Oct.  x,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
257 
THE  PLANTING  INDUSTRIES  OE  UVA. 
Now  that,  at  length,  the  period  is  approach- 
ing when  long-isolated  Uva  will  be  connected 
with  Colombo  harbour  and  all  between  by  a 
railway  line  across  the  dividing  mountain 
system,  it  is  interesting  to  note  what  the 
Civil  Servant  in  charge  of  the  Province  thinks 
and  says  of  the  position  of  the  main  enter- 
prises and  industries  which  are  relied  on  to 
yield  the  larger  portion  of  the  goods  traffic  of 
the  line.  Agitation  for  the  extension  of  rail- 
way facilities  to  Uva  was  commenced  when 
coffee  flourished  specially  in  the  Principality 
and  the  large  crops  of  fine  quality  berry 
harvested  had  to  contend  with  most  serious 
difficulties  of  transit.  Before  success  was 
achieved  the  glory  and  the  importance  of  coffee 
even  in  Uva  had  largely  departed  and  the 
railway  was  more  urgently  than  ever  required 
to  enable  the  planters  by  means  of  tea  to 
retrieve  tbe  ruin  wrought  by  the  decadence 
of  the  once  famous  Uva  coffee.  It  still  lingers 
in  haunts  where  it  was  once  supreme,  but 
here  as  in  other  portions  of  the  island  tea  is 
now  king.  Mr.  Fisher,  in  his  administration 
report  for  1891,  wrote : — 
Coffee.—  Although  the  area  under  coffee  has  been 
considerably  reduced,  Uva  will  still  continue  to  be 
a comparatively  large  coffee-producing  district  for 
many  years  to  come.  The  remaining  estates  are, 
for  the  most  part,  valuable  properties,  highly  culti- 
vated, and  yielding  good  returns,  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  they  will  materially  deteriorate 
so  long  as  high  cultivation  is  kept  up.  The  acreage 
of  plantation  coffee  is  now  approximately  19,630  or 
3,760  acres  less  than  the  estimated  extent  under 
cultivation  in  1890.  This  shows  a serious  falling  off, 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  land  which 
has  gone  out  of  coffee  has  been  planted  up  with  tea, 
and  will  still  continue  to  be  productive  in  some  shape. 
The  native  coffee  is  all  grown  in  small  gardens, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  any  accurate  statistical 
information  in  respect  to  them,  but  the  aggregate 
acreage  and  yield  is  very  considerable,  and  I am 
in  hopes  that  the  area  under  cultivation  will  be  ex- 
tended. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  Liberian 
variety  of  coffee  has  not  become  more  popular  with 
the  natives,  as  it  would  undoubtedly  thrive  better 
in  the  village  gardens  than  in  more  exposed  situa- 
tions. It  is  reported  to  be  doing  remarkably  well, 
under  partial  shade,  in  the  Monaragala  District, 
and  is  said  to  be  giving  handsome  returns. 
Tea. — The  planting  of  tea  has  extended  with  ex- 
traordinary rapidity,  the  acreage  under  cultivation 
having  risen  from  9,868  in  1888  to  22,757  acres  in 
1891,  while  the  production  of  manufactured  leaf  has 
reached  5,000,000  pounds  showing  an  increase  of 
2,000,000  pounds  on  the  previous  year’s  out-turn.  Nor 
can  it  be  doubted  that  this  rate  of  increase  will  be 
maintained  for  some  years,  as  much  new  land  is 
being  brought  under  cultivation,  and  a good  deal  of 
the  tea  already  planted  is  still  immature.  Some  of 
the  best  yielding  tea  has  been  grown  on  patana  land, 
but  it  is  feared  that  tea  so  grown  is  wanting  in 
flavour,  and  it  does  not  apparently  command  so  high 
a price  as  the  produce  of  old  forest  land.  The  average 
price  realised  throughout  the  year  was  fair.  Some 
apprehensions  were  felt  about  labour,  but  in  reality 
I believe  the  supply  to  have  been  amply  sufficient, 
and  I see  no  ground  for  expecting  a deficiency  in 
future  years ; for  as  facilities  of  transport  are  im- 
proved, and  outlying  districts  become  more  accessible, 
the  inflow  of  immigrant  labour  will  increase,  and  it 
can  always  be  largely  supplemented  by  local  labour 
drawn  from  the  Sinhalese  villages.  On  the  whole, 
therefore,  I consider  that  the  prospects  of  the  tea 
industry  are  very  promising,  and  that  for  the  present 
at  least  the  enterprise  is  being  conducted  on  a firm  basis. 
Cinchona. — I regret  to  say  that  the  planting  of 
33 
cinchona  has  been  entirely  abandoned,  and  the  up- 
I rooting  of  trees  is  general.  The  acreage  under 
| cultivation  has  been  reduced  in  the  course  of  the 
I year  from  6.439  to  2,831  acres. 
Cacao. — There  has  been  no  extension  of  cultivation, 
but  where  favourably  situated  cacao  has  done  re- 
markably well,  and  has  given  large  returns.  It  is 
probably  the  best  paying  product  grown  by  Europeans, 
and  I should  much  like  to  see  its  cultivation  attempted 
in  the  low-country  under  shade,  and  with  the  means 
of  irrigation. 
Cakdamoms  continue  to  be  grown  in  small  patches. 
Tobacco  was  tried  on  a considerable  scale,  but  it 
did  not  prove  a financial  success,  and  the  repeated 
failure  of  experiments  in  all  parts  of  the  country  will 
probably  prevent  any  more  capital  being  invested  in 
this  product. 
What  Mr.  Fisher  writes  about  labour  reminds 
us  that  one  great  purpose  for  which  the  rail- 
way was  always  demanded  was  to  place  Uva 
more  on  a level  with  other  planting  districts  in 
regard  to  supplies  of  Tamil  labour.  This  will 
now  be  the  case. 
THE  “URET”  (GRUB)  PEST  IN  COFFEE, 
TEA,  CINCHONA,  SUGARCANE  AND 
TOBACCO  IN  JAVA. 
( Translated  from  the  “ Iitdiache  Mercuur"  of  Unci  July 
by  Mr.  John  Dent  Youny.) 
I. 
There  are  certainly  few  planters  in  Java  who  have 
not  already  and  frequently  become  acquainted  in  a very 
disagreeable  manner  with  the  larva  of  a beetle,  which 
is  spread  all  over  Java,  and  wbio  h bears  different 
names  in  different  residencies,  such  as  urets,  uler 
bumi,  wawataD,  eogkook,  &c. 
The  coffee  planter  sees  bis  trees  suddenly  become 
leafless,  and  many  branches  dying  off  with  such  a 
a check  that  it  takes  them  fully  four  years  to reoover 
and  bear  fruit,  according  to  the  opinion  of  planters 
in  Ceylon  and  British  India.  On  examination  it  is 
generally  discovered  that  the  grub — oerefc  [or  in 
English  spelling  *‘uret”lis  the  origin  of  the  evi1. 
The  tea  planter  sees  his  bushes  fading  away,  together 
with  their  fine  young  shoots,  and  thus  his  tea — and  on 
examining  the  roots  of  the  bushes  be  fiads  oerets 
[grubs]. 
The  cinchona  planter  sees  th  i green  covering  of  the 
leaves  of  his  trees,  whiih  iudioated  a strung  elabora- 
tion, transformed  into  reddish  nearly  withered  leaves 
whicb  furnish  but  small  hope  of  a rich  formation 
of  elkaloids  Here  also  he  fiads  tbe  roots  attaoked  by  the 
grub. 
The  sugar  planter  deplores  no  less  the  loss  of  his 
oane,  which  turns  yellow  and  perishes  iu  the  end, 
leaving  him  lamentably  short  ol  bis  estimated  orop. 
In  this  as  well  is  the  grub  the  guilty  cause;  and  starting 
with  the  idea  that  weakened  plants  are  more  liableto 
the  attacks  of  a prevailing  disease  than  those  in  a 
healthy  state,  we  are  led  to  inquire  if  the  grub  does 
not,  to  an  important  extent,  contribute  to  tbe  spread 
of  leaf-disease  in  the  coffee  tree  and  of  the  sereh  in 
tbe  sugarcane 
In  1890  when  travelling  in  the  principalities  of 
Jokjokarta  and  Soerakarta  (Vorstenlandeu)  I heard 
nothing  but  lamentaton  over  the  ravages  of  the  grub 
and  leaf -disease.  Several  years  previously  many  coffee 
plantations  had  been  totally  destroyed,  t he  trees  having 
died  off. 
About  the  same  time  when  travelling  through  Deli 
and  the  high  lands  of  Serdaug,  I was  told  by  a super- 
intendent that  a great  number  of  his  tobaoco  plants 
hnd  died.  On  reaching  the  estate  I found  the  soil 
infested  with  the  grub.  And  what  up  to  the  present 
time  has  been  done  to  combat  this  pest  ? 
ALempts  have  been  mad6  to  searoh  for,  collect 
aud  burn  tho  inseots  on  the  ground  and  likewise  to 
