Oct. 2, t893.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
249 
To the Editor. 
TEA CULTUEE IN AMERICA. 
BAI8ING PLANTS FEOM CEYLON SEED. 
Summerville, U.S. 
Dear Sib, — -Through some mishap my copy of 
the June Dumber of your most interesting journal 
has failed to reach me : please send me another 
in its place. 
I pm very much pJeased with what I have read 
of Ceylon ; I liked Ceylon's exhibit at Chicago ; 
I read your jouriial with pleasure, and have just 
raised at the stake and in nurseries fully 15,U00 
seedlings from one maund of Oevlon tea-seed. — 
Yours very truly. CHARLES U. SHEPARD. 
WILD COFFEE SEED AND FODDER 
PLANT. 
London, E.G., Aug. 11th. 
SiK, — Today I enclose for you a feve grains of a 
wild oo£fee from East Africa which I am planting; 
the flavor is good and it fetcbsB a high price. 
The "Polygonum" you see so much written 
about, I have grown for years, and some of the 
Indian planters who have been to Sydenham have 
ordered oases of the roots not only to grow for 
fodder but to hold the land up by the side of 
Btreams. They saw my cows eating the foliage. 
Even in this dry season it is 9 feet high, I must 
Bend you a leaf and a few rootB. — Yours faithfully, 
THO. CHRISTY. 
[The " wild coffee '' seed packet, we shall send 
to the Peradeniya Gardens for inspection and 
trial.— Ed. T.it.] 
COCOA PLANTING IN THE PANWILA 
DISTRICT : 
SPLENDID PROFITS-BEATING TEA 
OR COFFEE. 
Marakona Estate, Ukuwela, 17th August. 
Dear Sib, — I notice in the papers many Planters 
and 8omo MBgiBtratb3 dwell on natives getting such 
large crops on small acreages. If they had Been as 
much of native holding or small estates, as 1 have 
from 1860 onwards, especially from 1871 to 1875 
when visiting nearly all coffee gaiduna from 
Eadugannawa to Maturata and Kotmale.Matale East, 
North, South and West and over all Dumbara, as 
I can even now prove from my travelling notes then 
made, they would not make such remarks. In fact 
they would (as I did) find that working the soil, 
with the help of weeds and rain trenches did give 
them good crops, more in many jases than some 
of our best eetates. 
What do jou think of Frankland Estate, Wattegama, 
visited by some old Plaottrs whea not even grass 
would grow as also Mr. Surveyor Spencer can testify 
that all shook their heads and thought I could not 
grow anything there. Yet last year 1 n-ported a good 
crop, BLd now have the pleasure lo state that my 
0000a crop this year from 15 acres m full bearing 
realized ... ... .. R7,350 
Upkeep of 30 aorea (15 not in bearing) 2,040 
Profit ... R5,310 
A profit of R351 per acre for bearing cocoa ! 
Come and soe then you will believe. Where are these 
witty folks who can write about HoU-or-away. Let 
them master their profession and prove themeelves 
able to show such results and then they can sing — 
" cock-a-doodle do" — I trust to make this eetat* 
of a large acreage as paying os Frankland'!. 
J. HOLLOWAY. 
THE VIGOUR OF THE TEA PLANT. 
12, Great Tower Street, London, E.G., Aug. 18, 
Deab Sir,— In your remarks ooitained in the 
Observer of 11 ih July, respecting my opinion about 
the vigour of the tea plant as developed in Geylon, 
I fear there h- s been some slight error in the 
allusion to a remark attributed to me, that it 
" cannot become exhausted for centuries" 
As nearly as I can remember I said, that I 
thought it would be a considerable time before 
there could be any signs of exhaustion, but I 
would scarcely have ventured to extend it to 
" centuries." — Yours obediently, 
J. HENRY ROBERTS. 
[We put a query at " centuries " in notioing the 
report at the time, feeling sure that Mr. Robert! 
had been misapprehended by our Loudon oor- 
reepondent. — Ed. T.A.] 
EMEMIES OF TEA. 
Colombo, Aug. 81. 
Dear Sib,— Enclosed we hand you two tea leaves 
received from the Superintendent of one of our 
estates and shall feel much obliged if yoa 
can tell us what sort of disease it is, — Yoarg 
aithfuUy, 
per pro BOUSTEAD BROS., 
E. Cave Browne. 
[The tea is suffering from an attack of red 
spider — the white specks on the brown, withered 
leaves indicating where the eggs of the insect have 
been adhering to the leaf. We quote aa follows 
from the " Tea Planter's Manual " : — 
" The red epidir is a very diminutive insect, reddish 
colour on the tack, and white tn the under part of 
the body. It lives and feuds on the aap of the leaf. 
Its eggs resemble while dnit or very fine soojet. The 
eggs have a very slight adhesive coaling, by which 
the; adhere to the leuf; the nombers that are to 
bt) found on the leaves are sufficient to extract all 
ssp, after which they wither, showing in bad oaees 
a reeembiance as if the leaf had been scorched by 
fire, leaving white etaioa. The red epiJer, aa I have 
eeneially seen it, is worse on tea wiihont thsde on 
flat laiid, but bu'-bes along the slopes ot hollows where 
jungle in growing, are rarely bad wi'h it." 
Curiously enough on opening the Oardener's Chronicle 
received by this mail, we find the followiag re- 
ference to a remedy which is said to be disoovered 
in England, red-spider beiog a great pest on hops, 
vines and in the garden generally. Here ia the 
paragraph in question:— 
" Red Spider." — A correspondent sends us a printed 
copy of Mies Ormerod'a favourable remarks on some 
Hop leaves which had been very effectively treated 
with a waeh of his invention for the eradication of 
" red-spider." Any really efficient and to planti 
non-in]urions means of lessening the numbers of 
these troublesome atari or mites— total eradication 
ia out of the question— would prove a great boon 
to gardeners, if it should be found as cheap and 
aa easily applied as flowera-of- sulphur. Perbapi the 
inventor of the remedy will kindly furniah us with 
a small quantity for the independent testing of iti 
alleged powers. 
We shall be on the lookout for any further re- 
port ; tut the great difificulty is to apply any 
remedy cn so large a scale ad ia required on a tua 
plantation. However, the great oonsolation in the 
