June i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
809 
Geraes and Rio de Janeiro have combined upon 
an arrangement by which the interests of the 
speculators are to be protected. The custom- 
house will therefore continue to exact guiiis until 
those outstanding are exhausted, and then we 
presume something else will be done. In the 
meantime the whole 1 1 per cent will be collected 
on the coffee now coming in, plus the 4 per 
cent guias, plus the premiums the speculators 
are able to " squeeze" out of the exports. 
The business is clearly a swindle, and we can 
not understand how the minister of finance lias 
been deceived by it. No one is unaware of the 
fact that under this arrangement coffee will be 
paying export duties twice, and but few are 
ignorant of the fact that the imposition is being 
carried out wholly in the interests of a syndi- 
cate of speculators who have secured all the 
guias in the market. The open protection of 
this syndicate is not only irregular and scan- 
dalous, but it is giving rise to charges not at 
all creditable to the reputation of tne officials 
concerned. It is clearly impossible to overlap 
the two methods of collecting the export duty 
without confusion and loss. The honest, com- 
mon-sense method would have been for the two 
states to take up all outstanding guias on 
a certain date, returning the money received 
on them. Tlie new method would then have 
had a fair start, and there would have been no 
confusion. The Brazilian official, however, never 
pays back a tax if he can help it, and would 
plunge the treasury into a labyrinth of difficulties 
rather than do so. And so he will try to liqui- 
date the old system in conjunction with the new, 
notwithstanding the fact that it will cause end- 
less confusion and heavy loss. To protect a few 
speculators, they will treat most unjustly a class 
of men who are bringing millions into the 
country every year. Brazil is practicalfy 
dependent upon its coffee industry ; without it 
the government could not continue on present 
lines a single year. And yet, they are will- 
ing to over-tax the product; and to treat 
the men who buy it with scant courtesy, 
simply because they think that the foreigner is 
paying the bill. But it is a long road which has 
no turn. The high prices which coll'ee has yielded 
during the past few years — prices which are 
augmented, be it understood, by the taxes and 
charges imposed upon it in this market — is en- 
couraging the development of coffee planting all 
over the world. In Mexico, Africa, Borneo and 
south eastern Asia new districts are being opened, 
and in Java and Ceylon many old planters are 
again turning their attention to its production. 
The greediness of the Brazilian tax-gatherer is 
sure to prejudice las own returns sooner or later. 
1 1- remains to be noted that the compromise 
agreed upon has not yet been ratified by the two 
state governments affected, and it nuiy tniuspire 
that it will yet fall through. Should it be 
confirmed, 'httwever, t lie coffee merchants ought to 
contest it in I lie courts. Paying a duly twice is n 
matter to which no one ought to consent.— 
Wo Xcir.s: 
ENEMIES OF TEA: NOTES ON 
HELOPELTIS. 
The following is the report of Mr. E, E. Green 
on an estate in a Low-country district which 
he visited recently, as given tiy our morning 
contemporary ; — 
I found the pest practically confined to about ;">0 
acres of a poor jtft Tea (Fields No. 71, 72, 78, 76, 
and 77) on piirts of which it, had teen present for 
six years. The blight was first noticed in fields (No- 
71, 73, and 77) and here it localized itself for some- 
time : but finally spread into the lower fields (72 and 
76.) The rest of the estate is at present quite free 
from the pest. 
The preference shown by Helopeltis for low jat teas, 
is most marked on this estate. There is a small piece 
(No. 75) of dark leaned Manipuri Indigenous yea lying im- 
mediately above, and adjoining field No. 76, which is 
planted with a poor hybrid. The two patches are con- 
tinuous, unseparatod even by a path, yet the 
boundary between these is most distinctly marked 
by the contrast of the healthy flush on the former, 
and the blighted shoots on the latter. I walked 
along the row between the two classes of tea, and 
found the bushes on one side, completely disfigured 
by blackened shoots and spotted leaves, while the 
indigenous tea on the other hand, showed a healthy 
flush completely free from blight. I am informed that 
the two patches were pruned at the same time and 
in the same way, and that no distinction had been 
made in their treatment, except that the poor tea 
(now so badly damaged), had received the additional 
advantage of manure. In another field, where sup- 
plies have been filled in with tea of a different jat, 
the Helopeltis has deliberately singled out the poor- 
er plants. 
It is true that an indigenous bush here and 
there, showed one or two punctured shoots, but 
this was probably due to the fact of a few 
insects having been blown out of their course. In no 
case had they established themselves upon the indige- 
nous variety. 
This fact has been recognised for some time by Indian 
planters. The late Professor Wood-Mason in his report 
on the "Tea Bug of Assam" (1881) states that the 
Indigenous species of tea " enjoys an almost complete 
immunity from attack." 
That Helopeltis can, however, feed and breed on 
Indigenous teas, is proved by the fact that specimens 
confined in a glass jar with young shoots from indi- 
genous plants only, freely punctured the leaves and 
deposited eggs in the stalks. It is possible therefore 
that unless the pest is kept in check, it may gradually 
accustom itself to the more pungent juices of the 
indigenous species. 
The present preference of the insect for the weaker 
liquoring tea is further shown by the results of an 
experiment, in which I confined insects in a glass 
jar for 24 hours, with an equal number of shoots 
from the indigenous and the low-jat teas. All the 
shoots were attacked, but to a very different extent. 
On the low-jat 221 punctures were counted ; on the 
indigenous there were 61 only ; on the latter also 
ihe punctures were principally confined to the sides 
of the midrib. 
Manuring see-ns to exercise little or no effect upon 
the progress of the pest. I saw badly affected fields 
that had been recently manured though the crop re- 
turns still showed a steady decrease of yield. 
The effect of shade is noticeable in the compara- 
tive freedom of bushes growing immediatly beneath 
and beside a belt of jak-trees. Here the tea had 
thrown out healthy flush ; while away from the in- 
fluence of the trees, the bushes were badly blighted, 
and had completely shut up. 
I am informed that the affected field (72761 was 
pruned in Oct. Nov. 1894. '•Mosquito Blight" began 
to appear on it towards the end of the following 
January, and became severe in February, when it 
was fouud necessary to put on children "to collect 
the insects. After tipping only two or three rounds 
of leaf wero taken oil botore tho attack had become 
general. Another field (No. 77) which had only just 
come into plucking after being pruned, was found to 
be attacked. It is evident, therefore, that pruning 
alone is of little or no avail in permanently checking 
the pest. In affected fields, it is most important that 
all primings should ho hurned or buried on the spot. 
At the time of my visit, children were being em- 
ployed in catching the insects. An examination of 
the day's catch, showed that the adult insects onlv 
wcrc being taken. The proportion of tho sexes wero 
about equal. Tho feuialos, on dissection, wen found 
: to contain fully formed 6gga (from i to 19 iu each 
