THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1894. 
Up the Kandy road, but nearer to the Rambuk- 
kana station, Dr. H. M. Fernando has an excellent 
bit of land, which is being opened out and planted with 
coconuts. 
Considering the large number of new openings, is 
it not time to seriously begin the building of the 
bridge over the Ko3potu Oya at Hunugal Kadulla ? 
The river is fordable in dry we ither, but during the 
rainy season the bed of the river just at the ford 
is so narrow that it rises high an 1 all means of com- 
munication are suspended. Some of the villagers 
who are daring enough cross the swollen torrent on 
jungle ropes which are secured on either side of the 
banks to trees, and drawn tight and taut one over- 
bead to hold by and one underneath to walk on, 
Feats which might make Blondin himself shiver for 
insecurity are thus performed. One mia-step, and 
one's fate would be sealed in the waters of the rush- 
ing torrent. What a splendid improvement a bridge 
would be ? Will the G.A. make note of this suggestion. 
—Yours truly, KURUNEGALA RESIDENT. 
ENEMIES OF THE CACAO TREE. 
Dear Sir, — Reading a French treatise on the culti- 
vation of fruit trees, it struck me that the method 
therein adopted of giving a list of the enemies of 
each and hints about the means of destroying them, 
might be adopted by your valuable Tropical Agricul- 
turist for the principal products of the Island, in 
calling to aid the experience acquired by the culti- 
vators and to prevent often much damage. 
I herewith send you a list of the enemies of the 
cacao tree, which I remember having come under my 
notice. I dare say that it would pay cacao planters 
to offer a good premium for the best way to pre- 
vent the destruction made by the little beetle 
" Tomici perforans alone, which is yearly the cause 
of the destruction of a large number of trees. 
[N.B. — (a) According to enmity.] 
Enemies of the Cacao Tree, 
to ttie roots. 
(aaa) 1. A mycelium, which causes the destruction of 
the rootlets. App eare< 3 %y$$ an d spread rapidly. 
The crop iu place of a large increase, as the three pre- 
ceding years, showed a large decrease. A large 
acreage had to be abandoned. Since two years, this 
disease is gradually disappearing. 
(aa) 2. Several species of n-hitc grub, sometimes 
very numerous as in the coffee days, feed on the 
rootlets, and cut young plants at the surface. The 
cockchafers feed on the leaves. 
TO THE BARK AND WOOD. 
(aa) 3. Tomici perforans, a small beetle 1-10" long, 
inserts its pupa in lower part of stem, when the bark 
weeps and decays, getting claret colour in well-defined 
patches. The grub tunnels the trunk as well as the 
beetle, but the latter prefers the branches. Few trees 
survive their attack. 
4. A pink grulj borer, (same as in coffee) tunnels in 
the heart of the stem of young trees and branches. 
5. A white grub borer, rings the tree between bark 
and wood, tunnelling his abode in the latter. 
6. A reddish black grub borer, eats the surface of 
the bark, tunnels his abode in the wood. 
7. Aflat siwdl reddish grub, feeds on the surface of 
the bark, under a dark brown cover, rather a bark 
cleaner. 
8. A small longicom beetle, rings young trees and 
branches. 
y. Parasites of the Mistletoe family. 
10. A winged large black bug with the strong particu- 
lar-smell, ejecting a liquid when disturbed, infests 
dadap trees in enormous numbers, clustering on the 
branches. They settle also on the branches of the 
cacao tree (when falling off the dadap I suppose) which 
they kill as well by sucking the sap. 
I do not count the white ant, as I think it is erro- 
neously thought that it nibbles off young plants, which 
I found to be only done by earth grub, nor the lizard 
which is our ally by feeding on the 
11. Crickets which nibble off young plants. 
TO THE FKUIT. 
(a) 12. A pink borer, tunnels in pods. 
13. IleloptUit Antonii, puncture the young pods and 
sometimes the young shoot*. The d*inige wrought by 
the mycelium (No 1) has been wrongly attributed 
to him. 
14. A purplish black grub, enclosed in a carapace of 
dry sticks lined inside and kept together by a Bilky 
texture, ring* the stein of young fruits. 
(aa) 15. The porrupinr, barks the trees, often en- 
tirely round for a foot and more and pulls off the unripe 
pods which he leaves on the ground, some partly nitj- 
Oled. The most mischievous and cunning animal that 
I know. It is also a great destructor of young coconut 
treeB. I have vainly tried cyanide of potassium, 
strychnine and arsenic. The bananas loaded with 
these poisons disappeared and also the porcupines, 
but these to return next night. Seldom a trap gun 
has killed any. The stocks of two such guns were 
chewed by them in contempt, I suppose. [My Sinha- 
lese neighbours found them one night. One of them 
got six months' hard for it (when it was still soft) but 
useless to say he kept the gun.] 
(a) 16. The monkeys, very destructive to pods and 
branches, when they make a raid in fields close to forest. 
(aa) 17. The squirrel makes a hole in the pod, ex- 
tract the beans which he drops after sucking the 
juicy pulp. 
(a) 18. The Kalavedda (Hinh.) (Paradozurut typui) 
climbs on the trees to feed on the ripe pod. 
19. The ichole family of rats eat the beans dropped 
by squirrels. So does 
20. The utoose deer, which also browses the top of 
plants in nurseries and field. 
21. The parrot makes small holes in the pod to sack 
the juice of the beans. 
22. The flying squirrel and 
23. The dying-fox eat the beans out of the pods. 
(aa) 21. The wild pig feeds on the ripe pods more 
particularly and injures the bark by the rubbing of his 
teeth or his skin. He partly redeems his faults by 
destroying grub. 
25. A small borer which settles in the dry bean. 
I shall not include my native neighbours as they 
seldom damage trees but only their proprietor. 
These enemies are unfair for they do not take a 
percentage, but a quantity, which I value at a minimum 
average of 12 pods per tree in the year. 
It would be interesting to know what is the average 
crop of plantation cacao per acre in Ceylon, taking in ac- 
count the acreage of village gardens and the approxi- 
mate stolen crop. 
At the present price of 70s. for best, which means 
60s average at most, I do not think that it can leave 
a large margin of profit to the planter, but it always 
will to HADJIE BABA. 
P.S. — What a farce that official letter about the 
Police in reference to cocoa stealing. I am in the 
close vicinity of a Police Station, but never heard that 
any "bobby" was the cause of bringing a thief 
to book.— H. B. 
THE MOON AND TEA FLUSH. 
Dear Sir,— " K. T. B." must have felt greatly 
relieved after delivering himself of his wonderful 
letter. He reminds me of a school-boy who can only 
make faces and call names, while screening himself 
behind a pluckier fellow than himself whom he eggs 
on to do all the hitting. I took up the gage so 
haughtily thrown down by " Agricola "because he was 
so sure as to stake his reputation on the issue \ I 
showed that the suu alone makes harvest all the 
world over; and that, in Europe, only the ignorant 
peasantry attributed influences to the moon which a 
very few observations would suffice to confute. In 
support of this I quoted the words and names rf 
some of the greatest men science has known. Per- 
haps, when, K. T. B. tries his apparently prentice 
hand at controversy next time, he will, if he want3 
any notice taken of his mere jibes — point out where 
the "shallowness" comes in! In the meantine he 
may cogitate over the fact that to make unsupported 
assertions without a shadow of argument or reason, 
is to be shallow and contemptible at the same time. 
