February 2, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
577 
but taking it at that price, the lining would cost 
9£d per chest, as against Mr. Maitland Kirwan’s 
paper at Is 4jd. This is not good enough for 
Ceylon planters. However, it may suit the inventor. 
Your proposal to have a Committee of the Plan- 
ters’ Association to enquire into inventions and 
new processes in the manufacture of tea, &o. is 
an excellent one, and I trust it will be adopted. 
The Committee should first of all agitate for a 
reduction of the cost of Patents. At present it is 
prohibitory. — Yours faithfully, PLANTEfl. 
COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE AND SUGGESTED 
EEMEDIES. 
Bombay, January 7lh. 
Dear Sib, — I have read in your paper of Nov- 
ember 16th a letter from Messrs. W. and A. 
Gilbey under the heading of " Enemies of Ccfiee 
and Remedies,”* recommending solution of sulphate 
of copper as the best means of destroying the 
pests which beset the trees. 
The remedy suggested is certainly an effective 
one, but the method of applying the solution is 
so expensive and difficult that few would resort to it 
on coffee estates which are hilly and steep. 
If aO gallons of this solution are necessary on 
an acre ol vines, it would, at the rate of 2 gallons per 
tree, necessitate about 2,400 gallons on an acre o 
coffee. Application of the solution by means of 
a force pump would cause a deal of wastage, lor 
in order to saturate a whole tree efficiently 2 
gallons of the solution would not count lor much. 
What is necessary is a simple and inexpen- 
sive remedy that would lay hold of these pests 
and exterminate them. To find this out I have 
been trying different modes of destroying them, 
viz. ; 1 by solution of gum arable, 2 rice starch, 
3 pipe clay, 4 black clay, 5 Mooltan clay and 6 
red clay. Each of the last four substances w..s 
by itselt mixed with water and made into a paste. 
A paste of each of these fc ur was also separately 
prepared with solution of gum arable and rice 
starch, making in all 10 torts of pastes. To test 
the adhesive properties of these pastes, I applied 
each of them (with the finger), on leaves of 
different sorts, gathered in a flower garden, and 
while watching the process 1 found that each 
leaf after about three hours of application began to 
curl up, and cracks became visible half-an-hour 
later in the surface of the paste applied which fell off 
in pieces on mere touch, leaving no trace of it on 
the leaves, which resumed their former shape 
immediately after. The result arrived at in all 
the ten cases being the same, I would recommend 
the last of the ingredients, i.e,, red clay, which 
can be had in large quantities from every coffee 
estate without any outlay. The clay should first 
of all be rid of all sand and gravel which it is 
generally found mixed with, and then made into 
a paste of thin consistency say that of oil paint 
ready for application, and applied on the back 
of the leaves gently with the finger, taking care 
not to rub it hard, 
I may state that the experiments I tried were 
on healthy leaves, and not on those attacked with 
the bug or other disease, as I could not procure 
any of such ; but I believe the paste, if it is 
applied to leaves attacked by tho bug &o., would 
fall off sooner by the movements of the insects which 
they would be forced to exercise. To prevent this 
early falling-off of the paste, country soap soaked 
ju water to form a paste of some consibtency, 
apd mixed with equal part of rad clay paste, 
would answer well, apd ijdhere to the leaves for 
about G hours. An application o f simple soap paste 
^ See page 4GI.— Bi>. T, A, 
minus the red clay would also give the same 
results, but for the sake of economy I would re- 
commend a mixture of both soup and clay paste. 
Red clay should be prepared for paste by soak- 
ing it in double its quantity or more of water 
in a large tub, and let it remain for a time without 
stirring. It is to be well stirred with hand after- 
wards, and filtered through thin cloth, and allowed 
to settle, which being accomplished the water is 
to be gently drained off and the residue will be 
the paste required. 
The country soap I have alluded to is imported 
into Colombo from Negapatam and can he had in 
the bazaar. Large tubs and galvanized iron buckets 
are the only expensive items necessary for the 
purpose, the rest being manual labour which any 
efficient estate manager would be able to furnish 
himself cheaply. 
I have forwarded through a friend, who left here 
for Colombo on the 2nd instant, two packets to be 
handed over to you, one containing samples of 
the different sorts of clay and soap, as well as 
soap and clay pastes ; the other two leaves, one 
anointed with soap paste, the other with soap paste 
and clay combined. These packets should have 
reached you by about the 6tii inst., and the 
adhesiveness of the paste on each of the leaves 
must have been observed by you. 
If these applications do not prove of sufficient 
efficacy to destroy the bug, &c., 1 would recommend 
a strong solution of alum (which is cheaper and not 
dangerous to handle as compared with sulphate of 
copper), to be added to any one of the two pastes 
I ha e above described. What the strength of the 
solution of alum should be I am not m a position 
to state, and leave it to the experience of those better 
able to form an idea on the subject. Alum could be 
procured in Bombay at about R4 a cwt. — Yours 
&c., K. H. 
[This letter, the experiments recorded and the 
substances of which specimens have been sent are 
interesting, but surely our correspondent cannot be 
serious in writing of the appilicaiion of clay, starch, 
soap, &c., by hand 1 Tlie expense would be pro- 
hibitory. The difficulty in regard to scale insects, 
and especially in dealing with the coffee fungus, 
does nut arise from inability to kill the pests 
actually on bushes. Tne problem to be solved is 
the extermination of the insect eggs and the fungus 
spores. The soap and the clays can be seen at 
our office. — Ed. T . A .] 
CACAO cultivation IN CEYLON. 
Kandy, Jan. 14th. 
Dear Sir, — Your jocular correspondent “ Eldorado 
Enough” asks in your issue of 8th.* “ But does ha 
[“Eidorado”J in all seriousness expect a cacao estate, 
not yet in full bearing, to pay 25 per cent on its 
cost, calculating this with compound interest at 
8 per cent ?” 
Let pie put my answer on a firm basis, for he 
seems disposed to pierce it with his wit. Being 
given an estate of upwards of ten years old, of 
which 15 per cent has gone out, I do expect it to 
give 25 per cent on the actual capital which has 
to be rapidly amortized, considering the great 
many blanks there are in the lottery called 
“ cacao cultivation.” 
^ould the facetious “E. E.,” if the coffee enter- 
prise, starting under the same conditions as he 
surmises that I based my calculations upon, had 
obtained the results he mentions — would he, I ask, — 
have had the audacity to suggest his receiving 
£2,000st. as the family physician of Mr. Moneybags ? 
No cultivation, excepit rubber, has offered 
such disastrous results in this island as 
* (see page 574 .— Ed, 2'. A. 
