June i,, 1881.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
47 
as they have gone at present, or have been projected. 
Part VII is devoted to miscellaneous subjects of interest 
connected with Tea and the Tea Industry. Part VIII, 
the concluding part, contains Tea Reviews, for the past 
year, and valuable Tea Statistics for the past ten years. 
The more important parts are printed in large type, 
and each column on each page has the subject set 
forth in capitals, so that the reader has little diffi- 
culty in turning up what he wants. A full index 
at the end completes the usefulness of this volume, 
which should be in every tea planter's bungalow, 
in Ceylon as well as in India. 
THE JAFFNA TOBACCO TRADE, 
Is the trade of Jaffna, whether we consider the ex- 
tent of a land under tobacco cultivation or the amount 
of capital employed in it. As a matter of fact to- 
bacco is more largely cultivated in the Northern Pro- 
vince than any other product. Extensive tracts of land 
are devoted to tobacco cultivation in all parts of the 
Province. To many in Pachellapallai, Wadamaradchy. 
Poonaryn and Illeppakadavai it furnishes the only 
means of livelihood. It is much to be regretted that 
there is no record of the area under cultivation nor 
of the quantity gathered in at each season. The Cus- 
toms reports furnish us only with the quantity that is 
exported to India, the tobacco, which is converted into 
cigar or which is sent to the towns in the Island, 
being not noticed. There is however not the least 
doubt that the quantity of tobacco which meets the 
demands of the Island is very large. 
In tobacco there is a greater variety than in any 
other article: but one feature common to the tobacco of 
the Province and which has been more than once 
noticed is that it possesses a flavour and strength sel- 
dom met with in tobacco cultivated in other parts 
of the Island. We cannot at present mention the 
names of all the species known here. The chief of 
them are Illcp/xilw/arc/i, Ne.theauadilo, i and Pohhan, and 
these are considered very rich and form a large pro- 
portion in the tobacco that is used in the manufacture 
of cigars. Pokkan is also used for chewing purposes — 
but from its high price itB use in this manner is 
limited only to the well-to-do classes. 
Another circumstance connected with the tobacco 
trade and not generally known is that the tobacco 
exported to India is far inferior to that which is 
utilized for cigars. The tobacco for export is tied 
into sheaves containing 500 and upwards, rolled into 
bundles or chippams and sent off. The tobacco ex- 
ported during 1880 is as follows : 
January ... cwt. 4,064 
February 4,820 
March 4,569 
April ... 585 
October 6,478 
November 8,426 
December 4,232 
The total is cwt 33,174 We have no figures for 
the quantity drawn to meet the demands in the 
Island. It is a well known fact that a large supply 
is generally sent to Colombo, Galle, Kegalla, Gampola, 
and other places. 
An impression exists iu certain quarters that the 
tobacco trade has declined and that it is not so 
remunerative as it was a few years back. In our 
inquiries we have not met with a single circumstance 
to confirm it : and all that we have been able to 
ascertain shews it to be a wrong and unfounded pre- 
sumption. There are more men engaged in the trade 
and the cultivation of the leaf is more extended now 
than in any period within our recollection. 
In this connection it would be unfair not to 
mention the name of the gentleman who ren- 
dered material service towards the extension and 
13 
development of this trade. We refer to Mr. Charles 
Morrison now Agent, O. B. C. Kandy. His energy 
and ability apart, during the time he presided over 
the affairs of the local Branch of the O B. C. he 
gave active encouragement to the trade, extended 
the business of the institution entrusted to him and 
relieved the traders from the necessity of borrowing 
money from the unrelenting Chetty who was the 
only capitalist then known in the land. 
It is the opinion of experienced traders that the 
out-turn for this year will be very small compared 
with that of last year, the rain in January and Feb- 
ruary having prevented transplantation. The plants 
are still young and the crop will not be ready for 
market for a short time to come. A great disadvant- 
age the tobacco traders suffer from is the stoppage 
of steam communication. This is a source of loss 
and inconvenience. The mode now adopted is to 
send it in sailing vessels to Negapatam and thence 
to Galle or Colombo by means of steamers. — Com. 
Geylon Patriot. 
COFFEE LEAF DISEASE. 
London, April S, 1881. 
I read with much interest Mr, Ward's last public 
reference to coffee leaf disease, and, I told you, I sent 
the lecture he read on the subject before the Planters' 
Association through the medium of a friend to Dr. 
Cooke. That friend has obligingly forwarded to me 
Dr. Cooke's remarks upon it, which I am kindly 
permitted to communicate to you. He writes: — "1 
have read over the account of Mr. Ward's lecture, 
but, as there is nothing new in it, nothing additional 
to his report, it hardly calls for special comment. 
All I can say is, that I think he is on the right 
track — that is— practical experiment, and I fancy that 
I go along with him in what he has said. Of course 
we must not force his analysis too hard. Most cor- 
dially do I endorse his last sentiment, viz., — destroy 
every vestige of dead leaf from the surface of the 
ground, by burning them, and restoring in the ash 
the mineral constituents to the soil, but if all the 
leaves are carefully taken away, and so much potash 
&c, abstracted from the soil and not replaced, gradually 
the soil will grow so poor in the essential mineral 
constituents of the leaves that vigorous growth will 
become impossible. If the leaves are studiously picked 
up and carted away, without compensation to the 
soil for what is abstracted, the remedy will scarcely 
be better than the disease." I regret to say that 
Dr. Cooke's lecture on this subject read before the 
Linnean Society has not yet been published and I 
understand that even the author himself has not 
received a copy of it, so I am not in a position 
as yet to send you one. The delay by the Linnean \ 
Society in issuing copies of important papers like this 
is one that is strongly and adversely commented upon 
by all it members. I have not yet heard Dr. Cooke's 
opinion upon the note published by you relative to 
the appearance of a fungoid disease upon the coffee 
estates in New Granada. I am unwilling to tax 
Dr. Cooke's kindness too far, but I have asked my 
friend, if he should meet the former, to verbally 
ask his opinion as to the presumed similarity be- 
tween it and the hemileia vastatrix. I have forwarded 
copies of your notice of this subject to several friends 
whose opinion on such a matter may have weight. 
The professor of botany to the Koyal Veterinary 
college tells me that although there is doubtless au 
affinity between the two diseases, they appear to him 
to possess distinctly marked features of divergence 
He also told me that he had not seen any future 
reference to the outbreak since the notice appeared 
in Nature that y>u quoted.- He has also written me 
