July i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
39 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
LEAF DISEASE AND A POSSIBLE REMEDY. 
Dear Sir, — If Mr. Marshall Ward is correct, and 
the very air of a coffee estate is laden with the sporse of 
Hemileia vaslatrix, would not the forming smoul- 
dering heaps, upon which carbolic acid or other 
powerful disinfectants should be placer), to windward 
of liclds of coffee have a beneficial effect ? It would 
be a cheap way of applying the vapour. 
The smoke from the heaps without, the disinfectants 
might possibly do some good, particularly if several 
.■'d joining estates would set fire to the heaps on the 
sumo day, and the heaps be large enough to go on 
smouldering for many hour.'*. 
The present season of strong winds would be a 
favourable time to try the experiment. E. F. T. 
P.S. — If the fields be large, parallel heaps at requisite 
distances might be formed, 
[Great care would have to be taken to prevent the 
coffee catching fire.— Ed.] 
CINCHONA CALISAYA THE BEST VARIETY 
FOE LOW I'LEVATIONS :-.NEARLY,24 lb. 
DRY BARK PER TREE OBTAINED 
AT 2,500 FEET. 
Pooprassie, 6th June 1881. 
DEAR Sib, — Perhaps you may consider the follow- 
ing figures of interest as bearing on the mooted point, 
which is the best variety of cinchona to grow at 
certain elevations. 
With the object of making my Lemagastenne cali- 
•aya trees as pure and select as possible, I rooted out 
forty out of my original eighty trees, keeping only those 
trees true to the type that gave the best analysis. From 
these forty trees, I got 955 lb. dry bark, which Mr. 
Symons sold for n c in Colombo for R912'65. ' This 
is equal to 23 '87 lb. bark per tree, or R22'S1. The 
price realized per lb is not very good, and I might 
nave done better if I had sold at home. But when 
you consider that these trees were growing on poor 
patana soil, at an elevation of 2,500 ft , and that 
they were selected as being inferior, I think it will 
be allowed that calisayas are the best varieties for 
low elevations.— Yours truly, J. A. ROBERTS. 
CINCHONA 
Why hoi 
TIV 
-WEEDS AND 
■ Cinchona like Larch Plantations ? 
Hamilton, Lanarkshire, 11th May 18S1. 
PEAR Sir, — I am obliged to you for inserting my 
i two letters of tlje 23rd February and 2nd March in 
your paper, and I have now further evidence to bring 
forward in favour of my theory of not weeding. In 
Mr. Morris' Report on Jamaica Gardens and Planta- 
tions, he gives an instance where a cinchona nursery 
had been made in the forest adjoining a coffee estate 
in 18fi8. from which most of the seedlings were re- 
moved the same year, and only a lew of the smaller 
and weaker plauts left behind. Mr. Morris writes : 
— " Hearing that a few cinchonas were still left, I 
was led to visit the spot in order to examine the 
trees and their' condition after the lapse of so many 
years. It was evident that since • 1868 nothing what- 
ever had been done to the spot. The road was quite 
overgrown and the surrounding forest was thick and 
almost impenetrable. The condition of the cinchona 
trees occupying an area "f about 120 square yards, 
was, however, very remarkable By carefully counting 
them, I found theru wore 379 trees on this small 
area, some of which were only nine inches apart. Most 
of the trees consisted of the crown bark (o. officinalis) ; 
they were about 29 teet high with tall clean steins : 
the largest measuring 15 inches in circumference at 
the base, and the smallest 8 inches. Being the re- 
mains of a nursery, it was naturally expected that 
some of the trees would be very close and others con- 
siderably isolated. They appear, however, to have 
grown up and completely shaded the ground, for 
underneath the soil was clear of weeds and covered 
with a thick covering of fallen leaves. 
" The condition of the trees and the locality in 
which they were found shewed clearly that cinchona 
trees thrive best where they are planted closely to- 
gether, and when the ground is well shaded and kept 
cool and moist. 
" Moreover, these trees indicated that when a cin- 
chona plantation has been thoroughly < stablished, and 
the t.-ees completely cover the ground (say in the third 
year from planting), no further attention is necessary 
till they have arrived at maturity and be fit for 
barking." 
I am glad to see that Mr. Wickham's experience 
is favourable to non-weeding. Mr. Forbes Laurie, in 
his reply to my former letters, makes the most of 
the bad effects of weeds in robbing the soil of its 
productive qualities, but takes no note of the gain in 
soil from rotten leaves, branches, cut weeds, etc.. etc., 
of the bad effects of the suu to the exposed soil >md 
to the cinchona rootlets How I'oes Mr. Forbes Laurie 
account for chena land or abandoned coffee estates 
gaining in soil by lapse of years, if weeds are such 
exhausting crops as, he makes them out to be ? 
Mr. Morris i9 clearly of the opinion that, cinchona 
roots should be kept cool and moist, and the simplest 
and least expensive way to do this is to let weeds 
grow, cutting them down periodically when they grow 
too high. The weeds cut down wonld act a? a mould- 
ing aud would eventually decay and form soil. After 
the cinchonas cover the ground, the weeds do not grow, 
as experience shows. 
I do not see any reason why cinchona plantations 
in Ceylon should be treated differently to larch or 
other plantations in this country, where clean garden- 
like weeding is never thought of.— Yours truly, 
H. J. McCALL. 
INDIA-RUBBER AND GUTTA PERCH A. 
London, 13th May ISS1. 
Dear Sir, — I send you by this mail proof 
of No. IV". of my Commercial Plants. One of 
the points to bring out is that the demand 
for rubber and gutta is increasing every day. Tele- 
graphs aud telephone, cables, and many other uses 
demand constant supplies, which will increase. The 
old Indian plan cau't be depended upon. 
I have sought for the trees aud seeds for our colonies 
where the supply of rubber came from. It is most diffi- 
cult testing the milk to see if it has a large enough 
deposit of cream— if you like to call it — to make the 
But if a poor rubber is well collected and clean, it 
will fetch a good price. Little is known yet of the 
best plan for taking out the elastic gum from the 
juice of the tree. — Yours faithfully, 
THOS. CHRISTY. 
Formation of a Tea Association.— A meeting of 
representaiive members of a large uumber of Calcutta 
firms interested in the cultivation of tea was bald nt 
the Chamber of Commerce on the ISth instant to 
consider the question of forming a Tea Association, 
with a view to consultation and united action in 
.matters of common iutere.-i, such as notably the 
regulation of the houu* system ; extension of sales of 
Indian Pea in India ; dealing with bright improvement 
of communications ; question- affecting the tenure of 
l laud ; Inland Emigration and the like. — Madras Mail 
