2G0 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 1, 1889. 
climatic reasons, and tlaat such will decrease 
as rapidly as they came. 
It is the general opinion among planters 
that^ — especially where the bushes are healthy 
and vigorous — no decrease in yield has occurred 
or is likely to occur ; and it is easily notice- 
able that — though these blights increase on 
shuck patches— healthy tea seems to hold its 
own ; and the disease though present seems 
unable to make headway. 
Dr. Watt speaks of increase occurring vege- 
tatively and the spread of disease by my- 
celia : this may be so, but spores carried about 
by the wind seem the chief means of reproduc- 
tion. This is especially noticeable now when 
the prevaihug direction of the wind is from 
the South-west. Slopes with that aspect are 
much more affected than others. 
There seems to be a great diversity of 
opinion as to the seriousness of these pests. 
Some planters take a morbid pleasure in 
prophesying horrors, against which the 
coffee trouble pales into insignificance ; others 
and, T am glad to say, the majority, take 
a much more favourable view of the matter, 
and it is significant that in the ranks of 
the latter may be numbered not only the 
majority of the ablest and leading planters, 
but men whose experience of coffee would 
tend to (were such a thing necessary) make 
them be among the worst a larmists. Thegeneral 
opinion seems to be that, while no real 
danger need be apprehended still precau- 
tions should be taken to prevent further in- 
crease. It is a strange fact, that, while Dr. 
Watt, Mr. Bamber and other scientific men 
should lay such stress on the necessity of 
prompt and drastic action, as well as talk 
so largely of the fearful rapidity with Avhich 
such pests spx'ead — we find Assam, for in- 
stance, has been the hoiaie of gray blight for 
many years and that although yields may 
have been reduced on shuck estates, healthy 
placesthere can even yet boastof bumper crops. 
As for Ceylon, an old and experienced plan- 
ter remarked the other day that he recol- 
lected grey blight causing a great scare 
some 12 or 15 years ago, and how at the time 
he and others thought that tea was going 
the way of coffee. However, the blight 
decreased just as rapidly as in the first place 
it increased; and, though lam not sure on this 
point, I believe he i-emarked that the 
weather at the time was as abnormally wet 
as it has been during the last few months. 
The local " Times " of Thursday last speaks of 
mossing and asks Avh ether estates on which 
such work is carefully carried out, 
show any freedom from pests. From obser- 
vation I should say that they do not, 
and I have found blight almost as bad 
on one of the most carefully and system- 
atically cultivated estates in the island 
as on less-cared-for neighbouring places, A 
planter fvirther asks whether grey and 
brown blights respect jat and what jat 
seemed to be most affected. Personally I 
should say China jat seems to escape 
easiest, and that the better jats suffer most : 
the latter seem affected most from pruning 
to about 18 months on, after which, the 
bushes being denser and the leaves h;irder, 
blight is not ko nc^ticeable. 
Now for remedies: in order to do any real 
good some uniform system must be adopted, 
and an economical as well as efficient treat- 
ment has yet to be found. In this we seem to 
have to depend on our own resources. 
Science can tell us that this or that treatment 
will kill fungi, but is quite at a loss as far 
as remedies suiting the peculiarities of tea 
are concerned. Most estates, however, 
are trying something ; but I doubt whether 
in some cases good is being done, and it is 
reasonable to suppose that blight is being 
sown broadcast by some of tne supposed 
methods of cure which have been adopted. 
Among other methods the following may be 
worthy of trial : — 
1. Collecting and burning the prunings 
when green. 
2. Collecting and burying of all prunings 
with lime. 
3. Picking off infected leaves from bushes 
and burning same. 
i. As well as picking off, etc., sweeping the 
ground and burning the leaves so collected. 
5. Pruning strips of from 20 to 40 lines 
leaving strips unpruned, heaping prunings 
in unpruned parts and firing same. 
Possibly the most effective method would 
be a combination of Nos. 1 and 2 followed by 
No. 3. The gi'eat advantage of the first two 
methods is the value of such in cultivation. 
AVhere land is not too steep burying prunings 
makes a valuable bulk, and the soil being 
light, it is one of the only available ways of 
building such up and creating humus. Where 
land is too steep for this process, prun- 
ings could, while quite green, be collected 
in ravines and on roads and burnt : the 
resulting ash, collected and returned to 
the soil, is the cheapest potash manure 
we have — not to speak of the great value of 
the large amount of carbon in the ashes .as 
a collector and retainer of ammonia. If tea 
so treated was aftei'wards gone over and 
blighted leaves picked off, it should not be 
either a difficult or expensive way of keeping 
blight in check. 
Picking off blighted leaves has, frou) what 
I hear, not given entire satisfaction — this 
may in some cases be due to the pickers not 
being provided with ])roper receptacles. 
Personally I have provided them with thick 
canvas bags ; notwithstanding this I find the 
blight increased after the first round of 
treatment, the second rotmd taking twice 
as many coolies as the first. This might be 
dvie to climatic reasons, as I find the third 
round to be fairly free from infested leaves. 
Various methods are being tried in picking 
off leaves: — giving each plucker a bag and 
making them— while doing ordinary plucking 
—remove sickly leaves, is one ; this may do 
when blighted leaves are few and far be- 
tween, but personally I think a special gans' 
doing nothing but this work is cheaper and 
the work done is much cleaner. It is quite 
possible that handling these leaves on dry 
hot days may scatter spores lai-gely ; but 
when this work is done in damp rainy 
weather, this should not occiu-. On the other 
hand wet weather is more favourable for 
the germination of the spores. No. 4 
method is being employed on some estates, 
and no doubt is eft'ective ; but I doubt whether 
the good done is worth the heavy expen- 
diture that this method of treatment en- 
tails, No. 5 method se^ms drastic, but I 
