s.

The reader will remember that I have recommended applications of jungle
top soil and other soil, and it should be remembered that such
applications will, by rendering the soil more open, much lighten the work
of digging, and this is a point that should be carefully estimated when
calculating the expense of dressing the land with fresh soil.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE DISEASES OF COFFEE.

Though coffee in Mysore is liable to two diseases, and to the attack of
one insect, these, when the cultivation is good, and the shade suitable in
kind and degree, are not likely to cause any uneasiness in the minds of
the planters. But it is, of course, necessary to go carefully into the
whole subject of these diseases and the insect attack, in order to bring
out fully the steps that should be taken so to cultivate and shade the
coffee as to render these evils as innocuous as possible, and I have
therefore, in addition to my own knowledge, taken pains specially to
procure from two planters of long practical experience their views. The
views, I may say, of Mr. Graham Anderson as regards leaf disease are
particularly valuable, as he has paid much attention to the subject.

Leaf disease is the common name given to the attack of _Hemeleia
Vastatrix_, a fungoid plant which distributes its spores in the form of a
yellow powder. These alight on the leaves of coffee, and in weather
favourable to the fungus, will germinate in about a day, and the fungoid
plant then roots itself between the walls of the leaves. After the plant
has completed its growth, which it generally does in about three weeks,
more spores are produced to fly away with the wind, or be scattered by the
movements of the coolies amongst the coffee, and thus the disease spreads.
A great deal, of course, has been written about it, and those who desire
more particular information may refer to Mr. Marshall Ward's report on
coffee loaf disease in Ceylon. It is sufficient to say here that when the
attack is severe the tree is deprived of its leaves, or of a large number
of them; that much injury to the crop results; and that both the tree and
the soil are heavily taxed in replacing the foliage that has been
destroyed.

Leaf disease has probably existed[56] in Mysore as long as coffee has, but
was, from the small amount of it, so entirely unnoticed, that, when I
wrote my chapter on coffee in the "Experiences of a Planter," more than
twenty-two years ago, I had never heard of