December i, 1881. 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
5i9 
the bungalow, and slopes clli'efly 
: sulphured fields lie south and 
th< 
rmi.nl 
omcwhat hi 
(ken by 
iS old, and 
loulders and 
ong the tre 
bore but 
jam-like, 
es. The 
s rather 
(3,500 to 4,OOo" ft.) 
rocks. The weather 
s exceptionally wet, 
, 1880, was tolerably 
id been lilx 
ral, the 
r, 1878, ai 
ipation of th 
ml bones (1 
srop at the 
d being 
&C. (two 
I lb. per 
lint, the 
•ly blos- 
ite, and 
time of 
e lugher 
13 treated fie 
t weeks 
Ids) and 
were: (1) 
of ggrmiTii 
to save 
1 tubes, 
eight acres lies below 
to tho north-west; th 
east of the bungalow 
ravines and roads. 
All the coftee was 
little crop last year, 
though not heavy, am 
not calcareous — aro in 
higher parts are was! 
poorer soil than the ] 
on the whole, slightly 
soil than the bulk of 
The climate is desc 
soon, but, considering 
hot, and especially so 
during the early part 
and much blossom wa 
fine, but July decided! 
Tho treatment of 1 
manuring commencing 
completed in March, 18' 
was made from below 
baskets per tree) and 
tree) being the ingredi 
lower (unsulphured) pi 
som set " from being 
consequently carried a 
the commencement of 
parts of tho sulphured 
arranged (August, 188 
thus :— Crop advancing 
of S. W. wind to be 
sulphured coffee before 
occasional rains of coi 
The objects of the 
leaves, by preventing 
&<■. ; (2) to sco what 
isled after" a certain 1 
and quantity of tho " e 
on the two areas. 
The sulphuring was 
had to he suspended 01 
sent to me on August 14th demonstrated the destruct- 
ive effects at the time of tliis partial application. On 
August lKtli the sulphuring was recommenced early in 
tin 1 morning in my presence, and I spent two days 
examining the ell'ects on leaves with which sulphur and 
lime had been in contact for a period varying from live 
to forty hours. A strong and irritating odour proved 
the presence of the sulphurous gases, and there was no 
jarooni for doubt as to the destructive effects of the re- 
Henl "ii the various fungal filaments and on the spores 
and germinal tubes of llvmilehi. 
The interval from August 20th to August 30th was 
fine, and the penetrating gases made havoc with the 
fungus on all sides. Then came the rain, and from 
September 1st to September 12th very wet weather pre- 
vailed. There can be no doubt that the chief destructive 
meets of the sulphur were made evident before this, 
him! that very little, if any, results in this direction 
occurred later. 
On September 12th Mr. Anton wrote to me to the 
effect that tin' "disease" was reappearing on spots here 
and there: this must have arisen from spores winch 
germinated at the end of August ; whether from odd 
Korea which had been missed, or which had been blown 
"ii *inco, it is impossible to say. 
On September 27th 1 again visited the coffee, and 
BUM detect little diiiorenco; everywhere was a fairly 
filling crop, anil picking proceeded rapidly. Microscopic 
ELMervatiou demonstrated the presence of new fungal 
filament* and spores of llemihia, <v<\, ,>u the leaves, 
11 nd i: iras plain thai tin Hee wus " re-infected." 
On November l'Jth the sulphured urea looked darker 
than the other, and fewer trees could bo detected which 
were evidently suffering from crop. Little disease op- 
n-tion of leaf and crop ex- 
; (3) to see if the quality 
" or " parchment " differed 
meed on August 9th, 
ut of wet weather ; 1 
peared anywhere. On November 25th, however, another 
outbreak of disease was apparent, though it did not 
become bad. 
On December 20th my notes 11m to this effect: "I 
am convinced that the sulphured patch looks darker." 
Before proceeding to give the details of the tests 
used to decide what had occurred, I propose to examine 
the results of preliminary experiments, which help to 
throw light on the matter. 
A number of coffee plants were sulphured in the 
nurseries in July, 1880, before planting out. These were 
about one year old and had no primaries, and had been 
pricked out from among the coffee in July, 1879. 
Another series of plants, put out in June, 1880, had 
not been sulphured before planting out. These were 
nearly two years old, and had three pairs of primaries 
each : they had also been earned a short distance 
before planting, but had been placed in the field a 
month earlier than the preceding. 
In August, 1880, Mr. Anton drew my attention to 
the fact that although the two-year-old stronger plants 
had been tln-ec months in the open, they possessed 
fewer leaves than tho others, which were only one year 
old and had been planted out only two months, and he 
attributed the difference to the effects of the sulphur, 
believing that the treatment had kept a larger number 
of leaves on the plants. 
On counting 500 of the unsulphured plants, we found 
the total number of leaves which they possessed was 
2,544 — i. <.'., an .average of about five leaves each. An 
equal number of sulphured plants gave 3,165, or an 
average of about six leaves each. 
From (diservations on carefully-sheltered plants grown 
from seed, and put out as above, I find that a healthy 
one-year-old plant should have about GO leaves, and a 
two-year-old probably more than 250. This being so, 
the difference between the above plants is much larger 
than appears at first sight, the sulphured plants pos- 
sessing six leaves out of a possible 60, or 10 per cent ; 
and the others only five in 250, or 2 per cent. 
From the known properties of lime and sulphate of 
lime, from analyses of coffee and coffee soils, and from 
the experience of several planters who have used slaked 
and caustic lime alone on coffee lands, it is clear that 
lime in general is a valuable soil ingredient to Ceylon 
coffee, and it becomes a question of some importance, 
how far tho success of the Harrow experiment may 
have been due to the various actions of lime with re- 
spect to coffee and coffee soils. 
Experiments demonstrate that the foliage of coffee 
becomes darker after caustic or partially slaked lime is 
added to the soil and forked in, and it is on record 
that decided benefit has resulted from using sulphur and 
lime amongst the manure applied to the roots of the 
tree. 
I now proceed to examine the Harrow experiment on 
its merits, as an attempt to cope with leaf disease and 
obtain more crop. 
The crop picked from the 21 acres (sulphured) on 
the one hand, and that from the eight acres on the other, 
were kept separate, and a return made showing: (1) 
the actual quantity Of ripe "cherry" (fruit) obtained 
from each ; (2) the amount of " parchment " (pulped 
beans) which this gave; and (3) the proportion of 
"light" or bad beans yielded. 
The 24 acres (sulphured) gave 1,168 bushels of ripe 
"cherry," or at the rate of IN.J buBhels perm-re; the 
fruit from the eight acres (unsulphured) measured 2111 
bushels — i.e., at the rate of 86J bushels pel - acre. Ileueo 
very nearly 12 bushels per acre more were obtained 
from the sulphured area than from the other. The 
"outturn" from the 1,16s bushels of sulphured coffee 
was fl-itj, or Dearly 17 per cent ; that of the 291 bushels 
was 184, or nearly 63J per cent.; thus, the unsulphured 
coffee gave a better outturn. But the difference in, 
