408 - QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Ocr., 1899. 
The large interests in the trade, however, seem to be opposed to any 
advance, so that the question now is, Can one or two large factors depress the 
market against the general opinion in the markets of the world as to the 
present price of coffee? } 
Some of the older dealers will remember the jump in prices which occurred 
between June, 1886, and the same month the following year. In 1886 the 
price remained almost stationary around 8 cents, while in the year 1887 prices 
fluctuated widely, so that between the months of June in the two years there 
was a difference of 134 cents per Ib. 
There were two causes for the extreme variation in prices. In the first 
place, the predictions of the following year’s (1887) Brazil crop were distinctly 
disappointing, being but 3,000,000 bags against 6,000,000 bags in 1886, and this 
eave rise to 2 speculative movement which carried prices to an extremely high 
figure. 
History repeats itself. What was then possible under peculiar conditions 
may occur again: the market treated to another sudden and extreme rise in 
prices, particularly if any serious disaster comes to the growing crops. Recent 
events make it reasonable to suppose that the market has about touched the 
lowest point for No. 7 Rio coffee for some time to come. 
In order to illustrate the great fluctuation that the New York market has 
experienced, let us quote the following comparative prices of No. 7 Rio, from 
1884. to the present year, inclusive, as follows :— 
June— Cents. June— Cents. 
1884: om rrx1 8 1892 210 pyre alti? 
1885 one one: 3f 1893 x0 fe plod 
1886 oon eae TEE STP 1894 Py bre, | Mayr 
1887 mH oc + PAU 1895 we) tr las 
1888 oon aan dlls 1896 Be bag = A: 
1889 en con BE 1897 cee: ee if 
1890 ey) vere = MES 1898 ane x ia 
1891 oer PoememeL Os 1899 es ay 6 
COFFEE-LEAF DISEASE AND SEED IMPORTATION. 
Lasr July a packet of seeds from India forwarded to a resident _of Queensland 
was seized and confiscated by the Post Office authorities in Brisbane. The 
consignee protested against the seizure on the grounds thatthe seeds in question 
came under the head of “ grain,” against the importation of which there is no 
prohibition. The matter is one which deserves the earnest attention not only of 
planters and agriculturists but of the whole community as a body. We have 
begun an industry in the colony which is rapidly expanding and which promises 
ere long to rise to great importance. This is the coffee-planting industry. Hew 
people need to be told that, whilst many years ago coffee-planting was the 
principal industry in Ceylon, atthe present day coffee in that island is a thing 
of the, past, owing to the ravages of the parasitic fungus (Hemileza vastatrix) 
known as the coffee-leaf disease. Of late years spasmodic attempts have been 
made to revive the industry, but without avail. ‘The existence of quantities of 
wild coffee in the jungle operates against the planters. The disease remaining 
with the wild plants cannot be eradicated, and what was once a source of great 
wealth to the planters and consequent prosperity to Ceylon has had to be 
finally abandoned, and cinchona, cacaw, and tea haye successively taken the 
place of coffee. 
Tt will be seen how very necessary it was to make stringent laws against the 
possible introduction of the disease into the young plantations in this colony, 
and to carry out those rules regardless of sentiment. The following report 
of Mr. H. Tryon, Entomologist to the Queensland Department of Agriculture, 
shows that the disease may be imported in various ways, and particularly 
