January 2, 1882. 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
651 
producing lesions, and disturbances in the relation 
between the cells &c, that so much direct barm is 
done. Tlic whole is therefore injured by innumerable 
injuries to its harmoniously connected parts. 
Those who imagine that manure acts ns " a cure 
for leaf-disease" by rendering the contents of the 
tree upalatable (so to speak) to the fungus, evidently 
misunderstand the nature of the " disease" altogether; 
while any who think that by thickening the skin 
or epidermis of the coffee-leaf the latter would be 
rendered impervious to the germinal- tubes overlook 
the fact that these tubes enter the stomata or "breath- 
ing-pores," each of which is to such a body as a 
moderate sized house door to a man, or an ordinary 
drain pipe to a snake With every hope that I have 
Bncceded in clearing up difficulties, and with apo- 
logies for occupying .^o much of your valuable space, — 
believe me, yours truly. 
H. MARSHALL WARD, Cryployamist. 
HEM1LKIA VASTATRIX AND THE " COFFEE 
LEAF-DISEASE " IT SUPERINDUCES : IS THERE 
BALM [VAPORIZED] IN FIJI? 
Mr. Marshall Ward, it will bo observed, adheres to 
the position that a gas-producing substance, to be effectual, 
must he applied so as to kill the spores before they 
enter the ever-open stomata or breathing mouths of the 
leaves. The fungus, once iusido and spreading its myce- 
lium through the sap-cells, is, according to the Crypto- 
gamist, safe from attack. If the stomata do uot contract 
after the entry of the fungus, wc scarcely see why the 
parasite should enjoy such complete immunity. Where 
a comparatively solid body entered, surely a subtle gas 
can follow. Mr. Schrottky certainly asserts that, by his 
process, (lie fungus is prevented from ripening its spores : 
killed inside the leaf, in fact. And why not, or why 
should a earbolato of lime, very weak in carbolic acid, 
applied to the folinge of a tree, do hairn to its roots? 
Human nature is human nature, even hi a cryptogamist, 
and the manifest determination to hold that nothing 
good can coine out of Mr. Sehrotlky's Nazareth reminds 
us (we hope Mr, Ward will not be shocked) of " the 
Turk who can bear no brother near the throne." What 
the planters of Ceylon desiderate is a cure for leaf 
disease in the shape of a destroyer of the genus which 
cause thni disease, and. provided the desideratum is dis- 
covered, then gratitude and due reward will ho bestowed 
on the discoverer, whether he is known to the world 
us Marshall Ward of England, Schrottky of Germany, 
or Storck of far Fiji. The interesting and important 
lotter from the latter gentleman, which reached us as 
WO were writing our previous article on Mr. Ward's coin- 
monication, dwells on certain subsidiary cpiest ions. In fore 
proceeding to state the merits of his alleged ci tu by 
VAronizATioN. We suppose there will bo a universal con- 
sensus of opinion in favour of Mr. Storek's argument 
that coffee planters in Ceylon would have done wisely 
had they in,. re freipiently and largely introduced seed 
from abroad : especially from Arabi ■ Abyssinia, But, 
while Mr. Storek's premises are, on general grounds of 
scientific and sound culture, admitted to lm correct, Mr, 
Marshall Ward has, In-forehand, effectually disposed of 
tin [elusion that t" the general use of local seed, 
and trees weakened in consequence, is due the develop- 
nu>nt of HemiUia voMtairit, Plants grown from hjj 
ported seed may have great merits ,.| their own, but 
amongst those merits power to resist attacks of the 
insidious fungus spores cannot certainly be ranked. As 
regards grub eating coffee roots, we knew what that 
was long before Hemileia emerged from the obscurity 
of its jungle home. No doubt, the evil has not only 
been more observed, but has been far more prevalent 
and destructive since the advent of the leaf fungu6. Few 
Ceylon planters, however, we believe, will be prepared 
to admit that increased prevalence of grub stands in 
the relation of consequence to the external fungus as 
cause. Whether, on the other hand, root fungi predis- 
pose to attack from grub or not is a moot question. 
A local scientist, Mr. A. Dixon, holds that the grubs 
never attack healthy rootlets : the attraction to the 
poochies, he insists, is to be found in the fungi which 
infest diseased roots. There is one planter of standing, 
too, who once asked at a meeting : " Has any one ever 
seen a grub with roots in its mouth?" and Mr. Dixon 
holds that the mandibles of the grub are unequal to 
the task of eating coffee rootlets. The vust majority 
of the planters, however, have no doubt that the white 
grub feeds on the perfectly healthy rootlets of then: 
coffee hushes. Personally, we long cherished the con- 
viction that insects ate only dead or dying vegetable 
matter. But there was no resisting the accumulated facts 
in the experience gained of white ants by the tea planters 
of India and the cocoa planters of Ceylon, and, to come 
nearer home, what the coffee planters of Ceylon bavo 
suffered from the ravages of the grubs of cockchafers. 
Qemileia vastatrix by enfeebling the coffee trees may 
render them less able to go through a recuperative pro- 
cess after being attacked at the roots by grubs ; but 
the fungus is far less answerable for the grubs than 
Tenterden Steeple was for the accumulation of Good- 
win Sands. What joyful holidays should we have in 
Ceylon, if we but felt assured that really " perfect cures " 
had simultaneously been discovered for the two destructive 
agencies which have so long been burning the candle of 
life of the coffee bush at both ends. Repeated and pain- 
ful disappointments in the past render us liable to the 
suspicion that such news is " too good to be true." 
Still we are inclined to "hope for the best," in regaid 
to the operations directed againt the lives, vegetable and 
animal, of leaf fungus and root grub. The analogy of 
sugarcanes, wltich cau be so easily changed, if disease, 
whether fungoid or insect, appears on them, scarcely 
holds good in regard to coffee, which could only bo 
changed at a ruinous expense ; — with the doubt if the 
same soil could hear coffee a second time, and with the 
ifitaintij that introduced coffees are as liable to attacks 
of the destructive fungus as that which has existed in 
Ceylon probably since the time of the Muhainmadan 
voyagers from Sue/, and Adeu. The result of out ob- 
servation and enquiries during a recent visit to the rapiilly 
rising sugar district of Mackay is Northern QoeSBBlaod 
was tho conviction that whatever effect continued pro. 
pagatiou from the same kind of cane might have in 
aggravating the effects of rust or insect Mi^ht. the varie- 
ties of cone, which are numerous to bewilderment, differ 
essentially in their liability to, or immunity In. m. attack. 
The young industry, which was nearly snuffed out by 
"a red rust fungus" in lrti'ifi. Ims 11.. » 1 piit«. revived 
sudor the process of importing canes from idl parts of 
the world,— front places so far opart as the islands of 
