroundings to our lives and the welfare of our 
plants and animals. The smallest germ may 
produce the direst disease. Tapeworm may 
assume two or three different forms in which 
it can enter the human system. I cannot tell you 
to how many millions an original aphis can increase 
in an incredibly short time if its surroundings are 
favourable ; neither can I tell you how many millions 
of aphides a few thousand ladybirds can suck, as 
schoolboys suck gooseberries in the same period of 
time, but I believe the number has been recorded. 
" This green bug, which has troubled us so much, 
belongs to a family whose habits are very similar 
to the aphis family, and it is assailed by much the 
same kind of enemy, who looks him over, chooses a 
nice spot, and then sucks him dry. There are doubt- 
less many other insects and fungi who, had they the 
chance, would probably treat him even more roughly, 
and I wish for your Udapussellawa friend that I could 
find the right individual to introduce. 
" All this tends to show that there is a balance in 
nature corresponding to our so-called balance of 
power in Europe, only deranged when some being 
runs ' amok' as did Napoleon Bonaparte nearly 100 
years ago, and it is the adjustment of this that is 
wanted when coffee is so heavily handicapped with 
the green bug. Nature's equipoise has been overcome 
for the time. 
"My theory of leaf disease and green bug is, that 
both have been introduced into Ceylon in some wardian 
case, maybe at Peradeniya, arriving possibly upon the 
most improbable plant,* without their natural enemy, 
so when let lose again have had their undue share of 
prosperity. The same applies to ageratum and lantana. 
If their natural and indigenous enemies could only 
form a part of their environment, their demise, 
or at least their blatant audacity would 
be followed by the most retiring modesty. An in- 
stance we have in tho introduction of the rabbit into 
Australia without its natural enemy the fox. Were the 
fox and the weasel both introduced along with the 
rabbit, it would probably have been kept within bounds ; 
the one would make the rabbit " he out ". and then 
the fox would fall upon him. Unfortunately, the 
latter has a partiality for lambs, and this prevents its 
being favourably regarded. 
" Coffee, like an oak, a man, or a butterfly, has its 
allotted period of life ; a time comes to all when 
their tissues are worn out and they die, — this we call 
old age. Their lives too are affected by the vicissi- 
tudes accidental to them in the struggle for existence. 
With man there are diseases which Life Assurance 
offices consider shorten life, even after recovery appears 
secured ; this also is the case with plants and animals. 
Green bug at first was so intense iu form and cha- 
racter as in sime instances causing immediate death 
to coffee ; it is, however, not as insidious as leaf-dis- 
ease, so there is more hope for its subjection through 
many enemies which subsist upon it ; thus wherever 
its appearance has not resulted in prompt and irremedi- 
able evil, these would remain, and if they do not 
destroy it altogether would keep it within such bounds 
as to be more or less under human control ; neither 
do I consider green bug has the same power for evil 
when its enemies are established amongst it as it had 
at the beginning of its attack. The a phides and 
* This is contrary to tho opinion of the late Dr. 
Thwaites, a most learned mycologist, who dis- 
tinctly stated that llemileia vastatnx existed in the 
jungles of Ceylon (in which there are trees of the 
family to which coffee belongs) in a latent form, 
before it got upon the cultivated coffee. — En. 
