December i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
497 
The Chairman of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce 
valued my cotton grown in Dumbara at one shilling 
and nine pence per pound ; Mr. Blood had it valued 
by the brokers. 1 have about two cwt or 224 lb. in 
store, gathered from Deyenewatte bushes of the 
same quality, and strong in staple, at your disposal. 
—Yours faithfully, HENRY COTTAM. 
PLANTING IN THE PANVVILA DISTRICT. 
Maria, 20th Oct. 1881. 
Dear Sin, — Clorious weather for ripening crop : 
all hands picking. Parchment now is a fine sample, 
a good, full, and large bean. It is a pleasure to go 
round the estate and see the trees with the ripe 
cherry and coolies bringing in their boxes. 
Kotmale is desponding. Coffee on this and Eria- 
gasteuua is bearing as well now as ever it did, 
in spite of leaf disease. During the dry season we 
applied proper manure carefully and in proper time. 
Estates are giving an average of from 4 to 6 cwt. 
per acre, on an expenditure every year of from 
R80 to R100 per acre. This pays, and although old king 
coffee may hang down his head on account of 
leaf disease and a disagreeable atmosphere, there 
if proof he still smiles on those who treat him ac- 
cording to his present requirements ; and beforelong he 
will shako himself clear of the yellow fever, and be 
as sound again as ever, except where the fever has 
been allowed to have its way without the necessary 
stimulant and disinfectant, and, in fact, been fed 
by improper application of artificial manures. — Yours 
truly, J. HOLLO WAY. 
BEES AND COFFEE BLOSSOMS :— CAN IT BE ? 
Dear Sir,— Sir John Lubbock has recently made 
some very interesting statements with regard to "bees," 
and probably wo shall all now be more inclined to 
Relieve that, those industrious little creatures exercise 
no inconsiderablo influence in our flower and fruit 
gardens. Can il be that, during late years, they have 
vastly decreased in numbers in the hillcountry of 
Ceylon, and that this is one reason why our coffee 
blos-oms| nowadays fail, in a great measure, to fruc- 
I tify? If thero is anything in this latter idea (which 
has emanated quite recently from a discerning son 
of Mars), why not attempt to utilize bees in our long 
and dreary up-hill battle with short crops? The 
planting community is now in as well-nigh as dis- 
pairiug a state as was the monarch of the forest in 
the well-known fable, and who knows but that, if we 
I invoke their aid, our friends, the bees, will do us just 
■ important and timely a scvice in freeing us from 
our m t work of troubles, as did the wee bit of a mouse 
for his friend the lion? 
During the past twenty years, what thousands and 
thousands of acres of coffee have not taken the place 
of an equal area of luxuriant forest and jungle re- 
dolent, of perennial wild llowers ? Now, as every ore 
knows fields of coffee burst into blossom only very 
occasionally, and at such a time the question to be 
UBWer .1 to-day is: "Where are the bees on such 
MOasions?" If absent, why not make a provision for 
mm the whole year round, by planting up one per cent 
of the coffee with p6renniul flowering shrubs? In due 
time, introduce your army of bees (just as you now 
do a herd of cattle in stall* for manuring purposes) ; 
1 car. lully house them and bo ensure their not beii g 
disturbs 1 by beast, bird, reptile or rooty. A million or 
! so of bees on an estate, in blossoming time, may yet 
bo found t>> bo worth their weight in gold ! By -and - 
bye, we would, perhaps, Bee a now industry started — 
nuigoniea rearing iwarma of bees, or bringing them 
over from India, to bo let out for hire for a season, 
just an tiny now do gangs of coolies. It the ex- 
periment worked well, tiny would probably hunt in 
couple*, for the more bees on our estates would mean 
186 
all the more boxes of palarn for the coolies to pick, 
and all the more rupees to carry back to India. Then 
would we all remember the well-known lines, and sing : 
" HOW DOTH THE LITTLE BUSY BEE," &c. 
[We must ask Mr. Bentun's opinion on the matter. 
—Ed.] 
HOW TO CHECK COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE : SUP- 
PORT THE TREES UNDER CROP, AND MAKE 
PLANTATIONS (NOT WORN OR WASHED OUT) 
TO PAY. 
Lindula, 20th Oct. 18S1. 
Dear Sir, — Nearly three years ago, in addressing 
you on the subject of leaf-disease, I stated my belief 
that no economical or practical antidote would be 
discovered in our time. So far, dire experience has 
proved I was not wrong. I deprecated then, a* I do 
now, the idea of trusting to scientists entirely to 
help us. 
Agricultural chemists, from whom aid was expected, 
have not yet attained sufficient knowledge of their 
science to enable them to prescribe antidotes for plant- 
pests. Surely the failure of Liebig and other eminent 
chemists to find a remedy for the potato and turnip 
diseases bears me out here ? Such a discovery wonld 
have been of far more importance thau any for "leaf- 
disease." 
The dearly-bought experience of the practical agrlcul- 
t urist has more frequently been the means by w hich a cure 
has been effected ; the " special letter" from your French 
correspondent iu your issue of Friday last, notwith- 
standing. In the letter to which I refer, he alludes to the 
happy results attending the employment of sulphurate 
of carbon for phylloxera on the giape vine. It may 
be so, but it is not the first time we have heard of 
the discovery of a cure for this disease, which, on 
extensive trial, has proved to be "no cure at all." 
I place more confidence in the system mentioned 
by him of "autumnal irrigation and rich spring 
mauurings," which it would appear, is designated the 
Faucon system. Your correspondent might have given 
us some details. It is undoubtedly, however, a more 
frequent application of manure in smaller doses for 
the purpose of affording a continuous supply of available 
food to a plant, which is drawing its sustenance from 
the soil nearly all the year round. 
For some time back I have been experimenting in this 
direction, hoping to, at least, mitigate the ravages o' leaf- 
disease, and so far, with great success. The experiments 
will necessarily be incomplete until a year, at all events, 
has elapsed; but, I must say, judging from present appear- 
ances, 1 am looking forward with some confidence to the 
result. Most of those interested have been, and doubtless 
still are, experimenting for the combatting of our common 
enemy, but I am encouraged to lay mine before you 
at this early stage recommended, as some such system 
is, by that eminent authority, Monsieur Pasteur. 
My own notion is that, if manure ie applied in small 
doses, so that the stimulant ingredient, which it 
ought to contain would bo asserting itself simultane- 
ously with the expected attack, it will carry the 
trees safely through. Should it be found that this 
would entail a triple application per annum, a heavier 
outlay need not be incurred thau by manuring once a 
year with tho ordinary dose, if the soil is iu that 
condition by which it cau be laid on broadoast aud 
raked in. Some years Bgo, farmers thought it suffici- 
ent and economical, iu manuring for green crops, 
to apply it in large dose*, under the impression that 
i! \v inld enrich the soil for several years, and the 
succeeding crops require no application. Recent 
experience ha», however, proved it more beneficial 
for each crop to be manured, and iu some instances 
evcu tw o niauuriugs iu one season, whore the growing 
