THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURiST. [August i, i8gi. 
industry 1o the task. Experieuce takes the place o 
scieuce, and he is able tu produce a iiuer ilavoured 
tea than has yet been prouaced in India. A nuie- 
worthy ieii'vu:ti iu the tea trade of 1890 has bueu that 
t^ma oi. iUe KubBittn and Brilitih Uiciciiauta at iian- 
kow have sent skilled agenis to the tea-hrers in the 
interior to teach them how to select leaves and fire 
the tea, eo as specially to bait the Moscow aarket. 
The chops thus produced have Bold so trell in. Bussia 
that Mr. Gardner anticipates that this year this oper- 
ation will be extended. But it is only a question of 
time how soon the Kussian tea trade will loUow the 
example ol the English trade and draw its supplies 
from India and (Jeyion, which are already busily nur- 
sing the market. 'i.'o concentrate attention on the im- 
provement of quality will not save (he trade to Ohiua, 
for luaia and Ueyiou are also studying the taste ot 
the consumers and every year the superiority ol Uhina 
iu the matter of flavour is diminished. To tree the 
trade from its burden of taxation is the only course 
China can adopt for her own salvation as a tea-ex- 
porting country ; this done, improvement in the quality 
of the article would naturally follow the demana. At 
present tne position of the Ohiueae tea producer is 
tnucb the same as that of a tradesmaa in embariassed 
oiicomsiauoes who, being bard put to it to make 
ends meet, cannot afiord to improve the quality of 
bia yiaie6>—Monykong Daily News. 
COFFEE BOEEE. 
OIYWJS OOFFEOFUAGUS (DUNNING), 
fix William f binqle, m. s. o. i., 
IiAXB AOBIOULICBAL 0BEMI8X 10 MSaBBB, MAXHESOii & 00. 
IN OOOKQ. 
(Under special arrangement for publication in the 
"Ceylon Observer" and "Tropical Agriculturist.") 
This insect is the larva of an elegant beetle gener- 
ally Known as the " fly," from its likeness to a horse-fly 
oruwasp. Scientifically it is one of the Uoleoptera, of 
the geuus Clytns, and is represented in America by the 
bicKory tr«e borer, ,C', pictus (Dbuey) and locust 
tree borer C. robzmae (Ii'obstebJ. Tne generic name 
Xylotrupes siguitying wood borer has alao been applied 
I this ineeot ; and if people are not satisfied with 
Dui^NiMo's name, Qhjtus cofeophagus, I would suggest 
the name Xylotrupes Coffea Indica, which eimpiy 
means Coffee iiorer India, and leaves the question 
of sub-oruer and genus open. But planters are very 
little interested lu names, and a beetle which has 
wrought such havoc, killing off estates in toto, 
deciuiuiiii^ others, and even in those most free from 
It causing an appreciable loss, is to them the " coffee 
Dorer " in its larva siate and the " borer fly " 
when It has aeveloped into a beetle. 
I^uriug my four years' residence iu Ooorg 1 have 
been coUectiug statistics of damage done by "Borer" 
and expeiimcntiog with remedial agents. I have 
been suooesBful oeyond anything 1 hoped for^ not 
only in unravellicg tbe history of the beetle bat 
also in applying remedies; it is easier to deal with 
than leaf- disease, Memiteia vastatrix. 
It lis possible lu from three to five years to reduce 
the yOsses of the trees on the estates by treating the 
tree for leaf-disease and borer simultaneously, by 
from fifty to seventy-five or eighty per cent, oalou- 
iaved on the present losses. More it is useless to 
nxyt30t,, as a great many trees die out from over- 
deal lug and otner causes. 
Tne loiluwiug IB au approximate statement of the 
trees ripped out, and enterea as "Borer" in South 
Coorg irom estates under European management : — 
Kainfall Crop ^f'T^''^ 
inches. owt: *X 
acerage, 
1»65 .. 62-31 ,. 6 .. 83 
i»be .. 57-aa .. 3S 6-9 
Neither the average crop nor the rainfall appear 
to have much to do with borer failures. Bat wnen 
t^e details are examined a very close ourmeotlou 
is found to exist between the weather and both crop 
and borer. 
I cannot in the brief space allowed, faily discuss 
the meteorological features of the question iu this 
paper, but will just say that when the number of sub- 
spots were at the maximum the crops were good, as 
the nomber decreased so did the crops, and as they 
are now on the increase, crops will probably prove 
good till the maximum is again passed. [Our corres- 
pondent aloue is responsible for this theory. What is 
certain is the melancholy tact that crops have gone 
down in 6 years from 5 to 2 cwt. per acre. — Ed. T. A.'] 
for the purposes of this paper we will consider that 
the averages of the various styles of planting give 
fifteen hundred trees per acre original planting. 
It takes fully tfiree years tor supplies amongst old 
ooSee to come into bearing, and I woald not be far 
the mark if I said flfty per cent fail ia Soath 
Ooorg. 
However to carefully understate the case we will 
suppose all to oome on. Then the land out of bear- 
ing pel acre of cultirated cofiee was in 
1887 Equal to 22 2 per cent. 
1888 „ a2-7 „ 
1889 „ 24-7 „ 
189J „ 26-2 „ 
AU this is paying taxes, absorbing work, aad manure, 
and taxing the best energies of our planters to prevent 
it increasing. 
The insect was the subject of Government inquiry 
some years ago, when Dr. Biaie investigated the 
matter. He however had not the opportunity to sit 
down and work out the life history, or probably bis 
work would have been as complete as that of Marshall 
Ward on Leaf Disease. 
In 1887, in the mouth of May, I obtained my 
first specimen of the beetle, and I soon found that 
as far as the estates with which I was connected 
were concerned it caused greater destruction than 
leaf disease, in spite of their being under shade. 
I began a careful study of the life of the insect, and 
though one or two minor pomis are still undecided on 
the whole of its history is fully worked out. 
In the central district of the Bamboo the beetle 
appears later than iu the hot Eastern, but sooner 
than oa the Ghauts. 
My remarks apply to the central district. 
Alter the first or second week in June, depending 
on the monsoon, the beetles disappear. Stragglers 
are to be found all the year round, but it is not 
till the end of August that there is any certainty 
of finding specimens of the autumn flight, and it la 
well on into April before the spring host appears. 
The maxima are two : one at the end of May, 
one at the end of October; the minima occur in 
January, £'ebraary and July. 
To make the infiueuoe of the weather on the 
beetle's development clear I append a table drawn up 
from personal observation: — 
Mouth. Weather. Temperature: Beetles. 
deg. 
January 
February 
March 
April 
May 
June 
July 
August 
Dry 
II 
Showers ? 
Showers 
II 
Monsoon 
60 to 90 Fh. Very soaroe 
60 to 90 „ „ 
55 to 90 
63 to 90 
75 to 96 
60 to 70 
60 to 70 
70 to 80 
Scarce 
Few 
Plentiful 
few 
Very soatoa 
Scarce 
Few 
Plentiful 
Very plentiful 
Few 
1887 
1878 
18bU 
71-00 
50-66 
05-98 
24 
2^ 
7- 0 
8- 8 
8-9 
8-6 
September Heavy showers 65 to 90 
October 66 to 90 
November Showers? 79 to 86 
December n ? ? 55 to 85 
Where a note of iaterrogation follows weather remarks 
it means the showers are uncertain. There is occa- 
sionally a much greater variation in the temperature 
than tnat given: for instance in May I have known 
the thermometer to be over 104 deg, in the shade, 
aad I hare in Jaaaar^ mu it down to under iO deg< S 
