May 1, 1902,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUraST. 
171 
Dominica was noted, with a desoription ot its habits 
and distribution in Gcena 'a. The damage to the ca-iao 
tree ia somatimag insigaifioant, aoinatimes gt-eat, 
according to the climate, conditions, drought ani neg- 
lect rendering the tre.^s very liable to an attack. Expe- 
rience shows that, while proper care of the treei will 
do much to avert the dissase, ultiiuite reliance mu^t 
be placed on spraying the tress with kerosene 
emulsion, The insect appears to be closely allied to 
the ' thrips ' affecting cacao in Oevlon, ij jt'-i the Gie- 
nada and Ceylon larva being -fiarac^arisai by a 
transverse ctimson bind.- 
Professor Giard.'to whom a'l iiisect h is been sent, 
has aamad it I'loiibpws rubrpru.-.'u, ohough it has 
hi^'O liitherto regarded as 'vlongl:!:; to the genua 
Heliothrjps. The Gaographic-il distribution, as known 
at present, is Grenada, Ss. Vincent, St. Luoia, 
Dominica, Guadeloupe and Ceylon. It ia not improb- 
able that the insect willbs found to occur in the other 
parts of the West Indies and South Amarica. 
A short time ago, attention was drawn to another 
disease which attacks cacao treej in Surinam, 
producing bunches of malformed twigs called ' witch 
brooms.' In 1900, Professor Bos. of Amsterdam, dis- 
covered asci, or fruiting organs, of the Exoascus type, 
on the underside of two rudimentary leaves on the 
twigs of the ' witch brooms,' from which he concluded 
that the disease was due to a new fungus, related 
to those which produce ' witch brooms' in olh^er trees 
and which he named Exoascus tlieohromo;. Professor 
Went, of the University of Utrecht, has found that in 
cacao trees containing ' witch brooms ' the pods are 
attacked by a fungus which causes a swelling at the 
aide, and finally produces a worthleas, hard and 
woody pod. He consiiier.s that the fungus causing 
this malformation, may be allied to that which 
produces the swelling, but since, up to the present, no 
spores have been observed, the identification of the 
fungus has been nnsueoessful. Tha planters in Surinam 
find it advisable to cut out the ' witch brooms ' as soon 
as they are observed.. This method is sutiicient to keep 
the disease from makThg much headway, but, it carried 
on to a large extent, will undoubtedly impair the pro- 
ductiveness of the trees. — Imperial Institute Journal 
for April. 
♦ 
PLANTING NOTES. 
" GrBEVlLLEAg ' DOOMRD ? — What is this 
new.s we hear of gi'evillea trees on estates 
in tlva dying out from a fungus attacking 
the roots ? Mr. Carruthers has been to see 
tiie evil when it was first observed and, we 
believe, .-apjiroves of the trees being cut 
down and dug out. How about grevilleas 
in other districts— in Dinibula, for instance ? 
We would strongly advise a careful in- 
spection. There is always the danger of 
such disease spreading. Who can tell us if 
the " silky oak " (as it is called) is affected 
in this way in its native home of Queensland ? 
Sale of Dwarf Treks. — A number of Ja- 
panese dwarf trees, and a collection of luiniafcure 
British and foreign v. oodland scenes, be'ongnig 
to Mrs. Ernest Hart, were otfeied at auction on 
Thursday by Messrs. Knii^ht, Prank and Rutiey, 
Conduit-street. Several dwarf cedars sold at <,'ood 
prices. One, wiiich was catalogued as 100 years 
o'd, with thick twisted t utik and weli ba'aticed 
braneiies, fetched £20. A second, also lOJ j'ears 
old, and measuring 2'iin. in lieiglit, was sold for 
£14 14-. Tlic deniand for miniatures wa.s less 
brisk ; the prices obiained ranged from £6 6s to 
£3 3s, Several lots were purchased on behalf of 
lioyalty. — Daily Chronicle, 
RuBDKR, CoFFKB, <fec. I^^ AnY.?sixi,v.— In the 
Century Magazine for April there is a paper 
\jy H Le Roux which gives a striking picture of 
Menelilv's country. As regards products, here is 
what is said : — 
On tha varied levels of the Abyssinian table-land 
everything may be cultivated the way of luxurious 
products — rubGer, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, spikes, mul- 
barr). etc. As a matter ot' fa?!-, the comtjination of 
tropi. il aea; and aa Alpine aitilude, so to speak, 
producas in Abyssinia dim itic onditions whi^h are 
cai"t(iin!y unique. Tuesa diilerent plateaux resemble 
nothing so much as a series of gieenhoases placed 
one above the other — cold, temperate, and hot, No 
matter what the altitude, the temperature is remark- 
ably fixed. I was able to live in Abyssinia for 
six months, under a tent, at an average of sixty- 
five hundred feet, without over beinj;- inconvenienced 
by the cold. Wherever I went I met with vineyards 
and palm trees, growing readily even at an altitude of 
eight thousand feet. It is true, also, that these 
unusual conditions have made Abyssinia an inex- 
haustible cotfee-granary. The fact is now established 
that this precious plant is not only abundant in 
Abyssinia, but that it is native to this plateau. It 
was from the Abyssinian province of Kaffa that coffee, 
hitherto unknown, was first carried into Arabia. 
This gave it its name. Even nowadays the inhabitants 
of Kaffx do not take the trouble to cultivate the 
coffee-plant ; they are satisfied to gather coffee wild 
under the treea — coffee trees of a size so prodigious that 
the natives cut them down and out of the trunks 
nnka boards thick enough to build their houses. 
The quality of the aroma is so superior that the 
English decidedly prefer it to the true Arabian Mocha, 
or, to speak more litorally, to all the Red Sea coffee 
which goes to Mocha and there receives a baptism 
of good origin. As things now st ind all these products 
are raised by the Abyasini^ns only in proportion to 
their limited needs. They are spoiled by this land 
of unrivalled fertility, which, in certain places, gives 
as many aa four harvests a year. They ask of it 
merely the cotton necessary to roll themselves iu 
gay-colored coverings which, when they travel, pro- 
tect them against the night chill. They sow just 
enough corn, wheat, durra, sorghum, and canary-seed 
to live on, and they leave the stretches of land that 
fire or continued occupation have devastated to grow 
wild as prairie-lands, which serve as pasture for quan- 
tities of goats and enormous sheep, whose wool becomes 
a long, shaggy coat, and especially for fine herds of 
cows and zebus with humps on their backs which are 
luscious eating. 
The paper closes as follows : — 
Emperor Menelik gave the definite pledge of his 
esteem for Western civilisation in renouncing with 
iron will the isolation wherein hia predecessors had 
placed all their confidence. In 1882 he addressed to 
the President of the French Republic a letter drawing 
up in these terms of hia plans of reform : ' I wish to 
open up, to make safe for science, commerce and 
industry, the routes which lead from Shoa to the rich 
southern countries." In order to attain such civilised 
ends, the emperor has given hia faithful friends, M. 
llg and M Chefnoux, a grant for all the railroads 
which, starting from the French harbor of Jibuti, on 
the Indian Ocean, at the entrance ot the Red Sea, 
must in time unite the rich provinces of the west, the 
land of gold and coff'ee, with the shipping-dock where 
all the vessels of the world will touch. Already the 
first branch of this railroad, that which connects the 
harbor of .Jibuti with the mountains of Harar, is 
almost fiaished ; the deserts of Issa and Dankali have 
been traversed; and the greatest n^itural difficulties 
presented by the soil have been overcome. 
Some allowance must be made for over-sanguine 
expectations ; but, uo doubt, the deve'opnieiit of 
Abys&inia is bouud to go ahead, 
