March i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
63t 
THE CHEMISTJEiy AND AGRICULTUEE 
or TEA. 
Our local Analytical ChemiBt, Mr. M. Coohrao, 
makes the following remarks on Mr. Banibers, 
volume after glanoio^ over it: — "The portion 
which treats of the composition of soil and the 
manuring experiments is very interesting. A 
feature of the book is the determination of the 
proximate constituents of tea after the method of 
Dragenderff. This analysis could not have taken 
Mr. Bamber less than three weeks. I notice, 
however, the analyst has had to adopt for the 
determination of the volatile oil, a process which 
I think would only yield an approximation 
to the truth. Indeed I know of no process for 
this determination which I would call satisfactory. 
Mr. Bamber has furnished us with a record of 
excellent work, but there ore not altogether 
wanting signs of baste in the preparation of 
the book. His examination of tea prunings is 
very incomplete without a nitrogen determi- 
nation. The results of his analysis of the 
ash of tea prunings, especially in the matter of 
phosphoric acid, seem to me inconsistent with the 
very reliable analysis of J. Crippa of ash of tea 
i.e. young leaves which he quotes, also inconsisttnt 
with Kellner's analysis of young and old leaves 
and with my own analysis of prunings. Too 
ew analyses of prunings however, under all con- 
ditions of season, latitude, climate, &c., have been 
made for me to venture to eay that Mr. Bamber 
is wrong. I think, however, that the phosphoric 
acid in the ash of tea prunings, viz. 23 per centi, 
is much higher than is likely to be found in the 
ash of any Ceylon tea prunings. It is only lair to 
add that the prunings dealt with by Mr. Bamber 
appear not to have included old leaves ; but only 
wood and the leaves used for manufacture. As a 
basis for calculation one would have wished that 
the analyst had supplemented the ash analysis 
with the percentage of ash in the prunings and 
the weight of prunings per tree or per acre," 
COFFEE LEAP DISEASE AND THE 
LATE DR. THWAITES, F.R.S. 
Our morning contemporary does a grave injustice 
—no doubt unwittingly — to the skill and reputa- 
tion of the man to whom even Darwiu looked up 
in Pungology, when he writes of the late Dr. Thwaites 
BB follows : — 
If the services of an expsrt mycologist had beea 
available whea leaf disease first made its appearauce, 
it would have saved the grave misconccptioQ into which 
the Director of the Botanic Gardens fell in regnrd 
lo that fuogu9. His belief that it had come to 
stay, although it proved in the end to be correct, 
WIS foaaded upoa an erroneous supposition. He he- 
Heved that the fungus permeated the whole internal 
Btraotnre of the plant, «3 in the potato di«ease, but 
iuch was not the case. The spores attacked the bushes 
from without, entered it through the pores, or stomas 
of the cnticlo of the leaves, germinated there, and 
sent its myoelium through the tissues of the leaves, 
eventually bearing their fruit oul.nde the leaves in the 
shape of the familiir orange powder which ofttn 
covered nearly the whole under snrfaoo of the leaves 
Now what do we find in Dr, Thwaites' Adminis- 
tration Report for 1871, long before Mr. Marshall 
Ward came to the island: — 
Duriug several of the past months my attention 
bas been a good deal directed to a peculiar kind of 
disease with which the coffos plant bas been afiected, 
and I hive had mnoh correspoiidetico with p'auters 
ou the Bubject. 'Vhi-.i diMoaso wii.s lirst brought lo my 
notico by notne Bpeoimeiis of coffee leaves iuft'Otod 
with it, which were sent to mo Irom an citate in 
ij^adaleima. ThQDe havea were more or Wei dis* 
(oloiued ia gfota cr bloUhes, «uj on the ander BtdQ 
of them was a powdery Bubstance, easily rnbbed off, of 
a pale orange colour. It was at once evident to ma 
ihat the disease tvas a species of fnnyns ■which was 
(/rowiv;/ within the tissue of ilie ieru-es, and that the 
powdery matter on their utdor sides consi'-ted of 
the spores or reproductive bodies of thi» fun- 
gus. I immediately sent epeoimens of the dis- 
eated leaves to my friend, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 
our greatest authority on these matters, for hia 
inspection. He pronounced the fungus to be afpcciea 
of great interest, quite new to ncienco, and shortly 
afterwards sent a description of it to the (lardeners' 
Clironicle, in whicn it was published in the number 
of November 6th, 1869, nnd( r the name of Hemi(eia 
vestatri.r of Berkeley and Broome. The rapidity with 
which this cofFae leaf diaeaso has fpreflil throogbout 
the coffee districts of the island, h<i8 beon perfectly 
marvellous and it is probable timt not a single ettnlo 
has quite escaped, though it has appeared in a very 
slight degree on some. The most afrikincj effect of 
the disease was the premature fall of the leaves; 
in the vvorft cases the death of many of the 
branclilets followed, with the drying u'l of the 
youn^ frait upon them. In pcor soils the trees them- 
selves fuffered very much, but in richtr soils a cew 
flush of healthy young leaves soon appeared, and if 
these leaves had time to come t5 maturity before 
the period of flowering, a good crop of fruit nsunlly 
followed. I have not succeeded, alter most diligent 
search, in finding this peculiar lorm of fungus, which 
is easily identified by the help of a good microscope, 
upon the leaves of any other species of plant but the 
coffee, except on the closely allied Coffea Traoancor 
ensis, one of our indigenous plants, and upon this 
only very recently. 
That, Wd think ought to settle the matter of Dr. 
Thwaitts' understanding and appreciation of the 
coffea leaf fungus from the outset of its appearauce 
in Ceylon. ' 
^ ^ 
COLOMBO MERCHANTS ON THE TEA 
BOUNTY-ADVERTISING SCHEME 
FOR AMERICA. 
A leading Colombo merchant thus expreaaes hinl-. 
self in answer to our inquiry : — 
" I can't say I am altogether in favor of the bounty 
scheme, I think it is wrong in principle to seek 
Government aid to enforce such a thing, and there 
are so many cross questions; for instance, who would 
pay the 'cesa' on teas sold locally, the estatj or the 
local buyer '[' lu buying, one can't advance less than 
1 cent at a time so thit it sc ems to me that the 
buyers would pay. Now the buying ia to a larga 
extent for Australia and the effect will be to handicip 
the Australian trade in order to foster the American 
trade. Same with the trade opcuinif up with India 
and Per-tian Gulf, This however might be got over 
by the export duty being levieil only ou eiports to 
United Kingdom. How would home Comjiauies and 
proprietors like this ? 
"But Buppoiiog all such cross issues could be over- 
come, wonld the 'bounty' act an an inducement to 
the Americaa people to give up green teas and lako 
to black y I think the proposed bounty is one fartbiog 
per pound. What is that ou the cost of a pounu 
i/f tea to the consumer ? Nothing ; aud it will be 
very litt!c inducement to the retailer and importer 
who together form the 'trade.' — I don't so far oppore 
the tcbeme, but at the same time I can't sde wherti 
any real benefit from it is to come in." 
The managing partner of anotner leiding firm, 
one largely interested in the American tea trade, 
also writes that he has not made up his mind 
finally on the bounty scheme. titiU another leading 
merchant says : — 
"I hardly know what to think about Mr. Laurie pay- 
ing the HUbsidy in Loudon. C)i luurso th 'ro could ujft 
be a I'dlter man, but I am raihtr iucliuod t i limit it 
to Bhipnionts made ftooi Uolombj and coriiticd by 
the cousul here aa for Acccrim. Ih-t. huwuver, \% 
% mattet I have qo flixed opiuion aLoui as yet/' 
