796 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 1, \m. 
ifl one of the accredited heirs. This gentleman i? 
Vincent L Tissera, head of the firm of V L Tis- 
Bera & Co., one of the largest tea importing bouses 
of America, The object of his visit here is, in 
brief, to see whether the growing tea trade between 
Ceylon and India as exporters and the United 
States as importers cannot be diverted to the 
Pacific instead of the Atlantic Coast. At present 
most of the tea sent to America from those coun- 
tries goes by way ot Liverpool an'l thence across 
the Atlantic to New York or Montreal. There are 
other East Indian products which Mr. Tissera thinks 
should also reach this country !)>• way of the Pacilio 
Coast, and he is profoundly impressed with the con- 
viction that return trade could easily be built up 
in American products, especially in the line of 
niachiuery and meclmnical products of all kinds. 
He is also positive in his conviction that this in- 
terchange of trade, if it can be effected will seek 
Pnget Sound as its natural entrepot, and the Seattle 
will inevitably become the centre of it." This 
practically sets forth the news of Mr. Tissera wliich 
occupy about three columns in the contemporary 
from which we are quoting, accompanied by a por- 
trait of this Ceylonese abroad. 
THE SANDALWOOD PLANT. 
SEA VIEW ESTATE. 
Veyangoda, April 14. 
DearSir, — The Sandalwood (Santaluni Album) 
plants, planted out at this and Kola Estates 'ij years 
ago in the open, in red j^ravel and sand (mixed) 
soils are now five to si.\ feet lii<,'li. Tlie |)lants will 
not thrive ac dani)) situations; areen or dried leaves 
of jungle trees answer well as niannre. Cowdung 
or any other manure is injurious to the tree. When 
weeding care should be taken not to disturb the 
roots. If the roots were injured the tree perislie.s. 
Plants may be raised in ordinary nurseries with- 
out using any manure or seed and may he planted at 
stake in favourable weather. I enclose a few seeds 
for your inspection.— Yours laithfnlly, 
J. P. WILLIAM. 
[We are obliged to our correspondent for the 
seeds sent. " The tree," says Dr. Trimen, in his 
Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon, " is a native of 
Central Peninsular India, and known in Ceylon 
as a cultivated tree only ; it was introduced here 
in 1850."-Ei). T.A.] ' 
CEYLON TEA ON THE CONTINENT. 
MR. ROGIVUE'S WORK. 
Kaiidy, April 14th 1899. 
Sir, — I herein enclose extract of a letter 
from Mr. Bremer, to Mr. J. P. Ryan in re- 
ference to Mr. Rogivne's woi'k on the Con- 
tinent as likely to be intei-esting. — Yom-s 
faithfully, A. PHILIP, 
Secretary, " Thirty Committee." 
Extract. 
Hotel Beau-Rivage, Ouchy, Lauanne. 
March 25 th, 1899. 
You asked me tlie other day at Milan to let 
you know how Rogivue was getting on. He is 
now in Switzerland establishing agencies for Jas. 
Finlay & Co. and they want him to do the same 
in Germany. He sells and advertises Ceylon Tea 
chiefly and there can be no doubt that the con- 
version of his business into a Company, with a 
man like Sir John Muir as Chairman, has enabled 
him to push our teas far more successfully than 
he was able to do when working on his account. 
He now has capital at his command and money 
is not stinted for advertising. His whole time is 
taken up in travelling between Moscow", Cons- 
tantinople, Switzei'lana,and London, in all of which 
places M. Rogivue's & Co. have established them- 
selves. I enclose some circulars, &c., to show you 
what is being done. Thousands of sample packets, 
circulars, &c., are .sent out. I liad uoideAth&the 
ha^l done so much for Ceylon until we went into 
details, and tliere is no doubt he is deserving of 
every support wliich the Thirty Coniuiitlee can 
give hini. Of course he is iruiking a good thing 
for himself, but his op|>ortunilies for making our 
leas known are now so many thai the more we 
can help him, the more we bhall help on our- 
selves. I have been travelling about tne countrj' 
witli him, and have seen how Ix' is able to pusli 
buiiness. His teas are Al, and are so superior 
to what tlie ix'opk' liave been accustomed to get 
tliat every day brings in fresh orders, from iieople 
who have taste<l the tea at some frtcnd'fe houne. 
In Russia he has spent a lot of money in Mendiux 
out thousands of elegant little le<tpots. markerl 
Ceylon Tea and with directions for uiakin^. al&o 
thousands of photogiaijhic cards, and this veai 
thou.sands of very attract ive-hxiking and useful tea 
caddies are goiiig out. lie is quite jiitiiusiastic 
over it. It is most gratifying to tliid muIi enthu- 
siasm. Hogivue tohl me'lliat the money lie liad 
recei\ed lix»m the Tea Fund was a inerenothinK 
compared with wliat he had upent in advertising. 
If lie applies for .issistance in Sw itzerland 1 hope 
his application will he grantt-d, as I aui suix- tlie 
money w ill be w ell spent. There ai-e all fcorts of 
people pushing Tea here, hut they ;ire moKtlv if 
not all agents for I.iondon blending houses ani\ do 
not make such a speciality of Ceylou as Itoglvue 
does. ' " 
CACAO DISEASE. 
Sir,— I note the questionw a^ksd in your iB6ue 
of .January '2lPt, 1899. Recent re|»orts from Kew 
on specimens sent home by this Department, tihow 
that a specie** of I'eroitoxporai- (so named provi- 
sionally) is the origin oi a " pod disease" which 
appears to be of si;iiilar character to that recently 
studied by Mr. Carrulliers iu ( eyion. This fun- 
gus was found by ine some three daye; previjun 
to the receipt ot Mr. Carrulheri*' report ou podn 
sent up to the liardens for examination. Fur- 
ther specimens are to be exaniitied later with 
the view of obtaining full particulars of the life 
history of the organism. 
The disease is readily reproduced by iDOCula- 
tion on liealth3' pod.*. 
Planters state that they have obi-erved this 
disease for many years p;u.t, and that it only be- 
comes prominently present during moist seas(in.«. 
I have observed that the disease is niucli moie 
prevalent iu localities where the broken pods are 
allowed to rot upon the ground without being 
either covered or buried. I have re- 
commended burying, burning, or otherwise 
completely destroying all infected pods, and all 
fresh pods opened for the abstraction of the beans. 
So far I bave only observed the disease nj>on 
material which contains living ti.ssue. It however 
germinates upon the freshly opened pods which 
soon rot and are then taken possession of by sap- 
rophytic fungi, which soon destroy all trace of 
tha parasitic forms. 
It appears, so far as can be ascertained at pre- 
sent, to affect all varieties of Theobroiiia alike ; 
but I think that it is likely to affect tbe weaker 
growing varieties far more seriously than the ro- 
bust and stronger kinds. 
Mr. Massie suggests that the fungus can hardly 
exist on the pods alone, but must find fori! self 
a congenial habitat elsewhere, and a search for any 
likely host is strongly recommended so that the 
power of the enemy may be ^^ell understood. 
So far the attack in Trinidavl is not considered 
by planters to be of a serious character, except 
perhaps in places where the trees and general 
cultivation have been much neglected. 
J. H.'HART, F.L.S, 
