THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, i88 9 . 
A large planter, highly respected in his neighbour- 
hood, writes us from Louisiana under date Feb. 2nd, 
1888:— "Last year my agent concluded to try 'London 
Purple ' in the same manner that the planters in 
Louisiana were using Paris Green. He made bags 
about 3 in. m 18 inches long (of 8 oz. Osnaburgh) at- 
tached one to each end of a common stick 6 feet long. 
He put a man on a mnle and had this stick carried 
across the pommel of the saddle in front of him— a 
bag over each Cotton row — the motion of the mule 
caused sufficient poison to escape to destroy every 
worm on the cotton stalk. No rain fell for several 
weeks after and there was therefore no need of any 
further application of the ' London Purple.' When 
frost fell this cotton was growing and making, while 
that near by was divested of every leaf : The poison 
was applied to about 50 acres of cotton : The yield 
on this 50 acres was more than double that where no 
poison had been used. I had six hundred acres in 
cotton and estimate my loss by not applying the 
Purple to the entire crop at eight thousand dollars." 
We think therefore that unless it can be shown 
" London Purple " has been already tried in Ceylon 
and proved a failure, there is a good prima facie 
case made out for giving it a fair trial on coffee 
in reference to the destruction or even mitigation 
of " green bug." 
«, 
CEYLON UPCOTJNTBY PLANTING EEPOET : 
ME. S. ELWOOD MAY AND THE TEA FUND COMMITTEE — 
MR, MCCOMBIE MURRAY AND BR. DUKE — CHOICE OF DATE 
IN REGARD TO THE FORWARDING OF PACKETS OF TEA TO 
THE AMERICAN EDITORS — " THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY" — 
COFFEE AND ITS CHANGED METHODS OF GROWTH — LEAF 
DISEASE AGAIN — THE COMING CACAO CROP AND PRO- 
MISE OF SUCCESS — THE APPLICATION OF DILUTED KERO- 
SENE TO CINCHONA CANKER — THE ADVENT OF THE DRY 
SEASON. — THE COOLY's LOVE OF THE " FUTURE." 
14th January 1889. 
Now that Mr. S. Elwood May, who was to do so 
much for the introduction of our teas into America, 
has retired into private life, and his valiant hench- 
man Mr. Pineo has thrown up the sponge, it is 
to be presumed that the Tea Fund Committee will 
feel very much more free in working out a plan 
for the American campaign than they have done for 
some time. ' 
Mr. McCombie Murray, of course, does his best 
and is deserving of support ; but there is the scheme 
of Dr. Duke, the present of a packet of tea to 
the editors of the American papers, which seems 
to me much too valuable to be shelved. 
We have lost the opportunity of forwarding the 
present, with the Christmas greetings of the Ceylon 
planters; and to wait till another Christmas comes 
round would be a sad waste of time, in the face 
of our steadily increasing output. It is not neces- 
sary, like the Hindu religionist, to seek for an 
auspicious day ; all the same, there are times and 
seasons, and if we can hit on a happy one, so much 
the better. The 4th of July is a big day in 
America, tho anniversary of the Declaration of In- 
dependence; and, if our sample packet of tea reached 
the editor then, it would give them something 
better to write about than the usual "bunkum," 
which is so universally indulged in at that time. 
Besides this, there is a kind of historical fitness 
that tea should arrive on that day as a ,/Vee-gift 
from a British colony when we remember how 
a little more man a century ago the old country 
forced it upon the American colonists, who had 
spirit and pluck enough to throw it into the sea. 
" The Boston tea-party," as we all know, grew 
into a big thing; "it was," aB haB boen said, 
" the first spoken word of the new national spirit." 
I have little doubt that the present would be kindly 
received and commented on, would become through 
the notices widely known, and whatever the Eastern 
States might do, or whatever their predilections 
for Oolong or other inferior stuff, there would 
always be the west, right on to the Golden Gate, 
as a likely and probable future field for the 
fragrant growths of Ceylon. We have ever to keep 
in mind the vastness of the American continent, 
and that although the United States are one nation 
yet they are many peoples. A man from Pennsyl- 
vania or Massachusetts would feel almost as 
much from home as we would be in Kansas, 
Arizona, or Dakota, and the kind of tea that 
might suit the one would not necessarily be 
acceptable to the other. Anyhow whatever day 
may be selected as the auspioious one for offering 
our gift to the American editors, or whether no 
special day be selected it is well 'that Dr. Duke's 
capital suggestion should not be overlooked. The 
Indian men are nibbling away at the American 
market, and it is to be hoped Ceylon won't fol- 
low that example. It is only push and pluck 
will do it ; it is well to deliberate, but you may 
deliberate too long. 
It. is a matter worthy of attention to the for- 
tunate possessors of coffee, how best to grow it 
in these days. With the changed times I incline to 
think that we must have changed methods, and 
it is very questionable if our expelled old king can 
by any kind of liberal treatment put on even a 
semblance of the strength of old. Coffee has 
really so little reserve force, that it can't go into 
training, and come out of it with advantage. 
What it has got to do, is to be let alone, bear 
what it can, have only a moderate quantity of manure 
to help it through its crop, but digging need not 
be spared. I would neither prune nor handle, and 
although it does give a place a most untidy and 
abandoned look having the dry wood of last 
year's crop left about, still I would leave it. 
When we remember that we can't live on the 
appearance of a place, we take more kindly to a 
necessary eyesore. To cultivate coffee now as we 
did in the old days, forcing out crop by means of 
pruning, handling and manuring, would simply 
mean snuffing it out, and the big crop that 
might be put on would never mature. If 
the little coffee that remains is to last, I 
incline to think that a kindly neglect will do 
more to lengthen its day, than attention and care. 
On this side we are in again for an attack of 
leaf disease, but where bug is not about, the lesser 
evil can be endured, and then we have always 
that hope that the attacks will decrease in virulence, 
which seems like as if it will ever remain a hope 
with us, for as far as I can see, there is no abate- 
ment in the plague. 
The cacao crop is coming in, and in some places 
drawing to a close. I know of estates that have 
done very well, and of others that haven't ; but, 
on the whole, it is turning out better than was 
at one time anticipated. When we remember the 
rough time cacao had with last year's drought, 
it would have been reasonable to expoot that things 
would have been very much worse than they are. 
Now the promise for next crop is fair blossom 
appearing very freely on trees that have 
not done very much at present, and later 
on it is to be expected that the others will 
be equally hopeful. The borer continues to 
be a bore, and wants a lot of hunting ; squirting 
kerosene into his hole is the perfect cure. He 
responds at once to a fragrant bath of that kind, 
and comes out to see what is going on. Then you 
secure him and end his astonishment in a tragic 
death. 
