Jan. 2, 1899 ] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
505 
To ihe Editor. 
THE LOCAL DLSTillBUT[ON OF TEA 
IN' SMALL i>ACiCKTd. 
Dear Sir,— A^ the Indian -Clover miient has re- 
fused to sanction tlve sale of tea in small packets 
at post otfices, we may conclude that the Ceylon 
Government v/ould also refuse to gr;inb permia- 
(sion. Hut there can surely be no objection to 
our numerous out.station Dispensaries being; uti- 
lised for this purpose. The distribution of tea 
in this way would be of great benefit to thousands 
of the poorer classes, and should lead to a large 
reduction in the quantity ot abominable stuff 
at present sold at absurdly high prices, and in- 
troduce tea to distant parts of the country where 
it is at present unknown. — Yours faithfully, 
TIPS. 
IRON ORE IN~CEYLOM. 
Dear Sir, — I do not think a Geological expert 
is required to ' re-discover' the iron ore in Sabara- 
ganiuwa. On the bouml.ary of the Province, in 
the neighbourhood of Halpe, tiie hill sides are 
covered with iron stone of very tine quality. — 
Yours faithfully. TRAVELLER. 
[Ah, but what we want to re-discover is Gygax's 
15 miles of iron ore, thus : — 
" But there is another description of iron ore," says 
Dr. Gyf;ax, in his oflicial report to the Ceylon Govern- 
ment, vvhicii is found iu vast .ibundanes, brown and 
compact, generally iti the state of carbonate, though 
still bleuJed with a little chrome, and often molybdena. 
It occur-; in large masses and veins, cue of which ex- 
tends for a distance of fifteen miles ; from it millions of 
Ions might ba smelted, and when found adjacent to 
fuel and water-oartiage, it might be worked to a 
profit."— Ed. 7'.A.] 
CACAO DISEASE. 
From the Secretary, Planters' Association of Ceylon. 
Kandy, 19th December, 1S98. 
Sir, —T herein transmit an additional report on 
Cacao Disease by Mr, J. B Carruthers.— I am, sir, 
yours faitlifully.' A. PHILIP. 
ADDITIONAL REPOET ON CACAO DISEASE. 
After writing my report in September last, I had 
brought to my notice the fact that in some cases the 
bark of the tree behind thn diseased pods was 
cankered, and this led me to carefully examine a 
number <'f diseased pods, and I came to the con- 
clusion that there was an undoubted con'iection bet- 
ween the canker in the bark and the diseased pods. 
I, therefore, agreed to remain in the island daring the 
recent wet season, i..*., the North-E ist monsoon, and 
canyon my observations and experiments; and my 
doing 30, I venture to think, has been of value — first 
because I am able to add to, and to a certain extent 
correct, my former reports ; and, second, because I 
have been able to watch the elfects of the different 
methods ot treatment, during tlie season when the 
canker ia most active. 
I propose to describe my investigations 
INTO THE rOD DISHASE 
and what has been learnt from them and what 
it teaches us with regard to the treatment of cacoa, 
And then to give the results of observations on. the 
curative means — and how they have succeeded in 
oomb iting and curing the canker. 
In explanation, I mu>t refer to the statements in 
my previous repor s that the disease in the pods was 
due to an entirely different fungus to that in the 
bark, and that tho pod fungus which belonged to 
the group of the Peronospeco could not growiu the bark. 
62 
When I first began these investigations in Ceylon 
I examined diseased pods and found them to be per- 
meated by quantities of mycelium which was differ- 
ent in character to the mycelium iu the bark, and 
which boie masses of sporangia, i.e., egg-shaped 
bodies containing the spores or seeds of a fungus 
totally different in structure from what I after- 
wards found to be tho fruits of the canker fungua. 
These sporangia, on being zpplied to healthy pods, 
induced iu them the characteristic disease of the pods. 
Tlio immense masses of tho sporangia prevented me 
from seeing wh.'.t I_have now found even in my prepa- 
r^itions made whan i first began my work, that among 
them are to be found the much smaller and incons. 
picuous goni'lia spoi-es of tlie canker fungus, it is only 
recently that I have been -ble to see and examine pod 
disease again ; as during the larger portion of ray =tay 
there has been very little crop on the trees and conse- 
quently no diseased pods. 
In order to prove the action of the 
CAXKBR FUNGUS ON THE PODS 
I carried on the following e.^periments : — 
A. — Pieces of cankered bark were placed in selected 
healthy pods on sound trees. Five pods were so treated. 
In all cases the pods became diseased after about eight 
days, and in less than li days, spores of both fungi were 
produced in abundance. 
/>. — Pieces of diseased pods were placed iu the bark 
of sound trees. Eight of these experiments were made. 
In all cases canker wasproduced in the bark, after about 
ten fiays, and the spores of the canker fungus, but not 
of the Peronospora were found after about 17 days. 
C. — Pieces of cankered bark were placed in the bark 
of sound trees, just above the stalks of healthy pods. 
Seven of these experiments were made. In all cases 
the pods became diseased and on them were produced 
the spoi'cs of both fungi, in about eight days, and on 
their stalks, the spores of tlio canker fungus only. 
D. — Pieces of diseased pods were placed in healthy 
pods on sound trees, and the disease having hien 
produoeJ; the effect on the adjoining bark was ob- 
served. Six of these experiments were made. In three 
of these experiments, the canker was produced ia 
the bark of the tree adjacent to the stalk, ana iu the 
other three cases, the stalk of the pod was cankered, 
but no; the adjacent bark, — in one of them the canker 
went into the wood of the tree through the stalk, but 
without affecting the bark surrounding the stalk. 
These experiments show conclusively: — Ist. That 
the canker fungus can spread from the birk to the 
pods ; 2ud. That the canker fungus can spread from 
the pod to tlie bark and 3rd. Tbat the disease before 
described affecting the pods does not grow in the 
bark, and is confined to the pod tissues not running 
into the stalk of the pods. 
They also show that the canker fungus growi much 
more rapidly in the pod than in the bark and pro- 
duces its spores much sooner on the former than on 
the latter. On the bark it takes weeks and often 
mouths for the spores to form, on the pods it is a 
matter of day^. The prompt appearance of the Pero- 
nospora fungus after the canker has infected the pods 
is shown by experiment C, but the exact share 
which these two fungi take in the destruction of tha 
pod tissues should ba made the subject of further 
experiment p,ad observation during the next wet 
season. 
I may hei'e luentiou that one or two careful obser- 
vers stated to me when I was first investigating tha 
origin and nature of the disease, that the canker on 
tlieir estates first appeared on the trees surrounding 
the holes where the pod husks were buried, but this 
I found not to be always the case, and having no 
further data to support it iu my knowled^o of tha 
life history of the fungi 1 imagined it to bo a coinci- 
dence. This fresh knowledge of the canker fungus 
points to the fact that the spores from the diseased 
polshad in these cises infected tha trees near which 
they had been deposited. 
'I'hat the diseased pod should not be bnried in tho 
holi)j with the healthy ones h.vs boon insisted on in 
the previous reports, and this shows clearly the danger 
ot such a proceeding. 
