January i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
447 
+ 
To the Editor. 
THE OPENING FOR CEYLON TEA IN 
SOUTH AUSTRALIA : -PRACTICAL 
PROPOSALS. 
Gawler Place, Adelaide, S. Australia, 
19th Nov. 1888. 
Leak Sih, — I have noticed in your Overland issue 
just to hand the proposal to send a Christmas 
box of Ceylon toa to all tho editors in America, 
and further that it h> s been also suggested to do 
the Hame in Australia. Now as regards S. Australia, 
there are only about 4.0 editors, the cost would not 
be much to send each of them a 3 lb. bos of tea, 
with pamphlet, giving a brief description of the 
tea industry from the commencement which would 
prove interesting in itself, and would undoubtedly 
cause notice to be oaken. 
We have found very satisfactory results from 
sending 1 lb. packets to private families, which has 
paid much better than all Ihe advertising done 
from time to time. 
As regards distribution for South Australia, we 
are willing to take it up on tho following terms : — 
That the tea be put in A lb. boxes ; quality — a 
good pekoo or pekoe souchong. We agree to pay 
half the cost including freight and insurance, the 
duty and other charges on this side to be paid by 
us. And for the supply of further orders it must 
be understood ihe pamphlet to bear our namo 
and address, so that all orders would come through 
us. Should the Planters' Association see fit to 
agree to the abovo, we shall forward a draft for 
our share with as little delay as possible. — We 
remain, yours faithfully, DRUMMOND BROS. 
AN INSECT ENEMY OP TEA. 
Dolosbage, 24th Nov. 1888. 
1 1 1 ais. Sik, -L>y the post that takes this to you 
I send you a matchbox containing some insect 
poochio which I took off one of these estates and 
which appears to bo doing sad destruction to tho 
tea plants amongst which I found it : fully an 
aero had deen destroyed by it. The leavc9 on evory 
tree that it attacked wore completely riddled as if 
idiot at by the finest sized shot, and were covered 
with a bright yellow tinge, something tho colour 
of that created by Hemileia vastatrix. They also 
appeared as if spiders had been over them, and 
many of them were mere skeletons, and quite like 
a gossamer web. There were some gedumba 
trees in the neighbourhood, largo one3 that were 
full of tho insect, and the wholo tree looked as if 
a searching lire had passed over it, tho leaves all 
dropping on ; every pieeo of vegetation that it 
attaokod was a pitiful sight to soe. I notiec too 
thai it is quickly ami greatly increasing ; some 
measures huvo been taken to stop it, but not 
sufficient to arrest its progress. 
After a few tine days we havo tho rain on us 
ngain, but it will do good, ns Hushing appears 
much retarded sinco the wane of tho moon. — 
Yours faithfully, BLIGHT. 
[" Tho leaves sent aro covered with tho cast 
skins of a spocios of hairy caterpillar which 
I am Doable to identify in this state. ' Blight' 
better send live specimens." So says our scientific 
referee. Meantime tho Dolosbage planters concernod 
should tako stops at once to destroy tho gedumba 
trees from which the insect is said to have spread. 
Tho insect looks like a " groon lly," but farther 
live spooirnoud are necessary to identification, -Ei>. 
THE HAPUTALE MOTHS. 
Haputale, Below tho Pass, 27th November 1888. 
Duau Sib, — During the pa«t few days there have 
been thousands, perhaps millions, of moths like the 
enclosed Hitting about amongst the coffee affected 
by green bug. 
It has occurred to me to send you these specimens, 
in the hope that your friend Mr. Green may bo able 
to enlighten us as to the object of their mission. 
Are they destined to eat up or spread the bug? 
Or are they simply enjoying a short and merry 
life without doing either good or harm?— Yours 
truly, AN OLD COFFEE TREE. 
[Mr. A. P. Green reports : — " A small moih be- 
longing to the Tineidce, not likely to affect tho green 
bug in any way." — Ed.] 
GREEN BUG. 
December 5 th, 1888. 
Deak Sib, — Considering the time which has 
elapsed since the so-called "highest cultivated" 
coffee districts of Ceylon have been dead— killed by 
green bug — it is astounding to see this question in 
print :— " Does bug kill cultivated coffee ?" Surely 
the gentleman who proffers it, has suddenly awa- 
kened from a trance of many years' duration ! He 
is marvellously behind the times. Unfortunately, 
experience knows too well that wheresoever the 
highest cultivation obtained, there the collapse, 
under green bug, was of the most abject kind ; such 
coffee, for instance, which one sees in the neigh- 
bourhood of coolies' lines, proving in this respect 
absolutely the most contemptible ! One season 
was sufficient. Upon the other hand, the few 
ghostly, desultory coffee sticks which linger through- 
out the districts which were first visited by bug 
apparently owe their existence still to the fact 
that they havo been left severely alone; partici- 
pating only in the weeding, which, however, i3 not 
done upon their account. 
In this connection, there may, awhile, come a little 
coffee from Uva, the constitution of its trees not 
having been utterly wrecked by castor cake and bone 
dust rt. hoc. And for this brief reprieve, thankful- 
ness should be due, that the means, whereby the 
vast majority of coffee properties met their 
ruin 15 years before their timo was withheld: 
thero was no railway to Uva.* A fragile thread of 
hope is clung to and hails from the higher districts : 
it is that ''bug is not so bad this Beaton aa last, 
and appears to be wearing out." Is it? It thus 
so seemed in the lower districts last year, but fi 
months of renewed excessive virulence have since 
divided tho wretched fragments which remained 
by 2. -Thoro is no hope for coffee. This is how a 
valuer of a nowadays " coffee estate " would net: 
he would ostimatc tho valuo of the crop upon the 
trees, adding thereto the " prairie " value of the 
land — prico RIO per acre — which would be con- 
sidered, with a possiblo view to being put under 
tea by-and-bye. But upon tho coffee treet he would 
not put tho value of one cent per acre, so long a> 
the improbable supposition that they would not bo 
dead, months hence, was not guaranteed by 
anything more substantial than "hope." Were, 
ho to act otherwise, his proper place would bo in 
a lunatic asylum. The gentleman who lays 
down this profound opinion— "That greon bug is 
duo to sour soil, indue d by hand w< i'uin<:" adds 
one more item to tho volumes of rubbish which have 
been printed in Ceylon for 20 yoars in connection 
with suchliko kindred subjocts. 
" Our correspondent is wtll-kiiuwu »> n |>riiu-u au;i iitf 
oyuios!— Ed. C. O. 
