In a subsequent communication from Mr. Here path, of date 13th June 1868, adrkessed to Mr. 1Valters, regarding a chemical analysis of Ceylon coffee, he reported that 1000 pounds of raw coffee berries of Ceylon plantation's growth,' contained the following mineral ingredients :—Potash, 37 lbs. ; lime, 2i lbs. ; magnesia, 5:1 lbs. ; peroxide of iron, lb. ; sulphuric acid, 2i lbs. ; chlorine, lb. ; carbonic acid, 14 lbs.; phosphoric acid, 7 lbs. And he mentioned phosphoric acid, sulphate of lime, and carbonate of magnesia as the principal ingredients required for manure. About 100 pounds of Peruvian guano, with 7 or 8 pounds of ground gypsum, 10 pounds of magnesian lirnestone, and 1 pound of salt, mixed up with Ceylon vegetable mould or the ashes of the wood clearances and some pounded granite or quartz, would make a good manure for 1000 pounds of raw berries. (Boni. Stand. Jan. 1859.) Profits — Losses. — In Southern India and in Ceylon there has been rnoney made in coffee planting by Europeans, but chiefly in their land speculations. But there have been great and general losses, sweeping away the little savings of servantg of Govermnent and speculative persons, and in 1880-81 and 1882 there was a general loss. The yield of coffee varies greatly with the seasons ; but the trees' have insect and vege table enetnies which haVe caused ruin,—the white, brown, and black bug, the black and white grub, the leaf disease, the coffee rat; the mole cricket.. The first regularly worked Ceylon estate was opened in 1825, but the bug does not seetn to have ap peared in large quantities till 1845 ; then, how ever, it spread with such rapidity, that in 1847 a very general alarm was taken by the planters, about the same time that the potato, vine, and olive disedses began' to create alarm in Europe. The coffee bugs seem, however, to be natives of Ceylon, for the white bug has been found on orange, guava, and other trees, as also on beetroot and other vegetables ; and the brown bug attacks the guava, hibiscus, ixora, justicia, and orange trees,—indeed, every plant and tree, and even the weeds, on a coffee estate, particularly such as are in gardens.
When a coffee tree is attacked by the bug, it is deprived of its sap and its nourishment, while the fungus, which never fails to attend on the bug, prevents restoration, by closing the stomates through which the tree breathes and yeapires. Bug, Mr. Nietner tells us, exists on all the estates ; none are believed .by Mr. Nietner to be quite free from it, and he reasonably asks, Am I wrong in saying that if there was no bug in Ceylon, it would, at a rough guess, produce 50,000 cwts. of coffee more than it actually does? ' and that quan tity represents a value of Y,225,000. The brown and white bug, and the blaCk and white grub, he adds, are the only important enemies of the coffee tree, and the destruction caused by arhines, lima,codes, zeuzera, phymatea, strachia, .and the coffee rat appear to be of a more local and occa-. sional nature. The three chief pests are the white bug, the brown bug, and the black bug.
The appearance and disappearance of the coffee bng is most capricious. It comes and goes, now rapidly spreading over a whole estate, now con fining itself to a single tree amongst thousands ; here, leaving au estate in the course of a twelve month, there remaining permanently ; some times spreading over a whole estate, sometimes attacking a single field, then leaving it for another and another. But the white bug prefers dry, and the brown danip localities, the latter being found more plentiful in close ravines and amongst heavy rotting timbers than on open hillsides, and it Is probably to this predilection that the shifting of the insect is attributable. The bug seeks out the softest and most sheltered parts of the tree, tho young shoots, the under-sides of the leaves, and the clusters of berries.
The injury done by the white bug seems more severe than that from the brown, but, not being so plentiful as the latter, it is of leas general im portance. The white bug is especially fond of congregating amongst tho clusters of berries,which drop off from the injury they receive, and trees often lose their entire crop in this manner. The injury produced by tho brown bug is the weaken ing of the tree, and is thus more general, but the crop does not drop off altogether nor so suddenly. With white bug on an estate, the crop can hardly be estimated ; with brown bug it can.
The White or Mealy Bng is tho Pseudococcns adonidum. The male insect is of a dirty brownish colour, and slightly hairy. It is very minute (very nutch smaller than the female, only about half a line long), and resembles certain small Epheme ridm or May-flies. The fetnale is oval, brownish
purple, covered with a white mealy powder, which forms a stiff fringe at the margin, and at the extremity of the abdomen two setm. The larvm and pupte are active, and move about. The insects, in all stages of development, are found in Ceylon all the year round, chiefly in dry and hot localities, on the branches of trees, and on t'le roots to oae foot under ground. Mr. Nietner says it is identical with the species naturalized in the conservatories of I•lurope. It is preyed upon by the Scyninus rotundatus, a minute beetle of the ladybird tribe, of the size of a pin's head, black and pubescent ; also the yellow-coloured and coinmon Encyrtus Nietneri and the black-coloured scarce Charto coccus museiforinis, two minute Hymenoptera (wasps), only I"' long, and the minute whitish mite, Acarus translueens. Of the members of this family of insects, the Coceidm, some, as the cochineal and lac insects, are of great economical importance, but others, as the sugar-cane blight of the Mauritius, the Aspidiotus, and the coffee bug, are excessively baneful to the gardener and agriculturist.
The Brown Coffee Bug, Lecanium coffete, ilia/ken establishes itself on the young shoots and buds, which it covers with a noisome incrustation of scales, enclosing its larvm, from the pernicious influence of which the fruit shrivels and drops off. It is a Coccus, and a number of brownish wart-like bodies may be seen studding the young roots, and occasionally the margins on the outside of the leaves. Each of these warts is a transformed female, containing a large number of eggs (700), which are hatched within it. When the young ones come out of their nest, they maybe observed running about on the plant, looking like wood lice ; but shortly after being hatched, the males seek the under-sides of the leaves, while the females prefer the young shoots as their place of abode. The larvm of the males undergo transformation intO pupm beneath their own skins, and their wings are horizontal, and their possession of wings may possibly exp/ain the oamparatively rare presence of the male on the bushes. The female retains her powers of locomotion until nearly of full size, and it is about this time that her impregnation takes place. The pest does not produce great injury until it has been two or three years on an estate ; but at length the scales on the plants become numerous, t he clusters of berrim assume a black, sooty look, and a great number of them fall off before they are mature. The young shoots have a disgusting look from the number of yellow pustular bodies forming on them, the leaves get shrivelled, and on many trees not a single berry fortns. The coffee bug first appeared in 1843 on tho Lupallu Calla estates, and it, or a closely-allied species, has been observed on the Citrus acida, Psidium porniferum, Myrtua Zey Ian Ica, Rosa Careya arborea,Vitex negundo, and other plants, and most abundantly on the coffee bushes in moist places. It reappears though eradicated, and is easily conveyed on cloths front one place to another. Dr. Gardner, whom Sir .1. E. Torment quotes (ii. p. 246), was of opinion that all remedies had failed, and that it must wear itself out, as other blights do. The male of the brown or scaly bug, Lecanium coffete, is of a clear light pinkish-brown colour, slightly hairy, and very pretty. It is more delicate than the male Pseudococcus. The females whet' young are yellowish, marked with grey or light brown ; and old imlividuals are light brown, with a dark margin. It affects coM, damp, and close localitie,s, 3000 feet in height, and the propagation, as in the white bug, is continuous. The brown bug is much infected with parasites, atnongst which the most common are eight minute Hymeno ptera (wasps) with brilliant colours ; bnt a mite, the Acarus transhicens, and the larva of the Chilocorus eircumdatus, a kind of ladybird, also feed on the bug. In the larva state, the male and female brown bug are not distinguishable. The number of eggs produced by a female brown bug is about 700. Those of the white bug arc not so nuinerous, but their propagation in Ceylon is continuous throughout the year, and this explains their great abundance compared with cold countries, where the produce is ono genera tion' of young annually. The brown bug, particu larly the full-grown female, is dreadfully infested with parasit,es, which thus greatly help the planter. Indeed, it is a question whether coffee planting could be carried on withOut ` their aid in the destruction of the bug.