May  I,  1897.]  the  TROPICAL 
We  most  heartily  agree  in  the  need  ot  economic 
experiments  in  reference  to  the  enemies  of  more 
than  one  of  onr  staydes,  and  we  cannot  at  all 
understand  why,  before  importing  a Specialist 
(even  though  a Cryptogamist  or  hhingologist) 
advantage  should  not  be  taken  by  Government 
of  Mr.  Green’s  special  qualifications  to  get 
him  to  visit  the  difterenc  cacao  districts  or 
estates  afilicted  with  enemies  and  to  report  on  the 
same.  Mr.  (ireen  can  he  dejiended  on  to  give 
an  honest,  as  well  a-<  useful  Reyiort,  and  in  the 
case  of  “ Tomici  perforans”  as  described 
by  Mr.  Vander  Poorten,  it  is  yiossible  an 
enemy  has  to  be  dealt  with  that  is 
peculiarly  within  the  seope  of  Mr.  Green’s 
department,  and  yet  wliicli  apparently  produces 
results  as  serious  as  any  arising  from  a fungoid 
enemy  ? It  must  be  uiiderstood  that  we  are  not 
in  tlie  least  oyiyiosod  to  a “Specialist”  being  got  to 
deal  with  any  disease  outside  the  scoyie  of  Mr. 
Green’s  training  after  the  necessity  for  the  same 
is  clearly  sliown  ; but  we  cannot  help  thinking 
an  insyiection  and  Report  from  the  latter  to 
Government  ought  to  yirecede  the  importation- 
such  Report  probably  indicating  with  scientific 
exactness  what  was  really  expected  of  the  new- 
comer. 
Still  more,  we  have  to  yioint  out  for  the  in- 
formation of  Government  that  if  a fungoid  enemy 
is  the  trouble  of  tlie  planters  of  red  cac.ao,  the 
proper  course  is,  first,  to  send  specimens  of  tlie 
Ringus  to  the  leading  European  authorities  to 
identify,  describe  and  po.ssibly  to  tell  ns  all  that 
is  known  of  its  work  elsewhere.  VVe  are  able  to 
assure  the  Government  that  this  is  what  was 
done  by  the  late  Dr.  Thwaites  in  reference  to 
the  coffee  fungus  : at  the  very  outset  he  sent 
specimens  to  Messrs.  Berkley  and  Cooke,  the 
greatest  living  fungologists,  who  pronounced  our 
great  coffee  enemy  to  be  new  to  science,  named 
it  Hemileia  vastfitrix  and  recommended  that  its 
life  history  should  be  worked  out.  It  was  only 
then,  that  Professor  Marshall  Ward  was  got  out 
as  a Specialist,  to  study  the  fungus  in  its 
habitat  and  frame  its  life  history,  as  he  so 
successfully  accomplished.  Surely  the  same 
course  is  the  wise  one  to  follow  now  ? It  is, 
moreover,  very  unlikely  that  the  cacao  fungus 
should  prove  “ new  to  science  ” and  more 
probable  that  we  should  be  told  a great 
deal  about  it  if  specimens  were  sent  to,  the  pro- 
per quarter  ; for  this  reason,  among  others, 
that  Dutch  and  German  scientists  have  been 
investigating  the  “ Enemies  of  Cacao  ” for  many 
years  with  reference  both  to  Java  and  Dutch 
Guiana. 
LIBERIAN  COFFEE  IN  SUMATRA. 
We  are  glad  to  learn  that  Mr.  Turing  Mac- 
kenzie has  returned  to  Sumatra  with  sufficient 
support  from  Ceylon  to  enable  him  to  deve- 
lope  his  valuable  land  concession  for  Liberian 
coffee,  etc. 
INDIARUBBER  Fs.  GUTTAPERCHA. 
As  is  well-known,  both  India  rubber  (in  small 
quantities)  and  Gutta  percha  (largely,  are  produced  in 
B.  N.  Borneo,  and  those  products  are  amongst  the 
most  important  of  the  districts  which  the  new  railway  is 
designed  to  tap.  Apropos  of  this  the  following  defini- 
tions of  the  difference  between  the  two  gums  may 
be  of  interest: — “India  rubber  is  of  a soft,  gummy 
nature,  not  very  tenacious,  astonishingly  elastic. 
Gutta  percha  is  fibrous,  extremely  tenacious,  and 
without  much  elasticity  op  flexibility.  India  rubber 
AGRICULTURIST.  749 
once  reduced  to  a liquid  state  by  heat,  appears  like 
tar,  and  is  unfit  for  further  use.  Gutta-percha  may 
be  melted  and  cooled  any  number  of  times  without 
injury  for  future  manufacture.  India-rubber  coming 
in  contact  with  oily  or  fatty  substances  is  soon 
decomposed  and  ruined.  Gutta-percha  is  not  decom- 
posed by  coming  in  contact  with  oily  or  fatty 
substances.  India-rubber  is  ruined  by  coming  in 
contact  with  sulphuric,  muriatic,  and  other  acids. 
Gutta  percha  resists  the  action  of  these  and  nearly 
all  acids.  India-rubber  is  a conductor  of  heat,  cold 
and  electricity.  Gutta-percha  is  a nonconductor  of 
heat,  cold,  and  electricity." — N.  B.  Ilerald. 
PLANTING  IN  THE  WYNAAD. 
We  call  attention  to  .a  rather  important  adver- 
tisement (p.  409)  .sent  us  by  a well-known  exjieri- 
enced  M^ynaad  i)lanter, . who.se  testimonials,  as 
to  practical  ability  and  rei)utation,  are  of  the 
most  satisfactory  descrii)tion.  Mr.  Ryan  not 
only  reports  first-class  land  to  be  freely  and  very 
cheaply  available  on  leases  of  12,  24,  48,  or  99 
years,  and  low  Government  assessments  (not 
exceeding  two  rupees  per  annum  on  the  cultivated 
acre)  ; but  he  adds  that  “ labour  is  cheap  and 
plentiful  and  also  an  abundant  supply  of 
manure.  All  this  should  induce  a rush  of  com- 
missions to  Mr.  Ryan,  and  it  indicates  the  pro- 
spect of  Wynaad  becoming  an  imj^ortant  com- 
petitor in  respect  of  medium  and  common  teas. 
But  it  will  take  some  years  yet,  before  it  can  come 
to  the  front  to  a serious  extent. 
AGRICULTURE  IN  CEYLON  AND  THE 
NUWARA  ELIYA  AGRI-HORTICUL- 
TURAL  SHO^Y. 
We  direct  attention  to  a discriminating 
notice  of  the  recent  Show,  from  a com- 
petent hand  on  another  page.  To  say 
that  such  Exhibitions  are  of  no  use  to 
natives  as  well  as  colonists — as  a contemporary 
seeins  to  have  done— is  to  our  mind,  the  very 
acme  of  blind  prejudice  or  obstinate  unbelief 
in  the  progress  which  every  year  witnesses 
around  us.  This  action  is  on  a par  with  quoting 
Mr.  Coomaraswamy  of  all  men  as  an  authority  on 
native  agriculture  ! We  suppose  the  same  writer, 
if  he  lived  in  the  “ twenties  ” or  “ thirties,” 
would  have  said  it  was  of  no  use  introducing 
potatoes  into  our  hill-country,  since  the  natives 
would  never  grow  them.  Or,  no  use  for  Mr. 
Nock  to  show  his  new  vegetables  at  successive 
Shows,  dining  the  past  twelve  years,  as  nobody 
cared  about  them — ^while  the  fact  is  that  native.s 
by  hundreds,  if  not  thousand.s,  have  profited  by 
his  recent  introductions  from  the  West  Indies, 
brought  before  many  of  them  first  as  exhibits 
at  Shows  ; while  as  regards  “ potatoes,”  “ cab- 
bages,” and  other  ordinary  English  vegetables, 
wlio  can  say  how  much  benefit  has  been  con- 
ferred on  the  natives  of  Uva,  Udapus.sellawa, 
Maturata,  Ramboda,  and  other  districts  and 
the  Tamil  coolies  throughout  the  planting  re- 
gion—by  their  gradual  introduction  from'’  the 
“twenties”  downwards.  No  better  way  again 
can  be  devised  of  bringing  any  new,  or  speci- 
ally improved  vegetable,  fruit  or  other  agri- 
cultural  introduction  before  the  general  public- 
natives  especially— than  in  Agri- Horticultural 
Shows.  Not  .simply  “ society,”  or  the  well- 
dressed  crowd  of  all  classes,  who  pay  for  ad- 
mission, take  note  of  the  exhibits. :^rThey  are 
the  talk  of  the  bazaar,  of  the  hoi 2tooUoi,  who 
