642 
THF TR6PICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1889. 
To the Editor. 
TREATING LEAF DISEASE AND OTHER 
EVILS THROUGH THE BARK. 
Goonoor, 6th February 1889. 
Dear Sib, — Has any planter yet tried treatment 
of the bark for the leaf-disease in coffee. I have 
a few orange trees which 18 monthi ago com- 
oommenced withering. By the advice of a friend 
(Mr. Nather) I ooated the bark with a composi- 
tion, made up of fresh oow dung, ashes and com- 
mon salt, and sprinkled the leaves (which were 
covered with a whitish bligbt) with a weaker so- 
lution ; in a few weeks the trees began to recover, 
the bark to grow rapidly, cankered portions scale 
off, new leaves oame out, and the fruit afterwards 
produoed was the finest I have ever seen on these 
hills. Since then I have tried the solution on 
tea for red spider, bug and lichen, with splendid 
results. The solution helps the formation of new 
bark and enables the bush to throw off its enemies. 
For lichen the solution is simply magnificent. 
Owing to oontinual hard cutting of tea, and the 
exposure of the bark, the bark becomes hardened 
and lichen readily takes root. This lichen con- 
tinues to grow and defies attempts to rub it off 
(to say nothing of the cost of rubbing of) till it 
finally kills the tree. A few applications of the 
solution oleans the bark quite and causes dead- 
looking parts to burst out in bud. 
But tally ho ! be patient of results. Don't 
expect to conquer in 3 weeks the enemies 
you have allowed to grow for years, for quarter 
of a century perhaps ! 
I see shade is advocated for ooffee leaf-disease; 
and it has just struok me that this composition 
is equal to shade, while it adds to and does not 
take nutriment from the already exhausted soil. 
Make the composition thick and it will stick on 
for 12 months, at least it does with a rainfall of 
50 inches. 
I have examined coffee suffering with leaf-dis- 
ease and find that the bark is almost quite gone. I 
do not want to lay that the dead bark results 
in leaf-disease, on the oontrary the obverse is 
more likely to be true, but I think that anything 
that will cause renewal of the bark will help the 
tree to throw off its enemies. 
I am not a chemist nor yet a scientist, so the 
idea 1 have formed that chlorine gas is liberated 
from the composition may be wrong, but let some 
learned planter work it out for us ! Chlorine gas 
is inimical to animal life and will certainly not 
agree with the constitution of Mr. Bug or Mr. 
Spider. Has anyone yet started the idea- 
of an indurated pan at point of application 
of manure for years, to the ooffee tree ? 
Suoh a formation is well-known to the English 
armer, and the remedy he applies is deep plough- 
ing. The remedy for the planter would be manure 
at another point and fork bottom of the pan. 
T. B. 
N. £.— Composition i quart dung, £ quart ashes, 
4 ounce salt, water a sufficient quantity. Apply 
like lime math with a brush. 
[We have very little faith in treatment of coffee 
trees through the bark, and especially so for leaf- 
disease ; and Dr. Trimen is good enough to 
give his opinion as followB on the above : — ''It is 
well-known that bark, if injured, renews better 
under cover, but I never noticed the connection 
here spoken of between loss of bark and leaf-disease. 
An agricultural quack who was in Ceylon some 
6_ or 7 years ago professed to be able to cure leaf- 
disease by carbolic acid applied to the stem of 
the coffee tree, believing that it would be ' absorbed ' 
by the bark ! "—Ed.] 
DEFECTIVE COFFEE BEBRIES. 
Siddra Bunnoo Estate, Koppa, Mysore, 31st Jan. 18tf'J. 
Dear Sib, — I should be very much obliged to you 
if you would give me your opinion on the sample 
of coffee I am today sending you. The berry, as 
you will see, has all the appearance of containing 
well-formed beans, but on opening the same, the 
inside seems to have rotted. On my estate this year 
I have a little of this kind of coffee, but only on 
parts of my tote that got some unusually early 
blossoming showers (early in February). Estates that 
early in February got from 1 to 2 inches of rain 
have a large proportion of this kind of coffee, which, 
as you will see, is quite worthless. It seems to 
be owing to the unusually early showers ; but, if so, 
can you explain how the blossom must have set, 
the beans began to form, and yet the result be 
only an outside shell ? Information on this subject 
from perhaps some of your numerous readers would 
greatly oblige. — Yours faithfully. 
ROBERT BUCHANAN. 
[The sample is of a dry withered cherry, which, 
when opened, proves to have no substance. Debi- 
lity of bushes, no doubt, is the main cause, but we 
daresay Mr. Buchanan is right about the early, 
partial, forcing rains having to do with the abortive 
beans. Such coffee has however sometimes been 
plucked off bushes in Ceylon which have suffered 
from want of nutrition through soil being washed 
away, or from extreme drought when the ends of 
the primaries begin to die and the berries cease 
to grow, giving only a shell. — Ed.] 
FOOD-STUFFS : EURAKKAN AND RICE. 
Kandy, 14th February 1889. 
Sir, — The relative nutritive powers of kurakkan 
and rice cannot be fairly judged by the appearance of 
the consumer-. Whereas rice will make one fat, ku- 
rakkan or wheat will make one strong and will in- 
crease his weight. It is no wonder that a change of 
diet from rice to kurakkan causes dysentery and death. 
Similar results have followed from Tamil coolies using 
cooked raw rice, in Wynaad. Tamils who are not used 
to European ways cannot entirely subsist on wheat. 
They say that unless they eat rice they are 
not satisfied. In the Central Province where 
there are Oanarese coolies there is fouDd kurakkan 
in the next market. They exchange for one measure 
of rice to two measures of kurakkan. It is to be noted 
that the Canary coolies consume about two measures 
or more of legumes every week in the shape of curries, 
whereas the Tamil coolies evince a strong partiality for 
dry fish, because their stomachs cannot digest legumes 
except in very small quantities. Vkragu is one of the 
grains cultivated in Jaffna, ranking next to paddy with 
regard to the quantity produced. Persons who suffer 
from diabetes are recommended either to live on 
wheat or vararju. — Yours truly, 
K. S. K. M. MUBUGASUE. 
THE CULTIVATION OF COFFEE UNDER 
SHADE IN CEYLON. 
Haputale, I4th Feb. 1889. 
Dbae Sir, — Just as Brazil was the immense 
cloud hanging over coffee planters, so China is the 
immense cloud hanging over Indian and Ceylon 
tea planters ; and I think too much attention is 
not paid to this fact. We are told China is going, 
in fact has begun, to make an effort ; and with her 
immense re3ouroes, climate, and knowledge of the 
tea-plant she can not only command the world' 
