June i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
31 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE PLANTS. 
_ 7th April 1881. 
Dear Sir, — A very interesting article appeared in 
one of your issues regarding the use of seed from 
trees the flowers of which have been self-fertilized. 
It is pretty evident that leaf disease does not arise 
from any peculiar weakness of the coffee tree, but in 
independent of the injury and loss from the effects 
of leaf disease, the coffee tree has been allowed 
to degenerate, and this is probably one cause 
for young estates, in even choice virgin soils, yield- 
ing so poorly as compared with young clearings of 
olden times. It was 
a very common practice as soon 
as one estate was opened to plant out the next 
estate or clearing with plants grown from seed 
gathered from the maiden crop ! It will be as well 
for those growing Liberian coffee to see that their 
plants are from trees a few years old— or still better 
grown from imported seed. In the face of all known 
rules and principles of planting and for the sake 
perhaps of a few rupees saved, a very bad practice 
is at the outset carried on and evil results must follow. 
The rapidity with which plants from seed picked 
ripe and put into nurseries a few days after, is no 
proof that they are first chop. If the seeds are 
allowed to get partially dry and then put out, they 
will come up not "like beans," a thing most un- 
desirable, but gently and with a firm appearance. 
Importer! seed, when carefully packed, give a suffici- 
ently fair result, and as plants from seed picked from 
trees grown on a foreign soil should be treasured. 
AN OLD COVE 
GOLD-PROSPECTING IN CEYLON :— TESTS, 
AND LOCAL EXPERIENCE. 
Nuwara Eliya, April 11th, 1881. 
Dear Sir, — If your correspondent "Sore Fingers" will 
digest the "black sand" in dilute nitro-mvriatic acid, de- 
cant it carefully and add a few drops of a solution of pro- 
to-sulphate of iron, he will readily ascertain the existence 
of gold by its being precipitated in a metallic form. 
The dilute nitro- muriatic acid may be composed of 
1 part muriatic acid, 2 parts nitric acid, 2 parts wetter. 
The vessel containing the subject of the experiment 
should be placed in warm water. 
The simplest way, however, is to wash the sand in 
a email pan with sloping sides and a flat bottom, 
passing it oft' gradually with the water, when, if the 
operation is conducted skilfully, whatever gold there 
may be will remain in the angle of the pan. 
With regard to the " black sand " in question, it is 
very abundant in this neighbourhood, being found in 
streams and on and below the surface in every direc- 
tion. I have hitherto found no gold with it, but this 
is not a thing to be surprised at, for gold is four or 
five times heavier than the sand and would naturally 
seek a much lower depth. If found together it would 
be owing entirely to some local circumstance, such as 
a light soil resting on a bed of clay or rock, or in 
watercourses where some rock or boulder has arrested 
the course of the stream forming a pool where heavy 
substances would sink and collect. This sand is — as 
far as I have been able to determine in the absence 
of some necessary tests and re-agents which I am 
awaiting — an oxide of manganese, probably the mineral 
PsVomelanc, and may prove to be valuable. 
I tested a piece of the supposed gold-bearing quartz 
from the Hog's Back tunnel the other day, but found 
no trace of the precious metal. The pyrites seemed 
only too pure. I may, however, have had a poor speci- 
men to (leal with, and I intend trying others which 
I have bv me.— Yours faithfully, 
W. PRBDE. MAYES. 
9 
COFFEE LEAF DISEASE : THE RESULTS OF 
" VAPORIZATION " IN THE DUMBARA 
VALLEY. 
(Communicated.) 
The enclosed report wili probably interest some of 
your readers as it introduces an entirely new feature 
into the results of my experiments. 
Leaf disease was at its height in the beginning of 
January on the field that is here spoken of as well 
as on the surrounding coffee. 
The treatment resulted at the time in a decided 
check of the spread of the disease, but in my opinion 
it had gone already too far and the treatment 
could have scarcely, constitutionally, benefited the 
trees much. For two months little or no leaf disease 
was observed but during the last eight days, it has 
again made its appearance in considerable vigour in 
that part of Pallekelly Estate ; but the treated field 
is singularly free from it, of which I have satis- 
fied myself personally. I can account for this 
difference in no other way than by concluding 
that the treatment did not only check the dis- 
ease at the time being, but that it was also in- 
strumental in preventing ultimately on the area 
operated upon, the growth of the various forms of 
this fungus which has resulted now in a fresh at- 
tack on the untreated coffee surrounding. 
It will of course be necessary to corroborate the 
above by results elsewhere before we can fully ac- 
cept this conclusion. Uredo-spores are now freely- 
produced in the surrounding untreated coffee, and it 
will be interesting to note whether and in what 
space of time they will spread and germinate on the 
treated field. Eugene C. Schrottky. 
Mr. Vollar, writing to Mr. Schrottky, reports :— 
"Pallekelly, 9th April: I have much pleasure in stating 
that on close examination of the field that was 
treated by yoar process ef ' vaporization,' some three 
months ago, I find that it compares very favorably 
with the adjoining untreated coffee. On the latter 
leaf disease is again showing up, while on the treated 
area it was difficult to find a leaf diseased." 
THE TEA TRADE OF AMERICA. 
The following remarks as to the tea trade of 
America, taken from a San Francisco commercial paper, 
may be interesting : The tea business of late years, 
and more particularly in 1880, has been sadly cut 
up and scattered, as almost every jobbing grocery 
now imports more or less for their own trade sales. 
During 1880 the steamers of the Pacific Mail Steam- 
ship Company brought us from China and Japan six 
cargoes, and the O. and O. Steamship Company eight 
cargoes, and the two combined brought us upwards 
of 120,000 packages, in addition to a much larger 
quantity in transit for Eastern cities. The O. and 
O. Steamship Company also chartered two sailing 
ships to bring tea for reshipment East by the Central 
Pacific Railroad. During the summer and fall the 
retailers formed a co-operative society for the purpose 
of importing for their own use an uniform brand and 
standard of teas for their retail city trade ; how it 
will work is yet to be proven. 
Although the bulk of the tea consumed in the 
United States is imported through the port of New 
York, the facilities offered by the steamers crossing 
the Pacific to San Francisco have diverted a portion 
of the traffic in that direction and a considerable part 
of the direct importations by interior importers have 
been received by that route. These direct importa- 
tions naturally diminish the distribution from New- 
York, while they supply a very important part of 
the consumption of the country, and this fact should 
not be lost sight of in estimating the trade of the 
year. — Home and Colonial Mail. 
