December i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
555 
plaut was wholly affected by the disease or only 
loyally affected, that is only when the healthy plant 
had been brought in contact with the diseased leaf ? 
A gentleman told me recently in Dikoya that he 
had fastened a loaf rich with the so-called spores 
back to back with a leaf of a tree free from disease 
without the latter being iu any way affected. Can 
it be that the gentleman in India is after all cor- 
rect, that the orange dust is the excreta, and that 
the disease iu to be Joked for in the filaments of 
the mycelium only? The filaments would, I should 
think, be conveyed by the wind from place to place 
as readily, if not more easily, than the spore dust. 
INQUIRER. 
P. S. — It may be asked : what is the object of this 
inquiry ? Well, simply this, that, if the red dust is 
innocent, any hope for romedy must be the destruc- 
tion of the mycelium, and not merely that of the 
affected leaves. Mr. Morris, I think, found the ground 
under diseased trees, as also the stems and branches 
of the trees, covered with mycelium. 
P. P. S. — Inquiries have adduced the fact that far 
fewer bees have been seen of late years about 
the estates thau formerly, due probably to the 
destruction of forests. 
[Mr. Marshall Ward affoids an answer, in his Report 
to our correspondent's enquiry, as follows: — 
" How long a period is required, and what conditions 
are necessary for the germination of the papillate spore ? 
" 1 find that a spore of Hemileia is capable of germ- 
ination immediately after its complete formation on 
the disease spot, and that in 12 to 24 hours after its 
removal from the 'rust' patch to a healthy leaf 
it may throw out its germinal tube : the conditions 
necessary for this are the presence of water, oxygen, 
and a suUiciently high temperature. If the mature spores 
be gathered dry and kept dry and cool for some time, 
no change occurs during that time ; nevertheless, spores 
thus kept for six weeks in a closely-stopped dry tube 
germinated. In close covered cells, again, where the 
parts were sealed with wax, I have sometimes found 
germination delayed, or even altogether prevented. 
Finally, in eases where coffee on flats has become 
chilled or ' frosted ' by excessive radiation, the spores 
of ETemileia may be found destroyed iu lar^c numbers. 
"The sum total of observations indicate:- that germina- 
tion occurs most rapidly iu a warm, damp, steamy 
atmosphere on the surface of vigorous young leaves. 
Under these favourable circumstances, germination is 
commonly completed and the tubes have begun to enter 
the stomata within 4S hours from the moment of sowing. 
" Germination — i.e., the swelling of fche spore, and 
protrusion of one or more germinal tubes — may ap- 
parently take place anywhere and on any surface, 
provided the necessary conditions of moisture, &c, are 
Spiled ; and it is a fact that myriads of the spores 
germinate on substances other than a coffee leaf, only 
to shrivel up and die at the completion of the process. 
Experiments already quoted in previous reports show 
that this is truo for glass slips, and I have demonstrated 
tin- same for cloth, soil, and rocks on estates, &c. 
" Where germination occuis on a living codec-leaf, 
however, the tube does not thus die, but enters a 
stoma, and forms the mycelium as described above." 
—En. 
GOVERNMENT GARDENS IN CEYLON. 
w in KOT ISSUE LIBERIA!) COFFEE, COCOA, AND 
bUOHONA PLANTS FREE TO THE VILLAGERS WHO SHOW 
Till IK EAGERNESS TO CULTIVATE BY STEALING PLANTS? 
THE CULTIVATION OF LIDEKIAN COFFEE 
29th Ootobor 1881. 
DlAB Sin, — I visited the lkuaratgoda Gardens a 
U6rt time back. They are wortli seeing, and are kept 
very neatly by Mr. Zoyza who has charge. My 
object in writing is not to describe the gardens, but 
to draw attention to the fact that from 150 to 200 
thousand Liberian coffee plants are likely to be wast id. 
There are this numbe r, 1 believe, in the nursery beds, 
and the price per 1,000 is put down in the list at 
R30 ! Private individuals are advertizing Liberian 
coffee plants at from PJ2'50 to R15 per 1,000, and 
yet, in gardens opened for the purpose of introducing 
and distributing new products, the price is simply 
prohibitory to the natives. I do not know what steps, 
if any, have been taken by the Government Agents 
of the Western, North-Western, Central, and Southern 
Provinces (Eastern, North-Central, and Northern, I con- 
sider too dry) to introduce the cultivation of this 
plant amongst the villagers. Like all Easterns, the 
Ceylonese arc very conservative, and slow in adopting 
any new thing. It is therefore incumbent upon the 
authorities to use a Utile effoit in endeavour vg to shew 
the people the advantages they will derive from grow- 
ing Liberiau coffee to replace the Arabian, which has 
died out altogether in the villages of many districts. 
Coffee was the stay of the villager. From it he 
purchased clothes, saltfish and other commodities 
that he needed, and had a few rupees to put by. 
Now numbers of them can hardly get one meal per 
day to eat. Some years ago, it was a difficult 
thing to get SinhaL-se to do any work but by 
contract. Now, let it only be known that labor is 
wanted, and you are iuuudatcd with men and boys 
at from 25 to 33 cents per day; and, in some districts, 
gangs of women go regularly to weed and do other 
works on estates : shewing plainly the pov-rty of the 
people. No doubt bad seasons for paddy and dry 
grin a have had a good deal to do with this state of 
matters, but it is greatly aggravated by their having 
nothing to fall back upon. To return from this digres- 
sion. A large number of the Liberian coffee plants 
in the Hcnaratgoda gardens are almost too large for 
transplanting with success, and very shortly will 
simply be of no use : it seems a great pity that this 
should be. The gist of this letter is to suggest that 
Government, through the different agencies, should 
(imitating the example of that enterprizing native gen- 
tleman, Mr. J. P. William) distribute gratis all the 
Liberian coffee plants they have, as, even if they 
reduce the price, I do not think they will get pur- 
chasers, — at any rate, for any appreciable number, 
as there seems very little demand for them just now. 
No time should be lost, as there is only about one 
month more of this monsoon iu which it will be 
safe to plant. If my suggestion is adopted, the natives 
to whom they may be given should be strongly 
impressed with the necessity of planting in the open, and 
shading well till thoroughly rooted. When once estab- 
lished, the plants cannot have too much sun. If planted 
amongst jak, kckuna, coconuts &c, as was the custom 
to do with Arabian coffee, their labor will be in vain, 
as they will grow up like areka palms, and hardly 
fruit at all. 
Rut, perhaps, Dr. Trimen may have an idea that, if 
there is no sale just now for the plauts, there may be 
by-and-bye for stumps. The sooner this idea is got 
rid of the better. Liberian coffee stamps will not grow. 
1 had heard this before but did not believe it, and 
so risked 3,000 very line large plants to test it. The 
plants wen- pulled and stumped one evening, and 
planted out next day iu most favorable weather — 
such weathor as Arabian coffee stumps would have 
reveled iu — and the result lias made me a wiser man. 
Iu three months more than half had died, and the 
rest simply existed, with here and thoro ouc or two 
that scorned likely to do well. At Kalutara I was 
shewn portions of a livid two years old, that had beeu 
planted with suckers, ami a Miiall straggling bush that 
liad grown from a primary. In the lace Ol these bote, 
