98 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aug. 2, 1897. 
Mk. E. E. Gkeen. — W e congratulate this 
gentleman (and no less the I’lanting com- 
munity) on his ap[)ointment by the Governor 
as “ Honorary Government Entomologist.” The 
further liberality of the Government, in getting 
12 additional copies of the “ Coccidre of Ceylon ” 
to be placed in the Kachcheris situated in 
the planting districts, deserves recognition. 
Tea Bulking.— W e sujipose the comparison as 
to bulking rvhicli was discussed yesterday may be 
summarised as follow's : — 
Cost on Tea Estate Factory practically nil. 
,, Colombo Stores — averagei-cent per lb. 
,, London Warehouse equals to from 1’23 
to '66 of a cent per lb., according to size 
of chest. 
—in the latter case, of cour.se, apart from the 
loss and depreciation of teas. 
DakJEELING planters — says tUalndian Planters 
Gazette . — need not trouble their heads as to over- 
vnoduction in their district. The following figures 
show that the Darjeeling crop remains steady : — 
Estimate. 
Actual. 
Million lbs. 
Million lbs. 
1894 
8-01 
7-07 
1895 
8-06 
8-25 
1896 
8-38 
.. 7-81 
1897 
... 7 '64 
... 
Darjeeling sliould sell well this year, as the 
estimate of 7 '64 million pounds, though small, is 
considered a full one, as gardens are going in 
for liner plucking. 
A Ceylon Pl.^nteh in the Bengal Tea Distmcts. — 
The P. & O. steamer “ Nubia” which recently 
arrived from Calcutta, brought Mr. E. W' Hancock 
after visiting some estates in the Sylhet tea dis- 
tricts, where, he says, a great deal of new land is 
bein" put into tea. The new planting, however, 
has suffered much from drought, and a very large 
nercentage of the cold --weather-planting (about Dec- 
1896) has died out, and even earlier plantings suf- 
fered severely. Later there was rain, and the bushes 
are now commencing to flush. There are remarkably 
fine bushes to be seen on some of the Sylhet “ Bheel” 
gardens, he says — bushes planted 5X5. After six years, 
they are now one sheet of tea. The best gardens 
are planted with “ Mampore” seed. There are some 
fine of Mampore on Phooltullah and other estates 
in the district. Mr Hancock also visited Darjeeling, 
but the bushes there were as a rule small, and of 
poor jat. He leaves tomorrow' for Hatton, on a visit 
to bis, estates and will be in Ceylon for a month or two. 
Labour Suri’LY FOR Coffee in B. G. Africa.— 
The following is the hate.st deliverance on tiie 
subject in the “British Central Africa Gazette,” 
Zomba, April 15 
Our prediction that the month of April 1897 would 
witness a great influx of labour into the Shire High- 
lands from the lake, from Central Angoniland, and 
other' distiicts, has been fully verified. More than 
4 000 labourers have come down within the last two 
mouths from Centred Angoniland to work within the 
Shire Highlands. All of these are men who never 
before visited tue coffee districts. .TheAngurn have 
also come in, in increased numbers, and Fort Maguire 
has also sent a considerable contingent of labourers 
who have never before been to work for fixed 
neriods. Baudawe and the Usiska District have also 
sent in' numbers of men. From time to time the 
remark is heard that, as plantations increase in the 
Shire Highlands we shall find the present easily pro- 
curable labour supply diminish. This is a view which 
we ourselves have never agreed with. The labour 
supply for the coffee districts of B. C. A. is inexhaus- 
tible and every year the limits of the country from 
which the labour comes in gets wider as the news 
travels further that steady and satisfactory wages 
can be oarued. 
Vanilla' and “ Rhea.”— Borne instructive 
conespoiuleuce respecting Imtli these pioducts will 
be found on anotlier ]>age. One letter on Bliea 
seems to contradict all the loud talk about the 
great value ol chemical processes, etc. 
Cacao Dlsease in the IMatale District : 
Important Information from Mr. .1. B. 
Martin. — We take tlie following interesting 
statement from a letter addressed by Mr. Martin 
to onr evening contemporary. No one in the 
island has a better right to give bis opinion as .an 
experienced Cacao ))lanter and we are delighted to 
have Mr. Mai tin’s assurance that things are not 
so bad as generally painted in reference to this 
disease affecting the red — not the hardier yellow 
Forastcro — cacao. Mr. Martin speaks with 
authority for IMatale and he knows a good deal also 
about Dninbara ; hut we believe Knrunegala is tlie 
district most tried. In any case, it is clear tliat 
an En'omologist ought to have been at work on the 
“ poochie ” many months if not some years ago— 
and further, how valuable woultl lie the knowledge 
and e.xperience of Mr. Marlin if made widely 
known to his brother planters some time ago. An 
“Agricultural or Planting Board” could bring 
to a focus all such information and could also take 
]iromi)t action through its specialist towards check- 
ing the pest. Mr. Martin writes as follows : — 
As far as Matale goes, I can assure y'on. that the 
acreage which has suffered at all, is a small percentage, 
whilst the great majority of the cocoa in the district is 
perfectly healthy. I do not know much of Dnnibara.but 
I do know that the estate in which this disease first ap- 
peared in that district nine or ten year.s ago, last year 
gave the largest crop on record. Another point is, that 
whilst the acreage under cocoa is, if any'thiug, dimni- 
nishiug, the export of cocoa is steadily increasing. The 
disease itself is, as far as I am any judge, nothing uev/, 
jak trees have always suffered from it, and probably 
jungle trees also. It certainly is not a root disease, as 
the tendency is to work upwards from a puncture, 
but if allowed to develope the sap becomes viti- 
ated, and the roots thereby become unhealthy. 
There is, I think, no reasonable doubt that the disease 
originates with a pootcJiie of some sort, which works in a 
way something like the coconut beetle, and it is to trace 
this pootchie and learn bow to destroy him that we re- 
quire the aid of a scientist. The disease is practically 
confined to the Ceylon red cocoa, although there are 
instances in which forastero growing amongst diseased 
red has been attacked; bnt speaking generally, as far as 
wo have gone, the forastero has shown itself able to re- 
sist the disease. It may be that in time, the red cocoa 
of Ceylon will be entirely superseded by forastero, if so 
the change will be gradual, and not such as to produce 
any crisis, and in that case we would be following ex- 
actly in the steps of the planters of the "West Indies. 
Dr. Hart has proved beyond a doubt, that a cocoa ex- 
actly similar to our Ceylon red, was once exten- 
sively cultivated in Trinidad, but was gradually dis- 
carded in favour of forastero, principally, I believe, of 
that variety which grows the large yellow pod. I quite 
recently visited two estates in this district on which 
this disease was sujpposed to be worst. It did not 
strike me that either of them looked very bad, and on 
both the forastero was fiouri.=hing exceedingly. The 
disease taken in hand vigorously and in time, can at 
least be held in check. If the small bleeding puncture, 
which denotes the first attack, is at once cut clean out, 
the disease is checked for that time at least. Allowed 
to develope it becomes contagions, so that trees which 
are badly affected should be at once cut out almost, 
and forastero planted in their place. Forastero thrives 
excellently where the red has failed. I can instance a 
small estate treated in this manner in which the disease 
has been entirely stamped out, coolies being now sent 
round periodically to see if it is re-appearing. Your 
friend, therefore, who saw .50 and 25 per cent of his trees 
die out, and left them there to do their worst, rather 
gives himself away as a planter, 
